jasond

Looking forward to seeing that as 'just part of the great scenery'! BTW cut your Kadee magnets and 'reflecting magnetism' metal plate in half to give 2 squares, ie: not lengthways. Works fine in O and cuts down the risk of accidental uncoupling switching at O-scale's low speeds.

In true 'Alco stuff ending up in Montreal Locomotive Works' tradition, how about an M420? Yes it's an etched kit with brass castings in O-Scale. No I don't know when it might be available. Speaking of O-scale, Atlas have announced a rework of Weaver's hi-hood RS11. It's in their 2017 All Scales catalogue at www.atlaso.com.

Just today, on one of the railpic sites I was munching my lunch to, there was an ex-Southern RS3 (admittedly in the black livery) switching its new owner's industrial site........

There was a pic, on one of the sites I was munching my lunch to, of an ex-Southern RS3 (admittedly in the black livery) switching its new owner's industry. Even less of an excuse now...?

C'mon Daniel you actually admitted you have some O-scale models. Do you want an old brick fireplace to do up as a free-standing module for your consist. What? No loco just now, how about an old All-Nation NW2 switcher on lease till you're confronted by and snap up something irresistible?

Just got back from the Indianapolis O-scale Show. OK, OK, I had to pay back the missus by letting her go with the girls to Spain. Hang on - I did OK didn't I...? Anyway, good 2-rail shops were there: P&D, Des Plaines, NormsOscale and many other traders. As usual, in conversation they had stuff 'back at the store' so a call is necessary. Just to say that there are several cheap phone call services out there. I use 18185 and my calls to all of the retailers mentioned are 2p per minute. Even when they say "Hang on I'll just go and look" I still smile. And not just BT customers, I'm with Virgin, most services are covered. Jason

Yes I always try to do a CBA (Constraints Based Analysi... oh Can't Be Ar... thanks Shei...). Wife's sorted that out then! New line? First big board comes out of storage Tuesday. It's one of the reasons I've started a Facebook page. Main reason is that some O-scalers I know are not using RMWeb and there's good stuff to share. OK if I put a link on it to your good pics above? USA trip? My host out there is a trader and I suggested a date that included one of his shows. I suspect he would rather railfan without business worries so I may have to admit I've got enough projects already without buying more irresistible additions/bargains. Exchange rate is, er, umm, annoying, but I CBA to waste time on what these damn politicians do 'for' us. Jason

Are you looking for an 'operating system'? Each frt (and MoW if wanted) car has a 'holder' with its details and a pocket to hold a waybill with destination and car type on one side and where to send it when loaded/unloaded on the reverse. There are other options like how long does it stay at an industry, wild cards (like, umm, all available D&H cars to the photo line-up, ...). The first time I came across this was at the late Bill Lane's layout in London and it was so absorbing it didn't matter it was HO I'll see if I can find it written down (up?) anywhere. Jason ps: nice scratchbuilding!

Smugman here: I have an NMRA standards gauge which does useful things like measure back-to-back, flangeways, etc, etc. Etc. Are the trucks equalised OK? When you point a truck at your chest then put your thumbs on the sideframe ends nearest you and your index fingers on the ends farthest away, do they make x-shapes easily? OK, OK, easier done than said. The metal holding the trucks together under the motor is indeed a rod. I modified a similar drive train for even tighter radius by substituting 2 short turned rods running in a sliding fit, brass square tube. Downsizing = bits left. How is the shaft between the end gearboxes on each truck formed? On my GP38-2 the gearboxes have D-shafts (on the small shiny bit in your photo) and for a 4-wheel truck they simply overlap and are a sliding fit in brass tube. Is the longer A1A shaft a tube with a rod with D-shaft ends inserted? The splines are on the centre axle? If yes, that is how the other axles hold their gears, Weaver gearboxes and many others do this. When the chassis was turned around did the same wheelset derail, or the equivalent wheelset on the other truck, or er...? When you rest the bodyshell on the chassis does the controller give up sooner? Aahh - O-scale. Jason

I see you spotted my boast about americanoscale.uk - the test version is there (shouldn't be) and the better version is trapped on my ISP's site awaiting someone there pressing the right button. The good parrot on my left shoulder is asking why I don't just build some of the stuff I've been collecting for these peaceful retirement years....

You resisted those 3 steamers at £250ish (before offers - who wants to be stuck with American stuff....)? And I thought your grass was a strong point. Get the PA running and power the second truck when you go past the first half-dozen or so passenger cars PAs on the Adirondack (Albany to Montreal) turned me onto the D&H. What is the diameter of the wheels? Inches or mms. Love to see pics of the steamers - the MEC 2-8-0 could be a Weaver (like the one I wanted to fiddle with some bits to produce my Maryland & Pennsylvania fav), the 4-4-0 would be a nice passenger/freight branchline loco and the RI 0-6-0 would be in charge of your next board with all those new industries on. Aahh O-scale.... Jason

OK, OK, I was tempted to say the grass effect is great, but you didn't say how you discombobulated your Noch machine...! Good to see a plug for Peartree wheels too. Bob Smith, owner of Central Loco Works died some 25 years ago and his line was acquired by a present-day Californian who appears to have no time or maybe confidence to relaunch the brand. The old technology hasn't kept up with what we all take for granted now. For example the bodyshell is surface etched - the rivet strip is the 2 edges and the rivets in one plane. The gearboxes are 'guaranteed for life', riveted, slippery plastic and were copied by Weaver. His kits do build up into solid, powerful, ..., er, ... O-SCALE locos. I have a CLW GP38-2 kit with the same bogie mounting plates and I'll look for the assembly drawing in case it shows anything helpful about brackets, etc.. Jason

Stories of old American locos being updated by jacking up the bell and running a new loco underneath abound - to con the tax man apparently. You've got a more sophisticated angle on this(!) with the Casey Jones and that's a great resume on steam loco design. Philip Morgan, who organises the Winchester 0-gauge group, has collected Rivarossi throw-outs and mixed Harbor Belt, Casey Jones and other bits to produce new wheel arrangements and even French locos. Over the summer some of the Monday night meetings are at his house. Keep those pics coming! Jason

North American O-scale is the easiest way to have fun. Well, the best way then. OK, it's fun as long as the ..., doh!, just don't tell us via e**y that this was a fabulous supplier. Back when I was a trader, I was sent 3 logging locos for resale. They were laid on their sides in a shallow box with the cab in the one above's gap between the trucks and some token pieces of bubble wrap. Luckily the brass was making enough rattling noise for me to alert the postman. O-scale shipments deserve good packing. I wonder if yours was an estate sale. If so, ask them where the Weaver hopper is. The 4-bay hoppers are long for compact layouts, but very nice shortened to 2-bay hoppers. And you've then got 2 liberated bays to kitbash into another freight car (yes, just a joke that last bit ........... hmmm, or was it ..........?) Jason

A 'mishmash of bits and bobs', sounds like an American shortline we all can love. The only D&H steam I have is photos and some of the diesels are still in boxes that when you take the lid off resemble a mishmas..., oh, seen that before somewhere haven't I...? I'm really hoping to spend time around my 70th birthday next year at an O-scale show (plenty of wives there for Her Indoors to hang out with) - the Chicago Meet (was last weekend), Santa Clara O-scale California (May this year, ), etc, etc. Just take a big suitcase with disposable contents.... As Flashman would say "Doo ooo ooo ooo it!" Jason

I always assume the BOOMs I hear on the dog walks are the army further west on the Plain, I'll check to see if one comes from a tad further northwest.... Anyway, in a time-shift version of life, I buy a Weaver 2-8-0 before I've decided to model the Delaware and Hudson and end up with my it and my All-Nation NW2 diesel following the Maryland and Pennsylvania. That trip to Bernie Victor's, I bought George Hilton's book on the Ma & Pa and Jim Shaughnessy's on the D&H. Decisions ..., but life's almost spooky and the bit where one of the Capital MRC club members (used to meet in London) introduces me to an American couple who helped him out at breakfast on an Amtrak train because the ride was so bad the dining car manager wouldn't accept the signature on his bill vs credit card - and I take them round the proposed route for Charles and Diana's wedding that they're over for - and then take them up on their offer of visiting them near Colonie Shops on the D&H, where their some Ralph is an overhead crane operator - who takes me to the operations room where I get a pass for a ride to Binghamton and back - so that's why I still model the D&H 40 years later. I ws up North thinking I'd blissfully retired (Morecambe v nr Lancaster - seaside/views 800 yds away, O-scale club with big 4-track layout within walking distance, except with 2+ locos and 30 freight cars to carry of course, open mic nights at the Golden Lion in Lancaster where left-handed drummers were welcome), then Her Indoors said it was too far from present and any future grandkids. Anyway the latest lives at Abingdon - just north of Didcot - hooray! Apologies, I only switched this darn thing on to see if I could find out why going to Windows 10 then rolling back to 8.1 had stopped Her Indoors' computer from opening EE webmail. RMWEB seemed like a cosy place to hide. Jason

The owner of Rivarossi (Italian Count ... can't remember) spent his money on models that caught his eye. The two 4-4-0s were as built for the V&T in ~ 1880s, just need the updating, but you do get driving wheels, etc. The 4-wheel diesel is a narrow-gauge prototype blown up to standard gauge, Atlas/Roco did the same for their WDT 6-whl switcher, why? The Harbor Belt was chosen because it was the largest 0-8-0 built, all 3 of them. The Fairbanks Morse C-liner was a nice model, I got halfway through making a CPR A-B- H16-44 -A set (the H16-44 was based on an ok Lionel body), but few roads had them, only one truck was powered with an HO motor. Wow I must have been feeling grumpy yesterday. On their boxes were pictures of USRA 0-6-0 (would have been a sure-fire winner) and a caboose with trucks. Yes, I've made a bogie caboose out of 2 of their 4-wheelers as well, but.... Passenger cars for the 4-4-0s appeared, but only as an initial small pilot run I think. The freight cars were nowhere near as good as the Atlas/Roco cars, they looked more like South American meter/42" prototypes. Yes I thought about that too! Enough. Insulating garage going well - soon to run out of excuses for not running trains. Jason

(Jason, you're grumpy today - be sensibl..) Rivarossi did not make the Casey Jones for Weaver, it was sold by AHM in the USA. Weaver did make a diecast metal 4-6-0 after their nice diecast, sprung 2-8-0, more about them if anyone's interested. Anyway, I've deleted my tirade bleating on about how disappointing most of Rivarossi's O-scale stuff was, but the 4-6-0 is an 1880s prototype that could do with a fair bit of updating to look believable on a '50s layout. (Enough, now go and make Her Indoors a coffee and say Goodnig...) OK Goodnight, Jason

So now you've found the key to the shed, dusted off the snoozing spiders and suddenly remembered Portway Center, are you going to TVNAM this year (with or without)? Any other O-scalers going? Jason

That's a neat way to separate the layout from the 'rest of the world'. I must get my bits of D&H stuff out of the dusty box file at the back of the cupboard. Thanks for the idea and Happy New Year Jason

Before I'd got the D&H bug, my first knee-trembling purchase at Bernie Victor's was a US Hobbies brass 2-8-0 (UP). Great 'small' loco, had to go round the end of the loft to the fiddle yard, 28" curves (yeah right newbie - some of it maybe) and if I turned the light off, I could see the pony truck wheel short on the back of the cylinders. Hey this is O-scale, a piece of gaffer tape fixed that! Jason

Good mod. Keep those bits safe. Jason

After my recent house move, to find another American O-scaler in Wiltshire made me miss it's an FA not just an F-unit, I was in such a hurry to reply. Is it a Weaver? If yes is it big motor in the middle and shaft drive to all wheels or their more recent independent trucks, twin motors and spur gears? If the latter, taking the motor and associated gear out of one truck could fix the current draw problem and leave enough power to pull enough stock. If the former and something's binding in the drive I've got spare odds and ends. My next objective is to find a club with an O-scale track and members who've been too embarrassed to bring out American stock before I turned up. That's what happened in Morecambe! Winchester is probably the easiest for me, Andover is next.... Jason

I can see the F-unit and the C-liner, so what's the missing one and which is the white elephant? Track looked good too. Does the grand-daughter solder yet....? Did we speak at Winchester? If we didn't cover all that's great about American O-scale, when shall we continue the conversation!! Jason (yes, Ludgershall,Wilts)

Typical - first question is always the most difficult. April next year? OK Gordy I know you were probably expecting me to say September this year, but I'll ..., er, I'll ... um, ... yep ... still be unpacking after my house move! C'mon everybody, give a me a helping hand here...! Jason ps: don't forget location too. TVNAM's place? Further south? Even further north?