Mick38

It does move freely when pushed, and it does work on the bench, a little slowly. There is no impediment to movement of the wire or tiebar. It just seems to be too weak.

Does anyone have any suggestions for revving up a Tortoise motor? I have recently obtained two new ones from the USA (as local retailers are out of stock), one of which will only operate one way, the other which needs pushing to get it moving either way. I have checked 12volts DC at the terminals. I have a dozen others which give no problems. Returning to the States (from Australia) is rather a costly remedy.

Happy to report that I have one of these installed, and working fine after several months. One of the single post signals I ordered at the same time did however have to be returned after a short time, and was promptly refunded, thank you, Dapol, and since replaced. Two things - I run them on 9v ac to reduce wear and tear, and the other interesting point is whereas the single ones are operated by an intermittent switch, the junction signals come with a spdt switch which remains on in either position. This is nice in that the switch position actually indicates if the arm is on or off, unlike the single ones.

Many thanks for all this helpful info. The thought of flinging shovels full of coal from ground level up into a tank engines bunker didn’t sound too good, but shoveling from an adjacent wagon or a staging was obviously the way to go. While coaling would normally be done at the main line end, I thought it would be appropriate to provide some means at the terminus, just in case!

I am modeling a small country terminus in the 1930s and I wondered how would the locos be loaded with coal where there was no elevated coal siding? Nowadays a front end loader could be used but they weren’t around then. Any ideas please?

Thank you, both, for your helpful suggestions. The factories shown are somewhat larger than I had in mind, nevertheless they are useful reference.

My layout includes a branch line worked by an auto coach, which I want to extend to a simple terminus. This would include a small country creamery where milk would be transferred from churns delivered by road, after processing, to a milk tank wagon. Does anyone know of an existing creamery, or photos of one, that would serve as a prototype please?

I have always used thin (1mm) cork sheet, suitably painted, for roadways. Recently I used cork gasket sheeting, which comes I a greyish colour more or less ideal unpainted. A word of caution with this, though, don’t glue it down with contact adhesive as it will bubble up! (Curses).

Similarly to your situation, I have a layout in eight sections in the form of a large hollow oval, sitting on an uneven concrete floor. I levelled up the baseboards as best I could with a level and long straightedge. I found it difficult to get even gradients; (half of the total trackage is on a grade of 1 in 50),- so I did a careful survey with a laser level and was appalled at the humps and dips it revealed. The laser level enabled me to obtain the correct vertical alignments, and I can recommend it’s use. Not too expensive these days. Hope this helps.

Thanks again. I now have two single signals and a junction. The single arm signals are supplied without a switch and a passing contact switch is specified, which of course means that the switch cannot reliably indicate the arm position. The junction signal, on the other hand, comes with SPDT switches where one position is Danger and the other is Clear. Perfect! I also note that these switches are permanently on in either position; whereas alternative switching can or should be passing contact.

I may be able to help you with this. In J.H.Russel's volume of GREat Western Coaches 1903-1948 are illustrations of the P19 wagon on page 86. See attached.

Thanks for your responses. I now have some on order so I will soon know for sure.

An early criticism I read concerning the switching of these signals was that the signal changes with each momentary contact of the switch, meaning that the switch itself did not indicate whether the signal was "on" or "off." Reports of the new signals indicate that a latching SPDT switch might be used. Does this mean that the switch returns to a centre off position? And would switching to one side or the other determine the signal position? It would be nice if a passing contact lever switch could be used to operate these signals, but I am not sure if this is possible.

Hmmmm.. thank you for your replies. All things considered, I think I’ll pass on these. Too fiddly for my arthritic hands I’m afraid. I like the painting technique though.

Does anyone have experience of building these kits? I am interested in the GWR 4 wheel coaches, and I am mainly concerned about the painting and finishing. Are the sides moulded in one piece or are there overlays which would greatly simplify the painting?