Mutley

On 18/09/2023 at 20:13, Steamport Southport said:

Funnily enough I've got a very vague memory of seeing 6203 Princess Margaret Rose in Butlins, Pwllheli!

 

My nan used to work the summer seasons there and we would have been on a flying visit whilst going elsewhere in Wales.

There was an ex-LMS presence at Minehead Butlins as well!

I was there the Saturday before last to pickup a standard DCC ready version and they mentioned that the sound fitted locos were due in 2-3 weeks.

10 minutes ago, DY444 said:

 

Interesting theory.  So you actually believe that Hitachi designed and delivered trains:

 

- constructed from a grade of aluminium known to be susceptible to cracking

- with an engine raft with compromised cooling air flow

- with an engine thermal management algorithm that a first year undergraduate would be embarrassed about

- where non-critical systems can immobilise the train

- where an arbitrary limit is placed on GU restart attempts

- with a flawed coupler and drag box design due to fe analysis mistakes

- a TMS with functions that don't match the documentation

 

and probably many others I've forgotten because the DfT told them to?  As I said an interesting theory but not one I subscribe to.  I think we have a manufacturer that for whatever reason over promised and seriously under delivered.

 

As for cheapskate then I recommend a perusal at the relative lease costs of the DfT procured IETs compared to literally every other fleet.   The DfT paid top dollar and frankly hasn't got anything like value for it.

I bow to your expertise.

Just saying that Hitatchi build trains for their home market that have to endure a lot more than what is thrown up at Dawlish.

21 hours ago, fezza said:

In Britain we are stuck with this Japanese rubbish - looks nice but is absolutely useless and does nothing to encourage rail travel.

Are you serious?  Do you have any idea of the extreme weather conditions that Japanese trains have to endure?  The Japanese Rail system is amongst the most efficient and reliable in the world.  I'd suggest the problem is not with the build quality of the trains, it's with the cheapskate DfT and their specifications.

9 hours ago, Chris M said:

I’m sure I saw somewhere that you can pay to run your trains on a layout in a shop somewhere in Japan.

There's this rental layout: https://www.youtube.com/c/レンタルレイアウトReColor/featured

59 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

 

As hsthero noted their usual solution is a drop in board in the powered coach and they do mini function decoders for the driving trailers. 
The diagram on the poster suggests they’ve followed this arrangement as it shows the coach as motorised.

The only thing adding a question to this is Peco have stated the 009 locos they are working on will have a Dcc socket which would be a first for Kato. 
 

The usual head / tail light decoder is the - Kato 29-352 DCC Decoder FL12 (for Head and Tail Light) (N scale) - which is around £12 on eBay etc from Japan but £26 at Gaugemaster so with tax and shipping usually cheaper from somewhere like Plazajapan for two. 
https://www.plazajapan.com/4949727514529/?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAh4j-BRCsARIsAGeV12BAFtpYIPV_xDxQeG7OVuM_ap1H6sfx6vyWLd65vRHqiU1U1QSNcVYaAhGaEALw_wcB

 

All of my Japanese stock provides for slide-in decoders on cab cars and the centre coaches with motors.  I think the ICE models also use this and so would presume it will be the same for the 800's.  See here for an example of fitting:

6 hours ago, Steven B said:

"Interesting" is one word to describe the pricing:

Farish two car class 170 for £149

Dapol HST + 2x Mk2 for £169

Kato five car class 800 for £178 (all RoS prices)

Dapol five car class 222 for £191

Five Farish Mk2f for £195

Farish six car blue Pullman £299

Farish four car class 220 for £339

 

 

I can only assume Kato are going to make a million of them to keep the unit cost down!

If it runs anything like the Eurostar it'll me mechanically better than anything Farish or Dapol produce too.

 

"Interesting" times ahead!

 

Steven B.

My Kato stock runs the best of anything I've ever owned.  I bought a couple of Shinkansen sets, thinking that I'd have a small N Gauge layout alongside my OO Gauge Minories but that plan was soon out of the window and 12 months on, all of my British stock has been sold and I have no less than 30 Japanese-prototype EMU's and loco-hauled sets.  Absolutely no regrets!

Another vote for Zimo.

I've just returned to OO Gauge after a brief period in O and I've equipped my whole fleet (20ish locos) with Zimo MX600R's for the 8-Pin locos and MX638D's for the 21-Pins - as SR Man says above, £20 each.

I tried some of the Hattons 21-Pins a year or two back and didn't find them to be as good as the Lenz's I had elsewhere, but the Zimo's beat both of them in my opinion for quiet, smooth running and fine tuning on motor control.

Mike

12 hours ago, Clearwater said:

Hello

does anyone know what they’ll have in steam this coming Saturday?  Couldn’t see an obvious link on the website to tell me

thanks in advance

david

Try here for some extra detail, usually fairly accurate: http://cgibin.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/r-roster.cgi

Brilliant, thanks - really appreciate it.

Hi all,

A layout that really inspired me back in the 1990's was Hexworth Market Street, set in the northwest in the BR Blue period.

It appeared in one of the Model Rail supplements of Rail Magazine back in the 1990's and I kept a whole load of them for years but unfortunately they all got lost in a house move.  I'm trying to track down the issue in which it appeared so that I can try to nab a copy from Ebay and wondered if anybody could point in me in the right direction?

I realise that a long time has passed now but thought it was worth asking the question!

Thanks in advance

Mike

I advertised in the 'Wanted' section that I was looking for a Hornby loco that was released back in 2014, haven't been able to find it anywhere and Barry dropped me a message to say that they had one.

Loco arrived very quickly, excellent, friendly service and will definitely use them again.

Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM.

Thanks

Mike

10 hours ago, Zunnan said:

I remember holidays in the Southwest when I'd be pestering to go to see the trains at Dawlish and Penzance, quite a lot of the earlier trains were for want of a better phrase 'a bit of everything'. Aircons intermingled with Mk1 and pressure ventilated Mk2, for a 6 coach train I'd say a mix of all 3 wouldn't go amiss, and to be honest a mix of liveries also wouldn't be out of place. I've also seen a single Mk2 FO replaced with two Mk2a BFK coupled with the guards vans together as well, so that is also an option to replace a BG (as well as an excuse to wind up the 'that shouldn't be like that brigade')

 

https://www.derbysulzers.com/45122dawlishw86.jpg is how I best remember those trains, but I understand mixing liveries isn't to everyones tastes.

 

I'd say for a B/G rake a replication of something like the linked image where the first 3 coaches are all different flavours of Mk2 would give the right impression, though sadly the Mk2b/c isn't available. I think at the time the most common catering vehicle on these services was the Mk1 RBR rather than an RMB, which sadly is also not available anymore unless you can obtain the old Mainline coach, a Bachmann Mk1 RU is the closest substitute otherwise. For a B/G rake of mid '80s representation I'd probably go with something like this - Mk2f TSO / Mk2a TSO / Mk2a TSO / Mk1 RBR(RU) / Mk2a BFK / Mk2a BFK or Mk1 BG / Mk2f TSO / Mk2a TSO / Mk1 RBR(RU) / Mk2a TSO / Mk2f FO. I tend to remember aircons becoming more common around the same point when mixed liveried rakes were the norm as it was often the aircon which was the one in a different livery so they were easier to notice.

 

For the IC rake, a typical NE/SW (later XC) 6 set would have the RFB as the only first class. BSO/TSOx4/RFB would be the way I'd go as that covers pretty much anywhere in the UK these trains went, right into privatisation when they started appearing in Virgin livery with the same formation; and carried on as such until replaced with Voyagers.

7 hours ago, brushman47544 said:

For a 6 coach rake of Blue/Grey Air Cons on the WR I would forget about the BSO/BFK and go for BG, FO, RBR/RMB, 3xTSO

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

Quick question on formations.

After a quick flirtation with O Gauge, I've cleared the decks and am back to OO and going to focus on the Western Region in 1985-1990.

I want a rake of these in Blue / Grey and a rake in Intercity and am just wondering what mix of coach types to go for?

The memory's a bit hazy now but for the Blue / Grey, I seem to recall a lot of Aircon trains ran with a MK1 BG in lieu of an Aircon BSO and with a MK1 catering vehicle (would that have been an RMB?).  I can run 6 coach trains, so this could look something like MK1 BG / 3 x MK2F TSO / MK1 RMB / MK2F FO.  I'd need to add lighting to the RMB but that's not a problem.  Down side is that if you look at photos of those trains, they're a lot longer and the proportion of Aircons to Mk1's is a bit out for a 6 coach train.

Second option for Blue / Grey is to omit the MK1 vehicles altogether and go MK2F BSO / 4 x MK2F TSO / MK2f FO.  Did such trains run on the WR?  And should I include an extra FO in lieu of one of the TSO's?

For the Intercity rake, I'm thinking MK2F BSO / 3 x MK2F TSO / MK2F RFB / MK2F FO.  Is that too much first-class?  I guess I could get an additional TSO and then run with the RFB for closer to 1990 and add in a MK1 RMB for earlier?

What are other people doing?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks
Mike

No longer required.

No longer required

Hi Clive, I don’t say much on the forum but I do appreciate the amount of knowledge that people such as your good self share and I don’t mind admitting that I did a bit of copying and pasting from a topic where you were talking about the workings of a diesel depot.  Nearly actually went and built one as a result (still might) and it wasn’t something I was really very interested in before, so thank you for that.

Oh, and great layout and stock by the way

Thanks also for introducing me to Skating Polly

Mike

Artwork showing on the Lionheart Website: 

https://www.lionhearttrains.com/index.php?route=blog%2Farticle&article_id=4&fbclid=IwAR2YKKehhhr4roNAJgFFf4ZrQGypkpOGwFzW7awHCD4PQjgkOlW8qwNivf0

https://www.lionhearttrains.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=60

Mike

Heljan have announced via Facebook that in addition to the Class 31 / Deltic re-issues, they are also going to re-run the Class 35 Hymek, which is good news for those of us just moving to O Gauge and who may have missed out before.

I don't think this has been mentioned on here, models as follows:

Class 35 Hymek - SRP £495.00

3585 - BR green 'as built' unnumbered
3586 - BR green with small yellow panel unnumbered
3587 - BR green with full yellow end unnumbered
3588 - BR blue with full yellow end unnumbered

https://www.facebook.com/heljanas/photos/pcb.2236411339755053/2236404836422370/?type=3&theater&ifg=1

Mike

The lighting circuit boards with just about all of the newer Heljan locos contains the resistors. So just wire up the the XL and play!!!

 

Jinty

Thanks for that.

Hi all,

Has anybody heard how Dapol are going to implement the DCC element of these coaches? 

I'm assuming this will be for the control of internal lighting / tail lights etc so that they are not just constantly on (ie for when they are parked up in Carriage Sidings or the like).

I've noted that they are going to be available 'DCC Fitted' as an option but as I've quite a number of Lenz decoders in stock (that won't fetch much secondhand if I sell them) it would make sense for me to purchase without DCC and fit my own decoders.  My question is, are we going to get sockets, or will they be provided with decoders hard-wired?

I have asked the question of Dapol but haven't had a response, so just wondering if anybody had heard anything on the grapevine?

Thanks in advance

Mike