Robert Stokes

Yes, that was the obvious answer which never occurred to me. I did contact them and their reply was "they should be available before the end of this year".

Thank you for the helpful replies, particularly the link to production dates. It shows that the ones I bought a few weeks ago and resold date from 1994 and the ones that I am now considering are relatively recent at 2016. That link could be helpful again in the future. I think that I will defer the decision about which ones to buy (if any) until I have seen the latest Hornby and Bachmann ones in the flesh, perhaps at a show. In the meantime, having partially upgraded the Airfix ones already, I may get new windows for them and see what they look like then. I will only have to do one side of each because on my layout trains only run clockwise or anticlockwise. Robert

I have been thinking about replacing six very old (40+ years?) Airfix suburban coaches. A few years ago I improved them by fitting Bachmann bogies with metal wheels. Some years before that a couple of buffers broke off (can't remember how it happened) so I replaced them all with brass ones. This means that any replacement must be significantly better to make it worth buying new ones. Some weeks ago I bought off Ebay a couple of Bachmann suburbans 34-602 and 34-626. I was very disappointed with them as they had plastic wheels and the old style chunky tension lock couplings despite being advertised as new. They must have been very old stock! I could not complain because the product numbers and pictures were provided. I just didn't research them properly. I sold them on - at a loss of course. The point of this enquiry is not to make the same mistake again. I have since seem advertised some Bachmann suburbans which, as best as I can see, appear to be a later generation. They are 34-604C, 34-630A, 34-630B and 34-700C. They even have some fitted passengers. Are these coaches of modern standard? What bothers me is that they are being heavily discounted by several retailers. Against RRP of £39.95 I have seen them advertised as low as £23. One retailer said it was a clearance offer. Why do they want to clear them at bargain prices if they are current models? Do they know that Bachmann are soon to issue upgraded versions.

If someone put in an earlier maximum bid of 10p more than your one then that would automatically take precedence. Minimum increments only apply to bids made after another one has been registered.

It's been some weeks but here's an update on my layout build. I have laid 2mm cork underlay on the inclines, painted the trackbed grey, and then laid code 75 bullhead track. I have tested the slope and my Bachmann Jubilee can pull six coaches up it. It does slow down a bit but that is just like the prototype. I have also constructed the upper curves that will lead into the station and stated track laying on them as well. Here is a pictures of my DCC control panel. The switches change the points on the storage level. The LEDs light up when an infra-red sensor 'sees' a loco above it and the push buttons send power to the isolated section that the loco is standing on. The DCC Concepts levers in the middle will eventually work the points and signals on the scenic part of the layout. In the next picture you can see that I am only leaving 70mm between levels. I'm sure that many will say that this will lead to trouble at some stage but I didn't want a greater separation because it would have meant steeper inclines. The last picture shows more clearly my way of running the bus bars around the front of the layout. Droppers from each piece of track are then taken through the front support and soldered to them.

Does anyone have any information about when these will be in the shops?

Thank you - that is just the help that I need. So I am right in removing the part already on the coach and trying to replace it with the accessory part. From what you say, my difficulty in doing so was to be expected. I already have some of the Roco close couplers as I was advised that I would need them for my Bachmann porthole coaches which I have also recently bought but haven't yet tried close coupling. (What a price they are! £7.49 including postage for only four of them. I was expecting four pairs!) What about buying extra corridor connection parts? On the other hand, I wonder whether gluing together two of the removed parts will make an extended one.

I hope that I have posted this in the right section. I have a train of six Hornby (ex LMS) corridor coaches - 2 x R4447 + 2 x R4448 + 2 x R4449 all bought within the last couple of weeks. One is brand new and the others were bought on Ebay. They are in excellent condition but two came without the accessory pack. (I don't mind that since they were at bargain prices). I therefore bought a pack of close couplers R8220 and I have fitted these without any problem. The corridor connections are a different matter. Are the pieces in the accessory pack an addition to what is already on the coach or a replacement for it? I have taken off the end plate and tried adding the accessory part but it won't clip on. I then tried removing the part already on the coach and replacing it with the accessory part. I found this very difficult and I've only managed to get one to clip in so far. Although I haven't got the one facing it clipped in yet, holding it in place seems to leave a noticeable gap between to two parts, even on straight track. If this is how it is supposed to be then I will be disappointed as I thought that there would be no gap on straight track. Thank you for any advice. P.S. Do Hornby supply the corridor accessory parts that I'm missing as a separate item?

I think it would be better for the fiddle yard to be a little higher than the terminus and at the back with the industrial area at the front and a little lower. I think that this arrangement would look better and access to the fiddle yard should be fairly easy reaching over the industrial area. I personally found "Scarm" difficult and "Anyrail" a lot easier. It is free for up to 50 pieces of track which should be fine for you.

I've used ordinary white wood glue, both to attach the cork to the baseboard, and then the track to the cork. I lay some cork on small dabs of glue placed about 1cm apart, cover it with some plywood and weigh that down with food cans. After about 15 minutes it is set. Later I lay the track with a dab of glue under each side of about every tenth sleeper. (Peco track has small holes which can hold the glue), then again balancing food cans on it. The system seems to work O.K. and has one possible advantage - to make changes you can easily lift the track by carefully sliding a paint scraper under it. You only then need to clean up the surface of the cork and the underside of the track before relaying it. I'm not sure it would be as easy with Copydex.

If you are going to change to code 75, which I suspect will be fine for rolling stock of that age, you might consider using Peco code 75 bullhead track if it is right for the era you model. It is true that it is more expensive than code 75 flat bottom track but it looks really good. There are only large radius points to go with it at this stage but I think medium radius and slip points will be available soon.

I never package anything until the deal is done and I have the buyer's name and address. Mind you, I did once pack up a parcel of items and then realise I'd left out one small one so had to undo it all, put that item in, and then package it all up again.

Thank you for the advice about how it may be possible to correct this fault. However I should not have to do anything to put right an assembly fault on a new one. I'm still going to take it back and ask them to give me another one. I shall also ask them to unpack the fresh one and check that rolls freely on their test track.

I meant to write "dreaded" but in poor light I hit the wrong keys and didn't notice.

There is a problem with a terminus on a layout that is not verylarge. When a train leaves the terminus, how do you reverse it to bring it back to the terminus? Have you thought about that? There is another problem having two stations on a layout that size. A reasonable length train can have its back end having just left one station as the front end is approaching the other one, which doesn't look very realistic. If I were building that layout (mine is a bit longer but the same width) I would use the rear 12 to 15" for storage loops behind a scenic break, the 24" operating well in front of that, and the 21 to 24" in front of that for a passing station. Of course it depends on how you want to balance operation against realism and your ideas may be totally different to mine.

I recently bought six Bachmann porthole coaches - 2 x FK, 2 x TK , 2 x BTK. Some were bought used from Ebay but the two FKs were bought new from a local shop. I think that I will have to take one of them back as it doesn't roll anywhere near as freely as the rest. Each of the other five, if placed on my 1 in 70 incline, will move off from a standing start and accelerate down the slope. One of the new FKs, if placed on the same incline, won't move of its own accord and if pushed gently downhill will roll to a stop in a couple of feet. I suppose its the dreases bogie syndrome.

A belated thank you for all the help.

I seem to have misled people. The comment about the pick-ups problem is written on the website of the retailer advertising new ones. They seem to be suggesting that ALL models of this type have this fault as manufactured. There is no suggestion that there is anything wrong with the one listed on Ebay. Anyway, apart from its apparently new condition, it is advertised by a shop that I have dealt with several times both via Ebay and face-to-face. P.S. Why do you call it "thiefbay". It's not theft if you don't have to deal with them and their fees are substantially lower than charged by auction houses. Also I have sold things recently under a special offer scheme when they have charged me much less than their usual fee.

Royaloak. I don't understand your first comment in the edit. Are you implying that the price of the Ebay one is too high or the price of the one the retailer is advertising? I thought the Ebay one was at a good price as, although listed as used, it appears to be new because the box still has its wrapping around it. I wouldn't think of buying the one from the shop.

I was tempted to buy a Bachmann 32-911 DMU 3-car in green that I saw advertised on Ebay. I decided to check the price against what a new one would cost if still available to buy new. A quick search only found one retailer advertising it, and it mentioned that the model had two faults which they could put right (at a price of course!). The first was poor internal lighting which doesn't bother me at all. The other fault was poor pick-ups which they said would particularly affect its running when a DCC decoder was fitted. This did bother me as I would fit a sound decoder into it. Can anyone confirm or deny the pick-ups comment, particularly if you run it on DCC. Thank you for any help. P.S. When does this model date from and has it been replaced by anything significantly better.

One way is to use something to mark out two pencil curves on the board which are just wider than the track. Then you lay it between these lines. I use a long thin piece of hardboard pinned at one end and with holes the other end for the pencil. You can also buy "Trachsetta" which is a piece of metal to fit inside the rails and hold it in a curve. However, you can only get these in certain radii - I think 18", 21", 24" and some larger ones.

You can get electrofrogs in Peco code 100 streamline but not in set-track. The set-track points have a much smaller curve radius than streamline ones. Set-track ones have a nominal radius of about 18" and turn 22.5 degrees whereas streamline ones turn 12 degrees with nominal radii of 24", 36", or 60". The largest ones do look really good but use up a lot of space.

Peco code 75 is track that has rails 3/4 the height of code 100, so more correct to scale. However, it is less robust and more easier to damage. Also you can only get electrofrog points in code 75, which although they give better running, are harder for a novice to wire up. Set-track points are all code 100 so if you want to use any of them it is easiest to do with track that is also code 100. Peco track is the one many people use, but I don't think it is better than Hornby or Bachmann. All three types of code 100 will fit together although there may be slight colour differences in the sleepers. Many people, including me, like the NCE Power Cab DCC controller. It costs about £150 for the starter kit.

I agree about control via DCC. I cannot imagine why anyone starting out today would consider the alternative. However, don't believe the "only two wires" adverts. It is best to provide power at several places round the layout. (Serious modellers use bus wires all round the layout with connections to every individual piece of track but I think you can avoid that at this stage.) I also agree that code 100 track is best for a newcomer. Use Peco set-track for curves. You could use flexi-track which is cheaper but it is difficult to make small radius curves with it without introducing dog-legs at joins which will cause lots of derailments. By all means use flexi-track for straights. You have the room to use Peco streamline points rather than set-track ones which will improve running and look much better. Once again, if you use a central operating well, seriously consider building the layout high enough to duck under into it. Your daughter could sit on a high stool or stand on some kind of box.

I suppose that I'm assuming an 00 gauge layout would be much simpler than an N gauge layout of the same size. You need to compare an N gauge layout 12' by 4' with an 00 one 24' by 8' or thereabouts. Would there not be many more points involved for a start? The N gauge one would probably have two or more stations whereas the 00 one might have a single station. Of course this does not have to be the case but who could resist keeping the N gauge one just as simple but with much longer plain track runs?