Cheshire001

Rails are selling the Dapol14XX 7S-006-025 or 7S-006-025 in black at £125. A nice O-gauge starter loco. Other liveries available at different prices. It's actually cheaper than the autocoach you might buy to go with it from the same shop!

mdvle, Yes that's the one! I noticed that our local branch of WH Smiths recently stocked an earlier issue of "Fallen Flags" about a different road. (Can't remember which one.) F-UnitMad. Yes I have a baseball cap as well. Also a WC SD45 shirt :-)

Thanks Martin. Sad news indeed. I'm not on Facebook, but might be worth looking. Somebody just sent info. about "Classic Train Fallen Flags: Wisconsin Central Remembered". I'll have to console myself with that! Roy.

Hi, I have used WC2Scale extensively for researching Wisconsin Central rolling stock. However I tried last night and got a blank screen with the address bar reading "https://wc2scale.org/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi". Does anybody know what's going on, please? Cheers, Roy.

Hi, Could somebody please say which way we get to Legends since Bentley took over the local roads? I am assuming via Sunnybank Road over the Chester line railway bridge? Thanks,

You are looking for Model Rail April 2006 with a class 50 on the cover. Page 37, under "Top Tips". For those without access, the method consists of: Remove the glazing strip from the short Mk3. Remove the underframe moulding. Sand down the roof ridges until smooth. Cut two strips of clear glazing, same size as the original glazing strip. Paint white leaving the windows clear. Cut a new floor from plasticard and scratchbuild the underframe equipment. Fit the roof access panel from plasticard. Paint body blue and roof silver. Apply transfers. Fit new glazing bar. Obviously this is cut down from the original text but should be enough to go on.

Hornby Railroad LNER P2 R3171 On Amazon at £82.99 with free P&P on standard delivery. Do not use Amazon's own search box; it comes up with all Hornby products and a set of cotton sheets! If you get stuck, do a Google search for "Amazon Hornby R3171". It's much more reliable. Beware of the usual Amazon bombardment of additional charges for express delivery and trials for Prime etc. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-Gauge-R3171-RailRoad-Locomotive/dp/B00EE8RSAE/ref=asc_df_B00EE8RSAE/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=314355776281&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2325258527412407772&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006663&hvtargid=pla-600700536928&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

I have only just found your thread, so you may have already found a solution. If not try searching for "Sub-miniature D-plug". These used to be common for computer printer leads etc. and came with between 9 and 25 pins. I used to get them from Maplins and buy the plastic covers which screwed/clipped on. You have to be quite good with a soldering iron as there are so many pins in close proximity. Alternatively you might be able to buy a ready made male-female cable and cut it in two - strip the severed ends and attach to your switches etc on each board or control panel. Be careful as some cables reversed the wires attached between the plugs. I started WC modelling just like you. The WC diesel was the cheapest on the stall and the unlikely collection of freight cars was what the local model shop happened to have (pre-Ebay!). The WC color scheme being the same as our EWS was a good talking point at exhibitions.

Rails are offering one version of the Heljan O-gauge class 05 shunter for £159.50 this weekend: https://railsofsheffield.com/products/31007/Heljan-2590-o-gauge-hunslet-class-05-br-green-no-wasp-stripes-shunter-locomotive (The advert in the Gauge O Guild virtual exhibition says quote "OGG20".) A couple of other versions still at £175.

I had never placed an order with this trader before, so was a little apprehensive after reading some of the comments above. I need not have worried. Placed my order yesterday morning and it came through the letter box this morning on the 48-hour service(!)

I have Bachmann 37-537C, No. B950358. BR Wagons: First Half Million gives this as Lot 2051, vac braked. Built at Faverdale in 1949 to an LNER design. Diagram 1/500. The model correctly has short running boards. It is fitted with grab handles above the weights outboard of the running boards. I can find no photos with this configuration and of course it would not make sense to hold a handrail where there was nowhere to put one's feet! Checking the Paul Bartlett site give above, I found two photos of this van. It it not fitted with vac. pipes. The site gives Darlington as it's birthplace. Bachmann have followed this if you get a strong magnifier on their wagon plate. Hard to tell on a B&W photo, but I would say it is painted bauxite. I'm going with the idea above that it was originally fitted, but the gear has been removed but the body left in bauxite. The prototype photo shows two lamp brackets on the veranda end boards, but the model has only one.

Brian, The mlgtraffic link is another excellent source, thank you. These references have given me a good basic understanding of the topic. Referring to Fred's picture illustrating the mixture of coaches in one train, I came across Marklin set 87549 which looks like a close match for those who may wish to model this train.

Many thanks for you replies. Just the sort of info. I was looking for. Fred - Yes I must look up how to post pictures. I used to use PhotoBucket and have been too lazy to look up replacement methods. [As I type this I see the big yellow button that says "Insert other media"; maybe a clue.] Nevertheless, your schematic perfectly illustrates my coaches with the overall green and blue ones top left and the various coloured window bands on the others. The link is very helpful. I think the train in your photo has got three different coaches. John - More great info., a really helpful intro. to the colour schemes. Justin - I know what you mean about slippery slopes. I was just going to have one US loco with a handful of freight cars to see what it was like. Then I found I had enough rolling stock to populate our NMRA exhibition layout! Will look into your idea about blackening the wheels, they are very prominent aren't they? Thanks again, Roy.

I model mainly British and US, but have also acquired a small collection of Marklin Z-gauge. Time permitting I intend to make a small scenic layout for it to run on. It's nothing too serious with purchase policy dictated by what "looks nice" or is at a good price rather than historical accuracy. I recently bought a collection of coaches off a well-known auction site. They are all in different colours which started me thinking about the significance of the different paint schemes. I tried reading up about it. Unfortunately most of the web pages I can find list colours and then their uses. Not knowing the (German) name of the colour on my coaches this is a bit problematic. Not understanding the German jargon doesn't help! So can anyone give me a quick idea of the significance of the colours ? Obviously it changes over time, so which schemes go together? Do they indicate 1st/2nd class accommodation, class of train or what? The collection is as follows. All carry the [DB] logo: -An all-over blue 1st class coach and an all-over green 2nd which I'm guessing belong to an earlier period than the others. -A baggage car with cream top-half and blue lower half. Looks quite nice behind my BR151 in same livery but haven't any other coaches in this scheme. The next 3 have similar schemes but different colours. -Baggage car as above but green top, beige lower half. -A Speisewagen (dining car?) wine red top, beige lower half. -A 1st class coach with orange top and beige lower half. And a single Silberlinge which I gather is a commuter coach and possibly the odd man out? Any help appreciated, thanks.

A bit off-topic, but probably nearer topic than some items in the last couple of posts If you fancy some bargain rail travel, look for the 09:16 and 10:16 departures from Crewe to Liverpool Lime St. via Manchester Picc. Northern service stopping at all (?) stations. Advance ticket £3 or £4 single for over 2 hours of travel. Sometimes National Rail Enquiries doesn't return this train - try asking Crewe-Liverpool via Man. Picc. on Northern. Definitely run Mon-Fri. Don't know about the weekend, but of course Northern have been on strike on Sat. anyway. Oddly enough the return journey via the same route is more expensive - £6.80. Maybe it's uphill??

An enjoyable day out. Massive queue about 10:15 dealt with quite quickly. Seemed more space to move about than previous years. Best bits: Arun Quay, Woodhead, Burdale Colliery, Kyle of Lochalsh, Albion Estates, End of the Spur, Arcadia PA, Axmouth, Hartburn, Little Aller, Treskilling. Many other enjoyable layouts. Disappointments: Deepcar, Netherwood Sidings. Looking forward to seeing both of these. Visited in the morning and just before I went home at 4pm and nothing moved either time. The minute print for the bus timetable on your website. More seating would always be welcome.

Dapol O-gauge Panniers on Rails of Sheffield website: 7S-007-005 BR Black £159.50 7S-007-003 "GWR" Green £169.50 Plus £7.50 p&p. I've ordered mine, so feel free to help yourselves! Other panniers available at various prices. Be careful as the search can throw in the N-gauge version.

A few random thoughts. Bought quite a bit of 2nd hand over the years. Mostly quite good. I avoid Mainline totally. Nice bodies, but infamous mechanisms. Non-runners can be quite easy to fix. I tend to put power leads directly across motor terminals. Then we know if the motor works without worrying about all the pickups and loose wires we may have. Clean the wheels with Servisol 10 - squirt some on a cloth of kitchen paper then spin the wheels. I almost guarantee you'll get 2 black marks off even a 'clean' loco. Also worked well with a squirt into a 'dead' pancake motor. Just give it a few seconds to dry out a bit. Incidentally even locos in my own collection will hardly run at times even though stored in a clean dry room. Bit of TLC and a wheel clean usually does the trick. Revived 2 locos sold as "DCC ready non-runner" by removing the defective DCC chip and inserting a spare blanking plate. Got a decent knock off, don't know why the dealer didn't think of this! To be honest one of the biggest sources of trouble are the big circuit boards in all modern locos. At times I'm tempted to throw them out and hard wire the motor to the pickups. Always wary of an eBay seller who doesn't mention that his loco is in working order. Best assume it won't run unless it says otherwise. Is the price low enough to risk getting some spare parts? The worst description I have ever seen on eBay was for a loco that was 'Bachmann' in the heading, but 'Dapol' in the description; had a Dapol 7mm reference number alongside the words "oo gauge"; it was listed under O-gauge locos and was described as unused even though the lining was partly worn away! Sellers like this just spoil it for the decent folk out there!

I was at Crewe Heritage Centre yesterday for the 30th Anniversary of Class 47 and APT Preservation event. Obtained a Janus "British Steel Scunthorpe No.5" for £49.99 from Kernow. Presumably a show special as it is still £94.99 on their website. Cleaned the wheels with Servisol 10 and it runs beautifully. Several remaining on the stand when I left last night. Kernow scheduled to be there all weekend as per their website. DJ Models also there selling "not quite perfect" J94's at various reduced prices, presumably depending on whether they are tested etc. Didn't take too much notice as I'm not in the market for a J94.<G> For info, details of the event are here: https://crewehc.org/crewe-heritage-centre-news/

Had forgotten the 3 for 2 offer they sometimes have. Now you remind me there were good deals to be had, like neighbours clubbing together to buy 3 children's bikes for Christmas and getting one free.

Not sure how much of a bargain this is, but Argos are selling the Hornby Tornado Pullman train set for £99.99. I think it contains Railroad vehicles, i.e. the coaches don't have interior lights. Use the order code 914/8248 and impress the cashier. I believe it qualifies for a 6 months interest free credit application. Asking for that would really impress the cashier! Not that I used to work there two Christmases ago...! They appear to have an outlet on ebay selling it for the same price, but with £3.95 p&p. You could get it cheaper at ehattons, but it's missing wheels (!) loose smoke deflectors etc.

I don't know if there's a list such as you describe. However I have just typed the barcode number from a recent purchase into Google and it came back with a lot of hits. Could you scan the barcode into Google and cut and paste the desired text from one of the hits?

(Posted as the result of a PM from user "Muddy Waters". Not done a lot with my ATW project recently. Initially disappointed with the 'Monster' Ocean Blue spray can and then a series of family illnesses took my attention away. The spray is fairly powerful; it may be worth decanting into an airbrush for more control. At the moment I have a rake of Mk3s, a DVT and a couple of class 67's, all Hornby. The spray is not a good match for the Hornby colours, it's a much greener shade. Spraying HST power cars and coupling them to my Hornby coaches would look wrong. Also the spray can is fairly glossy - maybe varnish would help? I also acquired a Bachmann ATW `57 body, which I shall use with a rake of resprayed Airfix Mk2 coaches. The Bachmann dark blue is much greener than Hornby`s. Holding a card sprayed with several coats of Monster paint appears to be a tolerable match in some lights and poor in others. Strange! Other alternatives: I did some experiments with Vallejo Model Air paints - really good for airbrushing. I have a set with a lot of green-blue shades. Combinations of 71004, 71093, 71007 and 70 050 seemed to be working well on scrap paper. Electra Railway Graphics do stick on vinyl sides for some of the ATW coaches, but all the photos of them look much too bright. I risked ordering their pack for a class 158 at the start of January but still haven`t received it. You might be able to get rail blue and add a bit of green, but not tried it. Avoid the problem. ATW sometimes ran a buffet in blue/grey. I picked up a Hornby R4603, carefully removed the 125 branding, resprayed the roof light grey, added the yellow 1st stripe and picked out the footsteps and springs in yellow. Not perfect but quite smart. Watch which buffet you buy (different windows), the one we need is quite rare. And somebody said they have lost the franchise, so we'll have to repaint our models<G> You can have 67's in silver or EWS colours as well as the nice blue ones. I did quite a lot of research on this and it seems that every picture I can find shows up as a different shade of blue. Difficult to figure what the 'correct' colour is...and even if you knew, would it match your RTR stock? One picture showed a long rake that appeared as dark blue at the front and shaded to turquoise at the back! Difficult to know whether to recommend paint to you - it could look quite smart if you sprayed a whole rake, but less certain if you were trying to match. I'm going to Crewe Heritage Centre tomorrow and I'll put my test cards in my bag and have a look at the 158's going past if I get a quiet minute. The Chester line runs past the window. I'm afraid this may be a confusing reply, but it reflects the problem I've got trying to move on with the project. (Added after visiting Crewe Heritage Centre). Took my paper sprayed with the Monster paint to Crewe and held it up as a 158 went past the window. I think the paint is quite a good match, but would take a few coats to build up the depth of colour required. Certainly the couple of quick coats on a piece of white paper looked a bit bright, but some sprayed on a green "After Eight" box looked quite good. I would suggest if you were spraying a whole rake of stock it would look pretty good, but perhaps not a very good match for Hornby blue. Somewhere I think I have a redundant Hornby Mk1 coach partly stripped of paint. Maybe interesting to spray it and see how things go before tackling something I'm really bothered about. For one thing you can take the sides out and spray them without making.

I personally have never attempted a white metal kit; not sure I'm going to try after this!

A friend of a friend has recently bought a N&KC Keyser (K's) kit of a GB&W 2-6-0 from a popular auction site. Unfortunately there were no instructions. Does anybody have an instruction sheet they could scan, please? Not really my normal area of interest, I was unaware that K's made North American prototypes! Nearest I have got is a couple of GB&W boxcars! Thanks in anticipation.