railroadbill

Just discovered that the Nene Valley Railway has a Köf II ! Interesting story here. http://irps-wl.org.uk/restoration-projects/international-restoration-projects/kof

Some really interesting Köf II photos, Bernard, and Ian. This is a Köf II used as a shunter at the Cheminova chemical plant at Thyboren in Jutland. The plant siding crosses the main road and joins the Thyboren - Lemvig line, the VLTJ. Had to enlarge this a lot I'm afraid but it does show its rather jolly colour scheme. This one (T 27) was built in 1958, used by DB until 1982 when the VLTJ bought it and it's been with them ever since. Took this in 2017. As an aside, the DSB had their own version of the Köf II built by the Danish Frichs company. The bonnet is more plain and the cab is modified. They had the same Voith hydraulic transmission as the German built ones but had a Leyland diesel engine (same 128 hp though). Only in preservation now. Fun fact: Köf II weighs 17 tonnes. It seems to me that a micro layout with a few structures/buildings to represent just a part of a steel works or chemical/fertiliser plant, factory, warehouses, GDR era Soviet weapons dump oh perhaps not that one, or whatever with a couple of lengths of track and a point or 2 would work very well with an Ho or TT Köf II (or is there an N gauge one as well ?)

Brawa Kof II. Smaller and lower than the wagon.

I've got a couple of the Brawa ones, very good runners and will run very slowly. I've seen several of the full size in Denmark over the years, ones on private sidings apart from preserved lines. (DSB had their own version as a standard small shunter apart from imported German ones). I believe it would have been a very common DB loco. If you want a Kof III then Roco do a good one, bit bigger loco but again an excellent runner. The Kof II is a very small loco so for a minimalist layout would be perfect. Just my opinion.

Really superb model! Pity about the return cranks setting as you say. As an aside the video shows that the mech has the centre and rear axles geared together, leaving the front axle to be driven just by the rods. Coincidentally an old Ho gauge Fleischmann 0-6-0 I was running yesterday has the same arrangement. Wonder why they didn't gear all the axles together (as other models). Runs very well though.

Thanks, Ruffnut, that's very useful info, basically an XO3 with a black worm will fit a chassis with a 28 tooth grey wormwheel. The few motors/chassis etc in my bits box (one of!) seem to be that spec so I should have parts to be able to get my 1980's WC/BoB repair project running ok. The parts/service sheets are very helpful. Bill

Good point about those locos being easy to improve, details like crew, headcodes, etched nameplates etc. drew the eye away from the basic nature of them and you had the satisfaction of making them better.. Final thought about the Hall, the green livery (I think) looks better than some of Hornby's latest green locos!

I'll raise you a basic undecorated Saint body with no fittings, on the Hall chassis. 🙂 I believe there was a later Hornby Saint that had a tender drive using a smaller 3500gal tender. I think these models, like the N15, were of their time and better than what had gone before (arguably!) I've got a Bachmann Hall and Hornby Granges etc. which are very good looking and authentic models, capable of running very slowly and reliably. However, when they were available, teh Hall, N15 etc. were the only kids on the block and now have a certain charm about them. Anything with an XO3 sees to last very well. I had the Saint body because a) I came across it and 2) to modify it, which would have taken some alteration, into a Star body. I also had a GBL 28xx body that I was going to remove the boiler and cab from and join it to a castle footplate from a GBL Castle, then attach the bodies to Hornby Castle chassis (I'd got hold of 2 cheap Castles) to make 2 Stars.... Anyway, fortunately Hornby released their Star model and I had a couple of those (bargain price from a West Country dealer) which was frankly a much better proposition, and they look great running round the layout. Which leaves a box of bits and 2 earlier type Hornby Castles. I guess they fit in the era of this thread as well but I think they are Chinese made.

This is actually the Hall chassis from above, but this is a general question. With XO3/4 powered locos having this plastic worm drive, was the worm a standard type across the range, i.e. would an XO3/4 motor with that gear fit ok into another loco with the same diameter of driven gear or were there different specs in that era?

Another Hornby Margate built loco that fits into Robin Brasher's time scale, the Hall. This one's a bit battered, got given it for future restoration (needs buffers for one thing). Seems to have been continually made from 1966-1977 (Albert Hall 4983) then 1978-79 Kneller Hall 5934 (this one) and finally 1980-83 Hagley Hall 4930. There was also the rather odd "Lord Westwood" which I think had Hornby's phone number if that's 2555, as its loco number...although a red Hall would work well with Harry Potter. Tri-ang has disappeared from Tri-ang Hornby...

Wot! No Triang oil bottle then? The missing goodie!

The 29c Dinky double decker (AEC type) was 3s 9d in 1954. (Gone up to 4s 3d by 1958...) Might have to repaint my one now. I think the Corgi Routemaster was better than the Dinky one, but it's a very long time since I've seen either! EFE came along much later with their very realistic buses, which was a great boost for authentic model railways.

I've heard this before about the 2 rail Bo-Bo running badly. I've got a 3 rail one which runs ok, it does have traction tyres on all wheels on the power bogie so I wonder if the 2 rail one had poor pickups? Is there a fix now?

The Tri-ang station isn't bad really, still got it and I put one of the buildings on the current layout a while back as a kind of place holder and it's still there... You weren't the only one led astray by Meccano catalogues, as I've still got several which I was looking at today after seeing sncf231e's excellent Duchess video, I guess I can still be led astray... Meccano Magazine was a major influence back then! The e-bay poster looks nice, got the bus ( in poor condition,) and the Castle, but not the bridge. Tri-ang as mentioned on another thread had a good selection of bridges - which current Hornby still make! I must have had the Scotsman set Christmas 1958 then, thanks for that, David. The 2 coaches do indeed have the destinations/train name boards on them but the loco board that fitted into the little slot on the smokebox of the A4 has long gone. If I go on following this thread I'll have to search one out. 🙂 Set coming up for 64 years then... good grief. Bill

Think my Flying Scotsman set with Mallard must have been 1957 or 58. I ended up with a Tri-ang station a year or so later for no apparent reason, but Hornby signals, water crane etc.

I agree with Chas Levin above about DL Glue n Glaze, which I got recently primarily to attach cockpit canopies to plastic models. I'd previously used PVA applied with a cocktail stick but this is easier and less likely to go wrong! Very impressed by your roof with that very fine framing.

Purely on this point, I've used this exact product for mounting photographs onto card, also calendars etc. , previously used 3Ms equivalent and also some from £1 shop which was a bit stringy but otherwise OK. The Hobbycraft and 3M stuff sprays well and easy to apply. I've just looked at some photos I mounted in 1988 and they are still firmly attached with spray mount.

Fairly recent acquisition, a Hornby Dublo 2 rail City of London. So I finally got a H-D Duchess... Here with my ancient original classic H-D D12 LMR coaches from Flying Scotsman set. Just had to go up in the loft and take a picture of it on the track....

Thanks, Fred. Apart from my having the Flying Scotsman set with Mallard, (EDP15) that could have been my living room floor around 63 years ago... Cool! According to the 1956/57 price list that you have as a title shot, the EDP12 Duchess set was £7 1s 6d which was the most expensive set they did.

Fitting into Robin Brasher's timescale, the Hornby HST. I believe a very large number of these were made. This one is in the first Intercity livery before the "rasberry ripple" paint was applied along the whole power car. This is the rake with Jouef coaches. This must be from a time when the new livery was just coming out 🙂. The Jouef coaches are the right length rather than the one bay too short Hornby ones. They do still have buffers which the HST Mk3s shouldn't have so some work still to go. This is a 3 car set, I have actually traveled on a 3 car HST, one of the GWR 255 ones last year, (they are normally 4 cars) so a (modern) short rake is plausible. I've got another 3 Jouef coaches to add, but they need work to bring them up to scratch and be able to use them. (Original 253 had 7 cars which effectively makes the train 9 cars long with the power cars). A friend modified a couple of original Hornby HSTs with CD motors, and TTS sound chips, he's got a Valenta and an MTU rake. They run very well, so there's still potential in upgrading the old ones. My one has the ringfield motor, got a spare ringfield power bogie that could be fitted to the trailer power car, or have 2 power units in the powered one. I've also got a spare 4 wheeled power bogie as fitted to the current railroad HST (and indeed the 121 and 73 etc) so some possibilities there with the original Hornby ones, a work in (slow) progress. Just one ringfield power bogie isn't bad though, I have fitted extra pickups so runs more reliably. Up and down HSTs cross at Ferndean Junction, a very obscure station on what must be the Western region as these are 253s. (Those particular full size power cars were allocated to Old Oak common HST depot).

"Ah, alcohol, the cause and solution to all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson goes modelling. Sorry. 😎

I've used Modelstrip which has worked reasonably well, being a white paste to paint on then leave in a sealed ziplock polybag for a while before rubbing off with old toothbrush. Also if the pot dries out you can add some water to make it a paste again. Tried this recently on an old plastic kit car I came across, worked well in places but some paint left, however paint was many years old (could well have been enamel). Also tried Precision paints superstrip (as recommended by GoingUnderground) not bad but I personally had better results with Modelstrip (which could be mainly caustic soda perhaps?) However it probably depends on the paint/plastic combination being worked on. There have been some good suggestions to try on this thread.

Well they were built to last.... The front of an A4 is very difficult to model (or indeed draw) as there are so many curved edges and it looks different from different viewing angles. On the other hand it's so distinctive that it's easy to get something sort of right and it can still only be an A4. I believe that when A4s were being built the casings were just made to fit on the shop floor rather than following drawings to 100% accuracy so they were probably all a bit different anyway.

The bridge must be one of their longest running products as I think it's still available (or it's back again?)

Looks like Hayling Island line in the background... and a rather nice bridge the A4 is on. The bridge rail does hide the worst of the valve gear, the big fixing screw on the return crank and the large rivets in the front of the valve gear, which was the standard on later locos, but compared with say the earlier X03/4 loco drive Flying Scotsman it was a big step forwards.