railroadbill

Really good videos. Locos look the part. Actually the sound of the wheels of blue/grey coach train going past sounded about right. Also - liked the vegetation on the viaduct (going to do that) and the cct on the back of the milk train (now done that on mine). Having seen the vids I'd like to take a stopping train to the station and go for a walk around the area. Hopefully there's a tea shop with a view of the viaduct.....

Super wizard wizzo wizz. I really agree that westerns look better without tension lock couplings, maybe because of the deep valance. As an experiment I super glued a u shaped wire loop onto the tension lock hook on one end of a coach. This then drops onto the loco coupling hook. Also the coachs tension lock coupler still works ok when coupled to another tension lock coupling. Bit like the slotted bar couplings that o gauge coarse scale exley etc. coaches used to have. Cost? Nothing. On freight trains I've used a van with one nem coupler removed and the loco's scale screw link coupling dropped onto the coupling hook (then tension lock fitted vehicles can be coupled to the other end of van). ps Very good Youtube video, Phil. Cracking layout.

Yup, would have helped. Printed plates to be overlaid, perhaps?

No, perhaps surprisingly, mine were ok (well, the tube I've used). Gwiwer made the point that if you use a supermarket or cheap tube, you haven't lost too much if it dries out. All tubes empty is a bit extreme, though. Don't need a high quality glue for some things. (Bought some pva glue for £1 a bottle which is just great diluted for scenery or ballasting - might be more suspect for glueing furniture etc.

I used Gwiwer's and others method with superglue (5 tubes for £1 from, where else, the Pound shop - but you only need a little). I measured the plate position from "British Rail Main Line diesels" (Ian Allen) with a digital micrometer. I also found that a wide coffee stirrer from Costa Coffee was actually the right depth from the bottom of the body sides when the body was off the chassis, to the bottom of the plates. Stroke of luck there. Pieces of Tamaya masking tape marked the end positions of each plate. Thin smear of superglue on back of plate, popped it on loco along top of taped on coffee stirrer, checked with micrometer. Job done. Except...next day I decided that one number plate was ever so slightly misaligned..... I looked at it and thought about it and looked at it etc. etc. It was so nearly there. In the end I plucked up courage and prised the number plate off with a scalpel. I was lucky to find it again after it had pinged across the room. Checked position again, used steel rule to check it lined up with the name plate, glued it back on. Now it's done. But still haven't tried fitting the lifting rings for the roof... I bought the plates for Western Lady from Kings Cross model railways, long gone, in York Road just across from Kings Cross station, more years ago than I care to remember. Never fitted them to the Lima Western I had then. Now they are on a model worthy of them.

You're right there. Can't remember the chap's name but I know he died some years ago (obit in Railway Modeller). It's a long time now since I worked near there but one lunchtime I went in and when paying for whatever bits I'd bought, asked about whether nickel silver or brass or steel was best for track/wheels. Wow, he really showed great enthusiasm for once and told me all about the history of Hamblings, how they'd made parts in the basement workshop (esp the wheels) in the 1940s and on, and how demand had now slackened so they had to use brass rather than nickel silver for wheel rims to keep costs down, although NS conducted electricity better. So my last memories of Hamblings are a bit more positive (and I always use NS track and Romford type N/S wheels etc.) They also did scenic backgrounds, I think. On an earlier occasion, I asked in the shop whether they sold 4mm scale coupling rods. He was horrified. "What? You have to make them yourself!" So I went home and cut and filed up some rail.... Bless him. Sorry Motor Books is going. Bought stuff on various railways (particularly Scandinavian that I couldn't get anywhere else) and Oz and NZ railway magazines - this was pre internet of course. Curiously, I was just talking about St Martin's models today, I've got 3 cars I bought from them (could be 20 years ago) sitting on the table in front of me right now. Coincidence of course. The years go by.

Thanks to all above for all the info about dcc sound and speaker mounting, particularly about sealing back of speaker for good performance. Having seen pheaton's excellent videos I'll just have to have a go, definitely convinced a 37 is a suitable candidate. By the way, liked the retaining wall on your layout, Pheaton, given me an idea for a part of my layout.

Looked through this thread, got lots of information about sound, but can't find this exact project.. For my first sound project I want to fit a Bachmann 37, the later 21 pin chassis with all axles driven. Seen a friend's 47 where he fitted the speaker under the fan grills - (Loksound decoder with SWD sound files) which sounds very good to me. So I thought it best to put the speaker in the same place in 37 roof. What I need to know (before buying decoder!) is if the speaker will fit ok in 37 roof - there's a baffle fitted already under the fan which I guess is for the Bachmann factory fitted speaker, maybe. If I take that out, can I fit the Loksound oblong speaker ok and will wires need lengthening? Or is there a better way of doing it? Also get the impression from this thread that swd or Howes have best sound files - any feelings on this, although that must be very personal! Very grateful for advice from someone who's sound fitted this particular loco.

Agree completely, cabs/headcodes on my msyp came out easily. Headcode assembly is held together by a length of black sticky tape and I found it easiest to pull the clear headcode 3 sided boxes off this before adding headcodes. It reassembled ok. Need to be careful that the cab bulkheads seat into the groves inside the body correctly when putting it all back together.

"Should have taken more notice of information in this thread could have read more carefully what Nidge and others said Thought my syp 52 was finished but I spoke too soon windscreen pillars should have been light grey and not (blasted) maroon". I'm sure it's been said already, but - how light a grey should be used? Great pics posted earlier look almost white?

Hi Luke, Thanks very much for the information, just the job, i know which pipes need adding/taking off now. Couldn't find a reference to which pipe was which. Thanks for your help. Bill

Luke, below the right buffer (looking at the front) of your loco there is a pipe which matches a pipe below the left hand buffer (both with some yellow on). This wasn't fitted on my loco - I presumed that it was an air brake pipe which wouldn't be present on a loco with vacuum brakes only ie syp maroon period. Am I wrong about this pipe and does it have another purpose and should therefore be fitted? Info gratefully received... Bill

If you look down on the loco the curved edge of the 3 sided clear headcode box lets you see the whole character better... I'm still wavering between "scale height correct or looks a bit better smaller" ... apologies for slighly out of focus pic. but writing speech for daughter's wedding tonight so mustn't be seen going back in loft to take another shot! Cheers, Bill

Ok, here's the test. I cut 4mm numbers/letters from Heljan sheet, stuck on top of scap rectangle of clear plastic, Used dab of plastic cement and smear of pva. That gave me 4 inserts. 2 of them disappeared from workbench, not even due to carpet monster but to "things that disappear into thin air for no reason" monster so had to make 2 more number sets and had to use different numbers from those left on sheet. The down train now leaves at an earlier time Mondays to Fridays... Body came off easily, cabs/headcode assemblies also came out ok. Did notice that there are clear plastic squares inside body under the cab windows that seem to clip body in place on chassis. My loco only had 2 of them left (but it reassembled ok). Pics show the headcodes fitted. They are pressed in but additionally secured by a fillet of clearfix round back. Think they do look a bit big, or rather surround is small (but this could be the rounded edges of the transparencies - from above you can see all the codes ok). The characters are the same as the Heljan 35 next to the 52 in one pic, they look a bit big on that one too (but they were much much easier to fit behind the removable front panel). In various pics I've seen of the full size locos characters take up nearly all the height of the panel, but often not wound level with each other so top or bottom sometimes hidden. Like Gwiwer's locos, there is a bit of light leakage round the codes as well. So I'm not completely sure, loco looks much better with headcodes fitted, so I'll live with them for a while and see if they need changing. I see from the the pics that one front hose has fallen off and I've bent a lamp iron. Otherwise loco is running very well indeed, especially slow running.

Headcode progress so far. Having absorbed all the advice so far, I took the plunge. Well. I've taken the body off, screws fine. Cab moulding came out easily (only taken one out so far) and the headcode transparency came out ok as well. I cut 4 rectangular pieces from thin clear plastic sheet to fit behind each headcode transparency. I've used characters from Heljan sheets and made up 2 reporting numbers in 2 parts of 2 characters each. These are 4mm high, so to scale, but I had to cut each character individually to squeeze them into the required width, so it's going to be a bit tight. I stuck each character down on the clear plastic backing with pva which seems to have worked so far. Tomorrow, hopefully, when glue is totally dry, they will fit into place... Good job I've got my new varifocals.

All the above postings on head code size have been very useful. Having looked at loads of pics of locos in the headcode era, it seems to me that 1 headcode characters nearly fill the height of the headcode window 2 there is a small gap above/below each character unless codes haven't been wound properly. Enterprisingwesterns pic above of full size headcodes seems to show this very well. I have 3 sets of headcode characters from Heljan locos, all 4mm tall. I'm now thinking that those fitted to Hymek model actually look slightly (but only slightly) too tall. But if they are the scale height..... H'mm Anyway, I know the body comes off ok, just got to try and shift the cab interiors next.

If the standard headcode was 12" high then due to the accuracy of the Dapol model, the correct 4mm would be best? But there's not much in it though. What puzzled me originally was if all headcodes had the same style of lettering, ie were they the same across all regions, even after tthe blinds might have been replaced? Bill

Yup, you're quite right there!!!!! Oh, those decimal points..........

Thanks, Geoff. Looked at some hymek photos and the headcodes look like they take up nearly all the height of the headcode window so the 4mm height seems right for them. Same applies to western photos, I think, so I'll give 4mm a try and see how it looks. Measured the headcode "windows" on a number of my oo locos including the western and hymek and they are all 45mm deep - so that's consistent.

Repying to my own previous post, I've now found p100 on this thread where Horsetan suggested Precision labels 3.6mm codes. The Heljan hymek characters are 4mm tall so would be a bit big.

Had my 52 hauling rake of maroon mk1s round loft, looks just the part. Now need to get on with adding the detail bits. I also dug out my Heljan hymek to have a diesel hydraulic session which prompted the following thought. Got some spare head codes for the hymek which look better than the Dapol ones. Many pages ago on this thread there were discussions about the correct head codes. Been through that but I can't find whether the class 35 ones would have been the same as the 52s (being on the same region). So could someone confirm if they are ok or not or point me in the right direction. 47s etc. seem to have had a different typestyle, don't know why.

Hi Colin, Impressive paintwork on your Kirk 2Bil - can I ask what paint you used? Are they Gibson knobs on the cab handrails? Have some to use on a steam loco upgrade. Very interesting thread,thanks. Bill

Had a rather similar problem with a dealer I won't name, with an order for another product that has also been in short supply. Ordered early last year, the dealer left a phone message recently to say the item had arrived. When I phoned back, they'd sold out but more were expected. Then the item had sold out and they wern't getting any more. So they could change my order to another livery that would be delivered to them "soon". As it happened, that version really had sold out, but they wern't going to say that. Then they e-mailed to say that they now had some of the original type I'd ordered. When I phoned up the next day to confirm this, I was told with aggressive rudeness that they didn't have any after all. A manager finally confirmed that the e-mail was correct and they had the original type of item I'd ordered and it would be sent to me. It wasn't. I phoned again, yes, it would be sent. Several days later, it was. Due to problems with the courier, I finally received the (badly packed) item a week later. Hoorah. The point being, like the problems listed above in this thread, I could have bought one from another dealer (when they were still available earlier in this saga) if I wasn't being strung along. There's even more to this story but you get the picture. Good for Kernow in actually proving that they have what they advertise! I know where to go next time.

Something I don't think I've seen commented on is the very good slow running of this model. I left mine moving as slowly as I could while working on another part of the layout. Over half an hour later it had travelled 4 ft 2 inches. That's on dc.

Had a running problem with my newly acquired Western Legionaire and pm'd Dapol Dave for some advice as to whether I could fix it myself. Immediately received a very helpful reply from Dave, who suggested sending loco to DCC supplies. The lady I spoke to at DCC was very efficient, helpful, friendly and polite. DCC supplies are excellent in e-mailing at each stage of the repair process and the loco was returned to me very well packed by a reputable courier (Parcel force). The loco now runs superbly. Had it running light round loft for a while to run in and after their repair it just purrs round. Wonderful service from DCC supplies, and from Dapol Dave himself. It's refreshing in this day and age to get such second to none service! Top marks to Dapol and DCC. Cheers, Bill