railroadbill

Hope your recovery going ok, stay safe! Christmas greetings to you and everyone else on here. cheers, Bill

Great fun. Very sharp edges though, mind your fingers! Freedom Tower/One World Trade center is 12 cm to top of antenna, Chrysler Building and Empire State about 10 cm. Made these after we went to New York several years ago. They take up very little room on the shelf. I wanted to see the Chrysler building, which is a tremendous piece of art deco architecture. We went in the lobby which is open to the public, impressive decorations, but you can't now go up it as a tourist. We did go up the Empire State building though for the classic views. The One World trade centre is now only the 7th tallest building in the world...

I came across a video of this set last year. Also different, the video shows it working well.

The Sept 1964 Meccano magazine that I've still got has a "raceways and model cars" supplement. It lists the following "raceways on the market". Wrenn Formula 152 (1/52nd scale), as metr0land said, Minic Roadways, (oo ish) , Faller Motor Sport (1/87th), a slot racing system, not the later scenic accessory type, Scale Raceway Models (SRM) 1/40th scale, (not much bigger scale than corgi, etc. so you could use your diecast vehicles as background), Airfix (1/32nd), Victory Industries (VIP) 1/32nd but with a metal track for current pickup, Model Motor Racing which supplied parts and of course Scalextric. Obviously had become very popular (rather like increased car ownership in the 60s taking over from train usage). The more popular one system became, the better chance you could take your car and race it on your mates track. Scalextric did well to have its following today.

Found a couple of these in the box, similar brush arrangement to the Battlespace one earlier in thread, but at the back of the motor. 3 pole. Probably bigger though, 22 x 28 mm. Drive shaft is 2.35mm. Says "Johnson Hong Kong" on back.

Found another couple of Revell 1:1200 scale ships. Realised I hadn't completed them so found the boxes and now added the bofors guns, seaplane etc. Firstly, King George V. King George V. The ill fated Prince of Wales. Prince of Wales. Churchill travelled across the Atlantic in December 1941 on the Prince of Wales to meet Roosevelt. The weather was exceptionally bad even for that time of year and Churchill wrote that being on the battleship was like being in prison, but with a good chance of drowning. The advantage of this size is that 1:1200 was the ship recognition model scale, like 1:72 for aircraft, so there's a bit of history to that. Also, they don't take up much room... ( as a battleship is only 17cm long). I noticed from the stickers on the boxes that they came from a model shop in the town where I was working 25 years ago so good job I've now finished them!

Keep on recovering, look forward to seeing more excellent modelling as and when! Take it easy, best wishes Bill

My one (72004) is still running well. As a model railway engine it has plenty of grunt. Got it to pull 16 Mk1s, so more than enough pulling power for my layout. I missed out on the Clans first time round, so happy to get one now. Green does look a bit light, but within acceptable limits and the lining colours look ok, similar to the Modelmaster transfer lining I've used on various models. Livery much better than say A2/2 and A2/3 where the lining is black and maroon rather than orange (and the green really is horrible). They would be worth a repaint, relining or heavy weathering, but the Clan will get by I think. I have this feeling I should go and run it again..... ps Great pictures, Rob.

@LimboBrit 3700 Jumbo then, but not a pacific... would be green, though.

Sounds likely. What the effective life of these (seems a sealed unit) is compared to the old Hornby and Lima ringfield ones remains to be seen. I'm guessing that the railroad deltic power bogie must have the same dimensions as the old under scale Lima one. Just thinking it might fit under an Electrotren MZ diesel I've got (that's an obscure model, but has an awful power unit, but the dimensions probably the same. The Lima version of the MZ (Ho) has a bogie the same size as the underscale (oo) Deltic). Lot of swapping around here....

These are a good price, I did think of repowering a Lima 47, and this may well fit a Lima 40, however both those locos actually run well with the Lima motor. The bo bo one seems to be common to 121, 73 and perhaps the railroad HST that came out not so long ago.

I've just got a couple of 66 motor bogies, also from Lendons of Cardiff, with class 37 frames. The motor bogie clips out of the 66 frame and clips straight into the 37 frame. My plan is to fit it into a vintage but detailed long ago Hornby 37, replacing the ringfield motor unit which of course has incorrect class 47 frames. I suspect all the co co Railroad power bogies are actually the same. The next project will be to fit another 66 power unit with 37 frame to a GBL Deltic body, as the 37 and Deltic bogies are similar. Also got 37 trailing bogie frames from Lendons which were nice and cheap. (They also have bo bo power bogies, I got a 121 framed one for a Lima dmu). Good point able just making a plasticard arch to mount the bogie, I was thinking about getting a railroad 37 chassis frame, but not actually necessary to do that.

Ok. Bismark. Revell 1:1200th scale kit from rather a few years ago. I liked that scale having once made some Eaglewall (?) kits, think that was the name.

Agree about the free running Trix Mk1 coaches, I had some WR ones but sold them as they really didn't look right running with any 4mm scale coaches. Or indeed in a train on their own, being pulled by an oo loco. Ho stock is fine because it only runs in Ho session trains... Most free-running item of stock I've got recently is the Kernow LSWR road van. Last week end's virtual show had a piece on the Keen systems dcc uncoupler which looked worth a go, did seem to need some space in a tender to fit . Interesting point was that the tension lock coupling bar needs to be the same height as that on the vehicle it's coupling to. There were 2 Hornby wagons shown, one with the earlier wide coupling, the other with the narrow one. The problem was that the couplings were at different heights. Close enough for the hooks to engage, (the strength of the tension lock on uneven track I guess) but the remote control coupling needed the same bar height to disengage the hook properly. Quite possible that more recent stock has the same coupling height, perhaps.

Excellent video of yours on motor/gearbox combinations on the virtual show yesterday, Tony. Very informative, also to see locos with the different set ups actually running. A question that arises, what different gear ratios for say pacifics, heavy freights and small locos did you use to get the excellent running you showed?

The Ben Jones interview was very interesting, about Heljan developments. His layout had some good features, particularly the multi levels, which has got me seriously thinking about adding another level to my loft layout, so glad I watched that. Also there are many threads on RMweb on all manner of railways across the world, so there is an interest...

The horror! The horror!

When Matchbox first made plastic kits, the moulding quality was good, think that was what they advertised, and the parts were detailed and fitted well together. Perhaps because Matchbox had a long experience of diecast production. Remember making a couple of vintage car kits (Bugatti and Aston Martin?) that were excellent. Best Matchbox kit ever, the Flower class Corvette! Current Airfix seems very well engineered, lots of detail, fits together well, quality decals. That Vampire looked good. Oh dear... Remember seeing one at an air display (probably Biggin Hill),with my father, must have been 1960s, where the aircraft flew fast down the runway, then just pulled up and climbed very fast vertically with afterburners on. Tremendous noise, thrust must have been considerably greater than the aircraft weight.

Interesting site, also with its link to the new build one progress details. The colour pictures show really filthy locos, so perhaps overall matt black would be the most authentic livery.....

Thanks, I have got an old Hornby hst but only have 5 coaches, so maybe I could dig it out and look for a couple more coaches.

Just a thought, but how many coaches could a Hornby HST power car reasonably be expected to pull (or push?)

I haven't got the masking tape and black paint out yet, (but it's pretty cold to go spraying things in the garage)

Just had a look at the 307166 pic of 72007, (side view from above) and the running boards look black to me. 70004? H'mm, could be same colour as boiler.

This does seem to be a problem in collecting Trix now, in that the wheel/track standards changed considerably over the years. Pre war Hornby Dublo stock would run with 1960s manufactured stock with no problem so anything you bought then or buy now will run together because the wheel profile/track didn't change but Trix were stuck with a very coarse scale track for too long really. From what has been posted above the 66xx Britannia and Std 5 were a move ahead but making them available with different types of wheel must have been confusing. The Trix coaches I bought are ok on code 100 but only after I widened the back to back setting. I think, but not sure, that the final Liliput pacifics would be ok on Peco code 100 track but haven't seen one running.

I take it the Ruston shunter wouldn't run properly on code 75 track due to the flange depth for one thing, but would it run on code 100 track? (The ones with "scale" wheels, not the coarse scale ones?). The 2 Trix coaches that I bought that I started the thread about were running very badly over Peco code 100 points. I thought it was the flanges but on looking closely at the wheels the flanges were about the same as Fleischmann stock that ran ok. It turned out that the back to back measurement was very tight, under 14mm. By moving the wheels out as far as I could (got to 14.07 mm in the end) the coaches then ran ok without lurching badly over the points. So won't have to replace the wheel sets.