Graham T

Thank you Jonathan, and to you.

Thanks very much Bill, same to you 🙂 And indeed to everyone else who’s taken part in this thread over the last year.

Must admit that I don’t know enough about the prototype to comment one way or the other. But you’ve reminded me that I need to sort out the chuff rates on my locos.

I also prefer Zimo decoders and Youchoos.

It's all in the timing Colin!

Thanks Neal. Looks good but a bit rich for my blood at that price right now unfortunately.

From the (very limited) research that I've done, it seems that the Hornby Railroad Hall is quite a good bet, with some extra detailing added (and I think I read that the detailing pack from the full-price Hall is available as a spare item too). So I'm rather tempted by one of those, except that they seem to be about as common as hen's teeth...

Not quite the same I know, but I have a Bachmann Dukedog which is a rather nice little model, that I don't run nearly often enough.

Thanks chaps, I'll avoid the modified Hall.

Thanks for that Bill, very helpful! Just as well Dapol don't make one too 🙂

At risk of opening an enormous can of worms, what’s the best RTR Hall on the market?

As the Christmas visit has been to Hereford, it seemed churlish not to make a quick sortie to the Severn Valley Railway yesterday. Despite the rain it was very busy, and we only just managed to get a seat, but good fun was had by all nevertheless. After a lunch stop at Highley, we returned to Kidderminster behind Hagley Hall - my younger daughter especially enjoyed this, so I suspect that CR Mk III may well see that loco on the roster.

Have no fear WB, I'll give you plenty of time to catch up. I suspect it will be a while before I'm in a position to start anyway!

You go away for five minutes and see what happens to your thread! 🙃

Thanks Clive. I was in town today spending a small fortune in Waterstones with my girls. Managed to sneak across the road to HMC but they were closed. Probably just as well!

There's not much happening at Chuffnell Regis at the moment, as I'm in the UK with my daughters visiting family. I might have to try to visit the Hereford Model Centre while I'm here though 🙂 And a huge thank you to Phil @Harlequin for the superb plan he has produced for CR Mk III. You can see it in all its glory here. Now I just have to (a) get a job, and (b) build the new layout! Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Christmas.

I think they would probably look best unpainted Andy. Bah humbug! ;-)

Another vote here for the Power Cab, Zimo decoders, and Youchoos (have also had good experiences with Digitrains).

The first side is now on. Some lessons learned here, so hopefully the compartment side will come out looking a bit better. I used UHU Max Repair Express to fix the top edge and the upper half of each end to the body shell, and then worked along the lower edge using thin CA. I started at the right hand end of the bottom end, applying the glue to a short section at a time, and then holding it in place with tweezers (the side had to held down while the glue grabbed, as of course the sides curve inwards towards the solebar). As I got further along I had a brainwave, and used an inch-long length of coffee stirrer to hold the bottom edge down while it glued; this worked better as it spread the pressure along the edge. You can see here that the bottom right corner of the side isn't properly fixed, so I will have to revisit that with a drop more CA; but I think I'll let everything else set first. There will also be yet more touching up with black paint needed around the end to hide the join (!) and also where I've managed to dislodge paint from the solebar with the cocktail stick I was using to apply the glue. This pic also cruelly shows what a botch I made of the corridor connection, and that I haven't managed to get the buffers straight either. And that coupling... Doesn't look too bad from the side though? Etched brass grab handles have all been fitted, but I still have to fix the door handles. And finally the other end. That's enough for today I think.

Lovely modelling.

I've actually got one of those etches Andy, but didn't think to use it. None of them are quite the right shape anyway (not that the one I made is either, to be fair).

A tiny bit of progress this morning. Lamp irons were fitted to the ends of the coach; one of course pinged off into another dimension, and there are no spares on the fret, so I had to bodge one from some scrap brass. Still need to bend up the handrails, which I'm not looking forward to. I've also touched up the parts of the underframe where the paint was either missed from the first coat, or has worn off. I think I'll give it a spray of matt varnish to see if that will protect it - must remember to mask off the interior first. And finally I made a start on the coach sides. I've added the ventilators above the doors, using Glue and Glaze to fix them. I've also got some etched grab handles for the doors; not sure whether to use Glue and Glaze or a tiny dab of CA to fit them. They're almost the same size as the printed ones, but I think I will go over them with a black permanent pen anyway, in the hope that it might pass for a shadow? You can see that I've blackened the left-most one here. Bearing in mind the age of the kit, I don't plan to use the included transfers (plus they need meths to fix them, which I don't have). So I've ordered a set from HMRS.

Best of luck Rob. I’ve been self-employed since leaving the RN in May 2020. First two years went well, this year has been tough, and next year looks pretty grim at the moment!

Lots of things I like about this layout John, one of them being the variety of coaches that you have.

The mojo is at a bit of a low ebb again, but I did manage to get some Hornby close-couplings fitted to the toplight coach today (after a lot of fiddling about and head scratching). Here you can see the teflon-like properties of the whitemetal castings and the aluminium section that the solebar is made of - they don't like paint. I've decided to abandon my idea of using magnets hidden in the corridor connectors. It worked reasonably well, but wasn't quite right. So I will try retro-fitting these couplings to my other coaches as well. Hopefully I haven't removed the NEM pockets from all of them.