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Why? It's an interesting engineering challenge. I have tried the original Hornby tender drive 9F (Fleischmann motor, 6 driven wheels, will pull the house down but looks ugly) and the Chinese-built Railroad version with loco drive (nicer to look at, quite effective, but I doubt its longevity). I haven't tried the re-tooled Hornby version because I'm more interested in running quality than fragile detail. If I could build my own chassis (I have built an 0-6-0, maybe I could do a 2-10-0! Or maybe not) I'd try to do the Jack Newton version. Interesting to hear about your motorising the early push-along chassis; do you have any photos of that? I have wondered whether the Jack Newton model developed any problems over time because of driving two axles with two motors through worm gears so I'd be fascinated to hear from its current owner, if the loco still exists - and I hope it does.

Yes, page 28 is the one, but nobody there has got the shunting lights (red and white above the buffer beam) working on DC. I was trying to find out whether anybody had managed it in the years since page 28 was written. Because I am never going to go DCC, I am willing to re-wire mine. I may have to start experimenting with it.

Hello everyone, Jack Newton was a prolific and talented OO modeller in the 1950s & 60s. One of his best known creations was a 9F powered by two X04 motors which he described in the September 1963 MRN. He reported that it performed very well and he appears not to have had problems with the motors locking up despite both using worm gears. Does anybody know what happened to this model? It was a magnificent machine and I imagine it still exists in somebody's collection, but I have not found any references to it online. I am interested in doing something similar.

Love that layout! Lots of operating potential and not much space left for non-railway scenery. Just the way I like it. My taste is old-fashioned, I want a model railway, not a model landscape. And as for 'trains hanging out of the ass end of platforms' - yup, my 'Minories' has that too. But so does the real railway on many lines round here, so that's fine by me.

I wish I'd thought of that before laying my track. It does look so much better.

Hi everyone, I've just acquired a Dapol 08 and and am getting to know it, whilst I replace window glass that has fallen into the cab, try to avoid breaking off any more fine detail, and so on. Two questions if I may: the centre axle has some vertical movement (good) but appears to be unsprung; is this normal? And does anyone know a way to get the shunting lights working on DC? I am happy to rewire the loco, and to lose the top white lights if I have to. Thanks!

This is very practical advice John, thank you for posting. Regarding your Safety Minor - the reason you never thought of sending a sample for testing may be because no Safety Minor has asbestos-like material in it! (No resistance mat or slider control.)

I ditched my old (low-line) Powermaster likewise. Then I found I missed it so much I had to buy another, secondhand obviously! The replacement is in better condition and the 2.5A variable transformer is very useful for big old motors especially O-gauge. I know of no other 2.5A variable transformer controller. (And before anybody chips in! The low-line Powermaster definitely has no asbestos, and the H&M variable transformer is not a variac or auto-transformer design; the variable voltage is taken from the secondary winding.)

Hi Kevin, I don't disagree with you. In fact I'm close to agreeing fully. I was thinking we might be able to cease going round in circles if someone has a way to test a sample.

Interesting advice, thank you Dave B. I have the newer Powermaster (low line case, half-wave switch instead of variwave slider) and can confirm it does not contain anything that looks like asbestos. Like you, I have removed asbestos-like material and selenium rectifiers from old H&M controllers. Peter Stiles, up-thread, mentioned that it would be good to have modern electronics inside a H&M case. That is what I have done, updating a Clipper, an Executive and a Commander with Roger Amos' circuit designs. (The Powermaster I left as it was. I keep it because the 2.5 amp supply is useful for old O-gauge motors.) I would be pleased if someone with the necessary facilities could test the asbestos-like material on H&M resistance mats to confirm whether it is or isn't asbestos, because trade terms were looser in those days and sometimes material which was not asbestos was described as such because 'asbestos' was more meaningful - before the danger was known. If it really is asbestos then I too am surprised that there is a business in re-winding the mats.

Thanks Stewart, I appreciate the offer. I have ordered a new motor from EKM as Halvarras suggested but if no luck there I will PM you. It is useful to know that these motors can be re-magged - maybe!

Thank you Halvarras, that's very helpful. Despite Googling, I hadn't found that EKM page. I shall have to measure the motor carefully as you say, because I can see that the length over flywheels of the motor in the Bachmann 46 is different to the 25, so the motor that EKM list as 'Various' can't fit both! Anyway I now have a way forward, thank you.

Hello everyone, I recently bought an old Bachmann centre-motor class 46, for spares, in order to re-motor an old Mainline 45 of which I'm irrationally fond. (The centre-motor chassis from the original 46 fits the Mainline 45 body so this is easy.) However the Bachmann has turned out to lack pulling power. It moves itself at modest speed but can barely shift 4 Bachmann Mk1s on the level. I'm familiar with this mechanism, having a few Bachmann 25s which are very similar, so I stripped the 46 down. There was no sign of the usual dried white grease, or dust/fluff/hair in the chassis; in fact it all turned very freely. Once disconnected from the drive shafts the motor spun happily, but the slightest load (any touch on a flywheel) brought the speed right down or stalled it. It's behaving as if the magnet in the motor is weak. This surprises me because my 25s are all strong performers, and they're elderly too. Is this a known problem with older Bachmanns?

Back to the question of what's suited to a 'BR Blue' layout, if 'BR Blue' is taken to mean the presence of blue/grey Mk 1 coaches, those were certainly around in quantity by 1967/68 and there are photos and videos around of blue/grey coaches being hauled by steam. This only happened in the last year or two of steam so it's restricted to those steam loco classes which survived to the end; principally Black 5, standard 5s, 8Fs (on ECS) or 9Fs (occasional summer turns).

You're welcome... here is a track plan exported from AnyRail. This shows the station and the throat. At the right-hand end of the throat, the tracks (from top to bottom) are the up and down main, the branch, then three goods sidings. I tried a fiddle yard beyond here but now I have running lines leading to a reverse loop. Yes, the track is all Streamline code 100, electrofrog points (except the crossing which is code 75), 3' radius on the passenger lines and 2' radius in the goods yard.