silverlink

Hi all, It's been quite a long time since I posted anything about my layout which has been caused through the building of another 'O' gauge layout at my club (Scarborough & District Railway Modellers) I just wanted to let you know that I will be at the BRM show at Doncaster over w/e of 8/9th February with 'Falcon Road' so if any of you are visiting please come and say hello! my stand number is 31. PS the above loco has now been weathered! Thanks Ian

Having read the threads on here about the A3 and all the faults it seems to be suffering with I'm not very impressed with the quality of the model. Having purchased other 'O' gauge Heljan products I have to say the A3 is not alone, I have some of their Class'B' tankers all of which have suffered with bits dropping off!. Nearly all the buffers have come off and they will not fit back on and tomorrow I'm having to travel up to Northumberland to pick up my Heljan Deltic and Class 20 from a friend who's kindly replaced broken gears in both locos for me the. The Deltiic had only done a very small mileage (running in) This exercise has cost me close on £100!!! I have to say well done to Hattons for getting involved with such a huge undertaking and I'm sure behind closed doors they'll be pulling their hair out (if they have any left) over all these problems. Heljan really do need to sort out their Quality control. Thanks silverlink

Interestingly a friend of mine in the trade has been offered the Hattons/Heljan A3's at trade prices by Hattons. I suspect there may be quite a few shops that have been offered the same and it won't be long before we see them offered for sale.

Thanks Hilux, I was only looking at the photos on the post of NSP, on that photo you can't make out that there's any beading there. Thanks for your photo of the back of the tender which is as it should be, flat as apposed to curved like a streamlined version. The beading looks to me slightly smaller than that shown on the real thing. silverlink

Looking at the photo it looks as though the tender is a Streamline corridor type whereas it should be a normal corridor type (as per ex A3) Thanks silverlink

Hi all, With reference sound in these new locos, if they are anything like other ready to run 'O' gauge steam locos as Simon has said they should run with a Zimo M645 decoder. I have fitted some of my locos with the Digitrains Paul Chetter sound versions. I have also got some with Loksound XL fitted (Golden Age A2's) which run ok however, I did fit a Loksound XL version 4 in my Loveless A4 which was simply appalling!!! I spent ages trying to get it to run smoothly but to no avail and yes I did try all the recommended modifications. In the end I removed it and replaced it with a Digitrains Zimo M699 'O' gauge version which is approximately the same size as the Loksound XL. The result, a beautifully smooth running loco, straight out of the box! Based on this when I got my 55H Britannia I also fitted that with a Zimo M699 from Digitrains and like the A4 a great sound and smooth running engine. I have no connection with either Zimo or Digitrains but would highly recommend fitting either the M645 or better still the 'O' gauge M699 version which whilst costing more would probably be the better option for one of these new locos. Should anyone want any further help please send me a private message and I'll do my best to help. All my locos will be at Peterborough in December on Durham Street (North Eastern Loco shed) where you are welcome to come and have a chat. Thanks Ian

Hi Adam, I have a couple of 55H models and have to say they are superb, John Riley who owns 55H is very approachable and will give you good advice on the models. He does a range of 9F's depending on which region of BR you are modelling and can arrange if you so wish to have sound fitted. This is undertaken by Modelyard in Leeds which is where I had mine done, they fit the ESU Loksound L decoder in the loco. I also have one of the latest 7P Britannia's that John is selling which like the 9F is stunning, I fitted sound in this one myself which was pretty straightforward. Attached is photo of my 9F (36A Doncaster) Cheers Ian

Hi Norton, You're quite right, I've done a quick check of the Hatton's website and it seems on there they have correct tenders with correct locos. I suspect somewhere along the way someone's put together a wrong advert which has ended up in the Guild 'Gazette. Thanks for input Ian

Hi all and in particular Hatton's Dave, I've just come across Hatton's advert in my O gauge Guild 'Gazette' and noticed the list of A4's that will be available. Could I point out a couple of errors I've found. HA-A4-001 2509 'SILVER LINK' IN LNER SILVER HA-A4-007 60012 'COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA IN BR GREEN EARLY CREST Both locos should be fitted with STREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDERS and NOT UNSTREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDERS. Whilst in silver 2509 did have a change of its tender (5590) it was for one off its sister engine 2510 QUICKSILVER with the same type (5589) . 60012 ran its whole life with the same tender (5646) HA-A4-008 60009 UNIION OF SOUTH AFRICA This loco ran from 14/5/1948 to 16/7/1963 with a STREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDER (5591) ex SILVER KING and from 6/11/63 to 1/6/66 it ran with a UNSTREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDER which would be correct however, if like me you model late 50'searly 60's it would be incorrect. It seems the only loco available with STREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDER is the preserved 'BITTERN' It would be hoped that Hatton's will release a range of STREAMLINED CORRIDOR TENDERS in the various colours they ran in thus allowing the correct mix of loco/tender for the name/number we require. Sorry about my two-penneth Dave Best wishes Ian

Very much looking forward to our visit with 'Falcon Road' please come and say hello!

Hi, I have just fitted two new Zimmo MX699 decoders in two different locos and whilst the first one ('O' gauge Britannia) works really well the second one (Loveless 'O' gauge A4) runs really badly jerking up the track at all speeds. Before fitting the chip I ran the loco in Analogue mode on my rolling road where it performed faultlessly. Am I right that it may need matching up to the motor or could it be back emf that needs altering. Hope someone on RMweb has an answer. Thanks Ian

Very comprehensive Dave, This will certainly help those amongst us who like to fit our own decoders, well done. Thanks Ian

One thing I would like to ask Dave is please can we have instructions included with these (and the A4) models. All to often models I've purchased have no details on how to get inside them when wanting to fit decoders etc. I have a couple of Golden Age A2's a Finescale Brass 9F, V2 & J50 and a Loveless A4 non of which have any instructions with them. Very stressful when the old screwdriver gets to work. Ian

I understand that provision has been made for decoders to be fitted (I think in the tender) I have quite a few 'O' gauge locos that I have fitted with Zimo 'OO' sound decoders which I purchased from Digitrains with Paul Chetter sounds and they all run well unlike the Loksound XL 'O' gauge one I have fitted in an A4!!! Ian

Has anyone had trouble with railway security staff whilst on a station taking photos or video? looking on Youtube I've noticed a few people having problems whilst filming on station platforms with security personnel. I well remember when I was spotting back in the sixties I would spend the whole day on York station with camera in hand and have not one spot of trouble. Recently I was on Newcastle station with my eight year old grand daughter waiting for our train so decided to video the train departure board and the train we were catching when I was approached by a railway person and asked not to film. What was all that for! Ian

Hi all, As I was the one who started this thread I thought you might be interested in what I ended up using for my roof tiles. I found a company that did 350grms dark grey card that I them put through my printer and put an 8mm x5m graph onto, this is then cut in strips of two one of which I cut through. They are then stuck to the roof using UHU glue to which the next strip is then stuck over up to the cut line. This is one of my buildings which has had the above method used on Cheers Ian

Ballast that I have used on my layout which looks good when finished. Cheers Ian

Hi, The guy you need to contact is Martin Wood his email is martin.s.wood@gmail.com Very helpful chap. There is also someone on ebay who does loads of different shades which are very much the same as Martin's they're located in Greece and give very good service. This is one of the papers on ebay at the moment, just go to his shop to see others. Ebay 391906825001 Hope this helps. Cheers Ian

Was at Telford yesterday for Guildex 0 gauge show where I met Hattons Dave on their stand. They had pre-production models of both A3 and A4 on show and I was well impressed by them. Had a really good chat with Dave who was very helpful and full of enthusiasm for the models and when asked about availability I was quoted early 2019, of course all this is providing Heljan get their fingers out! Cheers Ian

Hi Derek, You're a star!!! Thanks for your kind comments, with Pickering been only our second show we are still learning so although we had a couple of gremlins we soon sorted them out. I think biggest problem we were having was letting the operator at the other end of the layout know what locos were waiting for him. The layout is 24 foot long so as we didn't want to shout at each other all day we had to meet in the middle to swap locos!!! Anyhow, yesterday I went to Guildex at Telford and on the way I called in at a specialist walkie-talkie place and purchased a pair of radios with earpieces which are brilliant so we now should be able to make ourselves heard. Over and out! Cheers Ian

Sorry to hear about your wife Jeff, I hope she's well again soon. Ian

Hi Jeff, No I didn't build any of the locos, far to complicated for me! I'll post a thread on here about the locos I've got with descriptions of what they are. With reference my Lotus garage I've put cars that were about in 1961/2 as this is the era I'm modelling. The one car that is slightly out of era is the Elan 26R but as I own an Elan I just had to have one. I keep looking for other period cars I could add like the Lotus 16 and 19 but unfortunately as much as I'd like a Lotus Cortina Mk1 its a bit to new. Cheers Ian Ps anyone going to Telford this weekend?

As promised here are a few more photos. Thanks Ian

Its been a long time since I posted any photos of my layout, I've been busy trying to get it ready for showing and although I've done a couple of local shows for my club I still have work to do. Here are a few shots from our Pickering show last w/e. DELTIC D9007 WAITS FOR RIGHT AWAY AS A LOTUS OWNER I HAD TO DO A LOTUS GARAGE ONE OF THE TRAVERSERS More photos to follow Cheers Ian

Hi, This is a question for 'Hattons Dave' , What are the possibilities of the A4 and A3 been released without names and numbers applied thus allowing them to be detailed by the purchaser. I'm sure more locos would sell if available this way. Perhaps been allowed to purchase different loco/tender combinations also would increase sales. Thanks Ian