peach james

I'm growning that one as an indication of it being a bad idea ! We demand track, even if singled, with a horrid Pacer as the passenger service, a single platform, with a bus shelter as the station ! Otherwise, the dozen residents of Gill Head will be irate at the governments inaction to care for their transportation needs. >36000 saved the line. And one dog...

HMCS Protecteur was an "asbestos free unit", but our gauge glass's were all in asbestos gaskets, and we had a fair supply of spiralwounds with Asbestos too... mind, the ship had all its pipework lagged in various non asbestos materials. Rumors have it that most of them are at least as bad for you as the Asbestos that it replaced- for example, I am well aware that glass fiber and rock wool are both not to be recommended in your lungs. One thing the whole asbestos thing does is it makes us look at process, and PPE for staff... Here in the heating plant (as I'm retired !), we have a small quantity of Asbestos- probably the largest amount of it as an insulator is on my model loco boiler, which I strongly suspect is insulated with it, however I haven't verified. We don't have any lagging marked as containing, but we're all cautious that it probably exists in the hidden corners. James

Got som'o that too lying around here. PS: 60/40 is available to us mere colonials- not sure if Lee's would ship to you, https://leeselectronic.com/en/category/2755-solders is one potential colonial supplier. If I was just looking for 63/37 or 60/40, I'd try ebay from HK... I bought a fair wack of low melting point solders ~10 years ago, and haven't done any kit building since. That being said, they ARE more likely to become hard to get because of their toxicity, and the limited market. James

A couple of comments from the peanut gallary: 1. No FY is fine- you didn't build KL, or KL2, and then run trains, your interests appear to be building the layouts, not operating them. They are different hobbies... 2. I am very much looking forward to Gill Head Viaduct. I'm not sure I'm nutters enough to build Trout Beck Viaduct the same way, but I probably _should_ :). At any rate, it wouldn't be this year bringing it into work to do, as I have the Garrett here to work on. (I'm awaiting valves/fittings, got the big injectors, they are things of beauty !). I also just ordered some DIY track parts for CPS II, in the form of 600' (200m) of 1 1/2" * 3/16 (35* 4mm, for Andy the Metric) steel. I'll be far better at MIG welding at the end of that project, as it will involve welding 160 m of weld at least ! (4 rail, 600 sleepers, 2 sides, 35mm/rail= 168m of welding). I'll have to cut it all to 10' sections before I bring it here to cut to 1' ties, then drill them all, and lay out the curve arc's here on the floor (because I have >30' to do so here on concrete...) and then start welding. It will mean less time on RMWeb when I am here, and more time puttering ! James

Hard part right now is that the oranges are out of season, I'd think. They are for me, Jan-Feb is the right time for making Orange Marmalade. Mine is award winning, and it's fairly easy to make. My Dr probably doesn't agree with my choice for breakfast, but well, I'm me !

Was there a shortage of timber, caused by someone in the North West? Or did the plaster supply dry up ? How about material for stone viaduct construction- Wills sheets just doubled in price on Ebay? (on a more serious note, I hope it is a temporary abandonment order, or a change in direction...not like you've done that before Andy ! ) James

Oh Mister Porter, neither did we know ! Fortunately, Doug took it in good nature, as he wasn't expecting to be in cement at all ! Some parts have been bought/arrived for the Garrett- a pair of Eccentric Engineer Intermediate Injectors (4 pint/min) are sitting on the desk here with me, and I have been doing just Grate as well...in that, I have a fire grate made up. The support for the grate has traveled to and from home, awaiting me to decide how to cut out the slot for dropping said grate, as I have a fair sized lathe but no mill at my disposal. So, I think I will end up turning out the 3" wide slot for the 1/3rd of a grate to fall through. The grate is about 81 sq inches (or a bit over 1/2 sq ft...), implying a coal burning capacity of about 25 lb/hr at the grate limit, or about the same as the water capacity of one of the injectors...and about 10 hp engine power...if the engine is ballasted enough. Yes, I must be barking mad...and the math seems to say that it should be possible at about 200 lbf and 8 mph... (30 tons at 0%, or 7.5 tons @ 2%...) Certainly it's going to outperform a 3.5" gauge tich ! James

So, moving on from the above, I've done some more work on the room. and The next part is there are 3 more doors for the cabinets to fit. I'm also going to string RGB LED lighting under the cabinets, which is going to happen "early" in the next stage. I have to pull the ceiling down, in order to expose where the gas line will go, so first I will put in the under cabinet lighting. Everything left in that area of the basement is on wheels, so it is easy enough to move it from one side to the other. Somehow in my calculations I ended up with an extra sheet of 1/4" ply. The cabinets are Ikea. James

Jeff, do you need/want as much as 100' vertical ? I lost my 1st attempt at a post, but it would seem to me that you probably only need about 10 cm below the bottom of the viaduct, on the 40 cm or so you have- unless it is going to extend off the front of the table. (google " arten dale viaduct images " and I think it will be the 3rd one, it's Alamy, so I can't repost it here...) Looking good ! (but trying to save SOME of the worlds plaster supply !) James

The ones we had on our club layout had cast in holes, which we bolted across. I'm unsure what glue in addition would have been, but there was scenery right up to the bases of them. James

Apparently not so, and I would suspect there are a range (ha!) of mountains which it is true for. We're claiming one near Jasper as the same - which would indicate that there is an area of about 200 km N/S that the altitude of the peak would determine if it is a triple peak or not. https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2013-10-07/maphead-mount-snow-dome-canada-ken-jennings And, to bring it back to Railroading, there is a song "Railroading on the Great Divide"

More than that, there is 7.x gauge set of drawings available. (& perhaps build instructions), via Live Steam - NOV/DEC 1992 to MARCH/APRIL 1994. There's a bit more info on the Chaski Home Shop Machinist site. (though they reference back to the NGSG, and say the date is Jan/Feb and May/Jun 88 http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=27137 James

Western Red Cedar. When I went in the barn to get wood for the forms, I started moving the 1x8's (25x200, in SI) around, and you could smell the cedar. They were cut in 2006 or so ! I didn't use them for making forms...several went next door to make planters, but the forms got made from 20x200 from Lowes (like B&Q). That, and salvaged 5/4 deck boards that weren't too rotten for two more uses- they are now in 400mm chunks to go into the woodstove... Anything that the kids wanted, they took before my heat recovery plan- so the 50x100 (2x4's) went to the kids bike park, as did some of the 5/4 deckboards. The forms were about 11' long by 8' high, with a fill level of about 6' actually used. (determined by the final height I needed, I wasn't 100% sure how far up the walls we were going till they were sitting on the footings)

Chair force ! I got nicked for the same sort of thing as a killick, and did it too as a PO2 once or twice...though at least by the time I made it to the C&PO's side, the pay on the Jr Ranks side was such that it was not quite as bad as it had been... (My Chief Eng here is a retired CPO2, CERA type...and I just had my krusty the klown look shorn off, but that's more due to COVID and reducing exposures than lack of financial ability...the hair can be as long as I want it to be, or my body will grow...(and the 2nd is "much shorter than when I was 19 !" )

D'oh, someone probably thinks I mean we actually sent the whole container...no, it was loaded onto skids, then sent over 2240 lb at a time. We kept the container (it was a refrigerated one) for foodstuffs. I had the CD of photos up on Flickr, but then of course, Flickr changed their policies (to 1000 items) and I deleted them...

When I was on HMCS Protecteur in 2002, we delivered a 20' container of beer to HMCS St John's for the trip home, via Mk 4 RAS. (and some DFO...no more Black Oil...it's all F76 now, had been since 1986...) Petro-Canada, that was us...and the corner beer store

It's my scheme with Long Marton- the backscene is being redone right now, before I get to the ceiling of the basement (which has to come down, see LM thread for why). The intent is to paint the plywood liner (it's 5.2mm ply, which I've chosen use to replace the original 1/2" shiplap), with blue above the layout edge, and green below it. The overhead will be in white or light blue. I think that I will end up with cloth coverings draping down from the overhead, and cabinets hidden by the cloth. I'm still thinking about how to do this, in that I need a bunch of the space for storage of stuff. The staging side has Ikea cabinets that are currently in my van, so they will be up in the near future. Photos will follow in the Long Marton thread. James

There are a couple of options- I think MSC make a lever frame without interlocking: https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/signals/sm2/ That one will give a fair feel of a signalbox, but does not include interlocking. If you _know_ what you want, or have a reasonable design (for example, a passing loop), then I would highly recommend https://modratec.com/index.php which is an interlocking system that works well. The missing part of it is the latching on the lever. James

Not racist at all when we're on the receiving end... We were strictly forbidden to drive in the UAE in both 2002 and 2008. One set of wise OS decided to rent jet-ski's instead... (I cant say too much more, I rented a sailboat...) In 2002, the trip across from Fujairah to Dubai...well, I am glad I was mostly not very aware of the trip, because the LEE we had driving was a bit sketchy ! That was after our Expiditer had gotten our passports stamped...and I heard that argument, about how we were "abandoned" in the UAE, and didn't have entry visas, and...oh...(I think it cost $200 UAE for us to enter...) James

I stole mine...from my sister ! When we were in Mold, she conned dad (^) into giving her "lion money" & "Paper Money" & a few pence, and then proclamed that she was going to the shop to buy the above Faller railcar !. (I'd have to assume it was 1.53 or suchlike) We moved to Canada in 1979, that photo is in the house my parents had from 80-82, so I would be 4 in the photo. Last I saw of the Faller, it is in a box in my sister's basement, and still works. Dad had a moderate amount of Tri-ang, and I was given a Lord of the Isles in probably 82-83 that I still have, ex my mum's dad. Dad's interests really is steam rather than rails, is another image from around the same time. He finished the roller before we came to Canada, and built the traction engine mostly when we were over here: (That's 1983, I think) He had a 5" gauge electric before we left the UK, along with a portable railway for it. I have seen photos/cini film of it, but have no memories of it. The first railway engine that he finished was a Hoffman J2 Hudson that was bought 50% finished in 1984, and he made runnable by 1985. It never had a tender, because the tender for any NA loco make them a challenge to operate. Generally, I do the tin mice sized things, and he builds steam, which I then wear out for him ! James

Current state of play: Yes, Long Marton has been taken into its sections, and is moving. I've got to do some work on the house, so the railway has to move.

I'm using 10k Ohm on single axles and get reliable detection with both BDL 168's and BD4/DS 64's. That works out at about 1.5mA unless my math skills have gone wonky. I have a couple which will set the wrong way on startup occasionally- the trick I find is to have a brake van with the resistor that I can pick up, plop on the track section that is marked as "hot", then remove, and that clears them. I know which sections are likely to do that, and they usually result in trains moving then stopping after a couple of feet on first start up. James

That's how many sonarbouys the Russians dropped in the GIUK gap "A man could walk from Greenland, to Iceland, to England, without getting his feet wet"

Daft q, not owning a 602, have you tried https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/KB730/dt400-series-throttles-make-f2-latching-or-non-lat/ on both F2 and on another F# ? Not sure that it will work, but worth a try... James

Equally, would it be ethical for you to have knowledge, keep said knowledge to yourself, knowing that said knowledge is from a small pool, and then complain about a product after it is to market? I can understand why KR Models might NOT have wanted to go to Michael Edge about the Fell- it cost Michael time (and probably money) to get the expertise he has, and he is marketing a competing product...so said knowledge has value to Michael. But it doesn't appear as though you have a model business making the Tyne Dock hoppers... I have more of a business offering than you do for them, I have made them in L scale. I couldn't find a price point that worked, so they were only ever my own... Exit of BTM by Peach James, on Flickr (on the right hand side, the corner of one is visible)- and yes, I am aware that it is far more "inspired by" than a scale model ! I find it rich that modelers would not be willing to share information to any manufacturer in order to get a better model built for all. The way that I see it is that these hoppers are likely only ever going to be made by one RTR manufacturer, and that getting the basics as right as possible is the core to this. If you have info, and hold it back because you are planning a kit, I can understand. Or perhaps you are under contract to HornBachRapiAccuoL, and have already provided the info- but if that's the case, you should still be providing it to all comers, in my view. It's a matter of getting as accurate as is practical models out. Otherwise, what I hear is talk - noise = 0. If you are a manufacturer, then I understand the reluctance to provide "free" information to your competition. I wouldn't consider it fair game for KR Models to have taken a Bradwell model & scanned it as the start of their work. But asking for info seems a reasonable step- there are those here who seem to take the damn them for this, or damn them for that view... I may be interested in a set, after all I have a L gauge set already, and they make an impressive goods train for club running. There have been sets made up from HO hoppers which are similar, I am aware of at least 2 sets in the Toronto area.