Ruston

It's not a silencer. It's a spark arrestor.

Thanks. Exactly which chassis is it designed to fit? There are two versions of the Bachmann Class 03 chassis and the rear body fixing holes are not in the same place on them. It seems to have been redesigned to get the Next 18 decoder PCB in.

Do you have any photos of the model?

It runs and it's got sound and Stay Alive in it now. Unfortunately, I ordered the sound gear on Thursday and it arrived this morning. Unfortunately because Digitrains have launched a proper 88DS sound project. This has the 165DS project in it, which was the nearest thing available but I will get it reblown with the proper one. Vortex spark arrestor fitted. The lamps will be changed to flameproof ones as soon as the order from RT Models arrives but other than that it's ready to go.

Mine's ready for service. Chassis block chopped, sound and Stay Alive fitted and, of course, a repaint. It's just a shame that I ordered the sound gear on Thursday, before the 88DS project was available. It's got what was the nearest thing in the 16DS project but I'll get it reblown with the 88DS project in the New Year. I'm sure this will be the first of many.

Sound.

Stay Alive test fit into cab. The glazing was removed for the repaint but will be reinstalled before the roof goes back on. The start of the vortex spark arrestor. Things such as this would be better made as 3D prints as all the nut and bolt detail can be added but I can't drive a computer, so this is made from a length of brass rod and a turned piece of aluminium. I'll use a piece of square section styrene for the part where sparks are collected and emptied from. Another small detail that I want to have a go at is to make the buffer heads appear like spark proof ones. I'm thinking some fine weave material glued on and soaked in glue.

The brake standard is glued in to the cab and it could be that the excess was not dry when the cab was fitted. Other than that there isn't any glue used to fix the cab in place at all. There are lugs on the engine casing that lock into the cab, preventing the cab from lifting, even if it isn't accidentally glued. The engine casing is glued to the running plate and located by 3 lugs either side and a large one that locks under at the front. You need to squeeze and ease the engine casing until you hear the glue cracking and giving way. Take it steady and carefully. It will come apart.

The livery is based on that on various Imperial Chemical Industries diesels. The chassis mods have improved the look somewhat but it's a lot of trouble to go to. It could have been avoided if Hornby had put more thought into it. I know they have to be able to fit those awful couplings but surely a plastic pocket that can be unscrewed, like those on Bachmann wagons, could have been used instead? Some people have suggested that it's to add weight but it's now only 7 grammes lighter than when it came out of the box. Seven grammes won't make much difference in pulling power and just how much does anyone want to hang behind one of these things anyway? I have made some ICI logos for it but no specific division or location lettering. It will run on Charlie's Yard as something that came in for scrap but was found to be servicable and was put to use. Ultimately, I see it on a chemical works micro layout.

Lais KungFu 871007or 872007 are the types that I use in my locomotives. The 871007 has the capacitors configured in a square arrangement, whereas the 872007 has them laid next to each other. Either will fit in the cab of the 88DS and remain below window level.

After a quick splash of paint.

I noticed that with the working chassis fitted and screwed into the body, the axle centres didn't appear to match the axlebox centres. I put the body/chassis on track and buffered it up to to a Bachmann 16-ton mineral. The buffer centres on the 88DS were over 1mm higher than on the wagon, so it's not simply that the axle and axlebox centres don't line up, it's that the ride height is wrong. And then I noticed these lumps of foam tape. Scratching them off, particularly the one under the cab, reveals a raised piece of casting that, if it were not for the tape, would fit nicely into the matching recess on the underside of the cab. I suspect this is another bodge to cater for those vile appendages known as tension lock couplings, in order to get them to line up with other stock. At least a bit of foam tape can be scratched off and they haven't (hopefully as we have yet to see the actual models in our hands) cut a lump out of the buffer beam weight on the models that will be fitted with them. With these lumps of foam scratched off, the ride height is reduced to near enough to the buffer height of the 16-ton mineral. I still have to attend to the parts of buffer beam that have been omitted due to the hateful and horrible appendages. Plugs for these gaps are provided with the model but there will be nowhere to plug them in once the chassis block has been altered. I've lost the little bag containing them and the couplings, so will make plasticard replacements and if I do find the bag of couplings I shall set fire to it.

It will depend on what decoder and what SA you use. So far, it's looking like the cab is the only option for a SA. There's very little space under the engine casing.

I haven't. I don't use Loksound, I use Zimo. I would use a Loksound if they did an 88DS sound project but no one does an 88DS project for any decoder type. I know that Accurascale are doing a sound-fitted 88DS in 7mm, but they'll be using a decoder that won't possibly fit in the 4mm Hornby loco, even without a SA, and even if they offer it without buying their model. I know that recordings were made for a Zimo project because I was there when they were made but they have never been made into a finished project. The nearest that can be got is the 165DS project, from Digitrains. It's the same type of engine, but with two more cylinders, is a mechanical transmission and uses an air start like the 88DS does. I successfully voided the warranty on this one. Before hacking the chassis blocks on Hornby Pecketts and Hattons Barclays I usually strip everything down to the bare block, including the gears. I took the cover plate off the chassis block and decided not to mess with it. With the cover back in place, everything must be sealed with tape and black tac to prevent the ingress of swarf and filings. I really wouldn't want to try and clean anything out of that little lot!

Thanks for that. I managed to rebuild the old Craftsman kit that I got, second hand, from ebay, and fit a Bachmann Southern Class C chassis under it. It's not 100% right but it will do. Now if a RTR Belpaire version, or a Class 28, were to be produced then I'd have one of those.

The areas blocked out in red can be cut away. Looking at the shape of the cover plate for the gears, it appears that some material between the wheelsets could also be removed if it wasn't for the keep plate would still be left bridging the gap. As this plate holds the pickups I think that it's too much trouble. I can live with the block between the wheelsets. The chassis block and motor leave no space to get a Stay Alive under engine casing, let alone a speaker. It definitely needs a SA but whether or not sound will be fitted is undecided. They will have to go in the cab in any case.

I don't know about him having a laugh but what's the point in such a rating and comparison anyway? It's like comparing apples with oranges. It doesn't matter how good or bad it is in comparison with a Rapido 15xx because a Rapido 15xx isn't a Ruston 88DS. If you want a Ruston 88DS, you want a Ruston 88DS. You're not going to buy a Rapido 15xx instead simply because self-appointed expert says that it's a better model or gives better value for money. I don't understand why so many people seem to be in the thrall of this guy.

Try Judith Edge kits. They also do the RH plates for the cab. Theirs are nickel silver, which looks like the aluminium of the prototype, unlike the LRS ones, which are brass.

I will do. I've been waiting for the Hornby Ruston 88DS for a long time so I was excited to receive a parcel containing this: I was so excited in fact that I thought of making an unboxing video but then I remembered that I'm not a moron, so I didn't bother. Now that it's here I must say that I am rather disappointed at the chassis. It appears as a plate frame that runs the length of the loco, as it would on a steam loco or a rod-driven diesel. Hornby have done it like that to give somewhere to fit the awful tension lock couplers but it detracts from the look of the thing. There is nothing in those overhanging areas of any importance, so they can be sawed, filed or milled away if, like me, you use 3-link couplings. I haven't run it yet but it does work. I put a 9v battery to the wheels to test it. This particular example, the Reading signal works shunter, is unusual in not having the buffer beam ballast weights. The only ones that I know of in UK industry to not have those weights worked in the petro-chemical industry. The front part of the engine casing was longer and the front air intake was smaller than normal and I think that the frames were actually longer to accommodate this. I have no interest in modelling the BR Reading signal works example, so this loco will become a petro-chemical works shunter. Those lamp brackets will be the first things to go, followed by the replacement of the oval buffers with round ones. The exhaust pipe will receive a vortex spark arrestor and a flameproof battery box will be added to the running plate. I'm not going to attempt to lengthen the frames but may alter the air intake.

It wouldn't work like that in reality. If all you need is something such as a 14-inch 0-4-0 it would make no sense to buy a much larger 17-inch engine, even if the initial cost is less. The 17-inch 0-6-0 is going to cost a lot more in fuel, repairs and maintenance and so would be a false economy. Shunting costs would have been taken seriously. They were a major reason that diesels gained a foothold in shunting long before they did on the main line. When a steam engine stands idle but at the ready it burns fuel and needs a crew to tend to it. A diesel burns no fuel and doesn't need anyone to tend it because it is shut down and becomes ready at the push of a button.

It's been 10 months since anything happened with this layout. It was stored after a massive changearound in my shed that saw the O gauge layout removed and sold, followed quickly by the construction of Blacker Lane. It was whilst turning the shed upside down to look for a squeezy PVA dropper thing, yesterday, that I had cause to disturb HS. I had covered it in plastic bags in case any glue from the baseboard construction of BL dripped on it, so after removing a load of junk and the plastic bags I took a look at the layout. The only damage is that the guttering has come off the crusher building and part of the drainpipe is missing in action. I was thinking about how the reason work stopped was the side-tipping wagons and how when loaded only one could be propelled up the gradient. All sorts of things have been suggested as alternatives to real stone but the real solution is to not have any of that at all. The idea to resurrect HS is that the working loader will be abandoned. It was a PITA and even when it worked there was inevitable spillage, wagons had to be uncoupled in the FY and their contents tipped and they then be put back on the rails. The tippers were supposed to carry freshly quarried stone through the low tunnel to the plant and as this was the only traffic through the tunnel it was something that had to happen to justify the cut down locos. That will change, too. BR wagons will run through the tunnel to be loaded with crushed stone for onward transport. The ironstone tipplers can just fit through the tunnel but the hoppers will have to have to find use as COND vehicles, on Charlie Strong Metals. The loads will be card rectangles on supports, with only a thin topping of stone, which will mean the wagons are light enough for 3 to be pulled up the gradient easily. With the working loader abandoned, both tracks under it will be for the loading of finely crushed products, which requires Presflos and Covhops. The stone going into the plant is assumed to come in from a different quarry via conveyor belt. I could model part of the conveyor belt to highlight this. No real loading of the Covhops is required, obviously and with the operator no longer needing to sit at the front of the layout to observe the loading of the wagons, the layout could be operated from the other side, which would make it better for exhibition use. That's the plan but when it gets put into action is anyone's guess.

I feel the same. The Victory is a great model and I have two of them, for two different layouts, but the sheer size of it makes it difficult to justify for my micro layouts. It's not the sort of thing that you would find employed by something such as a small engineering firm, with just a couple of sidings to shunt a handful of wagons. On the other hand, something small, such as an 0-4-0ST is very easy to justify and I suppose that's why I have 7 of Hattons' Barclays and 14 of Hornby's W4 Pecketts.

I didn't get as much done, today, as I would have liked. I made some ballast and then put some down in the shed area. I then spent hours looking for that little squeezy dropper thing to apply PVA with. I just about turned the shed upside down looking for it. I cleared loads of junk and filled the recycling bin. I eventually found it somewhere that I had never been looking and where it had no place being - in among a tray of paints, on my workbench. That's going to take days to set now that the temperature in the shed is getting into the minus zero range overnight.

Brush 400HP 0-6-0DE? Manchester Ship Canal Hudswell 0-6-0DE? Go on, you know you want to...

Aye, Cap'n. Full details can be found in my workshop thread, in the Std. Gauge Industrial section.