Porcy Mane

Put an order in to Fox for some paint and transfers late Monday night. Tuesday 9:00 am. Email from Fox and DHL "awaiting collection". Wednesday 8:30 am. Email from DHL. "Your package has been delayed to next working day". Wednesday 9:00 am. Email from Fox. "Your order has shipped". Wednesday 14:00 am. Email from DHL. "We have your Parcel". Thursday 8:00 am. Email from DHL. "We're on our way. Delivery today between 12:33 and 13:33". Thursday 12:38 pm. Email from DHL. "Your parcel is delivered". ... and so it was. Not bad all things considered. Apparently, due to the 24 hour delay, I could claim a 10% compensation fee redeemable against any future packages I send.

I haven't seen an ad on RMweb for a few days. I think they stopped appearing about the time the wish list poll banner appeared? Are we having a Christmas grace period? Pity the wish-list poll making it's annual appearance, hasn't stopped wish list threads thinly veiled as general topics popping up elsewhere on RMweb.

Or maybe how much pressure is put on him by his boss; and then how much pressure his boss is put under by his line manager ad infinitum until it reaches the end of the line were the computer gets the blame.

I ordered a single tin of Revel enamel from Frome Model Centre via ebay (free postage) last Monday evening along with an ES1 from Rails of Sheffield. Rails did courier delivery, DPD 24 tracked for £4.00. ES1 turned up on Wednesday morning. I was surprised to find that the 14mm tinlet also arrived in the same DPD van.

Just playing safe. I don't like the non standard differences between the sound & non sound next 18 interface. Driving the logic outputs of the non sound decoder via the shared speaker connections onto a attached speaker may not be harmful but to me, it's bad practice. It's not Heljans problem but the problem of the different standard between the sound and non sound Next 18 connector. As it's an electric loco (in the prototype sense) for me, the fitting DCC sound is not a priority but by utilising the space that the speaker occupies to mount a Micro servo controlled via the decoder, I might just be able to get the pan to raise & lower.

Big hammer.

Should anyone be interested in what's under the bonnet(s) of Heljans ES1.

Heljans user manual is a bit vague on this. Looks like it was written early doors after EP's were examined. As a for instance; it talks about installation of a sugar cube speaker, but a speaker is fitted as standard. I'll probably be sticking a servo in it's place. Access to the screws is made easier by "popping off" the collector shoe beams. They are not glued and have substantial spigots that enter the axle boxes. Good thing about this design, is that the beams can be replaced the correct way round with the collector shoe to the front. The cable runs will then need correcting though. One of my 4 "cables" were damaged & distorted so I have to make a replacement anyway. Beware the two bits of painted brass that constitute the upper flange of the solebars/frame girders. They are sandwiched between body and chassis and located on spigots. No glue used (Hurrah!), so will probably fall off when upper body is removed from chassis. The bogie is pivoted approximately above the inner axle so un-prototypically can be moved out of the way giving improved access to the cross-heads. On DC, my example ran like a dog at low speed. Fitting of a Zimo MX18N transformed low speed performance. Probably not necessary but I disconnected the speaker as the non sound decoder can use the speaker connections for other purposes. I had to make a few CV adjustments to get the cab light operating. I also dimmed all lights to a more suitable level and programmed the lighting for soft start. The serious tools are coming out for the next bit of the strip down. P

Oh no it isn't. Here's a pic of the old analogue version. "Barney giving his salute." Explanation in the comments. https://flic.kr/p/24xjaAq P

If Digitrains are paying for their ad space, I bet hey'll be pretty hacked off by their ads... being replaced by ads dressed up as news reports... about Binance.

Reading a few posts before and a good few after, from this post: you should get chapter and verse on the various guises of the Cowlairs tender.

Look after yourselves up there. You're both forever in the thoughts of the N.E. contingent.

Should be. Hopefully getting picked up by the Sheffield Express. Barring that it's bus, bus, metro. After a bit more perusal of the photographs it looks like the bogies follow standard Heljan practice in that the whole side-frame sits on spigots. Electrical pick up looks more like Bachmanns DMU arrangement with elect transmission via 1mm extensions to the axles. I'll bring my hammers. We'll have it in bits in no time. 🙂 Must get back to painting the Q6. (and doing the ironing).

Handy phots . Thanks. At least the collector shoe support looks like it's a separate moulding so that shouldn't be too difficult to alter for the later shoe position. Looking at the photo, might it be be a split axle setup, on a 2mm axle, insulated by the final drive pinion? I'll not be getting one till next week, if they haven't sold out. Guess I'll have to be waiting till then to find out. Mr Seymores 12 mm conducting wheels may be the way to go. P

A & B end on this electric. Tampo printing should should have it marked on the solebar on the later liveried models. Lympdik for the later jobbies is at the B end. Oh dear... wheres the Zebedee spring?

No. Working appendix were very specific. No lamps if sandwiched between loco & train though. I bet some lamps fell off though, the way the DBT's bounced.

Cable connector. 26500/1 had five of these externally. Bolted busbar box for isolation and disconnect purposes.

Maybe they restored it to the pre-sandbox condition? (or just remounted the bogies the opposite way round to what they had been?). The frame for the lympdik has also been removed from the Shildon loco but the cable remains. At least that's what it was like the last time I looked.

Probably the same model that has been doing the rounds. (bent lamp bracket). I don't hold out much hope John. Apart from the buffers & bonnet handrails it looks like its one tooling fits all. Bow pen & Airbrush at the ready to correct the livery. I'm also hoping with the bogies, it will be possible to swap them end for end to get rid of the NEM socket thus correcting the shoes at the same time.

Depends which end you're talking about.😜 Argyle Street box was about 50 yds. behind the bricks. https://goo.gl/maps/rJBnmpFb6KjMfik17 Here's your cul-de-sac over the yard. Today: https://goo.gl/maps/xLSHPh84dBJ2gpjg7 Oh yes they were. May not be physically the same boards but add hoardings have been on that site since the coming of the rails. The one shown in your link is on the top off the shortest of the Quayside branch tunnels. See earlier in the thread. Ooooh! the Two Trees Union Street. Interesting. There was a few ad hoardings around that pub. Some of them quite mobile. Sunday afternoons in the Ark Royal (pub not carrier) could be entertaining. Spooky! I went to take some photo's of the Quay Yard just before the work began to fill the area to let the redevelopment of the quayside start in earnest. Twas bright and sunny. Afore I got back in the car the worst thunderstorm I've ever encountered began. Must be the area. Lightning was hitting the ground all around and when I got to Whitley Bay I stood in my mates garage with the doors open and watched lightning knock chimney pots off houses opposite. Somewhere I have the negs of the snaps I took that day.

Hardly me owld Duck. I should have been there this afternoon. You can walk down a set of steps across the top of the Quay Yard tunnel entrance. Thats about it. https://goo.gl/maps/DRf3dMDMjQ74GiUEA I doctored up a map a few years ago. See earlier in the thread Last time I saw the Traff Yard Layout it was at the N.E. & Borders EM group skills day at Stannington. That'll have been a good few years ago. Dunno if it's been exhibted since.

That'll have been about the time he was "keeping an eye on a suspect" rummaging about the 16 tonners opposite Lotts Road power station in the Edgar Wallace Mystery, "Urge to Kill".

Apparently a bit of a prick, off court.

50 056 Zoons Balanitis