Captain Kernow

Apologies, I  must be having a pedantic evening!!

I've just had a closer look at my pannier chassis and there are those bushes, so I must have done it!

But I am still confused. Surely 4/32" equates to 1/8", so how can you get 1/8" axles into holes that are smaller (ie. 3/32") than that?

Would the old Triang axle holes not have been something like 5/32"?

2 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Not true, I'm afraid - they were 3/32" dia., and you had to use special brass axle bushes to fit 1/8" Romford axles.

 

Hornby Dublo used 1/8" axles.

 

CJI.

Oh, that's interesting, my memory is playing tricks with me. I could have sworn that I just fitted Romford 1/8" axles when I fettled my old Hornby pannier (although that is nearly 50 years ago now...)

Perhaps not the point, I know, but those old Triang chassis have 1/8" axles, so it should be possible to replace the old Triang wheels with modern equivalents, enabling it to run on more modern track.

1 hour ago, davidbr said:

There are the makings here for a poster competition.  Winner buys the pasties?

Don't you mean 'winner eats the pasties?'

(and gets free cake!!)

Punters leaning on my layout (or touching any part of it without a specific and supervised invitation to do so), is an absolute no-no. This is one reason why I am always more comfortable with barriers in front of the layout.

3 hours ago, RobAllen said:

My local line and 1369 looks great! I popped down on Thursday to get a photo of 13268 at the head of the LMS coaches. but I won't pollute the thread with a non-GWR loco :)

How can something as lovely as that be considered pollution!!!

I recently converted my Hornby one to P4 and it doesn't derail. It looks to my eye like what it is meant to portray, and thus passes the Captain's Black 5 test.

I don't have any Parkside fish vans, so there is nothing to provide an adverse comparison!

On 18/04/2024 at 22:19, Roy Langridge said:

Language evolves, that is life. Always has, always will.  
 

Just don’t get stressed by it, it achieves nothing. 
 

Roy

20 hours ago, MikeParkin65 said:

For my sins I get to meet regularly with reasonably senior Civil Servants and I can confirm ‘reaching out’ is very regular in their sentences.  These are people in their 30s and 40s - I’m late 50s. As @Roy Langridge says, language evolves. Chill lol. 

What's the point of growing old disgracefully, if you can't occasionally complain about aspects of 'the modern world?'

Anyway, the expression 'chill' is another linguistic abomination. If I want to 'chill', I'll go outside without my coat on a freezing winters night, thank you very much, or have a walk-in freezer room installed!

Anyway, I blame British Telecom...

What is wrong with the (fairly) recent Hornby version of this vehicle, please?

There must be something wrong with it, given that Rapido have decided to do one themselves...

On 10/04/2024 at 13:49, Nick C said:

Do you glue those on? I tried using them  on mine and found it really difficult to get them to stay in place - this might of course be down to my ham-fistedness, but I ended up breaking or losing several...

 

Alternatively can anyone recommend any other insulating fishplates that might be easier to use for code 75 Bullhead? The Peco Bullhead ones are good for conducting joints, but they don't do an insulating version...

What I do, when I sometimes find the whole process too fiddly (or have forgotten to add the Exactoscale plastic fishplates) is to cut them in half (down the inside webbing) and simply epoxy each half to the rail webbing, either side of the rail break. Best to abrade the rail webbing first, if possible. I normally use a small amount of epoxy for this and it seems to work well.

On 08/04/2024 at 09:57, franciswilliamwebb said:

Accurascale panniers should be available on prescription 👍

Hmmm.

Let's hope they are the tonic we are anticipating...

So sorry to miss seeing this and other layouts at the Taunton 'do'.

And good luck with the Midlands event, too!

The Jeff Wayne version used to give me goose bumps when I first heard it.

I haven't listened to it for a while, perhaps it still does!

2 hours ago, Tim Dubya said:

Will there be plant milk...

Do they drink the stuff?

22 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Another film that's always a let down is War of the Worlds. None of Hollywood's efforts have done justice to the book, even the most recent TV effort on the Beeb was messed with so much it became nonsense. Why mess with perfection? Wells' book is a masterpiece why alter it? 

Has anyone seen the awful, awful Pendragon Pictures version of it? It was being produced about the same time as the Tom Cruise version and I had high hopes, but it was just awful.

Thanks both for the above advice. Is there any gauge of p/b wire that is most effective for spiral pick-ups, please?

I also wince at the modern language used in some 'historical' dramas, not least the use of the dreadful term 'train station'.

The use of inappropriate locos, rolling stock and even sometimes station settings makes me wonder what other 'historical' aspects of the show aren't correct.

CTMK and I recently watched 'Downton Abbey' on Netflix and the sight of a non-Eastern loco and stock always grates, especially if there is a goods brake van at the rear of the train...

However, she recently acquired a DVD copy of 'Housewife, 49', written by and starring the late Victoria Wood, in which the LMS scenes (shot at Keighley) seemed to have a rather more authentic feel about them.

I was going to add that you are only the second person I've ever found, who has installed individual bars on the windows at the rear of a GW cab.

The first was the brother of a good friend of mine, when we were all still at school in the 1970s, who made a lovely job of detailing up one of the then new Hornby 8750 panniers. A couple of years later I did the same with my pannier. I thought I'd done a half-decent job at the time, but upon extricating the loco from it's box the other day, I realised that the tops and bottom lines of the bars weren't as even as I'd thought. Still, it was nearly 50 years ago!

This is the loco posing on 'Bethesda Sidings' recently:

I subsequently realised that there were various other things about the Hornby pannier, that I could have corrected (and would if I did the exercise again - unlikely in view of the superior quality of more recent RTR panniers). The ride height of the loco is one of the main problems, it being too high.

12 hours ago, MAP66 said:

It would be nice to meet up at the SWAG event and put a face to a name.

I agree, but unfortunately I can't go (again) this year, due to medical reasons. Maybe at a show in the SW later in the year?

On 31/03/2024 at 12:03, MAP66 said:

As promised, I have put together a few images showing in a bit more detail the process I used to fit the rear window grills. It’s nothing fancy or complex but it worked for me…

 

Here, I have drilled all the top holes first. Some are a little askew but I can open them up a bit with a small broach to get them back inline. A length of 0.2mm brass rod is cut to size and a 90 bend made at one end. The bent end is inserted loose into the first hole and allowed to lay over its corresponding lower hole. I am only drilling the lower holes one at a time to maintain parallel alignment with the previous brass rod.

 

The next step is to mark on the brass rod using paint the point where the second bend needs to be.

 

Now, remove the rod and line up the white mark in the jaws of a pair of pliers as shown above  and form the second bend.

 

With the second bend made, the rod is offered back to the window for a test fit. Its a good fit but the lower hole needs a slight opening up to the right to bring the rod over to the right. The right edge of the window aperture acts as a vertical guide for the first rod and then each subsequent rod is lined up to the previous one.

The gap between each rod was determined by the marks left in the plastic after the original window grills were removed. when your happy with the fit, glue the rod in place. For this I used  Deluxe materials rocket card glue applied with a small brush to feed the glue into the holes while the rod is in place. The glue will also help seal the hole and for any enlarged holes feed in some liquid filler. That's it, just repeat another eight times.

I've done two or three GW locos like that in my time, using 5 amp fuse wire, individually glued into tiny holes, just like you've done.

I rather like the idea of the 0.2mm brass wire, though.

These days, however, I am happy with the way Bachmann et al have moulded their rear cab window bars and I doubt that I could better them in terms of regularity and evenness. Sometimes 'less is more'.

What I won't endorse, however, is the etched window bars that you can get (?former Mainly Trains etch?). They may be nice and slender, but the lack of '3D' just doesn't convince.

In terms of the smokebox door on the old Airfix body, I couldn't agree with you more and on the few 14XXs that I've upgraded (for others), I've used a turned brass smokebox door that I think I obtained from Roxey. I then added hinges etc. from plasticard.

I was just wondering if anyone has a particular method of curling p/b (or other) wire into a 'spring' shape for pick ups, please?

I always seem to end up with untidy spirals and never seem to know where to stop the curling, so that the straight end is in the right place to bear on the flange of the wheel.

Thanks.

Never found it to be a problem.