Captain Kernow

2 minutes ago, paulbb said:

I am duly titilated😃

And the rest of us are duly informed of that fact.

I got taken up the Brocken as a treat by family who live in Germany, a few years ago, one mild March day.

The weather was mild and mostly sunny in Drei Annen Hohne at the bottom of the mountain. We got off the train at the top in deep snow, low cloud and mist and a bitingly cold wind!

But the ride, that was just sublime!

Excellent show!

Great to catch up with Messrs Gunstone, Warren and Hopper and also Corbs and Mr Bungus Fogeyman.

CTMK also enjoyed seeing the layouts!

I think it was the Bristol exhibition in the Victoria Rooms in 1969. I still have the exhibition guide and use it to keep my sheets of transfers in...!

Now recycled.

1 hour ago, Bucoops said:

 

I don't think the intention to continue production of SE Finecast kits has been in doubt?

Sorry, my misunderstanding then.

19 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

I believe that the majority, if not all, of the casting equipment from SEF was acquired by Squires when they took over the range, together with the moulds. They could therefore produce their own SEF castings , as well as use the equipment for the white metal parts in the Stevenson Carriages range that they had bought previously.

I believe I saw on the SE Finecast website that Squires have said that they intend to continue production? - http://www.sefinecast.co.uk/Ordering.htm

1 hour ago, Steamport Southport said:

If I was after 42XX, 52XX and 72XXs then I wouldn't start there....

 

Far better kits on the market.

 

http://www.pdkmodels.co.uk/Loco Kits 4.htm

 

 

http://www.pdkmodels.co.uk/PDK 48. 72xx RRP.html

 

 

Obviously a different matter if you've already got them or find them cheap.

 

 

Jason

Another good example of combining materials for the best outcome.

1 hour ago, spamcan61 said:

Branchlines have been having problems with email it seems, some info in this thread:-

 

 

I successfully ordered something from Branchlines the other day, by ringing the number, leaving a message and Brian rang me back an hour or so later. 

22 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

That's both of us crossed off a certain member's xmas card list.... 🤣

2manytincans, I think his name is..? 🤔😁😉

Of course, to be crossed off must mean that you were on the list to begin with...

11 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

Finecast make the Taff Vale U1, which can make the Taff Vale N, O, O1 and O2 without much bother.  Whitemetal allows us to get into niche models a lot easier than RTR. 

Don't forget the TVR rebuilt 'A' class, still available from Brian at Branchlines (was Nu-Cast Partners).

13 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

I  think we've honestly seen the last Western model for Bachmann, where the 94xx model was completed

Do you not think that Bachmann might be tempted to produce the 54XX and 74XX as well?

On 19/03/2024 at 16:13, RapidoCorbs said:

V17s being V16s fitted with screw couplings for working in France/Belgium. Although the couplings are not modelled, the van is painted as a V17 - converted back to V16 or X6 (later Y4) post-war.

Going Continental now, are we?!

7 hours ago, fezza said:

My only other loco with a coreless motor is my Rapido J70 which was disappointing when slow running on conventional DC

Oddly enough, my J70 ran fairly well, although I didn't realise it was a coreless motor when I owned it.

What sealed it's fate, though, was that the back-to-backs were set at 15mm, not 14.5mm and it wouldn't go through the OO-SF part of my layout. It ended up in a parcel of other items being sent to Hattons...

14 hours ago, PMP said:

In my experience contemporary coreless motors and good contemporary DC controllers rarely have compatibility problems. When the controller is a very basic model like the Hornby trainset types or old like H&M duettes, or feedback types poor running can occur. 
I use a Gaugemaster W controller and get excellent running with both coreless and regular/can motors. The Gaugemaster HH for example specifically mentions that it’s not to be used with coreless IIRC.

I must have been very unlucky, Paul!

But in my experience, not every manufacturer, when asked on this forum whether the loco has a coreless or cored motor, is able to answer the question...

As for the Gaugemaster HH, that (together with my AMR slow-speed hand-held controller) has been a saving grace in terms of one or two of my locos with cored motors, which run noticeable better with it. These days, I have at least a feedback and non-feedback controller handy for any exhibition or home running session.

1 hour ago, fezza said:

It makes me a bit more comfortable with buying locos with coreless motors though.

I had a bad experience with the running on my Rapido Hunslet 0-6-0ST and in the end, it went back to the retailer and I declined to take a chance on another one.

Yet now, having seen a friend's example running very sweetly on a normal Gaugemaster DC panel-mounted controller, I am wondering if I should give it another go.

But probably not unless I can be 100% sure of picking up a really good runner.

6 hours ago, fezza said:

Compared to my ancient but sweet running Mainline J72, the J70 doesn't seem to represent 40 years of progress.

Couldn't agree more, my suspicion is that these modern coreless motors are somehow designed with DCC in mind, rather than us dinosaurs who so inconveniently insist on sticking with DC...

Interesting cloud formation over Brent this evening:

On 18/03/2024 at 13:05, woodenhead said:

I don't think it's alchemy but I think the decision to go DCC is whether it will add or detract from your enjoyment of what you model.  If you've been DC all your life and you're not feeling constrained by it in what you want to achieve with a model then there is no impetus to change.

 

I did it because I'd had enough of my pitiful attempts at a control panel, a pathetic reason really given I could happily wire up the layout with lots of sections (especially in the fiddlyard to stack trains), I could do the point motors with polarity switching, I even wired the railway so I could use two controllers anywhere on the layout, but I could not make a control panel beyond a black box with lots of holes drilled in it to save my life.  So when I went back to a terminus layout I thought I'd give DCC a go and bought some cheap chips from Rails.  Now I don't need a control panel as I have a piece of paper and an NCE Powercab to control all my locos and points.  I also gave sound a try as I really wanted a class 25 warbling away in my station.

 

But my impetus for DCC was my fear of the control panel

There are so many 'horror stories' about folk not being able to make DCC work as they want it to, various functions not working etc., that I am permanently put off, I'm afraid!