mossdp

I have seen that green on armatures before. I did wonder if it was some sort of glue put on when manufactured to keep the outer parts of the coils in place. It had not effect on performance where I have seen it.

This motor is form a Mainline or Replica class 45. Sometimes on these models, the gears split and you will hear a clicking or banging sound. These motors are not the smoothest of runners even when in good order. The later generations of these models made by Bachmann have a motor centrally mounted in the body driving the wheels through drive shafts to each end. These are much smoother but you could only use the mechanism from one of them if you have room in the body for the motor. There have also been have been two distinct generations of these centrally driven models that are both different.

Generally more refined planking and finer grained wood was Ratio or Kings Cross Precision, while coarser grained wood and rather chunky detailing was CCW. Buffer beams on a right angled metal plate with two screw holes to fit them under the floor is a Ratio feature. Can't see what your van has. There was also an 00 Bakelite SR bogie van by Multimodels, which by the time it is painted could also look like a wooden one. I cannot recall whether the hole van was Bakelite or just the sides. The examples I have seen look quite good with no sign of warping. ERG did either a four wheel or bogie SR utility van or possibly both in card. It would have had to be scribed to produce the planked effect.

The motor is a Romford MkIV. This has an oil bath underneath the drive gear but sometimes this is removed. The wheels are Hamblings. They were brass with plastic centres although some had silver coloured rims - possibly nickel plated. The loco looks scratch built.

These are ERG wagons. Bodies moulded in clear plastic with distinctive X shape strengthening of the base.

A very informative and well illustrated guide. You really do need metal gears for a Tenshodo as the plastic ones do tend to split.

The dock shunter has metal axles. Tri-ang class 31/37/EM2 had plastic axles. You may find that the flange thickness tends to jam in Peco points whatever the back to backs.

If the loco is drawing current at very near the limit of what the controller will supply, the controller will heat up of a period of time - maybe several minutes until this trips the overload. This is very occurrence is common with these controllers. They are not suited to anything but locos that draw the lowest currents and pulling trains with coaches and wagons with little rolling resistance.

Thank you all for the pictures and responses. I think it was most likely the special train with 34037 as I think the coaches were probably umber and cream. Unless of course there were other instances of special workings with Met Cam Pullman coaches on the southern before preservation days.... With the name "Farnborough Flyer" as a clue, I was able to find two more images this time with 34037: https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/22882564592 https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/22260427502/

Yes I did think that it might well be a one-off special. Gives and excuse to run these Pullmans with a Southern engine

The exception was on Sundays during the strikes or certainly last Sunday when Reading trains did not call at Whitton much to my annoyance!

I happened to see some old railway photos belonging to a late model club member some time back - wish I knew what happened to them all! One of these was of either a rebuilt Merchant Navy or rebuilt West Country or Battle of Britain with a train of Mk1 Met Cam Pullmans presumably on the southern somewhere in the 1960s. I do not think the photo dated from the preservation era. The collection of photos were 50s or 60s black and white. I had not seen this before. Would it have likely to have been a one off or does anyone know if this was something that was more frequent? All other photos I have seen of southern Pullman trains had older Pullmans.

Sometimes the National Rail route planner gives a route that doubles back. For example at the weekend (SWR strike) Reading to Whitton showed change at Twickenham having passed through Whitton on the way to Twickenham and doubling back one station back to Whitton. If the rail planner shows that you must double back then this is presumably acceptable? It did not show that two tickets were needed. I quite frequently see journeys where doubling back one stop is shown as the suggested route. The planner also showed Reading to Whitton via the two Windsor stations as valid that did not involve doubling back. Would this normally be a permitted route in normal circumstances - it sometimes shows during engineering work instead of a replacement bus? On a separate point if using an Oyster card wholly within the Oyster zones, I presume you can double back as much as you like if that is the quickest way as long as you have touched in when you start and you end passing through the place where you touched in to begin with? Happens when travelling back to a station with more frequent or faster trains that do not call at the station you started from.

For the bowed wheel inserts, if you are unable to get the crank pins out, I would cut the plastic insert nearest the crank pin to remove it from the wheels, scrape round the inner rim of the wheels to see if you can make slightly extra space and then glue the insert back again clamping it hard in the middle with a bulldog clip or similar. These models nearly all seem to go like this. I am usually able to reuse the plastic axles after glueing baxck together.

The cast chassis is a Hornby Dublo or Wrenn R1. Wrenn used the same chassis for the N2 rather than the original Hornby Dublo one. I am not sure if the chassis was modified for this role or whether there was some sort of extension piece fitted to it as with at least one other Wrenn chassis. The brass one looks like a kit or scratch built one. I think the motor is a Zenith.

They final parameter H=1200 seems to relate to the screen height of the display device so can be changed to some extent so that the number of rows and therefore number of departures shown can be altered to fit the vertical space on a screen

Can you customise this nationalrail live departure boards? http://realtime.nationalrail.co.uk/ldbcis/departures.aspx?u=039B1CD1-14D4-4CB9-83B1-A84CC3AEDF83&crs=wat&H=1200 I know you can see any station my modifying the three letter station code towards the end of the link, but can you customise whether it shows only the final destination rather than all calling points, does not include times at each station, shows only a certain number of departures, or only those to a specific destination? I wonder if the hexadecimal in the link is options that can be customised and if so is there a key. I am aware of the simple live departure boards presented on the nationalrail website e.g. https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/ldbboard/dep/CHG and the many others put together by others e.g. https://live-departures.info/rail/departures/London-Euston/, but this nationalrail one in the link at the top is really clear and easy to read.

LMS maroon was the most common livery for Exley coaches but BR crimson and cream along with many other colours including SR green, LNER teak, GWR chocolate and cream, BR maroon (not the same shade on the models to LMS variety). various pre-grouping colour schemes were also made. Some liveries were more common than others.

You will probably find that these are small coil springs. Those for Hornby or Lima ringfield motors will probably be suitable depending on their diameter - if too long can be trimmed. Brushes likewise can be used from other makes. If a round block brush, that is slightly too big, it can be made to fit.

Were there are any more variable Transformer controllers other than the Safety Minor and Powermaster? I do not think there were any more than these two from H and M but were there some from other manufacturers that people know from seeing the specifications or from seeing the insides to know for sure. I think the vast majority of old controllers were variable resistance types.

The driving wheels need to be the correct way round as one side is insulated and the other is not. You can see the plastic insert between the wheel and the axle on the insulated side.

There is a thread on here or possibly elsewhere about slow running Bachmann Voyagers. Someone had investigated this in detail and found that the brush springs had lost their "springiness" and this caused excess current consumption. Once the brush covers were removed by gently levering them out and the springs stretched slightly then performance was restored. It may be that poor commutation is causing arcing and this is causing a build up of carbon in the commutator slots leading to excessive current consumption or that the brushes have stuck in their tubes against the armature. There are multiple reports of this sort of fault and it nearly always seems to be that a model has been in store for sometime. The lack of springiness may be the effect of the excessive current consumption rather than the cause as excess heat seems to cause springs to loose their springiness and possibly stuck brushes are the underlying cause. It is also important that the rest of the mechanism is also running freely and cleaned and lubricated.

On many older Hornby models with traction tyres, you can replace traction tyred wheels with those without traction tyres but also have a gear moulded on them. On diesels, this sort of wheel was often used on the trailing bogies so you need some additional spares of the wheels like that. If you remove the traction tyres, you will need to add quite a bit of extra weight to the model to restore adequate pulling power.

Older Hornby models had an incorrect buffer height. I think this was to allow the coupling hook to pass under the buffers without jamming against them on sharp curves that were followed immediately by a sharp incline. Some diesel models can have the height reduced a bit by removing a little from the top of the bogie supports either side. On some models, the under frame fuel tank or battery box detail has been made rather too deep to compensate for the increased height so it will be rather near the track following adjustment.

Nice to see there is an alternative to the Hornby Deveon Belle train packs: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LIMA-G-W-DEVON-BELLE-ELECTRIC-TRAIN-/322529380984?hash=item4b183fca78:g:6JEAAOSwCU1YypiF Not sure if it is quite as authentic though. Not as expensive though!