tetsudofan

.....maybe a photoshop expert could do a relivery of an Allegra into Harz livery just to see what it looks like to help you decide Keith

Nice review Paul. Wonder if the LGB version due out next year will look as good as the Bemo version. Already saving my pennies.... Keith

....is there a prize for spot the difference? Keith

Great pictures, fantastic layout.....but I was expecting to see some 4-CEPs and 2-EPBs buzzing around with maybe the Golden Arrow sweeping through . Keith

There are is a picture of a maroon Bulleid coach that was transferred to the Eastern & Scottish regions in 1965/6 in "The Southern Way" No.15 - these Bulleids were intended as replacement for Mk.1 stock selected for conversion as part of the new electric/trailer units for the Bournemouth electrification. No pictures,though, of any blue & grey Bulleids...... The maroon coach in the picture has a Sc prefixed number......maybe limited edition for ModelZone/Signal Box to do..... Keith

Replacement E79962 Whiskers arrived today - works just as well as E79963 - Happy Bunny Defective Whiskers will be on it's way back to Kent Garden Rail tomorrow. Keith

Received E79962 and E79963 yesterday. E79963 trundles round the test track quite well but E79962 is, by comparison a very bad runner - judders along very, very, very slowly, has some light bleed into the front passenger compartment and suffers from flickering headlights. Replacement for E79962 already on it's way to me thanks to Andy at Kent Garden Rail. Keith

HobbyShop at Faversham told me yesterday that he had just paid the invoices from Heljan so can't be long now..... Keith

Departmental #54 was sighted at Nuernberg Winkelhof today: on the German Railway Society stand at the Tonbridge MRC show Keith

Just read the Kernow MRC weekly newsletter and they say they are expecting a delivery from Heljan "any day now" including some more baby Deltics and the WMD Railcars........ Keith

......but wonder if Howes will fit an appropriate size speaker so that it fits in the receptacle provided by Dapol without having to source another speaker and mess about soldering those tiny leads........ Keith

Know it may sound stupid but have you got the pins properly aligned? - say this because yesterday I fitted a 21pin decoder to a Hornby Rivarossi GySEV Cl. 5047 railcar and it did not work......changed it for another decoder and it still did not work. Took the decoder off and moved it slightly in one direction, plugged it in and it worked....... Keith

.....with all the environmental considerations taken into account there won't be much of a view from the trains - just like on some of the Shinkansen lines in Japan..... Keith

Yes please, sound versions for me please Keith

My sympathies at the moment lie with the retailers - I was surprised to find out from my retailer the number of unsold VEPs he has and, when you bear in mind the amount of shop capital tied up in these units, I think it must be worrying for him. Having returned my two VEPs and obtained refunds, based on what I've experienced and what others have experienced it is patently obvious that the 4-VEPs are not fit for purpose. Hornby should, in my opinion, come clean, admit they have a non-runner and arrange a recall of all the models and start again from scratch to show what they can do - as exemplified by the Gresley suburbans, especially those in LNER livery, which are just fantastic. Keith

Steve, Good to hear that you've got things moving. Look forward to hearing how things go........ Am off to Faversham tomorrow morning.....Harvey says he has some boxes for me!! Keith

.....spoke with Rail Exclusive a couple of weeks ago (about the Cl.57) and was told that the Cl.33 models are still being worked on won't be ready until maybe end of the first quarter 2012 - was told that Rail Exclusive want to get the models as accurate as possible..... More time to save up the pocket money!! Keith

.....think I caught a glimpse of one on the Kent & East Sussex yesterday afternoon but not time enough to take a pic as busy with mince pie and glass of sherry ........ Keith

.....mine just been delivered by Royal Mail. Hope for the future that Model Rail will do some of the Sentinels that were working on the harbour and sleeper works at Lowestoft - where I first saw them!! Keith

Couple of weeks ago I got my dcc-fitted VEPs and have been attempting to run-in the motor coaches. They seem ok at speed but both motor coaches growled (and worse so going in reverse) and shuddered at low speed. I mentioned the "growling" problem to my retailer who, the following day, was meeting the Hornby Rep. My retailer reports that the Rep said he knows nothing about any other VEPs with noisy running issues. He obviously has not read this thread. Last night I assembled both rakes of VEPs for the first time and whilst the sets operated ok in the forward direction (apart from the growling at low speed) problems arose going reverse with the units shuddering as soon as they hit the curves. At low speed one of the units stalled. When the blue VEP started derailing when being pushed I decided that that was enough. Both units are going back for refund. Soon after this disappointment I located my Cl.395 Hitachi set (which had not been run since purchase) and plonked it on the track. It ran perfectly, was smooth, was quiet and did not rerail (even at quite high speed). Decoders were then installed in both ends of the Cl.395 and it operated perfectly. Why can't the VEPs run like the Cl.395?........ Such a shame...... Keith

Last week I collected my dcc on board VEPs from the HobbyShop at Faversham and, based on the comments in this thread, prior to collection asked Harvey to test run both motor coaches. This he did and advised that the blue version was ok but the NSE version did rattle a bit. Yesterday I started to test run the NSE version on my oval test track (which uses Roco R4 curves) but did not find it to be unduly noisy (and certainly not as noisy as the Bachmann dcc on board Class N steamie collected at the same time!!). As mentioned in an earlier thread the motor coach is certainly jerky upon start-up but once going it appears quite smooth. Plan is to give the motor coach a run-in every day for the next few days. If no problems arise then I might pluck up the courage to connect the other coaches and see how that goes....... Keith

Castle Cement livery for me please . Thanks Keith