Andy1963

No, I shall modify them thanks, but the point is, you shouldn't have to.

I recently purchased a rake of three of the above from a certain retailer based in Sheffield. No complaints about the retailer, but these were sold as Hornby products, not the Railroad or Railroad plus range by the manufacturer and retailed at over £48. I knew before I purchased them they were old Lima models. I have one of the Lima GUV's and have always though it a decent model. On arrival of the Hornby version, I was shocked to find that it had the old 1970s style moulded huge D ring couplings. Shocked because my Lima version has NEM pockets. Lima had clearly modified the tool to remove the D ring and cut an NEM pocket into the tooling making for a reasonable coupling and the flexibility to fit whatever coupling I want. Why Hornby have used an unmodified bogie tool and reverted to the old style coupling, I have no idea, and I have no idea why they think it's acceptable to produce the model with the large D ring couplings. I wrote to Hornby customer services and got a reply saying they would pass my comments on to the relevant department, but I have heard nothing since. If this model had been sold as a Railroad range model, I might have expected it to have the large D ring couplings, but it wasn't and it's 2024. Of course I can and will modify the couplings, but in 2024 I shouldn't have to be cutting and shutting models that are sold under a premium brand name.

I've recently been trying to fit TTS sound decoders to my HST. I run 2 dummy power cars and the set is driven from the buffet vehicle via a Bachmann class 158 chassis. These are the old Hornby dummy power cars, not the detailed version, so there are no DCC sockets, but because I don't want to cut the plugs off the decoders, I have installed DCC sockets. I haven't connected the lights, as I am replacing those with bi-colour LEDs. I have power from the rail to the socket, but I am unable to programme the decoders. I tried putting the decoder in another loco and was able to programme them and get the sounds to work, but even after programming them, when put back into the dummy power car, they won't work. I am assuming it cannot be because there is no motor because they must work in the current HST dummy cars, but then that goes onto a board which m ight have some other wizardry to make it work. Does anyone know how I can make them work? Do I need to connect a motor or something else for the decoder to power?

www.asis3d.co.uk are now producing and selling the prototype HST cab ends in 4mm scale. https://asis3d.co.uk/product/class-252-prototype-hst-cab-ends/

I'm using 5mm thick flooring underlay tiles that are made of wood fibre, from Screwfix. I've used cork before and have never seen the benefit over going straight onto the plywood base boards. The stuff I'm using now is supposed to supress sound by 19dB. I'm laying this on top of 9mm ply boards and using the Peco 14mm pins to hold the track down. I am hoping the fibre board will take the pins well and they will be well supported when driven into the ply and less likely to bend.

Hi thank you for all the replies. My baseboards are 42 inches from the floor, it is a static layout in my garage but built to be moved if necessary (I've been caught out by this before). The former garage door is boarded up and I can go as high as i want to on this wall, and probably will as I plan to have photos of Dartmoor on this wall. Along the sides of the layout, I have gone for 15 inches (the tallest I could fit with cupboards on the wall) increasing to 18 inches for my the sides of my sea wall section. Its far from perfect, but I think with the space available, its the best I can do.

I'm building a large OO gauge layout in my garage. I am planning the backscene and wonder how heigh to make it. My plan was 300mm as that will divide a 2400mm wide board in 4 and give a scale height of 75 feet. Is that heigh enough to look realistic?

I've just purchased the Aldi printer for £150 but haven't used it yet. I too was planning to make scenic parts for my layout. I've downloaded some models already and re scaled some in sketchup, but i have no idea where to start creating my own 3d models, or what software to use. Would be interested to know what you are using to create models and how easy it is to learn?

Hi, I'm running 4 coaches at the moment so they are not that far apart.

Thank you. I'll do it as a consist I think. I did wonder about the motor load but assumed, rightly or wrongly, that as the Hornby HST has a power car and a Dummy this must have been thought of and it would work.

Hi, several years ago I converted my HST buffet car into a powered unit using a Bachmann class 158 chassis and made both power cars dummy. This was done because on my then layout the power car wouldn't push the set up the gradients. I've now obtained the Hornby TTS sound decoders for the dummy power cars. My question is, can I give all 3 decoders the same address, or do I need to give them individual addresses and create a consist to run the train. This might be a very simple question, but I'm not that knowledgeable about DCC.

Yes, I would be happy to buy a set too

Is there an update on progress / price for this kit?

Just had notification from Rails that my DCC fitted green whiskers cl121 has been dispatched. Early Christmas present to self. 2018 new years resolution, must build layout.

Yes I got this email, it only had the DCC ready version in the email, I ordered the DCC fitted version, I'm hoping they have received both.

Ordered a green with speed wiskers 121 from Rails last night. I can always get wifes persmission for green, but if I ever want anything in Blue she doesn't like that. In this case, she thought the model looked stunning so praise indeed. Not sure when they are shipping, Rails dont appear to have received them yet but I cant imagine they are too far away when Hattons are already shipping their special commisions.

Hi, are you still taking orders for this kit? Looks superb, and although doesn't really fit with my layout, I would love one.

I think they ran as short as 7 car sets when on trials / unadvertised additional services. I travelled on APT-P 4 times (once Euston to Glasgow and 3 times Euston to Preston), and would love to own a model of one. However, with no wires on the Western region in the 1970's (the period and location of my planned layout), I think it would be difficult to justify. The APT-E I was able to justify having found a photo of it at Swindon station alongside a Western and a photo of it passing through Steventon near Didcot and I am looking forward to receiving it.

They may well be chrome, but I doubt they are chrome on steel or they would almost certainly be very rusty by now. BR were very good at specifying high grades of materials for both locomotive and coaches. I worked in the BREL works at Wolverton for 10 years, I believe that coach body side handles by each door on MK1 derived stock were often brass that was left self colour or coated in some instances.

I need to fix my plates onto my maroon version, but I've been delaying for fear of making a mess of it. Did you used superglue? and if so, any particular brand type and how did you apply it? If not, what did you used?

My Dapol western had 2 faults. Firstly, one of the 4 body fixing screws was not fitted correctly, and had missed the brass insert in the body and gone down the side of it. I found this when I wanted to install a decoder. I could have sent it to DCC, but was quicker and easier to drill the screw out myself (it was in too tight to undo), and although not perfect, I think 3 body fixing screws will be adequate. The second fault is with the interior cab lights. The lights in one end don't work. All directional head and tail lamps work fine, but once I fitted the decoder, the cab lights will only operate one end. I assume it's a loco fault and not a decoder fault, but again, I'm not worried enough about it to pack it up and send it to DCC. It's a beautiful model, but the manufacturing or assembly quality isn't as it should be.

I would like to get rid of the "peak" on my two Heljan Westerns, especially now I have a Dapol Western to sit along side them, but I am nervous about making a mess of it. Would be great if someone has a set of instructions with photo's, or knows of a link to a post of how to do this without spoiling what is otherwise a nice model.

If he sold it for £88 then he made a big loss. Time you add up the listing fee, the 10% (unless he was a trader with a discount) selling fee and the paypal fee then he probably ended up with no more than £76 for a loco that retails well over £100. I gave up selling on Ebay, just too expensive to make it worth while.

Brings back memories of 1976 for me. I remember the keep clear area was painted yellow lines on the road, but cars still used to block the trains way and I rememeber one evening a car being bounced out of the way by a couple of large railwaymen. 1976 was the end of my childghood love of railways, girls became more interesting from that point on.

Wasn't being critical of the WLA price, just stating that they are more expensive. Except the additional parts and nameplates fitted and as a WLA member, I consider it a great cause. Link to WLA site below.. http://westernloco.com/sales/