James Hilton

Works Notice 026 Come meet us at Warley The latest newsletter is available now: https://mailchi.mp/62a67949a48e/works-notice-026-warley-show We share our plans for Warley - we hope to see many of you there! As always, subscribers to our mailing list receive news and updates first, so if you’re keen then you can sign up on the Planet Industrials home page by putting your email in the box towards the bottom of the page.

Thanks, the grey ones are lovely indeed. The concept behind the bunker was no coal meant modellers could model it at the level they wanted. The easiest way to add coal is to add a small piece of grey foam cut to shape, at the height you want. Add in some PVA, spread carefully over the foam, dust on some coal. Tip off the excess and let it dry. This means you can model it different heights, but if there is a continued demand for an insert I’ll see what we can do as a 3D print.

I am not familiar with the type, but assuming it's non sound, and marketed as 'super small' it should fit fine. A normal size Next18 decoder fits no problem, as do, of course, the sound ones.

Gordon it’s not immediately clear as the wheels show balance weights, I’d guess 14. The drawing I just looked at is the one in the instructions, which you’ll have with the model. Hope that helps?

If you push them home at the tank end, and they still slope, then gently nudge the handrail knob ‘up’ on the smokebox and they level up easily.

You are right! Maroon is ahead, the others are all about the same, and perhaps not as far behind as it feels. We have good stocks of all at Light Railway Stores. Rails have their ROD version too, but sold out in IW&D (we’ve got those available).

Thank you. As they say, no such thing as bad publicity! It is lovely so many of you understand the product and felt compelled to say so, thank you all who have engaged here, there and everywhere in such a constructive manner. Link to the LRS store: https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/planet-industrials of course also available at Rails: https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/planet-industrials

Hi Robert, as you say, just gently pull the grey box up vertically - it should just be a tight push fit in the chassis and then you can access the worm gear and worm (a touch of silicon grease wouldn’t do any harm here) and the motor bearing - just the tiniest drop of oil here, and add more if needed.

Tank overlays are on my to do list, I’d noticed the Swindonisations too, even the tank fillers yes, look like a standard GWR fitting.

Thanks John! I’d not seen these although I’m not sure I’d have put the logo in that position myself anyway, but if anyone wants one like this I’m happy to offer a commission service for the full job.

Thank you Steve. If I’m honest 2022 has been a wonderful year for dreams realised. A photo depicting Francis has sat above my bench for the duration of the project, to act as inspiration and encouragement through the good and bad times we’ve had on the way. Now not only do I have inspiration on the wall, but on the layout too (see Steve’s (cornelius) post above). I have just finished the first of a short list of more involved customisations, more photos and a description on the blog today: https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/2022/11/commission-victory-in-br-black.html Still to tackle are some East Kent based ones, a Rio Tinto conversion and then the Lambton cab and GWR etched tank conversions.

Looks great Dave - I've got my maroon one on the bench at the moment, half way through weathering, I'll share my own photos when it's done!

All, having tested my own ‘production’ Victory which was noisier in reverse I thought it useful to share how I worked through the model. All models are lubricated and tested at the factory, and then tested again here before dispatch, this made sure they work, but did not address any variation in drive noise. Of course, lubrication applied in China may well have dried out before the models are run properly here in the UK on your layouts. With this in mind, I decided to dig a bit deeper (as I would with any model I bought during the running in process). I added some fine oil to the bushes on the axles, no different. I added some grease in the gearbox, no different. I added a tiny spot of oil to the motor shafts (each end of the motor). Transformed. I added a tiny touch of oil on the crankpins and slide bars too, no obvious difference. I would suggest anyone who wants to improve the quietness of their Victory that this is a good course of action. Motor bush/bearing lubrication often makes a big difference to noise, but oil must only be applied very sparingly to avoid contamination of the electrical parts. Place some oil on a dish or tray, and use a fine piece of wire to apply just a small drop on the shaft at each end of the motor. Less is definitely more. I’m a modeller like the rest of you at the end of the day, so I try and trouble shoot models, whatever their provenance. This advice is coming from my own experience rather than an official ‘Planet Industrials guidance’ but sharing for you all in case others are wishing to reduce drive noise.

When we studied the original CAD this wasn’t obvious, due to the way models are rendered in 3D. There is a very small flange on the Engineering tooling samples, but this has been lost through tool polishing and then paint on production models. Chalk it up to experience, it’s our first model.

All, having tested my own ‘production’ Victory which was noisier in reverse I thought it useful to share how I worked through the model. All models are lubricated and tested at the factory, and then tested again here before dispatch, this makes sure they work, but does not address any variation in drive noise. Of course, lubrication applied in China may well have dried out before the models are run properly here in the UK on your layouts. With this in mind, I decided to dig a bit deeper as I would with any model. I added some fine oil to the bushes on the axles, no different. I added some grease in the gearbox, no different. I added a tiny spot of oil to the motor shafts (each end of the motor). Transformed. I added a tiny touch of oil on the crankpins and slide bars too, no obvious difference. I would suggest anyone who wants to improve the quietness of their Victory that this is a good course of action. Motor bush/bearing lubrication often makes a big difference to noise, but oil must only be applied very sparingly to avoid contamination of the electrical parts. I’ll add this to the Victory thread as well.

Hope you enjoy it!

The taller cab was only on the first two examples. In addition, to do a real No.4 you’d also need to consider the replacement smokebox it received later in life… The cab, tanks and bunker are all one moulding. The cab front and back are inserts, so whilst a taller cab is in theory possible, it is not straight forward. Once I start on the Lambton conversion it will also allow me to look at the feasibility of this taller cab option too, although you would likely need to cut the cab at the seam and replace the top half, roof, front and back. Leave it with me, but if anyone does do it, I’d love to see the result.

The slide bars are held in place by the etched metal support bracket. Ensuring this is in place is one of our QC checks during testing. Steve had these photographed before testing began, clipping it back in place is a simple task but no one should receive one with the slide bar misplaced like this - thank you for the feedback.

It’s been a busy week so far, the custom weathering work alongside testing is keeping me really really busy! Long days but it will all be worth it once they start landing with you all!

I fitted the 3 links myself, the model comes with small metal hooks in place which look great and you can clip a set of Smith’s 3 link chain into this, but I’ve swapped out for the Smith’s on mine as I wanted to make sure they didn’t come loose in handling.

In today's newsletter (see Works Notices thread) I shared a video showing Victory on my layout, Pont-y-dulais, copied here for anyone who hasn't had a chance to see it already...

Works Notice 025 Victory is on the way... The latest newsletter is available now: https://mailchi.mp/07e81461cb74/works-notice-25-victory-update-motor-rail As always, subscribers to our mailing list receive news and updates first, so if you’re keen then you can sign up on the Planet Industrials home page by putting your email in the box towards the bottom of the page.

They’re 3mm, I think Steve answered this previously during development but it was along time ago so it was worth asking again. Hope that helps!

We can’t wait for these to start arriving with you all soon, in the meantime I still enjoy playing with my decorated sample that I weathered up for promotion last year, seen here on shed at Pont-y-dulais…

Works Notice 024 New MDO options The latest newsletter is available now: https://mailchi.mp/e0411104b7f3/works-notice-024-new-mdo-options (If you have missed previous issues, you can click ‘Past Issues’ at the top of the page that opens on that link). As always, subscribers to our mailing list receive news and updates first, so if you’re keen then you can sign up on the Planet Industrials home page by putting your email in the box towards the bottom of the page.