coachmann

My green livery Heljan GWR 47XX was fitted with a Zimo 21-pin sound decoder today. A YouChoos Flame12 speaker and two small stay-alive's were dropped into the circular "speaker" cavity and the decoder installed. This loco will eventually receive a repaint and engraved plates. It has YouChoos 'Hall' sound set up to be rather clanky. While it ran as smooth as silk on DC, it seemed to have a stiff point in forward direction and so I put the capping plug back and ran-in the loco on DC before reinstalling DCC. It ran much better afterwards and will no doubt improve further in the coming weeks. My black version ran smoothly on DC but was worse than the green loco on DCC, so i doubt it will ever get sound....

I am reluctant to invest 100+ smackers on a sound decoder for the 14XX at the moment, but it is by no means alone. My DJM 14XX, Heljan GWR 47XX and Oxford Mk.II Dean Goods have been fine on DC but distinctly dodgy on DCC + Sound, and it is obvious from comments on this forum that I am not alone. It seems new entrants to 4mm RTR are breaking away from Hornby's well-proven chassis design.

LMR 4F from Ruthin pressed into service at Corwen to work the local pick-up goods to Ruabon yard. At least the RH drive suited Western men...

Clank clank clank clank......

Hi Colin, Sure, no problem... CV 574 Boiler hiss = 70 CV578 Brake squeal volume = 255 Braking rate reduced to 130 (from 175) after video was filmed. The need for F-Key#2 brake was reduced.

Yup. Another arrived this morning; this time a Greenline version. Spot the difference from the red one....Twin headlights, upper deck front opening windows... Platform doors, different rear end, rear wheel discs.... Some engine compartment fitting differ.... Superb.... Thank you dear friend... If we had buses like these around here, my bus-pass would be very very useful......

If all people want is a smoking driver and a crapping fireman, it is good to know we don't have to worry about rivets in the wrong place...

I posted a loco heading down a grade on video some time ago and it's progress was in fits and starts. Unfit for any serious modelling, toy train buyers of the 1950's had smoother running locos. Fitting DCC and sound is virtually a specialist job. The superstructure is up to today standards, but................. ! The irritating part of all this is we are unlikely to see a decent GWR 14XX now for many years. It is said that modellers of the Great Western do very well from the RTR manufacturers, but we have waited a long time and are still waiting for a decent 14XX, 43XX, Large Prairie and a 'Manor'......Hardly obscure locos by any measure.

Having moved to North Wales in June 1965, Mary had stayed in Oldham to sell the house, so I traveled home every Friday teatime after work until October. I was never a spotter as such, but I do remember the locos were always a Black Five (Caprotti and conventional) except for one 7P. I remember standing gazing at it in the darkness at Man. Exchange after it had given us a good run. One Friday teatime, the train was so packed that I found a seat in a lookout ducket after the guard asked me to keep him company! It was the only time I didn't travel with me head out the window, although I had a good view thru' the back windows. I avoided DMU-travel from Manchester and caught the express bus from Stevenson Square instead. One thing I noticed on alighting in the grotto at Oldham Mumps was the smell of the town.....A kind of fousty damp smokey pong that I hadn't smelled while growing up there. Manchester had always smelled like pea soup. Traveling back to Wales on Sunday was always a pleasure as was filling my lungs with sea air when I alighted.

At the moment, all my DCC sound decoders are Zimo with F2 brake and F5 alternative exhaust sounds. Seeing as my ex.GWR 38XX was set up months ago exactly as I wanted it, I found the time today to re-set every CV on the other locos to match exactly those of the 2-8-0. Only the chuff-rate and rate of acceleration was individualized to suit each chassis. I should have done this long ago. While performance is entirely predictable across the fleet now, the locos differ in sound due to other factors. But the main thing is they do what I want them to do and this had added immeasurably to the pleasure of operating trains.

Mercontrol wire & tubing was used once again to motivate the three points at Carrog (the out-of-sight point at the Corwen end of the loop is solenoid operated). Very easy to thread under sleepers after the web has had a drill run through it. Some disguise has been added. The bits of tube showing beside the ballast will have false point rodding run to them from the signal box one day.....

Thanks to Brushman47544 and everyone. I have just placed an order for two Jane's style albums. I will follow with the 1945-52 album later.

Useful and thanks for posting update.

Thats it...I must be out of touch. No one gave a monkey about the drab green EE Type 3's. Then around the mid 1980's, people started to go ape over them, probably because of refurbishment and large logo livery. I know the Peaks had a following right from day-one, which lasted their life span because of their darn fine looks. But Class 47's? They were the Black Five of their era....everywhere and boring. I suppose Planet Nostalgia can never be accounted for. I think back to the poxy Derby Type 2's taking over many local goods trains in the steam-era and then becoming eagerly sought after as Class 24's when they became hens teeth. Yup, I too was lineside with me one-eyed roll-film beast !

I would like to learn more about London's buses and liveries from pre-war types to the Routemaster. Can anyone point me in the direction of a full colour 'Janes' style album or full-colour anything. Thanks in advance. I know it's off-topic, but I forgive myself haha..

Abergele used to be a market town and one day when two cows got loose, one got onto the railway and all trains were warned to go slowly and be on the watchout. 'Tother got onto the Abergele bye-pass and was promptly shot.

Not sure if my cheapo-purchase was an Escort or what. It had a backward sloping rear window (100E???) and the guy I bought it off had fitted new rear springs off a van I think. Whatever, it was back-high and treacherous in wet weather and the damn thing spun round on me on St.Asaph roundabout. Facing on-coming traffic, I never felt so daft but it was laff a day in Pilkington Optical. A foot on an exhaust pipe while someone was starting up his car would leave a blown silencer, and anyone known to have fitted an early form of car alarm would have his car shaken as we walked past to that the horn was going until the car settled down! My car wouldnt start one morning after a night shift and 'security' came over to assist, which was the last thing I needed. Luckily he didn't notice the heat-resistant stuff from inside the factory that I had wrapped near the exhaust manifold (sacking offence).

Creocote or whatever name is used for the latest incarnation of creosote is far and away still the best for fencing. I have two guinea pig panels and they are as good as new two years later and still 'damp'. New Evostik Impact is still as good as it ever was despite its new syrup colour formula. But by heck does it string. So some things still do wot they say on't tin.

It'd be easier to run over them....

Parked outside our home today, a Sun Star Routemaster. A bit big for Carrog but a super display... Climb aboard..... Traditional inside..... Nice upholstery too.... The main bit behind a real grill.... Drivers cab.... A smashing all-rounder to 1 : 24 scale ....

Outside our house today..... Sun Star 1 : 24 scale replica of RM21 VLT 21. Sent to me by a very good friend. I never really appreciated the Routemaster until now. I only rode on RT's in 1960 when staying near London.

There's a Subaru three doors away..... Same blue as well! He's all over my sound track when filming the layout!

That Park Royal body design sometimes came out with the Crossley brand name. And you need high cab windows on an AEC chassis! Lovely bus that Reading.

The Datsuns with smoke glass windows, radio and heaters and Amstrad music centres with twin tape decks (cool man), radio and vinyl record deck, all wrapped in a unit with glass door made to look like a piece of furniture, were all the rage in the 1970's. So too was gold vinyl wallpaper which was so un-reflective of light that we had to fit larger watt light bulbs to read at night! Black vinyl car seats that tore the skin of yer back on a hot day and vinyl roof covering designed to make your car look like crap within a few years. Not happy days for car owners. But this jap-crap invasion did force car makers like Ford to wake up and make their cars more rust proof, longer lasting and fitted with useful accessories. The turning point for me (and no doubt many others) was the Focus that could be thrown foot-down into any corner and still come out the other side!

I didn't have any electrical pick up problems with Insulfrog slips while on DC, but they did require careful pinning down to ensure the wheels that could pick up current were actually on the rails while others were on plastic dead spots. With DCC, I would not anticipate any problems with stay-alives covering the dead issues.