coachmann

I never heard them called Night Owls until this model was announced. The Heljan 2-8-0 is a superb model, although I must make new support struts. I had it in mind to paint it in BR lined green, but I will run it a while first. For some reason, I associate them with hauling summer passenger trains.

Simple touches that make a lot of difference.... The wheel tyres and axles were painted satin black and I found a better pair of pony wheels. For some reason, the Tender didn't come with an NEM socket. So I put a No.17 Kadee coupling in a spare socket and drilled it out to clear an 8BA screw. Then the socket was screwed to the 'box' on the underside of the Tender together with a 20 thou spacer. It couples and uncouples, but if it works loose it will get a touch of Loctite. The loco isn't DCC yet. Engraved plates for 4706 are on order. Incidentally, it was a surprise gift and a very welcome one at that. Going off the locos weight, I can well imagine Heljan handing China a finished ten-ton Cotswold whitemetal 4700 along with the instruction to 'copy that!'.

Ooh look, a first glimpse of a 47XX on the Llangollen line! It is almost straight out of the box except I promptly replaced the LNER-esk pony truck wheels with ones with a smaller boss. They'll do for't time being. The nearest track has only just been laid and hasn't even had time to go rusty........

The magnets were like jumping beans attaching themselves everywhere while i was trying to pin them down. Then they didn't work as well as I had hoped seeing as trains have to be stopped precisely with no over-run. Yes I read the label re brittleness, but the pacemaker warning is what done it for me. I will stick with Kadee magnets.

Rare Earth magnets arrived tis afternoon. First impressions : - They are not just powerful, they are bloomin' powerful and will leap 2½ inches into the air to join another magnet. I look forward to carrying out tests but not right now.

Observations on the images posted by Mickler. The insignia is LNER style (NER used block style insignia). The darkness of images does not automatically rule out teak. To my mind the coach is teak and it clearly carries full lining out. The bogies are the original Bain type and there is no end ducket. Bottom line :- The model is not based on this version of the coach. The coach was clearly carrying lining in 1938 judging by Mike Trice's post.

Since the demise of Slaters Nissan garage around here, almost every other car is now a Mercedes, small, medium, large and whoppers, many of them driven like Morris Marina shopping trolleys. A funeral of Mercs plodding their way to B&Q for their Wednesday 10% discount fix is one to avoid...

Just because something is mass-produced in plastic does not mean it has to be given away. If folk consider it's expensive because they cannot afford one, then fair enough. But anyone who considers the LNER Dynamometer Car is not worth £125.00 needs to wake up to reality.

Now that I have added quite a bit of extra weight to the plastic RTR wagons AND ordered some rare earth magnets following yesterdays read of this thread, the pesky Kadee magnets worked well this afternoon while filming. However, I intend experimenting with the RE rectangular magnets when they arrive because they will not be as visible... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUaGIrJOkA4&feature=youtu.be

Basic's this afternoon after doing a spot of shunting. The guards vans were given extra weight using whitemetal corridor connection bases. This was preferable to retarding the axles with bits of sponge. Two of the same type of castings were also glued to the bottom of mineral wagons and covered with a false bottom. Weighting all of the lightweight plastic RTR wagons has worked wonders on several fronts.....

I cannot fully explain why the 156 gave a pleasanter more comfortable journey back in 1993. The 158 from North Wales into Chester had a flat wheel so that got on my nerves, but the 158 forward to Crewe was barely any more enticing to travel. I was naming a loco with PW and couldn't find a main road between Chester and Crew on my map, so I opted to go by train. It might seem strange that a regular rail mag contributor didn't like 'modern' rail travel, but there we are.

Not being particularly overwhelmed with rail travel since the demise of the carriage, I considered the 156's far superior in comfort than the newer 158's back in 1993. If the 153's are leaving Wales, I wonder what will operate the Blaenau Ffestiniog branch? Back to 150's?

The Peco Code 83 No.6 point has a nominal radius of 1092mm and an angle of of 9.5. The diamond is also 9.5 to create a double junction etc. So the double slip is based based on the diamond and is also 9.5. Peco Code 75 points overlaid on top of Peco Code 83 to show the different angles....

It looks absolutely superb. They look 4mm scale. Am I right?

Simple mechanics and no electrics.......It took ¾ hour to install three Mercontrol wires and levers....Job done..... Initially I had my doubts when I saw the plastic tubing (I had used brass tubing in 1963), but nailed down every 1½ inches or so, it worked well...... I was even more surprised it worked on the point in the siding. Peco track nails used both sides of the tubing...

Where can one buy these compact rare earth magnets?

I suspect 'BR-built' had little affect on sales of Peppercorn A1's and A2's, Bulied Pacifics, LMS Ivatt 'Duchesses' and LMS Ivatt Mucky Ducks for example.

Glad you told me. Due to my scribble on the calender, I mistook the classic Transport Weekend at Llangollen for the FR gala. I filmed the Hunslet Gala in 1993. Great weekend and good weather too. Bristol L doing the honors at that time. This mid 1980's picture shows ex.Chester Corporation Massey bodied Guy Arab IV No. 1 working a shuttle between the Ffestiniog Festival of Transport site and the joint BR/FR railway station, seen here passing the old LNWR(BR) station in typical slateville weather. I rode this bus when it was still in service, as Guys were thin on the ground by then....

I saved your image, righted it in photoshop and then re-posted. Hope to meet you 30th June and sample a ride on a real bus. It is some years since I attended a Festiniog Gala.

Thanks for the heads up...

Even our street name carries my initials... And I could too, but I will only build models of things I saw, as there is no nostalgia in anything outside my own experiences. Life can be cruel...

Assuming the double slip is 2' radius like the Code 75 and 100, I won't be laying such toy appearance stuff on any layout I build. The whole point behind some of us hoping Peco would adopt their own Code 83 geometry was becasue we looked ahead and considered the slips.

A slight break in this thread. Good friends were here for the day and so we sat around while trains went around. The more I looked out the window at the big Vanquish, the more I disliked my car!

To me its simple. RTR has always been there for the taking and if it has a use, then buy. If it hasn't, then pass by.

It's raining now for the first time in weeks in this part of Wales, but I got the goods yard laid while the temperature was still high this afternoon. Some of the greenery will be renewed to complete the major groundwork this weekend and then new fencing and other details will follow at leisure. No photos as its too wet and dark.