Barry Ten

Hi Chas, no it's strictly dummy. From what I've read, the advent of DCC meant a decline in interest in running powered catenary, so a lot of newer models aren't wired to work with it anyway (although I imagine they could be modified). I've had enough of a struggle just to get it to work cosmetically ,without collecting power, thank you very much! The Joeuf CC14100 above does appear to have an electrical path from the pantograph, nonetheless.

I acquired the Hattons SE&CR set, Tony. Any reservations I might have had about their "generic-ness" went out the window as soon as I had then on the layout, admiring the exquisite livery work and lining. I feel I've put in the hard miles with etched brass coach building, inc;luding fully lined pre-grouping stock, so I've an appreciation of how long it would take to produce an equivalent rake - even if suitable kits and parts were available. I'm currently stalled on constructing some S&D stock, for instance, because of the non-availability of suitable decals. For me the Hattons coaches are an excellent compromise and deserve to do well.

You can use the gauge itself to check that the model is level, just by running it along the footplate.

I admire your priorities, Mike. Plus, really fantastic Tony Hatch title music. Firmly in the "nearly as good as a Gerry Anderson TV theme" bracket. Ah, back to Hornby. I haven't seen the new episode but I quite fancy a new Buccaneer. I think the last one I built was the Matchbox one sometime in the 70s.

I can't let this lie there unchallenged, Mike. Given that Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge run for 90 consecutive minutes, would you kindly explain to us which of these programs you do not consider a quiz?

A short clip showing testing of the catenary.

I placed a telephone order just before Christmas. There was a follow-up call from Markits to query whether I wanted axles as well, and the items arrived within a day or two. The proprietor is certainly knowledgeable. I'd only specified my wheels and the number thereof when he determined that I was working on a 4MT.

One thing that can happen if the motor/gearbox isn't firmly restrained, is that the reaction to the torque on the driven axle can cause the whole assembly to want to rotate one way going forward, and the other way in reverse. This in turn can create opportunities for slightly more resistance (hence noise and lack of smoothness) one way than the other - an example, but not the only one, would be the case where the rear spindle hasn't been trimmed back and is free to rub against something inside the body.

I'm afraid I'm totally ignorant about SNCF colour light signalling practise. I was hoping to add some "not totally wrong" signals to my layout, more in the interests of ambience than anything else, but it would be good to be steered in roughly the right direction.

One 44422 deserves another.

It looks as if only the lead loco has its pan up.

I'd got it into my head that they couldn't be worked in multiple, for some erroneous reason. Not sure where that came from, but it was obviously reinforced by seeing lots of shots of them working singly.

I can't help but I'm likely to be asking the same questions when (if) I add signals to my layout. Can you say where you obtained the SNCF signals from?

Bit of a cheat as there's only a short length of catenary yet installed, and the loco isn't even coupled to the wagons. but offering a glimpse of things to come: I don't think these 14000/14100 locos are really suitable for just pootling about with a few wagons, but if you don't tell, I won't.

Evening ambience with an SNCF CC14100 electric under the wires.

My ones are also quite draggy, with bearings and Gibson wheels. It needs a beefy loco to shift a 9 unit rake.

Amusingly, I tried uploading a video of the catenary testing, but it was blocked by Youtube due to copyright violation! Turns out having Blur playing quietly in the background on the radio in the train room is not a good idea.

Installation and testing of the catenary continues apace! I've been tweaking a few of the bits, necessitating some delicate in-situ soldering, which has been bloody difficult due to a combination of the foreground buildings and the design of the Tim Horn baseboards - not that the latter are at fault! It's been a real exercise in contortion and swearing, not helped by my short-sightedness, since the bits that need soldering are invariably at that sweet spot distance where my glasses don't help! However, I think the worst of it is done. It would have been so much easier to add the catenary before the buildings! But where would the fun be in that? Being very limited in electric stock to put to the test, I've pressed this Roco Dutch Plan V EMU into use. I bought it for a planned Dutch module which I've never got round to, although it's still on my ridiculously long list of future projects. Once again I reduced the spring tension on the pantograph a bit. It works very well under the wires, as does the Roco 25100 class. The Jouef 14100 units are proving more finicky, which led me to the discovery that the flat part of the pantograph is a bit narrower on those models - perhaps closer to scale (?) but somewhat less forgiving. The Roco units have just a bit of extra width which I think makes all the difference. I'll give some thought to swapping their pantographs or perhaps using a layer of thin brass to add a wider contact area, ideally in a way that could be removed without damaging the base model. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience of various pantograph makes and their pros and cons. Somerfeldt seem to have a good range of types, from what I can tell, and they're not too expensive.

These are human beings, you know.

That's very fine modelling indeed, and I certainly wouldn't have imagined it was 2FS if you hadn't said so.

Very impressive footage, showing off the modelling to full effect.

It's funny as when we moved, I had in mind a much larger room! My old one had been 14 x 6, so long and narrow. When we made list of desirable things to have in our new house, I "demanded" a room of at least 12 x 20!!! When we visited the house that we eventually chose, it had almost none of the features we wanted, and definitely not a big train room! However we were so charmed by the house that all the other things (like a garage for my wife's motorbike) became secondary. In the end I co-opted the third smallest bedroom.

Many thanks, Mikkel. The layout is squeezed into a 12 x 11 foot room, with the two longest fiddle yard roads being able to take 7 or 8 coach trains.

I spy an Artitec building in that last shot of Copenhagen Fields.

I've been stringing some 25 kv catenary on my French layout. It's all new to me so very much a learning curve. I'm using the Peco product, even though it's scaled for 00. It's made for Peco by Somerfeldt so a quality product, but a lot easier to obtain than the latter firm's European range. I don't remember seeing much catenary on Wright Writes?