daveyb

I'm not sure this is the right place but it should see the right audience... SuperTrain Calgary 2024 is next weekend (20/21 April) https://supertrain.ca/ Will I see anyone there? I met the British modellers last year and they had their lovely branch line on show and I hope to see it again. I'll be on the Rocky Mountain Modeling Club stand on both days so come and say hello of you have time. Top tip... Parking in the area is scarce so plan ahead or be very early. Last year both days were very busy possibly because it was the first show after a 3 year gap but forewarned is forearmed

This topic has intrigued me. As someone who hasn't been to the NRM on probably 30 years and the Science Museum in even longer I won't comment on their decisions (but I haven't agreed with many of those I have seen publicised) but on the questions about museums vs 'enthusiast's operations. Almost everything the has been said in this thread about how museum are run, by whom they are run, for whom they are run and why they are run is the complete opposite of what I would like from a museum. Not using mechanical things because they might break is neither good custodianship nor useful nor interesting; staring at stuffed animals would not make zoos very interesting (and I know they're not popular today, either). Having museums crammed full of people with two+ degrees and a masters at every shiny display case is what leads to a loss of practical experience and if anything, deters development of STEM in schools. You end up with a load of academics discussing why this particular 2700hp - 3300hp monster was different to the other ones when all they really need to do is switch it on, but they academic'ed out all the practical and can't turn it on! I grew up around museums where I got dirty. I visited Clapham as a very small child and got dirty in the empty tender of an A4 then saw the earliest elements of the NRM a few years later. I went to Dinorwic and climbed disused incline planes and slag heaps to sit on rusty old wagons, I had my eyes rinsed with tap water at the Bluebell when I didn't listen and got smuts in my eyes. I went to school where we had a metalwork classroom with lathes and mills and a forge - that were usually empty because we were all told of the importance of Latin and Maths. I hated history. They took all the interesting stuff and ignored it to talk about medieval cooking and dress. I don't want my Museum to be educational - that's a school job - I want it to remind me of the past and illustrate the dull stuff I was force to listen to, to write in a book and never touch again. I want my machines to move. I want to know how they made it work; like to old guy splitting slates at LLechwedd showed me in 1974, or the drivers oiling up the rods at Bold after the Rainhill run (in the rain)in 1979. I want it to demonstrate what I am supposed to know (though how I'm supposed to know, I don't know, I'm too busy trying to fathom out Excel). There is a Science Museum video on You Tube showing how they moved a tram from a hanger to the new 'CHE storage facility' (another, newer, hanger this time with air con). They moved a tram about a mile across and airfield and bang on about how much painstaking planning was involved. First part of the day of the move, they couldn't open the hanger door because nobody thought to check the runners or guides! The boys from Alleley's just stood there shaking their heads! At the height of last summer I was arranging the move 25000 tonnes of gravel a day past 120 tonne machines on low loaders. On public roads. Every day. For two months. The Science Museum looked a trifle daft in my opinion - be practical and get on with it! Very little need for academia there. We have two museums quite near me that hire out their indoor display areas for functions such as weddings and staff Xmas parties. They push the exhibits to the sides, lay the room with tables and hold the function. Up to about 500 people. It's how they pay the bills. These museums have moved complete buildings hundreds of kilometers to display typical life over the last century. They have re-placed them on new foundations, subtly re-wired them and now they provide a living example of local provincial life from the last 150 years that works! The ice cream is sold in the general store that is made locally. The sweet shop makes the sweets. The grain elevator has grain in it and stores and distributes 8 different types of grain into rail cars from a 1955 Ford 5 ton truck that delivers it. The train rides circulate around the site, and in the evening they do a dinner train. That's a museum! And I know there museums like that in Britain, I've been to some of them (Blist's Hill, Black Country, Beamish, Amberley, etc). The Childrens' Gallery in the basement of the Science Museum (underneath the Deltic and Caerphilly Castle was great... It was fun and it was a relief for my parents to buy a cup of tea, but we looked at the exhibits first and there were few exhibits there, just stuff that worked and probably and explanation - I don't know I never listened! If you want better STEM in school, stop some of the rubbish that clouds the curricula and get back to basics - an entirely different topic. BUT, I cannot think how lucky I was to learn Three Blind Mice on the recorder every time I wire a plug or do my tax return! I'm off to the garage to do some STEM on my motorcycles...

The largest US locos were twin engines but effectively two locomotives sharing a common chassis (DD40 and Alco Century). They were quite effective but suffered the other problem where one engine failure meant a huge amount of dead weight. They were scuppered by a huge fuel bill (around the time of the Suez crisis) and an a lack of flexidility. US railroads have never really seen the issues UK railways have with route availability when it comes to what might be considered mainlines soit was't a weight issues. US practice was to use smaller units and add as necessary but they were (and probably are) way ahead of the game with multiple unit operation. Just look at the 'robot' mid train and rear end 'helpers' The obvious comparison might be the Germans who were fond of multiple engined locos, but a more realistic comparison and apparently the way forward would be many engined multiple units (e. g. Voyager series) Falcon was a very interesting prototype in that it went against the standard thoughts of slower heavier engines coupled to electric transmission and offered a smaller, faster engine (as was sort of proven by the WR hydraulics) but with electric transmission as a two in one body, like a Deltic but not like DP2. Ultimately the choice went with bigger, slower engines. We will never know whetehr this was the correct decision. Interesting comment above about not being able to be fitted with ETH. Surely the twin generators could have been modified to suit, but maybe it was a space issue as there was in the air brake program for the WR hydraulics (and not wanting to/having space to add a separate ETH power unit like the E&G 27s

Just another thought... the further you get from the line, the greater the concentration of rail/wheel noise in the sound of a train. It depends a lot on weather conditions, terrain, type of train (meaning fast/slow/passenger/freight rather than class or model type) but you get a bit of engine (if not electric) in advance, may be some horn/whistle and then the greatest element is the rail wheel interface and the air reaction with lineside infrastructure. At low speeds modern roller bearing wheel set emit a noticeable whirr whereas plain plain bearing tend to hiss(? best adjective I could muster). I think the point I'm leading to, is that sound in the loco alone is not the full experience and we tend to miss that in concentrating on creating sound fitted locos

That is very impressive slow running, thanks for that demonstration. What size capacitors have you used?

I think the problems with DCC sound were nailed by Melmerby on page 1 of this thread. Tiny speakers in tiny locos sound tinny... you cannae change the laws of physics! Real trains are felt as much as they are heard (at DCC volume distances) and there is no way around that lack of frequency range and air volume movement. I have never heard a convincing DCC sound fitted loco, no matter whose file is fitted or what outline is being modelled. Would there be a way to run a parallel chip fixed to the track feed with the same address where the sound outputs are wired to a decent amplified and speakers that are bigger than a thumb, possibly with some area or direction control by position sensing? I simply cannot see (hear?) a time when the speakers will allow any form of reality in the delivery of sound. It's like gloss, it just doesn't scale well. I'm very happy to be proven wrong in the future.

Good day! I am looking for advice and experience, please. I have a Hornby Ruston 48 DS and a Hornby sentinel 4 wheel Hydraulic I need to fit with decoders. I have no need for lights or sound but might like to fit stay alive capacitors to them. I suspect I could get away with using a larger capacity N gauge decoder and the small OO/HO ones I tried are the wrong shape and a bit big. I'm not going for the Hornby 4 pin as I am in Canada and that would be a huge cost for a decoder I've seen described and not the best! What decoders are people using in these small locos? Thanks

I was looking through the thread and posts from last year, your blog and now here, and I was extremely impressed with your 'late' MENTOR. By late I mean with the newer windows and corridor connectors at both ends. Is the earlier RTC MENTOR above for N or OO scale? I'd be very interested in an RTC era MENTOR in OO(and I'd get two if PROMETHEUS could be an easy change which I thing is just BT10 bogies - I must check the corridor end situation). Are you doing just bodies for a RTR chassis or are you doing the full coach as last time? I'll send you a PM if you're up for doing more for sales. I did appreciate your post in your blog about the end costs, it's not as easy as it looks to make money. Also puts RTR cost into a bit of perspective (though I think Heljan are out to lunch with the prices I have seen for the RTC BG at over £200 for one coach).

Thanks! I had not, but I have downloaded it for a spot of light reading.

I don't think the prototypes did much testing on the MML, certainly very few pictures on the usual sources. I did work experience at St Pancras and Cricklewood in 1984 and one of my 'jobs' was filling the new extra header tank on the HSTs on the new MML runs upon their arrival at St.P. I seem to remember there were two different cooling sets and one was better than the other, and these sets went to Bounds Green each night. The fleet was introduced quickly and fairly successfully showing the soundness of the original design but it would seem that areas were not tested to a point where weaknesses showed up - always a difficult thing to work out as it's trying to prove something you haven't seen! I thought the main driver was the lack of cash for the ECML electrification that drove the HSDT, more so than the APT problems. The APT was in its infancy when the HSDT prototypes were built and designed as a stop gap to the electrification of the ECML and GWML (I'm not sure the MML was being considered back then as it was in the era where GC and MML were being run down) with a view to either converting them or replacing them with OHLE pick up for lines other than the WCML with its curves needing thetilt mechanism. I read a comment that the Deltic were a stop gap measure waiting for ECML wires, too. That is certainly a wail on the Youtube clip!

Probably a fair assessment of the use of a prototype, but also that is the point of trialling or at least bench cycling such key components. I'm sure that there have been advances in testing methodology in the last 50 years. Reading through some of the Class 91 selection memos in Traction magazine from a few editions ago it took a while to sink in (also the Class 60s and 92s had many issues to rectify ata similar era).

Good morning all, With Rails of Sheffield and the Science Museum group doing the Class 41 in OO soon, I have been looking at web sources to find out about the life size units. As a relative youth on this forum (of nearly 55 years😆) I remember seeing the prototype set and it has always been of interest. What I'm not really finding on the net is how different they were to the production Class 43 units. How 'one off' were they? They used a similar power unit, but there are obvious differences in vent placements and other indicators of equipment positioning. Were there any significant challenges with cooling the Valenta in the prototype? The Class 43 models had terrible issues even into the early 80s and the changed cooler groups and more than 10 years of experience saw issues on MML upon introduction of HST services. Were the prototype HST power cars ever trialled there from Derby? Lastly, how bad was the condition of the power car that was scrapped in 1990? Thanks

Thanks for your replies, all extremely helpful and your pics , SR Man, were the ones I saw previously... Thanks! I will get a 6 or 8 pin with stay-alive locally and wire that in, I don't want or need sound but the stay alive on a little 0-4-0 will be worthwhile. I might change the 6 pin Hornby in the 0-6-0 Sentinel for a better one, too.

I am dabbling with DCC for the first time as I have opportunity rather than the preceding 10+ years since I bought the controller! I am running a small Timesaver that I bought off Marketplace which came with some locos and a NCE Power Cab. I also had a Power Cab in my boxes of stuff, that had never been used. I recently bought a EFE Heljan Hymek, a Hornby Sentinel 0-6-0 and fitted their make respective 6 & 8 pin decoders. The 8 pin in the Hymek had a 'spare' wire (purple) si plugged the plug in and insulated the wire - seems to run fine! The 6 pin in the Sentinel worked well but no 'spare' wire Previously I have bought a Hornby Sentinel 0-4-0, a Hornby 48DS and an Oxford Golden Valley Yorkshire Janus and need to fit with decoders. I read through all the threats that mention the 4 pin for the Sentinel (and the Peckett) and here is my question... Is a 4 pin decoder just a 6 pin decoder that doesn't have all the non-motor functions available or wired? I would like to buy 'any old' 6 pin and just ignore two wires to then wire the blanking plug into the socket on the Sentinel 0-4-0. I live in Calgary and don't really want to have to order a 4 pin decoder from UK as it will cost more in import duties and fees than the decoder, and my local retailer has many decoders in stock. The 48DS may be a challenge but there are some good stay-alive, sound-fitted examples out there so it's possible Thanks!

The bell from the bell tower at Weedon (which would have been a fire bell in its day) is currently outside the Officers' Mess at Vauxhall Barracks, Didcot. It was moved and engraved to commemorate the closure of Weedon depot and its role passing to Central Ordnance Depot Didcot in about 1960. COD Didcot only lasted another couple of years when there was a review of storage and supply (may have been the end of the Ministry of Supply, etc) and the site was cleared for the construction of Didcot 'A' power station - itself consigned to the history books. There were never any munitions stored at Didcot and Weedon had long been replaced as an ammunition storage location, possibly as early as WW1. There were some munitions dug up during the demolition of No.3 (I think) Storage Depot RAF - the north end of COD Didcot where you can make out the standard 1940s style guard room now in use as a bank - but they were drill rounds and therefore inert. The Officers' Mess at Didcot and the General's house are buildings that date from the late 1890s development of the COD Didcot, which was chosen due to the proximity of the GWR's Provender Store (located about where the loco maint shed is now in Didcot yard - if it's still there). It was the ease siting and connectedness that made the site so attractive. Vauxhall Barracks (in Fox Hall Lane - which spelling was mis-heard, if either?) remains as the HQ for 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, where I spent a very busy four years around the time of the London Olympic Games.

More a need to match emerging NATO standards which gave the impression of money being no object. Pallets are still a bit of a bodge across the world... Look at the issues of trying to load 8 metric pallets into a 20ft ISO container... Or more annoying not getting 18 metric pallets into a 40ft ISO. It's only just too small! The question not answered by the worst 0-6-0 tender engine is why that design lasted so long in UK compared with the rest of the world where much bigger tank engines were employed or the tender engines were confined to specific yards. I suspect frugality in the design house and ancient rivalry along with a pinch of not invented here.

I had a similar car in 2001/2, its a Chev/Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac station wagon of the mid 80s. Mine was Pontiac Parisienne, 5.0 l V8, bench seats, tailgate the could open to the side like a door or lay flat like a pickup truck... It went almost everywhere I pointed it (not across tracks, of course), and that idiot did the right thing when those got in the poo, which was to floor it and hope for the best! That one is a much more up market model than my base spec Pontiac - you can tell by the plastic stick on printed wood trim along the side...

The WW2 depot mentioned is still a barracks and was until recently the home of Royal Engineers geographic and topographic services (14 Geo Regt RE) but is now home to 77Brigade HQ. It was redeveloped in the 70s after one of the many 1960s post National Service plans. If you think transport policy has been short sighted, ill-conceived, short-lived and without any focus, have a look at Defence planning! Hermitage was one of the possible relocation points for Vauxhall Barracks in Didcot, which is a remnant of Central Ordnance Depot Didcot (closed in 1963 to build the power station recently demolished). But in one of the reviews of the last 10 years, 77 Bde were new and shiny and Didcot was completely forgotten... Literally forgotten! We called the chaps at Army HQ when they released the re-basing plan in 2014/5 to be told we didn't exist and had been closed years ago... Vauxhall Barracks is still there!

I think it was then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who spoke at the opening opening of Calder Hall. The Economy 7 was a later idea to use base load (coal and nuclear) to get electric, clean heating into houses with no central heating boilers, only coal fires and was a result of various stages of Clean Air Acts. My grandparents had a few until central heating was fitted in the late 70s or early 80s. The reason to run Calder Hall at a strong rate (as opposed using up base load from the newer, bigger coal fired units) was more to with the (very secret) business of producing enough plutonium for our fledgling independent nuclear deterent and H bomb experiments. Anyway, back on topic...

Possible, but they were supplied fitted for MU with blanking plates and D400 arrived with jumper cables fitted. Most other classes (all?) With the big MU fit have been supplied complete or had a complete retrofit. As Monty found lots of pics, I thought it pertinent to ask again

I asked a question about why they were delivered without the MU cables some time ago. No one seemed to know for sure but the assumption was that it had to do with leasing arrangements. Is anyone any the wiser on this matter?

pH, you're in a lucky place (unless you're buying petrol this week) That does look similar. I never did find the pic I was looking for but the big Baldwin saddle tank looks like Bloedel's 10 spot from other pics which I think I remember worked at Port Moody.

Thank you for the corrections. It was always a little difficult to see who became who from within the green. We also had DRA - Director Royal Artillery as a a Three Letter Acronym (TLA) so you had to know which organisation you were dealing with! I remember being told off all the time for calling DERA sounding like 'Dearer' which apparently had caused them some issues at MP level - they were to know as 'Derah' with a short E and short A!

I did some work there in 96 and 07-09. It was used a both an experiment ground and a disposal station for a long time and had a very extensive standard gauge system and a collection of narrow gauge sections. It even had it's own passenger services in the really busy post war period. After being MOD PE&E as mentioned above, it came under the wider Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) name and later still was renamed something more closely related to its actual role, like other sectors. With the Govt of the 80s and 90s pushing to contractor and privatise a lot of things, the Govt agencies saw RARDE split into various bits Showburyness and the other test ranges at Eskmeals, BUTIC, Larkhill, West Freugh, etc fell under the banners or Defence Evaluation and Testing Organisation (DETO) or Defence Experimental Research Agency (DERA) DETO was supposed to test for DERA and then bill internally whilst still all being inside the Civil Service but under the control of the agency SERCO (the civil SERvice COmpany). This was all before it was privatised. SERCO was also split for sale and when it actually became privatised it had to tender to run its own establishments! Another subsection of SERCO was sold off under the name Qinetiq. Qinetiq later took over the running of Shoeburyness and even later bought it. The MoD still sends significant amounts of unserviceable ammunition to Shoeburyness for contract disposal by Qinetiq (we send it back all the way from Canada rather than use local arrangements - apparently it is a global contract so global stacks must be shipped back), including fired brass from the ranges which is burnt to confirm all energetic material is destroyed before the scrap is sold to smelters. The line into Shoeburyness used to be a fairly innocuous looking single loop to the south side of the terminus build at Shoeburyness station, crossing the road just in front of the the station build through big wooden level crossing gates (that had not been closed in years even in 1996), that road led to Artillery Barracks which was a coastal fort and is now houses. Once across the road there was an access control gate through which the single track led to the exchange sidings. Those access siding were more commonly full of stock for disposal during my visits and that could be seen from the road. The siding behind were where the various VAA/VDA and VGA wagons were received and marshalled by whichever Steelman/ Thomas Hill / other MoD shunter was there at the time. There was some 20ft iso container traffic too (RCTU or RLCU full side opening types), but I don't remember any PFAs only a few FGA type skeleton flat rakes. The railway was much foreshortened in the 90s & 00s and the various gates and bridges to Foulness Island were out of use, but you could still make out how each of the ranges had been served at some point. I doubt any of this is of any use but it brought back some happy memories.

Hello, I've been away a long time (dissolving a marriage, moving house, etc - don't worry, definitely for the best) and the search hasn't pulled up my answer - without reading through this 52 page thread. Have these been delivered yet? I ordered a set and a coach from one of the online shops but it cancelled for no apparent reason, though some of the order was fulfilled. I'd still like a set but I gather they are now sold out. This pre-order thing doesn't seem to work very well and I have had a few similar experiences. Thanks