LNERandBR

34 minutes ago, davidw said:

Any chance of explaining what mods you made to the tender. I always felt that the Hornby Tornado  captured the A1 rather well

Assume that the mods would be to better represent the original A1 tenders as Tornado's is modified from the original LNER design. From the photo, the rear around the water filler is the LNER spec. I think there's differences in the equipment cabinets on the footplate too given Tornado has lots more electrical gubbins.  

I beilve all this another example of how diverse our hobby is. 

There will be people who are very happy with their pristine RTR A3 flying around an 8 by 4 board with some Virgin Mk3 coaches behind the tender.

Meanwhile, those who enjoy this thread will take their RTR A3 out the box and begin modifications. Those will be different depending on who is doing it. However I expect it would at least include weathering, real coal, crew and appropriate lamps  😉

I also had arguments with my parents about weathering when I was little. As mentioned they had the 'that'll devalue it' mindset.

I do think that this is another case of 'each to their own.' I tend to push my freinds at the club into letting me weather their models but some are very much against it. I still poke them when they are admiring some of my weathered stock. However, it's very much in their hands.

If they had just purchased them then it could be that the two people in question have since carried out modifications to their purchases. One can only hope that one of them has renumbered!

Sometimes people are too eager to run their new purchases when exhibiting. I've sometimes done this but only to make sure a new purchase works before taking it off the layout. Normally at the end of the day or before the show opens.

I agree that running two locos with the same number for the entire show is a little silly.

19 minutes ago, CotBob said:

I spoke to them earlier to confirm the existence of my sound fitted Charles and they said early in the new year for Nesta and Dorothea, my two quarry locos.

Is that before or after they put the post on their website? If it was before then the status could have changed, it seems things are altering very quickly. 

Sound fitted Charles isn't even shown as arrived on Bachmann's website yet retailers now have it in stock for example. 🥴

https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/three-oo9-locos-incoming

Rails reporting that Nesta and Dorothea are on their way shortly. 

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/Bachmann-391-126sf-mainline-hunslet-0-4-0st-charles-penrhyn-quarry-lined-black-late-dcc-sound

Yep, product page says he's in stock.

Tempted now I've moved my Linda pre-order to the new FR version. Still would really like a PQR version but not sure my wallet could stand it!

EDIT: Rails now reporting that PQR Linda is incoming on their website. 

I'm not sure how you measure it sadly. All I know is get the wrong speaker on a DCC decoder and you'll get 'realistic' smoke effects if it's a diesel. 😅

Be careful as speakers have different values. Older DCC Sound decoders need 100ohm speakers whilst newer can have 4 or 8ohm speakers. They also have different voltage requirements.

No idea how you would tell what  value the speaker the unit comes with would be. All I know is you may end up damaging it with the wrong replacement.

A new F1 manufacturer? 

3 minutes ago, Ian J. said:

 

Define 'soon'? 😉

Soon as in not that far away 🤣

In honesty, I think it's a good idea to hold off on announcing more until more of what's already been promised has arrived. Too many manufacturers make announcements and then get bad press for not delivering those announcements within a short timeframe.

Ott Tanak has been confirmed as driving for M-Sport in the WRC next year.

Finally the silly season he started by leaving Hyundai has all but finished. I'm sure M-Sport will announce the rest of their lineup soon. Most likely Gus Greensmith will be there as he's been mentioned by them unlike Adrien Fourmaux. However, I hope their lineup includes Oliver Solberg after he was ditched by Hyundai. He really needs a better learning environment and that tends to be what M-Sport are good at. You just have to look at Ott.

Really feel for Craig Breen as the hoped for results never materialised this year. Hopefully he will get a full reset by moving back to a part time role with Hyundai next year.

Speaking of, Lappi moving to Hyundai was a suprise. Although I suppose it makes sense if he wanted a full season and all Toyota could give him was a part season.

There's still some speculation about Elfyn Evans but I think he's all but confirmed at Toyota.

12 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

There are badly built kit locos which look rubbish and well built ones which look fantastic. We don’t criticise all kit built locos because of the badly built ones, so why criticise all DCC sound because of one or two that sounded bad?

This is very true. There can such a large difference between a 'good' sound decoder program and a 'poor' one. Then a good one can be ruined by a poor installation of the speaker. Like most things it comes down to the experience of the people involved.

The best time to hear a sound fitted loco is in a quiet environment. You are more likely to hear the full range of sounds produced then in a noisy club or exhibition hall.

Similarly, a well put together kitbuilt locomotive mechinism will show off its quiet running in a quiet environment. I quite enjoy seeing the videos of Little Bytham. With Tony's heavy kitbuilt locomotives flying past at the head of heavy trains. DCC Sound would add very little to that and if anything may detract from it.

36 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

We "did" DCC sound before and I came to the staggering conclusion that some people like it and some people don't.

 

Has changed their minds about it since then?

 

I certainly haven't.

I suspect if anything some opinions will be more polarised.

Sound in general is very subjective, what sounds 'right' to one person will be 'wrong' for another.

It's the same as the DC vs DCC debate. Some people will never swap from their chosen control method and there's no reason why they should.

Our great hobby is full of these debates. Everyone is free to take their own path. 

Technology is always moving forwards and DCC Sound has improved as speakers and the decoders themselves have developed. The latest offerings in Steam Sound Decoders are far better than what went before. The best I've heard recently being the Bachmann Double Fairlie.

You sometimes have to work very hard to fit the best sound components you can into a model. However, unlike detail or weathering they are under the skin. Nobody will know the hours of effort that went into getting the speaker to fit into the bunker. A smaller one would have fitted easier but the sound produced would be worse.

So you've taken an RTR model and fitted sound, crew, detailed it, added the correct lamps and weathered it. Then someone comes along and compares it to the old Hornby sandpaper tender.

Thing is people are going to still run their older decoders, even if they have shortcomings. So it's all too easy to tar all steam DCC sound with the same brush. Take the brush as far as the model you hear at that spacific time. Then, maybe give it a chance before you go grabbing for that tar brush.

And here I was hoping for a Linda. Oh well, all good things come to those who wait 😅

In the past we've tried advertising in the local press but despite a lot of money being spent on adverts we never saw any increase in footfall.

If you can get permission for roadside advertising then that seems to work better. Each local authority has their own rules on that tho and it's important not to push it and be careful.

One of our members has been doing facebook advertising using their own account and we've now opened a page for our club. We'll see if that gets some interest from the relevant groups. 

https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/oo9-mainline-hunslet-charles

It's on their main website too. Will they all be out by Christmas?!

The thing I don't get with gluing kits together is why instructions insist that it's an acceptable method?

I've had freinds proudly tell me they are or are planning to build a metal kit. When I ask how they are getting on soldering they look confused and say they are/will be using glue. Their response after I say that doing so is the worst thing they could do is to say the instructions say they can.

Despite popular belief that men don't follow or need instructions. I know quite a few people who cannot mentally deviate from them. So if a set of instructions say you can use glue they take that as gospel.

Little wonder the projects eventually stall and never appear up the club!

1 hour ago, 40F said:

 

 

Ally Pally is now only a part drive hall. You have to park by the Organ or near the Rose Window end depending where you are. You can`t drive right into the hall. 

Was going to say, I was very sure I'd driven into the hall at Ally Pally to unload this year. It was the first show I've exhibited at where I've done that. 

I heard that previously you could drive right up to where your stand is located to unload. However just being at the organ end was near enough.

Back to Warley, very much enjoyed my visit on Sunday. Despite some people having issues getting into the NRC, we had no issues. A little queue to begin with but we soon were soon parked in one of the East Car Parks. A walk over to the halls and we were on our way in by 9:30 with our advanced tickets.

Managed to keep most of my money in my pockets. Some excellent service from Charlie and Co on DC Kits. 

The layouts were also all brilliant. Very much looking forward to next years event already :)

4 hours ago, 37114 said:

Just 2 here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/153712773@N08/48896972441/in/photolist-NQGdbF-2huRLmZ-6T75af-ZCEE5L-2kAR9tt-prySCc-2eyVkLD-oxPb45

 

So, would the rest of the formation be Mk1 Passenger coaches? Looks like there's a Motorail GUV next to them.

By the 80s were they still used in simular formations?

There is no 'like for like' unless two manufacturers release the same running numbers on their products.

Last I checked, 50 001 and 50 002 were different machines. Even then, if the two models have the same running number but different liveries they are different and not duplicated.

Maybe Hornby were wrong to release their Class 50 when there was a version from Lima? Where di you stop by saying 'don't do x because they did one before.'

If you are modelling the area that the Class 50s operated your options to build your fleet have now expanded. Why is there an issue with running a Hornby one and an Accurascale one? 

What's an example formation from the 80s? I presume there were passenger coaches then a number of these at the rear?

Competition pushes manufacturers to improve their offerings in order to win the business. It's a situation where you need to innovate in order to keep up.

As long as running numbers are not duplicated then it is completely possible to have multiple locos of the same class/livery. Issue is it's natual for modellers to want 1 of each class. Then they'd want their locos to have different liveries too.

All depens on where you are modelling too. How common a class was in that area will affect how many you may purchase. Our hobby can be as deep or as shallow as you want it to be.

There is a lot said about duplication of classes, even to the extent that people start claiming that 'x manufacturer is out to get y manufacturer'.  Personally speaking I think that would make no sense from a business perspective. On the surface, two manufacturers producing class 50s looks like duplication. However dig under that surface and you will see differences that would allow both models to run together on your layout without issues.