34theletterbetweenB&D

This is a problem that anyone familiar with coupler set up for automatic coupling and uncoupling will be aware of. The owner has to take charge of consistent coupler position on all the stock the system has to work with. Hopefully Bachmann will think to mention that in the 'enclosed destructions'. Some of Bachmann's (fine) rolling stock product that may well find itself coupled to a Brush 2 may defeat this method! Specifically their low rolling friction bogies on the Thompson carriages and Met-Camm Pullman cars. These have detected gradients on several layouts where the track is thought to be level, because they can roll away on a 1 in 200. Installing a small drag on the train end vehicles' axles is the solution.

Honestly, you will do best by 'suck it and see'. 'We' don't know exactly what you are looking for in performance, nor do we know what the decoders will be installed in. What I can tell you is that since Zimo's decoders became available I have used them as ' mechanism tamers': some of my first purchases are now on their fourth or fifth installations; which will be their last because all the old stuff has been replaced. Because here's another factor that matters to me. When the mechanism significantly limits the performance - noisy, available speed range limitation, insufficient traction - it isn't going to stay on the layout that long; but you have a good decoder to go into whatever comes next. Now this is something that also concerns me. I started with Lenz decoders, having tested all that was then readily available in the UK, and they were the stand out at that time. I continue to use Lenz decoders in everything where they deliver the required performance, which is the majority of current RTR OO mechanisms. These are a couple of quid cheaper than Zimo, and I will have that saving, I see DCC as a utility, no need to spend more than absolutely necessary. The situation is likely to be different for decoders that fit in N locos, that you need to explore for yourself.

A Zimo MX600 will cudgel the best possible performance from it. You will have to experiment with CV settings to obtain optimum running. This is where Zimo excels with the range of settings available.

Corridor tenders were for the non-stop Scotsman to enable crew change while running. The Coronation stopped en route, enabling conventional crew change. The train formation was a fixed set, excepting the observation car which changed ends. Detail here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coronation_(train)#:~:text=The train was formed of,Locomotive and tender%2C and observation

No. The J36 has the Crewe standard 6 coupled wheelbase of 15'6"and the Hornby model has this correct. (The J15 is on the Derby standard 6 coupled wheelbase of 16'6",and the Hornby model has this correct.) It's worth knowing these two, as much of the UK railway's six coupled designs remained on these standard wheelbases, sometimes nudged about a few inches. The last 0-6-0 design constructed for a UK railway was SR's Bulleid Q1, Derby Wheelbase. In 0-6-0T , GWR's 94xx Pannier retained the Crewe wheelbase until production ended in 1955.

I haven't looked at this in any detail for years, but am pretty confident that for the private buyer the lowest price items covered will be limited to what are expected to be 'durables': appliances like washing machines, heating boilers, fridge/freezer, cooker/oven; on the basis that these are necessities for a family. Hobby stuff = luxury item, you are on your own.

Is this the original designmodel released from about 2001? If so the sideframes pull off horizontally for sufficient access to the wheels. If it is an early example, the wheels were in bronze appearance alloy which collected track dirt. Heljan latterly installed nickel silver wheels not prone to this problem and these were offered as spares. Gaugemaster handle distribution of Heljan, and will be able to advise.

Have Gaugemaster definitely told you the booster will not be accepted for repair? If not, get on the phone!

Here's the Kadee kit: https://www.kadee.com/shop-by-category/uncouplers/ho-scale-uncouplers/309-ho-scale-under-the-ties-delayed-action-electric-uncoupler-kit Effective length is about 40mm. You can see from the design how the poles are across the track, N under one rail, S under the other; and if tinkering is what you want to do it's easy enough to copy Kadee's scheme and extend to 60mm length if that's what you need. All the best with it.

Hatfield, WGC and the Hertford, Luton and Dunstable branches. Also 'ear-spotting' on frosty winter nights, in my present location I can hear from North of Welwyn tunnels as far as about 20th mile bridge but that's nowaday's only Doncaster's finest steam traction, GM's shed, or the occasional 'something' in mechanical distress, if I am any judge. (Deltics now, when being given all the beans, over a seven mile stretch.)

Very questionable. Walk into a model railway retailer's premises and look at the exposure of the brands. On par with Hornby for exposure, and retailers don't buy stock that doesn't shift. Never forget, the brand customer in most cases is retailers. If the retailers say yes to a product offering, that's the green light for production.

I'd leave alone, until it begins to complain. On one of a pair of 1992 purchased Bachmann Peaks, I had the mechanism apart immediately after purchase to see how it compared to the 1971 Athearn centre motor mechanisms on the PA1. Felt it looked promising and left the second model mechanism alone. 32 years on both still running as well as ever with no service attention including lubrication*, smooth running, quiet, able to pull the side out of a house, etc.. On this basis all of my centre motor both bogies driven mechanisms have been left alone, with the sole exception of Hornby's wonky Brush 2 bogies which needed rebuilding; 6 classes from Bach, 5 classes Heljan, 1 from Dapol. No trouble at all. *So much for the miserabilists compaining about motors that cannot be serviced: no, but they don't need it on evidence to date. Think I have long had my money's worth.

I bought this set of 'security screw heads' which includes small allen keys about five years ago from Goldsworthy's in Liskeard, and it has been blindingly useful, and only a fiver at the time. https://www.toolstation.com/draper-security-bit-set/p52910?store=AX&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=null&pkw=null&pmt=null&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA2pyuBhBKEiwApLaIO03X7JKrDRkPiNet134dnZvxXzOC1lz86L5k1g3JASWgGAXtN-0YyRoCGiUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It's a same old, same old, product based on the Airfix GMR tooling, needs traction tyres to move a load. There simply isn't a good OO model of this class available if reliable performance with no need for traction tyres is on your priority list. IMO. Hornby have all sorts of superior more recently tooled tank engines if you want to chop in your points. I heartily commend their J50, L1 and the Oxford branded N7, and even the Airfix GMR tooling derived N2, All are models which perform very well.

What with using Kadee on carriages, I use their magnets; both the permanent type between the rails, and electromagnet under the track types. These reliably operate the Brian Kirby mod, with both coupling hooks equipped with staples; in addition to what they are designed for.

Railways are interesting, period. Therefore models of railways are interesting. I was within a hair's breadth of going for North American HO in my later life reresumption of railway modelling (usual break for careering, mortgaging, marrying, etc.) when Bachmann popped up with RTR OO models of a quality hitherto only available in 4mm by kit and scratch building, and thus I stayed with UK prototype. Would I like to build a model of the railway on Java one of my forebears engineered? Do I fell tempted by Indian railways? What about 'Cape gauge' Garratts? Oh yes, if the chance arose - now unlikely I know.

I find this solution very comfortable - you need plenty of light so hanging a magnifier off the front edge of a shade on an 'anglepoise' mechanism works well. With two 24" daylight fluorescents the illumination is terrific Sadly 'Thousand and One Lamps' (of anglepoise fame) in Bromley have ceased trading, that's where mine came from, in a purchase of 100 I made to supply a visual inspection process, which three years later was successfully automated. A few were retained, most sold to employees; plenty that wanted them, ideal for garage inspection lights among other purposes.

Good guess. This really happens, such that mined coal with the desireable high 'volatiles' content steadily loses the easy ignition the volatiles provide, which is so useful for steam traction economy. If volatiles content falls significantly, a crew will find it more difficult to time firing for those route sections where a major power iincrease is required; because they cannot depend on rapid ignition.

It shouldn't, as it is no more than four rod coupled axles. (The sensible mechanical choice is to drive the leading axle.) The failing of the current Bachmann 03 - which has a decent mechanism as far as the wheels are concerned - is that some mechanical ignoramus put the jackshaft crank representations on cast in pivots on the chassis sides, and slack to boot. Had the jackshafts been on an axle running through the block, exactly as for the wheelsets, it would be fine. (The cast in jackshaft crank pivots 'inherited' from the prior Mainline and Bachmann 03 and 04s were a consequence of the split chassis mechanism used on these earlier models. It's wonderful how a bad idea lives on in consequences after it has been eliminated...)

That problem bit must have had an inclusion or porosity. Request a replacement. This said I have a barbarous implement inherited from my late Pa, about 150W with a bit like a tomahawk, from his days at Philips when he worked on electron microscope development. It's very handy when I need a lot of output for soldering brass church furniture in locations where naked flame is inadvisable. It eats bits like fury, but between employers of my late FiL and myself I have enough bus bar offcuts to fabricate my own.

Clearly from Hornby's position the anticipated answer is going to be 'Yes' to both questions. There's a proven customer base out there that reliably buys what is sold under the Hornby brand label, and as long as this endures the pattern continues When the 'same old tat' disappears from the catalogue, we'll know that the answer has changed to 'No'. And I am equally looking forward to a Trout or three, and the filth will hide the North of the Border stuff...

Quite, and moreover I have found no need for stay alive in my 20 some years with DCC on an all live crossing , metal wheels on all stock, layout operation, even with small 0-6-0T. The advertised attractions of the Lenz 'Uninterruptible Power Supply' unit - based on my previous half a lifetime experience of DC operation led me to purchase and experiment with it, and it did all it said it would. But it proved totally redundant, the DCC constant supply on all metal track reliably 'punches through'; and consequently the Lenz UPS-1 went off to a set track based DCC operation which could use its assistance. And this is a 'horses for courses' matter. If you need it, then use it. If you don't need it, then that's one fewer thing to purchase.

Not least because all the current RTR eight coupled tender loco models, with the sole exception of Heljan's weighty O2, vary between light footed and just about a match for the best of the six coupled MT tender locos. I have added internal weight to O1, O4, and WD to make the pulling as good as the external appearance suggests, and fitted H-D cast metal 8F bodies on the current Hornby 8F chassis, which better exploits the capabilities of these various mechanisms with the 'Hornby Doubly' mash up the champion for traction. Hornby could doubtless match this on a new 8F, as could a competitor or three...

Chassies does it for me, as unambiguous. But a group of chassis is also valid. (It's a term borrowed from French, so we can English it according to personal taste.) If you enjoy building kit mechanisms, then that's one way. Personally, since competent RTR mechanisms came along I have been using these to get good old kit bodies running again. With past experience of building mechanisms it's usually the work of moments to rectify any running problems that have made the s/h price 'right'. The extra weight from metal kit bodies typically enhances tractive performance of the mechanisms when compared to how they ran under lighter plastic bodies. The bonus is selling on the resulting bodies, tenders, bogies etc. , made easier by the brands not regularly selling 'exteriors'. Not unknown for the 'resulting parts' sale to yield as much as the buying in price, "which is nice"... From another crash victim, formerly 34C.😎

Once it is running, how well does it respond to power reduction? The slowest stable crawl it can maintain will be the best start speed it can manage. I wouldn't worry about the electrical side, it runs so that must be OK. Most likely cause is wear in the bearings and gears that has to be overcome on starting, by a motor with pretty feeble torque. These mechanisms were intended for kid's trainset operation, like fast...