34theletterbetweenB&D

What is seen on the rolling road is a dynamic summing of the errors in both moving systems as they interact, and there may even be excitation of resonances in either or both systems. In comparison, the single moving system on the stable and well damped rails shows very little effect. If the rolling road unit can be run on similar rails, it too would probably run steadily. Observed on the steam test plants elsewhere in the world also. Too late for the steam age, it required better understanding of dynamics and the availability of fast computing to model what was going on; technique that developed in the aero industry particularly, and is now widespread in engineering. The out of balance forces that direct drive steam locos create are well damped by the track, which has no significant resonance with the peak frequencies the locomotive generates. On a frame with rollers for the loco to run on, it all becomes rather too 'exciting' (pun intended) as resonances are pretty much bound to occur. (The old marching column of soldiers ordered to break step for safety when on a beam bridge: and see also wind excitation of resonance, the famous Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge failure, flexing to destruction once the wind speed was 'just right' to drive the bridge at a resonant frequency.)

'Lights on' means that the main board has track power, which is good news. (Assumption being made here, that this is a standard loco as supplied by Bachmann, despite being s/h.) Most likely cause is a poor and thus intermittent electrical connection, if the motor cannot be heard running. Remove the body securing screws, and take the body off. Now look at the top of the mechanism, there is (should be!) a fairly long circuit board on it. Top location for a poor connection from the symptoms described: the two wires which run from terminals either side near the middle of the board to supply the motor; usually labelled 'M+' and 'M-'. Put the mechanism on track and apply power at a low setting, wiggle each of these wires in turn. If there is a burst of actvity from the motor, there's your poor connection to rectify. There are many other potential problem locations, too many to describe concisely. Provided there is no smell of fried electrical/electronic device inside, it is likely to be something pretty simple.

It's a pretty substantial hack to restore it to round top boiler form - the motor will fit under if the superfluous tackle on top of it is relocated - as the cab front and interior all have to be altered significantly. Looked at this with friend, who decided against taking the plunge, because the model as it stood looked so good.

Which on a side note had some of the best station idents ever devised. Long ago a group of us were wont to listen to Radio Tirana's regular English language slot to the oppressed and downtrodden slaves, and nearly die laughing; then follow that with some Veronica to assess which system we preferred...

Two consecutive days of warm weather, and it's kicked off here too. Parent Bluetit in our flowering cherry calling to the juveniles in the box right now. Just done my bit to disrupt nature by chasing off a carrion crow (once you put bird boxes up, you've fiddled with 'red in tooth and claw' so why not go the distance?). And I need my titmice employees to keep the insect larvae off the soft fruit, something at which they are very efficient. Flutterby heaven too. Peacock and Red Admirals regularly about, and pretty sure that there were both Comma and what looked suspiciously like a Painted Lady yesterday afternoon, neither willing to come close enough for a real inspection. Also the very first drone overfight of my garden that I have observed, straight across at some speed heading due North and (disappointingly) easily clearing the 30m crowns of the oak tree belt to the North of the garden.

Substitute a shorter drawbar (I had to make one, with hole centres 10mm apart) to get the cab floor extension over the tender frames and it will look yet better. Hornby have put a nifty cut out in the rear of the floor to clear around the brake pillar, and the resulting 5mm between the cab and tender handrails looks right compared to photographs. It is still 'lose' on a 24" radius curve. I remain very impressed with the traction Hornby have achieved on this model with no need for traction tyres, thanks to a good mechanism layout and additional metal in the construction. The right design clever.

I may boast in depth experience of this class of problem in manufacturing. Did Lima annotate or document the tooling combinations and if so how? Are all, most or some of these docs available and comprehensible? Is it possibly all inside the heads of Antonio and Giovanni? (The tools were never intended to be used outside the Lima organisation.) Are some of the tools lost, damaged or degraded making some of the permutations now impossible? There are many possible explanations, which Hornby will probably never reveal. [Tangent] My prize war story on this front: directed to get a final batch of spares made for a product, from a heap of tooling transferred to the UK from Belgium. Documentation in a steel cabinet that had stood underwater judging by the rust stained heaps of paper sludge inside. Tooling corroded in places, and two of the machinery crates had either fallen off a truck or been run into by one. Gave my best estimate of the time and cost to evaluate what we had for feasibility of production, which was rejected as unacceptable, asked for one of the Belgian engineering employees responsible to provide key guidance. He was 'unavailable', and apparently had been the only one who knew anything. Then in a completely unrelated happening, was sent to the new centralised logistics facility (awarded one kick in the pants for calling it a warehouse) and there discovered sufficient existing spares to service the likely demand for a decade or more, that just hadn't yet been entered on the new sparing management system - because it was low priority as an 'end of product life' line. One of the best 'get out of jail free' cards in my career. [/Tangent]

It was the 'amazingly no injuries were reported' in the accompanying text that had me raising my eyebrows. 'Nothing to see here, move along now'.

That'll be a precondition for pension rights and issue of a bus pass then?

Such a lottery: he could find himself in a truly competitive car when there's great racing, because three teams - or more - have championship potential car and driver combinations. After his F1 start, you wouldn't have bet against Fred only getting those two championships, Massa never getting one at all after getting squeezed out early in his career by Hammy...

These were early introductions by Bachmann sometime in the 1990s, to much the same standard as the ex-Mainline tooling from which most of the coaches then offered were made. As such they predate the considerable advance in product standard that Bachmann introduced as 'Blue Riband'. By all accounts they didn't sell at that time; and were then absent from the range completely for a clear decade or thereabouts.( In illustration of which, acquired all I will ever need in a long ago conversation with a dealer in which he asked me to check if they were glued to the shelves. After some discussion, I had the 20-some in stock at under half the sticker price. About £90...)

One of the great simple methods. Combine with a double pole slide switch with a hole drilled through the operating peg to engage the coathangar wire end bent at a right angle, and there's a way to switch the crossing as well.

It's an entirely different business plan if a new trader is faced with a rent or mortgage, which overhead the present business may not be carrying; as already observed above. And is there much chance of finding a purchaser with the breadth of experience to make the stock serving so many different interests 'perform' and generate the essential turnover? I'd be very wary of a potential expert competitor in just one of the hobbies seeing the opportunity of an established retailer bowing out, and opening in an efficient industrial unit with all new stock.

Just my opinion, but the transition period 'has it all', which will do much to sustain it. Infrastructure back to the dawn of railways in use unchanged, and everything built after; traction and stock designs well over a half century old still in routine service, and preserved 'oldies' allowed out for a run with no difficulty; and the new traction and stock designs that are still to be seen now, appearing and going into service, (and sometimes not long after to the scrap lines). On the N7 I hope we get the full selection, Belpaire and round top, as the original material suggested. The Belpaire version may have been declining in numbers by the time BR came along, but they were in service, and variety (see above para.) is a major attraction for me.

Tres ancien joke, relating to the Southern end of The Great North Road before it was dualled/motorway upgraded. On leaving the centre of the Universe the signs read Barnet and The North, Hatfield and The North, Stevenage and The North, Baldock and The North, Biggleswade and The North. But on passing Biggleswade there was no further direction to 'The North', therefore one had arrived at that destination. (Supplementary: after 'The North' was 'The Far North' then 'The Uttermost North' and then - Scotland.) The old Great North Road - before the upgrade to dual carriageway and then motorway - it might be added was a hideously dangerous route. Apart from the pre WWII 'Barnet Bypass' - Stirling Corner, Mill Hill to Hatfield - which was easily the finest stretch of dual carriageway in the UK when constructed (so good that Tim Birkin made his 'Blower Bentley' mods in a Welwyn Garden City workshop across the railway from 'Shredded Wheat', for the easy access to the only stretch of UK public road which in any way approached the potential of the Mulsanne straight for high speed testing) it was succeeded by a long stretch of three lane road. 'One lane for going up to town, one lane for coming down from town, one lane to die in'. The accident rate was fearful and at night with quite literally single track country lanes making unsigned right angle junctions to this major artery, 'smash ups' were an everyday occurence. (One of the post WWII doctors at Welwyn's Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital wrote a memoir describing how often the morgue ran out of space.) North of Stevenage it was mostly two track, with Baldock memorably having two right angle bends in quick succession, the road hemmed about with wood framed jettied cottages and practically no pavements! Some optimist had black and white chequering painted on the kerbing, to guide the traveler through. And so one proceeded to Biggleswade, and on passing through this town was in 'The North'. Well, definitely in Bedfordshire, which may be South, East, Midlands or North: it mattered not, in the 1950s it was in the middle ages.

LMS Coke Hoppers are the relatively new product. Might be clues in this thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105444-Hornby-announce-the-lmsbr-20-ton-coke-wagon/?hl=%2Blms+%2Bcoke+%2Bhopper

Yup. Judging from the photographs, a slight shortening of the low hanging pick ups will do the job, probably achieveable by putting a small bend or crimp - to be determined by experiment - in each of the four. Once the lowest part of the pick up wiper is above the railhead, job's done, and that's very little change in position required. (It's an inept job by the designer and completely unnecessary, a regular flat keeper plate with the wipers arranged ib=n the usual position as seen on the leading wheelset, and a clip on moulded plastic box to represent the ashpan would be one way to do it.)

As already remarked it should be shrapnel from the AA rounds, and hopefully downed aircraft, ideally still with bombload on board which are significantly hazardous. There was a major problem in heavy AA battery positioning. This was the conflict between the political and military objectives. Militarily, the intent is to damage, destroy and disrupt formations of fully loaded aircraft, long before they reach any target; ideally in open country where the guns are not a worthwhile target, may be systematically arranged so that the battery fire is unavoidable, and whatever comes down will have minimal effect. Politically, there is a powerful desire to make it evident that 'we are shooting back': and that led to siting of heavy AA piecemeal within populated target areas, not optimally efficient.

And KS Models is in Stevenage old town - again with 'ancient settlement on the Great North Road, horse change point, many Inns' - which is still quite charming. Rather fitting really, trad model shop, trad high street. Only opens Thursday to Saturday though so not so convenient. This is a 'not only but also' destination: once the residence of Sir Nigel Gresley and with the duck pond on which lived the ducks. Passed to the De Havilland company when he vacated on being widowed. De Hav's used it as the 'quiet retreat' development base where the Mosquito concept was worked up.

Take a stroll around and you will pick up some of the pattern. One long roughly North East-South West runway, the taxiways and 'apron' to the East (A1 side) where the production buildings and hangars stood. There was even a model railway club, whose layout 'Havil' was the first example I ever saw of a scale model railway. Still exists, installed in WGC's Methodist Church. http://www.dhmrs.co.uk/index.html

The tragedy of Hatfield. The small ancient town on the 'Great North Road' still exists in part - where it wasn't maniacally attacked by 'planners' post WWII - East of the Railway Station. Here you will find the Jacobean Hatfield House, still in private hands, and alongside one wing of the earlier Hatfield Palace. These are of national importance, Princess Elizabeth Tudor was there when she came to the throne on the death of bloody Mary, and the Cecils and their descendants have played a modest part in our national political set up for some time. The park gates facing the station site enabled the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury to proceed directly to his private up side waiting room: not that this was required when Parliament was in session as the GNR kept a single and carriage to whisk him express to KX: reputedly in seventeen minutes, a service unmatched since. The old town, up the side of the hill with St Etheldredas on top, still retains some charm. Among other mentions Bill Sykes is imagined by Darles Chickens as taking an ale in one of the still existing pubs. There were many of these as it was a horse change point on the Great North Road, as this major road followed a truly tortuous route through the little town. The station is a sterile wasteland when compared to the old establishment with its three platform heights, four sgnal boxes, a loco shed serving the country end of the inner suburban service and three branchlines, a busy goods yard and rail served business, and the entire fast GN line services roaring by behind the mighty pacifics in a Grand Parade of Flamboyant Velocity, Miles Beevor anything that could be seen eleswhere on the UK's railways. The once charming and stylish buildings of the De Havilland company still stand in part North of Galleria, to the west of what had been the A1. The airfield site from which first flew the DH88 racer, the Mosquito, Comet, Sea Vixen and Trident, and where the mind buggeringly loud, super effective and reliable Blue Streak rocket motor was developed and tested, now all lost under the boring and undistinguished buildings suited to modern commerce. Sigh.

Whoa! Most likely not the bogies from that fault description, but one of the drive coupler cups that seats in the flywheel slipping. A much simpler place to start investigating. They are just a push fit as assembled, a dab of cyano will secure if one is loose. The bogies have to come out to investigate this, so you are not losing any time...

Not least of the aspects of Bach's mechanism design that I value, are the relatively short curved wipers positioned neatly on the rear of the flange, and thus very well concealed, easy to adjust and efficient in action. (Hornby have recently adopted this style, which is progress.) Without having seen the model but based on Melmerby's clear description, it sounds to me that the wipers on the centre and rear coupled wheels need to be arranged so that the fixed point of each wiper is at the bottom, and the curved wiper then goes upwards to make contact on the wheelback well away from any fouling risk on the track, as per usual. I would suggest whatever is the most demanding RTR track system available to the target market. Peco 75 probably? Anyone modifying track in any way shape or form from this point, or buying or building and using something more demanding, you are on your own! (And you will have the skills anyway.) I totally agree with the sentiment seen in several posts that in respect of what are fine scale appearance model productions, the ancient OO set track is not of matching standard, and is long past sell by date as the sole yardstick of any model's running performance. My own position is that I don't expect RTR OO to perform out of the box on bespoke copperclad pointwork pieces. The fact that it generally does with very few giving trouble is cause for some gratitude on my part.

If they were not in situ already, I'd say use the whole summer to 'bake' them thoroughly outdoors. I used plasticine to make tuns and other loads and then dried them before humbrol paint was applied, and it was fine. Admittedly this was with 1960's formulation plasticine, but I wasn't aware it had changed.

Is the Replica Railways MU chassis dimensionally close enough to fit? http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/die-cast-chassis