34theletterbetweenB&D

Is it a surprise? Everyone is against the idea: except for a few folks of questionable sanity, and no interest whatsoever in discussing alternatives. We may have significant differences of opinion and emphases on causes and possible remedies, but there will be general sympathy arising from our uniform convergence of interest. All rather different from what should be done on our home turf, where there is wide ranging disagreement on a very large number of issues: which range from the simple and trivial yet capable of inspiring passionate feeling, to the exceedingly important which very few can be bothered to study in the depth required to support credibly informed opinion. It's very rare that we converge to any extent here!

What is preserved in an industrial artefact - such as a locomotive - is the realisation of the design. These things were operated commercially in an almost wholly utilitarian fashion, all parts would be replaced as required when worn, broken, corroded or otherwise unfit for purpose, and assemblies at overhaul would use the functional parts to hand without concern for maintaining the original relationships of the components that first emerged from works. As an example, any Kylchap d/c A4 assembly can have the 'Mallard' plates and speed record plaques on it, and would be just as 'authentic' as the one that currently has that kit hung on it.

Loving all the ideas in forced perspective by clever use of scale. Slightly off the question asked, if there is to be a station it will need the proper carriage porch provision so that Maestros, Divas, Batonwaggers, and other assorted creatives can be transported as unruffled as possible from Pullman car to performance venue... The extremely successful Kingsway concert hall in London was right over the Aldwych tube line, and many recordings made there are graced by the subterranean bass accompaniment this provided! Given that many operatic subjects relate to at least one protagonist ending up in the hot place it might be quite appropriate?

... J39, J50, K3, O7. At least you will be home and dry on the N7s, unless Oxford decide to concentrate solely on Hatfield's allocation.

Just imagine if they achieved that overall standard of appearance on a model of the Wainwright D 'Coppertop' 4-4-0. (Quite why no-one has got around to a RTR model of this class as yet baffles me, preserved specimen, elegance second only to the Stirling single, good performers with a very long and successful service history.)

Since a circle of track - or better a small oval - for test purposes can go on a sheet of hardboard and be stored standing vertically, the space limitation is easily overcome. Track with curvature provides an immediate benefit over the rolling road, apart from cheapness, in that it exercises the mechanism in the lateral movements required for operation on anything other than straight plain track. I have never had the slightest difficulty examining a moving mechanism by applying power to the motor directly, so regard the rolling road as a luxury purchase; would rather spend the money on a model or two.

http://mthtrains.com/news/037 Says you can use programme track to change address, I'd give that a whirl first.

The mechanism from any UK model will lose the effect of the bar frames, just will not have all that airspace under the boiler. The most suitable mechanism for an OO model of the S160, is to use the mechanism from an HO model of the USRA light mikado (or one of its post WWI relatives), which has 5'3" drivers. Those drivers in HO come out around 18mm diameter, for a near enough scale wheel diameter and coupled wheelbase in OO on which to place a kit S160 body. But that is very rarefied territory nowadays, few indeed up for the cutting and adapting such a project would entail.

Further to what DCMarvel suggests, just slacking off the keeper plate screw at the front end will probably be enough to give the front coupled wheelset that bit more vertical travel, so that it maintains rail contact reliably. Avoids loosening anything around the drive line. The fact that both your Hornby 9F's stalled makes me think you have a 'peak' in the rail top profile on the crossover where this trouble occurs. The Peco insulated rail joiner often produces this effect. Sighting along a steel straightedge laid on the rail tops should show you if this is the case. The insulated wheel on the Hornby 9F chassis is uniquely suited to finding this out!

I believe it comes down to the space available and your own ambitions. If you have sufficient space to use curve radii larger than set track provides and would like to do that thing; then leave the set track as the 'get something running' phase to entertain your four year old, and start from a clean sheet with a flexi track system. It is actually more work to integrate flexitrack pieces into a set track layout, than to do the same job all flexitrack; and if you can achieve the integration succesfully then you have the skills to go all flexitrack.

Press C (=clear) then zero twice to get 00, and press enter. That sets to the analogue 00 address. (Alternatively you could press clear and then cycle through the entire address list using '+', and enter when you find 00, but that's likely to be many more keystrokes.) The rest as you describe, loadsa 4's, then two minute power off.

What I would suggest is that if there is any prototype that appeals to your son among the diesel types that now have RTR models with current standard drives, then buy it and try it before spending cash and putting in any effort on old power bogies. It need not be very expensive. Here's a real steal from a major retailer. Pretty typical of current product, and in every respect it blows into the weeds everything made in plastic bodied OO before 2000. http://www.hattons.co.uk/62750/Heljan_2660_Class_26_0_diesel_D5300_in_BR_green_with_semi_gloss_finish/StockDetail.aspx

Quite simply, you mash in the ratio of swede (carrot, onion, leek, kale, spinach, savoy cabbage, parsnip, celeriac, pumpkin, squash, etc.) to potato that gives you the result you like! I have never measured it, but would reckon that with milder flavoured veg between a third and a half the weight of potato, somewhat less with the more strongly flavoured veg like swede, parsnip and onion: you want to be able to taste both the potato and the vegetable(s) mashed in. Personal favourites are carrot and a little onion/leek, celeriac and chive/shallot, kale or spinach with some nutmeg. It would be a rare week in the winter months when a 'stamppot' (that's the Dutch term) of this sort wasn't served in our house.

The swinging component 'at the top' is the expansion link, and the drive that makes it swing comes from the now bent 'eccentric rod'. As already observed the eccentric crank is now well out of position, may well have been moved to that incorrect position once the expansion link was jammed up under the footplate and the eccentric rod started bending. If you want to try repositioning the eccentric crank as 'toboldlygo' suggests, then the eccentric rod needs to completely straightened as well. This is because any bend will effectively shorten it, and that means that the expansion link can be pulled further back than it should be, which may result in a repeat incident. You may well find that the locating hole in the eccentric crank has been so much rounded off by its displacement that it will not properly locate any longer on the flats on the crankpin and just flops about, if so best to return to vendor.

Cough - Mirrlees - cough. All the Brush 2's went into service with this engine, later TOPS class 30. This 'class 31' of which people speak, doesn't exist at all until the start of replacement of the Mirrlees engines with EE units with the consequent exterior changes already mentioned, at some later time. Perhaps more significant to appearance is that D5511 is one of the 20 pilot scheme locos, with the small vent above the cab only, rather than the headcode box of the production run. That made them look very different, generally known as the 'skinheads' to the group I mixed with.

The basis of authentic prophecy is that it is true if absolutely correct, false if it fails in even the smallest detail. I don't reckon that powered flight, hormonal contraception or Mars bars will fail in C21. So it's random thouights of which only some will be fulfilled.

How I agree with the above. The Chubb equivalent has the bolt cast in our old friend mazak, and they break off if too much force is regularly applied - as in having to move the door slightly to align the bolt with the bolt hole.

Stepping away from Dapol's investment for a moment There's going to be cross-subsidy within any given range. It is perfectly true that a model tooled up and on sale 'before the price rises' that has fully recovered its research and tooling investment and made a profit, could then be sold at a much lower price than a newly tooled model introduction with equivalent content, that has to be sold at a price to first achieve investment recovery and then turn a profit. But instead of that, what you do is apply a pricing model that 'spreads the pain' over the entire range. The most dramatic price rises are on the smaller and cheaper items like wagons; especially the small four wheeled types tooled over fifteen years ago and which have sold in wheelbarrow-load quantities since then. There's a one piece moulded body, running gear assembly of circa twenty-five parts onto a moulded plastic frame, maybe three paint stages, two part packaging, done. Not too much hand assembly content in short. Which brings us to what Dapol might just take on. They already have some good legacy steam era wagon tooling covering types not otherwise available, and sell the bodies only for a small price at present. The running gear has been the weakness. Upgrade that aspect, and between relatively little of the expensive hand assembly that such product requires, and the much increased prices on Chinese production of equivalent items, there might be an opportunity. Wait and see...

The turnbuckles for your Quin set will be for the truss rod bracing, four per vehicle body. Cannot name a current source for suitable brass lost wax castings, but someone here is bound to know.

Considerations of whether it is on a plane surface apart... This has come up before, but cannot quickly find my way to any postings on here referring to it. The example I had that showed this effect, it was the seating of the front driving axle bearings in the block that was the problem, they were not going all the way home. (Tool wear reducing the size of the locations for the bearings? But why not equally affecting all the axles?) So the loco was supported on the front and rear drivers. A little material removed within the front bearing locations, and all straight and level, all tyres in rail contact.

Actually I feel that's adequately described as a cab forward, oil fired, double boiler Fairlie articulated, if it is all simple expansion as the cylinder sizes imply. A double boiler Fairlie doesn't need 'Garratt' added to the name, and if you take off the outer engine units that make the illustrated scheme more 'articulated' than the pair of Fairlie bogies that make it a Fairlie, that's clearly what you have, a double boiler Fairlie. Think that's fairly clear. Then if it is a compound, we might come to 'cab forward, oil fired, double boiler Fairlie-Mallet'. (Most North American so called 'Mallet' locos are no such thing as 'Mallet' requires compounding - the N&W Y6 types for example were true Mallet types - and are simply 'articulated' locomotives, as no specific designer name ever got attached to this scheme AFAIK.) Wonderful fun whatever it is named. You might want to put your name to it as designer, for a more compact title...

I think you are in luck, as Bach are listing the Stressed Peel High Density set, later class 117. As for the question of why the focus on BR''s 57' DMU's? Could it be nothing more than these are mostly twin sets, while the numerous classes of 64' DMU's are (correct me if wrong) all three and up? There's the 'double whammy' here of not just more models for a set adding to the retail price, but the unfortunate timing of only getting around to these after the escalation in prices (causes various). They ain't going to be the frankly excellent value represented by the one time £70 a throw price of the Cravens bogcart twins suitable for my interest...

Something that has been very helpful and has undoubtedly prevented much mishap over the years in other industries with safety critical operations, is the practise of providing a secure anonymous error reporting facility. Would that already be in place in rail operations generally, and if not, why not?

Me too. The really, really, yellow brick of Kings Cross station and much early GNR construction is very difficult to make a convincing job of, as per other posts here. The trouble it seems to me is that it is just so improbable. There's that fresh mustard yellow base colour, and then all the other brick colours imaginable, here, there and everywhere, mainly thanks to the very crude 'clamp' firing: you can even find blue-purple fused patches. I have in the past gone down the route of mustard yellow, coated all over with a dark grey-brown filth, which isn't really quite right but doesn't offend the eye overmuch. It needs a sensitive artist's eye for colour palette, which I have not got...

LMR's 46237 City of Bristol, was operated on WR in spring 1955 to provide comparison data for the King class modifications to enable the Cornish Riviera to be acclerated to a 4 hour schedule.