34theletterbetweenB&D

Suspect you would have an easier project using the hoped for GBL A1/A2 body on the running gear! And you would still have the Trix body to use, with guidance from the GBL body prototype, if that first attempt didn't work out to your satisfaction.

Not so much now the Bachmann A2 is freely available. The rarity of BP helps, but I think you will do well to get much over £100, unless your auction - and that is the only way to get the real value - happens to attract two or more determined Trix completists. Don't delay either, as most of such folk will have been drawing pensions for some time.

Ah, celebrity. I know two - extremely talented both of them who have won well deserved recognition for their work- and am amazed at their ability to 'turn it off' and pass unnoticed in public places. The lady tells me that she just acts the way she always did, before anyone knew her from Eve, and that still works. "I imbibe early every day from the zygoner energy levels of the ethereal planes until the universe is in cosmic harmony - you should be very grateful to me for this service to all life." As nearly as I can recall it that's what the whackiest celeb I have ever encountered confided to me. I resisted the temptation to set the back of her dress alight, and then tell her that the thermonuclear furnace in her posterior appeared to be out of control...

That has to be a 'let's do the Peppercorn pacifics, from whichever available model can be got most cheaply at the time we need to measure up for tooling'. The mag content to cover both classes as they have so much commonality. I doubt it will be the Trix, as those that are in good enough condition tend to be expensive. Makes the Hornby A1 the most likely in my opinion, as these have been available very economically, with Bach's A2 in second place. If it's any good these will go fast, as there's a lot of potential for Thompson conversions among other things; and at £9 plus a readily found suitable s/h mechanism not an expensive project to obtain a 'big engine'. I'm tempted by thoughts of a 4'8" wheel 2-10-2 from an A1 - it fits very neatly with the cylinders about 6mm forward - and really looks the business.

I use actual rust as a reference from some heavily corroded angle iron that a previous property owner once employed to reinforce fencing. Match matt paint to this colour and apply. I 'splodge on' stencil style with a brush with short bristles. Pound up some of the real rust in a pestle and mortar really fine, blow on to wet paint to add a little texture. Why did these wagons corrode so badly? It's not that they were carrying sulphur compound leaching coal, which had such spectacular effects on the 16T, 20T etc. steel bodied minerals. Many of them you could see entire panels had nearly lost all paint, while adjacent panels were well protected. Suggests to me that either the steel quality was inconsistent, or the paint prep and application process was inadequate, or a bit of both.

...and there you have it: while Bachmann's track record is generally good, such that I would expect the new body to be better than the near 25 year old tooling; there's no guarantee that the new body will be free from errors.

That's the arrangement, it is a standard rigid frame UK design. The back end really would throw over more than the front, but only after all the lateral flexibility in the rigid chassis element was taken up. Most plain track curvature on the prototype is sufficiently large radius that this would not occur, but in a small yard with necessarily tight curvature it would be visible. You want to observe at a location where the loco never moves above walking pace to the accompaniment of much flange squealing and grunting sounds from the suspension and bogie pivoting arrangements. As a model, it could better the Hornby M7 which has the motor and decoder socket and void just where it shouldn't be, over the driven wheels. Fill all the space above the driven axles with solid ballast, and use the rear of the model for motor and decoder tackle, is the way forward. All that said, the Hornby M7 is a very good performer on level track; any sort of gradient finds it out however.

Not a good bellwether! The V2 body shape is still the lumpen deformity that it has been from its launch as a split chassis model when Bachmann first entered the UK market in the early 1990s. The only new element is the loco mechanism, an adequate rather than stellar replacement for the original split chassis, which was about the worst of all that type!

For the late 50's - 1960s period I was a little young to appreciate these nuances, but I do remember the major change in the early sixties when seemingly the 'little' tank wagons disappeared very rapidly to be replaced by physically much more imposing 35t and then 45T units, followed by the bogie 100 tonners by the end of the sixties. I think that was the most striking transition in freight handling; from Victorian standard to contemporary inside a decade. Memory insists, and photos typically confirm, that significant movements of tankers by steam power- which certainly happened on the ECML in the late fifties and early sixties - the tankers were well away from the loco, like half the train. Fitted heads were often clearly arranged, the train running under class D or E lamps as a part fitted freight. Whether this was normal everywhere, I cannot say, but it does look like a sensible decision: let's have a whole heap of (barrier) wagons between tankers and steam loco.

Hope all are well, (having just returned from the land the internet forgot) had some excellent fun with a steam loco at Beamish, their replica 'Puffing Billy'. Definitely going back in the hope of catching the replica 'Steam Elephant' in operation. Had no idea these working replicas existed.

It's been observed before by a railway officer that the Gresley A1 - lighter than the Britannia - might have been tried once BR had done the line upgrade work that the LNER could never afford, to permit a 20T axleload locomotive on the GER mainline. But that of course would have robbed Mr Riddles of the 'showground' for his new design... Anyone interested in this class who hasn't already read Bill Harvey's excellent summary account of the time he spent with the Brits at Norwich should do so. He was well pleased with them as maintainable tractive units for the GER line turns, but on the evidence presented it is perhaps fortunate that the end of steam came when it did, for this class' reputation. He observed that the lack of a cylinder block between the frames deprived the locomotive - uniquely among UK types for one of its power class - of a massive and very efficient frame stay just where it did most good, with some already observable effects on both the frame and engine components.

It is a tournament of the entrenched establishment worthies. The USA's sporting tradition at law - biggest team in this game on the planet, vs. Rest of the World's kickabout administration squad - biggest game on the planet. It will go into extra-extra time, and then a neutral territory replay. At least. With any luck the outcome will be as good as the 'collision of two worlds' joke: The lawyer, the pheasant, the farmer, and home turf rules apply.

What an excellent Mondegreen. That's going straight in the memory bank in case I ever discover a cheap working 52 and buy it for the layout. It'll need custom plates of course: 'Western Isedrelic', which will probably pass all but the sharpest enthusiast without comment.

Newly returned from getting a monster quote for clearing up leaked heating oil (vandals - unknown) which is at least still safely contained in the bund, and hoping that one of the other two contractors might just come up with something more reasonable... Lovely day for it though, and I did appreciate the offer of 'Will 7 a.m. suit you?', almost like living in New England again...

Well of course you are. But if the copyright owners consider that features of what you are selling such as a face, livery and number closely enough resemble 'Thomas' they are free to do as they choose in bringing an action against you. Keep in mind that their deep pockets will probably buy some very effective legal representation.

This is another subject with similarities to the B12 in terms of quantity of past product readily available. Four manufacturers offering versions at various times over the past thirty (or more?) years with the more recent models supplanting the earlier efforts. I would have thought that most folks with modelling intentions toward this class would very likely have already picked up s/h oldies as the opportunity offered, with the likely benefits of choice of liveries, some or all mechanism components present.

The Invacar was a definite candidate there.

Bee swarm! That was fun. I called an ex-colleague who now chairs the county honey bunch society and doubles as swarm collector, and got the irresistible opportunity to answer his question 'how big are they? with 'ooh, about half an inch' . I expect I have earned myself a big black mark somewhere... Fiery is what you want. Grill fillet or other tender cut of choice lightly. Pour over the Fiery stuff and ignite. When extinction occurs, leave cut in warm place to rest while the fluid in the bottom of the grill pan is further reduced to form a delicious jus. Combine and consume. Typically the higher the paintstripper quality the spirit approaches, the better is the end result after combustion, in my experience. Anyone know of defintie exceptions?

Because the J38 has no splashers to 'give the game away', the mechanism from the Bachmann Jinty 3F tank can go under and looks very well indeed. Derby's 8'+8'6", instead of 8'+9', right size wheel diameter, new balance weights required. Did one of these for a friend, and it looks very well indeed; most will never perceive that there is 6" missing from the loco wheelbase, and that the wheelbase proportions are slightly wrong if the end wheelsets axle centres are positioned 3" inside the actual axle centres. There are other errors too for a J38 as built, but in later years the two classes boilers got all stirred up...

The shorter wheelbase and under diameter wheels issue with the T-H mechanism has already been mentioned. You cannot take the Wills kit as a guide, well, certainly not the version I had in the early 1970s. Wills had adapted the J39 body dimensions to the shorter and not identically proportioned T-H wheelbase in order that the wheels aligned with the splashers; with 'adjustment' to the rest of the body work so that key features lined up with the altered splasher positions. In short - ah, that says it all. The Bachmann J39 is a scale model, and the alternative available RTR chassis that best fits is found under the J11; all of a scale inch overlength in overall wheelbase at 17'1", and about a scale 1" mismatch at worst between axle and splasher arc centres by 'sharing out' the positional errors most equitably, the nominal 5'2" wheels dead right for diameter. (In their usual style Bachmann have made the wheels 20mm diameter, so effectively in maximum tyre wear condition, as this then results in wheelsets which are scale diameter over the flanges, permitting the splashers to be as near scale as possible.) Having got my J39 split chassis into well used condition, I took the opportunity to replace this mechanism with a new one from a J11. The split chassis mechanism for the J39 is very slimline, and I had to shave the interior of the firebox area quite significantly until it was 'waffer thin' to permit entry of the J11 mechanism.

Early risen today for an interment of ashes at 6am (funeral several weeks ago) for a gentleman who arrived in this world at this hour and this day ninety three years ago, and spent much of his life starting work in the early morning, and thought he would like to spread the joy around. It was dry and bright which made it pleasant, and most of the family were there. I used to love taking an early shift turn at this time of year when in a job where Iwas standing management cover. The UK champion for this approach appears to be Morrisons. We'll generally just pile it randomly in heaps on the aisle floors, but anywhere that it is possible to muck up the circulation properly we'll make an effort to ensure no trolley will pass easily...

Well, I had the profound satisfaction of swearing at the Archdeacon yesterday evening. That makes up for a lot of things. Also saw an old acquaintance being sworn in for his fortieth successive year. Wonder if that's a record? (Churchwardening today in the CoE you know...) The accounts of those either themself, or their loved ones, succumbing to injury or illness is always sad and has my sympathy. But so long as the person concerned can show a life well lived, never a complete tragedy. Very often the full character is most revealed when the difficulty occurs, and we have some very fine examples here. I recall often an excellent sermon taking Hobbes famed phrase and asserting that we should - in the West especially - be endlessly grateful for our lives: amply sociable, relatively rich, comfortable, civilised, but still short. Seize the day in other words: use these considerable advantages to get done what is needful and more; because despite all the progress the time we have is unknowable. It's a messy process. Illustration follows. What sort of accident are they going to have?

I hasten to exonerate daylight - or indeed any light other than that obtained from direct combustion of a candle or similar - of a role in the deposition of track dirt! Now, the good news. A dedicated separate building for a model railway results in far less track dirt build up than if the same layout is operated in a house. Simply fewer human beings and pests/pets (according to taste) shedding skin and hair cells, and dispersing general muck into the atmosphere. (This is the 'exhibition effect' where loads of people circulating around layouts means that the dirt build up on the layout rails is much greater than in a normal operating session with just a few operators present.) If you avoid carpet on the floor of the shed, and wear as little non-fluffing clothing as possible, you will add to that advantage; textile fibre is one major source of 'dirt' that affects model railway kit. Ban plastic wheels and traction tyres from the shed layout, and lubricate sparingly using grease as much as possible, and you will find little track cleaning necessary once the manufacturing residues have polished off both new rail and new wheel tyres. I keep a separate test track to run new locos and stock until any residues are removed, before release to unrestricted layout use.

Sorry about that; forgot the ellipsis. Indeed not, but the grate area is the determinant of what is required, in both air admission to support full combustion, and the passage of combustion gas, if the boiler is properly designed; so FGA does not need to appear as it is a restatement of grate area! Grate area is the fundamental measure of the capabilty to boil water, if all else is equal in the quality of the boiler design. What should substitute for FGA in the calculation is a factor proportional to superheater ratio, as this is where further energy is added to the steam. When it is considered what performance gain is observed (with no change in net FGA by alteration of the flue arrangements) from a saturated loco's performance by the addition and increase in size of a superheater it is very strange that this is omitted from a power assessment system! The remaining significant factors are 'bundled' in the tractive effort estimate - again with the assumption that the design quality is equivalent or nearly so.

Given that all technical advances in OO are provided from proven solutions from HO, is there an off the shelf solution for long coaches of awkward configuration? Thinking a mechanism that enables them to be externally to scale, but provides for an effective pivot point not on the bogie centre but further inboard, in order to 'share out' the overhang between ends and centre sufficiently to avoid fouling stock on concentric curves on set track layouts?