34theletterbetweenB&D

Quite possibly. You need input from someone knowledgeable about available N gauge product. Do you have a good retailer anywhere local - ideally one you have purchased product from - who you might ask for help? (There is very effective split axle current collection on some OO product for coach lighting and the like, and hopefully this is available in N gauge.) I have gathered from your input that you really want to go electro-mechanical and drive the vehicles using DC, so I'll check out now.

Recycling bins, please... And this only after prolonged efforts to re-use, repair and repurpose.

Yes, I should have added that the system power has to be DCC. The loco can collect on all wheels and responds to commands on its address, the transporter wagon rails are live at all times, and the wagon only moves when the decoder on board receives commands. However: Probably not. Independent control then: run your OO9 from track power, and the wagon:

What I am suggesting is simplification of both current collection and transmission. The loco has to have reliable current collection for the operation to work, that's a given. The combination of weight on the driven wheels and the drive to the wheels typically makes pick up from a loco more reliable than from undriven wheels. The transporter wagons must have some contacter arrangement to deliver power to the OO track. That can as easily be mounted on the loco and wagon as on the static layout and wagon, as there are conductive couplers available. With the loco and wagon coupled, the operation can be tested for function independent of the transfer location. Essentially fewer places to look for any problem that arises.

'Production line expedient' is the term you are looking for. Big pile of tender bodies, produced and painted, just lacking the attachment points for assembly, and no way of shipping the locos without a tender. Major pat on the head goes to whoever organises a quick, cheap and dirty fix which solves this problem and has the end product in boxes and out to retail distribution without delay.

On the basis that the whole project fails unless the NG traction works, and therefore that needs reliable pick up, I would suggest the loco is used to continuously supply power to the OO gauge rails on the transporter wagon. This is predicated on use of DCC which has the major advantage of power always on at full voltage which provides very reliable current collection.

The significant observation is 'low centre of gravity': and that's relative to almost all vehicles other than lowmacs that it might come into contact with. In the event of a rough shunt it would be likely to lift an adjacent wagon.

Put it in a labelled box and test it when you have a DCC system, starting with a reset. Decoders can glitch occasionally; very good advice from a German retailer getting on 20 years ago was that a decoder malfunction with no evidence of damage to the decoder - visual or by smell of toasting components - was always worth a few reset attempts. I have 'rescued' a good few which have gone on operating as they should ever since. And even if a decoder has developed a fault, it can still be useful; in my case employed for controlling coach lighting.

More likely to be the mechanism causing the poor running in one direction. Do you have an 8pin blanking plug available? If so unplug the decoder, and insert the blanking plug and test as a DC loco. No blanking plug ? - then turn the decoder plug around in the socket and test again. If the poor running remains in the same direction, then the problem is on the mechanism.

What I found interesting as a teen concerning the development of the railway, was the progressive advances obtained by integrating numerous technical inventions and business practises. While this is common to all industry and business, the railway is more easily visible and accessible than most. The underlying message of continuing change as essential to progress was valuable throughout my career.

These two organisations were probably at the forefront in establishing standards and appropriate inspection schemes: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap11684/manchester-steam-users-association https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap14641/british-engine-insurance-ltd Run time extension is the logical reason, but I suspect the method was to add cold water to the supply as drawn from the pressure vessel, to bring the pressure down to the range for which the valve gear and cylinder size was optimised. All fireless locos were charged with high pressure hot water. A charge of dry steam would yield no useful range.

You and me both! That name is one of the most stylish from the Doncaster pacific collection too; as anyone who has seen Bronzino's 'The Lady in Green' (appropriate, huh?) in the Royal Collection can confirm.

In absence of other answers, I very much doubt it. Simply too different in design, such that the HST content of a reasonably accurate midland pullman would be a single digit percentage. Triang and Kitmaster BP items a better bet if wanting a basis for a DIY project.

Learn a new thing every day.

Regarding the fitted welded coal hoppers that ran in fixed sets up to North London from 1958, those I saw on ER and MR were branded HOUSE COAL CONCENTRATION or CHARRINGTONS. Were other business names to be seen on these, and when did this traffic go extinct?

The Airfix GMR coupler mounting is actually compatible-ish with the Bachmann longer screw on type miniature tension lock. With 'a little dimensional adjustment' of the coupler rear it can be made to fit very neatly. But read on. The straightforward fact is that there is no standardised pattern for UK tension locks. On my return to OO I tested the miniature tension locks then in production and readily available : Bachmann, Hornby, and that's your lot. They were incompatible with each other if truly reliable operation was required. Either was reliable if used exclusively. Since the Bachmann type outnumbered the Hornby 20 : 1, that's what I settled on for my wagon fleet, and they have performed as expected to this day, 23 years on. But here's the crucial fact that has to be recognised: a brand management could alter the coupler design or terminate its production tomorrow, it is wholly proprietary. My 'solution' is to have a stash.

Because it is tender drive, you will need to have metal tyred wheelsets with the gears on the back. Possibly can be achieved by scrounging around s/h for the centre wheelsets and substituting these if they have the gear mouldings, or swapping the tyres from these onto the two powered tender axle's wheel centres, assuming these will fit. With a past production stretching back near 50 years in various hands there should be s/h availability; but really someone who has tried this is needed, to advise on practical feasibility Far simper solution, send the item back, and buy the Bachmann 4Fmodel instead. Loco driven, no traction tyres, and much superior all around.

FTFY. But joking apart, I too recall the Central Hall exhibitions as extremely crowded, but also packed with wonderful content.

Not an exhibition as now understood, but it was the De Havilland open day in the late 1950s where I saw 'Havil' and was duly gobsmacked. Still in use, somewhat reduced to fit in a church instead of an aircraft assembly floor.., Exhibition 20th April: http://dhmrs.co.uk/

My colossal costly mistake, having twice ridden the seven year 'sawtooth' peak to trough cycle of the one time UK housing market to great advantage, was selling the previous home in 1995 when prices last 'troughed'. Should have hung on to it and rented it out; last year what I sold 28 years before for £82K was sold for £550K. Ouch. Where's that reliable cyclic behaviour gone?

And it has probably been through a few variations in output since going on sale in the UK, and was notoriously 'flabby' in output when I first looked at one about twenty two years ago. That example couldn't get a Lenz decoder equipped WD 2-8-0 to reach scale for 30mph. On 12V DC the same model would run at scale for 60mph. You might request that any visiting DCC systems have an adjustable voltage output. (The Lenz system I use is a good one, user adjustable voltage output to protect against N gauge burn out, and for O gauge traction to receive sufficient power, doubtless there are others.)

My all green body Airfix Brush 2's, long ago flush glazed, are now running on Hornby mazak rotted mechanisms, got very cheap s/h. Both look right and run beautifully. Not quite as cheap as some, because they are on their third drives, first double motored with the original Airfix coffee-grinders on the metal wheels taken from the pick up bogies, then on Athearn PA1 mechs, both these running outdoors until they wore out. The present combo is the benchmark which the Bach and Acc introductions have to beat. Look at those properly recessed cabside windows, with the distinctive step out to full body width to rear of the cab doors; essential to the character of this class. Mine won't be withdrawn from service any time soon, even if one of the newcomers is satisfactory.

Never having really dug into the magnetic circuit of such 'ringfield' arrangements, what if the bonded ferrite (or whatever they are made from?) magnet is broken? And are these magnets vulnerable to loss of field over time even if undamaged? Asking because I joyfully abandoned 'unpower' bogies when Athearn HO centre motor mechanisms became available, so really know very little of these: other than the original effective Fleischmann design which Hornby obtained under licence around 1970, and then progessively degraded in their race to the bottom with Lima...

Well, that's going to rule it out for nearly all BR's big steam engines except Bulleid's. Lack of forward thinking there...

Don't attempt using the Bachmann Std 5MT arrangement. (Bachmann only applied this to the BR stds, 4MT tank and 5MT, and wisely dropped it from models tooled thereafter, due to its aptitude for making smooth running mechanisms into three legged dogs, the first time the body had to be taken off the mechanism. Patient fiddling required to get the drive crank perfectly realigned with the axle centre.) Far the better way is to have a rigid representation of the mechanism from the footplate underside to outside the wheel centre, with no connection to the axle. (Hornby have done it in this style on the LNER P2, very effective.)