SRman

If they cannot supply the tower sides I may have to do a bit of plasticard modelling. The wheels/axles themselves run in brass bearings so the plastic should be able to take the load ... provided it doesn't get hot again!

DapolDave has replied to me and forwarded my 'problem' to DCC Supplies (with whom I have also had pleasant dealings in the past). He has been extremely helpful, as always.

Thanks Rick. I am hoping DapolDave will be able to help and I have clearly stated to him that I will pay for any parts plus postage, etc. As you say, he has been nothing but helpful to people here in the past and has excellent communication skills (NOTE: buttering DapolDave up here! ). I tested the locomotive to assess the extent of the damage and found that it still ran quite happily with three-axle drive but derailed when the locked axle got to a point - not surprising since it was out of gauge and distorted. In one sense, the gear wheel melting saved the rest of the mechanism since there was no gear left to mesh with the rest of the gear train! ALthough not entirely clear from the angle of my photo, the axle itself would do credit to MN 'Bibby Line' (it became 'Z' shaped when looked from square on)!!

The damage:

Mine has just had a bit of a mishap- it shorted out one axle on a point. This has caused the plastic parts, including the gear, to melt. A part of the bogie base plate has also melted and distorted. I will have to contact Dapol to see if I can obtain the bits to repair it. I'll PM DapolDave to see what can be done. The good news is that the other three axles still have drive to them and the ESU sound decoder is unaffected. I should add that this is no way a warranty repair, just an unfortunate accident.

Now that has thrown the cat among the pigeons, Peter. It is now a 50/50 split!!! Still, knowing what your modelling skills are like, we all know the end result will look superb.

Given that you have the space, I like the second arrangement. On my old layout I really wanted to do the same with the church and road scene but there was insufficient room between the tunnel mouth and the backscene, so it ended up resembling your first idea.

That tamper sounds - and looks - very impressive. As you say it would probably look appropriate for just about any country's railways. Give it a bit of weathering and it will really look the part. I wonder how many mortgages one would have to take out to afford it ...

I have plans for a class 319 when Bratchell produce the next issue and I will certainly go for another Replica chassis. I should have said that I also followed a very similar procedure to what Martin did with his motor bogie side frames. The Replica chassis dummy frames lend themselves nicely to reinforcing the joints.

I powered my Bratchell class 455 with the Replica motor chassis and am very happy with the running qualities. I have yet to fit all the underframe bits and pieces, though! I used another Replica chassis in a DC Kits 4 EPB, with similar very good results.

No, there is no cure ... there is no hope for you now!! I think Ian (Olddudders) summed it up nicely. A couple of others have also put a nice rational slant on it too. I suppose that even though we become aware of inaccuracies, we still have to be tolerant and allow others to run their layouts the way they wish to. If they ask questions then we should answer honestly but without negative criticism. I still remember the long and torturous learning process with my modelling ... come to think of it, that is still going on right now!!

I agree that Lenz are superior in many ways but they are still rather more expensive than TCS, at least here in Australia. TCS decoders are good but Lenz ones give much better and smoother control and a more progressive inertia/momentum control with CVs 3 & 4. At least, that has been my experience so far. I do think that TCS seem to be the best value for money decoders though. They are fully featured yet are only a little more expensive than the cut-down 'cheapie' decoders.

Some units, at least, were augmented to three cars before application of the orange 'V'. In fact, unit 1115 (one of the Kernow issues) appears to be one of those. The book Southern Region DEMUs (Kevin Robertson and Hugh Abbinnett, 2012, Ian Allan Publishing) shows two pictures of that unit dated February and April 1960 as a three car unit with no 'V' on the front of the DMBS. EDIT: Before anyone jumps up and down and complains that Kernow got it wrong, the units did, on occasions, temporarily lose centre cars for various reasons (such as works attention). I believe I read somewhere that Kernow had a photo of 1115 with the orange 'V' running as a two-car unit. Certainly a few others were temporarily run as 2H when they were supposed to be 3H, even back in the 1960s.

When you run it with sound, before turning everything off on the layout, make sure that you deselect any sound functions that you used, e.g. make sure that functions 3 and 4 are not selected when you turn off. Then turn the layout back on or remove then replace the unit on the track and see if the sounds still go off. I suspect that the decoder is simply remembering its last state and when you turn on again it plays the sounds associated with the 'remembered' settings.

That's one of mine too! My grandmother moved to Bideford to stay with my cousin for a while and I saw a lot of the local circulars and newsletters, all of which referred to 'Woolsery', using that spelling.

Hi Doug and welcome home again! I am looking forward to being able to run a few full-length trains with more variety available at any one time. That is still a way off yet as I need to do more carpentry at the other end of the layout as well as a whole raft of electrical work. Will try to catch up with you and the family very soon.

One of our local friends was a driver on one of the J94s in the movie. He had to stay out of camera view while the so called schoolgirls in mini skirts and fishnet stockings sat above his head ... he claims it was "a little distracting" at the time! He also says that the safe working was pushed to the limit and beyond, notwithstanding that some of the sequences were speeded up in the movie itself. They had one or two minor derailments and miscalculations during the making of the film! Jack: A minor correction (being pedantic here) - the Hastings shunters were Driving Motors. If they were Driving Trailers there would have been no power! I think we all knew what you meant though!

Does that make you "Old Dooders", then, Ian??

On more than one occasion I have heard Australian news readers pronounce Reading (Redding) as Reeding! Ahhh, the vagaries of the English language ... and spelling (which brings us back on topic!!)

I seem to recall that Dormans Land was spelt as Dormansland on London Transport bus destination rolls. I'm not too sure what the station had on its signage.

I'm glad you had such a perfect day for the running session. I hope to make it for the next one. The photos say it all, really. Nice!

Thanks, Peter. Kernow have still to confirm delivery dates on their remaining 'Thumper' liveries of BR blue and NSE. No mention of blue and grey at this time but it's obviously yet another option for future production. I'm still awaiting an announcement that they will produce some centre coaches to make up the three-car units.

Yet another new arrival: my second 'Thumper' from Kernow Models arrived today. This one is in Connex livery (not my favourite livery by any means but the model is superb!). I tested briefly on DC before fitting a TCS EU621 decoder then set it off for an hour or so of continuous running. It is still barely run-in and needs a bit more to free it up further.

Thanks, David.

I decided to do just a small bit of grass and weeds, pending much more extensive scenic work later on. This area will have a little bit of a grassy embankment eventually rather than just being flat as it is now. However, for photographic purposes, I think it looks better for posing trains for the time being. This is a two unit 2 EPB set running past. I must do something about that temporary brick paper walling - it is starting to wrinkle a bit and it shows in the photos.