Ressaldar

Hi TTG, Brian and Marc, many thanks for the responses and suggestions. I shall consider the Greenwood turntable further, having seen it on Mikes stand at a number of shows,it has more than a certain draw factor. As far as possible location is concerned, Basingstoke comes to the fore (I lived not far from Basinstoke for the best part of 40 years) as I have seen many photos taken in the 50's when it played host to visiting 'Foreign' locos which were being serviced having brought trains down in connection with the Farnborough airshow. At the end of the day though, I can always quote 'RULE 1' and be done with it! cheers Mike

Hi Rich, many thanks for the heads up on the Greenwood turntable. I have looked at it in the past and have now email Mike Greenwood for more details as the information on their website is a bit spartan. regards Mike

Hi Marc, many thanks for your comments/suggestions. I did say " a hint of GWR" due mainly to available kits to fit my particular situation. I am still pondering over the turntable and will be having a chat with Midland Railway Centre during the week to finalise a choice - especially as I already have a Rebuilt West Country and a 9F in my collection to consider as well as a MOK King Arthur waiting patiently in its box to be built ! Overall, my loco stud is quite catholic as I have examples from each of the 'Big Four' therefore no one has been left out and not everything is on the large side either! The big question is going to be - is the Engineer's siding big enough to hold an Inspection Saloon from each of the Big Four? cheers Mike

Having deliberated for exactly a year on the problem of the curve onto the traverser, I have decided to abandon the BLT idea and instead go for an MPD - with more than a hint of GWR about it! The coaling stage and ramps were delivered yesterday and a start was made on location of the pointwork - two left hand points have been ordered and should be with me on Monday. We have a Club Open Day tomorrow and there will be no progress today. The turntable will be ordered next week when funds from the sale of the Helston buildings have cleared. The low relief entrance to the shed will probably be scratchbuilt. Control will be Digitrax DCC and the points controlled by Tortoise motors (DC) the power to the turntable tracks will be via a Dual Frog Juicer. Progress photos to come during the coming week. cheers Mike

Hi Rob, When 45029 had its EWS makeover, the droplights on the ends were removed and the whole area was just glazed making the window 'larger' than the outer ones. The rainstrips that you describe over the doors of 45029 were in fact ventilators - neither the original version of 45029 nor the BR built 999xxx series had rainstrips, only the cover strips over the seams of the roof covering going from side to side. It was the two BR Kitchen Car conversions that had rainstrips on the roof over the doors. The main differences between the original built 45xxx series and the BR build 999xxx series were that the centre window at the end was the same size as the outers and the door window arrangement of the left hand side of the small saloon - (when standing in the saloon facing the end windows) was a mirror image of the righthand side - i.e. window/window/door - thus making the sides mirror images of each other - certainly as far as the saloon ends and the intermediate doors were concerned. cheers Mike

Hi Coachman, I have an O Gauge Q13 in the pile to do but before that, I must finish what has become a 'shelf queen' - the H33 Restaurant Coach conversion to the S&T Inspection Saloon KDW150266. I am using the JLTRT kit for the Restaurant Coach and this is the story so far. The lower two elevations show the sides marked up prior to the 'cut and shuffle' exercise for the new door installations together with the location of the additional window. The windows in the ends were built up having formed one large aperture. The coach is preserved on the East Lancs Railway, unfortunately, not in the period that I am modelling, but a prototype reference all the same. Hopefully I will be dusting the box off in the very near future. regards Mike

Hi Mark, A Sidelines one in 7mm cheers Mike

Hi Big Jim, you need to include the heater vents I had some made for my O Gauge build & used JLTRT ETH equipment. cheers Mike

Hi TTG, many thanks for that info- I shall now hook up the lights. cheers Mike

Hi Brian, but what about the fact that the DC circuit board is removed to install the DCC board (as I have just done in mine this afternoon), surely they need to be installed/replaced then. cheers Mike

Hi Sandy, all looking good. Perhaps I was lucky when I put mine together - quite a few years ago now. cheers Mike

ah but how long was it before the black ones became green - or even blue? cheers Mike

Mike Williams (Agenoria) was at the Merseyside Hobbies show in Wallasey on Saturday. cheers Mike

many thanks for posting this link - I have just spoken to DCC Supplies and ordered the condensing pipes that are missing from 2644. cheers Mike

Hi Peter, 2) yes - 32644 with the condensing pipes and tank vents also removed - loco scrapped in 1951- there may have been others. I think that there might be a photo of it in this livery on Flickr. my version - on a San Cheng model. cheers Mike

A slightly different take on this subject - my 2644 arrived all safe and (non)sound a few weeks ago and I took it to the Club Open Day where it ran faultlessly for more than two hours. When I took it off of the track to put it in its box, one of the buffer heads was missing and after a thorough search by all present, it was still missing - so I sent an email to Dapol on the Sunday evening requesting a replacement and was pleasantly surprised at 09.15 on the Monday morning to receive a reply from Dapol asking which model was involved, I responded straight away also asking if the A1 version would be available without name or number for those of us who wanted something other than Thames (my second purchase) , Brighton or Waddon. A reply came back later that day saying that there would be no un-named versions, to which I replied that in my opinion they were missing a 'trick' - that was three weeks ago and despite two further emails from me asking for a progress report, I have neither heard nor received any further news. It certainly spoils the initial joy of what is no doubt a very good model, when the manufacturer, having made an initial response seems to take no further interest in his 'post sales' involvement. I am giving serious thought to retaining either model. regards Mike

Hi Rob, looks really good, and you have had something running as well cheers Mike

but are Heljan going to do the Shark to 'bring up the tail' one wonders? cheers Mike

] Hi Phill, looking really good. A tip that I was given some time ago for aligning HMRS numbers & letters was to scribe the 'cut' line on the sheet under all of the numbers/letters in the line parallel to the line and then when the numbers/letters are removed from the sheet, you line up the bottom of the carrier film and the numbers/letters are automatically straight. cheers Mike

Hi Craig, many thanks for the good wishes. Eventually, there will be two coach B set 'locals', an autocoach service, a single coach non auto service (all based on WR stock) and a two coach pull-push service (based on SR stock) - the governing factor being the traverser, a tad over 4' 'on the curve'. I will be using run round and the engine release at 600mm/24" is more than enough for a 70' Pacific - the idea being that the train once emptied of passengers and any brake van goods would be reversed along the platform to the baseboard join by the hut, engine un-couples, moves forward to the buffer stops, points thrown and reverses round the loop to just beyond R4 then moves forward to the coaches and propels them back to the buffer stops to pick up more passengers. As I understand it, this is the common practice at branch line termini with the engine release length being sufficient to take 'the usual branchline engine' but where the length of the train precludes this arrangement then an additional loco would be required to take the whole train back down the branch and the original loco would proceed to the engine shed for servicing and used on another service later in the day. In addition to these steam hauled trains, there will be a diesel railcar/|bubblecar/DMU (might just have room for a two car unit) service running into the bay platform. cheers Mike

Hi Marc, thanks for your suggestion. I have overlaid a Marcway 3 way point over R3 (lined up at the front) but the centre track is too long and straight and creates further problems with connecting the 5' radius track from the traverser - pushing the 3 way to the left to overcome that problem only creates a problem with the track into the bay connecting to Y1. cheers Mike

Hi Simon, thanks for your post, but all out of my little grey cells Hi Bill, again, many thanks for your post. I think that if I were to move L1, it would create problems with the curve to R4. I originally had R4 on the baseboard between the goods shed and the signal box, and L1 was then where you are suggesting. But I was having problems getting the 5' radius curve in the correct position to get the lefthand track on the traverser in the right place (the area to the right of the layout is the 'up & over' door so I cannot move the layout left or right) and you now see the result of the 'shuffle' - I think that the positioning of R3 & R4 is the crux of the whole layout - we'll see soon. cheers Mike

I have at last sorted out a new layout plan for the workshop and one that I hopefully get further than all previous attempts, especially in 7mm Location is 'somewhere in the South West' with the period set in the early/middle sixties so that I can run steam and diesel, but will, as is the case with most of us, see later period rolling stock - supposedly on test, once constructed/bought. I am using the existing boards and where possible the recovered track from the last effort. The only new track requirements are - one left hand point and the track for the traverser. I am changing form Cobalt point motors (they have proved too troublesome in the past) and going back to basics and using the standard Peco PL-10 via a capacitor discharge unit. The main buildings are the Helston 'set' from Lasercraft Devon and the service shed is from Intentio (all yet to be built) and the Portacabins (huts) are from Greenwood Products. The 'retaining wall' is 5mm foamboard covered with SEFinecast English bond brick with a plain plasticard balancing veneer with buttresses and copings again from Intentio. The platform is in place and awaiting the final board surface once the electrics are complete. Wiring, Digitrax DCC, is the next step followed by full testing and then the traverser will go in. More to follow including photos as and when progress is made. All comments welcome. cheers Mike

Hi Ernie, I am thinking along the same lines as you are for 2644, but I may take the easier route and remove the tank vent pipes, blank off the holes and re-spray the loco in plain wartime black as I did above and re-create 32644 with the sunshine lettering - but then again, I might not. Has anyone tried removing the THAMES lettering and applying new transfers yet? If so, what did you use as the removing agent and whose transfers did you use as the replacements? cheers Mike