autocoach

If you think this copycat nonsense is confined to the UK prototype market, note that after Trix/Marklin announced their new run of the HO UP 4--8-8-4 Big Boy, Hornby's Rivarossi brand announced a rerun of their version in the 2022 International Hornby announcements.

Having checked with Rapido, the Titfield Thunderbolt sets will be available through North American distributors who already carry Rapido products. This means I could and did order one from my local hobby shop here in the San Francisco Bay Area. No postage/shipping or customs to worry about. I understand they will be supplied to distributors from Rapido's Ontario warehouse which would mean some are being shipped to Canada in addition to the UK. Note: for what little UK stuff I am buying these days I usually go through Kernow, Rails or Hattons. For my HO Southern Pacific modeling, I am focusing these days on small specialized resin and plastic kit makers in the US and Canada. The large US RTR makers are not making much steam era (ended for me in 1956) equipment other than Rapido.

Anything more heard on the Oxford Cowans Sheldon crane project?

North American exposure?...I understand the TT video is not available in North American format. Would love that to change. I have an old modified DVR player for European region videos but just found it no longer works.

If that were a little C of E church it could be Eventide...

No luck with original cab version this year from Hornby....at least from Hornby. After the Titfield tiff anything air-smoothed should be fair game for anyone.

I would have thought better of Lyndon Davies...

Let's see...8 AM GMT is 12 AM PST... I think I can wait until my morning coffee is brewed. There's not a chance in h... that Hornby UK or Rapido UK will an Southern Pacific M-6 Mogul in HO tomorrow morning. Slightly greater odds on a new Southern pacific....

Shutting up Mr. Toad....

Rapido announcing new sprung dynamically balanced chassis 4 mm malachite West Country with original 1945 cab....(pre BOB's your uncle)...pulls 20 coaches without rubber/plastic tired drivers... (...Oh that does have a double meaning.)

How about breaking the Hornby monopoly on Southern light pacifics ... with one in 1945-47 condition and the original cab.

A 1945 as built version (original cab) would be the only reason for me to acquire a new light pacific. Hornby or anyone? Would that Accurail would try and crash into the old Southern locomotive market.

Now back to my Hornby wouldn't it be nice if they made list announcement list for 2022. Original cab style 1945-47 SR West Country of course in Malachite. 4 SUB in both all steel and "Sheba" versions...perhaps a starter as a 3 SUB with optional additional coach. I would need 2 or one of each for my dream diorama of Penge East in 1947. That will do nicely for my English collection.

Sadly, living in California where we don't have basements or even large spare bedrooms, modeling is much more like UK style. Houses are built on concrete pads. We never needed the basements to store coal and need huge furnaces for winter heat or shelter from tornados and violent windstorms Accurate freight car kits in resin now run $75 each and require about $20 more in paint, decals and replacing items the mfg. got wrong. For smaller steam engines (2-8-0, 2-6-0) we are reduced to modifying Bachmann RTR into something that sort of looks like the prototype. Right now I have a small stud of about 5 steamers and 8 diesels accurate for my modeling time period of 1950-54 and modeled location. I spend more of my time working on my collection highly detailed plastic or resin cast freight cars. Maybe 40-50 freight cars detailed and tailored to the traffic patterns seen on a specific section on mainline in my chosen period. Remember California is almost 40 million people and roughly the size of the UK. Actually one the best recent models of California railroading in the 1950's is Brian Moore's HO scale Guadalupe on the SP Coast line in his large basement in Plymouth, England.

One of the few advantages of living in California these days is that the snow when it falls, falls in the mountains. If you want winter, you have to drive the 120 miles east and carry tire chains. The exception for me is Mt. Diablo. The summit is about 6 miles south east from my suburban town house and about 3600 feet higher (3849 ft. elev.) which had a light dusting this past week in the storm that dumped 16 feet of snow at Donner Summit. The Snows of Mount Diablo didn't last more than a few days. The California Park Service (it's a state park) closes the summit when it snows due to the car crush by parents rushing to show 2 to 4 year old's their first experience with snow. Anyway, the remaining deciduous foliage is fast falling here in the suburbs east of San Francisco Bay. This is my view to the west (the mountain is SE and cannot be seen from my house.) The outside temperature is about 2-3 degrees Celsius. The peak in the center background is called Round Top. It is in the Berkeley-Oakland Hills and is 1754 feet in elevation. Just beyond those hills is the city of Oakland and San Francisco Bay.

I grew up in Portland 1954-62, Spokane 62-63 and Seattle 63-66 at UW but pre-Microsoft, and it now seems like a dim distant memory as the world of unabashed greed enveloped the PNW.

I think Dapol is using the Next18 format on new projects . My new Class D (commissioned with Dapol) has the chip in the smokebox and uses a push/pull plug drawbar with imbedded connectors to the tender for sound and additional pickup. Hornby does need to improve their game and stay up with the technology. (We'll overlook the retrograde plastic tired drivers...at least they supplied alternate proper drivers with the model.) However, unless someone manufactures a new well detailed WC/BOB in malachite SR livery with the early cab as an option, I am unlikely to purchase any more UK prototype steam. And my North American prototype steam will gradually be converted to the new LocoFi Gen 3 WIFI receiver (now in manufacture according to LocoFi for January-February 2022 distribution.) I will use the receiver with a stay alive to eliminate pesky frog wiring. It will be a while before the rest of the roster goes WIFI so DCC power will be used on some of the rails. The WIFI Receiver has micro SD card for installing alternate sound packages so even a chain drive 3 cylinder WC will be possible. Is anybody at Hornby listening?

What is this company named Kaydee? The correct spelling is Kadee... https://www.kadee.com/ . Or is PECO PIKO in the UK? Note that the Code 88 wheels are becoming more common with prototype modelers in North America (includes Canada and Mexico.) Kadee is just joining other NA producers and importers offering the semi scale option. Another point if you care to model the prototype. Rib backed wheels were cast iron not steel and were obsolete by the 1950's but not banned until 1970.

Pacific Spiny Lobsters don't have the big claws like Atlantic lobsters. Per Wikipedia "The California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) is a species of spiny lobster found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Monterey Bay, California, to the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico. It typically grows to a length of 30 cm (12 in) and is a reddish-brown color with stripes along the legs, and has a pair of enlarged antennae but no claws. The interrupted grooves across the tail are characteristic for the species." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_spiny_lobster I understand that only local sport divers eat them but they are in demand in China and 95 percent of commercial catch are shipped to Asia. Many years ago I worked for Crowley Maritime (at the HQ in San Francisco) who at the time owned Catalina Cruises, they ran the primary ferry service to the island. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to take a free trip.

Need to get the electric leaf blower out soon to clean up my tiny courtyard of Japanese Maple leaves...

Just another update: I had posted this on RMWEB in my Padstow blog. This is the install in progress in an HO locomotive. You can see the size of the LocoFi receiver and speaker. According to the manufacturer, they have prototyped the new receiver and app and just waiting for components to arrive to complete manufacture of the new version with consisting (multiple engines running together as one), steam sound and steam throttle, app auto stop on connection loss, pressure activated emergency stop and many more performance improvements

I have the now unavailable LocoFi Gen 2 board installed in my test platform F7A unit. It may be a few months (hopefully) before the Gen 3 boards become available. LocoFi has included some very good design ideas including using a microSD card that can be used for upgrades and alternate sound projects. Be sure your install allows for access to the card reader slot on the receiver. This is the same size as a microSD card for a phone. You can download upgrades/sound packages to a device with a microSD card reader and copy the files to the card for the receiver. Look at the installation videos and scrutinize their forum before you attempt an install. Plan the install carefully. I am not sure that the receiver will work in a cast metal tender common in UK steam engine kits. I have asked about antenna reception in brass tenders that are more common in North America but not had any definitive answer where someone has actually installed one in a brass loco tender. Plastic steam tender or diesel shells are no problem. Unfortunately there is no plug and play with 8/18/21 pin decoder mounts on newer locomotives and the proprietary wiring and add ins by each locomotive manufacturer currently precludes a common plug-in. This was on their forum: https://www.wifimodelrailroad.com/forum/locofi-tm-general/locofi-for-the-uk which mentions alternate sound projects.

I have been following BlueRail both in the UK and US for several years. Because I have always believed Apple products are rotten to the core (I have installed BI software and done other consulting for most of the Silicon Valley big names except Apple). I had to look at an alternate solution. I jumped onto the LocoFi bandwagon whose throttle installs on an android platform and which uses the 2.4 GHZ band for communication on WIFI. See (https://www.wifimodelrailroad.com/). The receiver/decode is narrow enough for US style hood unit diesels. It includes a sound speaker and has a micro card for over the air upgrades and other sound files than the generic US sound files that come with the basic package. I went and bought an inexpensive (in the US anyway) small Amazon Fire tablet so I can use the WIFI 2.4 GHz band without switching my Samsung phone from the 5 GHz which is standard for me in the house. I have a dual band router. It works fine on the Amazon table. I had a moderately difficult install in a HO KATO powered F7 as there was not enough head room between the very large Kato motor block and the receiver unit. I am using an older Stewart F7 shell that had a removable radiator section and was able to file that down to get the receiver to fit. There was room at the back end of the F7A for the micro speaker. This would not be a problem on an older Athearn Unit although those prior to the Genesis units would need to have the motor electrically isolated. I am also leaving the B units unpowered. Multiple unit control is being worked on. The unpowered B units could be used for rechargeable battery power to go dead rail. That may be in the future. Right now according to their website they have run out of chips due to the worldwide shortage for the Gen 2 receiver. The Gen 3 has been prototyped and will include steam sounds and possibly an add on keep alive capacitor to smooth over any signal or track power interruptions. I have no financial interest in LocoFi but John Abatecola who did their installation video is a friend. Once the 3rd generation receiver board is available, I will be looking into gradually powering my small US motive power collection. I no longer have my Brixham or Padstow layouts so I am not too worried about trying to stuff a receiver into any of my Beattie Well Tanks. Well, only one of them still runs anyway. I understand the BlueRail receiver board is now produced by the San Diego, California, area based Tam Valley. They are having similar problems building new receivers due to chip supply issues. See http://bluerailtrains.com/blueraildcc/userguide/ . They have higher amp units for outdoor and large scale model railroads. But they are limited to using Apple iPhones as throttles. Good luck everyone....

Maybe a "Lion in Winter" next or the next one after that?

I used to use Exact Editions for my BRM subscription until they withdrew support for Windows platforms around 2010-2013. The EE site mentions only IOS, Android and Unix platforms. I guess they have moved on since then. Windows 11 will be in discovery model soon.