Taigatrommel

As far as I can tell, most British light rail uses the 2.65m width. Certainly that's true for the first few I looked up, namely Croydon, Newcastle and Manchester.

The shared drawing, with its width of 2.65m and doors slightly proud of the sides matches Docklands Light Railway stock. In fact, I'm going to go further and say it's B07 stock. Why? Because I found a pdf diagram released under the Freedom of Information Act, and it's a match. See the left hand end. Sorry to spoil the fun! Still, the drawing could be a red herring! 1 728 01 00 00 0 00 0 DRW 04 000 1.pdf

Hi Werner, I met you on Sunday along with my brother in law (Dagworth on this forum). We were the long haired brits talking about Gloucester. Nice to come across you on RMWeb! Cheers Rich

Hi all, With the Bachmann wesbite currently under a redesign, I haven't managed to find what I'm looking for there! I'd like to model D200/40122 as per her 1983 relaunch, and I'm trying to find a suitable green Bachmann 40 amongst the retooled (post 2014?) examples. So far the closest I've seen is D211 (32-480DS) which is a named one - I'm happy painting the yellow ends and renumbering, but I'm not sure how well the nameplate printing can be removed for a loco I'd be modelling in a clean condition. If anyone could point me to a suitable disc ended class 40 model in green for this project, I'd be very grateful. If D211 is the best bet, I'd welcome confirmation of that! Thanks Rich

I don't think so, with the smoke unit disconnected it's perfectly happy again, delivering enough juice for the lit caboose as well as the whistle in the loco while it's running.

hi Muir, Yes, it;'s a plastic bodied smoke unit. I think I'll follow the concensus here and bypass it!

Hi Nearholmer, https://www.lionelsupport.com/media/servicedocuments/71-1900-250.pdf Page 14 shows where the wire lug attaches. Everything seems in good condition, all parts move freely - until I reconnected the smoke unit/headlamp it was working fine! There's no switch for the smoke unit, only for disabling the reversing unit. Later variants have the smoke unit switch from what I can tell.

Just to be clear, it's pretty much this set except the loco is numbered 8644. The manual is dated 1996, the part number is the same (6-11900).

Hi all, Yesterday I bought a Lionel train set in a local charity shop, and having sourced a UK->US transformer/adaptor at Maplin I've had it running round our Christmas tree, having fun sounding the whistle in the tender. I noticed that the headlight wasn't working, and examining the loco I found that a connecion was loose. I found a manual online, connected the loose wire where it should go (screwed onto the stamped metal valve motion slides), and put it back on the track. Well, the light lit up, but after only a couple of circuits the controller cut out. Now comes a possible cause, though I'd welcome expertise. As well as a lamp there's a smoke unit, and in the set was a large bottle of smoke fluid (MTH branded, but I've seen the same bottles with other brands on such as LGB). On giving the bottle a gentle squeeze to let a couple of drips out, instead a real squirt came out and went down the chimney. Could having too much smoke fluid in the unit be causing the overload? There's a little bit of smoke showing, but only the faintest wisp. Is there any easy way of getting the excess fluid out, should this be the cause of the issue? Such toy trains are new to me, I would expect such a schoolboy error not to cause a loss of operation! Thanks in advance, Rich

I took my sister out to a couple of shops, then sat out the back with my dog to enjoy the sunshine. A bit cold though! Now listening to Iriwin Chusid on WFMU and wondering what to do with my evening.

West Yorkshire PTE in the 1980s opened some stations with wooden platforms, though none were termini. Bramley and Outwood come to mind.

Hi CK, Is it safe to assume you have "the Severn & Wye Railway volume 1"? That has the best views in my handful of Gloucestershire railway books.

A communications mix up meant our party's leader didn't book us into the brewery, so our supper was in the town hall cellar in Liberec. We'd decided that as we could get the same track in on Sunday morning plus a bit extra we'd flag Saturday's trip to Frydlant. We got to look at aspects of that branch in some detail on the Sunday...! As a plus, three friends on board the tour were really inspired by Czech railways during the trip (it was their first time in the country) and are making committed sounding noises to modelling something Czech in TT!

Your trip to Liberec wasn't aboard a certain Grumpy railtour was it? All I bought from the model shop there was two pairs of Y25s!

Clive, I've found no difficulty replacing the wheels on Bachmann class 25 bogies with Bachmann coach wheels, ensuring a wheel size match with Bachmann commonwealth bogies (or B4s in other instances). One bogie is enough to shift a 4 car EMU happily. You could then use Bachmann or Replica Commonwealths. I know the wheelbase is out by for true accuracy, but the appearance will probably be neater than a stretched sideframe.

There's extensive discussion in an existing thread, see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117244-Hornby-class-87-confirmed-newly-tooled-version-for-2017/

Neither are votes from the general public! Those are judges I would unhesitatingly call expert.

Winning awards is not remotely a motivating factor in my modelling. It's hard enough making models that I'm halfway satisfied with, let alone wanting to put them up for judgement! That said, of course any award is flattering, whatever the judging method. On the subject of votes from the general public, outside of specialist exhibitions it's practically a given that best in show goes to a busy continuous run layout with long trains and reasonable scenery. The entertainment factor combined with the aspects non-expert viewers can relate to see to that!

I did have in mind some elaborate solutions to the storage sidings, but then I thought of something simpler. To my shame, I don't know what direction is up or down in Worcester, I presume up is towards Oxford. Having the Worcester yard higher than Gloucester enables a flyover for the OW&W across the Gloucester tracks, and should minimise conflicting moves. A line at the very back could descend to meet the Gloucester lines before the goods loop diverges. I think having the OW&W cross from the outermost side of the storage yard boards would help in having curves as wide as possible for better running.

Phil, Is there any chance of you posting a sketch plan of what you're thinking for the new layout? A couple of thoughts about the fiddle yards in particular have popped into my head, but it would make sense to see how you envision the overall scheme operating before I stick my oar in too hard! Cheers Rich

From an operator's perspective... Totally agree with enhancing fiddle yard capacity, especially if it eliminates having two trains in one road! Simpler access to routes. A track plan based system is much easier than going through menus on the ECoS. Confirmation of route setting by some means would be grand as well, perhaps LEDs that light up next to the fiddle yard road currently selected would be an easy start. Even with my specs on I can't usually make out the points at the far end. Your planned change to servos for points and signals sounds good - I'm sure a gentler mechanism will mean much less time spent repairing semaphores! The working signals are so worthwhile, it adds a huge amount to the realism. I still maintain that ECoS is not intuitive... even the smartphone app you had me using at Nottingham is easier! Aesthetically... The rolling hills are well captured. The bridges and signal box are lovely. The card house somehow doesn't match the standard. Rather than trying to add artificial interest to what is realistically a quiet rural area, I'd be inclined to focus on making the natural scenery as good as you can - the Gravett school of modelling. Pempoul's landscape wasn't stuffed with cameos, it was simply lovely to look at with the realism drawing me in. Aim high! The stock is to a consistent, good standard, appropriately weathered for the most part, I know a few wagons are cleaner than they might be but it doesn't really detract from the sense of time and place you've achieved.

I only had a brief opportunity to view your layout, and I was impressed. Great modelling!

That's very early! I'm still drinking coffee at home...

Charleroi Metro The next picture will have... Marine elements.

Is there any reason not to use Tillig or Kuehn track? Tillig Kuehn