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In this months Model Rail Hattons are predicting some EP bits by the end of July/August

Thank you Michael for your help

I am soon going to be building my first loco kit and want to build the Hunslet 16" as it has connections to where i live and worked on ironstone trains. I wonder if anyone can recommend wheels, motor and gearbox for this loco bearing in mind I will be running it DCC so an appropriate motor that is easily hard wired would be needed.

Hi Castle I have just read your series of posts and must say they are absolutely superb, for anyone new to weathering your descriptions are first class (do you have a teaching background?) and easy to follow. As a Didcot man myself and growing up in a time when the shed was active I am always interested in Didcot GWR/BR and try to get there as often as possible. My brother was a fitter at Didcot and Brother in law was a driver so I did get to go around the shed frequently. My biggest regret is that I did not get into photography earlier so that I could have made a pictorial record. Your 18K is a stunner I wouldn't mind having a go at that myself, but sods law would dictate that as soon as I got everything for the kit someone would commission Dapol or Bachmann to make one.

Tuesday I discovered the cab windows had come adrift on my Kernow ltd edn. CL 22. Phoned Kernow Wednesday put my loco body in post same day. Today received new body. Absolutely superb service from Kernow many thanks. I believe Dapol have missed out on a 10/10 with this loco because the cab is glued in, had I been brave and snapped the glue I could have repaired the '22' myself by removing the cab. I am not that brave so my '22' will not be crewed. Can I make a plea that the Western and Warship do not have this arrrangement with their cabs.

Birds that visit my garden Hedge Sparrow, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Goldfinch,Chaffinch,Greater & Lesser spotted +Green Woodpecker, Pigeon,Collared Dove,Great,Coal,and Blue tits, Blackbird, Thrush, Starling, Sparrowhawk (to feast on the others) Heron (to feast on my fish), Rook,Crow, Magpie, Tree Creeper, Robin and Morgana Le Fay. No, only joking, all of them except the last one are fantasies, or is it the other way round?

Just received my Weathered CL22 from Kernow, ordered Tuesday morning, arrived Wednesday lunchtime, bloody good service from Cornwall to Oxfordshire! Anyway took D6323 to my club and ran it for 45mins analogue in each direction. At home I inserted decoder (the excellent TCS 21pin EUS 621). Programmed it with the same settings as my unweathered D6331 which I bought at Warley and has been running for some months now. Put both locos on track and set them off at a gentle trot one a couple of inches behind the other. They remained the same distance apart for circuit after circuit. If that isn't a stunning loco then I do not know what is. Looking forward to the Kernow 'Warship' which I assume has the same motor set up. This truly is a superb locomotive,and that from someone who last bought a diesel loco about ten years ago! Now those little divils at Dapol are bringing out the disc headcode version, so thats another must have CL 22.

Having had my 22 from Warley and run it for a while I decided to finish off the detailing (brake pipes etc.on the buffer beam) and fine tune the CVs. I have a TCS 21 pin decoder on board. I must congratulate Dapol on what is my finest loco by a country mile, it runs smoother and the control is better than any Hornby or Bachmann loco I have. I could not bring myself to weather the loco as I only saw them pristine. So there is no option but to order another, one of the weathered locos from Kernow. If the 'Western' is as good as this it will be awesome.

Cheltenham are offering the Bachmann version of 4F to pre-order at £3 cheaper than the Hornby model

Absolutely fascinating to follow the progress of this model. The real things were majestic, powerful, and noisy (I lived near Didicot station). I was forutunate as a youngster to go round Swindon works and see the Westerns being built and saw D1000 when it was near completion. This type of collaboration from Dave should serve as a benchmark for other manufacturers to follow. Congratulations and thank you I look forward to seeing the development to fruition of this beauty. Needless to say they will be employed on my China Clay trains as well as passenger trains.

Superb and inovative from Dapol, they are going from strength to strength, I will certainly be incorporating some of these on my layout, hopefully they are working on gantry signals too. Cannot praise Dapol highly enough, they certainly appear to be tuned into what the modeller wants.

As one who grew up listening to Westerns every day, I would love a sound version, one would have to have the chip volume turned high because they were very loud unmistakable engines.

Having pondered a while and read throught the various pros and cons I am going to go for the Hornby model, just need to find out what numbers visited the Banbury area so that I can do a renumber. I am not au fait enough with the B1 to know if I buy one and renumber it that I will be renumbering the correct variant, but I can live with that.

Lovely pics to compare, TBH I would be happy with either of the two, but £27 cheaper may swing it for Bachmann

Redgate As a matter of interest what settings did you use on which CVs?

I would just like to post a word of thanks and praise for Dave and Dapol. I had an issue with my D6331 (posting #678) I sent a Pm to Dave on Sunday not expecting a reply until after the W/E, but he not only replied but gave a few useful suggestions to try. After a while I found that it was the Hornby Sapphire decoder that was the problem, I slipped a Bachmann decoder in and the loco worked perfectly. The Sapphire incidently worked fine in my 3F, my feeling is that the Sapphire did not have enough oomph to deal with the susbstantial Dapol drive (but I dont realy know why?). Anyway despite lack of fuctions my '22' is running beautifully now and awaiting a TCS 21pin 6 function decoder. Superb service from Dave and Dapol, now looking forward to a CL29

Hmm! Had an interesting development with my 22. At low speeds it started intermittently cutting out, no power, and lights went out. I thought it may be dirty track so I took it to my club today and it did the same on spotlessly clean track. I did not know there was a 22 pin board installed and noticed my Sapphire was not bedded properly, cut the pin off as shown by Dapol and showed some improvement, ran it slowly for ages. Took it home cleaned my track thoroughly and it seems OK for now but I am going to monitor it for a bit. I was wondering if this is a loose connection somewhere unfortunately I cannot see the pickups to see if there is a loose connection and i do not want to start probing around. I was also wondering if the Sapphire was struggling a bit to provide enough grunt at low speeds and maybe I should adjust some of the CVs. All my other locos have no problem with the track even before I cleaned it.

Thank you gents I remember now seeing the picture of a B1 at Swindon (Rubbing shoulders with exhalted company). As my layout is a junction that like Banbury saw all regions visit I may well be tempted to get one of these locos. Now which one should I get Hornby or Bachmann....Any suggestions?

Somewhere I have a list of the various LNER locos that visited Banbury from the GC link through Woddford Halse, I have photos of L1s at Banbury, I must look it out I am sure B1s visited.

The more pictures I see of the B1 the more I see a nice looking loco, (Of course not in the same class as GW 4-6-0s) if a B1 ever visited Banbury I may be tempted to buy one...... Pigeons that amongst the put Cat

If Hornby had not made a B1 people would say that the Bachmann refurb was really welcome and a superb update. (And it probably is to those on a tight budget). Because Hornby are doing one there is much speculation as to which is best. Considering neither model (the new Bachamnn B1 not the old) has been tested and viewed alongside each other (AFAIK) surely judgement should be reserved. I will not buy either model but would consider what was the best balance between detail and price if I were in the market for a B1. Much like my posting about the 4MTdo you pay 24% more for a Hornby model which is a bit better detailed or do you accept a perfectly adequate model? viewed at anything beyond a couple of feet fine detail is hard to discern anyway its only if you know its slightly less detailed than another loco that it may be irksome,you pays yer money etc.

As a previous poster said when Hornby get it right they are superb abd these coaches prove that. I have absolutley no need for these but I am sorely tempted by the fact they are so good, even better than the Hawksworths if that is possible? Perhaps Hornbys future is in fine coaches??

Ran mine in today at the club took it home and chipped it, runs like a dream virtually no noise from the motor at all, I would be interested in knowing what headcodes you used Pinzaboy, did you just stick them on the front or behind the clear plastic. I was wondering if there was a source that explained the headcode meanings in simple terms?

Why not? they appear to be able to do this with continental stock without too much bother, it would certainly (Oh... I was going to say 'open the door') inspire other British manufacturers to go down this route

Excellent news from Kernow and an inspired choice. Just a note on the Model Rail so called 'leak' Surely Kernow should have taken into account the fact that subs issues go out early, so they should have announced them last Friday to be first with the news. Anyway that aside the sets will be a superb rake with an O2 or a BWT.