Hal Nail

That's gone surprisingly well! I planned this primarily so that the solebar rivet pattern works out but more by luck than judgement I can butt up the chassis cross members at the rear join, which will give it some strength. It's easier than I feared to pare the body sides off the chassis, which will definitely help with the second conversion as I will have to be a lot more creative with the random bits i have left after this one.

ok, deep breath....

Thanks. Yes that control bus wire is plugged in correctly and it has all worked fine before today. A couple of locos which have had home conversions will move very slowly so some power is getting through but I'm getting nothing at all from my factory dcc locos. I suspect I've got a damaged cable somewhere.

Am I right in thinking I should either have 2 red status lights or none? Not getting anything out of any loco except, ironically, a 7mm Dapol 08 i bought 2nd hand for 140 quid and I didnt even know had sound until today!

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=326

I don't see why they couldn't. you've need a speaker at either end, probably a chip per loco (but not necessarily in the loco itself) and the chip "moves" the sound between speakers. I'm sure the technology can do it, its no different to tweaking your stereo speaker balance and controlling it via the chip feeding power to the loco. Pity I have zero entrepreneurial drive - Nailmaster1 has a certain ring to it!

I dont think a respray to something basic like blue is astronomical and by the time you've inevitably had to take a discount to shift it less fees etc probably not much in it.

On that note, I'm amazed you are thinking of sound fitting all your 33s: I'd do a couple and have all the bodies loose personally! I read someone suggesting that having sound outside the locos will be the future and if they could synch it to whatever is moving I do quite like that idea.

Heljan said to me they prefer to do their own checks because any valid observations on forums tend to get lost in all the noise. So pointing out every little thing you can spot actually hinders us getting better models.

For what its worth I thought it was obvious you were joking. No real harm done, lets get back to discussing the all important mechanics of the exact methodology employed in making up coaches Oh I nearly forgot

Heljan Ben said very recently they are making some more. edit: found it. November 13 on here.

it says something about my day that this little exchange is my highlight so far.

Slightly brighter weather today.

Thanks guys, I'll try one motor. The postage on replacements is 8 quid otherwise I'd happily just try the minimum and go back for more if needed! As for the timing, realistically its hard to pinpoint for sure if they had failed out of use or had started to go when last under load. I have a feeling mine went when I spun the wheels to weather them using the flywheel.

Going back to the gears, mine are split as well and I've been waiting for the new batch. How necessary are two motors -I know the chassis weights half a ton alone but presumably for light branch line use 1 motor is fine? I'm tempted to do one bogie in brass and then when they arrive, buy a complete spare set of Heljan and keep them safe in case i ever sell it.

The cable is at the no. 2 end in the photo on the cover...

They are in the process of making some more.

Meanwhile a new arrival today - 2 slaters SR coaches. They were less than the cost of a kit for the pair and I'm a sucker for a bargain. Bodies are in pretty good shape, underframe basic but works well. I will tart up a bit, add some detail particularly underneath and roll out in BR green. Pity I sold my T9 really!

Thanks! I was wary of the roof but at least I had 3 spares to fall back on! I used the same technique for everything but the smaller areas are much easier to fiddle with one at a time until you are happy. On the roof I dolloped on a 50:50 mix of track dirt and dark grey (Humbrol 32), spread it about as evenly as I could with white spirit, let it dry for 10/15 mins then wiped off with kitchen roll. Its hit and miss - some bits catch dirt but some come up clean and shiny and are then a real pain to match. I only wanted a hint of dirt to match the rest - i suspect they were actually much darker and grubbier than this. Much the same on the chocolate panels but I used a flattie and white spirit rather than kitchen roll to remove and at least you can do each one separately. Getting an even coverage without run marks is more patience and perseverance than skill!

First up, one of the GWR coaches has been weathered and the intention was to sell it on but I quite like it. I had wanted a BR period coach for myself in faded and weather beaten crimson and then another in BR with the toplights panelled over but the temptation is to use the two GWRs ones to make one 70 footer in GWR livery. Obviously i wouldn't have weathered it first if that was the idea! One thing I do need to sort is a photo plank with lighting. Even outside today these look gloomy (edit: slightly better photos added)

Agreed but in fairness, the context was "are all these versions actually going to sell?"

My parakeet proof* feeder had a female greater spotted on it this week. Obviously light enough not to trigger it. * if they land with a foot in the hole they can stop it closing but so far it seems luck rather than learned

Some chat about this and custom orders back in April on this thread.

That's what I remembered. Odd that the meat van which is just a variant of the same wagon, doesnt have all those extras.

Can you tell me please has the Slaters van got more than 4 W irons and several types of springs etc? My one had loads of spares - in fact I barely used one sprue. I bought a meat van recently expecting the same given its fundamentally the same kit and it came with just 4 on a separate sprue so i wonder if they have either updated it, or I got lucky the first time and had a freebie by accident. Ta!