Sam Moss

Also depends on the age of the locos. i had two Spam Cans at one point, identical models other than there was about 3 years between manufacture. The older one had much darker, brass tinted wheel plating compared to the new the one which was a much brighter nickel colour. The older walked all over the new ones from a traction point of view. 

On 20/03/2021 at 17:48, Ouroborus said:

Exactly this.  The sealed boxes in which we now live can't expel the water vapour we create.  Open hearth fires and leaky sash windows created airflow.  The rush for insulation in roofs, walls and windows had consequences that were not foreseen

Couldn't agree more. I bought my house 6 years ago, Built in 1914 in has a double blue brick damp course and thats it which has kept most of the problems at bay. (pretty much all the neighbours have had to have theirs injected) The issues I had was that the walls around the chimneys were damp. Opened the chimneys up, swept and cleaned out so air bricks can do their job. Problem solved. Houses/buildings need to breath.

Hi,

I also undertake repairs for the public via Ruddington Model Railway Club based at the GCR-N. We reopen to the public on the 12th April if you want us to have a look at it for you.

thanks

Sam.

I'm putting my money on potentionally an Austerity/J94 being announced. It also wouldn't surprise me if it was something along the lines of a LMS/Midland 4F though. Would give them a Fowler tender to put behind a decent number of other smaller locos that could be produced for around the £300 mark.

On 20/08/2020 at 00:08, adb968008 said:

I never understood why Llangollen went down the BSK conversion route, when any number of EMU, DMU driving cars exist, indeed wasnt there several DMUs on their line ?

EMU driving vehicles not suitable due to being air only and if you went down the first gen DMU driving car route you'd need an adapter plate to couple the corridor to a MK1, air supply for warning horns (not a problem if its a power car but then you're idling a 130hp Leyland lump just for compressor purposes adding unnecessary wear to the engine. Then if you're running in winter you've also got to take into account heating. DMU's don't have steam heat so you're in the realms of having to either fire up the engine again on your power car or run the diesel heaters on the trailer cars. A job that would require extra training for guards or attention from a fitter in the morning. 

A MK1 brake, sheet of 18mm marine ply, piece of toughened glass and a brake valve is a weekends work.......

On 25/05/2020 at 14:24, Invicta said:

The GCR (North) at Ruddington have a Mk2 BSO, which IIRC is fitted with a brake valve in this manner- Last time I was there a couple of years back we were propelled on the return trip, with the Austerity tank 0-6-0 tender conversion '2890', which was visiting at the time, rather than the 'top and tail' arrangement (HST 41001 + 33 ) used on my previous visit. 

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mk2_BSO_E9389.jpg

Still the case. the GCRN push/pull method is the guard and loco are in radio contact, guard has variable control of the vac brake (DMU brake valve) and a warning horn. Guard is a forward lookout.  25mph in pull mode, 15mph in push mode.  

We've recently bought a new old stock LNER example for the club. Suitably relivered into an Annesley based example it went into service this Saturday and kept intermittently stalling and the front pony truck jumping off. Turns out the guard irons on the front pont were just catching point work. A quick crop with a pair of side cutters has cured it.

Moulding wise, some of the stuff Lima achieved where other manufacturers now rely on etches was second to none. 

soft spots for me include their 31, 47, 52, 73, 101, 121 and the 156 scrubs up well too. 

i've took the gears out of one bogie on both of mine and they run far better. No need for all wheel drive on a single railcar and happily copes hauling a BG or GUV so would easily cope with a trailer car.

Running some acetone into the bearings should soften the loctite

Had them on the club layout but now removed. We've seen no noticeable issues with them gone. we saw it far too risky having them on with the increase of DCC fitted stock being produced and run on the layout without reaslising.

The screw holding in the draw bar needs to come out and then from memory, the one under the NEM pocket on the front. it been a while since i disassembled one and mines tucked away in the loft somewhere.

screw at the back under the cab and then the chassis drops out. The front is retained by two cast lugs.

What about printing the cage area onto clear acetate?

We treated ourselves at the club to a couple of new locos from the Rails sale and one of the O4's turned up completely dead. Motor and pickup connections where fine and all the connnections on the circuit board in the tender were ok. In the end we just took out the DCC stuff and wired the pick ups straight to the motor. Couldn't be bothered to send back. The club won't ever run it on DCC so no harm done.

DC is variable and nominally 0 - 12v DC, DCC is 16vAC and the track voltage is constant.     

The connectors you're looking at will be fine.

Lovely little model but ouch! at the price. £105.99 at Kernow and that's with some discount on RRP. The Hornby new tooling Terrier in comparison being available for £35 less! Can see these sitting on the shelves for a while!

Strictly speaking, pulling the strings only releases the brakes, it doesn't isolate them. Once fully released, the loco creates vacuum and recalibrates the cylinder to either 21 or 25 inHg depending on the loco. 

To isolate a vacuum cylinder you either need to take the DA valve to bits (difficult when the wingnut and split pin hasn't been removed for the last 25 years) or by taking off the flexi supply pipe to the DA valve and bunging the end with a cork/tape. You'd then just pull the strings and reset that cylinder and the brakes are off. Obviously the amount of permitted isolated cylinders depends on a particular railways rule book but generally they should always have at least one fully working and according to the current NR rule book, a complete swinger is allowed as long as its within braked vehicles, never an end vehicle!

On 29/06/2019 at 13:52, The Johnster said:

I think (ignore my inane rantings if I’m wrong) you mean ‘shunting problem’; a fiddle yard is a non-scenic off stage area to store trains in. 

 

Peco make 009 track, 9mm gauge like their N but with sleeper detailing and spacing more suitable for narrow gauge.  9mm equates to 2’3” gauge in 4mm scale, as used by the Talyllyn, Corris, and Welshpool & Llanfair. 

 

The little tub/tipper wagons are, AFAIK, available from the trade in a generic form (Lilliput?), which gives you the choice of using them, the chassis with 3D printed bodies, or full 3D printing.  The loco can be made out of brass, or pretty much any material you want/think suitable/are able to work with.  Try and get it to be as heavy as you can which will improve the contact between wheels and railhead.  You need good slow speed control for a project like this, and in respect of this I’d go for a lead figure driver modified from wargaming; every little helps and he’s right over the rear axle!

WLLR is 2'6"

On 18/04/2019 at 16:42, Harlequin said:

I've been through exactly the same thing. Dremel do various thicknessess of disc so it's possible that their thinnest version might be acceptable to you. I sourced some 0.75mm 38mm dia discs from B&Q (after I had already cut my rails with a thicker disc...)

 

Then at a show last year I found some 0.5mm thick diamond-coated cutting discs. Sorry, but I can't remember who was running the stand and a few quick Google searches don't return any products quite the same. The advice that came with them was to "go slowly". I haven't tried them yet.

 

P.S. Watch out for the shards of metal kicked towards your face when using one of these discs because they can get into your eyes. I found that out the hard way (even though I wear glasses).

 

'BOYES - for value' do the diamond cutting discs in their modelling/craft corner.

https://www.facebook.com/ruddingtonmodelrailwayclub/

Thanks for the replies. I think it was probably a mixture of baseboards moving with the weather and some motors seeing little use for months. 

I lubricated some or the problem ones and adjusted the point springs and now all working fine. some of the problem ones had peco switches bonded to them. I've removed these as we're going over to miniature relays anyway .

Thanks all.

Hi,

Over the last few months I've been building a new control panel for our club layout and last week saw it being wired in. it was inevitable there would be a few issues but some are puzzling me. 

All the points are peco solenoids. All have been recently rewired and a common was run all the way around the layout with each motor wired to this. Individual wires were then run around to the motors to control their direction. power supply is 18v powering a large CDU that has extra caps soldered in place too. (we'll eventually be switching miniature relays at the same time to control signals etc) These are controlled by momentary switches on the panel (same ones we used on our O gauge layout which has no problems) 

Some of these motors are sticking and refusing to throw in either both directions or just one. I originally thought it could be a bit of voltage drop but the two motors controlling the loops which are furthest away from the panel are throwing fine. 

Any ideas?

I predict the 7mm Austerity to be snaffled by Dapol in a year or two's time. 

Dave scored a massive own goal by withdrawing off here. He'd already gained a bit of a reputation and just fuelled the negative opinions people held of him by going reclusive. He promised the world with some of his ideas and sadly they failed. Take the 4mm Austerities, the body shell is a work of art but the chassis, its 30 year old predecessor now made by Hornby runs far better. You need to get the basics right to be on to a winner. 

I for one won't be trusting any money upfront in DJModels until he shows signs of delivering a lot more stuff and actually started communicating with his potential buyers!

At the club we've used standard 1.5mm2 solid core out of twin and earth. Layouts can be switched between DCC  and DC