Sam Moss

Poor to say the least. The 70hp Baguley is fine but most people who wanted one will have already purchased the 3d printed kit like I did. 

Waiting to see my post deleted because my opinion isn't the same as a mod!

One of the variants fitted into a Hornby tender drive black 5. Yet to be tested under power as the araldite has been setting. Using bevel gears would probably have been the better option space wise as I had to do a lot of carving with a rotary burr. Won't get chance to fit pick ups until next week so will have to wait and see how it performs.

Ruddington Model Railway Clubs contribution includes:

'Ruddington' - OO gauge layout of how Ruddington was in the 1950's/60's

'Millhouse Lane' - O gauge GWR terminus. 

'Thomas' - OO gauge Thomas layout

'Barry's Island' - Outdoor circuit of O gauge x 3 and 1 x G scale.

In the extension will be a Hornby Dublo set up utilising our baseboard built for the new N gauge layout.

Outside will be a gazebo with sales stand and also a members work in progress colliery layout.

I wonder whether rather than taking out a drive shaft completely, keep both in place but instead disconnect the drive to the outer axles on each bogie. If gives the same result then it also mimics the prototypes drive arrangement.

This is one of the major issues for me with the DJ range (don't know about the 71 as I don't have one). The motors are completely gutless to the point were even wheel cleaning is a pain. Its all well and good boasting how accurate they are but if they're so lightweight and gutless in the case of the Austerities then what's the point. I bought two of the original batches and felt for the RRP price they were not worth the money. Now the likes of Hattons have reduced them they're somewhere nearer the right price for something that is nice but a long way from perfect.

With our club building extension now being finished apart from a lick of paint, attention has now turned to designing layouts to go inside. This has also spurred us on to have a push on increasing membership. We currently have around 20 members with the same 6/7 regularly running the layouts for the benefit of our visitors. We need this to increase to ensure the survival of the club in the long term.

We have three layouts in the main building, plus one outdoor:

Ruddington - OO gauge,

Thomas - OO gauge

Millhouse Lane - O gauge 

Outdoor 4 track circuit - O gauge

In the extension there will be a end to end OO and a N gauge roundy roundy, loosely based on the GCR route.

We don't have a regular club night due to members living some distance from the railway but we do meeting every Saturday and Sunday for public running and carry out maintenance to the layouts during closed periods or on pre arranged mid week meetings.

Membership is £20 per year for adults, half price for children (12-18 years, with parental supervision) Inclusive of this, you will also be issued with a GCR-N staff badge which entitles you to members rate on the full size trains.

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

Hornby removed the spring on the centre axle on the last runs. Not sure I would call it an improvement though. Their first runs did show slightly better assembly QC over the Dapol variants.

I wonder if they have intentionally removed it or the factory simply forgot to fit it! From memory, as its been a while since I've had one of these on the workbench, its just a flat strip of metal bearing on the middle axle isn't it? Held in place with a self tapper. Very similar to the Dapol/Hornby J94.

A retooled Terrier would be fantastic. The current one is just too inaccurate, with detailing that's too thick. At least Hornby have worked on the mechanism.

 

I'm guessing scaling down from O still have significant cost. My guess is the chassis still has to be redesigned, even if the body can just be shrunk on the CAD photocopier? Then tooling is what, 100,000 pounds?

 

Of course it'd end up with a coreless motor and being a bit of a lightweight to make room for DCC chips and sound. And thus the complaining on rmweb would begin

The mechanism, unless it's been improved since the last production run, is as Dapol designed.

Thanks I looked at that but it looks as if it could foul on the plastic in the centre of some bogies/chassis. The DCC concepts one looks more versatile and hopefully stocks will reappear in a year or so!

Double-heading or banking is successful, but is perhaps not favoured for a continuous run.  DCC Concepts make PowerBase which is a magnetic strip installed under the track and requires a magnet to be fixed beneath the loco, but could be expensive and not much help if track laying is already complete.  You could try adding a little weight over the loco's driving wheels - I am guessing your locos are steam era because the diesels cope much better with inclines.  If you can find a way of hanging some weight temporarily over the boiler of the loco, you will find out if it is worth hiding some weight inside the loco.  My Bachmann steamers cope better with my incline than Hornby's

 

Harold.

The PowerBase concept is interesting and could be done quite cheaply using thin mild steel strip (something like biscuit tin) and Neo Magnets bought cheap off ebay. Would be a fraction of the price of the legit stuff.

Nothing wrong with DJM packaging to date.

 

Looking at the Rapido 4 car set, the DJM one is going to be a very big box. Where can I hide it?

Judging that you can't get the Austerities back in the boxes with the couplings on I'd say there is.

The tender I've used is off a Super D. I did look at the shorter B12 tender but it just looked too bulky without major hacking. Will be getting a squirt of primer this weekend so I imagine it'll blend in a bit better. Not over decided on livery yet.......anything except black I think!

There goes the warranty...

Looking good so far. I'd prefer a smaller tender, but it might look better when painted the same as the loco.

I don't know how to organise a poll, but who votes for this as Niles' next project....

 

mgn03.jpg

 

My current work in progress........

Hi,

Can anyone reccomend a paint stripper that won't affect clear glazing? I've bought a 7mm scale Heljan railbus off Facebook that has issues with the paint work. A simple roof respray due to the paint being loose has turned into a full body repaint at the masking tape pulled off loads of paint. Obviously Heljan's original paint didn't adhere to the clear roof section in places.

Heljan have modelled from the waistband up in clear plastic  which gives a great flush glazing effect but worries be about repainting it. I need to get all of the old paint off and there are big chunks missing but whatever I use, it can't cloud clear plastic other wise the whole top half would be written off. 

Thanks in advance.

I asked Hornby customer service themselves whether the sound file they are using is the Mirrlees or the EE.

 

This is their reply:

 

"I can confirm the R3592TTS Class 31 uses the original Mirrlees engine sounds".

 

Perhaps a member who has heard the real thing can confirm.

 

If it is a Mirrlees then game on.

I doubt it's a Mirlees. Nothing in preservation is fitted with the correct power unit to replicate the Mirlees sound. I know one of the other DCC sound suppliers, from memory I think it was Howes, provided a "as close as possible" sound set by slowing down and remixing a class 60 power unit sound but I haven't heard one myself.

Its a pity that British Railways decided to smother the Pilot Scheme locos in the various shades of green they applied, trying to make them similar to green-painted steam locos.  The Diesel stud would have looked far more striking in the British Transport Commission livery of black and silver that the LMS diesels 10000 and 10001 initially wore.

 

A Brush 2/Class 31 would look interesting in black with a silver waist rail.....

I have to admit, I do have a bit of a soft spot for the golden ochre livery.

Hi John.

 

Yes we sell the model de-chipped and we also sell the sound decoder separately. Both can be found here:

 

https://beta.railsofsheffield.com/news/articles/2669-railroad-class-31-with-tts-sound

That's a nice little mark up! £20 price difference for the sake of pulling out the chip and popping in a 8 pin blanking plug. Then selling the chip on for £49.50. I'm obviously in the wrong full time job!

Its a shame Hornby have used the chassis mould of the refurbed 31's and not of the as built with the buffer beam cowls.

Sorted. It was just stuck

  Big lump of lead added, still feeble.  \have to stay on shed while the Wrenn 8Fs run the freights

I made a plasticard bung for the boiler on mine and mounted it just forward of the motor and then filled the boiler full of liquid lead via the chimney. I then capped the chimney using a bit of tissue soaked in super glue finished off with a blob of black paint. Weighed a ton and increased haulage capacity no end.

Mine arrived yesterday so took it along to the club to give it a test run today. Ran it around the club layout for half hour but it sounded like it had a mobile phone vibration motor running all the time. Plucked up the courage to remove the seating area to reveal the motor etc and oiled all UJ's, bearings etc and it now runs fine. The only slight grumble I've got is the head code box. Mine fell out and split into its two sections (clear lens and green frame) before I'd even got it out of the box. Not overly bothered and two spares are provided and it will end up getting glued in place.

Who said GC trains were short.....

We have this on the club layout when running on DCC. DC doesn't really show the issue. Have wired it to only switch the power in the direction of travel. At the moment this is being done by the surrounding points using peco switches but tis not reliable. The plan is to use double pole latching relays instead.

Ruddington MRC will also be home to OO Gauge layout 'Myton' for the model event, kindly exhibited by club member Garth.

Another 00 Gauge Layout 'Lockoford Yard' should also be in attendance.

I found when running Hornby's newer type of motor bogie which the 73's are fitted with on DCC, quite a bit of tweeking of the back EMF needs to take place. Once this happens they run quite sweet.

As above, trim the rail chair off the last sleeper.   I remove the last 4 sleepers, cut the rail chair off the last one and file away enough of the sleeper under where the joiner goes so the rail slides over without a "Hump"  and slide them back on.  Outside I notch enough sleepers so the rail joiners can be changed in situ as they have a short life in the open air.   Be careful if you use the loose sleeper method as again unless you thin it enough there will be a slight hump enough to make your Hornby T9 or Hattons 14XX lose its feet.  If you are using DCC and ballasting remember to fit droppers to most rail sections.

Not just DCC, if using DC it is also the best way to go. As I keep telling our clubs visitors when they ask the "Is it wired for DCC?" question, there is no difference if both are wired properly.

Just to confirm what has been mentioned above, Ruddington Model Railway Club will have in operation: 'Ruddington' (4mm Scale OO gauge), 'Millhouse Lane' (7mm Scale O gauge), 'Barry's Island' (7MM Scale O gauge outdoor circuit) and 'Thomas Island' (4mm Scale OO gauge Children's Layout)

We will also be showing off our building extension which is finished internally and just awaiting the new layouts building. We're hoping to house a couple of members layouts in here for the event depending on staffing numbers.

We'll have the gazebo up outside with out sales stall inside selling a large amount of second hand members and club stock along with a small quantity of new sales stock kindly provided by the 47401 Project / 13809 LMS 7F Group.