John Tomlinson

I thought it worth pointing out, for those of us with the uneven seating of the bogies, that this needn't necessarily lead to derailing. Having received my black 20002 this morning, the first test was to put it on the kitchen worktop, and sure enough all the wheels didn't touch! Not by a lot I must say, nor indeed am I suggesting that they shouldn't. Trying it out on the layout, which has Peco Code 75 track, I was pleasantly surprised to find it running quite happily, especially through facing pointwork which usually finds imperfections. There is a slight and occasional wobble of the body in places, such as one can get on many locos and coaches. I will be taking the top off in due course, in order to set up the headcodes, with the removal of those in place best done apparently by pushing out from the inside of the bodyshell. I'll have a look at the bogie supports/ spigots/ wings, which seem to be the problem at the same time, and many thanks to those above who have identified fixes to the issue. John.

Me too, tried a few times manually and it wouldn't go through. Thanks for the post. Appears there's nothing too much to worry about. John.

I'm awaiting my BR Black 20002 with a bit of trepidation now having read through some of the EFE thread and noted the issue of bogies not running true, which fortunately you haven't had. In the course of that I saw a piece by Graham_Muz that pushing out the headcodes from inside the body is the preferable method, if one wishes to change them. John.

My "OO" Peco code 75 trackwork has now been down for over twenty years, without much in the way of problem, touching lots of wood! Baseboards are 6mm ply on 2x1 or greater frames, then a cork base of around 2mm for the trackbed, PVA'd to the ply. This worked well in deadening sound until it was ballasted! I used Woodland Scenics (mainly fine) grit with dilute PVA applied with a dropper and then pushed around and tidied. The sound deadening was lost once the ballast had set hard. I was a bit miffed at first, then reconciled myself to the fact that the real railway isn't quiet either, or at least it wasn't in the 1950's and 60's which is my period of interest. Many, many years ago I started a small "N" gauge layout, using Peco track in their foam ballast. I'd be reluctant to do this again as the foam disintegrated after a few years, although admittedly it hadn't been painted. I also found it quite difficult to get level track on the foam, as I like to pin track and the process of pinning easily leads to uneven compression of the foam, and correspondingly uneven track. John.

Indeed, and I'd assume the work is too far advanced now on Phase 1 to make dumping it altogether an unrealistic option. Certainly the photos and videos posted on this thread seem to imply such. Presumably going "conventional", you'd also build the same stock as whatever is intended to replace Pendos on the WCML, so you'd save the special costs of the HS stock too. I'm not saying any of this is necessarily a good idea btw, just musing out loud. John.

Interesting that this piece also refers to Thompson saying that the budget for the whole thing was too low to begin with. Rather raises the issue as to whether Parliament was lied to in order to get approval! And yes, I'm sure there are folk thinking that if it were now to be completed as a conventional line, what would the cost impact be? John.

Terribly sad to read this. I've been in the hobby for over half a century, and Hattons has always been part of it. On several occasions I've visited the new facility in Widnes, and always found everyone there helpful and friendly. My best wishes to all of them for the future. John.

For anyone else using this thread, EKM have an Ebay page, here should be the link to the motor in question. Again, no link other than as a satisfied customer, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234339731680?hash=item368fbc88e0:g:SAIAAOSwqXJhvJLD John.

Re. body fixing. One annoyance is the need to remove the buffers, leading to potential loss of the spring and tiny plastic retainer. And then you have to refit which is a total pain. It's worth filing the corners of the chassis off, once you've removed it, so this malarkey with the buffers only need be done once. Obviously do the filing so that the bits don't go into the mechanism, however otherwise there is no adverse effect at all. Something Heljan could/ should have done as part of the design. I'd emphasise the advice given about dragging gear train and potential motor burnout, something the high pitched whine is a symptom of. It doesn't take much to kill the motor. John.

On some of my Bachmann locos I've bent the far end of the drawbar down a tiny bit to make the engagement with the pin a bit easier. On some locos, the Jubilee IIRC for one, it is quite easy to crack the lower tender front piece, that sits below the drawbar, if this isn't done. As you imply, this has to be done very carefully, as too much bend means it won't engage at all. John.

IIRC the drawbar goes through a space in the lower front of the tender, so that it is roughly horizontal when attached. It is a fiddle to connect. It doesn't go under all the tender front. John.

"..still having fun doing what I am doing..." That's a great philosophy for 2024. All good wishes to you and others following this thread for the New Year!! John.

Great news, I'm glad it's been resolved and fairly painlessly too! The loco looks good with the mild weathering. Funny how DCC chips can mess up running on DC. Like you I'm DC as well, but have found some odd events can happen if a chip is present, even if supposedly it has been properly set for DC running. John.

Sadly I'm too young to have had the opportunity to die waiting for "Cicero", if only. I did see all the Deltics however! I've long felt the BR Standards to be some of the best things Bachmann have done, but the complexity of all the outside bits means it doesn't take much for something to catch in one direction or the other. On 76024 I'd start by looking at sandpipes, pick ups, external pipework or the motion bracket/ slidebars snagging to start. A while ago now I bought a second hand 80xxx tank off ebay, which the previous owner had fiddled with and made a bit of a mess. In the end I took it all to bits, including remounting the slide bars which had been glued at the wrong angle in the factory, and put it back together. Eventually I ended up with an excellent, smooth running loco, but never again! John.

Yes, I use SE Finecast flushglaze. The effect isn't as good as either Laserglaze, nor indeed the standard moulded glazing we've become used to from the main manufacturers, but it certainly can be an improvement on the old style recessed sheet behind thick plastic. It has the advantages over Laserglaze of being less vulnerable to pushing in, is easier to fit, and cheaper, although it doesn't look as good. Care needs to be taken that the SE Flushglaze doesn't go beyond the coach or loco side, which can look silly. One thing I've found on older coaches is that apertures aren't all the same even when they're supposed to be, and also neither is the Flushglaze. So you need a bit of patience and trial and error to get a good result. I've done some Mainline/ Bachmann Collett coaches, and some of the old Bachmann Bulleids, and been pleased with the outcome. John.

Getting to the stage of proving the old adage that "markets will out". The BEP buffet car bits as Bachmann spares leave you with little out of £100, add in a "mint" 4-CEP on ebay in green for £100 ish, and you've still got to change the coach and unit numbers on the three from the CEP. A "no brainer" at £300 upwards, much less so now. John.

Thanks for the pic. Big plus that the wheels are correct, as that would be a pricey thing to change! £250 looks a good price for this to me, even if it needs a bit of "fettling"!! I do definitely think the cylinders are too high, look at the position of the bottom of the casing compared to the centre of the drivers and also the bogie wheels on the photo of 61041. And also the long arm that comes back from the top of the cylinders to the bracket, horizontal on the real thing, not on the model (sorry I'm no good with names for valve gear parts). This may have been done deliberately by the builder to get clearance over the front bogie wheels. There's an inset drop of the cylinders below the running plate looking at the real thing, which might make this easier to correct. John. John.

Not entirely clear from your pics, as we don't have one that is at wheel centre level. I suspect the whole loco body is sitting a bit high above the wheels and the cylinders are too high relative to the wheels as well. I wonder if in fact the driving wheels are the right size, or a bit small? The boiler side handrails and what I assume to be the regulator pipe look to be too high on the boiler. The coupling rods in the picture of 61041 are parallel sided not with convex sides, also should be fluted, assuming all B1 rods are the same. I think Keith is right about the tender, although I've always found this quite a tricky topic. John.

As this is a thread about WCML AC electrics, I wondered if anyone has any views or experience of this item I came across on Ebay. They do other stuff too, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176101667520 Many thanks. John.

That's really useful, thanks! I just had a look at their website, and it appears the Mk1 suburban glazing is now available, having been out of production for several years. John.

Somehow I doubt if Ena was a fan of Elton, still less would she have approved of today's female artists jumping around wearing not a lot! Many years ago, probably around 1970 in my early teens, I was coming home with my Dad from Manchester Victoria to Chorley on a late afternoon train, a BRC&W 104 as usual, being a Blackpool service. Many of the "stars" of the time then lived in Blackpool, and Violet Carson was one of them, in the first class section at the front. The man who was Jack Walker of the Rovers Return (Harry ?) was across the aisle from us in second, and was quite chatty. We got the distinct impression that he and Miss Carson were not exactly close! John.

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You could indeed as for two months or so she worked a daily diagram of two return trips from Kings Cross to Newcastle. So might well have got to Heaton sheds on those, maybe not so far as Little Benton. Most photos of her working are on those services. Ironically the great bulk of her life was on the Mansfield (Clipstone) to Whitemoor coal runs, via Lincoln and Spalding. The photographic record on these is close to zero! There was also a few weeks on a Hull to London (York Way?) Freightliner service. My loco has changed headcodes to reflect these, 7J31 being the coal, and 4C70 the liner. Pending discovery of time travel, the best I'll do in the absence of a viewing!

I'd have thought the only chance of Kestrel getting to Brum would be if it had gone to a Depot Open Day on some occasion. Like you, I never saw it, not for want of trying. Every time I managed to get to where I thought it was, it had gone somewhere else! The Heljan model is a cracker, one of their best IMHO - a great Christmas present. John.

Not sure if this counts, being one of the Derby RTC test trains? Please click on pic for details,