delticman

Killamarsh fell into the Sheffield Division of the Eastern Region of British Railways being an ex Great Central signalbox later absorbed by the LNER at the Grouping. As such it remained in LNER colours at Nationalisation, only any signage being replaced by the regional colour of dark blue. Many boxes and indeed stations remained in these colours for decades. Here is a photo of Darnall West box that I photographed in the early eighties still sporting ex LNER paintwork (by then well faded) though the "Private" sign on the entrance door is Eastern Region dark blue enamel. Hope this helps, Geoff

Sorry sulzer71, I have only just seen your post, you didnt say if you wanted aerosol spray acrylic (rattle can) but I can recommend Riolett UK Aerosols https://www.riolettcustomaerosols.co.uk/products/british-standard-colour-golden-yellow-356-aerosol-spray-paint/ for a spot on match with the added bonus of an adjustable spray nozzle. Get the Acrylic Enamel and you can choose how glossy or matt you want it. Also Halfords Rover Inca Yellow is a very close match and is also acrylic enamel. Hope this helps. Geoff.

The whole of the vehicles were given a coat of Humbrol Enamel Satin Varnish from their spray can range, then when thoroughly dry ( 48 hours min) the sides were masked and the stripe was applied using nothing more than Humbrol Enamel Matt Varnish also from their spray can range. This gives enough contrast as the two varnishes reflect light differently. The Humbrol spray cans were used because of their wide availability and give a lovely even coat WHEN they are working!!!! I found that sometimes a can would work for a minute or so then it would jam up solid and no amount of cleaning of the nozzles would clear it leaving an almost full can totally unusable! I still have 4 of these unusable cans of spray varnish stored in a cupboard in the vain hope that the Paint Fairy will one day come and fix them as an email to Hornby Hobbies got me nowhere! Sorry Jon, that turned into a bit of a rant didnt it? Hopefully this information will help. Regards, Geoff

Wow Martin you have been busy, but what a difference in performance from these locos, smooth and unfaltering. Geoff

Yes they would work, I used Hornby R8264 the disc wheels with two holes. Just pull off the Heljan wheels and the Hornby ones from their axles and press the Hornby wheels on to the Heljan axles. If I remember correctly they are not too tight so a small dab of superglue on the axle ends will keep them in gauge. Hope this helps. Geoff

You can use Hornby 14.1mm Disc Coach wheels as they fit the Heljan axles no trouble, the loco will sit almost 0.5mm lower although this is hardly noticeable and power pick up is much better. Geoff

Enterprisingwestern do you mean actual operating ones because this is something of a Holy Grail. I dont think anyone makes operational ones and like you I have searched and only found the same white metal dummy ones. At one point I even tried making a representation of the platform lamps by using short lengths of cotton buds (cutting the fluffy bits off) with a tiny white SMD LED in each end but I just could not get an even light along the length of tube Geoff

Going back to the earlier (much earlier) thread on boxes with a distinct lean on them, here is Meadow Hall box photographed around 1986. This was of ancient Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway design and was on the former Blackburn Valley Line (now a bike trail) near Rotherham. The box was in danger of falling backwards into the Blackburn Brook and had been shored up with substantial timbers. The signaller told me that one night whilst on duty in the box he was relaxing in his armchair when he was startled by the groaning of the structure quickly followed by a crack like a gunshot as a pane of glass cracked. Needless to say he was out of that box in a flash!

As usual Andi you are spot on. I connected croc clips directly to the motor and the lights behaved. I thought the wheels were clean ( I had used Isopropyl Alcohol) but I suppose on an over 40 year old model the grime must get ingrained so out came the rotary wire brush in the Dremel and hey presto, it all worked fine! Thank you sir. Geoff

Did you manage to get this sorted? I have just fitted Black Cat lighting boards to an old Hornby HST on DC and have exactly the same problem as you. The trailer vehicle works fine but on the powered car both white and reds are alternately flickering. The Black Cat instructions state that this could be caused by dirty wheels or track or worn motor brushes, I have cleaned wheels and track but to no avail. I also have a motor bogie that I fitted with a CD drive motor which is very smooth so I might give that a go.

Just as a belated update on this matter as I originally asked about the anti-flicker circuit for LED directional lighting on conventional DC operation. I had to respray a Hornby Class 121 bubble car from chocolate and cream to banger blue for a friends DC layout. He had asked me to install directional lighting so I had asked about the anti-flicker circuit as an added luxury really. After assembling all the required components I found very little room in the unit to install them without something being visible in the saloon area of the unit. One of the capacitors was able to masquerade as the cylindrical reservoir underneath the chassis (it was almost identical dimensionally). So, frustrated, I thought I would try the lighting with only the current limiting resistors and diodes to prevent reverse voltages and amazingly it all worked really well with no flickering.....problem solved! My friend was so happy with the finished model that he sent me a short video of it running on his layout over dead frog pointwork with absolutely no light flicker so I have included it here. May I just add my thanks for everyone who contributed with their great knowledge in particular Andi ( Dagworth). The circuit is now filed and may well be called upon in the future. Thank you, Geoff.

Wow, thanks guys for all your interest and replies. Suzie I had totally forgotten that decoders can work on DC (I always disable DC running on mine as a matter of course), wasnt there some issue though with motors buzzing on DC? I have spare decoders in my spares box although not expensive ones. I cant go to the expense of investing in a quality decoder and a stay-alive. Dagworth thank you for the updated circuit diagram and along with Davids solution for control of the differing brightness of the red and white LEDs could well be a winner though a bit more soldering is involved! When the LEDs arrive I will try the Dagworth/John circuit and also try Suzies suggestion of a decoder. Many thanks to all of you for your expertise. Geoff

The bubble car is the Hornby one (ex Lima with a neater little power bogie) and has no lighting as supplied. I have one that I fitted directional lighting to and resprayed as Route Learning Car DB975042 but mine is DCC so no problem. I will certainly try out the set up and let you know how I get on. Thanks Andi for taking the time to help, much appreciated. Geoff

David, re the resistor in line with the red LED, I intend using 12 volt bi-colour red/white LEDs as this is for a Class 121 where the marker lights and tail lights share the same lamp housing, so I wouldnt be able to add a resistor to just the red. My in line resistor in the original circuit diagram was to knock back the light intensity to a more prototypical "candle" output lol. Andi, if the total capacitance works out at half of one of the caps then I am stuffed, I was using 1000uf caps as the bare minimum due to space limitations under the chassis, I think halving that value would have no effect on the flicker Geoff

Thank you for the circuit diagram, it is much appreciated and I will give it a go when my leds arrive. I dont really know how connecting the caps that way round will affect the total capacitance, I know that connecting them in parallel you just add them together and in series there is a formula to work it out. I will let you know when I have tried this out. Geoff. P.S. I dont think I can stretch to one of the new Hornby APTs but judging by the engineering samples they look the business! I have an original 5-car set and a seperate power car that I have de-motored and fitted Kadees to for the APT Test Train that is next on my "to do" list.

Thank you so much for the replies guys, just to reiterate this is for a conventional DC system, so 34theletter I cant use a DCC decoder (it would be so much easier if it were DCC). Dave John I never knew that there was such a thing as non polarised electrolytic capacitors, this is how little I know! Dagworth (love your full length APT by the way), your solution intrigues me (I cant get my head round the capacitors being like pole to like pole but that is probably just my ignorance!), I think I will give this a go, I wonder if you could scribble a rough circuit diagram for me? What value resistor do I require for between the power feeds? Geoff

I am currently respraying, weathering and detailing a Hornby bubble car Class 121 for a friend, part of the detailing involves fitting directional lights which will show white front marker lights and red tail lights according to the direction of travel and this is conventional DC operation. So far so good, now I would like to add capacitors to help alleviate light flicker and this is where I need help. I searched RMweb to no avail, plenty of advice on anti flicker constant coach lighting using a bridge rectifier for constant polarity and directional lights on DCC. By my reckoning, as the capacitor is polarity sensitive, I would need one for each direction along with a diode to prevent the wrong polarity reaching the capacitor, is this correct? I am appealing to the more knowledgable members on here for help in this matter so I have included a rough circuit diagram of my intentions and for clarity have only shown one end of the unit. I intend using 12volt bi-colour diodes to show either white or red in the marker lights.

I made up a tinlet of paint that I labelled "GWR Steel Grey" by mixing together Humbrol 53 Gunmetal and Revell 99 Aluminium until it looked right. The original GWR spec was Saab Steel Grey 279 so that might be worth trying. Regards, Geoff

I found that Phoenix Precision P323 Southern Dark Olive was quite close but needed a little blue added, so after experimenting I found that between 6 and 10ml of Revell SM350 (Dark Blue) added to a 50ml tin of the Phoenix Precision P323 gave about the correct shade. Hope this is of use. Regards, Geoff

I am one of the silent majority because, although I never contributed to your pages, I have often dipped into them to be both inspired by your scratchbuilding, cutting and shutting of models, and entertained by your wit and wisdom, not to mention the delightfully obscure music videos you post. I am currently "OO-ising" a Trix Transpennine DMU by cutting and shutting old Mainline coaches. You will always get negative people who like to spout off on forums and I am afraid Facebook is the worst, please dont let those negative comments get to you, remember all the pleasure you are bringing to many more people. Have a little break by all means but please come back soon. Geoff

Right, all this is starting to worry me as I was about to purchase a Hornby TTS Paxman Valenta pair of decoders for my blue/grey HST. I have several TTS decoders installed in locos and have never had any problems except with a Class 20 where it would only respond when placed facing one way on the track (since sorted). The idea of putting a resistance across the motor terminals in the dummy car seems to me unnessesary as when you programm the two power cars together the dummy power car would detect the motor load through the track. If anyone from Hornby is reading this thread I would appreciate their input and I hope Ronnie gets it sorted, please dont give up on TTS as they represent great value for money. Geoff

I agree with forest2807, there was nothing else available RTR at that time so we thought the Jouef 40 was wonderful, I had two, a green one which I resprayed BR blue as 40 118 and later on I aquired a blue one which conversely I resprayed in BR green as D200. I remember one day one of them was hauling a train of 16 ton minerals on my railway when it ground to a halt although I could still hear the motor running. The worm gear had worked its way off the motor shaft and was lying in the 4 foot! Anyway to answer the question I would say the new Bachmann model is the one to go for. The old Bachy tooling had a few issues so I sold the body of mine and fitted a flush glazed Lima body in its place which I am still running, it now has a Hornby TTS sound decoder fitted so I suppose it could be called a Limbymann. Geoff

Lidl this week are selling a lovely little 125mm disc sander for only £29.99, I have been after one of these for a while now. I have to say the motor runs quiet and smooth, a must for all modelmakers. https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/Non-Food-Offers.htm?articleId=10590&ar=12 Geoff

Quick update, I contacted Hornby and they let me send my decoders to them for the firmware fix even though I had removed them from the original TTS locos and fitted them to other engines. I removed the decoders and posted them off on Wednesday morning and they arrived back on my doorstep on Saturday morning all fixed. I have to say "hats off" to Hornby for great service and the decoders now work as they should, the sound on the Class 20 is particularly impressive. So, if you are experiencing problems using the newest TTS decoders with your particular DCC control system, contact Hornby on 01843 233525 and press option 2. Geoff

I know we all model the main railway buildings such as stations, signalboxes, goods sheds, bridges and houses but this time I fancied a change and decided to model what I call "the also rans", the unsung little buildings that are also a vital part of the whole railway scene. Although these buildings are small, whenever you come across them on your travels they literally stink of railway, the architecture screams railway and I love them. The first one is a shunters cabin loosely (very loosely) based on the one at Skinningrove in the North East. The second one is based on a p.way stores just down the road at Saltburn-on-Sea. Geoff