Tankerman

Hi Dave, Quote "cheers Dave" - You have certainly got something to cheer about as far as I am concerned. Mine arrived from Kernow Models about half a hour ago. I know it has taken you a long time and a lot of effort to produce, and as a gauge of how well you have done I would like to say that I was instantly taken back 49 years to when I saw my first one at Plymouth North Road station. Thanks for all your efforts. Chris

Hi David & Nick, Thanks for the replies, I'm very pleased that it is much easier than I thought. I looked at it quickly after buying it yesterday and it appeared that there wasn't enough room to open the gauge to EM. I should have used my head and asked here first.

Thanks John

Coincidentally, Geoff (sparky) has drawn my attention to a new development on the Ultrascale web site. Putting two and two together, it looks like they may be considering offering to do something similar with customers wheels. Either that or they've managed to get a supply of the standard Dapol wheels. Nick Hi Nick, Having read the above I emailed Ultrascale yesterday enquiring about having a set of wheels modified for EM and received a prompt and detailed reply. It appears that this was a trial run. They do not hold a stock of Dapol wheels, your wheels would have to be sent to them and, quite naturally, they will not be responsible for any breakages. The killer point for me, short of winning the Lottery, is that the turning down of each set of wheels has to be done manually and takes a full 8 hour day, so the labour costs would make them a very expensive set of wheels. On the subject of wheel conversion, and following a chat with a fellow EMGS member at the Southampton show yesterday, which incidentally had a wide range of layouts and was excellent, one solution could be to use Alan Gibson 14mm spoked coach wheels if the Dapol Class 22 uses 2 mm axles. I know these are 10 and not 11 spoke, but if anyone can tell the difference when the loco is on the track their eyesight is much better than mine Can anyone confirm the axle size for me? Chris P

Hi Dave, Seeing the layout today was well worth the trip from Reading, it looks even better in the round than it does in the pictures. Thank you for answering all my questions, I hope I wasn't too much of a nuisance. Chris P

Pennine & RedgateModels, thanks for your replies and kind words about my explanation. I too have always regarded railway modelling as a very 'broad church', as with such a popular hobby there is bound to be a large range of skills and interests. I'm now off to Portsmouth to combine two of my hobbies in one day, there's a layout I want to see at the South Hants exhibition and there is a 300,000 ton tanker sitting off the Isle of Wight.

The quote above is exactly right, I wasn't aware that any gauge arguments had taken place, and I can only imagine what they must have been like from the heat which the second paragraph of my post has generated. I hope that a short explanation of my modelling experience, the reason I am using EM and what I was actually trying to say in the second paragraph, obviously very badly, will pour some oil on the troubled waters. I was a member of Falmouth MRC for most of the 1960's until I joined the Merchant Navy in 1968, I really enjoyed being a member, and I know that the other members enjoyed me being there, as when my first wife and I got married in early 1969, the members were kind enough to give us a dinner service as a wedding present. With the usual things associated with home and family, railway modelling very much took a back seat, and although I did make a number of attempts at restarting over the years they all fell by the wayside. A few years ago, and as I thought at the time approaching retirement, which was then delayed for over two years, I decided to start railway modelling again. I visited a few of the local exhibitions and, purely by chance, got talking to the operator of an EM layout at one of them. He told me that ready to lay track was now available as were point kits with preassembled crossings and wheel sets on coaches & wagons could be simply exchanged. As I liked the look of his layout I joined the EMGS and therefore became an EM gauge modeller by pure chance. As to the second paragraph I was in no way trying to imply that anyone not modelling to a finer gauge than OO was in anyway inferior to anyone else; I remember 'Borchester' appearing in the model railway magazines of the time, and no one could say that it was anything less than magnificent. What I was trying to convey was that, in my opinion, the Dapol Class 22 is such a superb model that the few very minor errors were of no significance to me. Unfortunately, not knowing the history of this website, I did this by comparing the very minor errors to the discrepancy in the track gauge and promptly walked straight into a minefield.

Dave, I would certainly be interested in an EM set. Taking the idea further you could enquire, before production, how many buyers of the D6XX Warship model would like them supplied with EM gauge wheels. This would make you the first manufacturer to supply a RTR EM gauge loco. As an aside, with a very personal opinion, I have been amazed at how many posts concern very minor errors in a mass produced model, but the fact that the model will be operated on track which is way under scale is apparently of no concern at all.

A very old oil siding was the one put in at Penmere on the Truro-Falmouth branch during WWII to supply the storage tanks at Swanpool. Although it was out of use by 1956/7, the oil being brought in by tankships by then, it remained rail connected, and usable, until the early 60's.

Ther is a very nice photo of the Beluga Endurance, carrying a deck cargo, on the Marinetraffic site. Google 'Beluga Endurance' and click on the link to the Marinetraffic site.

Hi Cunnungduck, No need for ashes, in fact please accept my apologies. I wrote the post when I got in last night. I've just re-read it and it doesn't half sound "I know it all". As Bridget Jones would say "Memo to self; don't answer posts after visiting your neighbour and helping him sample the bottle of malt whisky he was given for Christmas."

Beluga Endurance is not a Handymax ship, which would be around 28,000 deadweight tons. She was built in China in 2004, and is 9,611 gross tons & 12,714 deadweight tons. The latter is the relevant tonnage as it refers to the actual weight in tons that the ship can carry, less the weight of any fuel, ships stores, spare parts etc. She does not have a tween deck, it would be a very rare modern ship that did have one. The company she is owned by specialises in 'project' cargos and it is unlikely that she would have any other cargo than the Class 70's on board. She has 2 x 120 ton cranes and is specially designed for heavy unit cargo, normally called 'project' cargo, which means that her tank tops, i.e. bottom of the hold, can withstand heavy point loadings such as a locomotive. She is also built to FA Ice Class 1A which is probably why she was used to ship the locos out of Canada in mid winter. If, as is likely, the slings slipped or broke at one end of the locomotive, the kinetic energy generated by one end, and possibly the other, of the locomotive falling 30 feet would be enough to penetrate the tank top, but not enough to put the ship in any danger. On a lighter note, the one thing that is certain is that anyone in the hold at the time would have suffered an involuntary bowel movement .

Thanks Captain. The wheels were so distinctive on the Class 22s. In my youth the small group of trainspotters who frequented Truro, after the diesels started to replace steam, thought that they were spoked as North British had them left on their hands from a cancelled foreign steam loco order. Another bit of info to add to those already posted on Class 22 passenger workings. It was not uncommon to see them paired on passenger workings when the Warships were first introduced due to Warship failures. These were mostly on down trains, the Warships normally made it at least as far as Plymouth in the up direction. One memory is of two, working, Class 22s restarting a train consisting of a dead D8XX Warship and about 12 coaches from the down main platform at Truro into the remains of a westerly gale. Looking bacI I wish we had modern digital video/sound then.

I've had a D63XX on order for some time, now backed it up with a D6XX Warship, and having seen the photos of the D63XX I can see a second one being ordered if my wallet can stand the strain. Does anyone know if Alan Gibson, or anybody else, is going to produce the distinctive spoked wheels to a standard suitable for EM conversion?