Francis deWeck

Agreed, these are being introduced across my Bachmann DMU's; I have found that fitting these drawbars require careful handling, but when fitted improve the appearance and that the close coupling works well. The other DMU's might well have been designed for these drawbars, even if the second/third car required an individual decoder. The radii of my layout varies from 24" to 30+", so it may be that radii > 24" might cause a problem.

Advert opposite the Festival of British Railway Modelling "accurascale - Uncompromising fidelity in 4mm scale. Coming Soon" Any insider track info.........rumours, whose doing what, etc.?

Works well with Heljan? The problem that exists with Heljan is the coupling droops, despite being NEM, and so doing has a great tendency to catch the points when crossing them. This particularly so for the Class 17 and 33's. Apart from trimming the coupling hook to a degree there doesn't appear any other way to deal with this.

Would that SK view this, he is impervious to my opinions. I looked into the frames of the Princess at Swanwick within their shed and it was obvious that the trailing truck would pivot, you have just confirmed my view.

I'm with you on this, for what it's worth. I discussed this with SK at Warley years ago when the Brit was brought out. I had had the trailing bogie and chassis modified to make it more prototypical and to work around 30" radii. SK looked at the conversion and politely told me that it was so designed as it looks good, in the manner of the engineer - if it looks good it is good. The same work was done on the modified SR Battle of Britain, which also had a pivoting trailing bogie, and to the Clan, which was basically a Brit chassis. To my view, what is wrong with politely putting forward one's opinion? The thing here is that Hornby blithely ignore such a simple issue, working on the basis that one design principle (mod BoB/Brit/Clan/Princess Coronation chassis) suits all and working to the the 'if it looks good' principle. I also don't agree that a modeller should spend on a model so to modify it so that it is nearer the protoype on such basic an issue, particularly when the mod BoB, Brit/Clan and this Ivatt Princess Coronation are concerned. Rant over, full steam ahead with a modified trailing truck on City of Sheffield. Stand-by with flak jacket and helmet.

Something of a surprise to report, following a re-wiring of the layout and re-arrangement of power districts, the Garratt now behaves well and carries out shunting as required. Amazing!

Ah-ha, I didn't appreciate it was a kit built loco; the advice re washing off the WD40 is spot on. My concern was that the WD40 would affect more than just the loco, leeching onto track and other components (Locos, coaches, etc.). I have mistakenly used it in the past, but by good coincidence before I went DCC which was a sea change for my layout.

Arggghhh, not WD40..It gets everywhere and is not recommended. Are you sure there is corrosion in the gears? Most gears are plastic of one kind or another, so perhaps the motor itself has a problem. A visit to a repairer or failing that send it back to the manufacturer, who will repair it for a reasonable fee.

Totally in agreement with that! SLW's Class 24's are fine examples of that as well.

First Rule of Operating Own Railway : Anything is a proper train, you are the Operating Officer. Real railway operation: Wensleydale Railway operate a combination of a Class 121 and a Class 117, see page 18 of Wensleydale Railway's magazine, Relay, Number 76 (Summer 2017). Incidentally, Black Labradors have stamped their approval on this form of transport...great views out on to the Dale!

I think the subject of this discussion was 'historic' ship models, and there is something of a clue in that Trumpeter have stepped in and are covering a wide range of ship types, some 'modern', many historic, so this has caused Airfix to lose interest. Not to mention the fact that their recent models didn't get high approval ratings, although I have no idea as to the sales success. Commenting further, it would appear that ship modelling is less popular than other fields in the UK, in particular aircraft and armour, the former is of course Airfix's principal (I nearly said Main Line!) line.

Unfortunately, Airfix/Hornby have stated at IPMS Telford (not a public statement) that they won't model a ship they can't step on, which precludes the historic ships which they held in their old catalogue. Subsequently, a little known firm called Trumpeter has taken over the historic ship modelling production, including those of the Royal Navy. Other firm such as Aoshima and Hasegewa, and, to a certain extent, Tamiya still model naval ships. The only European model ship builders are (1) Revell of Germany, but their production range is limited in scope and numbers and (2) Heller of France, which has been restarting production.

Obviously he's revolting, but I will be charged with over-ample coverage of this item so I will wind down.

Just somebody trying to electrify the conversation..........

ref #278: The trailing bogie - fixed axle - then seems to be a continuation of the one design concept fits all. I will have to wait and see as stated. However, I feel that I will be looking for a handy builder to convert the trailing bogie fitting a Comet kit in its place.

Yep, sure is. Hopefully there will be something of a pivotable trailing bogie along with the flanged wheels. Lovely pics.

That's a tease! Hmmm, I'm looking out for a new tool Class 31 (Brush Type 2/3) and a 4-COR EMU! The former with a decent chassis, the latter with internal lights, motor in the guards compartment, and route indicator lights (like the Hornby 2-SUB, before they went design clever). I was a bit worried when somebody mentioned an Oerlikon, whether it would be a single, twin or twin power unit from WW2!

Ditto. Re your wish list, a 4COR would be me gratefully received, having spotted them in Pompey whilst visiting folks (and HM Dockyard, of course).

This one is going off the scale.......

Having got the 2 Midland Pullman Sets, I've come to the conclusion that a WR set would not go at all amiss! i won't hold my breath mind you. I can at least put together D1001 and the Pullman Rake as found in the Western Requiem article in the Railway Magazine, although I couldn't be wholly accurate on the Pullman cars in the actual rake of the time.

'sfunny, bringing up the Jube, but the Bachmann interpretation is not entirely correct, in particular the splashers which make it tend towards a 'Castle' or some such GWR specimen, although we know that Stanier started off on that incredibly wonderful railway. I would love Bachmann to do a re-tool of this so it could run in the same frame as my Brassmasters unit.

I presume that if you do that, a RTR example will surface, its happened to me where the locos are concerned......Jubilee, Austerity, Ivatt 2-6-0, Clan! However, a welcome loco takes me back some years. I will have to wait till the BR version turns up, but the wallet will be better off for that.....

Anathema, well, I'm limited to radii of 24-30", with express points, by circumstance. It doesn't take much of a pivoting action to cater for this, and the bogie doesn't swing, unlike the cab above it! If I had radii of >48" and more like 60", then the model would be ok, but not with flangeless wheels. However, if you observe a 1:1 scale Brit, then the trailing bogie is just that, a bogie which is by definition pivoted. As for trainset, we all run trainsets in one form or another and play with them, even the EM and P4 boys.

Yep, but please address this to Hornby by PM as referred to in earlier posts. I have City of Sheffield and others in the Pacific range modified with Comet/Scratch built trailing bogie assemblies to permit pivoting, not perfect, but these chassis were never top notch in my humble opinion. I dug out my rebuilt Bulleid light Pacific to check its running characteristics just to remind myself and found it was cranky even after cleaning and light oiling. I presume that the more recent chassis will be smoother runners, which is evidenced somewhat by the J15 and the O1 that I have, although I have a J50 which is a poor runner at low speeds. I'm hoping that Hornby will a resurgence in popularity, as competition in this hobby can't be too bad a thing.

Hmmm...harks back to some pop song from the Sixties 'Everyones gone to the moon', or some such title. Can't remember who was the artist..'Jonathan?'...