Pak75

Hi all Have removed moulded handrail and working on detailing backhead and cab. Shrinkage needs sorting next. Noticed something strange -the cab sides do not extend all the way to rear of floor plate. At first i thought it my error, then checked pictures other completed kits - all the same. Lastly compared with real thing and cab sides do go all the way to rear edge - less handrail. Damn millimeters - all 4 of them. Leave as is or attempt to correct?

Hi Some progress - Lord of Isles bogie and boiler added. Bogie fixed with screw and spring to boss on forward underside plastic kit. Boiler and footplate fixed by means of second screw to rear plastic boss. Need to make allowance for tender coupling ... Thanks

HI Have been attempting same model but for Hornby Dublo three rail layout. On advice from Rob (Rosies Boss on RMWeb), i used an old Jinty 0-4-0 chassis as this matches 8' 6" wheel base of City of Truro. Rob has posted several articles on RM Web re motorising City of Truro if you search. My plan is to fit Dapol kit to 0-4-0 and detail it with Branchlines chassis completion kit (with motor) and body detailing kit. The main problem is getting kit to fit chassis and devising some means of fixing it to chassis. Branchlines chassis completion kit is also designed for chassis kit so much of it cannot be used, eg gearbox. Unfortunately, some of chassis detail such as brakeshoes is also in original chassis kit which is disappointing. Have briefly halted work to await supply 2mm thread tapping tools to provide fixing screws. Will be using a Lord of the Isles bogie and again need to devise fixing method. Jinty chassis will more than likely need to be cut back even more to accommodate it. As other replies say, there are many ways to do this depending on yr resources, funds and skills. Cheers

Hi there David and Wolseley You are spot on, as confirmed by Foster. There is also a Mallard with headboard slot in my purchase which has now been reunited with its correct chassis. Seller was unable to provide any info other than being in loft for 20 years, so I have no idea why they were swapped. I didn’t even know if locomotives would work. I am relieved that Corrosion is not Mazak rot although fungal like white/grey powdering twice the size of the axle boxes was alarming when I first saw it. Photo was taken after I cleaned up what I could. Strangely only the Duchess tender was affected, everything else is in good nick. Thanks

Thanks Ray Sahara beige it is. Yes, it is a Duchess tender - I tried to say it was separate as in separate set but didn’t make myself clear. Cheers

Hi there Good discussion on HD colours. Anyone have a ‘custard’ cream match for three rail coaches? Recently acquired a HD Silver King with plastic bogie wheels and nickel driving wheels finished in gloss green. Presumably a late HD innovation? Also a pair of lovely old D11 BR coaches with silvered windows and only a few scratches. A seperate tender has some Mazak rot on chassis - can this be treated? I put some light oil on it which seems to have slowed it down...

Hi I presume orange is same psychedelic colour used on HD roofs and turntable? I recall seeing somewhere on this site a thread about matching the orange........ Cheers

Hi Finally accessed RMweb with iPad. My girder bridge has only rivets, I’m afraid inc cross beam.

Hi GE Website was migrated to a new host some months ago and there appear to be some teething problems. This thread is for all issues: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/52-forum-rules-notices-faults-help/ I could not even reply to this topic for some days and there seems to be a difference between mobile and pc platforms... Any pearls of wisdom anyone can share re

Hi there Next project is to refurbish some HD tank wagons acquired EBay. Photos were a bit blurred...... Have found some Esso logos on online but does anyone know where you can get the Royal Daylight Paraffin transfers or decals from? Thanks

HI GE If you do not want to go to expense of custom aerosol (and risk not being exact) you could try Humbrol Rail Colour acrylics. They are supposed to be air-brushable but members have also had good results just brushing. Cheers

Thanks all the replies. Magically, i can now access site in Windows 10 without having done anything to browser...

Hi Apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere but rmweb site appears to be configured for mobile platforms only since change of host? ..? I cannot access site properly with pc running Windows 10. I get a basic page with giant avatar letters. IPad and phone are fine. Any help appreciated - thanks

Hi Went to local Hardware store and they did a colour match. The sample they mixed was good but when they made the gloss enamel, the colour was more olive green. HDublo does seem to have a slight grey blue appearance. Anyway, painted some buffers, judge for yourselves... colour definitely changes with different light. Now have 0.5 litre of paint. After much searching on internet, found two stockists Humbrol Rail colours in Australia so placed an order. If anyone wants details pls message me.

Thanks for replies Cypherman, Il Grifone and SR71. I googled RAL 7002 and even then a variety of different hues came up. The olive grey doesn’t look quite right for my points which are a more silver grey. David may be right, HD probably got a job lot paint post war and then bought similar shades as it ran out so a variety of shades exist today. Will try the colour matching at Bunnings, Sydney, forgot about that. The $64000 question - what is best representation LMS Duchess Atholl maroon? I bought one on EBay recently and am disappointed with its paint job... Cheers

Hi there Havent posted for a while as continue to have site access issues... i have quite a bit of HD track now and some of points and buffer stops could do with some tlc in terms rust removal and touch up. Does anyone know what is spec for HD grey gloss on points, etc? Closest I I have found is Humbrol #5 Admiralty Grey. Thanks

Big thanks to owner for work in migrating this blog to new host server. All my projects were stalled temporarily... Peco Wonderful nylon bearings arrived and I was able to find what seems to be last packet of Hornby spoked wheels in Australia. Once hangers were removed, clearance from one side chassis to the other was 26.5mm. Peco bearing are 2.5mm long and 2.5mm diameter so after much experimenting, I determined that I could not use hangers at all to fix Peco bearings to. I then cut 1.5mm off end of bearings and glued one on one side of the chassis before refitting hanger. After locating axle in glued side, fitting the axle and hanger to other side required balancing the cut-down bearing on end of axle and hanger before carefully easing into pre-glued position. Worked well provided bearing was less than 1mm as too long otherwise, wheels either jammed or could not get other bearing into place at all. Very fiddly and frustrating. My inability to cut plastic parts to same length and at right angles continues to amaze me and carpet monster got a couple of bearings. First wagon took hours, others much quicker. Had to take care to make sure axles were at same height and all four wheels touched track at same time. One had to be redone. When I came to do other coal wagons, I noticed there was no retaining screw. The wagon body is fixed to chassis either by ends of plastic spigots being burred over or by the actual rivets for coupling. Having experience of messing with rivets, I decided to leave well alone. Did 6 wagons this way and started to replace other solid plastic wheels with metal wheels which also arrived from UK. All now passing slope test.... yayyy! Yes, it was unavoidable to leave scratches on body around hanger tabs. You can just see cut down glued bearing at bottom RHS. I only hope now that HD did not allow axles to float up and down in hangers for a reason....

HI Thanks for comments and especially for your help John - very much appreciated. Being plastic allows them to be trimmed to size as required - fantastic. Have ordered 3 packets from a store in Melbourne. Cheers

Hi What i was hoping would be simple task seems to be far more complex and more acronyms than a plate of alphabet spaghetti... Therefore i decided to buy some Hornby R8098 pin point axles and make my own investigations. Firstly, Hornby R8098 metal pin point wheels are exactly same dims as HD plastic - axle length a tad over 25mm. Their profile is also identical. As expected, the metal wheel axles directly substitute for plastic axles. However, the hole in the HD hanger is not a 2mm circle but more elliptical in shape. This means conical ends of axle have considerable play in the hole and wagon 'floats' up and down more than with plastic wheels. Bending the hanger inwards as much as possible partially corrected this but still room for improvement. The HD wagon axle space is 26mm across W-iron to W-Iron. Next step to try some top hat bushes inserted into hole in hanger which will hopefully leave enough room to accommodate axle length without jamming. Meanwhile, HD metal wheels on the way from Ebay UK.

HI Il Grifone Thanks yr reply. So if new Hornby wheels won't work, i have two alternatives: 1. Source original HD metal wheels (though these are disc not spokes) 2. Find another manufacturer I am looking at Triang X830 plastic wheels with metal rims but am struggling to find actual dimensions. These fit British profile 1970-2000. Anyone any comments on suitability of these? Cheers

HI How and what did you use to fit metal wheels? Have read much about pinpoint axles, bushes etc. However it appears bushes can only be incorporated into closed axle boxes of Dublo wagon metal chassis with difficulty? A closer examination of two worst plastic wheeled SD wagons revealed that axles had no lateral movement at all and appeared to be jammed. Underframe was not damaged and hangers were correctly fitted so i took out suspect wheels and trimmed a little of each end of axle with knife and sandpaper. Now spinning at least as well as others. Possibly a bad moulding out of spec? Hornby are selling these packs of wheelsets - though they are pinpoint axles. R8218 14.1mm Disc Wheels (Pack 10) (Hornby.com) These are 25mm long and also available 12.6mm diameter. Will these work in HD wagons or has anybody tried them as replacements? Thanks

Hi Thanks Locomad2 and others for replies. Consensus seems to be to replace plastic wheels. This is certainly an option but i did make an effort to find SD wagons as I far prefer the higher level of detail over the tinplate wagons... so this has backfired. Most of the SD wagons have solid plastic wheels so they could be replaced, however. Only a few wagons - Saxa salt, cattle and grain wagons have spoked wheels so maybe best to leave these unless replacement available commercially? I read in an earlier post in this thread that a wagon takes IIRC 8g of force to overcome friction and get it moving. Therefore 100 wagons is 800g, 0.8kg or nearly 1.8lb. Quite a load!

Hi there I spent a happy hour or so going through 50 HD wagons i have acquired in last six months, giving them a Dodds service and performing 1:30 incline glide test. I seem to have wagons from every development phase of Hornby Dublo from D1 tinplate and metal wheels to SD with plastic wheels, plus some odds which look like they have been renovated at some time. I modified the glide test by gently pushing wagon uphill to see if it would then come back downhill without me having to touch it. After a bit of TLC and oiling, nearly all HD wagons with metal wheels passed the test. However most of the plastic wheeled wagons did not, stopping on the incline. This leads me to two qsns: 1. Is 1:30 test only applicable for HD wagons with metal wheels, 2. How do i improve performance of plastic wheeled wagons? Thanks in advance

HI So is CA and Baking soda fix still holding up? Was it a brass or plastic gear wheel? Reason for asking is that I have acquired an R855 Flying Scotsman which has a brass gear wheel slipping.... Have ordered a replacement axle and new plastic gear wheel S6365 from UK. I did find these on Ebay from Melbourne but cannot tell if they are brass or plastic and seller helpfully does not accept messages... TRIANG S6365 WORM GEAR 40 TEETH - TWIN START (QTY 4) | eBay What is history of Moldex Triang manufacture in Melbourne? Thanks

Hi Very nice, Jim! Perhaps you would consider giving members a Hornby Dublo repainting and lining tutorial? Most Dublo engines that can be acquired today show signs of age and wear and it would be great to be able to restore them to their original glory. Cheers