Silurian

300 hits that go to zero when you look for sizes that might fit a 4mm scale wheel. I looked at that before posting

I have acquired a Golden Valley/Oxford Janus loco. A very nice model, but it has lost a crankpin. I contacted Oxford, who pointed me at Golden Valley, who pointed me at Peter’s spares. Sadly Peter’s spares confirmed they don’t carry spares for Oxford/Golden Valley parts. So now i have a dcc loco which is onky good for standing on the depot scrapline. Does anyone out there know whether a crankpin from somthing else would fit, or a source of small metric shouldered bolts. Nick

I’ve recently been working to revive some Triang Jinties. I have three of them and a diesel shunter. All the chassis are visually identical except that one of them has the later incarnation to provide for a smoke unit (although it doesn’t actually have a smoke generator) . All run well, but one of them runs in the opposite direction to the others. I can fix it by swapping the motor polarity, but I am loathe to do that without understanding why it has happened. The chassis are isolated on the same side. The one which runs “backwards” is not the unique smoke generator chassis. Any thoughts?

Thanks. To be clear i was really asking if anyone had ever done a kit or scratch-aid etching rather than RTR per se. It's not a prototype that will ever interest the mainstream makers of RTR equipment, even if it is a UNESCO world heritage railway Nick

Can anyone tell me whether there's ever been a model commercially offered in any scale as etching or whatever, of the Nilgiri railway X class tank loco ? Failing that, is there any other model of another SLM rack loco which could be used as a starting point to create one? Nick FitzGerald, Hasselt, Belgium

I have converted a fixed rake formation of new Farish mark ones recently to DGs by aralditing the cut down DG to the stub of the old rapido, so that the coupler still swings with curves as Farish intended. It was not too difficult. This also men's if I ever wanted to change back I could buy a coupler loose and away we go... The big plus for DG couplers is that there are negligible horizontal coupling forces involved, so lightweight four wheeled stock couples easily instead of being pushed away as MT and similar systems are wont to do. Doesn't happen with US rolling stock as it's all bogie stock with more inertia.

Sadly I think this is probably pushing the boundaries of the tequnique right now. I work with a lot of Rapid prototype parts in my work in the car industry, and to me this does look typical. The material plays a role, but the shape, especially of the saddle tank is difficult as it shows up the resolution limits of the printer. I bought a body for a CIE GM diesel produced by Shapeways last year, and although the flatter forms of the diesel make it less obvious, it's just the same. I suspect we need another generation of printer, or maybe two, before this becomes the preferred body fabrication method for us in the smaller scales.