Wright writes.....

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

I suppose the 'ultimate' in not opening a model's box is to be found among the Kitmaster Collecting Society's 'treasures'.

 

I'm good friends with the principals, though I did find it 'absurd' to be shown a model of BIGGIN HILL in a presentation box with two or three green Mk.1 coaches - well, that's what was described on the box. That box was still wrapped in yellowing cellophane, which was intact. 'It's extremely rare and, thus, extremely valuable' I was told. 'But, mainly because of its original wrapping'. 'How do you know what's inside is as-described?'. I asked. 'It could just be plastic sprues, or not even be complete'. 'Hah..............'.

 

I'm told that some folk buy extremely rare wines, yet never drink them...............

 

 

 

I overheard some Collectors of 0 Gauge talking at an Exhibition some years ago - I'm not sure if they were the ones directly involved, or if it was others known to them.....

Anyway, a fellow Collector (of rather desirable Locos) had died; after waiting what they thought was a "respectful period" they contacted the Widow and, after establishing that she wanted to part with said items they went round to take a look.

"I didn't bother keeping the boxes" she said.....

"And I threw away the Wagons as I knew no-one would want them...."

The "Wagons" turned out to be the Loco Tenders.....

 

[Barry Ten]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

  The main point though is, that no matter how good the newer model might be, I would never part with D1000 in Desert Sand, because it was a birthday gift when I was on holiday somewhere; I can recall sitting in our caravan eating breakfast with it on the table and just staring at it.

 

 

I had a similar thing while on a caravan holiday in 1980 in the Lake District. My parents had allowed a visit to a model shop (I seem to remember it was chucking it down so no hillwalking or sightseeing), and I came away with a Mainline 4MT, plus - just as memorably - the "Borchester" issue of Model Railways. Both of which I still possess, and perhaps even more remarkably, the 4MT still runs!

 

Most of my model railway acquisitions back then were gifts, either at birthdays or Christmas or due to pester power. Because they were not that frequent, they're etched in the memory far more than equivalent purchases now. For instance, when I got my Duchess in 1979, I could tell you that Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond, and Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkle, were both in the charts, and just hearing those tracks reminds me of drooling over the Hornby catalog and the delights of an eventual visit to Holt Model Railways. With my spending money, too, I had the first-world problem that I could afford the Duchess but not two of the Hornby LMS coaches, whereas the cheaper Grafar 00 ones were just within budget. I got the Grafar ones, but painted a rather muddy brownish-red, they never looked quite at home behind the Duchess.

 

Similarly my Collett goods at the end of that year is backdropped by chart hits by Pink Flloyd and the Tourists (later to become the Eurythmics), and the Lima Western was acquired in the same week as the radio transmission of the second series of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! This went out on consecutive nights; I taped the episodes onto a C90 and played them back as I embarked on weathering the Western.

 

I like to think I get as much enjoyment out of my hobby now as I did then, but there was certainly something to be said for the rarity of those treats, and how much they meant at the time.

 

Al

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Barry Ten
typos

[melmoth]

12 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I had a similar thing while on a caravan holiday in 1980 in the Lake District. My parents had allowed a visit to a model shop (I seem to remember it was chucking it down so no hillwalking or sightseeing), and I came away with a Mainline 4MT, plus - just as memorably - the "Borchester" issue of Model Railways. Both of which I still possess, and perhaps even more remarkabl;y, the 4MT still runs!

 

Most of my model railway acquisitons back then were gifts, either at birthdays or Christmas or due to pester power. Because they were not that frequent, they're etched in the memory far more than equivalent purchases now. For instance, when I got my Duchess in 1979, I could tell you that Fiorever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond, and Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkle, were both in the charts, and just hearing those tracks reminds me of drooling over the Hornby catalog and the delights of an eventual visit to Holt Model Railways. With my spending money, too, I had the first-world problem that I could afford the Duchess but not two of the Hornby LMS coaches, whereas the cheaper Grafar 00 ones were just within budget. I got the Grafar ones, but painted a rather muddy brownish-red, they never looked quite at home behind the Duchess.

 

Similarly my Collett goods at the end of that year is backdropped by chart hits by Pink Flloyd and the Tourists (later to become the Eurythmics), and the Lima Western was acquired in the same week as the radio transmission of the second series of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! This went out on consecutive nights; I taped the episodes onto a C90 and played them back as I embarked on weathering the Western.

 

I like to think I get as much enjoyment out of my hobby now as I did then, but there was certainly somethign to be said for the rarity of those treats, and how much they meant at the time.

 

Al

 

 

 

 

Proustian stuff, chapeau!

[Willie Whizz]

2 hours ago, richard i said:

 

I'm told that some folk buy extremely rare wines, yet never drink them...............
 

or are waiting for enough people to come around to drink it as once opened they need to be drunk quickly.

richard 

A work-colleague of mine owned a bottle of very, very fine vintage port, bought from the wine cellar when our Regional Office closed down. He kept it lying down on the bottom shelf of his wine rack, saving it for some unspecified future really special occasion.  
 

That Christmas, his mother-in-law - an enthusiast for ‘port and lemon’ - came to the end of the cheapo supermarket bottle he had provided for the purpose and asked his wife if there was more. “Yes”, she said, “Andy’s got another bottle ready for you on the wine rack”. Unfortunately the m-i-l began her search on the bottom shelf, not the top, and you can guess what she found and opened … and as she was there for another evening too, Andy didn’t even realise what had happened until she went home and he was clearing away the accumulated bottles from the Holiday period. All gone, diluted and washed away with fizzy pop,  and he never got to

drink one drop!

[Lemmy282]

6 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Steven,

 

I wonder if it's common sense to never take an RTR item out of its box in case it devalues it by opening the packaging? Some Bachmann models came with their boxes wrapped in tissue paper. According to some collectors, remove this and the model inside is worth less! Barmy? 

 

I used to do weathering and renumbering work on diesels for a local model shop some years ago. One day I was in the shop and there were unopened cartons of Bachmann locos on the counter. I was told a special customer was coming in. Sure enough a few minutes later in he came, donned his cotton gloves and the shop owner carefully opened the cartons. Inside were loco boxes wrapped in tissue, the customer carefully checked each wrapped box and selected the one with the neatest tissue wrapping. Then the process was repeated for the other cartons and he happily trotted off with four locos, still wrapped in tissue, and having never seen the contents of the boxes. I was told this happened every time a new release came out!

 

Nigel L

[Chris Higgs]

9 minutes ago, Lemmy282 said:

I used to do weathering and renumbering work on diesels for a local model shop some years ago. One day I was in the shop and there were unopened cartons of Bachmann locos on the counter. I was told a special customer was coming in. Sure enough a few minutes later in he came, donned his cotton gloves and the shop owner carefully opened the cartons. Inside were loco boxes wrapped in tissue, the customer carefully checked each wrapped box and selected the one with the neatest tissue wrapping. Then the process was repeated for the other cartons and he happily trotted off with four locos, still wrapped in tissue, and having never seen the contents of the boxes. I was told this happened every time a new release came out!

 

Nigel L

 

And I should imagine that customer helped to keep that shopkeeper in business. So that those of us who just go in to buy a wagon kit and one tin of paint and then do some modelling have a shop we can do that in. I too used to do some custom kit builds for the local modelling shop (the same one I used to do shows with). But I knew that that was not what kept the bottom line acceptable. Everything in life has its place. 

 

Chris

[Lemmy282]

Exactly, shopkeeper very happy with his custom, and quite happy to let him select his own boxes. Apparently he travelled some considerable distance as this was the only shop that let him do this.

[Chris Higgs]

6 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Steven,

 

I wonder if it's common sense to never take an RTR item out of its box in case it devalues it by opening the packaging? Some Bachmann models came with their boxes wrapped in tissue paper. According to some collectors, remove this and the model inside is worth less! Barmy? 

 

A sale is still a sale for the manufacturer. And perhaps if those sales never happened we would not get some of the models we have RTR today at all. Which I know some would say would be no bad thing.

 

I know full well that of the etches I produce in 2mm scale, probably 90% are sat in gloat boxes and will never get built. But if I only had sales for people who were actually going to build them, they would never have been designed in the first place.  It's not just in the RTR sphere that people do not put things to use in the way they were intended.

 

My brother has a friend who died, his house was packed to the rafters with railway and bus books, which he left to various of his friends. When my brother asked why he had bought the books most of which he had never opened, he was told he felt that he wanted to financially support those who wrote and published them.  Good thing or bad?

 

Chris 

[rodent279]

2 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I can recall sitting in our caravan eating breakfast with it on the table and just staring at it.

It is not possible to put a price on that. I have a battered Hornby Hall that has the same meaning for me.

[rodent279]

2 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

and the Lima Western was acquired in the same week as the radio transmission of the second series of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! This went out on consecutive nights; I taped the episodes onto a C90 and played them back as I embarked on weathering the Western.

The things childhood memories are made of! I just about remember the first transmissions of HHG2TG, R4 on a Thurs? 6.30pm?

There is a whole generation reading this thread and googling C90 as we speak.....😜

[Barry Ten]

20 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

The things childhood memories are made of! I just about remember the first transmissions of HHG2TG, R4 on a Thurs? 6.30pm?

There is a whole generation reading this thread and googling C90 as we speak.....😜

 

I wasn't aware of the first series going out until a previous holiday in the Lake District (we'd go up every year) when

we were loaned a tape of it to listen in the car. Thinking back my tape might have been a C120. They were the future once!

 

 

[t-b-g]

I always try to not consider that just because somebody else doesn't follow the hobby the way that I choose to, that I must be doing it the right way and they must be wrong.

 

At least two of my "finescale" modelling friends also have large collections of Hornby Dublo (and other vintage makes) and they form a separate hobby to their model making activities. 

 

I knew a chap who had probably the biggest collection of Matchbox productions that has ever existed. For him, it was all about the hunt to find the missing items in his collection, or to find one in better condition than the one he already had.

 

Then, as he reached the age of 70, he went for two or three years without being able to add anything. He had reached the point where his collection was, as far as he could tell, complete. So the thrill of the hunt was no longer there and he sold it all, over two weekends of auctions.

 

To listen to him talk about his searches and adventures in seeking out rare items allowed me to really understand that side of the hobby.

 

It isn't for me but I don't see it as anything other than another branch of the model hobby.

 

If a "proper" modeller had taken a rare Matchbox vehicle and repainted it into a different livery, perhaps replacing the wheels with better ones, he wouldn't have minded. It just made his ever rarer!

[Staffordshire]

4 hours ago, zr2498 said:

Tony

Your running sequence is now on U-tube

 

 

      Don't know the correct words, absolutely stunning.    cannot wait to visit, thank you.

            (and not a Southern region loco in sight)   

[rodent279]

7 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I wasn't aware of the first series going out until a previous holiday in the Lake District (we'd go up every year) when

we were loaned a tape of it to listen in the car. Thinking back my tape might have been a C120. They were the future once!

 

 

C120's had a habit of getting chewed up in a lot of tape players, I think it was because the tape had to be very thin to get the length. 

[Northmoor]

8 hours ago, t-b-g said:

I always try to not consider that just because somebody else doesn't follow the hobby the way that I choose to, that I must be doing it the right way and they must be wrong.

 

At least two of my "finescale" modelling friends also have large collections of Hornby Dublo (and other vintage makes) and they form a separate hobby to their model making activities. 

 

I knew a chap who had probably the biggest collection of Matchbox productions that has ever existed. For him, it was all about the hunt to find the missing items in his collection, or to find one in better condition than the one he already had.

 

Then, as he reached the age of 70, he went for two or three years without being able to add anything. He had reached the point where his collection was, as far as he could tell, complete. So the thrill of the hunt was no longer there and he sold it all, over two weekends of auctions.

 

To listen to him talk about his searches and adventures in seeking out rare items allowed me to really understand that side of the hobby.

 

It isn't for me but I don't see it as anything other than another branch of the model hobby.

 

If a "proper" modeller had taken a rare Matchbox vehicle and repainted it into a different livery, perhaps replacing the wheels with better ones, he wouldn't have minded. It just made his ever rarer!

I completely agree, collecting can be a very rewarding hobby in itself because of the enjoyment of the search, trawling secondhand stalls and antique shops. The sort of person you describe often has their collection on display all over their house. 

 

I think what is baffling is the purchase of brand new items, with the expectation that they will increase in value (and this seems to be the primary motive) and seemingly with no interest in even looking at them.  

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, Chris Higgs said:

 

A sale is still a sale for the manufacturer. And perhaps if those sales never happened we would not get some of the models we have RTR today at all. Which I know some would say would be no bad thing.

 

I know full well that of the etches I produce in 2mm scale, probably 90% are sat in gloat boxes and will never get built. But if I only had sales for people who were actually going to build them, they would never have been designed in the first place.  It's not just in the RTR sphere that people do not put things to use in the way they were intended.

 

My brother has a friend who died, his house was packed to the rafters with railway and bus books, which he left to various of his friends. When my brother asked why he had bought the books most of which he had never opened, he was told he felt that he wanted to financially support those who wrote and published them.  Good thing or bad?

 

Chris 

Good morning Chris,

 

On several occasions when Mo and I have been finding new homes for model railway stuff on behalf of the bereaved families, we come across lots of metal kits; mainly in 4mm, including locos, carriages and wagons; most are locos. They fall into several different categories.....

 

1. The kit is totally un-examined, still wrapped in its tissue paper, any polythene bags unopened, with the complete instructions lying on top of the contents. It's almost as if we're the first folk to look inside.

 

2. The kit has been meticulously examined, and the contents listed against the instructions. Parts will be re-wrapped (never as neatly as originally), and any bags will have been resealed.

 

3. The kit has been looked at, but not re-wrapped. The instructions are still present.

 

4. Everything is in a jumble at the bottom of the box and the instructions are nowhere to be seen.

 

5. As 4., but bits have been 'pinched' to serve other projects.

 

6. The kit has been started, but abandoned as being beyond the builder's ability. Any construction has been by glue! It's arbitrary whether any instructions are present.

 

7. The kit has been completed but its finish is poor and it doesn't run well (very common).

 

8. The kit has been completed, its finish is good, but its running is rubbish (common).

 

9. The kit has been completed, its finish is poor, but it runs well (very, very rare).

 

10. The kit has been completed, its finish is good and it runs beautifully (rare).

 

11. Most of the parts of a kit are contained (dependent on its age) in a tobacco tin of a certain size! No instructions, but several non-standard nuts and bolts, bits of scrap brass and weird (inappropriate) castings present. Often the top of the tin has been used to mix epoxy on! 

 

I'm sure there'll be other, equally bizarre categories..............

 

The one ever-present feature in all of this is that over 90% of (particularly) loco kits are never completed to satisfaction. In that respect, they can provide rich-pickings (particularly at swapmeets, where kits are often viewed with suspicion) for builders.

 

So, in the same way we should be grateful for 'collectors' supporting our hobby (however passively), then the likes of builders should be equally grateful for those who buy kits which are never completed. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Tony Wright
typo error

[Bernard Lamb]

8 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

 

 

11.Most of the parts of a kit are contained (dependent on its age) in a tobacco tin of a certain size! No instructions, but several non-standard nuts and bolts, bits of scrap brass and weird (inappropriate) castings present. Often the top of the tin has been used to mix epoxy on! 

 

 

Good morning Tony,

Sacrilege. I would use a plastic lid from a margarine pot but never a metal lid.

 

One other category. Model is fitted with an unknown type of coupling and the chassis is made in such  way that conventional scale coupling hooks cannot be fitted through the slot in the buffer beam.

Bernard

[Tony Wright]

9 hours ago, t-b-g said:

I always try to not consider that just because somebody else doesn't follow the hobby the way that I choose to, that I must be doing it the right way and they must be wrong.

 

At least two of my "finescale" modelling friends also have large collections of Hornby Dublo (and other vintage makes) and they form a separate hobby to their model making activities. 

 

I knew a chap who had probably the biggest collection of Matchbox productions that has ever existed. For him, it was all about the hunt to find the missing items in his collection, or to find one in better condition than the one he already had.

 

Then, as he reached the age of 70, he went for two or three years without being able to add anything. He had reached the point where his collection was, as far as he could tell, complete. So the thrill of the hunt was no longer there and he sold it all, over two weekends of auctions.

 

To listen to him talk about his searches and adventures in seeking out rare items allowed me to really understand that side of the hobby.

 

It isn't for me but I don't see it as anything other than another branch of the model hobby.

 

If a "proper" modeller had taken a rare Matchbox vehicle and repainted it into a different livery, perhaps replacing the wheels with better ones, he wouldn't have minded. It just made his ever rarer!

Good morning Tony,

 

I think it's important that everyone 'respects' how others follow the hobby, even if some of the activities seem 'bizarre'. 

 

I've just had a short letter published in the RM (in response to another letter) where I ask why 'box shakers' need a defence; The perception (as far as I know) being that such hobbyists are 'looked down' upon by those who actually make things. Perhaps folk think I'm guilty of that, but all I do is to encourage others to actually make things for themselves - in print, on video, at seminars/tutorials, here on a one-to-one basis and at exhibitions. 

 

I can tell you that it can work the other way. Some time ago, I'd just completed a Crownline B17 (which now runs, on its EM frames, on Retford). I took it to a local club I'm a member of, to give it a run on the OO Gauge test track. I went with a mate, who also builds locos, and he took along a couple. I was looked upon as someone who must be mad by the large number of other members present. 'Why build a B17?'. I was asked. 'Look, I've got a Hornby one here which is completely finished'. I was shown it, and very nice it was, too. 'How much did your kit-built one cost? What, over twice as much as my Hornby one, and it's still not-painted!'. A look of pity came across several of the faces...................

 

As for 'the thrill of the chase', many years ago I was commissioned to photograph a collection of every item Hornby Dublo ever made. I mean everything, and the whole collection was mint-boxed! It had taken the bloke over 30 years to complete his collection, gradually replacing items with better ones as time went on, until he found the 'Holy Grail'; the die-cast track-cleaning wagon! 

 

Once I'd photographed the lot, a few weeks later he'd sold it all! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Tony Wright
to add something

[thegreenhowards]

34 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Chris,

 

On several occasions when Mo and I have been finding new homes for model railway stuff on behalf of the bereaved families, we come across lots of metal kits; mainly in 4mm, including locos, carriages and wagons; most are locos. They fall into several different categories.....

 

1. The kit is totally un-examined, still wrapped in its tissue paper, any polythene bags unopened, with the complete instructions lying on top of the contents. It's almost as if we're the first folk to look inside.

 

2. The kit has been meticulously examined, and the contents listed against the instructions. Parts will be re-wrapped (never as neatly as originally), and any bags will have been resealed.

 

3. The kit has been looked at, but not re-wrapped. The instructions are still present.

 

4. Everything is in a jumble at the bottom of the box and the instructions are nowhere to be seen.

 

5. As 4., but bits have been 'pinched' to serve other projects.

 

6. The kit has been started, but abandoned as being beyond the builder's ability. Any construction has been by glue! It's arbitrary whether any instructions are present.

 

7. The kit has been completed but its finish is poor and it doesn't run well (very common).

 

8. The kit has been completed, its finish is good, but its running is rubbish (common).

 

9. The kit has been completed, its finish is poor, but it runs well (very, very rare).

 

10. The kit has been completed, its finish is good and it runs beautifully (rare).

 

11. Most of the parts of a kit are contained (dependent on its age) in a tobacco tin of a certain size! No instructions, but several non-standard nuts and bolts, bits of scrap brass and weird (inappropriate) castings present. Often the top of the tin has been used to mix epoxy on! 

 

I'm sure there'll be other, equally bizarre categories..............

 

The one ever-present feature in all of this is that over 90% of (particularly) loco kits are never completed to satisfaction. In that respect, they can provide rich-pickings (particularly at swapmeets, where kits are often viewed with suspicion) for builders.

 

So, in the same way we should be grateful for 'collectors' supporting our hobby (however passively), then the likes of builders should be equally grateful for those who buy kits which are never completed. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

I have a lot of number 5 above in my unmade kit stash. Although not necessarily in a complete jumble I do keep nicking things for other projects. Sometimes I put a post it note in to remind me…but not always. Beware if you ever see one of my unmade kits on eBay!

 

Andy

[TheSignalEngineer]

9 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Thinking back my tape might have been a C120. They were the future once!

Especially when you were using 7" reel-to-reel.

Then there was Video Tape in multiple formats. My Brother-in-law supported a rival football team to the rest of us. My Sister said she had got a video tape of their season's highlights for his Christmas present. Our Son, sharp as ever replied "Is it on an E5 tape?"

[Dunsignalling]

9 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I wasn't aware of the first series going out until a previous holiday in the Lake District (we'd go up every year) when

we were loaned a tape of it to listen in the car. Thinking back my tape might have been a C120. They were the future once!

 

 

I always avoided C120s after I had one tangle up in the car. Took me a day and a half to get the remains out of the deck.

 

Took it in to ICE store to be checked afterward and the technician told me that, to get that much tape in a C120 cassette, it had to be thinner, and they kept him in a job!

 

TBH, plastic tapes and summertime in-car temperatures weren't a terribly clever mix to begin with.

 

John

[thegreenhowards]

Can I bring up a favourite thread topic - soldering?

 

I'm building an O gauge DJB kit for a BR Standard 4 2-6-0. This will be the first time that I have to ‘roll my own’ (boiler!), although I’ve done tumblehome and a cab roof before.
 

I started by annealing the smokebox wrapper and then bent it round a rolling pin. This seemed to work - not a perfect curve but I hope the white metal ring formers will sort that out. I then tried to solder the wrapper to the formers and this is where it went wrong. I tinned wrapper with 179C brass solder and the ring with 70C low melt. I’m using 12% phosphoric acid flux. Then then tried to put them together with my iron set to 300 and then 350C but the bond doesn’t seem to hold - the wrapper just peels off the former with a little tug. 
 

I've previously been OK with this sort of joint, so I can’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Would the annealing have upset the brass? I normally use 145C solder but I’ve run out and I’m waiting for a show to reorder (see Eileen’s topic!). Could the 179C solder be the problem?

 

I’d be grateful for any suggestions.

 

Andy

 

PS. Why don’t they use white metal boilers in O gauge? - it would be much easier and give some useful weight.

[gr.king]

At that temperature, are you re-melting both solders and creating a new alloy with minimal joint-forming ability? Maybe try soldering at less than 179C, after cleaning off the parts and re-tinning as before.

[polybear]

38 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Can I bring up a favourite thread topic - soldering?

 

I'm building an O gauge DJB kit for a BR Standard 4 2-6-0. This will be the first time that I have to ‘roll my own’ (boiler!), although I’ve done tumblehome and a cab roof before.
 

I started by annealing the smokebox wrapper and then bent it round a rolling pin. This seemed to work - not a perfect curve but I hope the white metal ring formers will sort that out. I then tried to solder the wrapper to the formers and this is where it went wrong. I tinned wrapper with 179C brass solder and the ring with 70C low melt. I’m using 12% phosphoric acid flux. Then then tried to put them together with my iron set to 300 and then 350C but the bond doesn’t seem to hold - the wrapper just peels off the former with a little tug. 
 

I've previously been OK with this sort of joint, so I can’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Would the annealing have upset the brass? I normally use 145C solder but I’ve run out and I’m waiting for a show to reorder (see Eileen’s topic!). Could the 179C solder be the problem?

 

I’d be grateful for any suggestions.

 

Andy

 

PS. Why don’t they use white metal boilers in O gauge? - it would be much easier and give some useful weight.

 

What is the wattage of the soldering iron?  Is it powerful enough for the job?

[thegreenhowards]

28 minutes ago, gr.king said:

At that temperature, are you re-melting both solders and creating a new alloy with minimal joint-forming ability? Maybe try soldering at less than 179C, after cleaning off the parts and re-tinning as before.

That makes sense. However, I’ve found that I always have to go to a higher temperature to get solder to melt, particularly with the larger castings in O gauge. That’s why I went up from 300C to 350C. But I’ll try doing as you suggest. My main iron only goes down to 250C, so I may have to go back to my older less powerful one.

 

Andy