NHY 581

Funnily enough, Neil, I've been looking at Dinghams. Not too seriously but I can see me trying these. Assembly could be fun but we shall cross that bridge in due course. Much as I'm not keen, I have a lot of Kadees, magnets and general Kadee stuff tucked away which could still be utilised. My sausage hooves is not just diabetes though like you, despite being controlled, I have a degree of numbness and I'm sure it's adding to it. No, I'm pretty confident it's a combination of accumalated damage to nerves in my neck ( hence p&n ), fuzzy Carpal tunnels and more recent damage to my shoulder joints. A cumulative disaster ! We'll throw it all at the Doc and see what she thinks. In the meantime, I have to tidy the Room of Doom which was left in a state of distress and remains as such this morning...... Rob

Morning all, Pretty much all the wiring is done and tested. Seems okay. A minor issue was however found when the right hand point leading into the kick back siding was found to be faulty so there'll be a short delay to completion until I can collect a new one from the shop on Saturday. C'est la vie. Another larger drama was entirely of my own making. I'm very clumsy at times, never used to be but I find now with my wonky hooves, I am. It's the way it is at present. I frequently knock something over when I'm simply trying to pick it up. Such was the case with one of the B4s which I was using for track testing. Guernsey, one of the cut away cab jobs, stalled ( later found to be due to a missed sliver of plastic on the track). As I went to poke it, I knocked it clean off the layout. Fortunately, it fell into an open drawer but managed to damage the lip on the chimney and sever a guard iron on the way South. It could have been worse but certainly was not welcome. One thing I wanted to see was what impact the current state of my hands would have on building this little quicky and it's clear certain things are proving a bit trickier that is the norm, when compared to building Ewe. Trimming chairs on the ends of lengths of flexi track, holding small objects in general ( screwdrivers, craft knives ) and soldering were all more difficult. Not insurmountable, just difficult. Picking up tiny stuff like track pins now need tweezers as I don't really feel them. Soldering in particular was fun. Sitting, looking down at the wires as I soldered them caused pins and needles in my right hand so I had to either be quick or pause to restore some life to the digits as I had trouble holding the soldering iron, let alone the wire/fishplate I was soldering ! A combination of looking down and using my hands at desk height brought on p&n in my hands and right arm throughout the evening. Well, thought it would but now we know and now I can work on making things easier. So, far from doom and gloom ( I do after all now have the basis of a working layout after two evenings work ! ) with lots of good learning coming out of last nights rather eventful modelling activity and all very timely as I'm meeting with Dr. a week today to catch up, post-op. Updates will follow.. Rob

Caledonian 439 0.4.4T. Instant branchline in a box. 'Nuff said. Rob

This is taken from the email I received from Hattons regarding my pre-orders. I have a number of P Class on order along with some Genesis coaches. Last paragraph on the email. " Any pre-orders for forthcoming Hattons Originals projects will remain in place so they can be fulfilled once the items are delivered " Rob

Mange Tout, F.P. Sounds very straight forward.....but........I like the awkwardness of the kick back... S.B

You're welcome, Rob ! Predictably......

And the first train has run.........

Yep. Intentional embuggerance.

Well, thats pretty much all of the track cut roughly to length. Final trimming/bending will be done when the track is actually laid. Here is where we are thus far. Rob

Well, I'm looking forward to weathering and using my SE&CR green examples irrespective of their perceived value. They were bought to be played with. Not used to fund a pension pot. Rob.

Of which, I'm quite surprised at the price of the M7, 30244. £193+ ? And the time it's taken to get new versions of the H class to market ? In one case 5 years ! Rob

Aren't they always ?

Potentially post of the month !

Morning Steve, I think the P will be taken up. It's a good model and one for which demand remains high. It is therefore an attractive product to acquire and I'm sure that if not already ongoing, conversations will be had. In the same category are the Genesis coaches. We just need to be patient and see how it all pans out. In the meantime, we will undoubtedly see prices spiral. P classes in the Wainwright livery are currently on ebay for £170 and four packs of Genesis coaches are easily exceeding £200-£250. With no attempt at smugness, I'm glad I bought mine when I did but I do currently have pre- orders in on several P class and a number of Genesis coaches, mainly a few GER to theoretically accompany the Accurascale S22 0.6.0Ts on order. It's rather pointless speculating about if or when these items will appear. They either will or won't and frankly, I've got more than enough to be going on with. On the subject of on going things, I have some track to lay............. Rob.

Well, you were lucky then as I am aware of a number of people for whom their 14xx were simply dogs. At least one simply binned the chassis on theirs and replaced with an etched alternative to obtain the running they required. Hattons supplied me with six in an attempt to provide two that were good enough to put in front of the paying public as part of an exhibition layout. By mutual agreement, we gave up but not before someone from Hattons informed me it was my layout rather than their products, a layout where every other loco ran perfectly well. It is in effect the world's first disposable locomotive. The motor is within a mazak weight in the body. Both weight and motor remain in the body when the chassis is removed. Once the motor goes, bin. Add in the unnecessary gears between the axles with the accompanying ridiculous amount of slop in the coupling rods ( which means that the rods rarely if ever sit parallel when the loco halts) and you have a very ill conceived chassis. Oh, and the ash pan is completely missing from the locomotive. This was a loco that could have been churned out for years in various guises, a real money spinner. Hattons did one batch. When it came to announcing further batches of their in house locos in 2023 (for 2024 release ) they chose the P and the Andrew Barclay. Why, because they worked. If the 14xx was okay, we could have seen 1401 being released last year to coincide with the Titfield releases from Rapido. 500 of those would have flown out. We didn't. There's your confirmation. The locos are flawed and not fit for purpose and not fit for further production until the chassis is relaced or extensively modified. Rob.

The difference is that the P class needs nothing doing. The design is sound. The 14xx on the other hand needs a new chassis. It's rubbish so a new owner needs to take that into account.

If I remember correctly, these weren't due until April/June'24. Therein may lie the answer. Rob

I'm currently tinkering with 37001. It's fitted with an ESU decoder ( non-sound) supplied by Accurascale and all the slide switches are as per specification for when loco is fitted with ESU decoder. I cannot get the lights to work, markerlights, headcodes, cab lights etc. Decoder seems okay. Swapping to a Dapol Imperium decoder and marker lights and headcodes will both illuminate in the direction of travel but no marker lights are showing to the rear. Anyone had these or similar issues ? I've trawled through but see nothing matching this on the thread. Rob

Morning Ian, Exactly the case for methough we have some very accomplished track builders frequenting this thread. All I would say is that the PECO Streamline track on my layouts has been mistaken on a few occasions by "knowledgeable types" for EM gauge. Carefully painting and ballasting is key to this subterfuge. Time spent on what is my least favourite aspect ( ballasting) really does pay dividends.......and worth the time spent if only to annoy the nasal toned, hair shirt wearing, narrow minded "finescale experts" who look down their pipes at 00. Fortunately, I rarely come into contact with these intolerant sorts. Rob

Morning all. Plan is to pick up the plain track today to get things going this evening. Hopefully I can at least get the track cut to length and laid out by tomorrow evening. I need to look into the fiddle yard side of things. This is all about keeping things small, simple and as cost effective as possible so I'll be using as many "in stock" items as I can........ Rob

Hi Don. All noted but the 'point' ( no pun intended) of this latest build is to encourage and to demonstrate to fellow members that a layout that will provide fun and entertainment can be built from readily available components and arguably finished in a very short time. I'll go so far as to say that this layout will be pretty much finished to an acceptable standard by the end of January. Rob.

Hi Paul, Jersey did indeed go oop North. From The B4 Dock Tanks by Peter Cooper. Rob

Afternoon Ian, Yes, I'm not very good at planning, designing etc. I cope better in 3D using the actual components. I have a thought, source the bits and then throw them about until it looks about right. Not quite there with this just yet but pretty happy with the track layout. I'll know for sure in a day or so when I should have the plain track and it's cut to length, possibly wired up as well.

I had those earlier. I put it down to yesterday's bean stew.

Indeed. This little side project is really a generic shunty, non company specific, predominantly pre-grouping plank thing. The B4s do look at home and currently, I don't have a layout on which they look comfortable........and engines like to look comfortable. Rob