Lacathedrale

Hello there, I'm really curious as to what EMU is making this rising 'eeeee' sound in the clip below (time stamp 2:39) https://youtu.be/JyyAR8jEuJQ?t=139 I gather this is the traction motors? As soon as I heard it, it took me right back to travelling into London when I was younger to meet friends. Many thanks

Hi all, If I'm not mistaken the Hornby Railroad range consists of models of fairly old lineage that are reissued as an affordable option by Hornby. This seems to me like a great opportunity to mess around with detailing/etc. as I have done with my old Lima bits - but potentially with a better set of bones than the pancake-motored italian stuff (Aren't some of the RR range lima heritage too?) Unfortunately, I just don't have enough knowledge to know what is good and what is bad when it comes to models of the past. SRman for example advised that the Lima 73 body was better than the current Hornby one, but the latter obviously has much better running characteristics. With that in mind, are there any obvious items in the RR range which stand out as punching above their weight-class, or conversely those which should be avoided with severe prejudice? I'd like to open this as a general discussion, Best,

Found it, and gave the loco a test run today - I runs fine (for a Lima), relatively quiet (for a Lima) and it's possibly to run it at an OK slow speed (for a Lima). The stall speed is still fairly high (low?) so it does start moving pretty sharpish from a stop but all functions as one would expect on DC. Compared to a 37 I have (with the motor unmodified, but with all-wheel pickup and P4 wheelsets) it's definitely quieter and lurches far less, but is in no way comparable to modern locos in terms of noise and slow speed control.

Found it, and gave the loco a test run today - I runs fine (for a Lima), relatively quiet (for a Lima) and it's possibly to run it at an OK slow speed (for a Lima). The stall speed is still fairly high (low?) so it does start moving pretty sharpish from a stop but all functions as one would expect on DC. Compared to a 37 I have (with the motor unmodified, but with all-wheel pickup and P4 wheelsets) it's definitely quieter and lurches far less, but is in no way comparable to modern locos in terms of noise and slow speed control.

Some good news, my 4CEP turned up (how the F am I going to convert that to EM I wonder) and finally my C&L track components. Unfortunately my EMGS membership is still pending so I'm going to give the method shown here tomorrow and see what happens, if it works then that's great - and if not then I'll grab a couple of jigs from the society stores when that pans out. Just by way of an update - still no sight of my DCC bits from Germany or from DCCTrainAutomation.

Finally got a bit of track to run this on and come across a rather big problem - one of the bogie retaining screws pinged off onto the carpet when I was reassembling and I thought I could get away with it - but I can't. Fingers crossed that I can find it - if not, is there an easy way to find out a compatible replacement?

Thanks, I submitted my membership form quite a while ago and it appears the membership sec was on holiday; came back last week and I assume is now working through the backlog. I just wish I could send the order through for the jigs! Cheers,

So after almost six weeks, my package arrived, thankfully complete. C&L had the gall to charge me over £25 for postage on a package - which I thought fair given that it was automatically calculated and going super-special royal mail insured lah-de-dah with lots of rail in it - Not particularly nice to see the package arrive 2nd class with a postage cost printed on it of £5.75 I will never, ever be buying anything from this chap again to support this kind of business practise.

Clive thank you for the indepth discussion on the 37 - it seems that the 73 and the 50 are the diamonds in the rough, so to speak? As I have mentioned earlier however, I already have all the components with a total cost of less than a meal out and I definitely need the practise in painting, weathering, detailing, etc. - so I think I'm going to just got it a shot. So, along the lines of the new windows - I guess my fancy SE Finecast flush glazing is no longer going to fit, if I add the A1 models brass window surrounds, is it?

Hi guys, in the interest of the 3' rule this is the 'finished' model at a few feet away. I added the nameplates, some light weathering around the chassis and lower body sides and around the exhaust and fan on the roof. I think there are a few tiny bits to finish off (such as a pinwash on the cantrail grilles and fixing that clean stripe on the cab front), but largely done. This is the 'mucked up' end btw:

Whacked a cheeky deposit in for a Hornby 73 wheelset and a Heljan 33 wheelset from Ultrascale, and some Kapton tape and a proper airbrush stand (rather than a piece of squashed toilet roll). I'm going to have a very frank conversation with Phil at C&L tomorrow - if he hasn't posted my stuff yet then I will be demanding a refund and will just wait until Peco/Ultrascale release their bits - this has been going on for too long. Tomorrow's work will be to do SOMETHING with the buggered up end of the 33, and affix the nameplates and call it 'done'.

Cheers, I need to spend some quality time with the DEMU magazines I think. Any particular you can recommend? As it pertains to third rail, I have to just accept that this terminal would have been electrified and multiple-unit only with zero freight at all by the 80's - so a suspension of disbelief is required. The bay platform adjacent to the gravel siding services a 'twig off the branch' like the Waddon bay at West Croydon (I even can get the 2-EPB which was typical traction on the Waddon branch) and the main platform face will be pulling double duty for EMU's and loco hauled traffic so those two will definitely have a third rail added.

Wonderful! I see many pictures of the 80's with semaphore signals, but I gather that these would be very much the exception?

Thanks Mr. Redgate Models - I think, and this may be too far in the mists of time, that I may have even used that method too in the dark and distance past. John, do you think you could PM me with the info for these jigs? It's been some weeks since I submitted my EMGS membership form unfortunately and it would be good to get an idea of cost/etc.

The Railway Express Modeller 'Train Formations' bookazine was an interesting read during a business trip to Lisbon, certainly it has prompted ideas for formations and stock for Godstone Rd. Selhurst (just up the road from my layout location) had a stabling of ex-SR 50' bogie brake vans (and some CCT's that hung on) for parcels traffic until '86, tho typically would consist of Mk.1 BG's and GUV's. Royal Mail ended it's contract to carry parcels in '86 and the last newspaper trains went by '88 - before renewals and changes outside the scope of my layout. The SR CCD trips were complicated - Purley was sometimes the final, and sometimes the penultimate extremity of a chain stretching back to Didcot - so sometimes shunting would be required, and others it'd be a straight swap. It seems these trains were ripe for the full speedlink experience - TTA wagons with oil, OCA/OAA wagons and PFA waste skips. Prototypical formations had down to only a handful of wagons. The Intercity 125 was definitely the apex predator of trains to my childhood brain, so the fact that intercity 73's were frequent offenders in the Croydon area makes me pretty chuffed. This is the little tyke that often finds its way up the Caterham branch at the back of my garden: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/austin7nut/35490310143/#large Speaking of which I know RHTT workings are relatively recent but looks like BR(S) ran some weedkilling trains with SR GUVs (presumably fit with spray equipment), TTAs and what looks like a four wheeled CCT: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3148-weed-killing-trains-in-the-1980s-what-worked-where/&do=findComment&comment=396102 I'm much more comfortable with a timeline of around 86-88 - I feel that gives me the opportunity to run BR Blue, BR Blue/Grey, L&SE Jaffacake, NSE Blue/red, Railfreight grey and Intercity liveries. All my favourite locos are in use and I've got a fair handle on the rolling stock and operating patterns. I've never really been a fan of sectorisation logos or the Dutch livery, and I don't want to get heavily into NSE branding - so it's just about perfect.

Right, so I could work backwards with a Hornby model (such as this:https://www.hattons.co.uk/388670/Hornby_R2656_PO05_Class_73_E6001_in_BR_green_Pre_owned_DCC_fitted_Imperfect_box/StockDetail.aspx )and fitting a Lima bodyshell should the need/desire arise?

Hello guys, I've submitted my EMGS membership form a few weeks ago and unfortunately have yet to get my access to the stores/etc. - I'm hoping that my track component delivery may turn up in the next few days and I'd like to get started as soon as is practical. In 2FS I bought some wonderful jigs which assist in holding the rails at the correct angle for filing, and then subsequently for soldering into a nice vee, even with slots fo support the wing rails around the vee itself. Though I had some problems with the tie bars and gauges on the 2FS turnouts I built, they were geometrically pretty good. Is this something I can/should do in EM too? I believe (it's hard to remember!) the last time I did this, I simply cut slots into a piece of timber at the correct angle and used that to both assist filing and to hold for soldering (vertical alignment a little more tricky, granted) Is it worth holding on incase the EMGS has something like the 2FS jig offering, or is this fine/good/workable?

Your wish is my command - still a fair bit to do on my 33 so this won't get started immediately, I was mainly concerned with whether I need to pursue the wheel order for the 37 or whether the P4 wheels would work. It seems the answer is 'maybe'. I would happily turn this over to a wider discussion. It's good to know that the Lima 73 isn't terrible - my layout will end up approx 15' long so super slow crawling is less crucial than on a micro layout, but I think I will at some point have to invest in Heljan/Bachmann/Dapol. As for 47, that really is the only other loco I would consider for my layout than the 33, 37 and 73 in my late 80's timescale - only because I have a pic of one shunting the gravel yard at Ardingly, which is what the gravel yard on my layout is based on. Given the representational nature of the models, how much of the 56 detailing bits I've got would translate to a 47?

Because I got all the detailing parts for a a few quid in a mixed batch, and there was a £20 Lima 37 on Hattons that already had the fan assembly/horns replaced and was configured with P4 wheels? For the £30 I think it's worth the bother - but probably not worth the extra £80 for a Hornby Railroad chassis/etc. and as you say getting a ViTrains/Bachmann model for 'proper' work later. While we're on the lines of this discussion (maybe I should rename the thread as per DGF's suggestion to "Lima Hackers Anonymous") is the Lima 73 worth anything? I'm worried about having a bunch of crappy locos and nothing good - but given that it's approximately £100 cheaper, it's also tempting me

Another week, another tumbleweed.

Gotcha, so the decoder itself has to support it (i.e. I can't graft this function onto a cheapo TTS?)

The former maybe, but looking at the prototype shots and some random googling, I think this singularly unaesthetic building may do! http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/other-wwii-defensive-structures/arp-sgnal-box/arpthornhill/ It's interesting that the prototype shot of the real box (thank you!) is dated 1975 and there is no freight line to the coal yard (in another picture dated for the 1970's it is still extant)

The only I can seem to find are new and >£80 - I think I'd rather get a used Bachmann 37 and Legobiffoman sound at some later date at that price.

re: DCC being just flashy lights It will certainly keep younger people engaged - look at what Lego Technic / Mindstorms has done, it basically kept Lego afloat in the 90's. Automation, integration, programming, extension into signalling, block control. Look at what Protothrottle has done in the US. I agree that 'catering to the kids' is awful in general (particularly when the organisations involved don't have the massive marketing/PR departments of Nike or whatever), but if we talk about whether the industry should push modern tech into starter/intro boxes - the answer cannot be to double-down on the old hat.

So the Lima body can clip into the Hornby chassis, but is missing the lower body curve? Or is that just a general observation that applies to both (i.e. the same moulding) It looks like a railroad/Lima Frankenstein is in order I have the window surrounds, bufferbeam details, fans and flush glaze already in hand for the Lima