SRman

This is quite normal for sound projects. It is all a part of making the locomotive behaviour more realistic, mimicking the prototype's behaviour and encouraging you to drive them more like the real things. In the Kernow 4TC topic, someone described how a mixed multiple of 4 VEP electric units and 4 TC with class 33/1 behaved when departing Victoria, with the VEPs responding almost instantly to the controller while the 33 took around 5 seconds to spool up and deliver power, resulting in a delayed surge of acceleration, just in time to shut off power for a speed restriction.. ESU LokPilot 4 and LokSound 4 also have a CV that can be adjusted to increase the delay before movement occurs with no sound. While this is probably not of use for an 08, it is useful for those who run locomotives in multiple (in a DCC consist) where they wish to mix sound and non-sound locos, allowing adjustment so the two (or more) locos don't 'fight' each other when taking off.

I did some 'greening' today, to reduce the slightly barren look of the village and its surrounds. Mostly I have used offcuts of various grass mats, but I did use almost the entire rough embankment mat bought at the same time as the trees at the church. None of this is intended to be the final look. It still improves the overall appearance of this area, and also gives me the illusion that I am making progress!

I have long held a dislike of Hornby's own DCC decoders (their Sapphire excepted), so when I purchased the Peckett W4 saddle tank loco, I declared at the outset that I would use something different, even if it meant hard-wiring it. Unfortunately, Hornby are the only manufacturer offering a 4-pin decoder. I never took photos of that conversion, so when I received Hornby's Sentinel diesel shunter, I resolved to treat it the same way. The decoders I favoured for these conversions were TCS M1 (2-function) or M4 (4-function); they cost me the same at the time I bought them and the shop had run out of M1s. I doubt that I'll use the functions in the short-term, but if I ever get brave later I might fit lights, firebox glows ... that sort of thing! These decoders are smaller than the Hornby one, so they actually fit in the places provided with room to spare. I did have a brainwave, though, and decided to retain the 4-pin socket and use the 'blanking plug' to connect the decoder by the relatively simple expedient of replacing the two looped wires and soldering in the correct decoder wires. Hornby have wired the plugs so that the track feed wires are on the outer pins and the brush feeds on the inner ones, so even if the plug is accidentally (or deliberately) reversed, no harm will come to the decoder. The metal sockets can be slid out of the plastic shell by lifting the little plastic tags. This allows the Hornby wires to be removed - I just cut mine off flush but you can choose any method you like to get rid of them. After this, the decoder wires were soldered on, using the end tags on the metal bits to clamp the wires in place as well. Then the assemblies can be slid back into their respective sockets, ensuring that they are correctly positioned - black - grey - orange - red. Spare wires on the decoders were cropped short and secured with a bit of heat-shrink tubing. The idea worked well with the Peckett, making it easy to restore to DC or swap decoders later if desired. However, the Sentinel wasn't as cooperative, and I ended up stripping it completely and rewiring it, including hard-wiring the decoder. The photos show how it all worked for the Peckett, and how it could have been for the Sentinel.

Just because I don't like the colour scheme doesn't mean I can't admire your workmanship! Very nice repaints, there, Miles. Something rarely seen modelled ... I can't understand why.

I have a foot in both camps, although I'm primarily DCC. There is a rotary multi-pole switch that allows me to switch from DCC to DC (powered by an ancient H & M Duette), with a mid-position that switches the track power off completely. The latter is useful in avoiding potential disasters when I wish to drill or solder the tracks using the same power points to plug in. The switch applies only to the low level tracks; the upper level, when completed, will be DCC only. The switch powers both tracks on DCC from my NCE Power Pro system, or one track each from each side of the Duette. It did take me a while to work out the wiring of the switch!

Before I go further, colour and liveries are very much a matter of personal opinion, so nobody has to agree with me here: I think the blue and grey didn't do the old-style Pullmans any favours, but merely looked reasonable. At least the Panel gave them some nice white lining to add a distinguishing, even distinguished, touch. However, what did seem to be almost universally condemned was the reverse grey and blue scheme only applied to a few of the old-style cars in the Golden Arrow, To me, the latter looked absolutely hideous. Apparently the Panel agreed with me and opted for the standard blue and grey with the white lining out, thankfully.

Thanks Robin. However, I wasn't particularly concerned with just the last steam-hauled 'Arrer. I was wondering whether car 34 could be renumbered to accurately represent any of the Golden Arrow cars from around that period. I believe car 208 is not a candidate, having been downgraded from a first class car. Bear in mind that I will shortly be receiving a couple of Dave Jones' class 71 locos, which could also legitimately haul the Hornby cars, as well as owning several Bulleid pacifics of all classes.

Hi Doug. I was debating in my head what style of fence or wall would look best. I thought a high stone or brick/flint wall would suit the church best, but would have the undesirable side effect of hiding some of the detail in the church grounds. Hedges would also look good but have the same undesirable effects. The Peco lineside fence would allow more 'see-through', but might be considered a bit flimsy for the protection of people from the high drop over the retaining walls. It also has the advantage that it easily follows the contours of the land. Probably the most ideal would be an etched brass tall picket style fence, such as those Scale Link used to produce, but those are also more difficult to get to follow the contours convincingly, as well as being expensive for the length i require. Whichever I choose (most likely your suggestion), it will have some rough weeds and vines on the railway side of the fence, where no one can safely go to mow or trim it all.

I suppose one obvious question is: could car 34 be renumbered to something that is correct for that body configuration, even if a change of Pullman crests is required?

Last weekend was a long weekend for we Victorians, with the Labour Day Monday holiday. that also marks the annual model railway exhibition at Sandown. DougN and I went on the Sunday, catching up with many old friends along the way, and as a result, staying a lot longer than we had anticipated. Among all the high quality layouts and traders, I ran into an old friend and fellow BRMA member from Queensland, running a trade stand as Modeller's Warehouse (http://www.modellers-warehouse.com.au/ for anyone who is interested - please forgive the free plug), selling some rather nice trees and various high quality grass mats and scenic materials. I looked at some of these but didn't buy any straight away, preferring to come home and look to see what would fit my needs (even though ordering online would mean additional postal costs). Anyway, I ordered some rather nice Alpine Larch trees with a view to adding them to the church area, replacing a nice, but out-of-place weeping willow at the top of what I would imagine to be a fairly windswept hill. While fiddling with that and the level crossing, which had the rail centre infills reduced in height slightly to allow easier track cleaning, I dug out some DAS clay my wife had bought me some time ago and started filling some of the gaps around the edges of Church Hill, as well as blending the levels a little better. It looks a little patchy at the moment, but it all adds up to improving and finalising the scenic aspects of that area. While I had the DAS out, I also filled some of the gaps in the back gardens of the terraced houses down the hill in the village, but haven't taken any photos of that area yet. Anyway, here's Church Hill as it looks now, with further work to follow. Such photos, while not of the highest quality (taken on my mobile phone), do show up any imperfections or items that need further attention, rather cruelly in some instances. One such example is the church steeple, which at the higher angle of the first shot can be seen to have a gap with "daylight" showing under the gutters. p.s. I did also buy several of the Model Scenes grass mats which will add great effect to some unkempt embankments and other areas I have in mind later.

The shades of SR and BR(S) greens have long been debated. I think the general consensus has been that the greens did vary somewhat, for several reasons. 1. The paint was mixed in batches at each set of workshops so it varied between locations. 2. The greens weathered and faded differently. 3. Locations also affected the weathering, with coastal units suffering more (e.g. St Leonards). 4. The SR and BR(S) habit of re-varnishing existing paint over the years rather than repainting. 5. Pre-war malachite green may have been lighter and bluer than post-war. there has been some debate about the shades used. There may well be other factors I haven't mentioned. The upshot is that the greens did vary. This can be demonstrated in various photos from the times, where the shades obviously differ within the same photo under the same lighting conditions. I have seen photos of the Atlantic Coast Express in BR days with several shades of green apparent along the length of the train. There are also several monochrome shots of Bulleid pacifics with 'borrowed' tenders from different locos where the shades are demonstrably different; in particular, some of the Merchant Navies in malachite green were equipped with B0B/WC tenders temporarily while their own tenders were still being built - the tenders showed up as being rather darker than the MNs themselves.

I don't think anyone doubts the problem exists. It was in response to Robin's post questioning how such a fault escaped the reviewers that some of us pointed out it didn't apply to all of the models. I will be as interested as anybody in what the fixes are, since the fault could affect me at some time in the future if I buy more of these coaches, or possibly other, as yet unannounced coaches using the same bogies.

Bulleid-Firth-Brown: it refers to the cast wheel pattern. Bulleid locos use BFB wheels throughout, rather than the more usual spoked pattern.

1. Yes, they were used on railtours; 2. Even if they weren't, see point #1.

Thanks for the heads-up, Oliver. Order duly placed.

They did have D5098 and D5107 with the "correct" number of grilles, but both appear to have sold out now. They may have had small yellow warning panels, but it would not be difficult to paint those out. As it stands, all of D5000, D5016 and D5017 have the extra grilles fitted to many, but not all of the pilot batch. Additionally, both D5016 and D5017 have the distinctive Athermos axleboxes.

After a long hiatus, I returned to the upper level level crossing. The basic "woodwork" (actually Wills planking) has now been finished, so the next stage is to paint and weather it before fitting the gates.

Like Graham's, my four are all free-running. It seems to be the luck of the draw as to how well they run.

I'd love to be able to get one or more of the Pullman guard vehicles, but don't really need another WC/BoB loco, much as the Golden Arrow insignia appeal (I also have some etched brass fittings to add to any of my locos anyway). If Rails (or anyone else) split the sets, I'll be in like a shot.

I know what you mean; I have had to remove the valances at times to remove the bodies on my two green ones. I'm not sure if the three 'brackets' are there under the valances or if they are separate mouldings (I can't remember for sure, it was too long ago that I last pulled them off), but either way you should be able to achieve what you want. SLW have made so many of these parts as separate fittings to allow them to create most of the permutations on these type 2s. The valances just clip off in three parts on each side, so you can pull one side off and have a look at what detail is on the solebars (or whatever it was the 24s have!).

The valances are removable, if that helps.

I have the same problem: every time I look at what is available on the MR site, I am sorely tempted to buy another.

Having four is exercising self-control???

Earlier 57s were 8-pin, but all of the 47s, to the best of my knowledge, were 21-pin. I, too, have one from the very first batch and it is 21-pin.

I do like these original original MNs; as Roger pointed out above, there was a nice symmetry of lines with a certain style to them, even if the practicalities hadn;t yet made themselves known at the time. Notwithstanding that, I have now taken the plunge and pre-ordered modified original Holland-Afrika Line with TTS sound (not sure how good that's going to be, but Rails of Sheffield's pre-order price makes it worthwhile). The budget will only extend so far, and I have already stretched it a bit with other impulse purchases, such as a Peckett I don't need but really, really like and won't part with!!