SRman

Class 108s were also referred to as Derby Lightweights, while classes 107 and 114 were referred to as Derby Heavyweights. You can sometimes find the letters 'LW' or 'HW' stencilled on the fronts above the buffers or even in white on the blue square coupling symbol.

You have jogged my memory, Clive. There is a picture in the DMU one of the colour books "for railway modeller and historian" series (I don't have it immediately to hand for the correct title): it shows a BRCW class 104 driving motor in plain blue at the head of a Trans-Pennine 124 unit in blue and grey. There have been many mixes of types in normal service (as opposed to the rather specialised Trans-Pennine units), including classes 101, 103, 104, 108, 111, 117, 119, 120 and 121 that I can think of in photos or videos , and possibly even more types than that. Some of the mixes depend on geographical distribution of the units concerned, so, for example, I wouldn't expect to see a class 103 Park Royal vehicle in one of the four car North Eastern units that triggered this topic.

After a conversation with someone recently (was it you, Doug?), I decided to experiment with a bridging section for the curved bit along the viaduct. I had originally envisioned it as being a solid embankment or wall section, but we talked about another lattice or girder bridge to leave the view more open. With that in mind, I have used mostly recycled bits and pieces to create a deck with plate girder supports. I have used six plastic tube sections as supporting posts here but if I did build it properly, these would not be required, or possibly just the two centre ones if I want something different. The ends would be on buttress supports from the arches on either side. The deck would be wider on the "production" version too. As a way to visualise the effect, it works quite well. I like it, but would welcome any comments too.

TSLRB ... thanks Robert Shrives. I couldn't remember the correct designation for the trailer buffet. I knew the four car Met-Cam units were a North Eastern specialty, but were the four car BRCW class 104 units also NE-based? I have a feeling they were (I may be mistaken but I seem to recall one such unit heading for Durham). These also had some TBS vehicles but no buffet cars.

The four car formations I have seen were DMC(L)+TS(L)+TBS+DMC(L), or DMC(L)+TBuS(L)+TBS+DMC(L) - the latter containing one of the fairly short-lived Buffet cars. These avoided the duplication of Brake Vans in the formations, although I am sure I saw a photo once of a DMBS+TS(L)+TS(L)+DMC(L) ... it is possible one of the TS vehicles was a Composite though (TC(L)). Having said that, almost any combination was possible with the mixing and matching of blue square DMU types, with vehicles of other classes possible in the formations as well. The parcels workings were most probably dropped off at their destination, to be returned on any other suitable train later. Classes involved in parcels duties later in life include classes 114, 127, and 122 (which were reclassified 131 for the purpose).

OK. I have now been able to examine my class 16, and the bogie frames are a little different to the usual Heljan ones. They still 'unplug' easily but the sideframes are integral with the base and end transoms. It appears to me that they would still be relatively easy to modify for width, but it would take a little more work than simply using spacers as for most other Heljan diesels.

I can't check the 16 right now (I'm at work, it's at home!), but most, if not all, Heljan bogie diesels have separately fitted sideframes that simply pull off their spigots. That means you could easily gain a millimetre or two by adding spacers. That may affect the bogie swing but if you are going P4, I would assume the curves won't be all that severe.

My tracks are fairly level (within the limits of the floor the layout is on!!), and I found that with the 6-car train there was no problem with traction. I did take the precaution of oiling each axle of every coach before assembling the unit and running it. My smallest curves are approximately equivalent to radius 3 set track, and there were no problems there. My biggest worry was that the mechanisms would foul the third and fourth rails somewhere. but that hasn't happened, thankfully.

My 6-car set arrived today in a nice big parcel from the LT Museum. After unpacking the individual vehicles, I worked out the correct order for the particular ones I have. I ran the two motor cars in simultaneously on the rolling road on DC, then after an hour or so of perfect running in both directions, decided to fit two identical decoders. I had two TCS EU621 decoders in the box and one Lenz Silver 21+ (the preferred choice), so it was the TCS ones that got installed ... except that on interrogating them on the programming track, one of them was a Lenz decoder! So my preference was realised with two Lenz decoders fitted. I programmed the two decoders simultaneously to address 87 and set the inertia/momentum CVs to CV3 = 25 and CV4 = 20, which give nice balanced acceleration and deceleration rates. I left the top and middle speeds (CVs 5 and 6) at the Lenz defaults for now but may adjust them later. There was no need to reverse one decoder using CV29 as the motor coach pairs seem to be wired accordingly. Once the set was assembled on the track, it behaved impeccably and didn't highlight any clearance problems through the platforms either, at least in the direction I am running it at the moment. I'll post pics and possibly a little video later, but right now, I'm very happy with my purchase. EDIT: two quick photos posted. As can be seen, the 6-car set just fits the platform and loop lengths perfectly.

Huntsmen look fearsome but are actually useful in that they eat some of the other household pests, like cockroaches. Most huntsman bites are from females defending their eggs, which is when they get aggressive. As Matthew said, their bite is harmless to humans. Do you want to know what preys on redbacks? Surprisingly enough, one of the predators is daddy long legs!

I dunno about that: he can't be all that nice if he keeps redbacks as pets!!

Agreeing with the first two parts of the sentence : for the last bit, the spider is known as a 'redback', which is very closely related to the 'black widow' spider, and rather venomous. While rarely fatal, the bite can be extremely nasty and can cause ongoing medical problems. Best left alone!! Edited to correct redback as one word instead of two.

Ha ha. While one is never too old to learn new things, I am a teensy bit too old to be a student at the high school I work in!! I finished my year 12 in 1973. I am still a fair way away from getting the upper level running, but it really is something I am looking forward to.

An iptical ollusion!!

It's getting a little closer: an approximation of the track alignment on the upper level viaducts.

Continuing on with the small extension, a quick lick of "Hurricane Grey" paint completes this stage of the project. The first pic shows an overall view, while in the second, I have moved the viaduct into what will be its final position (or very close to it).

That is a Ballast Brake conversion of a Cambrian Kits 'Dance Hall'. They supply the necessary bits and the instructions in the kit to do this conversion.

Actually only 12mm, Doug, but I know exactly what you mean. That was just enough to give me the clearances I needed for the LT lines behind the viaduct.

Well! I'm back from 10 days in New Zealand (had a lovely time for Agnes' and my 30th anniversary), so only a couple of days left of the school holidays before reality sets in and I have to go back to work. I have promised to widen the layout slightly to provide more clearance for the front viaducts, so went to Masters Hardware today and bought some 12mm square and 12mm x 30mm wood. This allowed me to add a strip 12mm wide at the front edge of the layout. To compensate for the projecting lip, though, I also had to add some timber behind the pockets for the controllers, using this as a good excuse to also lower them slightly so they don't project upwards over the layout top surface quite as far. Of course, it also meant unscrewing the hinges for the control panel and resiting that onto one of the 12mm x 30mm bits of wood.

I took Sherlock Holmes over to DougN's place yesterday and we posed it with some of his Gresley teak non-corridor coaches. While not an accurate pairing, it looked good ... it even looked "right". Doug had been doing some clearing up of his workbench which meant that there was some clutter on the layout, but he soon cleared running space, so we sent Sherlock Holmes around his figure-8 circuit. As expected for a Heljan mechanism, it totally ignored the gradients, both up and down hill with three coaches on. At one stage, the train ran into the back of another train with Doug's D16 on the front, and Sherlock Holmes managed to push the dead loco and train half way up the gradient! Adding two more teak coaches also had no effect on the loco's hauling powers or smoothness.

Yes. The small PCBs are a simple interference fit in their recesses and also look identical on both sides to the naked eye.

Even with suitable cropping, have a gander at that incredibly tall exhaust pipe on the locomotive!

I have now solved the lighting glitch. It was as simple as flipping over the small lighting boards over the cabs - see the last four images in Dave's (dasatcopthorne's) post #246. The cab lights now come on individually with functions 1 and 2, while all three white end lights turn on (and off) with function 0.

My Sherlock Holmes arrived today. After a quick check on DC on the rolling road, I fitted a decoder. I started with a Lenz Silver+ 21 but, like others have reported, it surged and stopped repeatedly in one direction, and the lights didn't respond at all either. I then tried a TCS EU621, which works faultlessly with the drive in both directions. However, there is an oddity with the lights: the lower two white lights come on with the direction of travel on function 0, as do the cab lights at the relevant end. Function 1 turns on the upper white light at the leading end and function 2 turns on the upper light at the other end. Now I feel sure that the cab lights should be the switchable ones on functions 1 and 2, so next time I take the 'lid' off, I'll have a look at swapping the connections - Heljan usually use identical two pin plugs for these so it should be straightforward ... [gulp] I hope! I'm not sure why the Lenz decoders have such a problem with this mechanism, but I think it is probably something to do with the BEMF settings. The TCS one I used boasts that it is self-adjusting for BEMF, and it seems to work, thus justifying that claim.

My Sherlock Holmes arrived today. After a quick check on Dc on the rolling road, I fitted a decoder. I started with a Lenz Standard but, like others have reported, it surged and stopped repeatedly in one direction, and the lights didn't respond at all either. I then tried a TCS EU621, which works faultlessly with the drive in both directions. However, there is an oddity with the lights: the lower two white lights come on with the direction of travel on function 0, as do the cab lights at the relevant end. Function 1 turns on the upper white light at the leading end and function 2 turns on the upper light at the other end. Now I feel sure that the cab lights should be the switchable ones on functions 1 and 2, so next time I take the 'lid' off, I'll have a look at swapping the connections - Heljan usually use identical two pin plugs for these so it should be straightforward ... [gulp] I hope! I'm not sure why the Lenz decoders have such a problem with this mechanism, but I think it is probably something to do with the BEMF settings. The TCS one I used boasts that it is self-adjusting for BEMF, and it seems to work, thus justifying that claim. Edit: sorry for the duplicate posting. I thought I had just edited to add the photos but obviously something went slightly haywire!