SRman

Perhaps one of the problems with scanning a preserved locomotive (or item of rolling stock, for that matter). The blacks tend to be blacker because they are more often kept clean, where normal service stock tends to weather and fade, so the blacks are really shades of grey and brown.

I know! It's just one of those iconic locomotive types "one just has to have"! I'm not forking out for any teak coaches though: 1. I can't justify the cost and 2. I simply don't have room for another rake of coaches at the moment. The Pullmans don't look entirely out of place, although mine are all types with later designations (i.e. without the "Third Class Car" lettering after the numbers) - first class cars are not as obviously wrong though. Hornby's forthcoming K-types may look more 'correct' with a P2 though. I did think of including a crew coach behind the tender, possibly a BR mark 1 in blood and custard or maroon to carry the illusion of a preserved locomotive. I don't think I'll put air tanks on the tender though - I'll turn a blind eye and forego that part of any illusion!!

And now for something completely different ... at least, for my Southern based layout! I now own a Gresley P2 in LNER livery! This one is Hornby but not the TTS one and not the RailRoad one. I bought it off a friend who ended up with two of them. As it had a missing front buffer (easily repaired), I got it for a very reasonable price. It is now fitted with a Lenz Standard+ decoder and runs fairly sweetly with a hint of gear whine that is gradually reducing with use. I am treating it as a "might have been" preserved example, so it is posed here with a 'raspberry ripple' set of BR mark 1 coaches (Bachmann) and with some Hornby Pullmans.

The olive green lasted for quite a few years beyond the starting date for malachite repaints (around 1938, I think). I'm sure the pace of repainting slowed down during the war years due to other exigencies and also possibly, materials shortages.

The NRM has let their LSWR liveried M7 0-4-4T out for a photo-shoot. Or with black and white film:

Ayjay Models/Southern Region Models (http://www.southernregionmodels.co.uk/) were showing a pre-production 313/508 set of moulds but I have no idea if or when they will go into production.

Regarding the speakers' impedances, as the others have said, 4 ohm is the recommended one; that would most likely give better volume, but two 8 ohm ones in parallel may give a better sound quality with more depth, especially if you use two different types to get a better spread of the sound spectrum (e.g. a bass reflex and a standard round or rectangular speaker). I usually spend some time experimenting until I get the best (to me) sound quality. There have been occasions where after all that, I find that the original speaker was the best, whereas on other occasions, the mixes or combinations of speakers were better. A lot depends on what space is available in the locomotive or unit too.

Wow! That looks like it will be a real beast when you put the body back on. I'd love to hear it if you can get a recording of it in action, Dave.

Hi Peter. Sorry it took a while to get back to you: most of my speakers have come from DCC Supplies (excellent service) but the most recent batch came from Peter's Spares (also great service) as I was ordering some other bits and pieces (Markits clack valves being the things I was after most), so it was worthwhile to include them for the same postage costs.

I, too, found the multi-coloured liveries amusing. There is a lot of modelling work gone into these and Clive has obviously thought out the conversions very well before starting. There's certainly enough there to keep him off the streets for some time to come! As with the other posters above, I also will look forward to seeing the finished results. Keep up the great work, Clive.

100 ohm bass reflex and bass enhanced speakers are still available - I just bought one recently together with one each of the 4 and 8 ohm bass enhanced versions. Those 20 x 40 ones do usually just squeeze in where Bachmann had the unsealed 20 x 40 standard speakers. They work a treat with Sulzer sounds like the class 24s and 25s, from Howes and legomanbiffo.

The Ayjay Models 4 SUB kit has arrived from Radley Models. Oddly, it came with four trailer bogies and four motor bogies. I contacted Phil Radley and he immediately offered to send out the two missing trailer bogies. I also asked if he wished the extra motor bogies returned but, as yet, he hasn't replied to that. Excellent service, as always, from Phil. With this kit, I am using the Hornby 2 BIL motor chassis but will have to use the Ayjay resin chassis/underframes for the remaining three coaches. I have cut off the buffer beams from one of the DMBS bodies and sat it loosely on the Hornby underframe. The semi-saloon seating unit will have to be cut to suit the Hornby chassis configuration, losing one seating bay in the process to clear the motor housing. I have not yet chosen a unit number but am probably going to select one from the 4355 to 4363 group as these had two 10-compartment trailers to match what was supplied in the kit (edit: these units may have had compartment motors too, unlike the kit). That also means I will retain the foot steps over the front buffers and add handrails above and either side of the front at windscreen level (similar to the 'Tin' HAL). This also shows the interesting contrast in front ends for what were otherwise almost identical body shells for the DMBS vehicles in the 2 HAP and the 4 SUB. The roof details also differ somewhat. It also shows that I have thinned the lower roof edge gutter on the HAP to improve the appearance.

I too like the Bachmann 85s. What do you think if they had been dual mode overhead and third rail types? Can I justify one?

Thanks Dave. The 21-pin (and 8-pin) decoders are much easier to find and also offer more variety from more different manufacturers. I'm much happier to stick with those for now as I keep a small stock of spares to allow for new purchases. I will definitely be running my 71 when it comes - no shelves for that! If a syp green with red/white stripes does present itself in a photo somewhere, that would be a version I would prefer, otherwise I'll stay with the plain green syp one I have ordered. Given time to save up a little more, I might even spring for a blue fyp one.

Visually, JA / 73/0 have an extra jumper under the driver's windscreen and an extra window near the trailing cab in the photos in post 273 above. The grilles at that end are different too. There were also some differences in the under body equipment and minor bodyside differences on the other sides. I note from those photos that the slight dimples in the cab roof profiles picked up in earlier posts still appear to be present.

Dave, this may well have been covered earlier in the thread (if so forgive me for asking): what DCC socket/plug arrangement will be fitted, please? Edit: I know the original specs say 21-pin; I just wanted to confirm that in view of the fact that Dapol seemed to be moving towards the 22-pin PLuX standard.

Certainly their class 22 and 52 locomotives don't have traction tyres. We can only hope that the 73 follows suit.

Hi Peter. Glad that's sorted. It also accounts for my comments on not sounding the best in the 25 chassis!

Just a thought, Peter, but what was in the older 37 before? Was it a v3.5 or a v4? If it has a 100 ohm speaker, it won't break the v 4 decoder but the volume would be rather muted.

When you read back CV63, is it giving you a value of 192? Sometimes sound decoders don't respond, correctly if the programming power is down slightly. Alternatively, any of the following: Make sure the speaker is a 4 ohm rather than 8 ohm. Could also try bass enhanced or bass reflex speakers Larger speakers, Two 8 ohm ones in parallel. Sugar cube speakers. If you are game, dismantle the 37 completely (and I mean 'completely'!) and fit the largest speaker possible into the fuel tank area. Sound is very much a black art and to get the best, needs a bit of experimentation. My own 37s all have two speakers: the original rectangular type sealed in with plasticard and Blu-Tack, plus a 20mm round one in one of the nose ends.

Volume is CV63. Values go from 0 to 192. I'm not sure what it was on by default. If you haven't modified the speaker, seal it up - I use Blu-Tack to create an enclosure. That should also improve the sound reproduction quality.

A quick update on the class 40: I have now painted the repairs black and while I had the black on the brush, did some initial weathering on the roof.

When visiting Peter Mantle's (PCM) Llanbourne layout for the monthly BRMA meeting yesterday, I took along two locomotives that were recently reblown with legomanbiffo sounds. One, 37 698, behaved perfectly (although I noted that I have at some stage lost the horns at one end, probably when transporting it to an exhibition). The other, class 40 D211, disgraced itself by dropping the bogie frame at one end. I was still able to run it and show off the sounds but it looked rather odd - like one end was floating on air! The cause of the bogie frame falling off was the inner end transome actually breaking off. Unfortunately, the centre part of that transome is what clips over a lug on the end of the bogie's metal chassis. I worked into the early hours of this morning fixing it, after thinking about how to repair it so that it would regain some strength. The answer was to use a 2mm wide strip of 60 thou plasticard, reinforced with handrail wire drilled into the ends through the bogie side frames, plus more wire drilled and bent around the attachment points for the bottom part. This was then superglued thoroughly as well to retain all the wire bits and strengthen the joints. It works perfectly on test and seems to be very strong. All that remains is to apply a coat of black paint, to be followed eventually by a bit of weathering on the whole underframe/bogies and on the roof.

Here are a few 'general' photos of Llanbourne, take on my phone camera (an HTC One M7). For those who were there, my Bachmann class 40 disgraced itself by breaking the end transom on one of its bogies, which meant the whole bogie frame dropped off. I have now repaired that - pics are in my workbench blog.

It was a great afternoon, Peter. Thanks for hosting. Llanbourne just gets better and better all the time. Thanks also to Rick for inviting us to return via Penhayle Bay. Unfortunately, time constraints meant my car load of visitors had to bypass you this time. I did snap a couple of pics on my phone camera but I haven't uploaded them yet.