SRman

At least when chipped and run on DCC, the lights are at full brightness all the time, whereas on analogue DC, they will only be at full brightness when running at full speed/full power. Personally, I prefer the lights to be reasonably dim ... just like the real ones were!

I thought my R2420 had escaped the rot but just last week I noticed the first signs of trouble, with small cracks appearing at diagonally opposite cab corners, and a slight droop to the chassis at one end only. The problem seems to be the metal cab floor/support at each end which screw on to the chassis proper. These floors have distorted and tried to stretch the body and also pushed the chassis end down slightly. When I tried to reduce the end overhang one end just disintegrated. Since these floors also retain the coupling guides, I pieced the bits together and Black-Tacked them into place temporarily. I have emailed Hornby's support line and Simon Kohler with photos of the problem to see what to do next. As my example has had the fan mechanism removed and Howes' class 30 sounds and two speakers installed, as well as renumbering (D5513) and numerous paint modifications (green cab window surrounds, small yellow warning panels and some weathering), I don't want to part with the body.

For normal use, I only push the button near rail breaks such as over pointwork. The reed switches and magnets are a good idea but for the sound of the arc, you need a recording on a short loop and something to play it with a small speaker (part and parcel of the DCC sound decoder installation). You could also do the flash in reverse, installing the circuit and reed switch in the locomotive/unit, with the magnets under the track. That way the flashes follow the locomotive rather than being in one static spot. There are many possibilities, depending on how simple or complex you wish to make it, and several useful suggestions here. Perhaps a little experimentation is called for to find which method suits you the best (and I'm not suggesting you should equip every electric locomotive and unit with expensive sound decoders just to get the effect with sound and flash!!).

Shaun, you are correct about the DCC idea. I did this with a Hornby/Lima hybrid class 73. I mounted two blue LEDs just above the bogie at the non-motored end. They were connected, via appropriate resistors, to the ESU LokSound decoder auxilliary output. Bryan, of Howes, had pre-programmed the flashes to functions 10 and 11 but it is not that difficult to program these on other decoders with suitable auxilliary outputs. I do need to paint the outer edges of the LEDs where they project below the floor line (obvious in the video below but not so obvious when viewed from higher up) but other than that, I would deem them a success.

Always know where your fingers are. (That's one of Melbourne's light rail 5-unit trams behind my brother and my finger!).

I have been doing a class 25 with Hornby body on Bachmann chassis. I found that I had to cut off the buffer beams and stick them into the body ends. The cuts themselves removed just enough material to make the chassis a snug fit. However, as Peter has said, the problem arises of how to fasten the body and chassis together. As it stands right now, if I pick up the model by the body, the heavy chassis will drop out under its own weight. I have one of the older Bacchy class 40 models and I keep looking at it and wondering what I should do with it. It's not all that bad but it still doesn't actually look right either. Then again, I have several class 24 and 25 models and they don't look right at the fronts either (hence the Hornby body on the one I mentioned before!). I still like them because they run so beautifully and still look like a Derby type 2. None of these models (24/25/40) could be mistaken for anything else.

Well, yes one can put a small speaker in the single tanks of the 25 but for the best Sulzer rasp, the bigger speakers are generally better. Having said that, a 'sugar cube' speaker may just be the go, in conjunction with a bass enhanced one inside the body. I usually find I have to experiment a bit with combinations of speakers before I am happy with the result. Fortunately, speakers are cheap enough to buy quite a few spares of different types to keep in the bits boxes. p.s. The laptop speakers are a very good idea too.

For my much older class 24 (LokSound v3.5) one from Howes, I added a bass enhanced speaker which really brought out the best from it. I still have to play around with the speaker set ups on all of these recent ones. For the moment, the 25 has the standard Bachmann speaker setup enclosed with some Blu-Tack to seal it. I'm sure it can be improved, even without a speaker in the tanks (not enough room in this one!).

I agree with the overall sentiment, and would like to see the model for myself first, but being overseas it is rather more difficult to do so. I (and, presumably, other overseas based modellers) sometimes have to rely on the magazine and Internet reviews to help make up our minds whether to commit to buy or not.

I have recorded and edited no less than seven new videos today. They all come with my trademark dodgy camera work!! There are still a couple of (relatively) recent additions/reblows I haven't recorded yet, but these should be enough to go on for the time being. From legomanbiffo, I have added reblows to a Hornby class 08 and a Bachmann class 25. The latter has also undergone a transformation from blue 25 279 to green D7638, by the simple expedient of swapping bodies! I also had a class 205 2/3H decoder reblown to legomanbiffo's new MPV sounds, having bought a replacement with his sounds on for the 205 from DC Kits earlier. Also new was a class 42 Warship and a Bulleid Q1 0-6-0 from Howes and reblows included class 92 sounds over the class 53 sounds previously bought from Howes (the sounds were fine but I thought they were just too similar to the Western sounds - same engines but diesel electric instead of diesel hydraulic). I wanted sound for my Bratchell class 319/1 s well and, while no one actually offers a 319 sound project, legomanbiffo's class 321 is as close as I'm likely to get for the time being. I had a 21-pin decoder spare but the Replica Railways motorised chassis has an 8-pin socket. I have two Hornby Sapphire decoders in service and both did not require the 8-to-21 pin adaptors, so I utilised one of those to use the 21-pin decoder in the 319. It was a little loose so I added some black-tack to hold it firmly in place. The unit runs fine here but the trailers do still require a little more weight to be added for reliability. The Bachmann class 25/legomanbiffo: The Hornby class 08/legomanbiffo (I know about my typo in the title screen!!): The Bachmann MPV/legomanbiffo: The Bachmann Warship/Howes: The Hornby Q1/Howes: The Bratchell class 319/legomanbiffo 321: And the oddball - the Heljan class 53 with class 92 electric sounds. I know it's a bit incongruous!!

So you haven't decided to add more resin water to platform level, then? Perhaps with a submarine conning tower travelling through the station for atmosphere! ;)

Victoria is worse in those respects, with electric freight locomotives having retired long before those NSW dates. The lines to Warragul were de-electrified as well, a retrograde step in my opinion.

Echoing the sentiments of everyone before me, please get well quickly and as painlessly as possible, Colin. Your contributions here will be sorely missed but if you can keep us posted on your progress, please do so. Sincere regards, Jeff.

I'm not sure about whether they were lit during daylight hours or not but, for sure, even if they were, you wouldn't be able to see it until the train entered a tunnel or other dark area. That's why I chose setting 2 on the dimness for the TCS decoder and also why I don't mind the usual dimness of all the earlier Heljan locos. I did remove them again last night and painted around the whole front of the glazing except for the raised bits that become the actual head code glasses when inserted in the model. I made sure to paint the raised edges as well. I haven't taken any pics yet but it has improved the appearance even further.

Not the highest of quality but here is a segment of video I took on February 19th, 1999 from a class 166 unit bound for Banbury (I was getting off at Reading). The footage is a little murky because of the dirty windows.

Yes, thanks for that suggestion. When I pull them out again, I'll adjust the level of the headcode/plasticard inserts very slightly and paint some black around the edges of the two main raised glazed panels. As you suggest, that should improve things further.

Further to yesterday's entry, I have now fiddled with the CV settings on the Dapol/Kernow Western, with a view to dimming the excessively bright lighting in both headcode panels and cabs. I downloaded the full manual from TCS's website and eventually deciphered it to work out what changes were necessary to the CVs in the EU621 decoder fitted to D1030 Western Musketeer. I set the following values, using the TCS Constant Dim level 2 setting): CV49 (forward direction headcode/headlights, forward direction only) to 66 CV50 (reverse direction headcode/headlights, reverse direction only) to 82 ... and the following values, using the TCS Constant Dim level 1 setting) CV51 (cab light, no2 or B end, both directions) to 44 CV52 (cab light, no1 or A end, both directions) to 44 The lights are now much more acceptable to me, and there is less obvious light bleeding around the headcode panels. Compare these two photos to the previous entry.

Thanks guys. For my next trick, I'll try to find the right CVs to dim the lights a bit. I will also adjust the positioning of the headcodes very slightly downwards - that will be relatively easy since I did only tack them into place!

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way the headcodes looked on my Dapol Western. You may recall that I mounted some Heljan class 53 headcodes inside the Dapol headcode boxes but the font is not right on those. I have now redone the headcodes, using Heljan headcodes supplied with their Western diesels. These were mounted on bits of 20 thou plasticard, approximately 17mm x 6mm which were then stuck inside the headcode boxes using a little Black-Tack (actually Homelux Bath Seal). The font typeface and size are both better than the class 53 ones but don't suit the size of the internal aperture quite so well. While I had the headcode light boxes out of the locomotive, I polished the outer 'glass' faces a little with some T-cut, to remove the sprayed on weathering (mine is a Kernow special). I'm still not entirely convinced by the end result but I still prefer it to externally stuck-on bits of paper or vinyl. Also visible in the background is the lit up signal box, now with an extra resistor in series with the first, and a light coat of Humbrol primrose over the plasticard light baffle (which actually seems to have produced a slight greenish tinge).

Bratchell (link in phixer64's post above) produce kits for classes 317 - 321 and 455/456. I have been building a 455 and a 319 from them in the last year or so. I don't know of any kits for classes 313 - 5, and 507/508 being available in OO. Classes 150, 158, 159, 166,170 and 220/221 have been available from Bachmann for some years, although the 158 is currently being retooled. A very good class 153 model is available from Hornby. The class 156, also from Hornby, is a rehash of the older Lima model and is not up to modern standards. Likewise, Hornby's class 155 was a rehash of the older Dapol model and is probably not available new any more. Hornby's class 142 is also an older model that could do with complete retooling, whereas the Realtrack Models class 144 is bang up to date for features and running qualities, with a class 143 to follow in the future. Hornby's class 465 is also not bad looking but not a good runner at all. It has been produced in recent times as a limited edition for a retailer. I don't know of any kits for classes 222 or 458.

Hornby rereleased the Lima mode with alterations to the mechanism - a five pole motor bogie and DCC-ready - but made several bloopers with the body mouldings for given numbers they chose. For example, I bought a cheap Hornby Yeoman 59 005 which had the wrong headlight style for a 59/0 (with WiPAC clusters) and swapped my good Lima body onto the Hornby chassis. The Lima one was also 59 005 but in earlier Yeoman livery. I put the Hornby body onto the Lima chassis and sold it on eBay (with an honest description of what it was!). I hope Jo will forgive me posting one pic of the model (I know the intention was for the real thing!). It would definitely benefit from a more modern chassis to the class 50 and 60 standard, as Bert has suggested. The running qualities of the Hornby motor bogie are far superior to the Lima one but it lacks traction. p.s. Very nice photos, Jo. I particularly like the long-distance shots which show the landscape as well.

The most obvious differences are with the first batch for Yeoman (59/0), which had two headlights in the centre of the front panels, whereas subsequent batches had WiPAC light clusters. There were other differences with fixtures and fittings, hence the sub-classes.

I'm not sure the shots of me are any improvement over the one of the back of my head in PCM's Llanbourne thread!! That last photo of Rick's demonstrates the size differences between BR stock and Australian /Victorian stock - the Western is to 4mm scale while the N class is to 3.5mm scale! It really was a great afternoon. I can recall only one item of stock misbehaving, with everything else working perfectly, in spite of the heat. We all have something that works perfectly at home but the moment someone arrives to watch, something will break, come off the track, stutter, derail, or do something wrong ... that's just the modeller's part of Murphy's Law kicking in. . I think Penhayle Bay managed to defy Murphy!

A big thank you to Rick for his hospitality today at Penhayle Bay. I took a few photos on my phone - probably not up to Rick's standards but they aren't too bad and show some slightly different perspectives on features he has shown before.

So, Peter, you were able to find everything, after my 'operations' on Saturday??