SRman

Yes, that annoys me: they do that all the time. One of the main reference authors for our studies on marsupial and monotreme evolution was Prof. Michael Archer, who did a fair bit of work on the Riversleigh fossil digs. If I ever get the chance, I want to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada for the Burgess shale fossils. Invertebrate fossils are much rarer than vertebrate ones for obvious reasons. There's also the more widespread Ediacaran biota found in several places, including more locally. But much as I find all this fascinating, that's taking us away from the weird vertebrates found not just here in Australia, but in many other parts of the world (not forgetting that many of the continents were joined at various stages of the geological time scale, hence that platypus find in South America).

You all know how we like to tease visitors to Australia with tales of dangerous, man-eating drop bears? Well ... https://www.9news.com.au/national/these-giant-drop-bears-with-opposable-thumbs-once-scaled-trees-in-australia-but-how-did-they-grow-so-huge/0106b70b-4334-46b4-8a26-41e6ebb8bb3f I particularly liked this paragraph: "These biodiverse, lush forests were home to some equally strange animals: flesh-eating kangaroos, tree-climbing crocodiles, ancestral thylacines, cat- to leopard-sized marsupial lions, huge anaconda-like snakes, giant toothed platypuses and mysterious marsupials so strange they have been called "Thingodonta"." I have 'met' thingodonta before in my studies - it was named because of its extremely peculiar teeth that survived fossilisation, but not much else was found of the animal's skeleton, so little is known about its appearance. Toothed platypus fossils have also been found in the Andes, but the oldest known are still Australian. Fortunately for all Australians and visitors to Oz, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we are safe from the flesh-eating roos and tree-climbing crocs! Come to Australia, it is all very safe now.

An interesting article that I missed when it was originally posted. I would add to more recent posts that D829 from the Torbay Express set does have lights. I bought this set as a bargain way of getting a maroon Warship, with a couple of free coaches thrown in. 😎 I fitted sound into this model but the lights were already there.

See also andyman7's response on how the headcodes may be used in real life, but if you do want to make them directional, you could reprogram them to work only when travelling in one direction, like the cab lights do. If you have JMRI Decoder Pro on a computer you can attach to your programming track that makes it a lot easier using checkboxes to tick or untick for the relevant functions.

I have just installed the sound project from Richard (Roads and Rails), and I love it. Start off is very slightly jerky on the initial tests, but the rest is fine, including the top speed which is a bit too fast for normal use on my layout. I haven't tried tweaking anything yet, but the first thing I would do is lower CV2 start voltage. Even so, I have stored Neil's settings for possible future reference.

I use a bit of modeller's licence to run the later wagon types with the green locos, but I agree we need some later loco liveries and earlier wagon types and liveries to get things right, i.e. the ability to run the correct locos and wagons in the correct period liveries together in the same train.

I'm very sad to hear that you are winding up the graphics side, as I have had excellent service and help from you over the years. I hope the new owner carries on your good work, and wish you all the best for the future. I assume we'll still see you on RMweb from time to time. Jeff

Somewhat better now. I found that the new side frames are very slightly deeper than the Hornby originals. Also, those third rail shoes will have to go - I'll have to remodel them in the up position. The sandboxes at the outer end are fouling the inside of the buffer beam / cowling ever so slightly, so I need to remove a very small amount of material to get catch-free running around curves. Even so, the test run was successful and there were no derailments. I can now do the other end, but I might let my thumb heal first ... I accidentally stabbed it with the screwdriver when trying to get the side frames off to relocate them! 🙄 Note that the PCB is loose at present to allow me to remount the bogies more easily.

I have been making more progress on my 74 conversion. The paintwork is almost decent now albeit I am using a standard Humbrol enamel blue for the present. It looks almost like BR blue but is a tad lighter. There are still a few small rough bits to fix up, but it is almost there. I have also tackled the first of the bogie side frame conversions, cutting off the Hornby class 71 type with a razor saw and replacing with the new resin side frames from Silver Fox. It took me a while to work out how the bogie lower frame separated from the rest, but I eventually worked it out, but not before accidentally loosening the top tower clip that holds the whole bogie in place, which meant that it all dropped out, still attached only by the wires. The gears also kindly dropped out! Reassembly took me a while trying to work out the gear sequence, using the Hornby service sheet to assist me. I reinforced the side joints to the rest by drilling fine holes through and supergluing some brass wire into them, thereby not leaving them totally reliant on glued butt-joints. I did line up the tops of the new side frames but they seem to be sitting a little low, so that may need a bit further work to fix them properly. In the meantime, I'll hold off doing the other end until I know I can get it right first go.

And here they are, posed with some of the earlier Bachmann Bulleid coaches which are slowly receiving flush glazing. Thanks Phil. 👍👍

An update on the class 74. I have shaved off the moulded details, and also reshaped the front panels a bit, although they are still a bit flatter than the Hornby front end. I did saw off one cab from the Hornby 71 body and one from the 74, but the roof profiles were a bit too different to match up, so I had to regraft the original cab back on. The BR blue I had was going off, so I am not at all happy with the finish on the blue, and have been sanding parts of it back ready for repainting. I may try to use the Hornby glazing, but due to the flatter curve of the front, I'll have to fit each window separately. The kit glazing is vacuum-formed and will be kept in reserve if that fails. I also hope to reuse the Hornby cab interiors with their lighting, but they will need to be cut down a little to fit inside the thicker mouldings. The current status is that the chassis has a LokSound 5 micro fitted with a sugar cube speaker and legomanbiffo sounds added. The chassis runs fine, so even with the unfinished body on it, it can run on Newton Broadway. The body is a tight fit on the Hornby chassis, which is good, but I had to remove a lot of material from the insides of the roof to clear some of the Hornby PCB components. I have some Dapol class 73 jumper and air cables to use, and also some nice white metal ones from (I think) MJT. I also shaved off the moulded horns from the cab roofs, with a view to using some turned brass ones I have. Progress has slowed a bit, but it is a success so far. One other major job to do is to remove the Hornby side frames and graft the Silver Fox ones onto the bogie frames, as they are quite different. The last two photos show it as it is at the time of this post.

To save you wading through the other 55 pages, here's the text from my last post on there, plus an update. From March 15th: A class 74 electro-diesel kit and 4 COR conversion kit arrived from Silver Fox yesterday. Starting on the 74, it is a very nice casting, but I have been grinding lots of resin material out of the 74 body shell to get it to fit over the Hornby 71 chassis, removing material from the lower cab ends and from inside the roof. The kit was designed to fit the Hornby class 90 chassis and the instructions reflect this, but I wanted to use the superior Hornby class 71 as its basis. It looks very promising. I will be shaving off the handrails and moulded jumper cables and horns to replace them all with separate fittings, in due course. It can only be one livery for realism: BR blue with yellow ends, although it can have E 61XX numbers or 74 0XX TOPS numbers. I had to use a little Milliput to patch up where I slipped with the Dremel! The kit comes with some rather nice bogie side frame mouldings, but I am in two minds as to whether to replace the Hornby side frames or adapt them. I want to fit legomanbiffo sound eventually. I think I can get a sugar cube speaker in the space vacated by the Hornby internal machinery mouldings, but it will still need a micro decoder - the existing one is an ESU LokPilot micro. Update: I have shaved off the moulded details, and also reshaped the front panels a bit, although they are still a bit flatter than the Hornby front end. I did saw off one cab from the Hornby 71 body and one from the 74, but the roof profiles were a bit too different to match up, so I had to regraft the original cab back on. The BR blue I had was going off, so I am not at all happy with the finish on the blue, and have been sanding parts of it back ready for repainting. I may try to use the Hornby glazing, but due to the flatter curve of the front, I'll have to fit each window separately. The kit glazing is vacuum-formed and will be kept in reserve if that fails. I also hope to reuse the Hornby cab interiors with their lighting, but they will need to be cut down a little to fit inside the thicker mouldings. The current status is that the chassis has a LokSound 5 micro fitted with a sugar cube speaker and legomanbiffo sounds added. The chassis runs fine, so even with the unfinished body on it, it can run on Newton Broadway. The body is a tight fit on the Hornby chassis, which is good, but I had to remove a lot of material from the insides of the roof to clear some of the Hornby PCB components. I have some Dapol class 73 jumper and air cables to use, and also some nice white metal ones from (I think) MJT. I also shaved off the moulded horns from the cab roofs, with a view to using some turned brass ones I have. I hope some of this helps. Progress has slowed a bit, but it is a success so far. One other major job to do is to remove the Hornby side frames and graft the Silver Fox ones onto the bogie frames, as they are quite different. The last two photos show it as it is at the time of this post.

Good point regarding the sapient pearwood. maybe it would be better to use it for the "Scum class" passengers! 😉

Since the railway also involves Sto Lat, would a cabbage green be appropriate? 😉 I like the idea of the Hatton's Genesis coaches, although my first thoughts were to varnished teak, but I'm not sure how much wood like that would be available there. Maybe sapient pearwood for the first class? More practically, perhaps a green and off-white scheme for the passenger coaches, a bit like the Cambrian Railway used. Just throwing a few ideas in for acceptance, modification and/or rejection.

For what it's worth if anyone else has a similar problem, I did once run into this with an older Zimo decoder, where the firmware was so old that the brake function wouldn't work. A quick update to the firmware fixed that problem, with advice from either Paul or John Guymer of YouChoos (I've forgotten which project was involved, now) to set me in the right direction at the time.

I've only just caught up again. The oast houses and the layout in general look absolutely magnificent. Lovely work, Adrian.

Adding to giz's post, have a good look at the shape of the roof over the cab front. The new tooling has a much better curve to it than the old.

Not these things the OP referred to. You are correct in that many diesels and first generation DMUs displayed multiple working codes, such as a blue star, red circle, blue square (DMU), etc., but these were always over the buffers or slightly to one side at the front of the loco or unit, not along the sides. They were also a lot smaller than the fire control thingy. That's also not to be confused with the coloured dots used on the cab sides of Western Region diesels to indicate route availability.

I was chatting to Marilyn just recently on the phone to get some decoders from Woodpecker. She and the late Alan Lee, and latterly their son Steve, have always offered friendly and helpful service. My wife and I dropped in there one Saturday while we were in Sydney many years ago, and they offered us cups of tea and coffee while we browsed. I hadn't realised they closed at 2.00pm on Saturdays, so we were happily chatting with them and looking at things well after 2.00, when I suddenly realised the rest of the customers had all gone. Alan and Marilyn knew we had come from Melbourne so kept the shop open just for us because we had come so far. Very nice people. See: not everything in Oz is bad or dangerous!! 😁

Ah, yes, but think of the space you'd have for a layout. 😉

Hello, Amazon? I want to buy a Tardis, please. 🤣

When I was a young teenager the local toy shop owner produced a cardboard tray from under the counter with about a dozen of the Triang SR motor bogie frames with the older mark 2 couplings attached: he was asking the princely sum of 20 cents* each (Australian). I bought just one, to replace the worn out frame on my Triang Met-Cam DMU, which had worn the U-shaped axle journals to being paper thin at the tops. It worked perfectly when I swapped the works over into it, and I didn't really care that the DMU now had shoe beams, I was just happy to have it fully operational again. If I knew then what I know now, 50+ years later, I would have saved up and bought the lot. 🤣🤣 * 20 cents was my entire pocket money for the week at that time!

I only have two S15s, but both are great haulers and smooth and quiet (well, one has sound fitted but is quiet when sound is off! 😁). The sound-fitted one ran around DougN's figure-8 layout on test when fairly new, with 31 wagons. It slipped to a halt only at the very top of the rise, but coped OK with 30 wagons, and ran without fault for quite a long time. It continues to run reliable to this day, as does the other S15. I haven't tried it on passenger train but did have it pulling a mixed parcels and milk train, roughly equivalent to nine or ten bogie coaches (it included several 6-wheel milk tanks and some 4-wheel CCTs). Edit: I almost forgot I did this too, with it hauling a long container train (yes, it was mixing periods, it was a test).

Going back to spiders again, a new and rather large species of trap door spider has been identified in Queensland. https://www.9news.com.au/national/rare-giant-trapdoor-spider-brigalow-belt-queensland/e2547453-ef62-40f7-b346-81e25ed4cea7

There were no Mark 2/2A BSKs built: all were BFKs, but some were later downgraded to second class. I'm not sure about the accuracy of the sides, but certainly Bachmann have the better underframe details. Mark2s (described as 2Z in most later publications) were originally vacuum braked and steam heated, whereas Mark 2As were air or dual braked and electrically heated, but some Mark 2s were upgraded to air and electric later, particularly those on the Southern Region. The earliest Mark 2s were FKs and finished in maroon or green, and used in steam hauled trains. Bachmann have modelled some of these, correctly with the mark 1 window vents and gangway styles.