SRman

The CEPs and EPBs are wired slightly differently, because the CEPs have their internal lights separately switchable. However, all of these Bachmann EMUs have the headcode lights wired such that you cannot separate them purely with decoder outputs: the same output works both ends. As Nigel has suggested, you will need to alter the internal wiring/PCB, and feed wires from the decoder outputs to the newly separated light functions.

The Dapol bogies are really nice, although prone to losing bits at times. My E6007 came from The Hobby Shop, Faversham as a Limited Edition, with one wrong brake block on one bogie, which caused all sorts of running problems until I worked out what was happening. Dapol's warranty supplier, DCC Supplies sent me an entire replacement bogie frame rather than just the correct brake block assembly.

For anyone interested, I have done a quick video of my two pre-grouping trains of 4- and 6-wheel coaches running around, with Hatton's SECR and a mix of Hatton's and Hornby LBSCR coaches. These are hauled by a Rails/Dapol SECR D class 4-4-0 and a Bachmann LBSC Atlantic leading the appropriate rakes.

As the other contributors have said, Dapol has the best mechanism, with a few reservations, and they have lighting, which the old Lima/Hornby RailRoad models don't have, but again there are cautions as the first batch of Dapol models had a faulty PCB design that left the cab lights on permanently. Beware the livery errors. The first two batches had a BR blue that was most certainly NOT BR blue, with the early EE Co blue being even more wrong, if that's possible. Some of the liveries were really nicely done (see the photo of the Southern livery below). I have been re-chassis-ing (is that a word?) all my old Lima 73s with Hornby chassis with 5-pole motor bogies. The body mouldings of the Lima/Hornby model are very good, but the simplified detail on the chassis lets them down a bit. Dapol E6007 in front (repainted to get rid of the awful blue and also the lemon yellow warning panels), with Lima E6012 on a Hornby chassis behind.

Where there is only one pantograph, there is no choice (obviously), but my observations where there is choice suggests that British operators seem to prefer the pantograph "elbow" leading, although that's not a hard and fast rule. I was interested when observing Danish and Swedish practice, where they seem to prefer the "elbow" trailing, as in your photos of the 92s above.

I can't answer which, if any, is more correct. However, my limited experience of matching the EWS paint colour comes from reshaping the cab roofs on a Heljan class 33/0 and repainting them with EWS maroon (from a brand I cannot recall right now - I'll edit that in later). The repainted areas were a tad lighter than the shade Heljan used, but I disguised that with a little weathering. The photo shows it pre-weathering. The other example was renumbering a weathered Bachmann class 66, where the transfers came out a lighter colour than Bachmann's choice of EWS red. The upshot is that the only way to be sure is to compare the models against the real things (if any survive in EWS livery), otherwise accept that the locomotives represent slightly different phases of weathering and fading of their paintwork.

April 1968 - 1970 for the production batch of 340 Panthers, with the prototype #10 with an entirely different body style delivered in the blue scheme in 1966. They were intended as tram replacements, with the last tram (and trolleybus) services having been in 1969. The buses with front and centre doors rather than front and rear doors (40 x AEC Reliance and 80 x Leyland Leopard) were also painted into the blue scheme from the late 1960s onwards. None of these Leyland Panthers were ever in the earlier green/cream scheme. The model in my photo represents a slightly later time in the bus's life because it has the roof hatches and the fleet number on the offside is over the rear wheel arch; the latter was in front of the front wheel arch when they were first delivered. Also, when first delivered, the doors were originally in the zenith blue (the darker of the two shades), rather than the later silver-grey. I helped research the liveries and details for this model before it was produced, including suggesting a couple of changes to the shape of the rear overhang, also on the offside. I have no connection to the producer of the model other than as an unpaid adviser. Edit: additional info: the colours at the time were zenith blue, araluen blue, and arctic white, as reported in the Leyland Journal around 1972 (I remember that roughly because the next issue had the prototype Leyland National demonstrator on its cover). They were doing articles over two issues on Australian Government fleets which largely featured Leyland products at that time.

While I await my own class 92s (one from Accurascale direct, one from Kernow), knowing that they won't get down under before Christmas (possibly not until after New Year), I did enjoy the Dean Park review. I missed out on ordering 92 032 from Accurascale, so ordered 92043 (with sound), then discovered Kernow still had 032 available from their allocation, so have ordered that as plain DCC-ready. I'll probably swap the sound decoder into 032 (maybe even just swap bodies if all else is equal), and fit a Zimo or ESU decoder into the non-sound example. That then releases my older Hornby 92 which actually has a slightly modified Hornby class 60 chassis and an 8-pin LokSound v3.5 with Howes' sound - I may reblow the sound and stick that in something else, because I think the Hornby 92 will very likely get relegated to the storage drawers. While it doesn't look too bad, with the exception of the pantographs, and runs beautifully with the better chassis, it won't be able to hold a candle against the Accurascale models.

XXXX anyone?

My set of eight SECR coaches arrived Down Under at last, nicely in time for Christmas. I have to say the finish on these coaches is superb, very rich and lustrous, and the lining is very fine indeed. I took one over to DougN's place yesterday and we put it side by side with a Hornby NBR version, and while the Hornby one has nice lining, the Hatton's one is even finer still. I received five of the Hatton's LBSC coaches a while back, and those run with four of the Hornby versions, and the colours and finishes don't clash: they differ slightly, but not enough to say either is wrong, it's more like one set has come from a different workshop or faded very slightly. The first coach, a full-brake, in the last photo is a Hatton's example, then the next four are Hornby, so you can see the slight contrast there.

As all of the above, wishing you and your family all the very best for Christmas, Adrian. May Father Christmas bring you everything you ask for. 🥳

I have never seen the Cresta estate in the flesh, only in photos. And as for the yellow Thames van, red, white and blue versions are as common as muck, but I can't say I've seen a yellow one before, either.

Way back when the Heljan Hymeks first came out I bought a green one and fitted sound into it. That was when we had ESU LokSound v3.5 decoders requiring 100 ohm speakers, so speaker choices were very limited. I fitted two standard round 23mm speakers into it, one in the hollow fuel tanks, the other in parallel behind one of the cab bulkheads. That second speaker had the sound chamber cut down until the speaker could fit over the bogie tower area. This model has Howes' sound, and even though there have been improvements since then, I am still happy with the sound from this locomotive. ESU LokSound 5s do come in various sizes now, and take 4 or 8 ohm speakers, which means that there are many more sizes and shapes of speaker available. Recently, I have fitted sound into a Heljan 'Sarah Siddons' (Metropolitan Bo-Bo electric), a Heljan Co-Bo, and into a Bachmann LT pannier tank, all using types of speaker from Apple i-Phones (bought from Roads & Rails). Heljan are kind to us in having hollow fuel tanks on many of the diesel models, including the Hymeks, class 47, and class 33s I have fitted with sound, fuel tanks made up of two or three mouldings, allowing easy modification to accommodate speakers. There's also plenty of room to thread the speaker wires through the bogie open spaces in the chassis. without interfering with the bogie swing.

Sounds like he was too stupid even to be nominated for a Darwin Award.

There's nothing wrong with having a liking for these units! I have couple of them myself, in various states of repair (bought cheaply many, many moons ago). Non-descript as they are, they still have a certain character about them. Enjoy them for what they are.

The updated class 66 412 is now finished. The first photo shows it as I got it originally, and the second shows it as it is now.

If you can afford the time, ride the train to Gosford. It will pass through Hornsby but then the scenery gets really spectacular.

I think you'll enjoy it, Ron. I went back for a second visit in August this year (the previous visit was four years ago). I pre-booked and was able to walk straight in at the appointed time on both occasions. This last time, being Summer, they had longer opening hours, and I could have stayed until 01:00 am, but my (and my wife's) legs and back were getting sore after around four hours. Some of the modelling in the older sections is a little rougher than the newer bits, but the sheer scale of it all is impressive. I always think that the Knuffingen Airport section is worth the visit on its own, but there is plenty more to keep you occupied. There are also many lighter touches of humour scattered around. They have even modelled themselves. 😅

And now for something completely different! Well, not quite, it's more of the same, really. A few years ago I bought a 'Frankenstein' Bachmann class 66 off a now deceased member of the BRMA. It was in DRS livery with a new 5-door body on an old 4-door chassis with the original WiPAC style lights. It was numbered 66 412, which is correct for the 5-door style. I bought some spare parts from Bachmann with a view to eventually fixing this locomotive up to make it more accurate, and finally bit the bullet this afternoon. As an interim measure, I had changed the fuel tank assembly a while back, but this was a full chassis changeover. It involved disconnecting wires and removing the bogies and fuel tanks (again), plus the cab interior mouldings before putting everything back onto the new chassis. I took a couple of photos of the wiring before disconnecting anything, and carefully stored the various screws so I could remember which order they came out and where they went on reassembly. There were only a couple of minor glitches: one where I was threading the fuel tank switch wires back through the metal chassis block, when one of the wires dropped off so had to be resoldered, and the second hitch was when a wire dropped off one of the lighting boards inside the body as I tried to replace it on the chassis. Both wires were re-soldered and checked OK. I tidied up the wires and put some new tape over them to keep them in place neatly ... I think I did a better job than the factory! 🤣 Before putting the last body screws back in, I checked the chassis was running properly on DC (I swapped the decoder out with a blanking plug temporarily). It ran very sweetly, but the lights worked in reverse, so I have swapped something somewhere. Adding 1 to the CV29 value in the decoder did nothing - it went in reverse but the lights also were reversed, so I pulled the retainer off the brush wire terminals and swapped those over. To standardise with the other class 66 locos, I'll have to add one to the CV 29 value again, so the radiator end is actually the reverse direction (it's American!), but all is now working as it should. The photos of the circuit board show it as it was before I started work. The last one shows it as it is now, with the wrong colour buffer beam area. That needs to be repainted with a red centre and yellow the light cluster boxes.

Also to be noted was the requirement for the guard to travel at, or very near to, the trailing end of the train. Not quite such a problem with 3-car sets, as the operating provisions allowed for up to two 'loose' coaches to be attached after the brake coach, but for longer sets there was definitely a need for brake coaches close to each end of the set to meet the legal obligations. I can't remember for sure, but it was somewhere in the later 1970s or thereabouts that it was no longer deemed necessary to have a brake at each end, and a brake coach could be positioned almost anywhere within a rake of coaches. By that time, the SR's fixed sets were long gone anyway.

Ve haf vays ...

The Heljan class 47 is active again, at the expense of a sacrificial class 57 (the Bachmann model has a much better finish, so this one is more "expendable"). 47 508, 'S. S. Great Britain' was the locomotive I referred to a couple of posts ago as having cracked both bogie mounting clips. 57 605 'Totnes Castle' was the donor of the replacement clips ... or actually, the entire inner bogie components. Because of the somewhat modular construction of the Heljan mechanisms, I was able to swap the innards while retaining the 47 bits. The method involved firstly removing the sideframes from the bogies, which are on spigots and simply clip off outwards. The reason for this is to release the wiper pickups, which in turn negate any need to unplug or de-solder any wires. The next step was removing those top clips to release the 57 bogies (the 47's had already just fallen out!). That then allows the bogies to be removed completely, hopefully with the cardan shafts still attached. It's no biggie if they aren't. The base plates of the bogies also unclip, with a little persuasion with a flat-bladed screwdriver on their side clips. This allows the wheels to be dropped out, with two reasons for this in my case. One was to ease replacing the pickup strips later, but the other was to allow me to put the newer plated wheelsets back into the 47 (the 57 had original brass wheels). After swapping the wheels, I clipped the bases back on to help keep the two halves of the bogie towers together. Reassembly was the reverse of all this, with particular attention being paid to getting the cardan shafts engaged at both ends. To ease this operation slightly, I levered the PCB out from its rubber retaining strips. That let me see what I was doing to manoeuvre the shafts into their slots. Once those were engaged, I could clip the tops back in, locating them on the yokes that stop the bogies sliding back and forth. It's a little like a Chinese puzzle where everything locates everything else. The pickup strips can then be threaded back through and can be reseated on their spigots on the sides of the bogies. Removing the base plates can make this easier, but it can be done without doing that, it just means more bending and tweaking of the pickups afterwards. The final step is to push-fit the side frames again. The class 47 and 57 frames are not quite the same, in that the 57 has sandboxes but the 47 doesn't. Either set of frames will fit, though. After all this, I tested the 47 quickly on the programming track, with a short-circuit being reported. Turned out I had assembled it with the pickups at one end on the wrong sides. That was quickly fixed and the 47 glided silently around the layout on test.

OK, I looked up the lists on Gaugemaster's site and it appears they are out of stock. There may be some equivalent parts on other locomotives, so I'll keep checking (later). What I did get from the first foray, was the exploded diagram of a 47, showing the parts as 2 x 43, which then translated to part # 5056397854042.

I haven't had a chance to look it up yet. I might take you up on that, though, with thanks. 👍