SRman

I have now organised payment for my two pre-ordered vans. I still have my almost-finished Smallbrook Studio resin D1541 van on the workbench, now awaiting fitting of handrails and final LSWR lettering and numbering. I wonder if my Kernow models will arrive before I finish that. One thing I do know is that these new models will surpass the finish on my kit-built ones - I completed an 18T D. 1542 road van some time back also from Smallbrook, but have two variations on the D. 1545/1549 vans to get beyond the painting stages, so I'm only behind the 8-ball with the D1541 van ... so far! Who knows what Kernow will do next. On the subject of colour, for my LSWR vans, I have used Humbrol gloss Service Brown #10, which is not an exact match but pretty close once satin or matt varnished. Still much closer than the shade Hornby chose for their LSWR van, I think. The Kernow models seem set to put my efforts in the shade and look very nice indeed in the photos. LSWR Road Vans Progress - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

You should have no such problem with any 8-pin decoder for a class 108. I used 'discarded' Hornby decoders as function-only decoders for this purpose, since I don't like them in locomotives. Where you might run into a hiccup is programming the address and correct direction. If that occurs, program the DMU power car and trailer on the same track at the same time, get the trailer lights working corectly, then reprogram the powered car after removing the trailer from the track.

I don't bin the Hornby decoders, but I do replace them with better ones, and (like Butler) relegate them to function-only duties, such as the lighting controls in Bachmann DMU trailers.

I know, but there are no class 319 sounds available from anyone that I am aware of. I had to settle for the second best, so to speak. As soon as I can get true 319 sounds, I will reblow the decoder.

I have to agree with Butler's and Richard's comments: older style EMU sounds don't really cut it for me. I have two class 450s with class 350 sounds from legomanbiffo and these are very good. I also have one class 319 with bif's sounds for a class 320/321, which at least has traction motor whine, something that seems to be lacking from any other EMU files I have tried in the past. I was dissatisfied enough with those other sounds to have reblown the decoders with completely different sounds for diesels or steam locos. It seems to me that the main problem with EMU traction motor sounds is that they are difficult, if not impossible to synchronise directly with rail speed.

The odd green one did run in the Bournemouth Belle. One of the colour albums in my book collection has a photo of a class 47 hauled Bournemouth Belle with a green BG, and the SEMG pages have photo with Bulleid pacific 34087 hauling the train with a green BG at the front - here https://sremg.org.uk/misc/named_02.html : scroll down to aprroximately half way down the page. For a photo with a chocolate and cream BG, there is one near the bottom of this page: https://www.kentrail.org.uk/bournemouth_belle.htm. Note the Pullman brake car there as well. Anotehr one here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raynes_Park_Bournemouth_Belle_geograph-2966169-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg . Somewhere in these RMweb forums, someone did post the two numbers of the two WR BGs the SR 'borrowed'. I have only been able to find one of them, W80713, but if I do find the other, I'll edit this post, rather than leading the topic off-topic again.

Not just one van: two WR chocolate and cream BGs mysteriously found themselves on Bournemouth Belle duties for a while, until the WR realised what had happened and wanted them back.

As predicted, my progress has been slow - possibly little or no progress in recent times. All of my Bratchell units are in full running condition, and all but one are incomplete, lacking certain details and/or awaiting final paint touch-ups, and so on.

I stand corrected, John. Must put my reading glasses on when looking for details!

The overhead wires are almost impossible to avoid, I'm afraid. Even my nice sunset pics from a few years ago suffer from wiring and cable runs. The second one might give you a small thrill, with insulators visible!

I'm guessing they would be the chalk boards (I have not yet received my GBL from Kernow) and would go about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the sides near the doors, but for exact positioning, it would really be ideal to find a photo of the real thing. A quick search on Google revealed a good many photos of preserved ones and models, but none seemed to have the boards fitted, so they may well be an optional item only for certain vehicles. Edit: I have found one on the Bluebell Railway site with one only oval plate actually mounted on one of the doors: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/gbl.jpg .

Not a train, but sort of railway related: I built a white metal bus kit recently, and decided to do a what-if livery. London Transport modernsed a batch of Green Line RF coaches from 1966 onwards (originally built in 1951), but some fairly quickly got demoted to bus duties in the country area, with the light green bands repainted yellow. The country bus and Green Line services were farmed off in 1970 to become London Country Bus Services, but what if some of those downgraded coaches had gone to the central (red bus) area before the 1970 cutoff? Here's my take on it, anyway. The ABS Streetscene kit was in Hatton's second-hand (sorry - pre-owned) section with a couple of other similar kits, but this one was cheaper because it lacked transfers: perfect for what I wanted to do to it!

I know what you mean about Canadian Pacific. I have the BR express blue rebuilt one, which looks superb (IMO), but is not really prototypical. As you may have noted from the list in my earlier post, I have a little duplication between original and rebuilt forms too, so just showing the same locomotive at different stages of its life. At one stage I ended up with three Clan Lines: two Hornby rebuilts, and the nearly completed Millholme model (it was completed but never ran well, so is being re-engineered to take a spare Hornby chassis). I renamed and renumbered one of the Hornby ones. I also forgot to mention an old K's rebuilt that I have as Port Line - that sits on an early Hornby Flying Scotsman chassis with X04 motor and Kemilway etched brass overlays on the wheels. It was never a brilliant runner, but was still better than the Millholme one in that regard.

Maybe that second Millholme kit can go into black.

I am the opposite to you: I have long been a fan of Merchant Navy locos, especially in original form. The Hornby models have been the icing on the cake, even in the earlier rebuilt model form. I would dearly love to get the current BR blue 'East Asiatic Company', but having just done a quick inventory of my existing MN models, I really cannot justify another £162-odd. What I have: 21C3 MN "Royal Mail" 4-6-2 SR green 35005 Rebuilt MN "Canadian Pacific" 4-6-2 BR blue late crest 35015 Rebuilt MN "Rotterdam Lloyd" 4-6-2 BR green late crest 35021 Rebuilt MN "New Zealand Line" 4-6-2 BR green 35023 MN "Holland Afrika Line" 4-6-2 BR green early crest 35023 Rebuilt MN "Holland Afrika Line" 4-6-2 BR green 35024 Rebuilt MN "East Asiatic Company" 4-6-2 BR green 35027 Rebuilt MN "Port Line" 4-6-2 BR green 35028 Rebuilt MN "Clan Line" 4-6-2 BR green 35029 MN "Ellerman Lines" 4-6-2 BR green early crest Plus a converted pair of Airfix kits hacked into one MN on a Hornby Dublo/Wrenn chassis as 35015 'Rotterdam Lloyd', a nearly finished unrebuilt example from Golden Arrow Productions on a Hornby chassis, and an unfinished Millholme (unrebuilt) kit mounted on a modified Hornby chassis from a rebuilt example. There's another Millholme kit, unbuilt, for the earlier series 21C3 to 21C10. Do I need another?

We had a British Railway Modellers of Australia (BRMA) meeting recently, and one of the the members was selling off some surplus Parkside and Ian Kirk kits. There were no Kirk kits of interest to me, but I bought seven of the Parkside kits. I have completed construction of two of the kits already, and LNER Trestle wagon and a GWR Mica B, both of which have been part painted now and are going into 1950s/60s BR livery. I only need to finish off the painting then add transfers. Recent ready to run arrivals were these two SECR vans from Rails of Sheffield for my pre-grouping trains. On the Continental scene, I have tidied up the paint on the DSB repainted double deck coach. This has been hand-painted, but having proved the colours are sufficiently close to the driving trailer's, I will dig out the airbrush for the remaining two cars.

We may have had an assembly problem here ...

Original Hornby (Meccano) used to show one of their Deltics pulling a young boy on a trolley. More realistically, the hauling power of many Triang or Triang-Hornby locos depended on having steel track, where their Magnadhesion feature really came into its own (yes, it did work very well, especially on gradients). Without the steel track, many would simply slip to a halt with moderate loads - plenty of power, not so much traction. On steel track I never found the load limit for my Triang EM2 or Brush type 2 models, I ran out of coaches first. Straying slightly, a friend of mine collects and repairs Graham Farish OO models, and has several variations on their Black 5. We tried one with more and more coaches added, eventually reaching 23 bogie mark 1 coaches from Triang and Lima. That wasn't the limit, however. The problem we had was it was impossible to make smooth starts. This particular Black 5 had an enormous 2-pole motor in the tender, driving through a shaft to the locomotive wheels (no, that's not a misprint or typo - 2-pole), with a dog clutch that worked by centrifugal force. Once the motor was spinning at sufficient speed the dogs would engage with a sudden lurch forward, which, in turn, meant that the coaches nearer the front of the train would pull off the track on the curves. We simply could not keep all of the coaches on the track after 23. The loco could easily have romped away with more, if we had a huge straight-tracked layout.

Brute force, Ron. They can be very tight, but you are on the right track to removing the bogie.

Just tried to purchase it, but got the message that they won't ship to my address (in Australia).

Eliminating the annoying humps at the right-hand entry to the storage sidings. I replaced the short stubs of track that went between the points and the edge of the lifting section with longer sections of track cut into the approach curves. I will have to slide back the fishplates to allow the new sections to lift with the lifting flap. The short video clips of the test trains were strung together hastily to demonstrate the new, smoother flow.

I know the odd Cornishman who does too.

To illustrate that previous post, this is Hattie as of a few minutes ago. I am having to type this one-handed because she still expects her tummy rub.

Perhaps not directly related to the film shots shown here, some Maunsell coaches had droplights but no door on their corridor side, with only every second droplight window being a door as well.

Even outdoors, both of ours love their tummy rubs, and will roll over on our concrete driveway or back paved areas and wait for their tummy rubs. They only allow me or my wife to do this though. They rll over for our friendly neighbours, but jump up and move away if approached, keeping a "safe" distance. They will rub against said neighbours' legs, but won't let them touch. Indoors, Hattie loves settling between my outstretched legs, upside down for a long tummy rub - often for over an hour. Sykes will roll over on his chair and have a tummy scrunch (I have to use my "claws" to imitate another cat), but won't cuddle, until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, when he cuddles into me (while staying on top of the blankets), rolling into me and wanting more tummy scrunches and also dragging my fingers backwards up his tummy and breast (in that order!). He purrs very loudly while doing this, settles his head on my shoulder and goes to sleep. He will only do this for me, not my wife. Hattie cuddles any time at all.