SRman

I have several workbenches, one of which is supposed to be temporary. All are flat surfaces, so you can probably guess that none of them have any available space on which I can do some actual work. There are a couple of areas on Newton Broadway that tend to get items of stock 'dumped' on them, one of which is the dirt track running beside the programming track. I usually shift things for photography and videoing, but if you look a few posts back, where I showed the AM10 unit and the Christmas train, there is a strange purple class 57 parked under the lattice bridge on the roadway there.

Hi Chris, the link you posted this time doesn't work. From the revious vid, the camera setup appears to work well. One thing I found with mine is that it will exaggerate any wobbly wheels on the camera wagon. My first one was a fairly old Bachmann bogie bolster wagon, and I had to swap quite a few wheels and axles around to get it to run wobble-free. The current camera wagon is a Hatton's Warwell, which runs very smoothly. I sometimes use a couple of lowfits as spacer wagons when filming behind the locomotive, but the camera even highlights their wobbly wheels too, although that does not affect the actual video. It is a great way to view ones own layout, but be warned, if there are any dodgy bits the eye skips over, the camera will show them up! My very first run showed up a section of retaining wall I had dislodged and not even noticed.

Still dabbling with European railways at present, I have been testing and tweaking a Danish IC3 DMU. As I have said before, the Heljan units have known running problems with a tendency to derail due to the powered bogies lifting off the track, but I think I have found a simple fix for them, having applied it to the two units I currently own (with a third unit on its way from Denmark as I type). The fix is simple enough in itself, combined with a little extra weight in the leading and trailing driving cars. What I have done is drilled out the little plastic 'pips' that act as a guide for each of the powered bogies, with their close-coupling action spacing out for curves. I then insert a self-tapping screw of the same diameter as the plastic 'pips' - the screws that Oxford Diecast use to keep ther cars in their packaging are perfect for this, and I have heaps of them. The screws not only act as the guides for the bogies, they also limit the amount of tilt that seems to be the cause of derailments in the first place. For my own layout, both of my present units run perfectly now, but I wanted to see how robust my solution is by testing on a more challenging layout. We visited our good friend DougN of this parish and his family yesterday, so I took the opportunity to run DSB unit 5003 on his figure-8 layout with its steepish gradients and tighter curves than mine (it looked a little out of place in the midst of Doug's LNER setting!). The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the unit was placed on Doug's tracks andconnected up. Initially, the trailing driven bogie was tending to lift on a tighter, uphill curve, but after slackening the screw at that end about a quarter turn, the unit ran perfectly from there onwards. It ran so well that we left it running continuously for over an hour with no hesitations or derailments at all. The photos show the screws in place, and the video is strung together from shorter clips taken just after the start of the continuous run, and about 45 minutes into the running session.

I believe from the description that the OP has bought only the motor bogies, not the chassis, therefore no decoder sockets or wires to same.

And thanks go to Oliver for informing us so quickly. At least it means that any funds allocated to developing the Rails model can now go towards another worthwhile project.

You are making tremendous progress there, Rick. I'm looking forwards to seeing the end result.

First attempt at stars and other celestial bodies. It needs a little further work and tidying up, but I think I am on the right track here. The first photo shows one side, the second shows the other side and one of the pre-existing coaches from the train. P_20200630_221851_vHDR_Auto by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200630_221925_vHDR_Auto by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi John, The blue I used on the pannier was BR express steam blue (Precision Paints, from memory). It is a rather pleasant shade. The LNER white/black/white lining definitly sets the blue off nicely, and I did a previous pannier tank (57XX type) in a rather garish blue with LNER lining to offset it. I was thinking of lining the tank sides and possibly the forward part of the cabsides with either BR/LNER lining, or with BR mixed traffic lining. Nothing has been decided for sure yet. IMG_20180209_182245 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The 310 is a very nice kit, and I will eventually finish it in BR blue with small or full yellow panels, as they were in the 1960s,to early 1970s. I was lucky to get it as a bargain including all wheels and bits, and even a Mashima motor.

A few projects on my workbench at present, some of which are long-term projects. I recently purchased a Southern Pride class 310 EMU, and while I don't intend building this unit straight away, I decided it would be easier to store if I put the basic body shells together. This is a composite resin and etched brass kit, with a few white metal components as well. P_20200624_220529_vHDR_Auto by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr A project that has been on my workbench for a very long time is this old Triang Railways L1 4-4-0, which I have been detailing up a bit. I replaced the correct sized driving wheels with smaller ones because the correct size meant the whole loco sat a good 2 to 3mm too high. I painted the wheels yesterday, but there are a couple of bits that need going over again. It still has the original Midland style tender, but another modeller with a far more advanced model of the same thing has successfully replaced his with a Bachmann N class tender. P_20200630_165124_vHDR_Auto by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr In the meantime, for a bit of fun I have put my European-based Christmas train on the tracks for a run (Christmas in July here in Oz makes a little sense because it is cooler and we can enjoy things like hot roast dinners and hot puddings). I put my blue 1366 pannier tank (itself an unfinished project) on the front. I have a few extra coaches bought quite cheaply, although they are of very good quality, with a view to repainting them into more festive (if fictitious) liveries. I made a start on an early 6-wheel 1st class coach, going from an olive drab colour to a two-tone blue scheme, to which I am picturing myself adding some snowflakes or stars. This is very much an experiment, but it looks promising. 1366 PT and Christmas Train in July - cropped 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200630_165140_vHDR_Auto by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I have 3 of the N class - 2 BR and one SR - and all are sweet runners. I penned an article many years ago on fixing the derailing tendencies of the straight-sided tenders on earlier models, involving a combination of increasing vertical play in the centre axle and rebalancing the weight distribution, plus allowing slightly more vertical movement in the tender coupling. It is still available on the SEMG site, although my diagrams are a bit naff. You can read it here: http://www.semgonline.com/model/ntender.html

I have a Panasonic HX-A1 camera, which fits easily within the British loading gauge in OO. It may not have the highest resolution, but it is wirelessly controllable from a mobile phone, uses micro-SD card memory, and connects directly to a computer through a USB cable for direct transfers of data and/or charging. Hattons Warwell Camera Wagon - 1 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I just checked: the second wagon I did with plastic rod used .020" . So far these seem to have worked well, but I will have to see how they go for longevity, with the constant flexing.

I am messaging you with a possible solution.

The diameter I have used is (I think) .010" , and it sits perfectly well in the holes and slots - the hole in the coupling part is actually quite large. There are many uses for the plastic rod, often scenic but also things like conduits and pipes on rolling stock, or corridor handrails to replace printed ones in coaches like Hornby's Maunsells..

As I said earlier, I have fitted one wagon with a plastic rod spring instead of wire, and this works quite well. I did contemplate gluing one end only of the wire or pastic rod to the slot it sits in, and leaving the rest free to slide within the coupling and other end. I haven't yet tried this, but will give it a go with the next one I doctor.

First thing this morning (Oz time) I read the email from Rails and jumped and pre-ordered one coach (tempted to get two but I don't know what the haulage power of Hornby's loco is like yet). I did look at the Shapeways offering, but by the time they put in the price, added their commission and postage to Australia, the price had doubled, and it still has to be built and painted with extra parts supplied externally. Thanks to all those who answered my query. I agree with comments above about many people (including me) who will really be running th Hornby model alongside more modern stock, rather than as an accurate period piece, although it would be tempting to build a small diorama to display the model separately between uses.

Maybe, but BR lined green was never actually carried by the real L1s; that was a Triang fiction. They were lined black in BR days, but the lined green SR livery was only produced much later (the 1970s, from memory, but don't quote me on that). With that in mind, they could have just as easily produced a lined green 2P!

Does anyone do a 4mm scale kit for the open-top style of passenger carriage that these early trains had for 3rd class passengers?

Coming back to your original query a bit late, I had to fiddle with the couplings on a couple of my original Heljan Cargo Waggons. Those thin wire springs really don't do the job properly and get lost very easily when one opens the wagons up. I worked on one yesterday where I had already replaced the wire with thin plastic rod some time ago, with some success - you would have to experiment a bit with the diameter to get the best effect. This particular wagon was playing up and derailing at certain parts of my layout where nothing else had problems, so I opened it up again last night. The plastic rods are still doing their job, but I thought these wagons are rather light for their size, so have glued two metal weights taken from Bachmann mark 1 coaches (whch are too heavy!), one over each bogie, using contact cement. These weights are a little too wide to allow the body to clip back on, so I snipped a couple of millimetres off the reinforcement pillars on each side of the body interior, just far enough up to allow the body to go over the weights without distorting. On one or two of these wagons, I reduced the point on the "V" of the coupling guides slightly, rounding them off just a tad to allow the coupling to slide more easily without getting too stuck on that point. I have done this with Hornby class 50 and 60 diesels also. Result: perfect running now! One other mod that I have applied to all of my Cargo Waggons was to narrow the central side steps by around 1mm, which eliminates all clearance problems I encountered on my layout with bridge corners and platform sides.

I can sympathise, Phil, having passed several myself over the years.

When it came to adding the boiler, they said "Measure twice, cut once", but the apprentice they engaged didn't listen.

If it is of any help, the Replica Railways motorised chassis fit into the Bratchell body shells very easily after removal of the continuous side steps. These are a Bratchell class 455/9 (upper), and a 319/1 (lower), but the 317/321/456 will all be the same, as would a Bratchell-based 210. P_20191016_211334_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20191016_211216_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I was going to mention that Bratchell do offer a range of undecorated kits, but it looks like you may have aready spotted those. They still aren't really cheap but they are robust and give a good starting point. I agree with you that the 317 kit would be a better starting point too. Whaichever way you go, I'll be very interested in your project for the 210.

I like what you have done with the 84XXX, Tim. The cab corners can be rounded off a bit to get nearer to the BR profile. I did something similar to a Bachmann Ivatt to represent one of the later batch sent to the Southern Region with modified cab roof profiles and gutters ... well, I rounded off the cab roof sides but left the gutters intact. Being black, the paint is easily touched up again.

Just about the only thing they have in common is the wheel arrangement. The 2MT tanks were basically an Ivatt LMS design very slightly modified, while the larger and heavier 3MTs were not based on any previous design, but used a modifed GWR boiler design. If you look closely you will find the locomotives look quite different from each other, with very few shapes or proportions bearing any resemblance to the other.