SRman

AEC and Leyland buses were very common in Government fleets in Australia for many decades. Bedfords and Albions also found buyers in many of the private fleets, as well as a few in Government fleets. In the vast majority of cases they had local bodies fitted. I have been on a few excursions here in Melbourne on preserved buses, including Leyland Royal Tiger (including Worldmaster versions), Leyland Leopards, Leyland Tiger Cubs and Royal Tiger Cubs, Leyland Tigers (1940s OPS1 and 1980s TR series), a Leyland Panther (ex-Brisbane City Council), Leyland Nationals, and AEC Regal III, Regal IV, and Regal VI models, plus a single deck Regent III (ex-Sydney NSW Government fleet). That's not to mention those Albions, AECs and Leylands that were in full service in the Rockhampton and Brisbane City Council fleets and my current local operator Ventura Bus Lines' fleet. Anyway, here are two of the preserved ones: A Leyland Royal Tiger of Mount Dandybus, and a Leyland Leopard of Melbourne Brighton Bus Lines. Mount Dandybus Leyland Royal Tiger Composite by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr MMBL Leyland Leopard - MBAA Peter Greaves Place by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Going slightly off-topic for a moment, if a Laserglaze product does become available for these Hornby coaches, I would also like to try the same glazing in two Bulleid-style EMUs I have, a 2 HAL and a 2 HAP. The window sizes should, in theory, be the same, but it would also depend on the accuracy of the kit manufacturer's drawings and master model, and the resin casting process and any subsequent shrinkage. I really would like to get a flush glazed effect on these two EMUs, but baulked at cutting and curving all those windows myself. In the meantime, I have a BR 3-set of the Hornby models on order from Rails, with the two BTKs now on their way to Oz. I did build a set of the Ian Kirk kits some years ago, but found the appearance very unsatisfactory due to the use of the Maunsell side profile rather than Bulleid's continuous curve from cant rail to solebar level.

Don't forget the AEC Q, though, where the whole engine was mirrored to allow accessibility, seeing as the engine was mounted on the right hand side behind the front wheel.

For ultra-small decoders, you could look at the CT Elektronik range. I have used wired versions of these in very tight installations, like the Bachmann Wickham trolley. They do have quite respectable current-handling figures.

A great buy. It looks pretty good as it is.

In Denmark, they used British-based chassis for many years, with many Leylands (or Leyland/DAB) buses running in Copenhagen and other major cities. In September 2018 my cousin Peter took us to the Danish Tramway Museum in Skjoldenæsholm, around 40 km out of Copenhagen. They also have a well presented bus display there, with several of those buses being restored and operational. The bodies are by local coachbuilders. A Leyland Comet. P_20180922_141444_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr This one I am not sure of: The chassis is by a local builder, Triangel of Odense, but I think it had Leyland running units, but note what is really odd about it (see the end of this post). P_20180922_141629_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr This one is in poor condition, awaiting restoration, but there was an immaculately restored bus of the same type outside running services around the museum's roads. I have a video of the museum posted on YouTube (linked below). This is a left-hand drive Leyland Royal Tiger. The interior shows the dashboard with the typically Leyland 1950s and '60s square dials with black text on white backgrounds. P_20180922_140834_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20180922_140845_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The video of my visit: other people in there include my cousin and his partner, and my OH. A few buses are in there, but it is mostly about the trams. Incidentally, we got quite a surprise when one of the first few trams we saw was a Melbourne W class tram! Did you spot the oddness of the half-cab? The cab is on the right-hand side of the bus, which is right-hand drive. The passenger door is also on the right, because they drive on the right in Denmark. I don't know the reasons for this.

At least one of those Hobart buses, the Atlantean with the Alexander body, is ex-South Yorkshire, and still has the adverts and markings inside. The other may be ex-Plymouth, but I can't confirm that for sure. DSCN3273 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr DSCN3279 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr DSCN3286 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The driving position has been updated a bit, though. DSCN3282 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Even with a replacement controller, which seems to be the solution, seeing as how the other locos are also tripping the problem, if you have the money and the inclination, replacing the magnets on all of the old locos with neomagnets should also reduce their power consumption. I have done this on certain other older models, but not the Hymek ... yet. With the double motors on mine, it will definitely be a worthwhile modification.

That sounds like a sensible plan, Torper. I have done something similar twice with the laptop I am typing this on, albeit I started with a small SSD divided into two partitions (OS and Data). Macrium Reflect is good, but I have used EaseUS products (also free versions) to clone the drives. The OS has worked straight off after each cloning operation. The Easeus products have a facility to optimise for SSDs when going from a mechanical drive to an SSD, and also allow for resizing of the drive upwards or downwards, within the constraints of the amount of data on the drive (it cannot make the target partition smaller than the total of the data on the original, of course). In my case, the laptop started with a 256GB SSD which I knew would not be sufficient for my needs, so was upgraded to a 500GB SSD fairly early on. Just before Christmas, I treated myself to a 1TB SSD as I was running out of storage for all the videos and photos. I also have two older desktop computers (one of these in my train room), both of which have had SSDs added with the OS cloned onto them using the EaseUS software. In both cases, the old mechanical drives are still in them acting as data storage, including full backups for the laptop. All are using Windows 10 now, but the train room computer can also optionally boot into Windows XP and Windows 2000. In the train room computer's case, the SSD was the oldest and smallest one I cascaded from the laptop as originally fitted (this also required an adaptor for the SATA to NVME interface (easily obtained from eBay or computer stores). My wife's laptop received the 500GB one displaced from the laptop before Christmas, again with her OS cloned from her old mechanical drive. The SSD had to use an adapter in her case. One other thing: for the best results, I found it was best to clone the disks/SSDs outside of the computers they were intended for using USB to SATA adapters.

A news item from today: a huntsman eating a possum. As spiders don't eat in the sense we do, this is a little misleading. https://www.9news.com.au/national/possum-eating-huntsman-spider-photo-goes-viral-tasmania/39120dd4-aa52-4cfc-bce8-f92b0bc08006

I just ran some tests with mine: under light load it drew around 0.6 amps, but under full power with a stall load (my hand pushing down on it!), it drew a peak of 1.56 amps, with more average readings of 1.33 amps. In short, it is a fairly power hungry beast (remembering it has two of these motor bogies in it)! It will come close to the Heljan Hymeks as far as pulling power, and is almost as smooth, with eight-wheel pickup and drive, but is quite a bit noisier. Hymeks in Triplicate - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The Triang one is on the left, in a fictional maroon livery, with two Heljan versions, in BR green and BR blue liveries.

Mine with two motor bogies is wired to a single TCS T1 decoder, which has so far survived perfectly well, so the combined current draw can't be too bad. Next time I have this loco out, I'll stick it on the test track and turn on the ammeter on my NCE Power Cab to see what the actual draw is.

I am inclined to agree with the above: if the brushes are good, it is most likely a weakened magnet. There are much better but inexpensive neodymium magnets ("neomagnets") available from various sources, which drop straight in as replacements and don't lose their magnetism over time. It could be worthwhile pursuing one of those.

I am also using Pinnacle Studio for all the big jobs, but for "quick and dirty" video editing I use Microsoft's free Movie Maker. The Pinnacle software isn't exactly cheap, but it is quite powerful and user-friendly (a lot more so than Adobe Premier Pro, which, to me, is expensive overkill but is used in the school I work in). Movie Maker costs nothing but is not currently available directly from Microsoft, so has to be downloaded from external websites. Microsoft say it isn't compatible with Windows 10, but I use it at work and at home on Windows 10 with no problems.

Isn't that a coincidence: I had the currywurst and chips too! Quite nice. My other half also enjoyed the visit, as there is more than enough to keep all walks of life interested. The internal cafeteria is set up to look like a railway carriage interior with picture panels shaped like windows. P_20180925_193817_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

It's more a case of what would you like to see first. Very high on my list was the airport scene, but that may or may not appeal to others. Edit: That's not to say I had to see the Knuffingen Airport bit first, but I did make sure I had time to see it, even if it meant missing other parts.

It is cheaper at certain times, usually very early or in the late afternoon to evening. The website will reveal this if you book in advance. My OH and I arrived a bit early but it was all quiet anyway (this was in September 2018), so we went up to the admission counter and asked if we could go in early, and they were perfectly happy to allow this. I suppose it was a little bit of a cheat (not deliberate, though), us paying the lower price for the later time but getting in earlier. Allow plenty of time to look. We did our day trip first then went in the late afternoon, which gave us around four hours, and we still ran out of time, albeit our feet and backs were starting to hurt by that time anyway, so we wouldn't have lasted much longer physically. We were staying at the Ibis Hotel, and had a pleasant 1.5 km walk back, but we had the option of getting a U-Bahn train, with Baumwall being the closest station to Miniatur Wunderland.

I was watching a few episodes from series 3 and 4 recently on DVD. They still stand up very well, both for storylines and for acting. I'll have to dig out that particular episode and watch it again, although I do remember quite a bit of it.

I can guarantee the sound will be much better than before. Even with standard speakers, that's the first thing I do, before playing around with alternate speakers and combinations. Bachmann's speaker mounting is not really a sound chamber at all, and has several very large gaps to fill. I have on a couple of occasions with other, more difficult models, created an entire sound chamber out of Blu-tack.

I have bought 100 ohm speakers from a couple of different places over the years and still have a few sitting as spares. Digitrains and DCC Supplies are two I have bought from in the past, with at least the latter still showing a few. DC Kits (Charlie's mob!) also have some, and it is quite possible I bought a few off him in the past too. For the 37s, you need one of the smaller bass enhanced speakers, with the end tags cut off and, from memory, possibly a little filed off the top corners to fit within the roof profile of the 37. As Charlie said, it is vitally important for the best sound to make sure the speaker is sealed in its sound chamber; the bass enhanced and bass reflex types are completely sealed units anyway, but if you do have to file them down and accidentally go too far, seal any accidental holes up again.

Ah, but don't forget I can model some 60 of the same locos in rebuilt and original forms, plus in different liveries! Then there are the 30 'heavy' pacifics, the Merchant Navies: 60 (or more) of them to do in original and rebuilt forms. Going back to 34019, I actually considered doing it as one of the Battle of Britain locos that received the experimental apple green livery (a sharper and less attractive shade than LNER greens), with BR mixed traffic lining. I have the right name and number plates for one of those. p.s. Would you like to assist me in building a 50' extension on the house to give me a tad more storage space for all of the above?

That's coming on nicely, Rick. I'll really look forward to seeing it the next time I get over there.

For the 37, Charlie's advice is good, but you can do slightly better still if you get hold of a bass enhanced or bass reflex speaker (still 100 ohm). My own 37s with sound also have v3.5 decoders, and have one bass enhanced speaker with another smaller round speaker in one of the nose ends, wired in parallel. Volume must not exceed 50 with this setup, but I find volume settings of 20 to 25 more than sufficiently loud.

That's why I don't seem to be able to stop buying them!

Another 'new' loco has made its appearance on Newton Broadway. This Hornby Bulleid West Country started off as a Battle of Britain, 34067 Tangmere, before its previous owner repainted and renamed it into his fictional railway's no 53. He had also hard-wired a Hornby decoder in and added two front headlights. I got it for a pretty fair price off eBay, and when I received it, it worked well enough, although the Hornby decoder was a little jerky on starts but otherwise fine, but I am not a fan of Hornby basic decoders anyway. I rewired it with a Lenz Standard+ decoder, which made it a lot smoother on the starts and stops. I repainted her into BR green and added orange/black/orange lining, etched name plates and crests, etched smokebox number plate, an early BR crest on each side of the tender, and new cabside numbers, to produce West Country 34019, Bideford. There is a small amount of work still to do, a couple of minor touch-ups and fix a couple of slightly wonky bits of lining, but overall it has come up well. P_20190610_185202_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr