SRman

When I looked earlier, there was 0.2% difference between the two main protagonists in Chisholm. p.s. I, too, had difficulty with the width of the paper compared to the width of the booth!

This can build into a very good model, but, as others have said, it is unnecessarily over-complicated. I agree the sides, or at least the doors, could have been done in one piece - the separate etched hinges for the doors offer no real improvement over a single plastic moulding. For all of that, Ratio omitted to include the grilles for behind the windows. I used some from Blacksmith Models, but Roxey Mouldings also offer similar items. That's not to say it's not worth building: quite the contrary. This kit will be a very rewarding experience once you have finished it. This photo was taken after I had repainted mine, so it lacks any transfers here. It was previously heavily weathered in Southern olive green, so the windows remain weathered, but you can just make out the grilles behind them. Ratio Kit Bogie B by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Mike and Ravenser: I think the class 90s they are using as donors have the newer DCC-ready chassis and the smaller 5-pole motor bogie, rather than the old ringfield type.

I tended to dislodge the valances every time I handled my earlier model too. My solution was to use a small amount of black-tack mastic to anchor them to the chassis. They can still be moved slightly while handling the model, but they don't tend to drop off now.

My solution to the loose NEM type couplings and pockets in any such locos or stock is to remove the NEM pocket with its coupling, stick a very small blob of Blu-tack or black-tack to the slot for the fishtail of the pocket, then push the pocket firmly back in. That is sufficient to prevent the coupling assembly dropping out while running, and usually enough to maintain the correct height as well, yet is not so permanent that it cannot be replaced if necessary.

An unusual visitor to Newton Broadway: a Model Rail Magazine LNER J70 locomotive, 7139. P_20190511_214111_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The loco actually belongs to my good friend DougN, of this parish. I gave Doug a Bachmann 36-568 6-pin decoder to use with the loco. The decoder sat rather loosely in the socket, and absolutely refused to be read, either on Doug's Digitrax system or my NCE system. I tried trimming the pins and even bending them to force them to sit more firmly in the sockets, to no avail. I ended up bringing it home with me after the read failure on the Digitrax system, and swapped a rather anonymous blue shrink-wrapped decoder into it, and it worked first go. The decoder read as a Soundtraxx one, but further digging revealed it was the earlier, less sophisticated Bachmann 36-558 version (36-568 is a rather good Zimo product). Anyway, Doug has a working locomotive on DCC, and I had a dud decoder. Or was it? I decided to test it in something else before writing it off. A Hatton's P class 0-6-0T was the perfect candidate, particularly as it already had a Bachmann 36-568 decoder in it, so I knew it was a workable combination. The swap was completed, the loco placed on the programming track, and it lived! I have no idea why it resisted all attempts when in the J70. IMG_20180607_204715 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

It's good to see you back in action, Rick. Nice work there.

My wife and I spent around four hours there in September last year. I took heaps of photos and a few videos as well. The sheer scale of the model is mind boggling, taking up three floors of some old warehouses. Like Kingzance, I can heartily recommend a visit to Miniatur Wunderland. I definitely want to go again. P_20180925_211241_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The real buildings at night on our walk back to our hotel - it is perfectly safe in Hamburg. P_20180925_171303_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Miniatur Wunderland's model of themselves. P_20180925_185058_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Some of the mountains in the Swiss scene go up to the next floor level's ceiling.

Sad. He was a very funny man, and totally unpredictable. he also had a tremendous singing voice when he did want to sing 'properly'.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no external differences. E3303 and E3304 were to be geared differently, listed as Type B, although whether they actually entered service with the lower gearing (for freight work) is another question. I do know they didn't last long with the differences, and were renumbered into the normal sequence as E3098 and E3099. E3100 was to be another Type B, to be numbered E3305, but ended up as a test bed for silicon rectifiers and other solid-state electronic components. As such, there may possibly have been equipment differences on the roof and/or underframe.

I too felt that about the Merchant Navy TTS sound: it seemed more like two cylinders than three, and also didn't have the softer sound that unrebuilt Bulleids tended to have, As such, I moved the MN sound decoder into a Standard class 4, where it sounds far more appropriate to me.

These are wild lupins ... they may fight back!

I have been rearranging the undergrowth and flowers a little, today. I concentrated the undergrowth plants in smaller areas, and shifted all of the lupins I have done so far to the flower bed at the end of the church. P_20190504_095048_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190504_095103_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190504_095121_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190504_095308_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr I like the effect of the lupins, but I'm still not sure I have the other areas looking 'right' yet.

Piko, Roco, Fleischmann and Marklin (AC)/Trix (DC) at least make the BR 103 - there may be more as it seems to have been a very popular subject for models. Funnily enough, the 103 doesn't particularly appeal to me. Coaches do seem to be very expensive to me, although most that I bought were second-hand. Roco do full scale length coaches, and the Brawa double deck stock I bought is also full length, whereas the Piko ones seem to be shortened (around 1:100 scale length). Not all are obviously labelled as such, particularly when buying second-hand. Others with far more expertise than me may be able to assist as well.

Illustrating what I said before about mixing the British OO and European HO scale stock on the same layout, here is a link to a short video I took of my Heljan Danish IC3 unit (in Swedish Y2 guise) cruising around Newton Broadway with BR stock predominating in the background. Hopefully this is not too far off-topic.

As always, great photos and great modelling, Peter. We always look forward to meetings at your place.

I'm still 'building' plants and placing them on the layout. The latest ones are from Busch and are plastic 'wild lupins'. They are fiddly to put together with each stem (with or without leaves), and each lupin head being a separate moulding, needing to be snipped off the sprues and glued together, then planted into a moulded base with holes. I have placed the ones done so far around two locations on the layout, but none are in their final positions. I will be doing something about blending the bases into the scenery properly once I decide where they really belong. P_20190428_233823_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190428_233754_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

It may have been mentioned already, but if you intend running European HO stock side by side with British OO stock, there is not a huge size difference between them in model form. The European stock tends to be much larger than British stock, but because it is made to the smaller scale, they sit quite well together. I have been mixing some German and Danish trains with my more usual British stock and it really doesn't clash visually. As others have already pointed out, the OBB Railjet stock is available from more than one manufacturer in HO scale (and very smart it looks, too). As also mentioned above, the Piko "Hobby" range is probably roughly equivalent to Hornby's RailRoad range, but I would rate it as higher quality from the three models I bought: a BR 182 and two BR 185 locos. The DB red liveries are in self-coloured plastic but look good, while the fancier "Kassel Huskies" silver livery looks very professionally applied (better than the "Hobby" designation would suggest). All three were at very reasonable prices from a German retailer (modellbahnshop-lippe - no connection). My recent purchase of a BR 112 from their "Expert" range is several steps better again, with full lighting functions separately controllable and a painted finish, with more separately fitted details. Running qualities of all of these locos is top notch, although I do wonder why they had to have traction tyres fitted, since they are all-wheel drive and very heavy. The Roco and Brawa coaches and wagons I have are of a very high quality too. The Brawa double deck passenger stock was very expensive (a bit of an indulgence on my part!) but also very fully featured, while most of my Roco items were bought second-hand, so not quite as painful to the hip pocket. One trap to watch for with all of these models is that 3-rail AC is still quite popular in Europe, and most of these models are offered in both AC and DC forms, so be careful to select the right model numbers when buying them, even more so when buying used items.

Legomanbiffo for the sound is a very good way to go. For speakers, I used a double 'dumbo' speaker set up in mine. No modifications were needed to get it to fit in. Class 68 Speaker Installation - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I'll be interested to see what colour the handrails are on the finished LSWR models. There are only black and white photos to work from, and from all of the limited number of images I could find, the handrails appeared to be body-coloured, which is why they don't show up well on my 18t road van above. I note from the photo at the beginning of this topic that the handrails are white on a preserved example, but is that because of modern safety requirements rather than an accurate rendition of the pre-grouping livery?

A pre-grouping van, but no pre-grouping livery on offer? Even so, I have already placed a BR example in my Rails wish list.

LokSound v.4 does indeed have four function outputs, with one on a separate wire directly from the decoder, not through the plug (as Nigel has said above). When I fitted lights to a Bachmann class 20 (21-pin decoder), I had to compromise a bit to combine six possible separate functions into four function outputs. With sound and speaker in the class 20 there is precious little room for a second, function-only decoder, so, I had a cab light on one function (thankfully there is only one cab in a 20!), head code lights at the cab end on one function, tail lights at the 'hood' end on another, and the reverse head and tail lights (headcode lights at 'hood' end, tail lights at cab end) on one function, for the total of four functions. Wires for the lighting had to be taken and hard-wired to the decoder because the Bachmann PCB doesn't have the necessary circuits or connections. Because I am not confident in soldering directly to the decoder, which does have solder pads on it, I chose to remove the decoder and solder to the bases of the correct pins, being a safer option if I applied a little too much heat at any time. In the case of an 8-pin decoder, if you are not confident of soldering anything directly, then joining the wires half way is the way to go (messier but safer!) - I tend to do do this with speaker wires. Sorry for rambling a bit, but I thought my experiences might be of some help.

In my case, I have wired the lower level tracks only to be switchable between DCC and DC. This could have been achieved simply by using a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switch - I actually used two initially but this carried a risk of switching one track to DC and leaving the other on DCC which required some self-discipline to never switch one without the other. However, there was a complication: The setup is double-tracked and I wanted to control the whole lower level from the one DCC system (NCE Power Pro) but from two separate analogue controllers (an old H&M Duette). I used a multi-layered multi-pole rotary switch to achieve this. It took me quite a while to work out the wiring to feed both tracks from the DCC system yet feed each track from a different control knob on the H&M unit. I tested it all carefully using a separate NCE Power Cab before trying any trains on it, just to make sure I didn't fry my expensive 5 amp system. The rotary switch positions also allow me to disconnect the tracks completely. Additionally, with the view to running older analogue stock, I wired some isolating switches into the passing loops and siding--branch line. These are left on for DCC running, but switched off for DC running, meaning I can run one or two DC locomotives while leaving other trains (DC or DCC) on the tracks. The upper level of my layout is wired purely for DCC and has no connection at all to the lower level. Control Panel Update 10-08-15 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Control Panel Update Underneath the Panel 10-08-15 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

The three Smallbrook vans I built (or am still finishing) under construction, in original LSWR condition. I will expect a higher standard of finish from the Kernow professional jobs, of course. I have one more kit untouched of a Metropolitan Railway version. LSWR Road Vans Progress - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

They do a few variations on LSWR vans. All of the ones I have done have their own resin chassis/floors in the kits as well.