New Railway Modellers Forums

"Honky Tonk Train Blues" and "Chicago Flyer" - Mead Lux Lewis.

Funiculì, Funiculà...

Model railways are a reflection of life itself. There is a necessity to balance needs, ambitions, ability and resources.

Get the balance right, and life is bliss.

And that's about as philosophical as I get!

Lay your track in hot weather - 45-48°C works well here in Adelaide. Solder melts quickly, too!

Well, maybe it doesn't have to be that hot, but take precautions if you're laying track in cold weather.

https://www.eurorailhobbies.com/product ... a=40&sc=HO

Gottabe careful of the continental stuff - the roads are a bit narrower than British, and the cars are always on the wrong side..,

Well, I'm with Accurascale (you never would have guessed...) in that aiming at the bottom of the market is a guaranteed dead loss. In the absence of accepted standards, a huge problem in itself, the manufacturers that lead the way will adapt and adopt the set of standards (in this case, Norms) that ...

...The best alternative is to "raise the bar", and fit full NEM 352 mechanisms which will allow true close coupling. As I've previously noted, non-British European manufacturers have been doing this since 1995. Have a look at some European models (Roco, Fleischmann or Brawa, for example),...

Aha! I see the confusion - my apologies, while we are of course fitting a standard NEM socket, it will absolutely be mounted on a NEM352 (or what we call Kinematic) system. We actually shop close coupling bars with some of our wagons (Like our Irish Tara Mines Wagon) Congratulations! That puts you ...

Absolutely! The Deltic will include a fully detailed bufferbeam, as well as NEM sockets for your choice of coupler! (and metal sprung buffers of course) Sprung buffers are a step forward, but NEM coupler pockets are of very limited use if they are not fitted to NEM 352 mechanisms, limiting the choi...

In 00 scale, the real turn-off, for me, is the tension lock coupler. The "other" Europeans dealt with this issue 25 years ago, with NEM coupler mechanisms, a solution that is quite appropriate to 00 scale, but one that has not yet been fully embraced. Being able to run 00 scale locos and ...

In 00 scale, the real turn-off, for me, is the tension lock coupler. The "other" Europeans dealt with this issue 25 years ago, with NEM coupler mechanisms, a solution that is quite appropriate to 00 scale, but one that has not yet been fully embraced. Being able to run 00 scale locos and r...

There's nothing above that I could disagree with. The boxes that model trains come in are designed to get the models to the customer in one piece, which they seem to do rather well. But, every time that you take the model out of, or put it back into the box you are taking a chance on dislodging deta...

The best way is not to allow dust onto the layout in the first place. Seal the doors and windows, and cover the layout when it is not in use: Holland blinds are quite effective. As an aside, when I was a kid in Broken Hill, it was not unknown to do the household dusting with a shovel! A major vegeta...

And a note on terminology: "Buckeye couplers" is a term unfamiliar to me. Best I can figure is that it was a "brand" of knuckle coupler, and there are lots of different brands of knuckle coupler. "Knuckle couplers", or "autos" as in automatic couplers, are, I ...

Might be good to peruse a couple of not-so-old threads...

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=53001

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=52726