New Railway Modellers Forums

...split chassis without being easy to DCC convert... Background: the split chassis scheme originated in low cost product for North America long prior to DCC, when most of the products either had wiper pick up one side only and live chassis the other side commoned to a motor terminal, or two separa...

Whatever the cause, I have taken the DIY route for the 13 key classes of my chosen location: wait for a cheap s/h specimen as a 'breaker'. Of course, having done this, then nothing fails sufficently to actually require spares and that's after 24 years of intensive operation of the oldest such...

...The steam locomotves available now are beyond beautiful! Generally the case in RTR OO, though there are a selection that are less than wonderful; that will doubtless either get a new tooling from the 'current owner,' or be 'picked off' by competitors building up their range coverage. Attention t...

...no longer able to arise from sleep fresh as a daisy at 7 a.m., after enjoying a day out in London, arriving home by train just before midnight. To really rub it in, while on the fairly crowded tube to KX a lady offered me her seat. (Mentally I am barely out of my teens, perhaps I should use hair ...

...Traction tires can burn in the circle of hell created specifically for them... There are good traction tyres - in HO. It was some years after my purchase of the Rivarossi Big Boy from 'Victors' fifty three years ago, that I realised it had two translucent traction tyres (one on each powered loco...

We have never had sophisticated tender drive in RTR OO. Hornby got closest by using Fleischman's 3 axle drive design in their 'Silver Seal' releases of 1971; and then engaged in a death spiral competition with Lima, steadily degrading the design in a race to the bottom. Much better tender drive is d...

NorthBritish wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 7:49 pm ...I'm interested in pre grouping railways particularly the North British railway...

Fine subject choice, very handsome school of loco design. All the best with it!

...Does anyone know how the cab rain sheets were attached to the tender on these locos?... This is a general question I am kicking myself over. With a relative newly moved to Sheringham, when visiting a month past I naturally walked to the NNR, and during the journey Sheringham to Holt saw that the...

Aha. The person I know who started in 4mm and within five years had 5" gauge live steam in the garden is now considering a couple of real track panels and a vehicle - possibly a horsebox if he can find one - to put on those rails, and if it is the vehicle of choice, to stable the wife's ponies...

These are excellent models of the typical 'maid of all work' 0-6-0s that every steam era layout needs, mine occasionally totters South from LMR onto the ECML and stops exhausted at Hatfield. ...We didn't see pristine LMS locos in 1960, did we? Overpaint it really badly in 'filth' so the original let...

Done a bit more reading on this, this has suggested allowing roughly 10" per 2% gradient change, I have eased slightly to 12" as I think its tidier... Allow as much as possible, I'll not have anything more than 1% change per foot. (I have ten coupled rigid chassis, long bogie frame diesel...

Although it says 'Hornby,' they are NEM standard so will fit any loco or stock with suitable NEM recess including Bachmann. There's a couple of riders to this. The NEM defined dimension parts are compatible-ish between Bachmann and Hornby, bodges such as black tack, nail varnish and other gunks suc...

Of the tank engines, don't expect too much of the J52. The body was one of Hornby's better pre-China efforts, really gets the general appearance of the old 'Humpy'; but the mechanism is weak, elements of its design date back to the 1950s . It can be lightly modified to take a current Bachmann mechan...

...as long as one wants non-automated point control then nothing really beats the stud and probe on a mimic diagram as it is so quick and easy, simple to install and repair and cheap... And intuitive and fun - that 's for the running lines. For yards I use slide swiches and rodding. It isn't possib...

...It would make the family 'work' to access their inheritance. If that's really your objective, leave the wagons alone for any that might appreciate them, instead cancel any will you have made, and die intestate. That's what my parents did by choice (never had wills, just told me what I was to do)...