New Railway Modellers Forums

One small thing to point out, Dapol in conjunction woth Lionheart were the first british RTR in NG7, or as it's known elsewhere O-16.5... Had not a clue about that, what with living in the OO 'silo'. It was so much easier when it was two competing brands actively competing in a scale - if you were ...

The bottom line in all this, is that polymers are 'novel materials' and the earlier any particular formulation was produced the more likely that unexpected deteriorations may occur. The horrible gungy mess of deteriorated light seals on what were expensive large format and 35mm SLR film cameras perh...

Wincing - very slightly - at the 50% ish price hike on Zimo MN decoders compared to the previous MX range. It's only a slight wince, because on their past track record you really do get what you pay from this manufacturer.

First time for me with the new MN range of decoders as no MX types were available. I suppose I might just get around to testing whether there is any discernable improvement from fitting the included 'stay alive'. (It's nearly 20 years since I tried the Lenz Gold 'USP' with the Power 1 module, and it...

... i feel quite ashamed that i am asking this... And I should have mentioned this earlier: the only question to feel ashamed of, is the one you should have asked but didn't . Look at the information your question has begun to obtain, for yourself and others. This is one of the best features of thi...

Thanks bnb, didn't think they would be present on non-Hornby track.

Problem is wear on the chassis housing the wheels. Wear to all the plating in the conduction path was a killer especially on the heavier Bachmann split chassis locos like the A4 and V2. Once the driven wheel tyre plating had worn through to the mazak after about 6 years use, current collection was ...

bnb wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:56 pm The coupler will only fit properly in a special place...

Ah, that's useful information. Do you happen to know if these location indents are present in the Peco or Bachmann equivalent track?

So of the present RTR OO brands in order of seniority: Hornby: lets go smaller scale with no other UK RTR support so we don't face competition. Bachmann: lets go larger scale NG with no other UK RTR support so we don't face competition. Submit your predictions Heljan: Dapol: Realtrack: Rapido: let's...

Good find Phred. 'Tomtom' , if the problem described in the video is the same as yours, you have two choices: glue one in to keep it stationary and see if it works, or return this junk as 'not fit for purpose'. I would do the latter. Hornby's track system is extremely poor and long overdue replaceme...

Nothing wrong with some old stuff... I would go further, 'everything right with some old stuff'. Various specimens on my operation, tooled 40 or more years ago, from H-D/Wrenn, Triang, Airfix GMR, Dapol, Lima, which look perfectly good against current RTR OO productions, and some actually better th...

Potentially 'can of worms' territory. Clearly it has to fit and work on Hornby's own track: that's the whole point of offering a track system. Any other brand's track products, well, you may get lucky. If we are definitely talking Hornby track, their code 100 has been in production since 1971 (inclu...

Just went for a casual look at Bachmann's list price for their RTR 4 CEP. Very odd indeed. When first released it cost much the same as 4 of their mk1's, so effectively the motor unit and lighting was thrown in free. Now it's listed at 11x the typical mk1 list price. Clearly there has been a change ...

Lifted from elsewhere: Slip coaches are interesting! Often thought DCC could be used to operate a slip. One would need heavy wheels such as Romfords and some nice bearings for free running. Would be interesting! Actually it's now easier yet than that. I have adapted a Heljan class 128 parcels car me...

I believe the driving units were based on BR mk1 SO, and the centre cars were a BR mk1 SK and BR mk1 CK. But note that 'based on'; I'll bet there were some differences, in addition to the visible electrical installations and powered bogies. But that should be reasonable for 'looks like a 4CEP'. I co...