New Railway Modellers Forums

You have a very good helper. :lol: :lol: :lol: image_2021-01-11_142645.png Our late Toby was actually very good with the trains and genuinely did try to help. When testing that layout out with a larger locomotive (Hogwarts Castle), he sat and watched it going around, but when it derailed he tried t...

Raboliot wrote:I found this figure 8 layout plan:

9189168.jpg

I like the look of that plan. When I was designing my 'new' layout, I considered something like this but on a more ambitious scale, but rejected it in the end because I am not confident of doing gradients properly.

The figure 8 gives you the maximum length of running for the given space, a folded figure 8 even more so. Where space is limited, it is an ideal solution for a continuous run, as opposed to an end-to-end layout. I had some fun a few years back resurrecting an old fibreglass folded figure 8 layout fo...

I am thinking of buying the new Hornby 'R3956 L&MR, Stephenson's Rocket Royal Mail Train Pack due out in September. I missed out on the last one. I'm not up on Spephenson's Rocket variations. What is 'Era 1. Era 2 etc? Based on previous models is it possible to add a digital decoder? Will they ...

Another possibility would be to swap the whole body if you are after a steam outline loco. Several of Hornby's steam locos shared that chassis - the Jinty and Southern E2 come to mind.

Peterm wrote:
Wadda ya mean "at present."

After Rails cancelled my pre-order for two of these coaches (due to Hornby refusing to supply), I had to shop around to find any retailers who had not sold out on pre-orders. I found Hampshire Models and Harburn Hobbies had them available, but wasn't convinced that Hampshire Models could supply as t...

The track on the right is what Triang called "Series 3". It's what I started out with in the early 1960s.

https://tri-ang.weebly.com/diesel-switcher-loco.html Interesting: there are some liveries there I hadn't seen before. The New South Wales livery crops up a bit at swap meets here, though. To Bufferstop: at least some of those versions benefitted from finer wheel standards, although they were still ...

I converted a Hornby 110 to a class 104 power twin many years ago, using the Craftsman etched brass ends and white metal marker lights. It came up fairly well, let down by the 3-pole pancake motor and lack of pickups. I convereted a 110 centre car to a Driving Trailer using a scratchbuilt plastic en...

As Mike said, DCC conversion involves hard-wiring, and the lights also need dealing with - if using a two-car unit then another decoder or some wire connections for the lights in the unpowered car are needed. If it's a three-car unit or a 159, the motor is in the centre car so is easily hard-wired, ...

Ignoring the sound requirement, if the steamer has no lighting at all, then it doesn't need any functions either. If it has directional lights, a two function decoder is all it needs. The diesel sounds like a four function decoder would suffice - directional lights plus separate cab lights. Like I s...

Some of this depends on how the circuits are wired on the models too. Most with directional lights do not separate the tail lights from the headlights, so if the headlights are on in one direction, the tail lights are on at the same time at the otehr end, on the same circuit. That uses two functions...

Without supports under the piers, the arches could separate if your glue isn't up to the job. Mine is supported, but I chose to strengthen the trackbed (double track), using some Plastruct I-beam girders along and beneath the whole length. If you were to do something similar, that would take the str...