New Railway Modellers Forums

All of the nickel-silver track I know of is solid through.

It does look very promising, and I can see where it is going.

It is nice to see the kit 'in the flesh' rather than just as a box illustration, which doesn't really show us how good (or bad) the kit is.

I second what Bigmet has suggested. The newer Hornby Railroad chassis/motor will certainly give smoother running, but will need a fair bit of weight added to give decent traction, whereas the older Bachmann chassis will also give smooth running but has more chance of pulling the walls down!

allan wrote:https://www.eurorailhobbies.com/products.asp?mn=13&ca=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..,

I dunno; is it possible to have narrower roads than British ones?

I don't think there is a clear winner, more a case of 'swings and roundabouts'. I have two of the DJM examples, one in earlier green with red and white lining, the other in the later darker green with small yellow panels and no lining. I like the overall look of the models. They are smooth running b...

Thanks for that link, Ned. I have now subscribed to the channel.

Digressing slightly from the N class, some of the Dapol 6-wheel milk tanks had the same sorts of problems, with the centre axle being the main culprit. A friend of mine took to running them without the centre axles at all, but I did the same trick on mine as with the N tender; elongate the axle hole...

I believe that the derailing is also down to the centre tender axle not having enough vertical movement. I removed the centre axle and using a drill bit I opened up the axle end receptacle in each tender sideframe, allowing the axle to move slightly upwards. The locomotives in that set are also pro...

To the best of my knowledge, the bogies are just clipped in. Insert a flat-bladed screwdriver between the bogie and the coach underframe, as close to the pivot point as possible, then lever it from there. It is possible the bogie frames have gone a bit brittle with age.

I wouldn't recommend just cutting off the traction tyres. The wheels have grooves in them, which can adversely affect running. If you want to get rid of the traction tyres, buying (or otherwise acquiring) the trailing bogie wheel sets would be better. I have used brass wire for pickups, but better o...

Easily fixed if you buy some etched plates - you can rename/renumber to anything that suits you.

If it is of any help, the Faller Mercedes 0405 bus (sometimes found in their starter sets) has a wheelbase that matches many 30' British bus types. The tracks are a little narrow for 4mm scale, although the rear wheel can be eased outwards slightly, but the front ones have to remain where they are w...

In earlier days, before the TLVs were created, you could find a few trains formed with two MLVs and 12 cars of CEP/BEP. The usual formation would be CEP/BEP/CEP, but in the absence of a model BEP, I have test run trains with 3 x CEP units plus an MLV on my layout. The Bachmann units all run perfectl...

If you go the D605Eagle route, I would recommend doing the wheel swap suggested earlier to eliminate traction tyres altogether, and rig extra pickups to get all-wheel electrical pickup. That will give you a smooth and powerful loco. I went the Bigment route, and used a Hornby body on a cheap Bachman...

What RFS said is all true. Additionally, the Hastings coaches all had a flat side profile, not the gentle curve of the standard BR mark 1 coaches like the MLV. Many years ago I started a class 206 'tadpole' unit from DC Kits (also no longer available, unfortunately). It is nearly complete but I have...