New Railway Modellers Forums

Class 30. They became class 31 when re-engined with English Electric prime movers, although all were re-engined before they could carry the class 30 numbers under TOPS. As built, they had Mirrlees engines of various horsepowers fitted, mostly in the type 2 power range, a few in the type 3 range, and...

With my Heljan 05 and 07 diesel shunters, I have altered the lighting to show permanently at both ends. Both locos have one red and one white light at each end, but when shunting in real life, they would show both lights at both ends at the same time (the drivers don't want to be constantly changing...

I didn't give examples before, but some sets have motorised vehcles at each end, but also have fairly rigid coupling arrangements so there is no overriding of couplings or buffer locking (where fitted): I have a Bachmann/LT Museum S Stock train of six cars with motored driving vehicles at each end. ...

Deleted - accidental duplicate post.

That can work, but it depends on a few other factors besides having matching locomotives. Carriage weights and coupling types can affect such operations as well, and curve radii also. The prototypes tended to operate with a Driving Van Trailer (DVT) at the other end from the locomotive. Would that b...

Mike Parkes wrote:I would think i would be very unlikely only to have 4 wheel pick up and will have pick up from unpowered bogie as well in common with other Bachmann MUs

I referred to the number of axles, not wheels: that means 4-axle pickup, i.e. from all eight wheels of the powered car.

I think what you will find is that it isn't actually picking up motor power from all 16 axles, and that only the four on the motored car are supplying the power to the motor. The rest are returning power from the lighting to the track, which is how they can have two functions on DCC with only two co...

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...