All Activity

Hi, have made some improvements, smaller magnets (2mm dia x 3mm long) these can be better concealed and allow the loco to pull away without assistance. I have also remade the buffer stop in plastic and concealed the wires, still prototype stuff but works well. Just needs a bit more refinement. regards to all Steve

It felt like the 1980's at Westbury yesterday - 56096 and 56302 floating about

The trouble with being off work and not having too much to do, is that retail therapy becomes too easy. I have recently aquired some Skytrex china clay hoods and a variety of LMS liveried freight stock - all in O gauge. The clay hoods were purchased from a facebook group ad, whilst the LMS stock was part of a bigger lot that Ellis Clark trains were selling. There were 3 more wagons in this lot, but I am going to move these on, as they werent required. Thius was an interesting lot, having been built from kits and possibly even some scratchbuilding - either way, they have all been well finished.

That's looking exciting, Thomas. Once you have a complete circuit you'll be wanting to run some trains.

The last curve and then a first circle would be finished.

There's news from my bridge. eBay Global Shipping delivered these to Canada. And instead of bringing it back and delivering it to me, ebay stubbornly stood up to the seller and lied to me. The seller has now had it transported back from Canada at his own expense and will now forward it to me. And then we will try to get our money back from ebay.

Material replenishment has arrived.

More of those Maroon Monsters Why not?

Looks like the way to go, thanks for the advice Mick

Hi Rob I've had most success with the 'central locking' type motor and one I installed several years ago is still operating as reliably as ever. It needs protecting from the weather as any others would but they do seem more rugged than anything designed specifically for indoor model railway use. I tend these days to limit use of point motors to indoor locations using the traditional SEEP types inside my shed along with a peco side mounted motor right where the outdoor line enters the shed but is under cover. The drawback with the central locking type is their size as they are a fair

Hi In the early stages of planning a new outdoor 00 gauge railway, looking any for advice on using point motors outdoor Thanks

Sorry to learn about your illness Iain but certainly glad to hear you're back up and about again. I hope you're fully recovered or at least well on the way to that. I enjoyed the video and as I mentioned after watching @Andrew's video with the added soundtrack, I quite like them that way. I will have to look out for some appropriate music for accompaniment and have a go myself one day. You've made a good job of yours.

I have recently been off work for a few weeks due to illness (I am fit again now after a short hospital stay last week) and had a couple of former work colleagues visit the garden this morning. This called for a couple of trains to be run, including a fairly recent OO steam loco purchase. 5274 is the standard Hornby model, now fitted with a basic, non sound decoder. I'm pleased to say, both the O and OO gauges ran perfectly with no derailments or problems during a 2 hour running session. This is a short video, taken after my guests had gone. I have taken a leaf out of DorkingIan's book and jus

I have rewired the bus wires to the terminal bus strips , I am going to do what Andrew has done with his bus wires not used any but used the rails but soldering the rail joins with wire , wire is pretty expensive, I still need plugs on all the decking and modules . All up 20 blocks controlling three throttles by rotary switches , designed the layout o be plug and play , don't think I will go DCC at this stage, can have just as much fun with DC just more wires. Looking at the track plan the two blocks on the bridge will be isolated from the rest of the rails , will still have to run bu

Another meet the fleet video. This is the rest of my modern fleet so you can see I don't have a lot. Everything else is old Hornby or Lima and isn't DCC or running very well. Unfortunately one of the Oxford Rail Mk3a couplings broke when I tried to put a Bachmann coupling bar in it to connect it to the blue/grey DBSO so that meant I couldn't include them. I've thought of a different way of repairing them so I'm going to try and fix it before the next running day. The Loksound v5.0 for 37114 arrived today so hopefully the next video will not be silent, though you can hear my next door ne

Hi, yes I have a box full of old stuff, always try to re-cycle if I can although these are not ideal being metal, however they prove that the system of buffer charging works. Thanks for your response, much appreciated. regards Steve

I've just added a selection of 9 Hornby matchboard side Pullman coaches to my eBid store. These were a mix of new and used purchases so while some are in almost as new condition, others have some insignificant marks or damage and are priced accordingly. All have working table lamps though reliable operation does require clean wheels and track to reduce flickering. Here's just a selection of images of some of the coaches listed starting at £22 post free. You'll find details in the store itself https://stores.ebid.net/toomanytrains Rosemary (below) is available for £22 post paid https:

I'm not sure exactly where to place this just yet so for now I'm going to post here in the Buffet section until I decide later. It's mainly just a heads up that I've once again set myself the task of thinning down my overly large collection of models. Now I've settled on the types of layout I want, i.e Scottish outdoors in the garden and Yorkshire Coalfields up in the attic, I find I've got a load of stock that just doesn't have a place anymore. In addition, the fact that I've amassed so many items over the years means there's very little chance of them getting any track time in the fores

They look like old Dublo or 3-rail buffers. I've been reading although not responding. Thought I'd respond just so you knew someone was reading. Impressive stuff.

Hi, I have now made a prototype using a simplified circuit which charges from a buffer stop into the loco buffers these are modified to steel with leads going into the on board control circuit. The track buffer stop is modified with molibium magnets 3mm dia x 3mm long. these make good electrical contact with the loco buffers, the buffers have a few mm movement to allow for poor alignment. the loco can be recharged or set to run by the changeover switch. If the loco is running towards the buffer stop and the switch is set to charge then the loco switches off soon as co

An exciting day (part 3) We end with a couple of shots of Castle Class "Earl of St Germans" seen hauling a portion of a long distance express from the West: