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Selby Garden Railway


mick
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Another very nice day and really warm but rather than having another running session I decided instead to do a bit of work on the lineside. Since putting down the concrete base for the shed and with the constant digging out of footings for the breeze block wall, I have accumulated a nice mound of spent soil at the rear of the shed which needed moving somewhere. I decided that I would pile it up against the breeze block walls of the layout in two areas and allow nature to do its thing and turn it into a short embankment. It took a fair few barrow-loads to move enough soil to form the embankments which wasn't made any easier by the fact that I can't access the inner part of the layout without climbing over the low wall. Not a harsh task by any means when you're just stepping over, but with a wheelbarrow it's a different story altogether.

I decided to form one embankment around the curve at the top of the layout and another just ahead of the viaduct. Both areas in question can be seen in the photographs below.

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I first cut some lengths of plastic sheeting to lay against the breeze blocks to prevent too much moisture seeping into the blocks themselves and then covered it with the surplus soil. I've trampled it down nice and firm but will allow it to settle itself before deciding whether it needs another layer.

Despite the fact that I've not run many trains today I have enjoyed my day in the garden. The railway and a spot of gardening is a nice combination even though I know very little about either interest. What I have enjoyed over the past twelve months or so is being able to document my progress and having the opportunity to look back on what I've done so far to see how things have developed.

The two Acer's I have planted adjacent to the line were bought for me as small plants no more than 12 inches high. Replanting them progressively into larger pots as required it became clear last year that they had outgrown their tubs again and were not in the best of condition. Their foliage was smaller than usual and very quickly shrivelled up. I decided it was time to remove them from their pots altogether and plant them out in the border. This year they are back to their very best with an abundance of nice foliage as can be seen in the photograph of the red variety below with my little dog posing in front.

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I've just obtained a quantity of Iso-Propyl Alcohol (IPA) to use as a track cleaner and after sweeping the stray soil and other debris from the tracks I went round with a cloth and gave the rails a clean. I then placed a Hornby class 60 on the track and ran it at a slow speed expecting it to stall at some point or other as I hadn't been round prior to that with the track rubber but it did eventually make the complete circuit without faltering. To be honest the tracks were still relatively clean but I'm sure the IPA will be a big help during the task of track cleaning. The class 60 can be seen below as it poses with the TEA tanks on the curve ahead of the viaduct. It's the same spot that I photographed it last year with some HEA wagons and a comparison of the 2 images shows how the plants have grown in that area since that time.

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Today has seen a bit more work on the 'scenic' side of the layout which means I have been doing a bit of gardening. I've had a small number of plants in pots since they were purchased a few weeks ago (one of them was bought in the middle of last year) and so in their best interests it was time to find a spot to plant them out. I'm not very creative when it comes to arranging a decorative border so it was more a case of dig a hole to the required size and pop them in. I'm sure they'll thrive regardless and fill the space available to them. I also had 4 small 'box' hedging plants left over and so these were also planted in front of the breeze block wall along the same border. The accompanying photograph records how the area down the left side of the layout looks today. As before, the fine mesh netting is my attempt to deter the local cat population from leaving any deposits.

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The little 'box' (Buxus Sempervirens) plants are really good value at only 99p each from my local DIY superstore and so I think I'll get hold of a few more to complete the border along the left side.

Model Railway's are an enjoyable pastime in their own right but when combined with the garden, even more so. However, I have been getting increasingly frustrated by irritating and annoying little problems with some of my stock that makes me wonder why on earth I do it. Take for example the ongoing problems I am having with derailments caused by the ridiculous coupling on the Hornby class 56 and 60 locos. Why on earth are 2 extremely capable locos spoiled by a coupling that simply isn't reliable enough to be able to set the train in motion and take your eyes off it for a few seconds without the darn thing derailing the leading wagon?

I purchased many of my collection of locomotives before I even had an operational layout and while I was able to test the loco was operating correctly I wasn't able to test it in operational condition with a set of wagons in tow. I have 5 Hornby class 56 locos and 2 Hornby class 60's, none of which are at the moment of any use to me other than for static display as I cannot let them loose on the layout without fear of constant derailments. Had I known of the tension lock coupling problem beforehand then I would certainly not have bought that number. Considering that 3 of those locos are fitted with DCC sound chips that's about £750 worth of loco's that aren't currently able to haul a set of wagons.

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Over the past week or so I've been experiencing lots of derailments when using my Hornby class 56 & class 60 locomotives. It's almost got to the point where I've packed them away for good because there isn't any way they can be set in motion and left to their own devices without fear of yet another derailment. This has nothing to do with the track but is entirely due to the type of coupling that Hornby use on their large diesel locomotives. A glance at any other railway modelling forum will show that it's a widespread problem experienced by almost all class 56 & class 60 owners to some degree or other.

Today, in an effort to alleviate the problem, I removed the offending Hornby coupling altogether from one end of one of my Hornby class 60 loco's and used it to construct a section that I then fastened to the front of the bogie.

The original coupling isn't part of the bogie but rather floats in a slot on the base of the locomotive. Tensioned by a small spring, the coupling can extend forwards and move to the left and right to enable the loco and wagons to go round curves and should then retract backwards and return to a central position when it is back on straight track. It doesn't always do that. Instead, the weight of the trailing load appears to make it impossible for the coupling to return to a central position and it stays wedged over to one side until it again goes round another curve when it often derails the leading wagon.

My rather crude modification places the coupling back on the front of the bogie and I'm hopeful that it will reduce or entirely eradicate the number of derailments of the leading wagon when using the class 60 locomotive. If it proves successful then I will carry out a similar modification with my other class 60 and look at my class 56's to see if it's also possible to do a similar modification with them.

The photo's below demonstrate my rather crude attempt to put the coupling back on the bogie and show how fixing the entire section to the front of the sand boxes is not really that noticeable in a sideways view. It's entirely untested at the moment as I have put it to one side to harden fully before use so I will have to report back later on how it performs under load.

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Firstly an update on the operation of the Hornby class 60 with its modified coupling.

I haven't had the chance to give the loco a full circuit run because the viaduct is still covered to protect it from the weather and I haven't been round and cleaned the tracks as I would normally do before running any stock. However, sending the class 60 out from the shed, up the gradient and around to the viaduct, and hauling the 14 TEA tank set, I have experienced no problems whatsoever. To be perfectly honest, it even looks right with the coupling affixed to the front of the bogie. The couplings no longer swing over to one side, remaining almost central throughout the journey. When the train had reached the viaduct I removed the loco to the other end of the train and worked it back to the shed.

The tracks inside the shed are down to approx 30-36 inch radius and so I ran the whole train right through and then reversed it back inside. Not a single problem with the coupling and so I now intend to modify my other class 60 at the earliest opportunity.

Now to return to the Hornby Black 5 which when originally purchased was able to haul only 6 coaches up the long incline at the back of the layout. By adding a number of 5p pieces to the empty space in the smokebox, the additional weight provided the loco with enough traction to haul 8 coaches.

I recently obtained some 5 gram wheel balance weights intended for motor vehicles with the specific aim of using them to add additional weight to my locomotives. Using a combination of 5p pieces, which are a perfect fit inside the smokebox area, and some of these ingots of metal affixed using their adhesive backing to the chassis area above the leading driver, I have been able to add an additional 58 grams of weight to the Black 5 taking it from its out of the box weight of 236g (without tender) up to 294g. With this additional weight, the Black 5 is now able to haul 10 coaches up the incline without faltering and even 11 coaches did not pose a problem.

Below is a short video comprising 2 clips of the Black 5 ascending the Selby Garden Railway incline with 10 coaches in tow.

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I don't have a lot of luck with couplings, as you may have noticed already, and today it's been the turn of the Black 5 to start playing up. However, this time it isn't quite so serious, just a case of the coupling on the rear of the tender falling out of its socket, and which will require a spot of glue to hold it securely in place. It did derail a number of coaches on three separate occasions but there was luckily no damage caused.

Not having any storage loops installed just yet, today I removed the rake of TEA wagons and replaced them with the 16t mineral wagon rake so that my Bachmann 9F 92185 could do what it does best. This scenario has always been one of my favourite train formations although I've seen it only in photographs and never in real life. Not everything went smoothly though, which is fast becoming the norm for me, as the leading pony truck of the 9F kept derailing. It required some remedial work on the metal spring to keep the wheels firmly on the rails and thankfully it seems to have solved the problem. Watching the 9F circling the layout with the mineral wagons I am reminded of the amount of weathering I have yet to do as well as the task of fitting some coal loads.

I was pleased to learn that the 46 mineral wagons fit nicely within the shed (nothing on the Selby Garden Railway is ever pre-planned) and that it should be possible to add a few more at a later date.

I can't seem to run trains without capturing at least some of the action on video and so here's a few clips of the 9F hauling the 46 mineral wagons and with a brake van at each end. I've tried to capture some close-up action but it's not easy trying to keep the camera steady at high zoom so apologies if it is a bit jumpy in places.

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The 9F is very impressive hauling that huge line of wagons, but I fear that there in lies your coupling problems. The couplings on these models are not designed to cope with prototypical loads. They are designed for running with shorter, lighter formations and don't appear to be able to cope with the forces that you are subjecting to them.

With that in mind I would thing twice about adding any extra weight to your wagons. Adding coal loads to 46 six wagons will add a lot of weight, 25g in each of 40 wagons is 1kg! You may want to test the effect of extra weight by adding a couple of coins to every 5th wagon and see what effect it has.

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The 9F is very impressive hauling that huge line of wagons, but I fear that there in lies your coupling problems. The couplings on these models are not designed to cope with prototypical loads. They are designed for running with shorter, lighter formations and don't appear to be able to cope with the forces that you are subjecting to them.

With that in mind I would thing twice about adding any extra weight to your wagons. Adding coal loads to 46 six wagons will add a lot of weight, 25g in each of 40 wagons is 1kg! You may want to test the effect of extra weight by adding a couple of coins to every 5th wagon and see what effect it has.

I agree Chris. There's no doubt in my mind that the type of couplings fitted to the latest Hornby class 56 & 60 loco's (and to some other Hornby mainline loco's as well) are affected by the trailing weight of the wagons but these couplings differ from the traditional tension lock coupling in that they are able to extend out from the wagon and retract back again under the tension of a small spring as well as moving wide across to the left and right. Problems with these couplings is by no means confined to those modellers who wish to operate scale length trains. When I experience a derailment with this type of coupling it is always the leading wagon which becomes derailed which clearly indicates that the fault is with the loco and not with the wagons themselves. Examination of the position of the couplings at the point of derailment confirms that the loco coupling is at fault.

A similar type of coupling arrangement is fitted to my Bachmann Intermodal wagons which did originally give me some derailments until I had played around and adjusted them correctly but these are now running problem free even when in a near scale length train formation.

The 9F and its train of 46 mineral wagons uses a traditional type tension lock coupling without any spring tension and there's never a hint of a derailment. I am as confident as I can be that this train in particular will pose no operational problems even with the additional weight of a coal load. It's not my intention to fill the wagon with coal but to simulate a load either by using a plasticard former with a sprinkling of coal on the top or by using a shaped piece of foam (which makes a very impressive load) again with a thin layer of real coal/dust added on top. I had considered fitting proper 3-link or Instanter couplings to the mineral wagons but was unsure how those couplings would stand up to the trailing weight. I had visions of the coupling links being split open!

I know that some of my demands upon these models might seem excessive but I've had enough success to date to know that it's entirely feasible to run trains of near scale length if the component parts perform as intended. If they don't perform (as with the class 60 coupling) then they need to be changed or modified until they do.

Operating a garden railway is a constant challenge. Whether you are faced with the weather, debris, vegetation or wildlife, it's 4mm to the foot against 12 inches to the foot right out there in the open and that's what I enjoy about it. Who'd want a dull indoor layout after all this!

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Just before the rain started today (well, yesterday it will be now) I had decided to take some still photographs to supplement the video footage of the 9F. Of course, I didn't get very far before I had to quickly pack everything away. Rain and model railways/digital cameras don't go well together (not to mention an electrical extension cable) and I've learned my lesson with getting a digital camera wet before. So, not having the time to set up the tripod and with the camera deciding that flash was the way to go I will include just the following rather dismal image of the 9F in the wet to record the events of the day.

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What a wonderful day it's been today - exactly the kind of weather that makes a garden railway seem like a good idea!

Not seen since last year, I brought out the WD Austerity again today complete with it's sound and smoke. I wanted to see whether, more or less out of the box, it could handle a scale length train up the incline at the back of the layout. Coupled to the 46 mineral wagons and 2 brake vans I had no need to worry - it handled them easily.

The sound may not be deep and throaty, the smoke may be only light and whispy, but as a complete package an OO gauge garden railway really doesn't get much better than this. The WD looks and sounds superb circling the layout and I'm only disappointed that the smoke oil lasts for not much longer than one complete circuit. A novelty it might be but it certainly adds another dimension. I wouldn't go out of my way to add a smoke generator to any of my other loco's but this loco was obtained with a generator already installed and I'm delighted that I took the chance on ebay and purchased this little beauty.

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From the footage, that chance you took was well worth it. The line is looking very good Mick the over bridge (underpass?) adds a great new dimension to your railway, like the embankments too, the impression of the changing levels of the ground works really well on the videos. Hope you don't mind but I am pinching an idea from your line for the THLR. I have been impresed with the look of the roofing felt you used under the track and I am getting fed up of having to renew the wood preservative every year (and the fiddly track cleaning where careless brush work happens) so plan to use that method in the near future. I had been considering the idea for some time but was worried about the overall look, seeing it's use on your line has done much to set those concerns aside.

Great to see your progress and have been interested in the results of you solution to the couplings problem, seems to have worked well. Hornby style couplings have been a problem for years in this regard, Bachmann ones seem much better.

All the best Mick.

Tom

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Hi Tom

You're welcome to copy any of the methods I have used during the construction of the Selby Garden Railway. Almost everything I have done has been as a result of reading about someone else's construction methods so they're not original by any means. Roofing felt provides an easy way to obtain a weatherproof finish and is something that also looks good beneath the sleepers. I would highly recommend bitumen as an adhesive for the felt and it can be purchased in convenient sized tins at reasonable cost. I've found it's also beneficial to ensure the felt is 'weighted' down until the bitumen sets nicely to give a nice smooth finish. During warm weather the roofing felt gets quite soft and supple so watch out with anything that might penetrate it and result in damage. You might also want to take a look at Ian's 'Kirkfield & Warmthorpe Railway' where he gives an account of his own method of using bitumen and roofing felt.

I've just got back today from a week in the Western Highlands of Scotland; one of the reasons I have been taking my time with completing the storage loops within the shed. It seemed silly to get cracking when everything would have to be brought safely inside the house again while I was away. Now that I'm back I can pick up from where I left off and after a nice break I'm raring to go once again.

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Whilst I wait for the much needed pointwork to enable me to begin adding the first of several proposed storage loops inside the shed, the weather has been nice enough to place some different rolling stock on my two existing roads and sit in the garden with some trains circling round. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me but it seems to have taken ages to remove approx 70 small 4-wheeled wagons from their boxes and place them on track. I'm certainly not looking forward to having to pack them all away again in a hurry. I like to see a collection of private owner wagons and whilst some of those I have collected represent companies that are local to me, others are from more distant areas of the UK. I managed to form a rake of 49 and found that I still had more than 30 left in their boxes so until more roads are added they will have to stay there.

In addition to the private owner wagons I have a small but growing collection of 4-wheeled vans and other wagons, including quite a number of 14t tank wagons. I made a rake of these behind the WD Austerity loco and while I did manage to film a few video clips, my mains adaptor for the video camera, which also charges the battery pack, decided to expire and so it's currently useless until my new adaptor is delivered. The video will have to follow later so in the meantime here's a few still photographs.

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The curve just before the viaduct in the two images above has always been a good area for taking photos as trains round the curve. It's now got a fair bit of lineside vegetation to act as a backdrop and just requires some greenery over the embankment at the other side to disguise the harsh edges.

The 2 images below show the same train out in the open. The backdrop this time is comprised of weeds and long grass :oops: but I'm not in a hurry to cut that down just yet. The soil in my garden is heavy clay and where I have piled it up against the breeze blocks to form the embankments it has dried hard in the baking sun and begun cracking. I'm undecided what to do - I may well remove it and incorporate some compost before replacing it so that there's a chance something might just grow in it. The dappled sunlight really adds atmosphere to outside photos.

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hello ive just signed up and would like to say i am very impressed i just wish i had the same space as you did, or a functioning layout for that matter its in the work at the moment, and i look forward to your future updates,

david

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I dont think my origonal post worked as it did not appear to show up so take 2, hello im david from ossett in west yorkshire, and i would just like to say your layout is amazing and i wished i had the space, and a working layout for that matter mines currently under construction, i look forward to your future updates, david

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Hi David and welcome to the forum.

I dont think my origonal post worked as it did not appear to show up so take 2, hello im david from ossett in west yorkshire, and i would just like to say your layout is amazing and i wished i had the space, and a working layout for that matter mines currently under construction, i look forward to your future updates, david

Sorry... it's just my attempt to free myself from a large amount of spam and other nuisance postings. As soon as you are recognised as a genuine member of the forum your future posts are published automatically without need for admin approval and as you have just passed that test there'll be no waiting from now on so please continue to join in with any discussions.

There's a lot of work gone in to the Selby Garden Railway but even now it's only two basic circles of track laid out in a figure of eight formation. It's the length and the ability to run long trains that perhaps makes it look 'amazing' but operationally it has very little to offer. It's just as well therefore that I enjoy watching trains rather than shunting them.

I've taken a short break from the railway over the past 2-3 weeks during which time I have been away on holiday and attended to other pressing things since my return but construction will be resuming shortly - my priority being the installation of storage roads inside the shed area. I'm also on the verge of starting construction of a small indoor layout having already got the baseboards, track and points so expect to see more of both in the very near future.

In the meantime feel free to start a thread about your own layout whatever it's present state. You'll be amazed how much greater the incentive becomes to get something done once you begin sharing your efforts and also how interesting it is to look back over your progress and development. You really don't need masses of space in order to have an interesting and very enjoyable layout.

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Held over from last week when the battery charger/mains adaptor for my video camera chose to give up the ghost, here's a short video featuring some sound and non-sound action with a Bachmann 9F 2-10-0, WD 2-8-0 and the Hornby Black 5.

The non-sound fitted 9F is seen hauling a rake of almost 50 private owner wagons while the sound-fitted pairing of the WD and Black 5 are seen double-heading a mixed rake of 4-wheeled vans, tanks etc..

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  • 3 weeks later...

Can you tell me how long the track is and do you have to use any extra power boosters. I am in the process of a dcc layout in my garden and are a little unsure of wire size. 32/0.2mm seems to be the size for the power bus.Is this the size you are using ?

Thanks Steve

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Can you tell me how long the track is and do you have to use any extra power boosters. I am in the process of a dcc layout in my garden and are a little unsure of wire size. 32/0.2mm seems to be the size for the power bus.Is this the size you are using ?

Thanks Steve

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum.

Each circuit of my layout is approximately 135 feet in length (measured using a metal tape measure so not totally accurate) and at the moment, apart from bonding using 16/0.2mm 3.0amp wire across all the rail joins I haven't experienced any voltage drop or any other electrical problem. I'm not electrically minded so wouldn't know what to suggest or state as the correct gauge wire for adding a power bus but I do intend to add additional feeds myself when I eventually get round to it using domestic 2.5mm household electrical cable with droppers of standard layout wire from the rails themselves. I'm not sure whether that would be recommended but I'm sure it will do more good than harm! I'm currently operating my layout (and have done so for the past year) with just a single feed from the controller to each circuit (and nothing more) and I haven't experienced any problems with DCC sound locomotives which I'm sure would be the first to play up.

So, on to today....

It's been a while since I last had a running session but with the nice weather this morning I decided to get down and clean the tracks and get some trains out. It wasn't a good idea. I'm not a lover of very warm weather and I've suffered with hay fever since childhood although in recent years it has got much better so the intense heat, pollen laden air and numerous gnat bites soon had me wishing I'd stayed indoors. My hay fever's eased off now but my arms are painful and beginning to swell where I had been bitten. In fact I felt one bite on the inside of my arm and looked down to see the culprit attacking me and I had blood running down my arm! Managed to swat the little bu**er anyway!

I got a few trains running but didn't have enough patience to do much about filming them. The following video is of a Bachmann Class 108 DMU which I've had for over a year and which has had little use during that time.

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Despite a swollen and rather painful arm (as a result of the gnat bites yesterday) I had another running session today, this time using a troublesome Heljan class 47 loco. This loco was obtained in used condition from a well-known online retailer in second-hand model products (from the southern counties of UK) and has been more trouble than it was worth. Firstly, as recorded by many other owners of Heljan 47s, the body is a swine to get off. I initially spent what seemed like hours trying to remove the body with as little force as possible in order not to cause any damage but in the end it required brute force and the leverage from a small screwdriver with the distinct possibility of severe damage. I eventually managed to remove the body without breaking anything (luckily) other than inflicting a few minor scratches to the sides of the chassis block that cannot be seen when the body is replaced. I fitted a Bachmann 8 pin DCC chip that I had available and it runs okay now that the wheels have had a good clean to restore some shine to the treads. Before replacing the body I used a small file to remove a good quantity of metal from the area of the metal block immediately behind each cab. It's now much easier to remove the body although still not a simple matter by any means. More importantly, there is no sign of chassis distortion or metal degradation as experienced by some other users so if it keeps running I'll keep hold of it for now.

The following couple of photographs depict the Heljan 47981 on the layout hauling a few ballast hoppers. Taken without the aid of a tripod they are admittedly slightly blurred and have a shallow depth of field but they do show how much better natural light can be when attempting to photograph your models.

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Late this afternoon I received my new Bachmann Robinson class 04 ROD 2-8-0 depicting the preserved example 63601 in BR Black livery and I have to say that Bachmann have done themselves proud once again. It has the feel and familiarity of the recent Bachmann G2A and like its predecessor, the loco and tender of the new 04 are permanently coupled, which I rather like for some reason. With absolutely no knowledge of the prototype locomotive I can hardly cast a critical eye over its dimensional accuracy but in comparison to photographs of the original it certainly holds up very well indeed.

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The loco footplate is very well detailed although considering the openness of the cab design this is a necessity I think. The tender is also highly detailed and great care needs to be taken that the separately applied handbrake, and what appears to be a fire-iron rest aren't damaged when the tender is inverted to access the 4 screws that hold the tender body in place. The 4 screws, one in each corner of the tender, are very small and quite fiddly and no doubt easily lost! Both the loco and tender have their plastic brake gear already attached.

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Having fitted a standard Bachmann decoder to the 21-pin DCC socket in the tender, the locomotive runs very smoothly and handles my rake of 40+ private owner mineral wagons without a problem. Now, if I can work out why my video camera is refusing to charge the battery I'll see if I can get some film of the 04 in action.

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