81F

Hmmm sounds like a good idea for a separate thread - I think I'll Start one :)

The problem with the GPO film Night mail is that it is LMS. As a result it is quite easy to make up a passable formation using either Hornby or Bachmann LMS BGs. I also have a BR blue/grey set which have some Mk1 BGs to complete the train. However, the GWR one is a problem due to the lack of GWR BGs. The only rtr one I know of is the Hakesworth full break but the GWR livery is slightly ore modern than that on the Night Mail coach. As an aside, I can find no reference to a GWR "Night Mail" and I am sure the GWR mail trains carried "Royal Mail" or "Ocean Mails" can anyone confirm.

Nice little video, often thought of doing a Murders on the Orient express as I have some of the old Jouef Wagon Lits Sleeping cars. I just need a suitable locomotive that looks like like the one they used in the film. Why is the singular of the highlighted word banned!

My favorite Grafar coaches were the paneled GWR versions. I acquired two rakes (suburban and mainline) to run behind my Hornby Dean singles. Although it is possible to chop the old couplings off and turn the bogies round to rivet a wide Triang coupling onto it, I 3D printed new bogies for them. These were based on a GWR fish-belly bogie and to add variety the GWR American type.

Hi, My only experience (and not that I would have thought of calling it scale-colour) is that I never use a full gloss paint, it just doesn't look right to me.

I apologise for the poor quality of the photo but below is my Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway Hunslet 'Alex' together with a Graham Farrish 00 LNER Coach. sadly I do not have the suburban brake in LNER Teak that I mention above, but the one below is the very similat (from this side at least) corridor coach.

Try Googling "alex oxfordshire Ironstone", and look up images. This should get you an image of a similar looking loco (a Hunslet rather than a Kitson) made by another manufacturer. It looks similar and is the right colour. Regarding a suitable model coach, I don't think there is anything rtr that would be accurate but from the photo a 00 Gauge Graham Farrish LNER suburban brake coach would be a reasonable likeness. However, these have,'t been made since the 1960s and have a slightly unusual square tension lock coupling. Again Google the description and look at the images to find the one you need. A couple of cautionary notes if buying on line, be careful not to order the more common n gauge version (they look identical but half size!). Also there is a corridor version that has large windows between the doors on one side. The roof on these is also very prone to chipping on the corners so look out for this defect. In addition the roof is white but can easily be removed for respraying. I have posted a photo of my Hunslet and a Grafar coach below if the moderator lets it through (sorry it is so blurry). Hope this is useful

Also look for the letters XP painted on the side of a freight wagon and obviously Vacuum brake pipes on the end but may manufacturers leave these off. Six wheeled milk vans also could operate in express freight trains.

I think the Minitrains ones are H0e rather than 009, I certainly have a few of the Jouef versions dating back to the 1970s if not earlier. If you are not aware 009 is the same scale as OO (4mm/ft) but represents narrow gauge railways with a track gauge of around 2ft. To do this the model used 9mm gauge track (same as n gauge) rather than the 16.5mm of 00 standard gauge. In the same way H0e represents narrow gauge railways in HO scale (3.5mm/ft) by using 9mm gauge track to represent 750mm gauge railways or thereabouts. Hope this helps.

I think the van may have been done as a key ring once. If it is anything like a VW beetle key ring I have with number 53 on it it might be to HO scale. As an aside, Reliant Robins were Fiberglass so in reality the body would not rust. However, I have seen the real one used for the series which was painted to look dirty and rusty - A very good example of 304.8mm/ft scale weathering!

I have a mechanism "kit" like this waiting to go into a Dapol Rail bus - I wonder how noisy that will be! However, I am toying with the idea of using "rubber band" drive similar to that used in a rtr Piko starter locomotive but reducing it in size and possibly using a large traction tyre, but have not got round to experimenting with it yet.

Regarding the 3 hole type drawbar I have ended up mixing and matching them between locos, particularly my Scotsman, P2 and Tornado to get thge best looking result which will still traverse my curves. Unfortunately I have lost track as to what is running with what! You might therefore like to try buying spare drawbars, intended for other types of loco, to see which suits your operating conditions. I should also say I have had similar experiences with some of my Bachmann locos, but have not tried any drawbar switches between these. However, I should add that I have nothing tighter than a PECO medium point on my mainline and goods loops. My Colliery branch is another matter with its setrack points, but as this is supposed to have a yellow weight limit, the large tender locos are rarely sent up there.

Hi Bee, According to the Rapido instruction manual for the Lions and Thunderbolt "...Also on the tender is a hook that's designed to be compatible with Liverpool and Manchester Railway Coaches produced by another manufacturer...". However to use it Rapido's tension lock needs to be removed. This Hook looks the same as the Hooks on my Hornby L&M 3rd class coaches but there doesn't appear to be any chain. On the front of the loco there is a fine representative of the real coupling and no NEM pocket or dovetail. Hope this is helpful

Just got my first pair of magnetic couplings with coach R40348 (Mk1 BSO) and am quite impressed and am thinking about testing them on other stock - Any idea which length was supplied with this coach? Just a quick thought about the two sizes, could the 17mm versions be intended for HO stock and the 20mm for 00 since the proportions are not that far out

I have been trying to find out a bit more about the coach and all I can find is that it was a "Barrier Coach" at wembly and was also based at Old Oak Common at some point. Can anyone tell me what its actual uses were since I associate barrier coaches as being a vehicle placed between the locomotive and a hazardous load. Many thanks

Nice to see the model police car, one of the first cars I ever drove was a slightly newer model (but not a police one!)

P-Henry is correct they do not do dcc fitting - I asked.

Just one thing to note with Triang wagons is that early ones did not have pinpoint axles. These can generally be spotted by the open ended axle boxes. Consequently it will be necessary to buy and fit brass bearings as described in other threads on this site. However, fitting new Hornby wheels to the latter Triang models with pinpoint axles is just a straight swap. The vast majority taking the Hornby 12.6mm wheels (Dapol metal wheels will also fit). A word of warning, while the new Hornby Mk1 coaches use 14.1mm diameter wheels the original Hornby/Triang Mk1s were designed to use the smaller 12.6mm wheel sets. So if you accidentally use the larger wheels on one of the the older coaches it will ride approximately 1mm too high which might cause problems when coupling to other stock. Also, as Hornby make a wider range of 12.6mm wheel than Triang ever did, I would take the opportunity to do a bit of research and use the correct type for the wagon/coach you are converting (i.e. plain disc, 3 hole disc spoked etc.).

I hope this might be a useful tip. It was with some annoyance that I discovered that the narrow tension lock couplings fitted to the other makes Lion. To get round this I have taken a standard NEM pocket (either Hornby or Bachmann from my spares box) and shortened pocket quite drastically at the point where the parallel sides start to taper outwards. Next I cut the parallel shank on the coupling (Hornby Medium NEM tension lock), leaving just enough for it to locate into the remains of the socket. I then glued thew coupling into the pocket using superglue. I also did the same for the coach in the Rapido Titfield Thunderbolt pack. In addition I am also using the same technique to shortening the excessively over-scale gap between Rapedo's 16XX pannier and whatever it couples up to, although these do not need shortening quite so much.

Many thanks that looks promising and might explains the method of coupling mounting on the Rapido Lions

The Snow plough is held in place using two lugs that push into two holes in the buffer beam where the front buffers would normally go. When fitting the ploughs on the real locos the GWR actually removed the front buffers so this is fairly prototypical. My loco also came with a set of front buffers ao it is just a simple matter of pulling off the plough and inserting the replacement buffers.

Does anyone know the dimensions of the tiny dovetail that holds the NEM pocket onto the item of rolling stock. I remember seeing a drawing on line once but cannot find it now Many thanks for any help, Steve

Many thanks for all the help. Sadly with my DC 009 layout, I think I will just have to clean it in small sections as it is only the track cleaner that causes the problem and I have just found that a KATO steeple cab will take it much further than my Farrish pannier did. Regarding the Wrenn loco, the magnet could well be weak so will try a Neo on it. Given that the bearings on the old Wrenn motors look significantly more robust than even the X04s I will chance the extra wear as this loco is only used for the occasional "Heritage" train of tinplate stock only very occasionally.

I have used both Setrack and Streamline on my layout but you need to be careful how and where you use it. For example when having cross-overs do not mix the two types to make the crossovers.

Although meant mostly for a DCC application, I am posting it here as I have a DC loco with the same issue. Briefly would replacing a loco's conventional magnet with a Neo-magnet reduce the amount of current a locomotive requires? One reason for asking is that when I run a loco and Tomix track cleaner on the 009 part of my layout, the Gaugemaster E controller cuts out fairly quickly and has to wait a few moments before continuing? The second is that I have a Wrenn N2 locos converted to DCC (with an R1 currently waiting) and I would like to reduce their current draw since the N2 cuts out after two or three laps of the layout and has to "rest" before continuing.