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I have 2 duette controllers and I have to say I have never regretted buying them, the power output is absolutely perfect 12 volts a 1 amp which makes them ideal for double heading or more ( 2 locos leading with 1 pushing for example ). The example in brackets would be completely reliant on all the locos running at the same speed to prevent derailments but it can be done. I was able to test that example recently with 2 hornby tender driven ( cd motor converted ) black 5s at 1 end of 8 Bachmann mk1s with another cd motored loco ( tender drive A3 ) at the other end. Although I can only run an end to end layout at the moment, the amount of track run available was sufficient to allow me to test that it could be done. In my opinion these controllers are ( to me ) the best I have ever had for my layout, other opinions may vary ,however, but for me, I'll keep using h & m duette controllers even if the 2 current items have to be replaced, I will search for and purchase more.

Back in late 2009 I purchased 2 Hornby Railroad 9F locos, I cannot remember the R numbers but 2 of them was evening star snd the other was running number 92221. I had an incident which resulted in major damage to 1 of the loco bodies that could not be repaired and at the time, to get the loco running again I managed to get a body from an older hornby 9F to fit on the chassis after a bit of filing at the front end. In a sense what I am saying here is that if you have a china made 9F with the fine blackened valve gear and even if your loco is a tender driven version, you can fit the body onto a loco drive chassis and the tender can be stripped of all the motor parts and used for power collection or used on another tender driven loco or diesel using the same motor. If the tender motor was used in a modern image loco ( class 37, 47 or a 92 ) you could use the metal block from an unpowered bogie in the tender, fit self made pickups and add a realistic coal load, the possibilities are endless in terms of what you can do to return the loco into service. With my loco's, the 2 chassis were used on a loco project and the body I used on 1 of the 9F's is now on another loco project to return a Britannia loco into service. The other point I should include here is that if the model is a loco driven version, the problem could be that the tender chassis has failed due to mazak and therefore it is easy to replace again using the unpowered bogie block from a modern image co-co loco ( 37, 47 etc ) as these are an easy replacement for a failed motor block on a loco driven model. Can I ask please if you could post a photo of the loco in need of attention so that we can further assist with your query and in turn give the correct solution. Hope this helps.

Thankyou threelink. Please keep all experiences coming, they are giving an informative insight on our experiences no matter how it concluded.

Thank you for all the replies so far, please do keep them coming. I too tried using screw and 3 link couplings between locos and stock and had endless derailments mainly due to buffer lock. After a few too many derailments I got fed up with thise couplings and removed them, a few locos still have the screw couplers on the front to make them look more realistic but they are no longer used for coupling purposes to another loco. If I am double heading, any loco fitted with a screw coupler is always leading loco and most of them hsve kadee #19 or #20 couplers fitted. 1 coupling set up that I have found which gives very reasonable close coupling was on Bachmann mk1 coaches by fitting a #19 at 1 end and a #20 at the other end and coupling them in the formation of loco, #20 #19, #20 #19 and so on ( each #20 #19 between the commas representing 1 coach ). Loco tenders are always fitted with #20 couplers.

Many thanks RogerB

I have just re-registered using an alternative username as suggested

Hi RogerB I could try doing a delete cookies using the function provided on the website itself unless that is just for the admins use.

Thank you for that 96RAF Unfortunately my mk4s are the pre nem pocket coaches that had the huge D type tension lock couplers The only success as far as the kadee couplers were concerned was at the end of a rake of 5 coaches to couple to a loco, no success between the coaches.

My apologies I meant RogerB. I have not previously registered on the mrf frum before today. I did try a few times last week but nothing was working. Once again my apologies for the name confusion.

Hi Colin B I have just resized a screenshot I took of the error I don't know how clear it will be due to the resizing but here it is and thankyou for your reply

Thankyou for your reply atom3624 and a welcome start to the discussion too. I haven't used fixed radii on my layout for so long I cannot remember the last time I purchased any but I see what you mean. All my curved track sections consist of either 8 × R628 piece or are formed using peco flexible track pieces, all turnouts are large radius with only 1 medium radius turnout in the loco depot.

I have just registered to be a member on the mrf forum but after registering I keep getting a message saying I have specan incorrect username but it doesn't say whether a username can be letters, numbers or a combination of both. Consequently I have just had to contact mrf admins to get advice. If you have any advice please I would be grateful.

Hi Everyone Hopefully this will be an interesting discussion but here goes. About a year ago, I decided to attempt to couple my rake of 10 Hornby Mk4 coaches by removing the couplings and associated parts from the bogies and fixing them to the coach chassis. Attempts were made using kadee #20 couplers, the original coach couplers & the more modern narrow couplers commonly used on Bachmann stock, nothing was successful in all my attempts. The basis for the idea came up as I wanted to be able to couple locos and stock just like on full size trains although not with screw link or 3 link couplers. I have often wondered if anybody out in the model railway community no matter where you are based has attempted to do this kind of modification and can I ask please if you have, what were your experiences and was your modification successful ? Pleaee feel free to share your experiences, thoughts and ideas on this subject as I would be very interested to read about your modification aswell as how you achieved it. All replies welcome and thankyou all for reading this subject.

No problem, noted for further entries. I have just corrected my reply posted at 10:30 this morning.

You are correct, that plate is where those strips rub, however, they can cause issues without us knowing literally until it happens. Occasionally they can get too close to the tender pin and cause a short, I found with my loco that the best way to avoid a short was to bypass both of the contacts and hardwire the loco and tender together so that all pickups from the loco and tender were connected straight to the motor as the drawbar contacts can often be a cause of failure either from losin connection with their respective part or causing shorts. If you wish to keep the contacts in place, you can very carefully solder a piece of phosphor bronze pickup strip to the contacts which will extend their reach if they are too short and trim off the excess once the soldering is done. The extension pieces could be soldered at an angle away from the tender pin that would be just enough to prevent any shorting of the power supply. If I remember correctly the tender has all metal wheels for the right hand running rail and insulated wheels with tyres for the left hand rail based on looking at the loco from above and the back of the tender ( water filling end ). After my loco failed badly with issues just about 4 years ago a few months before covid was discovered, it became a parts donor with the motor being converted to a cd motor ( which made it more controllable for slow speed shunting ) going into what was supposed to be an LNER P1 2-8-2 but due to the incorrect loco chassis is not quite correct but for me it looks like 1 of those locos. In reference to watching for signs of heating up, if you don't have any smoke oil for the loco, the smoke unit can be removed which will prevent the risk of damage to the body, I would recommend removing it completely. If I may I would just like to add for the mod team, the excess white space between paragraphs seems to be a default not at my end I think as every post I have ever added to any topic seems to be displayed just like this post is now. In regards to the excess white space at the bottom, because I am using my phone to write these posts, I add space at the bottom to give me a seperation between my keyboard and what I am writing to prevent it looking like a jumble of words. My apologies for any problems caused.