What About The Bee

Exactly that

Thank you @LTSR_NSE Wow. Hornby reveals their internal data like that? That is incredibly.... well, not brilliant. A quick bit of arithmetic provides us with gross return and with expected break even ~60%, the cost of fielding a new model. (500 × £169.99) × 60% = £50K

Where are you seeing the number sold? I typically look on mobile, and didn't see it there. So I checked on a desktop view. Hmm. Not there either. It may simply be that I am looking in the wrong spot. I do not doubt the correctness of the number @LTSR_NSEI would just like to know where to see it. Bee

Excellent news can be inferred by the latest status change. Locomotion No.1 is now "unavailable". Since the expected by date has not changed, I infer that the model has 100% sold out on pre-order. This is wonderful news for Hornby. They will recover all sunk costs and make the expected profit. They chose wisely! Further, it is good news for us. Because strong interest is evidenced, we can expect matching rolling stock for Locomotion No.1, on the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the S&DR. Bee

Spot on! In the US, 12 AWG is used typically in the kitchen and bathroom, wherein we can expect household appliances. 10 AWG is for clothes dryers, well water pumps and water heaters, due to the heavier current draw. 14 AWG elsewhere, like illumination circuits. Household wire is commonly available and far cheaper than any specialty wire. The individual conductors are color coded, to boot. Now there must be an equivalent to "12-4 + ground" wire in the UK. 4 color coded conductors plus the ground. Two color coded busses in one cable. Hoping that someone will chime in with the right UK nomenclature. When I go to buy cable, it is all AWG, so my apologies for not knowing. Bee

Hi Darren I've noticed you asking a large number of wiring questions. That's good. I'm going to recommend you create a schematic of your layout. Know all the wires and signals. Show every connection. Once all are known (or reasonably guessed at) then you can pick out wire to match your requirements. Just as your idea of power districts is good, make sure all your point motors are on a separate bus. You want to be sure that the points can operate, even if rail power is temporarily shorted. Now in terms of wire sizes, I'm in the US, so I think in terms of AWG. The smaller the number, the bigger the wire in AWG. I've translated these for you to mm². Bus Wires 12-14 AWG 3.31 mm² to 2.08 mm² Stranded Feeder Wires 18-22 AWG 0.823 mm² to 0.326 mm² Solid wire Others will have different recommendations, I'm sure. Here is the theory I operate under. Bigger wires aren't terribly more expensive than smaller wires, within reason. You have no need for 0000 AWG¹. But the price for 14 AWG isn't much less than the price for 12 AWG. So install 12 AWG. If you are feeling frisky, go for 10 AWG bus wires, its just another increment. It does not hurt to install heavier wire, except in the up front cost. Once installed, it will support your needs forever. Alternatively, you can size those wires to within an inch of their lives. Careful engineering can save you money on the cables. I think this errand a waste of time. You aren't making 10,000 widgets, you are making 1 layout, a one time cash outlay. Not a 10,000 time cash outlay. So slow down. No need to rush off to buy wire. Draw your schematic. Understand how much of each type of wire you need. Determine color of insulation. You want to know what signal you are looking at by wire color, this reduces mistakes. Once your needs are known, then you can buy the right amount of wire in the proper colors. Hopefully this makes some sense. Bee ¹ 200 Amp service, typically at 480 volts.

2×0.75mm² should carry about 10 amps, if I read the charts properly. That's a lot of LEDs and accessories. For a bus, it will be fine, if a triffle over kill. Its okay to be too big, a problem only when undersized. Bee

@KennyPI would like you to understand. The image posted appears to be a scan of a photograph. It has that white border, so indicative of old prints. Now I tried a reverse image search on that image. Of course I did. Fabulous image like that, it should pop right out. It did not. Another indication that it is a primary source. Kenny, I suspect you have an original, otherwise unknown image of Lion. These do NOT turn up every day. I tried to make sure the moderators protected YOUR copyright. They did the right thing by you, not letting it out into the internet without accreditation. Hopefully, you understand Bee

Hello @KennyP That is very likely taken at the same time as the images in Trans. Liverpool Engineering Society, Vol L, 1929. Thank you for bringing that to my attention, I have not previously seen that image Bee Edit: may I ask where you found that image??

Perseverance. Determination. While I described the error in vivid detail, it really is a minor setback. I wanted to portray the foibles of retrofitting Hornby kit, of which there are many. The designers at Hornby, in interviews, mention the utility of a 3D printer. The problem I encountered is fitment, similar to the designers at Hornby. They likely spin revisions far quicker than I do and encounter less problems than I do. They have the actual CAD models after all. But in the end, it is just getting the parts to fit together under uncertainty. Anyone who tries to make things encounters this problem. I haven't given up by a long shot. Nay, Nay! The bulk of the LMR fleet awaits me. This problem was a bump in the road, but not the end of the ride. Perseverance and determination. When something doesn't work the way I want it to, take a step back. Understand why. Take corrective action. Try again. And yes, a visit to the pub, to let the ideas percolate subconsciously may be in order. 😉 Bee

When I took my measurements of my R40102 carriages, I made a horrifically bad assumption. I assumed that the vertical walls were a constant uniform thickness. In real life, the dimensional lumber used to create the walls would obviously have created uniform thicknesses. What I did not count on was that the molded walls would be thicker at the bottom of the wall than at the top. This meant that a seating unit would start going into a compartment, but would NOT seat itself all the way down onto the floor of that compartment. With nothing to loose, I got some 150 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper and place it on a flat surface. Pressing the sides of the seating unit onto the sandpaper, I took a few strokes. It was undoubtedly cutting!! I could see dust from the seating unit left behind. This was the only good news of the day. I could abrade fine detail plastic with aluminum oxide sandpaper. With one end seating unit fitted in one end compartment, I thought, I should try the other end compartment of the same carriage with the sanded unit. That is when I discovered that the two end compartments were different. I pulled out all units I had and found it fit some but not all. It was a random distribution fitment. Which puzzled me. Perhaps the Hornby mold is for multiple carriages at once, and they are slightly different to account for mold release? I really struggle to understand this randomness in the Hornby carriages. I continued sanding until that one end seating unit until it fit any end compartment. I measured that one end seating unit and made all other end seating units the same size. At last, all end seating units fit any end seating compartment. Yippee. I did the same for the middle seating units, making them fit any middle compartment. While the amount of material wasn't huge, it was up to 0.3 mm (0.012"). And then the penny dropped. When sanding away material from the sides, the holes in the seating units for the posts were NOT moving inboard. They were being abraded away. The posts for the canopy did fit into the corners when I was done, but it was now an extremely tight fit. Further, they were no longer at the proper vertical orientation, leading to misalignment with the holes for the posts in the canopy. I managed to get the canopy on, but it was a struggle. Actual Results https://youtube.com/shorts/ig3gEQiqPDQ?si=O0vr1AlfydGLO92Y https://youtube.com/shorts/W-EO831zEjY?si=bwLLSMreB0Okw_gE While the appearance is reasonable, I can do better. I've spent an extraordinary amount of rework in CAD, accommodating the new dimensions found by sanding away material. The canopy and seating units were all changed in CAD to account for this emperical fitment. There will obviously be another pass on these carriages. The current canopy units are probably a scrap. I'll keep the other seating units, the change will be invisible to the naked eye, so with a dash of paint... Bee

The new search function is STELLAR! With the recent video releases about the Coronation Coaches, I simply dialed "coronation coaches" (including quotes) into the search boxes and out the thread popped. Several months old, no issues at all finding it. Very different from the previous interation of the forum, wherein search was useless. I had occasion to look up the "cattle waggon" and the "alternate livestock" waggon. They popped right out as well. From me, that rates a well done. It actually functions to return desired results! Bee

Although you could not have missed it.... The full Sam interview

No worries. You can count on us to get you through! Bee

And get thee to a store to purchase a multimeter, so you can check continuity and polarity. The cheapest one will do! Bee

Inner and outer loops have inverted polarity. When you switch the points, you create a dead short. You need to have same polarity on inner and outer loops. I can see the track clip is 180° out inner vs outer. Insert track clips from same side (outside or inside). Also, it is not terrific practice to have two independent power supplies cross connected. They need to be isolated Put insulating fishplates (track connectors) between the points that take you from inner to outer loop Bee

+1 on the maps @Kristian-353752 Awesome source

Taken just now. My summary page no longer shows the badge system. Individual posts do show badges Bee

Not one to scoff at another's skills. No one is born with innate knowledge of woodworking. Its just experience, time and care. I'm on the other end of the spectrum @Moccasin . I have a shop that I've spent a lifetime accumulating tools, and the scars indicative of the mistakes. Of which I have made plenty. Nothing will be better than the one you make. Period. Full stop. It will be ideal for purpose and place, since you designed it for that spot. Your first one will not be "perfect". So what. No one will take notice. They will be too busy train spotting. A small outlay in handtools will be less than the cost of baseboard kits you buy in the long run, by far. You do not need an insane shop. Just my 2 pence Bee

My inspiration? The images in those old books. The modeling? I've always liked to make things. For myself. For others. For companies. Inventing something out of raw materials. Can I make that? Yes I can! The Liverpool and Manchester Railway? I was browsing in a used bookstore. I encountered, simply by chance, an authoritative tome on the LMR by Thomas. Stellar work, brilliantly researched, loaded with images. I had to know more! Well, here we are. Bee