What About The Bee

I must say, I do think Going Spare still has it right. That part has the appearance of a packaging clip. 'Tis a pity it is not a Hess clip, there is a very avid bunch of collectors who would pay you dearly for that part. Hess Toy Trucks initially were the gift of Leon Hess to his customers. Mr. Hess owned an empire of gasoline service stations. He also owned a major sporting team, the NY Jets. Quite the wealthy individual. In 1964, his first "gift" to the community was a Hess branded gasoline delivery truck. My guess he was attempting to indoctrinate children to the Hess brand. Parents liked it, you could purchase it for a song. The tradition carried forward and eventually took on a life of its own. The Hess Toy Truck continues, even though Mr. Hess is now gone, as is his empire, sold on to others. A first year, 1964 Hess Toy Truck recently sold at auction for 2500 USD. Bee

I am hopeful this is the correct page. http://rutherglenmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/ Bee

Hi Simon YouTube insists on making any video less than 60 seconds into a "Short". Shorts have different aspect ratios and controls as compared to standard videos. To fulfill your request, I put both videos together, and then added a lot of dead space to the end of the video. Skip the dead space. You may now play with the controls to your hearts content! Cheers Bee

A very short video of a triple headed LMR consist. The very definition of a tail chaser. I still had more boxes of rolling stock, unused. Spot the loaded sheep wagon. I must say, that does look good to me. Very happy with that. Locomotives only in triple head Bee

The title changed. Used to say "Hess parts", now says "These parts" This makes the commentary below Rana's post somewhat cryptic and a non-sequitor. Bee

To amplify Going Spare's remarks, yes, Hess Toy Trucks sometimes did come in display boxes. A nightmare to gift wrap but a delight to children. Bee

Happy New Year to all assorted Hornby Enthusiasts!! Bee

Hello Rana "Hess Toy Trucks" have been part of American Christmas Tradition since 1964. Each year, there is a new model. While I cannot, of course, be confident that the Hess parts you have go to a Hess Toy Truck, I think the coincidence of the exactly spelled name worthy of pursuit Bee

As I understand it, Range Release is 9 Jan 2024, 0900 GMT. Bee

Hi Audit Data If the listing says "DCC Ready", this means there is a blanking plug. The blanking plug is used for DC. To convert to DCC / HM7000, you remove the blanking plug and install the decoder. Bee Edit: ...which is easy to do. There are some exceptions. Tiny locomotives, like Rocket, may not have enough room for HM7000.

It is not lost on me. I assumed that cattle on the LMR would be similar to today's cattle. From the previous exercise, I found that the height of the slat side is 13.15 mm in OO, 39.45 inches (1.002 meter) on the prototype. Further, that the height of the cattle is 16 mm in OO, 48 inches (1.219 meter) on the prototype. If we are to accept the consist aquatints by Ackermann, and I do, then the cattle depicted by Ackermann are fairly small. So what could the cattle be? Farmers do not like horns. They can inflict painful injury, even accidental death. Horns are bred out, if possible. In a survey of common breeds of cattle in the British Isles, there are only a very few common breeds with horns. Naturally, there are always obscure breeds, like "Glamorgan", but this leads to a rabbit hole of exceptionalism. Common breeds with horns: "White Park" cows are, on average, 51 inches at the shoulder; bulls 57 inches. "English Longhorn" cows are 53 inches; bulls 59 inches. "Highland" cows 38 inches; bulls 44 inches. And that is exhaustive of common British cattle with horns. The perspective of the wagon and cattle is odd. I note, with some amusement, that the bovine I selected in the foreground is among the shortest! The others are taller. Is that perspective? Or taller cattle? Your guess is as good as mine. The cattle in the Ackermann aquatints are probably White Park, given the wide distribution of herds, now even as far as Australia. Langley F68A is advertised as Highland. Hahahaha! Have I just successfully argued myself out of yet another conclusion? 🤪 Bee

Webpage advises that the length is 32 inches ( 0.812 meters). I assume that is Mallard + Tender + Coach. Yes sir, that is big! Bee

Hi Ptolemy As Ellocoloco mentioned, adding to your board, as shown here in pink, permits room for a Radius 2 180° turn, yellow arrow. It expands into a dead space so your Dad may be more amenable to the idea. Bee

My procrastination is deliberate. It permits me more time to analyze without commitment. What cattle to select for this project has been a difficult problem. In thinking of the problem, I remembered the Rule of Three. The Rule of Three You will often encounter this phrase in old books. It is simply another name for a ratio applied to one value to obtain another. I will use the Rule of Three to find a solution for the cattle height, the height of the slat rail and etc. I will begin with the Ackermann long aquatints. These show various consists. Passenger First, Passenger Second, Freight and Livestock. Each consist is shown with a locomotive, sitting on rail. The top of the rail, as it turns out, is a beautiful reference for analysis. I clipped out a cattle wagon and a first class glass carriage and, using the foreground rail as a reference, aligned them side by side. The first rule of three is between arrows 1 and 2 (pink). The number of pixels in the image to the heights shown provide the ratio. The height of the Hornby Glass Carriage provides the known value, 34.9 mm, measured. This will provide us with the height of the slat over the top of the rail. 72 pixels / 88 pixels × 34.9 mm = 28.55 mm The height of the Hornby Chassis, 3 blue, above the rail is also known. It is 15.4 mm. The Hornby Chassis is used for all Hornby LMR rolling stock. Deducting the height of the chassis from the height of the slat side provides us with the height of the superstructure on the cattle wagon. 28.55 mm - 15.4 mm = 13.15 mm. [Result 1 = 13.15mm] Yellow arrow 4 is the height of the super structure. The superstructure includes the floor on the Chassis and the Slat side. The Rule of Three will provide the height of the slat side above the chassis compared to the height of the shoulder of the cattle above the chassis. Yellow 4 pixels divided by green 5 pixels. This provides us with the ratio of 0.82. That is, the height of the slat side is 82% the height of the cattle. But here, I cannot have an arbitrary bovine, I must use a commercial product. I will trial Langley F68A. Langley F68A shoulder height is 16mm, yellow 8. We must be careful. There is a floor there. The cattle stand on the floor, not the chassis. The Hornby floor is 0.84mm, 7 orange. Rearranging terms in the Rule of Three by Algebra, I obtain (0.82 × height cattle) + thickness floor = 0.82 × 16 mm + 0.84 mm = 13.96 mm. [Result 2 = 13.96 mm] At last I have a useful check. If I use Langley F68A, then the height of the slat side over the chassis(result 2) is 13.96 mm. If I use the Hornby Glass Carriage, then the height of the slat side over the chassis (result 1) is 13.15 mm. Those results are in reasonable agreement! Not precise, but close! Langley models are advertised as metal. Perhaps some judicious sanding on the hooves will shorten the cattle, shortening result 2, bringing it closer to result 1. As a final check, what is the shoulder height of the cattle above the rail if I use Langley F68A, green 6. This is arithmetic. Hornby Chassis + thickness Floor + height of cattle = 15.4 mm + 0.84 mm + 16 mm = 32.24 mm. The pixel height of the glass carriage above rail divided by the pixel height of the shoulder of the cattle above rail is a ratio of 1.11. Multiply 32.24 mm by the ratio 1.11 yields 35.91 mm. Well glory be, that is the height of Hornby's glass carriage. Langley F68A it shall be. Bee

Thank you 81F, for the first hand confirmation. Appreciated! Bee

Hi Sidozy Welcome to the forum. Flying Scotsman was a passenger locomotive. A possible idea is a train station. Ticket booths, pedestrian bridges, platforms and lots of people. Maybe even a newspaper stand. Remember to keep your layout goals within reason. We all want a layout like Charlie's Chadwick Model Railway or Oscar Paisley (both on youTube), but those are thousands upon thousands of pounds and decades of experience. Start with a loop and a passenger station. Let your imagination guide you forward. Have fun!! Bee

If we are to keep to the iconography, then Rudolph must lead the conveyance. The practice of a white light forward and a red light to the rear extends all the way back to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway [Signals and Regulations, rules 2 and 3]. This sets up a conflict between long established rules and popular iconography around a beloved holiday. Yet Santa predates the railway industry by more than a millenia, given his fourth century origins. This is Santa, and he determines the rules that apply to his conveyance. If Santa wants Rudolph to guide his train, who is the Railway Safety and Standards Board to disagree. They have no power over Santa. They cannot enforce compliance. The rules of precedence will apply. Rudolph may guide the conveyance, even with his red nose. Bee

Like the title says... Note the numbers of platform workers! Bee

Hi M The fine print near the barcode identifies the product code as R30106. The sticker shows R30106 as well. Those are the correct numbers. I will suggest that the seller actually has this item. Bee Edit: well, the box anyway! 🙂

Hi Sam A good house is built upon a firm foundation. The equivalent for a model railway is the baseboard. You mentioned your Dad was a builder, surely he will understand. By all means, size the baseboard to the layout. The only cautionary note would be to not go too large at first. Start small and accomplish the basics. After the baseboard, a firm level, flat track is a great start. Maybe an operable point. But most of all, have fun!! Bee

I had a careful look at the listing and the seller. Of the 12 images in the listing, only the first two are novel, the remaining 10 are lifted directly from Hornby's pages. The first two show a box, but note the background. Carpet and cardboard are definitely not a Hornby standard. The implication is that the seller has the box [or has gone to extraordinary expense to mock up a Hornby look alike]. The seller has fairly good marks. Been around for 6+ years. Lots of positive feedback, with no negatives and only 1 neutral. Someone didn't get something, so the money was refunded. That's reasonable. If you are really interested, I have found that asking a question of the seller weeds out all the scammers, they do not respond. The last thing I note is the price. It is 99p less than Hornby's price!! That is indeed odd for an eBay seller. Mostly, they try to profit from transaction. Further, the postage is free. From all this, I conclude that the seller has somehow managed to obtain one. How? Why? I cannot say, but this has all the hallmarks of a valid listing. If 99p and free postage is the difference on a £362 item, sure, go for it. If it were me, I'd wait on Hornby. If the seller has one, soon you will too. Bee

Hello 81F Is it true that that Rapido version of Lion, aka Titfield Thunderbolt, has the adapter to Hornby's fine scale chain coupling? I was in your regime of coupling changes with the older Hornby Triang LMR rolling stock and with the Accurascale Chaldrons. Bee

Please do look up Rudolph, 96RAF. Rudolph's association with Montgomery Ward. The Johnny Marks song and the Rankin and Bass animation based on it. You may find a correlation betwixt those and national origin. Santa was never claimed. Bee

Rudolph was my answer from minute #1. Yet I wondered if Rudolph had entered the British Pantheon of Christmas Characters. So I held off, waiting to see if American Christmas Characters had managed to leap the Atlantic. Rudolph with your nose so bright is the obvious and very, very correct answer. Bee

Hi Sam 👋 The smile on his face says it all! Well done Sam. Atom, I think that set comes without a power supply. There was a lot of chatter about DC power supplies earlier in the thread. Bee