Alterations once again in the fiddle yard and station approach area. Firstly I've removed the up slow and up fast lines in order to add a couple more track-circuited sections. The four-aspect signals (temporary place keepers destined to be replaced by a gantry) mark where the previous track sections have been split into two in order to more precisely control local terminating services on their approach to the station. I've been putting off this upheaval for months now as removal of track in this critical area means the layout is inoperable until everything is replaced and re-wired.
Also of note is the fact that the middle level has been truncated at this point. The position of this hang-over from the original US layout was far too close to the four-track mainline here where the track is forced to curve around a cut-out above the loft entrance. In order to make convincing scenery possible in this area the middle level is being slewed closer to the rear of the layout by a couple of inches.
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I have a huge backlog of coupler fitting to attend to, mainly because to get things running I tend to fit Kadees to end vehicles and leave the tension lock couplings in place within rakes. Some of these temporary measures are over two years old now, suprising given that I hate tension locks with a vengeance - time certainly flies.
So, freshly laden with guilt, couplers and a height gauge, I've taken some small steps towards resolving the situation, starting with my fleet of JGA hoppers. One of Bachmann's least botched arrangements, the NEM socket is actually at the correct height, but due to sloppy tolerances the installed couplers can droop under load - the trip pins can thus catch on pointwork and cause derailments.
An easy one to put right, for a change. Lever the coupler pocket out with a small screwdriver and replace it upside-down to gain a little height. Then fit your chosen Kadee coupler with a shim of 10 thou plastikard underneath it to remove any slop in the pocket. I find this gives me an exact match against the Kadee height gauge seen in the photo.
I'm using Kadee #18 medium-length couplers here and they give a nice close-coupled effect as can be seen in the photo - the two vehicles are pulled as far apart as they'll go. When propelled the vehicles will negotiate a crossover made from Peco large radius points without buffer locking and also just about get round my 30 inch radius curves. If you've got tighter radii then try the slightly longer #19 couplers.
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Lately I've turned my attention to passenger stock, something of a neglected area as I've always preferred freight operations. Although I've stored away a variety of coaches over the last 2 years, the immediate problem when trying to press them into service is that of couplings. All of my locos are fitted with Kadees, while newly purchased stock obviously has the incompatible tension lock horrors. Even worse, most of my older stock has screw couplings, probably the biggest model railway mistake I've ever made. They might look fine in photographs, but they're impossible to uncouple when they're 20 feet away and tucked under a corridor connection. Time to fit some Kadees....
The rather nice Bachmann Mark 1s were an obvious place to start, but unfortunately the boys from Barwell have completely fouled up the NEM coupler socket once again - as well as being too high the coupler is forced downwards by the buffer beam and to cap it all the fit of all components is sloppier than a sloppy thing. Hardly a recipe for reliable coupling and uncoupling.
The quick and dirty way around this is to cut the bottom face off the NEM socket, leaving an inverted u-shaped channel. Insert packing pieces into the channel (80 thou plastikard worked for me) to lower the Kadee coupler (number 20) to the correct height. Finally, to hold it all together, drill a 0.9mm hole through the lot, push a track pin through (circled in red in the photo) and apply superglue. Not an ideal arrangement, but it works....
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Six locos fitted with DCC decoders and couplers today. The Heljan 47298 is newly arrived for renumbering as another 1970s machine (identity undecided) and has a Lenz 1035E decoder with Kadee #18 couplers. The Bachmann 08s have been sitting around for a while awaiting Lenz 1035A decoders and Kadee #19 couplers.
All locos have had their pickups adjusted for reliable running. In the case of the 47 this is just a routine tweek to ensure they touch the backs of the wheels, but the Bachmann 08s need more extensive work. Famous for their poor pickups that clog with dirt within an hour or two, the 08s won't work reliably as supplied. In the short term I'm trying a solution I picked up elsewhere - grip the end of the pickup strip with a pair of needle-nose pliers and twist through 90 degrees so that the edge of the pickup (rather than the little pip) bears on the wheel tread. How effective this will be in the long term I don't know, but it's a quick job and I've got nothing to lose by trying.
Finally, while I'd got various 08s in pieces I finally remembered to take a shot showing how to get the cab off.
Insert something fine such as a jeweller's screwdriver between the inner and outer cab mouldings as shown in the inset photograph. Lever the two layers of the cab gently apart until the tab will clear the inner moulding and allow the cab to slide upwards. Pull the cab assembly up and off, taking care not to damage anything.
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No modelling whatsoever for almost a week, due to a heavyweight cold followed by extreme hayfever. It's hard to ballast track when sneezing continually blows the ballast away!
I've passed some of the time by catching up with my scanning backlog, including this mighty Class 50 biding it's time in the centre road at Birmingham New Street 16 years ago. My second favourite loco of all time (surpassed only by the slightly mightier Westerns) these were regulars at New Street and most days could be relied upon to produce one of these centre road shots. I seem to have remarkably few photos, nevertheless. I suppose familiarity bred contempt.
Unsuprisingly I've dug this negative out because of the various pre-production photos of the Hornby Class 50 that have been doing the rounds in recent weeks. As long as Hornby correct the serious errors in the front end before it's release, I should be buying quite of few of these. I might even move the layout's theoretical location in order to accomodate them if they're good enough.
You never think you'll miss them until they're gone. Imagine it's a boiling hot day and you're stuck in one of these just outside New Street for 15 minutes while the chap in the power box shows his holiday snaps around. As always the heating is jammed on maximum and you've managed to pick the seat over the engine for that little bit of extra warmth - good call. With no breeze to speak of, opening the windows just alters the pitch of the annoying rattle, and the guy sitting next to you obviously thinks anti-perspirant is something that happens to other people.
Ah! Nostalgia!. But where are the ready-to-run models of these critical pieces of equipment?
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Whilst the performance of the Heljan Class 47 is normally exemplary, I've had a handful of lame ducks sitting around awaiting attention for well over a year. These locos would run jerkily, switch their directional lights at random and even change direction of their own accord. With more than enough 47s to cover services on my layout, tackling this has never been a high priority, but now I've solved the problem I wish I'd done it sooner.
My erratic runners were merely down to the pins & solder on the underside of the circuit board shorting out against the metal chassis. Slap a piece of insulating tape over the offending areas and the problem is solved in less than 2 minutes. The black tape in the inset photograph is my 'fix' and the smaller piece of yellow tape is original Heljan. Thanks are due to Richard Pedder for giving me a clue on this one at the appropriate time.
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Various bits of track work have been carried out in the station area, although if you look at the similar view taken a month ago at this location, you'd be hard pushed to spot the changes. The sidings to the right of the picture have been fixed down and wired. A couple of Kadee uncoupling magnets have been installed under them and brown paper covers have been fitted over the point motor holes, not to mention a few other voids left from previous layouts.
A first coat of paint has been applied to the track the Class 92 is on and all lines to the right, although it's not easy to tell from the photograph - my fault for going for a glint shot, I suppose. This is the first step on the road to ballasting, not a pleasant task but I am looking forward to whipping those track pins out afterwards. They're not too bad in real life, but in photographs they stand out like a sore thumb.
The new Class 92s with 5 pole motors from Hornby are still undergoing trials. The new motor is a huge improvement over it's predecessor and some impressive crawling can easily be achieved. In all other areas the locos are unchanged, however, so I'm still plagued with shoddy assembly, poor pick-up and laughable haulage capacity. Streets ahead of Lima, though, as that pile of Class 60s in the background will testify. All Lima locomotives are now barred from the layout - what day do the bin-men come?
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