Model Railway - What's your latest acquisition?

Atom3624 said:

Quote : What do you think of the new drivetrains?

I've a couple of new-format Hornby kettles, which I'm having difficulty 'liking' as they're too light and now that there's the flywheel, extra shaft, etc., there's less space to do something about it.

My King Arthur totally destroyed my Lord Nelson until I added yet more lead, but doing so pur most weight over the leading drivers (it works) as all space fully occupied by that shaft and flywheel.

How are you finding a really slow start?

Does the motor have enough torque to turn slowly, hearing the segments moving one-by-one, as I can with my Royal Scot, and Flying Scotsman for that matter, or is there too much inertia, and they need 'coaxing' into rotation, perhaps throttling back just enough to keep going? Unquote.

Al

The new drive train as fitted to the Merchant Navies is excellent. But getting the best out of any model performance wise, also depends heavily on the controller used.

On controllers,  I steer well clear of anything with "Feedback" or "Half wave", as these great electrical ideas do NOT work well with models that have modern quality motors... I'm quite happy using Gaugemaster's panel mounted controllers for normal mainline operation. For shunting in Locosheds & Goods Yards I prefer a "resistance" type controller, although the ones I have from "Kentrol" are I think, no longer available, as the technician died a few years ago. "Resistance" controllers give much better performance at slow speeds, but won't allow locos to reach their maximum speed potential, so perfect when shunting.

Weighting up locos. If you use fishing tackle lead shot, certainly here in Spain, you can get packets with a range of sizes from about 0.2 of a gram (just a couple of millimetres in diameter) up to 3-4g. You'd be surprised how many dozens of these I can squeeze into every nook & cranny inside the boiler/firebox area. The Hornby Bulleid Spam Cans, all have plenty of space...

The King Arthurs & Black 5's I have weighted, definately need lots of tiny pellets. I glue them in with UHU so that I can remove the pellets if necessary.   

The Lord Nelson is a little underweight at 221g. But I had no problem squeezing in another 114g, to bring the locos (excluding tender) weight up to 335g. I also found the tender to be too light and subject to bogie bounch, so I added a little more weight in that too....   

The Duke 71000

3 beautiful L&M cattle wagons - er I mean ‘3rd class open carriages’... to go with Centenary Rocket.  It was brilliant of Hornby to price them so competitively, to offset the high price of the Rocket set.

I really hope the absence of Limited Edition branding on them, indicates Hornby’s intention to produce another batch next year, for all those who had their orders cancelled!  

2020 has been an amazing year by Hornby - not only producing a locomotive I never believed I’d get a chance to own, but also additional suitable rolling stock, never previously produced.  

Thanks 71k.

I always add weight to tenders as well, depending upon which, and what the demonstrated coal load is, but would try to approach 1/3 to half the locomotive weight - prototypical.

I found the LN tender another task as well, but folding in sheet lead to the inside sides of the coal bunker helped enormously.

I may need to look into the controllers soon, not wanting it to be too high-priced, but reliable and able to run any / all locomotives ... I'm starting to look at Gaugemaster.

Budget's full of locomotives / rolling stock for now ....

I've pre-ordered quite a collection which will now be nicely spread over 2021 ... some modern image as well.

Al.

Another arrival, boxed B12 with smoke, bought for spares. It has numerous issues, all fixable.

Another arrival, 1973 Siver Seal 1st issue Roberts hopper. It kept dropping a wheelset Out of the chassis, a little work to the chassis with kettle Steam ( get a parent to do this, hor steam is dangerous)and a hairdryer solved the issue. Awaiting restoration

Another arrival 1975-1976 issue standard BR brake van, a common model, but difficult to find in this box.

Another arrival 1975-1976 issue standard BR brake van, a common model, but difficult to find in this box.

Another arrival, R.676 green bolster wagon.

Hornby 'Clan Line' Merchant Navy Class R2169.

Hi

My latest buy a Wrenn R1 0 6 0 tank in N T G yellow livery, Nice little loco good motor just needs a new pick up strip and a single wire soldering on which goes to the motor. Looking at the price of N T G open wagons, I may get a new body and make a "neverwas" a "Blue Circle Cement" tank either in grey / black  or yellow / black with retro Blue Circle Cement logos on the tanks would look nice with a small train of yellow Circle Cement Presflo cement wagons and Triang  PCV Blue Circle Cement Cemflo cement wagons which I have.