Model Railway - What's your latest acquisition?

Well I got paid early, as the company always does, and pleasant-surprisingly with the 'normal bonus', basically as we've been pretty busy throughout the year, albeit under quite challenging conditions ....

I decided I was still frustrated waiting for my delayed pre-orders of 12 months ago, nearly, so decided to (just) take advantage of a reasonable offer on a brand new, blue, new-tool 6220 Coronation - now sold out.

I have a few 'back burner' projects, one is to potentially find a Clun Castle that doesn't need the world bank, or rename a 'more normal' new tool Castle ... still pending.

Another is ... WAS ... to locate a good condition late crest with speedo cable rebuilt Scot and rename Scots Guardsman - even got as far as having etched plates from Fox's waiting for the rename ... and blow me, but starting a search for Hornby Royal Scots and the first one which appeared ... 46115 Scots Guardsman herself - used but apparently in good condition - purchased !!

Time for a busy and Merry Christmas!!

Al.

6220 has arrived.

As loco is connected up to the tender, it can be tested - worked perfectly with my 9V battery - all wheels which should pickup, do.

I had purchased a 'new' R3677 over 12 months ago, and whilst superb - great now - it had shorting out issues related to the plunger contacts within the chassis / base plate - too much solder!

No such problems here.

Now to wait for the Coronation coaches - due in March I'm advised.

Al.

All axles and worm drive appeared quite dry - a little unusual for recent Hornby purchases ...

6220 has now been running for perhaps one hour and runs superbly ...

A couple of problems have been self inflicted - one more a pain than the other ...

I managed to chip perhaps 2/3 of the small smokebox door handle off ... not a good move on a brand new locomotive ... several attempts to get the appropriate length later, and I manage to cut a 'just right' length of thin guitar / piano wire, remove what remained of the old plastic 'handle' and glue the wire in place - perfect.

Next, I added lead - locomotive and tender - no problems encountered - greased up the visibly dry worm / gear and gave a dab of oil on all joints, bushes and axles.

Weight? Loco and tender = 600g.

By total coincidence I checked my 'older new tool' R3677 Duchess of Hamilton, and it was just 2g heavier at 602g!!

Detailing all added, I noticed after fitting one lamp, the stripes are only on one side, and as sod's law dictates, I had this lamp on the wrong side - stripes to be on the 'outside'.

Now the bigger problem, I decided to add lookalike false coal - better than the moulding anyway.

Tender just appears to be a 'hopper' so I insert a reasonable blob of PVA and start loading up the coal, tidying up with stronger glue around the top ... but when I return, it's leaking white goo, actually PVA from the front tender axle!!

A few naughty words, OK quite a lot ... later, I cleaned her up, then placed with kitchen roll and bubblewrap to cushion, on a radiator, to accelerate the drying ... after a few hours it appears to have worked, and after a good clean up of the contacts, axle and one of the wheels which required it, I gave her another run ... still perfect.

I've some crew members coming - due to be inserted within the next few days' time!

Very happy with the new acquisition.

Al.

HI Al

I found that by sprinkling real coal over the fake plastic coal worked well. Just painted the fake coal with PVA and sprinkled it on. I bought some real (OO gauge) coal at a show sometime back - small, medium and large and just mix it up. BB

Hi BB, I've had some 'O' gauge coal for which most appeared a more-correct 2-4mm for OO gauge, and I've had 'OO' which was ~1mm, perhaps some at 2mm - too small!!

Since when were large steam locomotives using 3" lumps of coal?

Normally they seem to be 6-12" lumps - 2-4mm.

I kept on meaning to get a 3mm sieve and sieve some of the too-variable coal available.

I do agree, there's no substitute for 'real coal', but the synthetic coal you glue is is still miles better than the cheesy mouldings many make for their locomotives.

Al.

The encoder for the Elite turned up and the detent on it is mor epronounced than the original so it seems this replacement item maybbe the solution to the infuriating Elite characteristic of changing a setting just as you go to press the knob.

Inspired by The Duke’s use of Fulgurex point motors, I ordered up five of these tiny motor - gearbox units (the lead screw is only 55mm long and can obviously be cropped to length), which I intend to use as point motors once I have developed the design. I intended to use microswitches to limit the travel, but a friend has suggested using electronics to sense motor current at limit stall as a more reliable way of doing it. I am more of a mechanical chap than electronics so we shall see.

The lead screw is M4 fine with a thread pitch of 0.5mm. Point tie bar throw is only 3.5mm so if I use a 2:1 ratio bell-crank at 400RPM output speed the traverser nut (not shown) will take 14 turns of the lead screw to travel 7mm  in just over 2 seconds. Microswitches will stop the motor at the required limits of travel. A couple of diodes will allow the motor to ‘reverse’ out when the point is selected in the other direction. Looking forward to mocking this up on the bench and not destroying my points.

Interesting project Rob. Look forward to hearing / seeing more. R-

Another common to find item has arrived, but not easy to find mint boxed now.

A common to find item has arrived,  but getting hard to find boxed nowadays.

Bought as a poor runner that shorts out.  An easy fix, China made but from Tri-ang moulding plates.  One for the workshop for minor paintwork, repair and a thorough clean and serivce.