What did you order or the post deliver? (Worldwide Models)

[Yavianice]

1 hour ago, MichiK said:

The new Z-gauge Rheingold by Märklin - a very well done set if it wasn't for the almost non-existing paint job on the wagon ends. Nothing that couldn't be bettered with a bit of paint in a few minutes, but nonetheless extremely annoying!

 

Did you contact the retailer to see if this is intentional or some manufacturer defect? I did buy a Fleischmann car without wheels on it once (it was covered by the price and assumed it would be ok, but no), so European manufacturers can forget all kinds of crazy stuff.

[MichiK]

Unfortunately it's intentional. It's how they started back in 1974, only then the base colour was red, which made it much less obvious. Then, maybe a decade ago, they produced several sets with the fronts painted correctly, which makes this sloppyness even more incomprehensable. It made a big impression in the community, but not a particulary good one!

[Suica]

I love BR 103 so I bought another one by Piko. It's a little bigger than usual. 🙃

 

[Martijn Meerts]

So your next one is going to be 1/1 scale? 🙂

 

[Suica]

On 6/24/2019 at 10:54 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

So your next one is going to be 1/1 scale? 🙂

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-E-LOK-E03-002-DEUTSCHE-BUNDESBAHN-TEE-INTERCITY-RHEINGOLD/311769618273?hash=item4896ead761:g:YNIAAOSwx-9Wt-YZ

🤔

[Martijn Meerts]

Don't think my neighbours would enjoy me having a locomotive in my back yard 😄

 

[Welshbloke]

There's been a slight diversion...

 

 

The CB&Q 9911A, the sole surviving EMC E5. Been after one for a while as I've been following its fortunes via the IRM website for years. Passenger cars are some 2000ish Con-Cor for now, just ignore the "Southern" lettering until I can find some Burlington decals. Also have a split from set California Zephyr baggage and "The Round Up" CB&Q business car on the way, the latter when Hobbysearch catch up with orders and send it.

[nah00]

Finally found (at a reasonable price) the locomotive I've been looking for for a long time, the Life-Like Proto Heritage Y3 2-8-8-2 for Norfolk & Western. Not exactly DCC ready but it runs at slow speed better than the later Walthers reissue and was able to pull 17 33 foot hoppers and a caboose around the layout at scale speed with no problem. Hands down my favorite steamer, some of these almost made it to 1960 in service with N&W since they were such well designed locomotives. The detail on this is unbelievable for 2002, it puts some BLI models to shame. Needless to say very happy to finally have it in my collection, it's been one I've been looking for since I went to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke and saw its slightly larger and later brother the Y6. 

Side view, kinda hard to get a feel for the detail.

It looks properly massive coming around a bend.

The 33 foot hoppers give some sense of how large these locomotives were. 

Edited July 6, 2019 by nah00

[GDorsett]

Picked up two Class 37s and a Deltic on EBay cheaply. All are old Hornby/Triang models. I am not a fan of British trains, but I like the Class 37 and it sounds pretty good. The Deltic was just in the lot.

And so begins the process of heresy as I Americanize them...because reasons...

 

 

 

[Welshbloke]

The Deltic will be Lima rather than Triang, surely?

 

I have a Triang 37 and a couple of their 31s, they use the same design of motor bogie with a moulded nub standing in for the centre axle. Despite this the 31 catches the look of the real thing superbly.

 

One thought about the Deltic: The prototype loco had a large headlight fitted to each nose, in the hope of securing export orders. I don't think it was ever wired up as the loco never left Britain. Dapol still sell the old Kitmaster kit for this loco. That combined with the Lima chassis might be a good starting point for a "might have been" north American Deltic?

Edited July 7, 2019 by Welshbloke
Deltic extra

[GDorsett]

the 37s are thr Triang, then, as it has a small, armature motour in the front truck with ,as you stated, a fake moulded stand-in for the centre axle. The Deltic is a Hornby with a traditional, Bachmann-grade blech pancake motour.

Are the Triang motours good enough to salvage or should I just continue with the original plan of swapping the chassis?

[Welshbloke]

The Triang motors in good condition are fine runners. Early ones had ribbed wheel treads (no idea why Triang thought this would help) and deep flanges, later models have smooth treads and finer flanges. They will benefit from extra pickups on the trailing bogie if these models are too early to have same. You can buy upgrade kits from Ultrascale with wheels to modern profiles, those plus a piece of copper clad board and some nickel silver wire could give you four or six wheel pickup on the trailing bogie.

 

One of my 31s has a neodymium magnet in place of the tired original, it will move at noticeably lower voltages than the other one. It came to me minus a lot of motor bogie parts but boxed and with a very tidy bodyshell. The second was bought for £13 as a non-runner, but after a clean and a replacement motor bogie baseplate it works. Which meant I had to buy a replacement armature for the first one after all, as I wasn't going to break a running loco with a reasonable bodyshell for parts...

 

I would say to give them a good clean and try them. Don't dismantle the magnet from the pole pieces as it will lose its magnetism, unless you're fitting a neo magnet. Start by undoing the screw going into the underside of the fuel tank, which holds the body on. Then lift the springy metal U-shaped plate and slide it out to free the motor bogie from the main frame. Undo the horizontal bolt which passes through the black plastic pickup and brush holder, lift it clear of the pole pieces and magnet, then you can clean and straighten the pickups if needed. Pop the brushes out as it's easier to refit the pickup mount that way. A drop of oil on each axle end, the armature bearings and the worms should be all it needs, assuming nothing is missing or heavily worn.

[GDorsett]

These two appear to be nonfunctional at the moment, but they don't turn well. I figured a good cleaning and fresh oil. should ease them up fairly nicely, although  I am having difficulty taking it apart. Going to try again later when I don't have to get up for work in the morning. I'll have issues mounting an American coupler to them, but it's nothing I haven't faced before. The Hornby pancake I am told runs, but I lack the proper testing area for either. Two are waiting for their paint to fall off so I can begin body work.

Any tips on taking them apart?

Do they go well with decoders?

[marknewton]

I broke with the habits of a lifetime and bought some NSWGR models for myself. The loco is a Wombat Models 30T, and the carriages are Casula Hobbies R type cars. I’ve worked on three of the preserved 30Ts, so I thought it was appropriate to have a model of one. The R cars are exquisite models, and they are so typical of the branchline passenger trains I remember from childhood.

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

That's a really nice combination, love the colour on the coaches.

 

[Welshbloke]

On 7/8/2019 at 2:07 AM, GDorsett said:

These two appear to be nonfunctional at the moment, but they don't turn well. I figured a good cleaning and fresh oil. should ease them up fairly nicely, although  I am having difficulty taking it apart. Going to try again later when I don't have to get up for work in the morning. I'll have issues mounting an American coupler to them, but it's nothing I haven't faced before. The Hornby pancake I am told runs, but I lack the proper testing area for either. Two are waiting for their paint to fall off so I can begin body work.

Any tips on taking them apart?

Do they go well with decoders?

Can't comment on decoders, but here's how to strip one down without splitting magnet and pole pieces:

 

Remove the bogie from the loco mainframe by lifting and sliding the spring clip. Next, undo the bolt which runs horizontally through the magnet. This will allow you to lift the brush holder and pickup assembly off. Underneath, undo the four flathead screws and remove the baseplate. The wheels will drop out, possibly along with the traction magnets. The pole pieces and magnet can be slid out through the bottom as an assembly, taking the armature with them. Reassemble in reverse order, fitting the brushes last (they will slide in from above, which is far easier than trying to refit the holder and pickups with them in situ).

 

Traction magnets? Well, at the time Triang used steel track and therefore introduced "Magnadhesion". They do nothing on nickel silver rail but are needed to hold the armature in place and keep the gear mesh even.

 

On my last one I straightened the pickups, gave the whole thing a good scrub in warm water and hand soap, then let it dry. Reassembled with some light oil on every bearing and it sprang into life. The magnet is probably slightly weak but it's mostly a display item at the moment, I have a later version with a neodymium magnet fitted which is a lot more enthusiastic!

 

If your Deltic is the Hornby Railroad version (as opposed to the Lima original) then it should have a can motor in one bogie, with pickups in the unpowered one. Hornby upgraded from the old pancake motors after buying the Lima tooling. Can't comment on servicing as I've never had one apart.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Welshbloke

[GDorsett]

Alright, good to note. I completly missed the bolt going through the magnets and mistook it for a pressure-fit one like on the older open-frame Lionel pre-war (and a lot of post-war) models. I will try that next. Hopefully there's enough life left in the magnets to do well when paired with a sister without overdrawing and killing a decoder. If it runs well enough, then I'll keep the drive.

The Deltic does, in fact, have a pancake motour. Currently weighing options for a chassis swap, although I may just do it as is with a non-sound decoder and leave it for small uses and fantasy stuff as it won't be very powerful and won't be quiet.

[Welshbloke]

My experience of old Lima pancakes is that a decoder will improve them (as you're essentially fitting an onboard PWM controller), but they're never going to be silent.

 

Super Neo Magnets aren't difficult or hugely expensive to source: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F264341619513

 

Judging by the drastically reduced starting voltage this will have brought the current draw down too. Part of me is tempted to throw some upgrades at my 31 which currently lacks one, but spending £40+ in materials to upgrade a £13 loco is a bit of a stretch!

[GDorsett]

I have finally acquired modern US coach models!
Six NEw Jersey Transit bi-level coaches have arrived!

I've got the four special "banner" cars, a normal coach, and a toilet-equipped coach. I was hoping to have a cab car as well, but the store I ordered these from doesn't have any in stock anymore, so I will have to find cab cars elsewhere, or make my own. Will be ordered four more next week so I have a full, ten car train. Will be pulling them with an ALP-45DP.

 

I must say, as I am very much used to upgrading old coaches, these are a good relief from the usual mediocre stuff as they are FANTASTIC!

All cars come from the factory with full interiors from end-to-end and on both floors, they come form the factory fully lit, and they have every single possible warning label on the car that you could possibly see printed legibly, even on the roof. Blew me away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serotta1972]

Nice, I’m waiting for the N scale versions.

 

[brill27mcb]

Rapido Trains have announced the New Jersey Transit Comet II / Amtrak Horizon (plus other lines) coaches.

 

Rich K.

[GDorsett]

And they're over priced.

[Welshbloke]

A Dapol Pacer has happened. Mostly as it was about half rrp in an antique shop I frequent!

 

I would not have paid full price by any means. Despite a protracted development process the side windows aren't deep enough to look right (Dapol were warned about this when they first showed CAD images years ago, but ignored the advice). It also has an interesting idea of 1:148 scale when compared to their Class 153, which should be the same width and height. It does run reasonably well though!

 

[bill937ca]

An Auhagen 14 478 corner Eckhaus kit buildable with 3 different corner configurations from DM Toys. Shipped  on July 16th from Germany.

[marknewton]

I built a couple of Auhagen kits for our tramway layout, the Ringbahn. They go together beautifully. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.