Silver Sidelines

It is well over twelve months since Hornby’s Duke of Gloucester arrived. Much time was spent last year modifying and improving my original ‘preserved’ version so that it would be more suitable for my 1960s based layout. My original Hornby Duke of Gloucester Special Edition back dated to 1960 Time has moved on and there are now lots of models of Duke of Gloucester available at affordable prices, both ‘preserved’ and 1960’s style. I have now invested in a second model, this time the 1960's version. As a result I have had to buy a second set of etched metal name plates.   Hornby Duke of Gloucester 1960's style Back in January 2014 I had bought a set of plates from Modelmaster to replace the rather crude plastic offerings from Hornby. The Modelmaster plates were fitted to my Hornby Special Edition model with double sided tape. With the arrival of my second model these plates were soon removed and refitted onto the new 1960’s model. My ‘Special Edition’ model...

This Post is a direct follow up to my previous post and provides some illustrations of the mid level ‘round and round’ (the continuous run), and the low level reversing loop. The pictures also feature Hornby R3191 which has recently taken up a lot of my time. It is getting to be quite an expensive engine – well if I had to charge for the time I have spent fettling it. The Grand Plan – with photo locations As planned and initially constructed the layout was to be ‘Out and Back’ with a Main Terminus, a double track mainline leading to ‘the Main Junction’ and then heading off to a return loop with storage sidings. I have annotated the track plan above to show where the pictures were taken. The locations are labelled A to L in exactly the order that trains travel around the layout. Location A Starting out – the double track main line from the Terminus Station   The double track main line from the Terminus Station starts out at the lowest level. This allows the...

I was my intention to finish with Duke of Gloucester (DoG) and to move on.   First however I would just fit some jointed coupling rods (from a Britannia).     It seems that nothing is quite that straight forward with my model and I uncovered some other issues hopefully will not bother too many of you, but just might be of interest to some of you. Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester – a rare view in service When first taken out of the box my model was a reluctant runner first crawling and then speeding up and then crawling again.   I thought that I had cured this behaviour when I removed the bottom plate and adjusted the pickups.   Well this weekend when trying to reverse the loco (on curved track) I was aware of a shower of sparks from beneath the driver’s side of the cab!   The picture below was taken when the engine first arrived but I have added the little red arrow to highlight a patch of bare metal – part of the gear mechanism which seems to pro...

Duke of Gloucester with Spring Buffers and kinky reversing gear When I posted the picture above a number of you drew attention to the reversing mechanism disappearing rather abruptly beneath the footplate.   I just added it to the list of things to be sorted. Duke of Gloucester – reversing gear in close up Well it is sorted. 12 hours with nail varnish remover (acetone). As I suspected the plastic reversing ‘rod’ is moulded with a pin to locate it into the support cast as part of the chassis.   It took about 12 hours to soften / break up the Hornby adhesive.   I used a small screw driver to add drips of acetone and I kept the ‘joint’ replenished all evening and then again next day.   After 12 hours I was able to lever the plastic away from the metal casting.   The reversing rod felt a little bit like nylon and was not affected by the acetone.   I have to say I was at a loss to say exactly why the rod was kinked.   I decided ...

As a break from work work I took a day off to replace the buffers on my Hornby Duke of Gloucester (DoG). Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester as I think it should be with Sprung Buffers I was inspired by Mat t otherwise known as ‘Bluebell Model Railway’ of RMweb. Fitting the buffers to the front was straightforward. I followed Matt’s suggestion and used Hornby Spare Part No. X9313. My usual supplier did not have the R (red) variant so mine were black and had to be painted red. There are two square holes in the back of the buffer beam which had been used to locate the original buffers. After cutting off the old shanks I used a 0.5mm size drill to extend these holes through to the front. I then gradually enlarged the holes from the front starting with 1/16 drill bit, moving up to 5/64 and finishing with 3/32. The Hornby body shell is made of relatively soft plastic and I rotated the drill bits with my fingers. Finally I used a craft knife again to clean the edges of the hole...