Silver Sidelines

In recent posts I have detailed corridor connectors for Bachmann Collett coaches and I have touched on the Hornby Hawksworth Full Brake. Hornby Hawksworth Coaches as bought (left) and as modified (right) When Hornby introduced their Hawksworth coaches back in 2010 I was most impressed with the coach detail but not so happy with Hornby’s corridor connectors. I wanted the coaches to be more closely coupled and it took me a lot of courage to remove Hornby’s moulded black plastic connectors. Closer coupling is quickly achieved by paring away some of the plastic from the Hornby R8220 coupling to enable it to push back further into the coupling pocket.   For the Hawksworth coaches I adopted a ‘belt and braces’ approach and drilled through both the pocket and coupling enabling the coupling to be pinned in place. Subsequently I have discovered that there is often sufficient friction between the coupling and the pocket such that pinning may not be nece...

In an earlier Post I detailed the construction of some corridor connectors for my Bachmann Collett coaches.   I have now added a Hornby Hawksworth Full Brake coach. I like the look of the Hornby Hawksworth coaches, perhaps with the exception of the corridor connectors, which could well be the subject of a separate Post.   I bought my first Hornby Hawksworth Full Brake coach back in October 2010 for use with a rake of ‘express coaches’.   Most recently I have added a Full Brake to the local ‘semi fast’ set.   Initially I had problems keeping the Hawksworth Brake on the track.   At one particular location where there are both horizontal and vertical curves the Hawksworth coach at the front of a seven coach train would jump the track.   In my opinion the Hornby Hawksworth coaches are very light weight and I solved the derailment problems by adding some additional lead ballast.   I think the Table below might be quite intuitive.   This confi...

I thought this a suitable occasion to reminisce.   What railway models did I treat myself to in the past? 46115 ‘Scots Guardsman’ – Mainline Pallitoy model on Bachmann chassis One of my all time favourites was ‘Scots Guardsman’.   This was purchased new from Kings Cross Models at the end of November 1983 for the princely sum of £27.64.   The scanned image below shows the model shortly after purchase with black painted wheels. 46115 ‘Scots Guardsman’ – Mainline Pallitoy model on early Mainline Royal Scot chassis (937 088) Pallitoy’s Scots Guardsman was one of the first Mainline models to be fitted with the new slimmer profile wheels.   I seem to recall that I had serious issues with the quartering of these wheels and that Scots Guardsman was soon given a replacement chassis from an original Royal Scot model with a damaged body that I came across in Trent’s Toy shop in Swindon.   I had a similar issue with Jubilee Class ‘Mars’...

I noticed a thread this last week asking if anyone had comments on the ‘new’ Bachmann A4s – I like mine! I have fond memories of A4s speeding past Darlington Station hauling the Elizabethan.   So it did not take much persuasion for me to buy one of Bachmann’s A4s with a new chassis.   Initial impressions are of a well engineered model that I think looks the part and compares very favourably with the latest Bachmann A1s and A2s. Bachmann A4 DCC Ready Chassis Out of the box with a weight of around 335gm the engine is I feel a bit lightweight.   The motor has lots of power but when hauling seven coaches on my steep gradients there was too much wheel spin.   The reason for the low weight is obvious – there is big gap for a decoder.   Yes I removed the front bogie and Cartazzi axle springs but there was still a lot of wheel spin. With so much space it is relatively straight forward to add extra ballast in the shape of lead sho...

So how was your weekend – wet and wild?   No gardening here so in between the showers I had time to revisit my Bachmann V2s. 60862 Bachmann Catalogue No. 31-565. ‘60862’ is one of Bachmann’s latest offerings which comes DCC ready and has a ‘fixed’ Cartazzi rear axle.   Straight out of the box the engine feels very light weight and at 310 gm it is not as heavy as the models that it replaces.   As I have said here on this Blog before – I like playing with my trains and at 310 gm the resulting tractive effort was not acceptable. The lack of weight is a direct result of the cavity provided by Bachmann for storing a decoder.    Using some of my supply of second hand lead flashing it was relatively straightforward to fashion three mini slabs of lead, nominally 20 x 35 x 2 mm.   The sides of the Bachmann pocket are not square so a little extra filing was needed to get the pieces of lead to wedge into place. he DCC pocket is not the...

Some six months have elapsed since my Blog entry commenting on the Hornby New Castle: In fact I have acquired three or four models, all ‘new’ and with one exception, all from UK retailers.   During this time I have been able to run the different engines and make a few adjustments. First a view of Hornby’s all purpose nylon washer or spacer.   Seemingly they are used to position the front bogies on the Schools Class.   They are used here on the New Castle to pack the gear train.   They also make appearances on some of the driving axles.   I say ‘some’ because not all my Castles have the same chassis arrangement. I have shown above a view of the chassis from ‘Earl Cairns’.   This I think is my newest Castle.   The slidebars are nicely parallel with the ‘frames’.   The leading driving axle is packed on both sides with nylon spacers to reduce sideplay and prevent the nuts holding the coupling rods rubbing on the connecting ro...

The sun has come out and the garden beckons.   With the sunshine we can also see which of our double glazed units have failed.   Upstairs the sudden warmth is likely to be responsible for the spontaneous failure of the glazing in one of my Bachmann Mark One coaches: This need not be a major problem.   Many of us will be familiar with the ‘stress test‘ applied to items sent by post and will have received coaches with displaced glazing.   I must have been inside over half a dozen Bachmann coaches, the first being a Restaurant Car Unclassified where some of the tables had been glued at a jaunty angle and were shouting out to be repositioned. First you need a soft cloth to protect the roof of the coach. With the coach on its roof the two screws holding the bogies are removed. After lifting off the two bogies the Bachmann coupling compensation units can be lifted out, coupling end first.   This way the retaining spring at the oppo...