Questions about plastic rail from a newbie

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Afternoon all and thanks for the replies so far! Very informative.

So! Good news. I got my stuff through the post on Monday and put the layour together with the future Mrs. Gipping in the sitting room of the London house. Had a funwhile trying to figure out how to use every piece possible (including the risers etc) and made a nice loop with a passing circle.

I have mixed feelings on the two locomotives I've bought so far. One of them, a 1997 Black diesel shunter (modeled afterna 08 it seems to me!) works very well. Takes a C cell battery and happily pulls all of the waggons I have so far. Had a lot of fun with this guy.

   
Diesel Easily pulls a train of six wagons over a hump without trouble

I'm thinking now about the best way to 'deface' him - I'm thinking hacksaw or sand the face and then replace with what - modeling card? A wire mesh? I seem to recall having some of that in my model making box when I was young but damned if I'd know where to get it now.

Less impressed with the Yellow locomotive, Murdock. When I recieved him and put a new battery in, he wasn't even capable of propelling himself at anything more than a snails pace. Add a single truck and he was stationary.

Anyway, took the tender apart assuming the gears had become fouled (turns out the unit is sealed, and without a workbench to hand at the time I wasn't going to crack it open on the sitting room floor) andI could find nothing wrong. Put it back together again later and tried it running, and it seemed to have fixed itself! No idea what was wrong and how I fixed it, but there you go.

   
Murdock's Guts

That said, it still isn't great. The motor is in the tender (much like a Hornby steam), however with the amount of play you have in these kids' models, it doesn't seem to like pushing all that much - the 'Engine' which is pushed seems to like derailing itself on corners and goes all over the place. Considering I'm buying these to having running around the garden on summer days that's a hassle I can't be bothered with (especially if I'm sinking inaccessible tunnels). Is this everyone's experience with tendered engines? Am I doing something wrong? Are there any engines which are run from the body rather than the tender?

   
Murdock pulls five wagons, only to derail himself later

Definately need to buy more track. Have just enough to make a fun little layout in the sitting room - but I'm astounded at how much it's going for online. I'm going to have to start trawling charity shops.

Had a little fun this morning (my day off work!). It occured to me the little risers the track came with would be great to emulate a prototypical 'hump' shunting yard. I took a little video - can you upload those here? I'd rather not fill up my youtube account (which I use for work) with model train videos...

   
Bouns: cats don't like trains. The kitten finally got up the bravery to savage this poor train...

(02-11-2015, 03:56 AM)plarailfan Wrote: There's quite a few custom / modified and improved models here, for anyone who hasn't seen this site before https://www.flickr.com/groups/1753030@N21/

Excellent link! These are exactly where I want to go for in my modifications. Any adive on this welcome in terms of which paints to use (close enough to the right colour but durable enough to handle being played with), how best to modify the bodies etc.

British Rail Tank
https://flic.kr/p/qxKfuy

LNER 'Flying Scotsman' (I presume)
https://flic.kr/p/qf67iV

BR Class 28 - I presume this is a modified BOCO? Would love to do it with BR headcode discs.
https://flic.kr/p/fxySkq

BR Diesel in Green - I presume this is meant to be a 21/23? Which model is this based on? I'll have to buy one.
https://flic.kr/p/pA129v

BR 08 in Black (these were built by LMS, weren't they?) - exactly what I want to achieve with my diesel
https://flic.kr/p/p8NtSi
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2015, 12:42 PM by George_Gipping.)
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Messages In This Thread
RE: Questions about plastic rail from a newbie - by Tootally Thomas - 02-09-2015, 11:38 AM
RE: Questions about plastic rail from a newbie - by Tootally Thomas - 02-10-2015, 12:02 AM
RE: Questions about plastic rail from a newbie - by George_Gipping - 02-11-2015, 12:27 PM



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