Robert Davies

Yes Gareth, there does seem to be another iteration (of the cattle wagon) on the site since I last checked. The renderings of his/their 2mm stuff do look rather nice, so hopefully it will come to fruition in time. -Rob

A few trials and tribulations here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/33168-paint-stripping-a-plastic-body/ But the short answer still seems to be the brake fluid. -Rob

Pardon me, I am remiss once more in thanking you all for the encouraging words regarding my efforts. My decision to model the Irish scene has been repaid many times over by the freely given help, advice and upbuilding comments. Regards all, -Rob

It's no good... Words fail me....

That's odd! I just searched now, and this came up fine: http://www.shapeways.com/model/65559/oo-scale-beet-box.html About the cattle wagon, it may well be worth dropping the designer a pm via shapeways to check out their intentions. -Rob

I'll give your 201s another once over - I remember reading about your system a few months back, back when I was more nervous type about this modelling lark. I've a feeling I'll be surreptitiously introducing a Bachmann coupling to the evergreen plastics stand in the local model shop... Ahem! Moving right along now. -Rob

The Murphy 201 is a very nice model but exhibits a few compromises. One that has bugged me for a while is the lower front where the coupling does or doesn't protrude - Oh and that h-u-g-e grey coupling that Murphy supply So I had a look, I ran the loco around the tightest radii curves that I would be prepared to tolerate, and noticed something - the coupling never gets anywhere near the left or right ends of the slot in the front of the loco. I took a look at the supplied blanking plate, and cut the centre out of it, and attached the outer pieces to the loco the result being that it doesn't have the 'wide mouth frog' look any more - But still something bugged me, the coupling, so I swapped it for a smaller Bachmann model - the total result being: The exhaust silencer on GM/EMD euro locos only looks pristine for about a day and a bit - then the paint burns off, followed by heat burnishing, followed by oxidisation - so I had a go with paint and weathering powders at replicating the 'in service exhaust silencer' look. The flash piccie is a bit harsh, but it's turned out OK to my eyes I think. The actual soot staining was copied from a pic on Eiretrains site, though not of 229 itself. For completeness my beet wagon colouring experiment - but the story etc is here: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1203-Beet-wagons-what-colour-were-they -Rob

Oh I forgot... Battle of Evermore - on Led Zep IV aka the track before Stairway.

Frank, that's a function (sorry!) of your DCC system, not necessarily a fault with the Murphy chip. How's that then you may well ask? A lot of DCC systems emanate from the US where the acknowledged standard has the whistle or Horn on F2, and consequently some manufacturers (MRC?) make the F2 key non latching - ie will only stay on while it is being pressed... Go against all your male conditioning and have a look in the manual (I know, I know...) to see if you can change it. -Rob

Liz, that you met at the Crewe exhibition, her father was a hifi dealer... and no, before you start thinking, he only became a hifi dealer after we met - though it didn't harm her continuing prospects... Anywho, where was this really going? I forget now... but there's been a procession of 'interesting' gear through our house over the years, original Quad Electrostatics, the later ESL63s, most of the Quad amp gear before the bizarre remote control stuff, Musical Fidelity amps, many weird and whacky valve amps, Michel Gyrodeck turntables.... Liz has NEVER understood her Father's, or my minor obsession with quality reproduction of sound, until one day... I rigged up the LP12 turntable, and a reasonable high end CD system and played it through my standard Musical Fidelity E100 amp and Mission 752 floor standers.... First I played Peter Garbriel's 'Don't Give up' - which features Kate Bush, on the CD system... Liz was sat in the prime spot in front and between the speakers - No reaction.... Next I played exactly the same thing on vinyl - It sounds like they're really in the room with us!!!! Now she understands We've been married twenty years. -Rob

It's pretty obvious to me that the sound project has been tailored to the speaker nicely - a speaker that I'd consider to be a bit on the small side to be a tweeter in a normal music reproduction system. It's obviously not going to be producing any bass in the traditional sense of the word, but it is producing the upper components of the bass 'sound' which convinces the listener that they're hearing more of the bass sound than perhaps they really are. Enough of the Hifi pseudo-babble (a misspent youth and high end HiFi gear, in fact there's still a Linn LP12 behind me as I type this....). Enough people who've had their diaphragm reverberated by an 071 at speed and close quarters, have heard this chip and loco and chip in action together and appreciated the effort expended by MSB. I'm just having fun running 112 back and to across my desk - and, yes the sound project really does work well on short lengths of track. -Rob

Thanks!, but I don't know about that! I had a copy of Rich's pic in front of me whilst I was working, and tried to match the colours and textures as best I could - I'm certainly very pleased that you like the result, because it took a lot of looking at that pic of the prototype to see what's really there, not what I think should be there. When It comes down to it, do I like the result that I've achieved? Yup! So in the end that's all that really matters -Rob

What exactly are you looking for Thomas? Do you need the entire chassis, or do you need spares to repair an existing 'tired' one? I was just thinking that the 20 in the Hornby range is the old Lima model with an upgraded motor, and spares may be available from Abbiegail's http://www.hornbyspares.com or an entire hornby chassis from http://www.eastkentmodels.co.uk/ - both in the UK. -Rob

While I was waiting for the 071 chip to become available, I experimented to see what speaker(s) could be fitted. Without losing internal detail features, or milling the chassis block, only the standard speaker will fit. If you remove the fans and their retaining plate, a bass enhanced speaker will fit. Pretty much anything else larger than that will need the block cutting away. The room in the 071 above the circuit board is very tight indeed. For example I had a spare 8 pin chip, and a 21 pin -> 8 pin adapter - it won't fit - bizarrely, in the much smaller 141/181s there's plenty of room for that solution, I suspect that the clever trickery pokery that's needed for the very prototypical lighting arrangement in the 071, gets in the way. I may fit a bass enhanced for a while to see (hear!) if the sound difference is worth losing the fans for. All this makes it sound (sorry!) like there's something wrong with the MSB sound chip - far from it! My original write up was done with the speaker in completely box stock format, and I still stand by that review 100%. The MSB chip makes the 071/112 just so much fun to drive -Rob

Rich, Way off topic for the moment! I'd no idea that that was a. Chris Penn b. Sean Penn's brother c. He died aged 40 in 2006 d. He would have been four months younger than me. Back on topic... There is absolutely NO rush for any of the info/pics/whatever that you have very kindly offered me. Regards, -Rob

Solved or not, it's one bit of 'history' that may well get 'rewritten' if/when my layout gets built ;) Along with the shale, cement, gypsum..... etc etc etc

Just an observation, nothing more, nothing less.... However... It's been months since an NIR 201 went through on ebay, within 36 hours of me saying I'd like one, three appear! Ebay must be doing a deal on listing fees. -Rob ps In case anyone's wondering I am not in anyway accusing anyone on here of doing anything underhand in this matter - sincerely.

I don't know about Waterford, but from the date of the Youtube vid, 1999, and from the check codes on the wagon in Ernie's pic, May 2000, we have that as a starter. -Rob

Dear me! I stop off for a little while to watch Mr Eastwood in the 1985 classic 'Pale Rider' and you chaps have been busy! Rich, no need to go to any expense on my part! A quick scan and email is more than enough! Ernie, just the kind of thing I was looking for, thanks! Dave, looking g-o-o-d! Sincerest thanks chaps! -Rob

A representation... On a shortened Dapol 12ft chassis. Base Colour for the chassis, bauxite. After scrubbing and cleaning up the Shapeways body, I coated it with 'Mr Surfacer 1200' http://www.spruemart.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-vmbright.tpl&category_id=8&product_id=44&Itemid=1 then gave a thin, almost a wash coat of Revell enamel No.87, and drybrushed the top half with Precision Paints 'sleeper grime'. Just before it was all dry I treated the upper half again with Tamiya weathering powders 'rust', and the lower half with Tamiya powders 'sand'. I'll probably put some of Weshty's number and maintenance patches on it when it's cured out properly. -Rob

Can anyone post, or point me in the direction of, some pics of the four wheeler timber wagons in service from say, 1990 -> onwards. For most of my work so far, I've been relying on this youtube video: Thanks again, -Rob

As Fran says, brake fluid, ordinary DOT 3 or DOT 4 brake fluid - Don't use any of the fancy Citroen stuff! Usual disclaimer - your experience may differ from mine etc etc... Try a bit on an unseen part of the shell first.... I've not had any disasters yet -Rob

It certainly appears to bring some good news to Fotopic members. It's all too easy in this day and age to take photo hosting for granted, and it isn't until a major player goes bankrupt - Fotopic - or has a random change of heart - Apple and their .Mac service - that you realise quite how fleeting and insecure your digital face to the world can be. Admittedly Apple did give plenty of warning, but it was still another kick in the proverbials to their loyal fanbase - bitter? Moi?.... -Rob

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/stevenabell/m.html Interesting stuff, at the minute I don't know quite how interesting because there's no pics showing as of 2311hr 8th Dec 2012. -Rob

Hi Des! Any progress on these? I have just won four of these on ebay UK for silly (not much) money. -Rob