irishthump

Spoiler alert

We got to wait a whole year for the next one:

 

Rogue One. A Star Wars Story

Director: Gareth Edwards

Written by: Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz

Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, and Alan Tudyk

Logline: Following the foundation of the Galactic Empire, a wayward band of Rebel fighters comes together to carry out a desperate mission: to steal the plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the Emperor’s rule.

Release: Dec. 16, 2016

That movie isn't actually part of this trilogy. It's a standalone movie set just before the events in A New Hope.

As a long time Star Wars fan I really loved the new movie, it was a nice return to form after the hit-and-miss Prequel Trilogy.

I went to see it with the whole family at 12am on the opening night! Hoping to get to see it again sometime this week.

to me a good layout is immensely interesting even with nothing moving, one can study the method of construction of track, scenery , buildings etc., examine the signalling etc and talk to the builders to boot.

Interesting to you but not to many people who attend these events. I appreciate good trackwork, scenery, etc. as much as anyone. But it's all for nought if you don't see trains running - prototypically or not.

hence the rise of a certain style of " exhibition " layout, rather then a layout being exhibited ( if you see what I mean )

And just what do you mean by that?

I think any large layout , operated to its potential , particularly at an exhibition, , needs a "layout" timetable , other wise you just get chaos

 

Dave

A timetable is fine. Just not one that involves having too much "dead time" between movements, punctuated by gruff operators who grunt a reply to any questions without looking you in the eye!

Hi David

 

Recently at the Blackrock Show I spent 3 days in a room with a bunch of very nice Northern chaps running their splendid club layout, they, obviously they had their workings time table off by heart, they were beavering away on doing their thing with hardly any communication between themselves, and at times it looked like nothing was happening and the viewers left the room! But they were doing something, setting up the locos, moving stock into readiness for a train and other things. What I noticed was- no interaction with the viewers was the problem, if they told the viewers what was happening I felt they would have held their audience a lot longer and the viewer would get a better idea of how trains ran.

 

 

That's something I've noticed too. I've no problem with prototypical operation at exhibitions but there needs to be something happening all the time if exhibitors expect to hold people's attention for any amount of time.

A small loop with a train constantly running will have more interest for the casual observer than timetable-driven scenic masterpiece that has minutes elapsing between each movement.

The type of operation that David describes in his first post is perfect if you want to keep a layout constantly on the move.

To drift off topic a little; this is where I think sound equipped stock comes into its own.

It allows you to drive the locos at protypical shunting speed without it appear TOO slow to a casual audience. You can also reproduce most of the action that goes with it like coupling, brake hoses, charging brake lines etc.

I thought it would have been much more expensive. I stand corrected Sir!

So did I to be honest, had to double check it!

Would be mad expensive for 24'! The aluminium channel is €15 for 2 mtr plus it would support the structure better.

Granted it would'nt be as strong but you get 3x14" for €5 so it works out a bit cheaper.

http://www.marksmodels.com/?cid=493

Styrene C channel would probably be strong enough if it's only for display.

Mark's sells the Evergreen stuff but it might work out a bit expensive if you need 24ft of it!

Folks,

 

As promised, some Sulzer kit donor chassis photos. The cut and shutting is very straightforward, and the diecast metal responds superbly to superglueing.

 

A nice bonus is that the NEM pockets hang below the front face and are easily accessible.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21836[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21835[/ATTACH]

Looks great!

Judging by the position on the cuts would I be right in assuming there was no need to modify the drive train?

(A big plus if that's the case!)

PS: IT, where did you source the sprung buffers?

They are Hornby class 31 buffers. I got them from Peter's Spares on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-X9313-Class-31-Set-Of-4-Sprung-Buffers-/321311699047?hash=item4acfab7067#ht_1607wt_1040

Don't be tempted to try what some idiot near here did a few years ago. To stop people breaking into his shed, he rigged up a sawn off shotgun and a tripwire, aimed at groin height as the intruder came through the door. It worked perfectly, as he found out when he went in the shed and forgot it was there...

I still have the limp....

Nice, great thing about the yank stuff is the interchangable parts between a lot of the manufacturers. Like being able to drop a Kato motor into an Athearn loco seamlessly. Sounds like a cool conversion!

Athearn frame, Atlas bogies, Proto motor. And like you said the drive parts are all identical. Have a shufty....

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench?p=74174&viewfull=1#post74174

This might help thump

 

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4032-Chassis-for-the-Silverfox-A-Class

Jayzus.... I KNOW!!!!

atlas/kato rsd 4/5. Should get one 2nd hand on eBay cheap enough. Should fit like a glove and is an exquisite runner.

Cheers, Fran.

I already converted an Athearn F7 chassis with some Atlas bogies, so I'm sorted! Just wondered if this could be a solution for anybody else who is contemplating a kit.

, and not on my radar at the moment.

Appreciate that, Des. Thanks.

Folks,

 

To update you, I've just completed kit-bashing the new donor chassis and it is looking very positive. The body sits well on it and the work required to convert it for the Sulzer requires just two hacksaw cuts and a single drilling.

 

 

I will post further once it is ready for presentation.

 

Suffice to say that I will be selling this as a full package, price to be finalised, but will be less than €155 all in, including postage (Irish rates, UK will be €1.50 more).

Des,

Could this also be a potential donor chassis for the A Class kit?

(Apologies if this is slightly off topic and SSM does'nt produce the A class. Just a general query.)

But I'm not a manufacturer

Oh that's right, you're not. You're one of those "real modellers" who makes something better rather than settling for inferior RTR models.

Missing an axle, but better.....

I've made versions in every livery, and to my mind, this is the one that works best, but horses for courses and all.....

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21749[/ATTACH]

Bloody gorgeous! A good layer of carefully unwashed filth and you're grand!

When you go and look at real trains do you it from a 10 storey building or a helicopter? Dont forget Model Trains are exactly that - Model trains. They are not real trains that have been shrunk with a shrinking ray. Sadly in the majority they have electric motors powering them rather than miniature internal combustion/steam engines. All the little people inside are lumps of plastic, they cant open the doors or windows.......

A little unfair. Nothing wrong with striving to get your model trains to run in a prototypical manner. When you bring sound into the equation it becomes much more important to get a loco to run at prototypical speeds.

Given what you said about IFM models and BR 33's/MK1's etc you are really showing up some double standards here.

 

You have dragged this one well off topic again. As someone who has completed several chassis swops, a few have been missing axles and nobody noticed at normal viewing distance. The models ran and looked fine which is more important. Dont forget too Airfix and Hornby left them out on production models too.

Please, don't start accusing other people of double standards after that statement! You continually criticize manufacturers and their products for incorrect or missing detail yet it's ok for YOU to omit an axle?

, even though from a child's point of view the operators were a bit on the grouchy side.

You see there's a justification, IMHO, of why the powers-that-be might be reluctant to allow hobbysists to look after the layout. I've seen far too much of this myslef at exhibitions.

I belive 121s did on rare occasions but it was mainly the preserve of the C class; their withdrawal followed not long after the last former AEC push-pull set was taken out of service. A class locos, as well as 141/181s and 071s were never fitted for push-pull working.

The 121's worked the push pulls on the Bray/Greystones shuttle until the Dart was extended to Greystones.

Hi, I do not believe I would be able to take apart such a complicated piece of work . I will leave that to the experts.

 

Thanks, Controller.

Wise words!

In that case I would go back to the retailer. It's clearly not running as it should and they should sort it for you.

Hi lads, Thanks for all the advice. I think it is time for an upgrade. Maybe a Hornby Elite or better. I am not sure which decoder I have in the loco. I can hear a knocking noise from inside the loco , which is not in any of my other locos. It may be restricting one of the motors. When I turn on the decoder it will display 12-30-03. Thanks for the invite Wrenneire. I can not make it tonight,but I will call in soon. I will bring the loco with me, and avail of your expert advice.Are the clubrooms on Dorset St.

 

Thanks again, Controller.

A knocking noise fro the loco would indicate a mechanical issue. Maybe one of the drive shafts has become misaligned and is causing the mechanism to bind. Would you feel confident opening up the loco to check? If not I'd go back to the retailer again and tell them it's making a noise.

It's quite possible that the chip is fine but just doesn't work well with the select.

NMRA standards are designed to ensure that any decoder will work with any DCC controller. Since the Select is not NMRA compliant it's a well documented fact that it doesn't play well with certain makes of decoder.

I used a Select myself so I know about this!

Bachmann, TCS and Gaugemaster decoders have all been known to cause issues so it's worthwhile finding out which decoder you have in the loco.

Hornby decoders all work fine, understandably enough. So if all you want to do is run the occasional loco then the select will do the job if you stick to the Hornby chips.

It might also be worthwhile making sure your Select has the latest firmware version installed. You can check this by looking at the display when you turn the controller on. It will display a series of 3 numbers, if you see 15-30-03 in that order then you have the latest version. Version 1.5 is the latest firmware, the 15 representing this. If you get a different number then you can send the unit to Hornby for a free upgrade. The newer firmware allows the controller to access more functions (originally you could only access 9, now you can access 29) as well as fixing some (but not all) compatibility issues.

If you don't have the latest firmware you can send the unit to Hornby for a free upgrade.