irishthump

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.

There is a bit of a sting in the tail with the Hornby Class 31, since a fair few of them have suffered from flawed mazak underframe casting, which either leads to fracturing of the ends of the casting or expansion, causing the plastic body to distort and then shatter in the area of the cab front. Do keep an eye on this. The same type of thing notoriously affected the Heljan Class 47 which, not content with being too wide, then became too long.

You can always gut the loco and try to scratchbuild a suitable chassis. At the very least it would be the right size...

Apart from the Railroad (budget) range, their diesel locos are centre drive and have been for some time.

 

That's true. Modellers just won't accept bad drives in locos anymore.

The Railroad stuff IS bad, but you get what you pay for.

A font of information as always, thanks lads!

Correct... the Metro Vicks always had two red and two white marker lights, as did the B101s.

Thanks Garfield.

And how were these positioned? Was it with the 2 white lights to the outside?

ie:

White Red Red White

Guys,

How many rear facing red marker lights did the A class have? There seem to be 2 pairs of light housings on each end of the loco but any photos I've seen only show one red marker (the same as the 141/181/071's) and two white when running forward.

Specifically referring to Supertrain era locos here.

Cheers,

Thanks to the traders & the customers that attended the show yesterday. The next Collectables Toy Fair is Sunday 29th November.

 

Great find Eoin, at a great price.

Brian,

Have you got a list of traders for this Sunday's fair?

I've re-read this excellent thread again with interest. It begs a question:

 

Does anybody have a video of an A or C class demonstrating the chassis starting, low speed creep, stopping, and crawling over point work?

 

The videos on the thread show A/C class models already running at speed. What I would like to see is a video of a chassis that has proven its smoothness and crawlability starting off. Ability to haul a load once moving is great, but how smooth can some of these chassis be starting and stopping slowly? I'm not sure a 15:1 gear ratio can do this, but I could be mislead. Bachmann chassis have much higher gear ratio which is why they perform in such a scale like manner.

 

Reason is, I am keen to get, acquire, build, or commission a few C and A class models, but only if I can get them running on quality performing chassis.

 

Has anybody tried the Athearn SW1500 chassis with a SF C class kit?

 

Thanks in advance.

To be honest I doubt if you will get great smooth slow running from those Hornby Deltic chassis'.

I recently cobbled together a chassis from spare ho parts. It uses an Athearn frame, Atlas bogies and a Walthers Proto motor and is a very smooth runner. Here's a link to the workbench thread - http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench?p=74181&viewfull=1#post74181

Well one thing's for sure, I won't sleep a bleedin' wink tonight....

Clowns are scary!

On the subject of the three-wagon multipack, I'm sure there are economic reasons for doing it in threes, but it will risk putting off potential buyers who might only want one or two wagons, and who might balk at shelling out over 100 Euro just in order to have the one. It also potentially creates a profiteers' market on eBay. If profit is to be made (and there is little of that in railway modelling generally), it should be made by IRM, not eBay sellers.

 

 

 

It's massive growth, because it starts from a fairly low base. Any growth in Irish railway model availability is to be encouraged, but we should all make sure it's not a false dawn.

 

I'd hesitate to call it a Golden Age, though. That sounds like hyperbole. A few extra swallows don't make a summer.

What makes me laugh is you never know it's a "Golden Age" of ANYTHING until after it has finished!

Excellent - very interesting. Was the recording from inside a coach, outside via window, or line side of a passing train? Three very different sounds.

From the sounds of it I'd say it was recorded from lineside.

You can hear it in the second half of this video...

The rate at which the sound plays automatically adjusts to the speed of the loco.

Stunning, as always!

I actually used EMD645 non turbo for the base sound. The brake squeal is good, I will try and get a short video of it. I installed it with the standard 40x20 speaker that comes with the 21pin decoder and just used the Murphy cradle. I was looking at installing a cube speaker but run out of patience. The sound quality is actually good enough for me and has a much better bark in "real life".

That sounds great. Is this the newer 645 non turbo that was recently uploaded to ESU website?

Installing the cube speaker is simple enough. Just remove the installed cradle and you can fix the speaker to the back of the cab bulkhead.

You will will find that 30 years ago and before, like now people sat down and made what was not available, often to a very high standard. They didnt just make do. They wanted better and they got it.

Yes, but once again you forget the huge number of modellers who don't have the necessary skill, time or inclination to build their own models from kits or from scratch.

These people will happily pay for RTR models and will accept any detail discrepancies, minor or major.

You point out that 30 years ago they made what wasn't available. I would argue that the improvement of RTR model has probably sustained interest in the hobby, making it accessibly to many people who would otherwise not attempt railway modelling due to a lack of modelling skill.