irishthump

Absolutley top class!

What's the handiest way to get to the Stillorgan Park Hotel using public transport? Is it far from the Luas at Sandyford, or is it better to get a bus?

It's also about 20 mins walk from Blackrock Dart station if you fancy getting som exercise in while you're at it!

Well I'm going to mess around with it again this evening. I'll let you know how I get on.

Hmm, yep, so far I'm sticking 4 in a row and slotting the 'brick' into the sleeper gap. It works by pushing the couplers apart very well.

 

What kind of problems are you seeing?

 

I wonder would poles up make them more effective.... (will try!)

The NEM Kadess seem to work ok most of the time. But the magnets are'nt pushing the draft box Kadees over far enough to use the delayed uncoupling. They open fine and you can uncouple stock though.

I do think I need to bring the magnets closer to the top of the rail though, they seema tad low with the code 100 track.

Have you a kadee gauge to check height? I found some of mine where too low and would catch on the magnet. Once I adjust all the Kadees to the same height, they work well.

 

I also saw a tip online for putting in multiple rows of magnets to create a larger uncoupling area

Yeah I have the gauge, and all my uncouplers work perfectly with the Kadee magnets that I have already installed. I was having more luck with the cube magnets when I placed them with their poles facing upwards, but you you're just placing them with the poles horizontal and the magnets stuck together am I right?

Tried that at first and while it works for the NEM pocket Kadees the draft box ones don't seem to like it.

Gareth I don't need any more arm twisting as to whether I should or shouldn't after what I've heard, once Christmas is out of the road I will be ordering one.

 

Rich,

You won't be the only one! I knew it would be hard to top the 141/181 sound chips but these have done it and then some...

Sorry to change the subject lads, one for Boskonay and Anto regarding the kadee uncouplers...

I got some of the 3mm cube magnets but I'm having trouble getting them to work reliably. Like yourselves I placing them 4 in a row between the sleepers, but polarity-wise which way do you have them facing? I also think I may have them a little low, I have them sitting on the underlay and I'm using code 100 track so I reckon I might need to shim them.

Any tips?

Lovely job!

Any pics of the lights working?

Yeah I tried it myself on the last bit of ballasting I did and it works like magic, great tip Anto!

Lovely stuff! The paint job and livery on the A class are spot on. What paint did you use?

Thanks for the update Dave. It will be nice to get Christmas out of the way and it gives people time to save and something to look forward to in the new year.

 

Rich,

Amen to that!!!

Fabulous work, Frank.

What make is the container crane?

Rich.... (Glenderg not the Red one!)

 

Could you make any recommendations as far as print settings, print media and even printers if necessary(!) for the reproduction of your gifts to us. Having seen the absolutely exquisite quality of the colour fidelity of your work, I wondered if you had any tips to impart? Please!

 

<- winning smile!

 

-Rob

A good point Rob!

Rich, what printer would you recommend for this? I have access to a laser printer at work which I find produced better results for the brick pattern I have been using.

Plenty of 141's and 171's on view and sone nice footage of the locos running around their trains.

Particularly enjoyed the Ballina shuttle thundering through that level crossing... Watch for trains is right!

I used some of the older Hornby MK3's and you can see how they turned out on my workbench pagehttp://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench/page2

I used these as I had picked then up very cheap on Ebay and while I'm very pleased with the result they were difficult to repaint because of the glazing not being seperate. You can see in the pics that a lot of tedious masking was needed. The coaches are also shorter than the prototype.

Now that one really made me laugh!

Glad to hear you're ok man, some "weathering therapy" would be just the ticket I reckon!

In my case I've pretty much standardised on the Bachmann small coupling, it's 'wrong' but I think a kadee is just as 'wrong' - Just my opinion, and I completely respect and admire those that use and persevere with kadees.

 

-Rob

Well my use of Kadees is purely for the convenience of uncoupling and the ability to shunt stock to anywhere on the layout and just leave it there! The prototypical arguement does'nt even come into it... And you're right, the Kadees take a bit of perseverance to get them working consistantly.

Have you tried the Brian Kirby modification to the Bachy couplers? Before switching to Kadees I was experimenting with that method, and it works very well. Although you can't

shunt after uncoupling, it works beautifully.

Just a few thoughts on the neodynium magnets for uncoupling...

I tried this myself when I started using the Kadees with magnets of various shapes sizes. The main problem I found

was that they were a bit too powerful, the problems arose when using the draft coupler box Kadees. The magnets

uncoupled fine but they pushed the couplers so far to the side that when you tried to push the wagon/coach you had

just uncoupled the Kadees missed each other and you ended up contacting buffer-to-buffer. This might be ok on straight lengths

of track but even slight curves caused buffer lock. It does'nt really happen with the NEM Kadees as the side to side

movement of the coupler head is far more restricted.

Another thing was that the effective uncoupling area was tiny and you had to position the couplers very precisely

over the magnets to get them to work. You have much more room for error with the Kadee magnets. Although I

agree that the over-track magnet looks a little odd!

Have you guys experineced any similar problems?

Patrick, that is a truly wonderful layout. I can't wait to see more on it!

Just came across this one today, apologies if it's already been posted.

Oh that has just made my heart glad. Scratchbuilding at it's finest, well done sir.

 

I dare ya make em sprung!

 

Richie.

Now that you mention it....

More work on my MK3's...

4 out 5 of my these coaches were missing their buffers. I was finding them hard to find on Ebay (as well as being bloody expensive!) so a solution had to be found. A quick search produced a box of these...

I took a file to the edges to give them the correct oval shape, then a coat of black primer...

Then fix them in place with a dab of superglue...

Here's one next to the only MK3 that had it's original buffers. Pretty hard to spot the difference even if I do say so myself...

So then I could finally move on to the weathering. Here's a few shots of them on the layout...

Just watched the video, sounds absolutely stunning and all the functions operating!