Scalefour Forum

I just did this conversion this afternoon, took about an hour and taking my time. The bogie cover plate is conventional Heljan, start to prise it off from one end with a small screwdriver and gently pull it away from the clips. I did it from the inboard end but still managed to break one of the cros...

Ivo Peters' tripod?

Has anyone converted a Heljan Metropolitan electric to P4 and is it a reasonable proposition for a first attempt at a RTR conversion? I haven't done mine yet, but there's plenty of room and it looks as straightforward as other Heljan locos. Unclip the bogie cover plate (it looks like it's the entir...

Hi Bill

All it says on my can is 'contains alcohols, petroleum distillates and liquefied petroleum propellant'; and that it contains a chemical known by the state of California to be carcinogenic and cause birth/reproductive harm. But you probably know that much already.

That is very sad news. Colin's work on Newhaven and in particular his scratchbuilt plasticard 4SUB were inspirational. Many condolences to you and your family.

It's a beautiful kit, usable for many places, not just the Midland (presumably a contractor's 'standard' product, although they all seem to be slightly different). I have bashed three of them into the long-span footbridge for Balcombe - OK I only needed two of them for the extra straight span sectio...

Hi Steve

Presumably the H and L are 'heavy' and 'light', as in 'heavy intermediate' and 'light intermediate'.

On the Ouse Valley viaduct we have found that the style of guard rails changes quite often, usually some form of FB rail (probably conductor rail) spiked in the four-foot, but at varying gauges, and sometimes some form of rail or bar attached to the outside of the running rail. (Our question would b...

Bit of a minefield this one. Certainly blood & custard Bulleids could have a crimson upper band or no discernible crimson at all - compare for example the photos on pages 153 and 155 of King's Southern Coaches book. King defers to Parkin for chapter and verse on the crimson/cream paint scheme. A...

Good to see you back, Mike

Tim, did you record who won the Eileen's Emporium prize at Scalefour North earlier this year?

You should have come over to the test track Martin! (I would have been interested to see them myself, but had little time away from it.)

I am not a great fan of screw terminal connectors in general. They may be all right for short term testing, but as a long term or permanent arrangement, no. The biggest problem is that people don't do the screws up tightly enough to begin with and wires have a habit of coming loose causing failures...

The manufacturer had made the classic mistake of solder filling the thick flexible wires before clamping them into the screw terminals. All electrical users, especially manufacturers should know that over years the solder migrates under pressure thus loosening the joint and causing heating.....the ...

Alan Woodard wrote:I'd prefer A billinton B2 with the Pullman Brighton limited.

Vert nice layout, will look forward to seeing it exhibited.

Cheers.

Alan.

Hopefully Scaleforum 2019 when we will be offering running powers to Pulborough stock.

This bank holiday weekend just gone would have been the dress rehearsal for Scaleforum, but personal events conspired against us and brought progress almost to a halt. Nonetheless we kept the hall booking (the only occasions when we can put it all up) for an assembly and running test. Here are some ...

For those who might have guessed already, or not, here is one for sale

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222912362861 ... 9#payCntId

JFS wrote:The Pictroller is probably the best alternative - it is not perfect (especially on small Portescaps) but it is a LOT better than most of its competitors.

And you can buy three of them for the price of an ebay-Pentroller!

Pictrollers seem to be £65 - do Pentrollers go on Ebay for £200?!

Ah, Trigger's broom again.

it would presumably struggle for switchblades .... Electrical feeds would be a challenge My idea for electrical feeds: http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=2734&forum_id=6&jump_to=23443#p23440 That could work for plain track. Getting feeds to crossings/blades in the absence of rail join...

Very interesting development, especially for more bespoke crossing formations. I haven't read the full thread on the Templot forum, but I would see this as something to integrate with 'conventional' track work in specific areas, and as Terry has alluded to it would presumably struggle for switchblad...

Excellent, thanks Martin. There's a couple of them on Lewes which exist at the moment just as simple turnouts and an overlapping length of plain line (or is it overlapping turnouts) which will benefit from upgrading.

MRJ 254

I was half expecting a Harry Enfield alternative version! Good film though.

I could see those ceramic tweezers being handy for 3-link coupling and uncoupling for those, like me, who don't get on with hooks but still have to put up with residual magnetism.