RE: Model Steam Railways - 7

If you have it was wrong, it was always called steamlining. But then some people keep calling Points Turnouts and Railways Railroads. Bloody Foreigners.

Hornby must be wrong as well....
BR 4-6-2 'Sir Archibald Sinclair', Battle of Britain Class (Air Smoothed), Early BR

Merchant Navy Class
"Opting for a very high pressure boiler, Bulleid was able to make the 3 equally sized cylinders smaller, at 18” and better balanced, resulting in his newly designed Bulleid Firth Brown 6’ 2” driving wheels, which in turn reduced hammer blow to the rails. In 1934, Bulleid had opposed the use of streamlining, but for the Merchant Navy design it suited his purposes, being easy to clean mechanically and hiding the boiler’s external pipes, which in turn meant they could be run for function, rather than aesthetics.
The Hornby ‘Merchant Navy’ will feature a fully detailed air-smoothed body shell matching the detail differences between the different build series, a new air-smoothed tender for the original series and an all-new 6,000 gallon tender for the third series locomotives."

Battle of Britain Class
"Known collectively as Light Pacifics, the Southern Railway West Country and Battle of Britain classes were originally designed as air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives by the Southern Railway’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid. Designed to be lighter in weight than the similar Merchant Navy class, they could be used on a wider variety of routes, including the Kent coast and South West of England."

An interesting piece but I still don't agree with Air smoothed. But as with many of the Chief Engineers, Oliver bullied was a genius and contributed well to the British Railways stock. Trouble is I was/am a Great Western and LMS man as I well remember them running when I was a Schoolkid and beyond. So as with most people I will go with what I learned from the steam crews we spoke to, as and when we were allowed to.

Air Smoothed doesn't really make sense. If something is smooth then the word smooth covers it, the Air is added to give an impression of Streamlining.

Dictionary says....
smooth |smuːð|
adjective
1 having an even and regular surface; free from perceptible projections, lumps, or indentations: smooth flat rocks | his face was curiously smooth and youthful.
• (of a liquid) with an even consistency; without lumps: cook gently until the sauce is smooth.
• (of the sea or another body of water) without heavy waves; calm: the smooth summer sea.
• denoting the face of a tennis or squash racket without the projecting loops from the stringing process (used as a call when the racket is spun to decide the right to serve first or to choose ends).

streamline |ˈstriːmlʌɪn|
verb [with object]
1 (usually as adjective streamlined) design or provide with a form that presents very little resistance to a flow of air or water, increasing speed and ease of movement: streamlined passenger trains.

Here's an odd case.

"End of the line for model railway fan as housing association demands he dismantle £10,000 train set in attic on health and safety grounds"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ty-grounds.html

This bloke has also quite clearly put boards across the inside of the roof to keep out dust and crap, he doesn't mention that in the report.
I wonder if he also took out some cross members or vertical supports, his loft looks very open. There's a very good chance that he has caused the "leaky chimney" that he was complaining about.
Being a builder he should have fixed it himself and stayed under the radar.

I have just bought the best toy train ever.
It's a Hornby R3426 Class Q6 Raven 0-8-0 63429 in BR Black with late crest.
http://www.hattons.co.uk/164862/Hornby_R...tockDetail.aspx

This one has a few major improvements over others I have bought.

1. There are electrical pick-ups on every single wheel, that's four full contact driving wheels on each side of the loco and three wheels on each side of the tender, a total of 14 pick-ups. This means it goes round my layout without complaining about loss of power over the points.

2. The DCC dummy plug is in the tender and has the radio interference capacitors fitted to it instead of them being on the motor. This means that when swapping the dummy plug for a DCC chip there is no need to open the loco to cut off the capacitors when they cause erratic running.

3. All eight driving wheels have flanges and are in contact with the track, giving better grip for pulling my thirty or so wagons, some loco's have dummy wheels that are just for show.

Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Quote: Voltman wrote in post #95

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Here's an odd case.

"End of the line for model railway fan as housing association demands he dismantle £10,000 train set in attic on health and safety grounds"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ty-grounds.html

This bloke has also quite clearly put boards across the inside of the roof to keep out dust and crap, he doesn't mention that in the report.
I wonder if he also took out some cross members or vertical supports, his loft looks very open. There's a very good chance that he has caused the "leaky chimney" that he was complaining about.
Being a builder he should have fixed it himself and stayed under the radar.

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Voltman,

You are actually admitting that you guys actually 'play with trains'? I was always under the impression that these things were not toys!

Oh Dear

Very clever Cleo, you clearly don't understand the pressures on us railway operators.
We have to have locomotives and rolling stock and it has to all be OO gauge. If this means we can only buy crappy toys to run then so be it.

toot toot.

Quote: Cleopatra wrote in post #98

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Voltman,

You are actually admitting that you guys actually 'play with trains'? I was always under the impression that these things were not toys!

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Quote: Voltman wrote in post #100

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Very clever Cleo, you clearly don't understand the pressures on us railway operators.
We have to have locomotives and rolling stock and it has to all be OO gauge. If this means we can only buy crappy toys to run then so be it.

toot toot.

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The crappy toys at Hornby are now so expensive I can't see how they will continue trading. I haven't looked at their website for over a year but this mornings browse has really surprised me.

There are only so many people that can afford £31 for a tiny shop building or £160 for a loco, and that's without the £21 DCC decoder.
I also can't understand how so many things can be discontinued or (permanently) out of stock when model railways are as popular as ever, if not more so. This just pushes new customers into buying second hand, thereby losing a whole new market.
They no longer make any Hall class loco's despite them being very popular due to so many restored engines still being in daily use.
Half the things shown in their March calendar wallpaper are discontinued.

I clearly got into it at the right time. Here are some examples of things I bought directly from Hornby and the price I paid in 2014/15

R9752 Hagley Station £32 (Now discontinued, Similar item £55)
R9794 'The Barn' Workshop £9 (Now discontinued, Similar item £29)
R6588 Edwin W Badland Five Plank Wagon £5 (Now discontinued, Similar item £15)
R6656 Ellis & Everard Four Plank Wagon £5 (Now discontinued, Similar item £15)
R4523 GWR Composite Coach £10 (Now £24)
R4350 BR Mk1 Corridor Composite Coach - Maroon £12 (Now £22)
R4351 BR Mk1 Corridor Second Coach E25366 BR Maroon £10 (Now £22)
R7092 Mechanical Horse Delivery Lorry £4 (Now discontinued)
R3279 RailRoad BR 4-6-0 'County Of Hants' County Class £68 (Now discontinued Similar item £91)
R3278 BR 4-6-0 Partriot Class Steam Locomotive No. 45518 'Bradshaw' £70 (Now discontinued Similar item £170)
R3205 BR 4-6-0 ‘Rood Ashton Hall’ 4900 Class - Late BR £80 (Entire class now discontinued)
R8249 Loco Decoder V1.3 NMRA Compliant £17 (Now £21)
R8234 14.1mm 4 Hole Wheels £7 (Now £17)

Some items are still available from Hattons, where everything is usually cheaper than Hornby's own price.

Aren't they made in china now?. Maybe the chinese only want to make flashy streamlined modern models

Too many company's are producing in China. I know it sounds like good business, keeping the overheads down etc but when Billy may Wong is only paid 15 pounds per week (or the equivalent of it), it's really a severe case of exploitation.
Too many company's have moved production to China then they moan because there goods are copied and fakes are sold here made on the same production line as the so called originals.