Well done, Ian. I suspected that it'd be an easy fix as the UM wiring is very basic.

With two traction tyres and the weight of the tender it should cope with Scott's gradient without much trouble, the haulage capability of UM models is outstanding.

Quote from: icairns on Yesterday at 11:17:32 PMHere are a couple of quick YouTube links showing Scott's UM Prince of Wales Class No. 5604 "Enchantress" in operation on Ferryhill. 

Apologies for the quality of the videos but I just wanted to quickly demonstrate forward, reverse, slow running, and haulage capacity. 

As I do not have any LMS coaching stock, I paired No. 5604 with a rake of seven Graham Farish "Blood and Custards."  I think the train looks rather splendid! 

I will be mailing the loco back to Scott in Texas this week.  I hope he is pleased with the result.

Ian

  

Can't wait!!

Well done, Ian! I'm sure he will be over the moon.

Here are a couple of quick YouTube links showing Scott's UM Prince of Wales Class No. 5604 "Enchantress" in operation on Ferryhill. 



Apologies for the quality of the videos but I just wanted to quickly demonstrate forward, reverse, slow running, and haulage capacity. 

As I do not have any LMS coaching stock, I paired No. 5604 with a rake of seven Graham Farish "Blood and Custards."  I think the train looks rather splendid! 

I will be mailing the loco back to Scott in Texas this week.  I hope he is pleased with the result.

Ian

@scottmitchell74  @chrism

Scott's Union Mills Prince of Wales model recently arrived at the repair shops here in California.  I have to say, it is a wonderful model and the crimson livery is excellent and very striking.


When I opened the box the coupling from the rear of the tender was loose in the box along with what looks like part of a standard Graham Farish coupling spring that had been compressed out of shape and was no longer usable.  Also, the area near the top of the handrails on the front of the tender on both sides had small paint chips. 

Carefully putting the coupling aside for later. I unscrewed the rear keeper plate screw from the loco to disconnect the drawbar and the motor wire. 

I undid the keeper plate screw from the front of the tender to release the chassis from the tender body and then replaced the drawbar screw and held it in place temporarily with a small nut from my spares box. 

Then I got a surprise! 

This is what I was expecting to see when I took the tender top off.  I copied the photo from the post linked below: 

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?msg=884867


But this is what I actually saw.  Can you see the difference?  From a previous post on this thread, I did think that something had been changed but I did not know exactly what.


Well, the two photos are very different in one important point!  The blue wire was now soldered to both the tender pickup motor terminal and the loco pickup motor terminal.

Surely, it couldn't be this easy?  As long as the soldered joints were good, and the motor had not been damaged in the previous work, all I had to do was cut the blue wire. So, I did cut the blue wire, connected 12V DC to the loco pickup wire and the tender pickups, and the motor ran as sweet as a nut. 

The soldered connections to the motor terminals appeared to be strong so I then cut the ends of the blue wire off as neatly as I could and the completed repair is shown in the photo below. 


To be honest, I was quite glad to be able to put my book Soldering for Dummies back on the bookshelf as I had not exactly shared with Scott that my soldering skills might be described as rudimentary (they have actually been called worse).  But I was confident that I could repair a Union Mills loco, even if I needed to solder wires to the motor terminals as I have done similar repairs to a couple of UM locos before. 

Because the wiring modification was so simple, repairing the coupling on the rear of the tender actually took me longer because it was so fiddly.  The UM coupling pocket is very short so I had to cut down a Graham Farish coupling spring to about one third of its normal length to enable it, and the coupling, to fit into the pocket. It is not a good design. 

After reassembling everything, I then cleaned the tender pickup wheels and gave it a good test run on Ferryhill.  It runs very smoothly in both directions, drawing about 75mA, albeit a little noisily compared to more modern steam loco models (but typical of Union Mills' locos).  The two traction tyres on the tender looked to be in good condition. 

I know Scott has a 4% grade somewhere on his layout but I was not able to test this on my layout as Ferryhill is a founding member of the Flat Earth Society. 

I will post some videos in my next post. 

Ian

Quote from: Moonglum on Yesterday at 03:04:41 PMI find her drumming very solid but a bit stiff/mechanical in style, a little repetitive but clearly very capable.

Tim

I get the same feeling. Although I have heard very little of her work so far, it seems one volume only. Good mechanics, not too much artistry.

For the AC thing, is there concern that the power infrastructure would need to be updated to handle the load?

Quote from: Moonglum on Yesterday at 01:13:12 PMThe UK government is not keen on domestic AC from what I gather @scottmitchell74

This has changed over the years with the arrival of what we call air/air heatpumps (ie aircon with heating ability) or the folks down under rather more sensibly just call "reversible aircon". Today you don't need planning for an air/air system on most houses, you get VAT off it just like solar and batteries and the more annoying regulations only kick in at 12kW of cooling power, which for a UK house and even this current climate is a ludicrous number (but in some parts of the world would indeed be considered as 'toy'). Fixed aircon is now on about 4-5% of UK homes depending how you count, and another 6% or so owned a portable one as of late last year so that'll have gone up a load

Meanwhile I am listening to a rather lovely cover

The Tale of the Lost Railway

It's been a while since I've bored forum readers with one of my ridiculous stories but with encouragement from @Train Waiting and a few others I've decided to give it another go.

I'll be aiming to publish at least a couple of posts each week - maybe more if I have the time and I'm feeling creative and in the mood.

Let's start with a short Introduction.

The Tale of the Lost Railway

"Thou  'as ta believe in it laddie, thou 'as ta believe. Believe it an'  'tis there but doubt it an' 'tis all nothing but a dream"

This is a story of mystery and intrigue centred around a railway line which, according to local legend, ran  from Moretonhampstead to Okehampton on the north eastern fringes of Dartmoor in Devon.

Local folk are absolutely convinced  of its existence but did that railway really exist?

Look on any map of the area and there is no trace of said line. There is just a rough footpath linking the two towns around the very edge of the moor.

Trains certainly ran North  from Newton Abbot to Moretonhampstead  on the former Great Western branch line whilst Okehampton was served by the ex LSWR main line from Exeter to Plymouth.
However, there is no record of a railway ever being built between those two towns even though it would have made sense.
It is likely that cost was the reason that it was never seemingly constructed.

The area traversed by the mystery railway is extremely remote and  frequently shrouded  by thick mists which roll down from Dartmoor. This only adds to the sense of mystery and intrigue surrounding  the railway.

The story is based largely in the Autumn and Winter  of 1961.

Let's start with a brief introduction to the various railway lines which will be central to the plot.




The Great Western Main Line from Exeter to Plymouth and into Cornwall
To many this stretch of line which is part of the Great Western route from Paddington to Penzance , and which includes the coastal stretch from Starcross to Teignmouth, requires little introduction.


The Southern Railway route to Plymouth from Exeter
The LSWR route from Exeter to Plymouth was finally opened throughout in 1876 construction of various sections of the line having been undertaken on a piecemeal basis in earlier years.
The route roughly follows the Northern and Western edges of Dartmoor through Crediton, Okehampton, Lydford and Tavistock before dropping down towards Plymouth.

The Moretonhampstead Branch
The Moretonhampsted and South Devon railway built a branch which ran from the South Devon Railway main line (from Exeter to Penzance) at Newton Abbot to Moretonhampstead via Bovey Tracey and Lustleigh.
The line, which follows the lowest foothills on the eastern fringes of Dartmoor opened in 1866 closing to passenger traffic in 1959 lingering on until 1972-for local freight operations.
The line was acquired by the Great Western Railway in 1878.
Originally built to the broad gauge conversion to standard gauge took place in 1892 taking a gang of 60 men to complete the entire route of 12 miles and 28 chains.
Lustleigh station was used as the base for the 1931 film Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Missing link (The Lost Railway)
The missing section is, of course, that from Moretonhampstead to Okehampton which, crucially, passes through the grounds of Baskerville Manor owned, for several centuries, by the Hardcastle family.
The family is currently headed by the effervescent, benevolent, idiosyncratic and somewhat eccentric Sir Archibald Hardcastle who is, to say the very least, an extremely enthusiastic railway enthusiast, as was his father before him and grandfather before that.
Did this railway line, linking the two Devon towns, ever exist and is it still extant in the early 1960s?
Although you might diligently search for Railway Clearing House Junction Diagrams of the area or  refer to local OS maps you will surely find no reference to its existence.
Many local  folk, however, are certain  that it does exist and furthermore there are countless rumours revolving around  a headless female ghost, howling wolf like dogs and even gruesome murder.

Are the tales true or is the entire  thing a figment of rather over active and maybe alcohol  fuelled imaginations?

Pay a visit to the Baskerville Arms in the hamlet of the same name, offer to buy a pint for one of the locals at the bar and you'll be rewarded with tales of mysterious trains and strange goings on.

Our story hopes to uncover the truth be it fact or fiction.

To be continued .........

Quote from: mojo on June 27, 2026, 04:15:30 PMThe piece sitable is the powered rail joint=er as shown in the second link.

They seem quite expensive though so I may try soldering wires to the standard Kato RJs which are less expensive.

Quite straight forward to do:
I've done half a dozen with no problems (and soldering is not one of my strong points).

Quote from: Moonglum on Yesterday at 03:04:41 PMSo, the question is how did she do? Personally, I find her drumming very solid but a bit stiff/mechanical in style, a little repetitive but clearly very capable. Here is a taster...

I agree she's certainly capable but it seemed boastful thrashing rather than a connect to the music.
I like many tracks by Rush but can't take them for more than about an hour