Another good idea. I'm a huge fan of that sort of thing, and bought wagons from Minatur Wunderland and the Kyoto Railway Museum, for example.

Quote from: Newportnobby on November 18, 2025, 09:31:07 AM'Pecorama' only resonates with those who know the tradename 'Peco' i.e. railway modellers.
I wholly concur with the renaming proposal. Make it about the attraction of the gardens and BHLR, have a decent café and tack the inevitable gift shop on the exit as most tourist attractions do. By all means price items with consideration to your dealership but be prepared to sell very little over and above child pressure on parents

Some vendors (particularly in Europe proper) seem to work around this by selling collectors wagons and the like that can only be bought in their official shop. I am sure there's scope for Peco to knock up a yearly BHLR official wagon that you can't buy anywhere else or mail order 

Quote from: Mr Sprue on November 18, 2025, 05:25:58 PMAssuming these gears are moulded from POM, which is likely. If so I cannot understand why they were not moulded in POM-C! 

Dave

It would be interesting to know! I could be mistaken, but I believe that gears can also be laser cut in POM-C sheet. That's certainly interesting! The simplest solution as it stands, would be to get my current supplier to make brass gears and then buy in acetal worms if I can get them. Though the 2mm society ones are approximately M0.25 which is curious.

Good one!!

Quote from: Will_J on November 18, 2025, 01:03:35 PMYes I think that may have bee an isolated supplier issue for several productions of Farish loco unless I'm mistaken. Modern machining tolerances and POM gears should never suffer than kind of issue. Perhaps the ideal would be a POM work onto a duplex with a helical outer gear. If the gear axles themselves were mounted in phosphor bronze bushing with occasional easy servicing with PTFE grease, that should result in a pretty bomb proof mechanism.....at least one hopes!

Will.

Assuming these gears are moulded from POM, which is likely. If so I cannot understand why they were not moulded in POM-C! 

Dave

Quote from: astrase2 on November 18, 2025, 03:33:35 PMHi. I have 3 Mk1 coaches that I want to fit Commonwealth bogies to as my Platform 5 book for the period says that's what they were fitted with. Can you please advise which couplings are required for these bogies.

Ian

This is relatively simple.

If you have Bachmann Mk 1s that are post 2010, i.e. Blue Riband coaches, the coupling pockets are on close coupling mechanisms attached to the coach, and the bogies DO NOT have coupling pockets, then you get the sort that Peters Spares are selling.

If you have the older Mk 1s which have flush windows and painted bodies, and all the underframe detail is identical between each coach, then you want the type that Rails are selling (see the two links above). The Rails type have a location point for a coupling pocket but annoyingly don't include the coupling pocket.

Neither Farish or Bachmann seem to have these coupling pockets on their websites. The best that I can see is on Farish N Spares website (ex BR Lines) https://brlines.co.uk/graham-farish-by-bachmann/b379-406-8-clipin-coupling-pocket-spring-and-coupling-pkd-8s.html

These seem to be the small coupling boxes that clip onto small wagon chassis like the Presflo wagon, and possibly these older style Commonwealth coach bogies.

There is nothing wrong with picking up the phone and calling Lee at LP Rails and Repairs Ltd (he took over BR Lines) on +44 (0)116 21 21 741 for advice. He's a very helpful chap.

Good luck. Bob

Hi. I have 3 Mk1 coaches that I want to fit Commonwealth bogies to as my Platform 5 book for the period says that's what they were fitted with. Can you please advise which couplings are required for these bogies.

Ian

Quote from: Newportnobby on November 18, 2025, 12:55:35 PM 

Well that would increase the time available for modelling.... in OO as well as N !!!

Quote from: Steven B on November 18, 2025, 09:05:01 AM

Quote from: KevTheBusDriver on November 17, 2025, 07:01:34 PMJust my personal opinion on this - I have never had a brass gear split!

I've never had a Kato or Dapol gear split...


The 2mm Scale Association offer worm gears in Acetal or brass. Their spur gears are all brass. They also offer skew cut gears for meshing with the worm gears which will help reduce wear. As would helical cut worm/spur gear but perhaps that's going a bit too far?

@Will_J I've not seen what your motor bogie will go in. Care to share?

I'll have a chat to them about it, the helical gears would be a nice mark of quality.

The motor bogie will be 17.5mm wheelbase so the common 8'6 wheelbase on prototype. The idea is that this common bogie (or two of them if you need more grunt) will fit into a large range of plastic body kits including several Type 1 and 2 units and a large number of MUs. Yes you'll be able to see it through windows in models where it can't be hidden in a guard's compartment, but I am hoping that the value and performance will mitigate this small compromise. I have yet to decider whether to go with coreless or can motor, I will test both and go with what seems best.

I will be testing this concept in a limited production of Class 21/29s in the near future, and offering them to those who are happy to build what is essentially a live beta test of future products.

Quote from: Mr Sprue on November 18, 2025, 09:32:45 AMAs already mentioned the 2mm Association sell brass gears, in fact they actually make them!

The problem that's been with the Acetal/plastic gears is that the axle hole is too small, so when these gears are fitted they are immediately under stress!

Yes I think that may have bee an isolated supplier issue for several productions of Farish loco unless I'm mistaken. Modern machining tolerances and POM gears should never suffer than kind of issue. Perhaps the ideal would be a POM work onto a duplex with a helical outer gear. If the gear axles themselves were mounted in phosphor bronze bushing with occasional easy servicing with PTFE grease, that should result in a pretty bomb proof mechanism.....at least one hopes!

Will.

Quote from: Bob G on November 18, 2025, 11:52:42 AM

Quote from: Trainfish on November 18, 2025, 01:31:17 AMWe've only been once in our adult years and enjoyed the day. We also enjoyed our evening when we did a runner from the pub in the village without paying. Not intentionally of course but we did save a few quid 

We did actually go back the next day to pay but there was nobody home.

Were you also camping? Because that would have been criminal intent