Visiting Locomotives

Little Bro' brought his recently acquired locos to my railway room for track trials (He is yet to build his own layout).

We had to disconnect Zero 1 from the track and temporarily fit an analogue DC controller.
 
First up is the T9. A great looking locomotive and fantastic runner - well done Hornby. It is the loco I wanted but did not get it because it did not run regular services on my line in the period I modelled.

We had a bit of frustration trying to fit the accessory pack Apart from being fiddly we could not get poly glue to work and the Superglue was tricky as well, not helped by the fact that one of the brake rods was too short between brake fixing points. The 3-link coupling joints were very stiff, which meant it interfered with the NEM coupling socket. Not sure if the links were meant to move but with some force realised they are suppose to and eventually it cleared the socket. The lower vacuum pipe saddle fixing needed fettleing to fit onto the buffer beam.

We can forgive all that for such a beautiful and highly detailed model. Photo shot above is before the accessories were installed.on the front buffer beam.

Next up is the Southern Railway 2BIL EMU in Maunsell olive green livery. Another fine model but way out of territory here on a line that was never electrified!

We could only run the EMU part way round the layout before it ground to a halt as it hit a ground signal. Modellers need to consider the overhanging shoe beams that may interfere with track side furniture. I read on southernelectric.org.uk that the shoe beam is so true to scale that they do not line up with the third rail positioned on the end of sleepers ( I guess it refers to Peco sleepers, which are under scale length).

I know the EMU has cabs at both ends but don't know if there was a convention on which end faced the normal direction of travel. In the photo the motor car is trailing on the down line. Does anyone reading this know?