Concern has been expressed at the note that appeared in the latest issue of Hornby's club magazine The Collector. It listed four models from the range that were to be deleted. Enquiries reveal that there is no need to be concerned by this as there is no hidden agenda. The first model is the R2786 Llanvair Grange which has been postponed as it was felt unnecessary with sufficient other versions of the model currently available. The R4328 Grand Central Mk3 TGS was cancelled as the trains don't have one and the two Pullmans (R4162B and R4163B) were a clerical error and were not planned, as a check in the catalogue will reveal.

Bachmann has commenced distribution of the outstanding 00 scale Scenecraft buildings announced last year. This completes the initial programme of 00 releases with the N gauge items due later this year.

By John Cherry

Brighton line (Patcham), 27 August 1955. 'Jubilee' 4-6-0 No.45595 Southern Rhodesia with a Fowler tender was seen on the 12.30 Hastings to Manchester (London Road) – assumed worked from Eastbourne. (During the 1960s, this locomotive also got to Branksome on the South Westernwith apigeon special as filmed by Gavin Morrison).

Robbie McGavin's point can also be applied to US loco models. I have a Proto 1000 C-Liner that came with a large number of handrails to attach. After running it at a couple of exhibitions, I found that it had shed so many I had to obtain a new set to fill in the gaps. This time I'll use stronger glue. Handrails on an Atlas Fairbanks-Morse H16-44 have also needed to be replaced due to breakages. Co-incidentally, they are both New York Central liveried locos - perhaps there's a link! Can Steve Mann in NYC clarify, perhaps?

Steve Grantham

In response to Braid Anderson, you do have to be very careful using dilute glue around brickpaper. My first use of Scalescenes brick was on a hardboard-based retaining wall on an N gauge layout. It looked great! Then I started to build up some green banks along the base. The glue soaked into both paper and board and the whole lot had to go in the bin. I learnt the hard way to be very careful with dilute glue!

Another potential problem with brickpaper printed on an inkjet is fading - the best thing is to keep it out of direct sunlight.

In response to Chris Jones, I would certainly go for card (Frosties or art shop) as a basis for printed brickpaper buildings. But some people, such as the originator of this thread, prefer working in styrene, I guess. If anybody's interested, a few of my 4mm buildings made with Scalescenes brick printed on self-adhesive paper can be seen at www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20809

Be gentle - I'm still learning.

Mat Peacock

Re Brian Macdermott's comments on old postcards, I made this observation many years ago but I turned it to my advantage. One of my other hobbies is all things Morris Minor and I started to look closely at postcards to see if there were any Minors to be seen. A view, I bought in 1968, of the promenade at Douglas I.O.M. shows a National Coal Board Minor van in what looks like in as delivered condition, about 1950. I also thought I had a beauty with a view of the university here in Hull showing a Morris Minor Traveller parked in a staff parking bay in about 1970 but that car in still in use and can be seen most days around the university. I would advise anyone to supplement their holiday photo collection with local postcards working on the theory that you probably will only get one chance for a snap but the professional will keep on returning until they get the view they require.

John Wass

I have refrained from buying any of the Hornby 'Scots' or 'Patriots' purely because of the very obvious incorrect looking chimney. If the new batch are the same, I doubt if I will purchase any this time around. It is very sad, unless the problem has been solved, for this otherwise excellent model. I am not a rivet counter but this fault was so blatantly obvious and I think every magazine review picked up on it.

George McKie

-----

Regarding John Dickie's message I have had a close look at the chimney shape on both new 2008 'Scots' and 'Patriots" and there seems to have been a very slight reworking although it is hardly noticeable. The holes in the chimney top seem slightly smaller and the tapering of the chimney down to the smokebox seems changed, However, as I have mentioned, it is certainly not noticeable from Internet advertisement pictures and I would recommend anyone to have a close look at the real thing - model that is!.

John Cherry

My thanks to Phil Bartlett, Mike Romans and Phil Bullock for their helpful replies. And thanks to Mike for pointing out the terminology. Strangely, I always refer to these wagons on my layout as 'sheeted' not 'tarpaulined'.

Brian Macdermott

I would argue that asking for a transfer in our local model shops would get the same kind of look (but without the snigger) that the South African lady received when trying to obtain clear tape by a different name.

In our model shops, requests for 'decals' will produce your kind of transfers. Depending on who you ask, a request for a 'transfer' in this city could get you either:

a) a job move

or

b) a ticket enabling you to leave one Light Rail Transit (or bus) route to continue your journey on another route to reach your chosen destination.

Churchill put it well: (we are) "....separated by a common language"

David Nevett - Edmonton, Alberta

PS. On this side of the Atlantic remember to ask for an 'eraser' if you wish to remove pencil marks from paper, your chosen word could provoke a wide range of reactions depending on who you speak to!

-----

Whilst not wishing to comment on the technicalities, if there are any, it seems to me that those of my generation who built Revell kits call them decals, those who built Airfix call them transfers.

By-the-by, the bloke who supplies us with our vehicle stickers insists he is supplying 'graphics'! When applying them I tend to use an unpublishable phrase.......!

Richard Watson

I agree with Charles Boylan about BR.

I was born in 1940, and started to take a real interest in railways soon after Nationalisation. From 1949 to 1954 I haunted St Andrews station - which was beautifully kept. None of the railway employees I came in contact with was ever rude or angry towards me. They all seemed to me to be quietly proud of the job they did.

Yes, many of the locos were dirty and run down - with the exceptions of D29 Lady of Avenel and J36 no 65330, which were painted LNER green and kept clean - but the crews tried their best with what they had. The station and carriages were cleaned at every opportunity, and the overall atmosphere was one of pleasant cheerfulness. The line also ran past my house, and the drivers and firemen always gave me a wave. Also, most trains were passenger, pulled by 'Scots', 'Glens' and 'Directors' - with names. That's why I model the Fife Coast line in that period - including green Lady of Avenel.

Braid Anderson

I have received emails concerning a problem with the front running plate on the latest version of the Bachmann Standard 4MT 2-6-4T and mentioned this to Bachmann. I have received the following response:

This is scheduled for next Sunday, July 6th, in the Paget Rooms, Victoria Road, Penarth, CF64 3EG. The opening times are 10.30am to 4.30pm and the admission fees are: adults £2.00 and concessions £1.50. All proceeds will be donated to the local branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

This is a memorial model railway show in memory of the late Brian Scoulding, a long-standing member of the Barry & Penarth MRC, who died of motor neurone disease last November. We have located five of the layouts he built during his lifetime, including one which will be brought down from Bolton. Members of the Loddon Vale MRC near Reading are also bringing a layout, as will the 7mmNarrow Gauge Association, with which Brian had strong links. In all there will be 13 layouts,
plus some trade support and a couple of demonstrations.

John Challenor

I have just modelled some of these - a bit fiddly, but I was quite pleased with the results.

I usedsome old semi-translucent plastic beads (back to the daughter’s discarded junk jewellery), making two shades from each bead. The beads were cut in half and each half was hollowed outwith ahandheld drill bit. The outside was then filed to give thehexagonal shape. Awheat grain bulb was glued in and theplastic at the back of the bulb was painted to look like part of the lamp. The ‘shade’ was painted with fine lines to simulate the glazing bars.

Andrew Meaney’s letter today raises a subject which tends to annoy me a bit – or am I just becoming too pedantic.

Decals are vinyl artwork which can be fixed to vehicles etc. Transfers are fine ultra-thin artwork ‘transferred’ to the subject by waterslide, varnish or methfix methods.

Some years ago I remember the paint shop foreman at York telling me that they used to use transfers, but in the BR 'Blue' period they had changed to decals.

The items which we use can never be described as decals., so why has this usage taken credence? Incidentally, ‘decal’ is an American contraction of a French word which means an applied decoration usually vinyl! Andrew confuses himself by heading his letter ‘transfers’ and then talking about decals!

A little tongue in cheek, but I wonder what others think (or even understand).

It was with regret that I read of the closing of the Forest Railway at Dobwalls. I considered this to be one of the finest miniature railways in the country. The sight and sound of those US steam locomotives, 'Big Boy', FEFs and K37s working hard on the grades was unlike anything else I've encountered. I remember visiting back in the late '60s when it had just started and the forest was newly planted and watched it develop over the years.

I understand that the locomotives have been auctioned off and it seems all went to one buyer in the south. However, I have not been able to discover where and, being in Spain, I've not read or seen anything about their introduction to service. Does any one know where they went and when they'll go into service?

Tony Rimmer - Mazarron, Spain (Not so grumpy anymore)

British Railways was much more than dirty steam engines. My memory is of comfortable clean side corridor coaches, the pre-Nationalisation ones having pictures in the compartments. Looking for the pale blue station signs to know you had crossed the border into Scotland. Platforms awash with parcels. Newly hatched chickens on Hebden Bridge Station platform awaiting loading. Being sat behind the driver in a DMU going from Whitby to Scarborough, enjoying coastal scenery, passing camping coaches at Stations with staff and gardens. A railway that offered facilities such as luggage in advance which in my case was picked up from our house in a red and cream truck - I could go on.

British Railways was beautiful! and am I alone in knowing we are much poorer for its loss and I am grateful to all who strive to reproduce my memories in model form.

Charles Boylan

Your correspondent, who mentioned a postcard bought in 1957 showing the broad gauge tracks still in situ, was not quoting an isolated incident.

I have been collecting picture Postcards for years, initially as and when I found them but latterly through the medium of Ebay. I have been able to amass a tidy collection of street scenes of my old home town, St. Leonard’s on Sea, more commonly know these days as Hastings and St. Leonard’s.

I have a postcard published by Judges of Hastings entitled ‘High Seas at Hastings’ which I bought on my first trip back in 1981. It was bought in the Old Town and clearly shows in the background of the picture one of the trams that ran in Hastings from 1905 until 1928!

As I collect PCs of trams and trolleybuses in Hastings, it was among the first of my collection but to be still on sale nearly sixty years after publication must bring a smile to old Fred Judges dial up there in the great photographic studio in the sky! Fred Judge was a prolific photographer of the Hastings and surrounding districts at the turn of the last (19th) century and the company he founded still exists in Hastings to this day.

AI always look forward to my daily dose of MREmag and I am ever so put out when you have to take a well earned break and there’s no news, but to maintain the quality it is necessary to recharge the batteries occasionally – keep up the good work!

This coming weekend sees Britain's largest annual vintage railway modelling exhibition take place again at Sandy, in Bedfordshire. The venue for the Train Collectors Society's Summer Exhibition is Sandy Upper School, Eugayne Avenue, Sandy SG19 1BL and the times are 10.30am to 5pm on Saturday and 10.30am to 4pm on Sunday. This has become one of the great events of the British model railway calendar - don't miss it. Your editor will be there, hoping to meet as many readers as possible. Please come and make yourself known. I shall never be far away from my display of early Tri-ang.

Entrance fees will be: adults £4.50, TCS and Bachmann Collectors Club members and senior citizens £3.50, children (under 16) £1.50 and families (2 adults + children) £9.

Spread over four halls, there will be over 30 model railway layouts and vintage collectors layouts and displays from the 1900s onwards. There will also be more than 20 trade stands principally catering for the toy train and model railway collector.

As the exhibition is sponsored by the Bachmann Collector's Club, there will also be the Bachmann exhibition layout and stand. Come and make use of your Bachmann club membership for the special discounted entrance fee and meet those who run the club.

By Brian Macdermott

Having worked in London most of my life, I have seen plenty of postcard sellers in the tourist areas. It often struck me that visitors were paying good money for views that were at least 20 years out of date. However, the following (from a report in the July 1957 Railway Observer) beats that by far.

Just one comment on Mat Peacock's letter.

With Method 2, do not use an inkjet printer. I put together 2 metres of walling along the front of my branch station and goods yard, using this method on laminated 1mm card (that's the only thickness card I can get here in Papua New Guinea). I then placed green dyed sawdust, held together with weak PVA glue, along the bottom edge. Capillary action crept about 5mm up the wall, badly fading the ink. Damage control was carried out by lightly applying a pencil all along - but it took ages to get it looking nearly right!

Braid Anderson

-----

Mat Peacock gives two very useful ideas on gluing paper to styrene for buildings but maybe it would be easier just to use card of the same thickness as the styrene. Personally I would only use styrene if I was painting the building. If I am using brick paper of any kind then the framework is made out of card.

Chris Jones

-----

Steve Mann has suggested 'rubber cement' (rubber solution) for sticking brick paper to polystyrene sheet but comments that it won’t be permanent. He is right about the lack of permanency; one of the main uses of the product is for the temporary mounting of artwork etc. I recall trying it for brick paper many years ago and found it very unreliable. After a short time, there was a definite tendency for the paper to curl away, especially in a warmer temperature. We can turn this to our advantage for other purposes, e.g. the temporary fixing of items such as carriage destination boards, head boards, discs and lamps – a drop of rubber solution will stick the item but it will be readily removable with no permanent or damaging glue residue.

Given Patrick’s query (from Australia) and Steve’s suggestion (from the US), we must keep in mind that the supply situation overseas can be very different from that in the UK; brand names are often different too. I am reminded of the very pretty young girl (from South Africa) around 1970 who brought my office to a standstill when she asked "Do we have any Durex?" To her, ‘Durex’ was a well-known South African (and Australian) brand of clear adhesive tape; I am reliably informed that it signifies something else entirely in the UK!

-----

Many thanks for the suggestions offered for sticking paper to styrene, following my question last week. You have given me some good ideas to try here. It’s fascinating to see where the replies have been sent from - MREmag certainly has an international following.

Patrick Peake - Perth Australia

While I greatly enjoy the challenge of adding super-detail parts to recent 00 scale engines and enjoy the superb standard of the models, I have yet to work out a way to easily handle the finished 'works of art'.

Recent 'Standard' and late Southern Railway engines in particular have rather delicate details. If I use superglue, an error in assembly or a handling problem can be rather terminal and, if I use plastic cement, a model like a Bulleid Pacific can look great, but is very hard to handle without damage. Errors and damage are both likely for me!

Ideally, perhaps, these engines are best stored on a length of track with some soft custom-made foam and strap arrangement? Or perhaps there is some easy method which is staring me in the face but which I cannot see? Meanwhile, the beautiful Bulleid stares at me from the shelf saying, "Either I stay on the layout or I stay here!"

Robbie McGavin - New Zealand

-----

Firstly, to sort the terminology, the railways used 'wagon sheets', not 'tarpaulins', so anyone looking through old railway sources wouldn't have much luck using the latter word.

Sheets could be returned by various means. Firstly they could be sent back by 'sheet wagon', which would be used to carry and dispose of or return the sheets to either a specific destination or central distribution point, such as one of the Sheet Shops where sheets were manufactured and repaired. Where only a few were involved, they could even be loaded to the brake van of a local service - but not a good idea as damage was likley to result.

If the sheet wagon was an 'open', it was supposed to be sheeted, although, from what I can remember from the late 1960s, whenever we sent off sheets they were usually loaded into a van. No doubt this was mainly because, like many depots, we 'made' a regular surplus of vans and were usually short of 'opens'.

On 'circuit' type woking, such as china clay, the sheet would normally be left with the wagon as it was a specialised use and the sheet would be unlikely to be much use for any other traffic without major cleaning. That also made the job much easier as the loading point got a ready supply of sheets that way which matched the supply of wagons. The Regulations allowed sheets to be carried like that provided they were not damaged in the process.

Mike Romans

-----

It is nice to be able to reciprocate with some information for Brian Macdermott, given that so much excellent gen usually flows in the opposite direction. Whilst my age precluded me from accurately portraying, for Brian, what happened to wagon tarpaulins when wagons were empty in the 1950s (I never forgave my mother for not letting me go to Crewe with a man I met at Birmingham New Street in 1967, at the age of 12 - you can work my age out from that!), I can certainly comment on what was happening in the 1970s, on what was a 'working' that had probably changed little.

At the time, 6M52/53 St Blazey - Etruria china clay working, togther with 6V52/53 returns, were well observed as these stood a good chance of being a 'Western' until as late as 1976. Wagons were the standard s.w.b. traditional china clay wagon as modelled by Bachmann, but not with the hoods so often seen in Cornwall. The wagon load was protected by a traditional flat tarpaulin on the northbound services but, on the southbound with the empties, the sheets were folded and returned in the bottom of the empty wagons. These were obviously dedicated trains though so the situation may not have been so clear cut on general services.

My son James and I, aim to replicate this on our 'Abbotswood Junction' layout, currently under construction in 00 - along with the website which is also being rebuilt.

Phil Bullock

I thought I heard that Hornby were going to attend to the chimney shape on the 2008 'Scots' and 'Patriots'. From the latest bulletin from Hattons it looks like they've arrived in the UK; and from the photos therein it looks like the chimneys are unchanged. Or, are Hattons using old photos, with the numbers 'Photoshopped'?

Can anyone confirm? Thanks.

John Dickie

6201 Princess Elizabeth, 60009 Union of South Africa and 71000 Duke of Gloucester will be used during August by The Railway Touring Company. They will be collecting day trippers from Manchester Victoria, Stockport, Wilmslow and rail stations throughout the North West and heading for destinations including Carlisle, York and Scarborough.

The Cumbrian Mountain Express service will operate from Stockport, Manchester Victoria and Wigan North Western on Saturdays, August 9, 16 and 30, to Carlisle and the return journey will take in the Settle and Carlisle Line.

Every Friday in August these three locos will be heading for York and Scarborough. The Railway Touring Company’s Yorkshire coast service, The Scarborough Flyer, will depart from Crewe, Warrington and Manchester Victoria, before heading across the Pennines to York, where passengers can leave the train for an afternoon exploring. From York 'The Flyer' will steam along the Vale of York, past Kirkham Abbey and on into Scarborough for an afternoon on the beach or visiting the castle in Yorkshire’s most popular seaside resort.

More than 5,000 people travelled on The Railway Touring Company’s 2007 summer Scarborough steam service, which operated from the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Managing Director, Nigel Dobbing, is expecting these day trips to be equally popular with day trippers in the North West.

"We have put together a great team of locomotives to haul our smartly refurbished vintage rail coaches along some exciting routes – a combination, which offers people a chance to relive the pleasure of rail travel in former days and enjoy a special day away from it all without facing the busy roads," he said.

Tickets include Standard and First Class travel. There is a Premier Dining option, which includes full English breakfast and a four course dinner silver served at your seat and also light lunch on The Cumbrian Mountain Express. Prices start from £56 and range up to £475 for a family Premier Dining reservation on The Cumbrian Mountain Express.

I am hoping fellow readers could assist. I have decided to make my own decals for wagon lettering as many of the wagon kits I buy are not supported by decal manufacturers. I model the post-TOPS period and I was wondering if anyone knows of a template I could use in a graphics package for the TOPS lettering boxes? I can then, apparently, use Crafty Computer Paper and print the decals onto waterslide decal paper.

Andrew Meaney

Some years ago I was given some old Trains Illustrated magazines, published by Ian Allan, and the 'Royal Corps of Train Spotters', from the 1950s. I have been going through the Motive Power Miscellany sections for unusual loco sightings on the Southern.

On 30/07/1952, Midland 'Compound' 41167 (5A) was seen in Brighton having brought a day excursion down the Quarry Line.

On 19/12/1953, B1 61233 was seen passing through Malden on an FA Amateur cup tie special from Ilford to Walton.

On Easter Sunday 1954, there were six through excursions from north of London to the south coast, all double headed by Stanier 5MT 4-6-0s. Unfortunately, no numbers were recorded.

On Whit Sunday 1956, 73046 from Leicester, 44711 from Rugby and also 45137 and 45238 travelled to Brighton on excursions.

On 12/05/1956, Stoke '5' 44871 also visited Brighton.

On 08/08/1956 Stanier '5' 44771 was seen at Rochester and at Herne Bay.

I hope these items will be of interest to Southern modellers and apologise if any of these have been reported before on the site but I have not had time to check back.

Merv Rogers

-----

Modern Railways reported on 23/2/66 48276 at Weymouth and on 4/2/65 48059 also at Weymouth B1 61313 in June 64 was at Newhaven from Newcastle.

Chris Wright

Somewhere in the depths of my loft (if that’s not a contradiction in terms), I have a photo of 8F No. 48408 approaching Hinton Admiral and sporting a Waterloo to Bournemouth headcode. Unfortunately the photo was taken when I was a very young and inexperienced photographer, so the train is far away in the distance and difficult to see. I have no idea of the date but I remember it happening and this memory might serve to confirm some of the recent comments on MREmag.

On a slightly different tack, we did see ex-GWR 'Granges', now and again, both at Eastleigh and Bournemouth. The ones that reached Bournemouth were either on the daily York/Newcastle train, which was usually a 'Hall', or on summer Saturdays when almost anything might turn up. I remember seeing them at Eastleigh on both passenger and freight (not that often) and I have no clue where they would have come from. Those with more knowledge and experience than me (i.e. older) may be able to expand on this. My Hornby 'Grange' has become 6803 Bucklebury Grange in honour of the loco that, for some inexplicable reason, became my favourite.

Of course this is all part of what makes modelling Hampshire in 1962 far more interesting than any other time or place (not being controversial or anything).

John Brien

I presume Jeremy English does know that Brighton turned out some Fairburn tanks (42066-42106) in 1950/51. These were built for use on the Southern Region (but not the South Western section) on the duties for which the ‘Leader’ class had been intended. So 42103 was actually a ‘Southern’ owned and built engine. In 1959, these engines were swapped for LMR BR Standard 4 tanks, which had higher route availability because of the curved profile of their tanks and cab and reduced width over their cylinders. Standardising on the BR version made life easier for the Southern shed masters, who no longer had to worry about which type of 2-6-4T was allocated to which duty.

Fairburns built at Brighton had a different rivet pattern on the tanks compared to the Derby product. Bachmann offer both types, so Jeremy should check that he renumbers a model of a Brighton built engine if he wants 42103.

Howard Merrion

Thanks to everyone who helped me understand accountancy rebuilds. They are certainly not as devious as old George Hudson. Spartacus writes the following about him:

Richard Davies

-----

Nobody has yet mentioned Accountancy Newbuilding, so I will.

In the 1920s, five 'Stars' were rebuilt as 'Castles' and kept their original numbers (though 4009 soon became 100A1). When 10 of the 'Abbey' series of 'Stars' (4063-4072) went through the same process in the late 1930s, they were officially new engines and were given new numbers (5083-5092). In addition, when 6007 was repaired after the Shrivenham accident, I believe it was officially regarded as being new.

I’m not certain exactly what was driving this. Possibly the capital account was in a more healthy state than the revenue account, or perhaps the GW was pulling a fast one with government grants which were available for capital expenditure (to stimulate employment).

Howard Merrion

Thanks for checking this out for me and thanks to all who wrote on DCC Ready v DCC Fitted. It was a slip of the keyboard. I did mean that Bachmann should supply blanking plates on their 'DCC Fitted' locos, such as the small warning panel, disc fitted 20, which has only as yet been available 'DCC Fitted'. I am glad that Bachmann has already formed the same conclusion!

Russell Benton

May I respond to the fascinating speculation by Will House on the popularity of early BR liveries for current models.

I am slightly ahead of the 'Baby Boomer' generation and was brought up by my father and an uncle with memories of pre-grouping railways, particularly chocolate Brighton engines. My early railways books contained pictures of the 'Coronation Scot', the 'Silver Jubilee' and the 'Cheltenahm Flyer' which looked liked mythical images compared with run down condition of much of the early post war railway. But, as the 1950s progressed, the world changed, with the introduction of the standard classes and the new rolling stock. This was a golden Indian summer for the steam railway - 'Britannias' to Norwich in 2 hours, 6 hours on the non-stop 'Elizabethan' to Edinburgh, 100 minutes to Bristol with the 'Bristolian' and Exeter in under 3 hours with a rebuilt 'Merchant Navy'. C.J. Allen and O.S. Nock kept us informed of details of locomotive performance and Geoffrey Freeman Allen in Trains Illustrated provided detailed accounts of new developments.

From the late 1950s, the first diesel locomotives started to appear but these did not replace steam at first and worked side by side well into the sixties. At first, they were greeted with great interest but their shortcomings soon became evident. There is a marvellous Colin Gifford photo of an English Electric Type 4 on an open siding at Hornsey, alongside a row of open coal wagons. The maintenance crew are attending to a repair task with a familiar coal hammer - no wonder there were problems in the early days!

Nowadays, there is simply change and the old and new do not work side by side for an extended period.

It is for these reasons that so many of us choose the period of around 1960 for our models: in many places steam was still in good form, with a reluctance to let it go, but with an interest in the new forms of traction.

Nicholas Rothon

-----

As another post-war 'Baby Boomer', I remember only too well the dirt, lack of maintenance, waste and corporate vandalism of BR. Even today, nothing will induce me to buy anything with a BR emblem on it, so I wholeheartedly support Will House's plea for more Grouping (and even some pre-Grouping) stock. For those who weren't there, photographs speak volumes, but I don't think much is going to change while nostalgia's rosy tint so kindly colours the memory!

Chris Wylson

With a shortage of news at present, this is a good time to catch up on those magazines that not everyone sees as they cater for the collector.

Train Collector is the magazine of the Train Collectors Society and this 52 page full colour magazine is published four times a year, the current issue being that for June. Subjects covered in this issue include, a layout built by the Leeds Model Company, in the 1930s, for a rich Australian family, and which was recently rediscovered in a chicken shed in Australia and is being restored to working order. Other subjects are the toy trains of Georges Carette, the Tri-ang Sydney Suburban EMU, memories of Hadley Hobbies, Weetabix Workshop Trains, collecting icons, Kay 'penny' trains, remembering 1984, modern Hornby cross-stay tank wagons, an Edwardian railway, the products of L.T.Goodchild, the story of Roco, a look at 20 years from now, Tri-ang TT, Weimar 0 scale, Bora and ETS, new collectables, Bassett-Lowke LNER locomotives and a roundup of the auctions. Various recent collectors' events are also covered. Website: www.traincollectors.co.uk

The Collector is a 16 page full colour bi-monthly published by Hornby for the Hornby Collectors Club. The last issue included articles on simple scenics, an alternative use for the 4-wheel coach, making corridor connections, the Class 60, dealing with a space problem, Model Rail Scotland, members layouts and forthcoming releases. Website: www.hornby.com

The Hornby Railway Collector is the magazine of the oldest of the collecting organisations, the Hornby Railway Collectors Association. It is a 32 page, partially full colour, magazine which runs to 11 issues per year. Stories in the current issue include the Hornby exhibition in Liverpool Cathedral, the late Ian Layne, the Bugatti railcars, Hornby diversity, producing a BR(SR) restaurant car, an outdoor 0 gauge layout and a Dublo indoor one and coverage of various collectors events. Website: www.hrca.net

Collectors' Club is the magazine of the Bachmann Collectors Club. It is a 40 page full colour quarterly publication which largely concentrates on the company's recently released products. It is a good source of information about those special releases that are not featured in the catalogues but it also has some good features on the real railways. The Summer issue carries articles on Bill McAlpine's railway collecting, open access and freight operators, Rugen's Technical Modelling Museum, the Mevagissey World of Model Railways and a feature on Scotland's railways. Website: www.bachmann.co.uk

Lowko News is published quarterly by the Bassett-Lowke Society and is a 32 page partially coloured magazine for the collector of Bassett-Lowke and, to a small extent, associated 0 gauge (and larger) makes. The current issue covers various 0 gauge events, information about the future of the society's archive, extracts from B-L publications, a high pressure gauge 1 Mogul, moving-frog points, the building of a working railway on a cruise liner, restoring a Bassett-Lowke Enterprise live steam loco, modern B-L releases and the possible future of the brand now that Hornby Hobbies plc own it. Website: www.bassettlowkesociety.org.uk

TTRCA Gazette is the magazine of the Trix Twin Railway Collectors' Association. It is a 20 page quarterly which has now gone full colour. The June 2008 issue has articles on reversing magnet coils, a look a Trix around the world, recent events, the massive Lawson layout, a Trix Twin Gresley V3 neverwazza, Trix tank wagon variations, an Italian look at the Manyways station building system and stunning pictures inside David O'Brien's Trix Museum. Website: www.ttrca.co.uk

May I mention an example of an accountancy rebuild that is still in service.

When I was a youngster, in the 1970s, any book or article about the Vale of Rheidol listed No.9 Prince of Wales as being one of the line's two original locos built by Davies and Metcalfe in (I think) 1902 and rebuilt at Swindon in the twenties. I believe some celebrations were held for its supposed 80th birthday.

More recently it was realised - perhaps because of closer scrutiny of official records - that No.9 was a brand-new engine assembled at Swindon from spare parts that had been manufactured for its sister locos Nos. 7 and 8 and that the original Prince of Wales had been scrapped more than 60 years ago. There was no pretence at marking its 90th birthday.

Andy Kirkham

Method 1: lay the brickpaper onto the styrene and then brush on liquid polystyrene cement (the sort that comes in a bottle). The liquid soaks through the paper, bonding it to the styrene, and should dry clear. I have used this technique to cover Hornby Minitrix buildings (i.e. in N gauge) with some success.

The downside of this technique is that the brickpaper has to be precisely positioned first. It's also worth checking that your solvent doesn't affect the printing on the brickpaper, just in case!

Method 2: download brickpaper from www.scalescenes.com (I have no connection with this company apart from using their products a lot). Print onto self-adhesive paper (most office supply shops should sell A4-sized single stickers). Then peel off the backing and apply the brickpaper to the styrene (start with one of the long edges and go slowly, allow some overlap and trim the paper afterwards).

Both of these methods should give you a nice smooth surface.

Mat Peacock

Regarding recent discussion on signal bounce, I see there is a very satisfying bounce on the second hand of the clock at the top right hand corner of the BBC's home page. Now that is style - someone must have put effort into programming that.

Stuart de Boer

Many thanks to Stuart May for the book titles and descriptions he gave in his posting on Wednesday, I will seek out those books and have a good rummage through them.

Bob Hart

Following John Cherry's email yesterday, Hornby have explained the situation:

"Over the last few years, Hornby has required an ever increasing demand on their vendors tooling and production facilities. Recently, it has been noted that Hornby’s continued demand for increased production to cover both the UK and the large volume of new models due for release onto the International market, has caused the capabilities of the vendors to be exceeded with the inevitable result of delayed production on new and re-liveried items. Hornby and their vendors have recognised the situation and steps have now been taken to remove the offending bottlenecks which will include improved production facilities thus in turn resulting, over time, in significant improvements to release dates."

Despite the temporary set back, models continue to flow and the following are the latest arrivals:

R2727 BR green 'Rebuilt Patriot' 45528 REME with late insignia

R2729 BR green 'Royal Scot' 46144 Honourable Artillery Company with late insignia

R2765 Class 73 Engineers Department grey and yellow as 73108

R2767 Class 73 73204 Stewarts Lane 1860-1985 in BR InterCity livery

R2769 Class 121 in Chiltern Railways blue as 55020

R2771 Class 121 in BR green with small yellow panels as W55028

R2770 Class 121 BR blue as W55026

R2768 GWR chocolate and cream Express Parcels railcar No.34 now with small couplings

R4170C LNER teak Composite Brake as 42884

R6409 Ex-LMS Brake Van ZTO in black and yellow stripes as DM732540

Central Scotland's premier model railway exhibition will be held this coming weekend at Dewars Ice Rink, Glover Street, Perth PH2 0TH and will be open from 10am to 6pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.

There will be 25 layouts and 25 specialist trade stands, plus a buffet area. Admission charges will be adults £5, concessions £3, children £2 and families (2+2) £10.

The venue is a short walk from Perth station and the city centre. There will be plenty of parking available.

By John Cherry

Southampton Central, 9 May 1953. A through Brighton-Plymouth train of 12 carriages, complete with buffet-restaurant, departed Southampton Central behind Fairburn 2-6-4T No.42103. The Fairburn worked through to Salisbury – just the job for a Bachmann Fairburn on a South Western layout.

Brian Lewis didn't mention the P4 Track Company in his answer. http://www.exactoscale.co.uk/ I'm lead to believe by P4 modellers of my acquaintance that this system is very simple and straightforward.

As for Patrick Peake, I would suggest Copydex. OK, it smells of fish, but it certainly glues paper.

Steve Grantham

Patrick Peake asks for a reliable means of sticking brick paper to polystyrene sheet. One commonly-used method, which I have used successfully in the past, is to position the paper on the sheet and then ‘paint’ the printed side of the paper fairly liberally with a polystyrene solvent. The solvent soaks through the paper and softens the polystyrene which, with gentle pressure, will then adhere to the paper; the excess solvent soon evaporates. Although it should not be affected by the solvent, it is sensible to check the fastness of the printing ink first.

Now that, regrettably, it is difficult (in the UK at least) to buy proper polystyrene solvents in sensible quantities at sensible prices, one might have to resort to using proprietary products such as Mek Pak. However, cellulose thinners should work or (if you can get it) printers’ blanket wash (butanone) or trichloroethylene are ideal. But, whatever you use: do not carry out the work in a confined space or in the presence of a flame, slosh the solvent about or breathe the vapour.

A suggested alternative adhesive (which I have not tried) is that applied from an aerosol and often used by artists, e.g. ‘spray mount’. This is, however, a very sticky product which can be messy, especially if applied to small items or areas. Whatever adhesive is used, it is important to make sure that the polystyrene building ‘shell’ is well braced; otherwise, distortion can occur when the paper is applied and solvent evaporates. For the same reason, there should be no totally enclosed voids preventing excess solvent from evaporating readily.

Nick Stanbury

-----

Deluxe Materials have a new product called 'Roket Card Glue'. It is brilliant for building with card (very quick drying and very strong) and I have used it successfully to stick paper to a variety of surfaces. Of course I do not know whether it is available in Australia.

Brian Martin

-----

My advice would be to use rubber cement. It won’t be permanent and will be easily damaged by ham-fisted handling, but by the same token, mistakes can be rectified albeit with quite a bit of prep needed before trying again and it hasn’t harmed anything I’ve used it on so far.

The trick is to use the cement as a contact cement (which if you read the bottle is how it’s intended to be used anyway). Brush on some glue to one surface, then spread it in a thin layer over the entire area (I use old credit/debit cards for this). Work quickly as the glue dries quite rapidly when it is in a thin layer. Resist the urge to "fix" holes after the glue is dry, as you will end up peeling off the first layer of glue. If you miss a bit, carefully rub off all the glue with a clean finger and do it over. Once the layers are dry on each surface, the paper can be applied to the styrene and softly burnished down with a soft tissue or something similar.

Rubber cement can be bought in small jars from any office or school supply store, assuming some local busybody hasn’t passed a law against it in your locale.

Steve Mann - Sticking stuff to other stuff in NYC

My thanks to those who have given further contribution and in particular Chris Wright’s latest findings, of which confirms how 45595 came to be in the SW area and its inward working. I am sorry Chris but I would still question 45633 at Feltham, as the Book of the Jubilees certainly shows this loco as withdrawn in 1965.

Another anomaly is that of 45699 Galatea and its visit to Eastleigh. This loco was allocated to Shrewsbury and withdrawn the weekend of 21/11/64 but on 07/02/65 it was photographed on Eastleigh (Peter Hands book BR Steaming Through Eastleigh etc.) looking complete, but very rundown, and with the yellow stripe on the cab. It subsequently went to Barry Scrapyard but does anyone know why it was actually sent to Eastleigh? I cannot believe that it was for works attention nor for scraping, so was it sent in error? Confused as a 'Black Five'?

Now an another item for Jeremy English regarding 8Fs on the Southern. On 17/06/65, 48408, having been subject to repair at Eastleigh, worked the 13 13 Basingstoke to Waterloo passenger service but, even more surprising, the return diagram was the 17 09 Waterloo to Basingstoke Commuter service. The running foreman at Nine Elms stuck to the diagram and 48408 worked the service, which must have been a 'first'. Finally, as an aside, 'Black Five' 44915 (another Hornby model type) worked the 19 02 Waterloo to Bournemouth van train on 24/04/65. The latter items courtesy of British Railways Illustrated Magazine – a BRILL mag!

John Cherry

To answer Rob Bishop’s question, there are actually three separate issues: flange height, flange base width and back-to-back measurement. Mainline, Airfix and Dapol stock had finescale wheels and you should have no problems with any of these.

Some other pre-1990 locomotives and rolling stock will also run perfectly happily on code-75 track. In particular, most if not all, Hornby Dublo 2-rail stock will run without problems as they had a pretty good compromise in their wheel dimensions for the period. The flange height was quite low and the back-to-back was reasonable. So far as I am aware, the same holds for those built by Wren, though, as the flanges on all these are quite thick, you may still have trouble on the latest code 75 points, since Peco’s check rails and crossings seem to get gradually finer as time goes by.

Which leaves Tri-ang, Hornby and Lima. Wheel standards of these varied an awful lot and most early examples (pre-1980) will either bounce along the chairs or jam in the points. But, strangely enough, some 1960s Tri-ang rolling stock bounces along quite happily if the wheel back-to-backs are pushed out to 14mm – try them and see. Some early Lima stuff had tall flanges that won’t run on code 75 but I think the latest ones are OK, Does anyone know what they changed?

Anthony New

If only Virgin would fit a BattleSpace! Turbocar ramming spike to their Pendolinos, this so-called 'blockade' would be a non-issue.

Steve Mann - Blockaded in NYC

Stuart de Boer

By Trevor Gibbs (Melbourne, Australia)

Cleaning wheels is not the most enjoyable task in the model railway field but there is a way of making it easier and minimising the amount of pick up and scraping you need to do.

1. Get some reasonable strength paper towel (the quilted type is ideal). Wet a small area of the paper towel with the white spirit. (Do not use Turpentine for this!)

Reading the other contributions to this discussion, a couple of further points occur to me.

The first is that, when authorising new locomotives and rolling stock, attention was paid to the question of which existing items they were intended to replace. 'Replace' is a term which included the idea of 'displacing', in the sense that the new item was expected to be a sufficient improvement over the old as to render it redundant; so that, for example, the 1925 batch of large-boilered 7F 2-8-0s, ordered for the Somerset & Dorset line, were planned to replace the much smaller 'Scottie' 0-6-0s which were, by then, both life-expired and far too small for the duties envisaged. The items thus replaced were written off as capital assets, generally for their scrap value, which was set against the cost of the new items.

If the new items were intended to effect economies in operation - allowing longer trains to be handled over a route, for example - rather than being intended to actually expand the net traffic receipts, it might make sense to regard them as replacements rather than new items and charge them to revenue rather than capital account.

This was sometimes reflected in the stock numbers allocated - replacements might take the numbers of the displaced older stock, while new items were numbered in a new series. The 'Patriots' originally took the numbers of the 'Claughtons' they displaced, for example; though the class was renumbered into the 5500 series in 1934.

The other point is that displaced locomotives - particularly - might be written off as part of the company's main capital assets while still having some years of useful life left in them. These were then assigned to the 'duplicate' list, being renumbered into a series to reflect their marginal status. This certainly happened to many of the surviving LNWR locomotives after Stanier started his 'scrap and build' policy, engine numbers being given a '2' prefix. The LNWR had numbered duplicates in a series above 3000, a practice also adopted by the Southern in the mid-thirties, duplicates having previously had their numbers prefixed '0'. Indeed, some engines were to spend much of their lives on the duplicate list - the LSWR Adams radial tanks and Beattie well tanks being a case in point - and many certainly eked out a decade or more of useful life after being duplicated.

Even if all of this has little to do with model railways as such, it's a fascinating topic - but it does worry me that we might subconsciously be getting to like accountants in the process!

Neil Burgess

Just to let you know. For me, this year's Festival of Toy Trains was another triumph for the organiser Bob Leggett and all those who took part, who, of course, were either volunteers or traders.

The whole day was carried off with good nature from all the wonderful vintage layouts right through everyone to the hot dog and real ale stands.

My hours there melted away. I wish I could have stayed longer. All that effort to mount it and carry it out, is for one day only! It was hugely enjoyable, absolute bliss, roll on June 13th 2009 and the 17th Alresford.

Richard Brunskill

In reply to Bob Hart, I offer the following information:

The same colour photo of 60028 Walter K Whigham in the purple livery appears in each of the following books:

a. The A4 Pacifics, by P N Townend, published by Ian Allan, 1989.

b. Eastern Steam in Colour, by Hugh Ballantyne, published by Jane's Pulishing Co., 1986.

c. Railway Liveries, BR Steam 1948-1968, by Brian Haresnape, published by Ian Allan, 1989.

Whilst I do not claim to possess all books containing colour photos of these locos, I would point out the following:

1. Only four A4s were given this experimental livery.

2. It was very short-lived.

3. At that period, colour film was not easily available, and

4. The quality of colour film at that time was very poor.

When all these factors are put together, it is not surprising that there are extremely few colour photos of the livery, although details of it are well documented in various publications.

Regarding coach liveries, there was an experimental 'Plum' coloured livery which was replaced by the crimson and cream for corridor coaches.

Stuart May

In reply to Patrick Peake, sheet styrene available in Australia usually has two sides, a glossy side and a matt side. Using Evergreen styrene, both sides will be matt. If you want to paper it over make your buildings matt side out and a thin film of PVA glue should be all you need. Work the surface by moving the paper over the surface until you feel it start to work harden and align it where you want and leave to thoroughly dry. A little sanding of the outside surfaces should help your glue to adhere!

Regards from the opposite end of the country!

Trevor Gibbs - Melbourne

There seems to be some confusion of terminology in Russell Benton's post on Monday 23rd.

My understanding is that 'DCC ready' means a model locomotive is equipped with a DCC socket and blanking plug. It is ready for use with 12v DC analogue control but to enable DCC operation needs to be fitted with a decoder bought separately by the purchaser.

The term 'DCC fitted' means that a locomotive is equipped with a factory installed decoder.

Adrian Kops - Melbourne, Australia

I am a baby boomer. The country is flooded with us; coming up to retirement with a bit of disposable income, we have time on our hands. Time to get out the old train set and think about a proper layout.

For those of us who grew up with Trix-Twin, Hornby-Dublo and Tri-ang Railways (Graham Farish seemed to get under the radar), the Hornby and the Bachmann catalogues are the stuff of dreams. You mean all 00 gauge equipment is two-rail now? It’s all 12vDC? It all couples together and runs on the same track? And there are 350 pages of it? You’re pulling my leg…!

But no; it’s true. 14vAC, three-rail track, coarse scale wheels and the poor old Peco coupling are things of the past. The accent has changed. When we were kids, train sets were toys aimed at us; now that we’re geriatric, they’re scale models – but they are still aimed at us!

Which brings me to my point.

My recollection is that our generation wasn’t over-fond of British Railways. Nothing political, you understand, just that they were colourless, dirty and late. A bit of Brunswick green, certainly, but gone were the days of crimson lake (until later), polished metal, cheery porters and rotund, jolly stationmasters. At least, that was the story that we were told, never having experienced the pre-nationalisation companies ourselves.

Sure, we rode British Railways anyway – there was always a lengthy article in the school magazine about some branch-line trip.... "The sun was shining as we boarded the 7.54am stopping train to Brighton, well stocked with lemonade and sandwiches...." and we liked to watch a bit of shunting or experience an express train nearly blowing us off our feet. But those of us who took our hobby a bit more seriously and bought Model Railway News, Model Railway Constructor or Railway Modeller were exposed to endless pre-nationalisation layouts (mostly GWR branch-lines) and that was what we aspired to. Admittedly, I got only as far as removing the BR crest from the tender of my Hornby-Dublo Bristol Castle in readiness for a Great Western substitute, but there were others of my generation who managed full-scale repaints and took the whole thing very seriously.

But now, we seem to have changed our minds. The catalogues are flooded with BR liveried locos and the Big Four hardly get a look in. I suppose that after nearly 50 years we only remember the best bits – rose-tinted specs, and all that. But, as a modeller, with very little skill, I’m a bit frustrated by the lack of Great Western liveried models. Pedant that I am, I counted thirteen different classes of Great Western steam locomotive in the catalogues, all available in one or more BR liveries. But there are only four in 'GWR', two in 'GREAT WESTERN' and two in 'GWR shirt button' liveries. The Southern Railway (my other interest) is better served – all the Hornby locos have an SR option, but boy!, the difficulty I’ve had in getting hold of a Maunsell-liveried 'King Arthur'.

And then there are those wonderful road models from Oxford, Trackside, Base Models and Classix. We would have killed for proper 'to-scale' cars as we desperately sought out the few Dublo Dinkies or Matchbox toys that were approximately to scale. Yes; they are wonderful, but almost exclusively fifties and sixties.

So, a small plea to Hornby and Bachmann and the others. I have no doubt that the greatest demand is for BR period models – you wouldn’t make them otherwise – but please slip in a few more pre-nationalisation colours – especially Great Western. And, maybe, some road transport of the twenties, thirties and forties.

Thanks, chaps.

Will House

By Brian Macdermott

Virgin trains have announced that they will run a direct Birmingham International to Euston service throughout the Rugby blockade. These trains will call only at Coventry and then run non-stop via Banbury, Bicester and West Ruislip. I do not know how soon in advance the timetable will be published but it may be a useful option come November.

Mike Harvey

-----

Just to confirm that Chiltern should be running that weekend, Also, Virgin are running twin unit Voyagers Euston-Birmingham International via the Chiltern Route every hour. Route learning, using the blue-grey bubble car, is taking place now.

David J Smith

I have gone back to Modern Railways to check some details and found reports of:

45689 piloted by Class 47 (1727) on ex-Dundee troop train at Weymouth 11/2/65

45595 ex-Dundee troop train (from Crewe) at Weymouth - 4/9/64

45560 on 22/9/64 from Crewe and used on banking duties at Weymouth

45561 on 5/9/64 ex-Bradford at Weymouth

45660 on pigeon train at Weymouth from Northwest

Oil trains from Bromford Bridge to Fawley in 2/62 included 45564, 45682 and 45685

45633 was seen at Feltham on freight on 3/2/66

45672 and 45617 were seen at Newhaven in 6/64 on car sleepers from Glasgow/Newcastle - unauthorised use. Also seen at Eastbourne and Haywards Heath

Whilst researching Jubilees on the Southern, I came across these references to Manors:

4/9/64 7800 - Birkenhead to Weymouth

5/6/62 7829 at Weymouth from Castle Cary

July '64 some services on Reading-Redhill - usually a Manor - details unclear

2/62 7813 at Eastleigh

I also found Grange 6814 reported on a Weymouth-Bournemouth service on 22/6/65 and a Hall at Bournemouth West and Southampton in 1964.

Chris Wright

Just congratulations to Brian Macdermott for reaching 'Snippet No. 200' last week. For someone trying to model British steam era train formations correctly from as far away as Australia, this series is invaluable.

What a great trick it would be to print out some of the more unorthodox combinations Brian has sourced for us, run them at an exhibition, wait for someone to tell you it was incorrect and then in good fun show them Brian's reference.

I even caught out a visitor to my home layout this way. Even worse, they wanted to bet me - but I could not be that mercenary!

Thanks, Brian.

Richard Whitmore

Having moved house I am fortunate enough to be in a position to rebuild my railway in a larger room and have been considering the merits of utilising Peco Code 75 track this time.

At the moment I have one concern and that is how many of my large number of older locomotives would be banned from running over lines laid to this specification. It has been suggested to me that no pre-1990 locomotives would be permitted. I can appreciate that this would clearly apply to my Wrenn (ex-Hornby Dublo) and Tri-ang Hornby models but would it apply to the likes of Mainline and Airfix from the 1970s and 1980s? It would be wonderful if there was a definitive list of permitted or banned locos!

Can any of your contributors help please?

Bob Bishop

It does seem unfair that one of the criticisms of P4 is that no ready made trackwork exists, when really the argument is, 'we do not like building turnouts'. Ready-to-use trackwork is available in gauges such as 00 and F7 and yet folk still choose to construct theirs using readily available components.

For me, with a 45 foot 7mm layout, I find hand-building trackwork to be the most relaxing part of layout construction. One great advantage is that you can build your trackwork in panels, in my case in five foot lengths, as this is the length of each baseboard. I have always rejected the concept that model trackwork consists of a number of turnouts, stitched together with lengths of plain track. Build it like that and
you will have to work very hard indeed to create trackwork with the eye pleasing 'sweeps and flows' that come naturally with hand-built track.

Trackwork is considered to be a 'black art' by many modellers, made worse by the fact that there may well be some soldering involved. But, in many ways, this is yesterday's thinking. The hardest part of building pointwork is getting the relationship between the 'vee' and the 'wing' rails correct, as an error here will be the cause of endless derailments. When I first built trackwork (40+ years ago - showing my age here) in EM gauge, I did have problems, particularly as the ply and rivet form of construction then used, meant that not all rivets were on a level plane. I struggled for some while until I realised the answer was to build the common crossing, ('vee' + 'wing' rails), as a separate unit soldered up as one, off the baseboard. This was then placed in the correct location, held by roller gauges and soldered to the tracks. Once
I had 'cracked' this, I never looked back and have enjoyed track making ever since.

But today, everything is much easier. The use of ABS chairs and sleepers means that soldering has been replaced by the use of solvent. Better still, firms like C+L now sell ready made common crossings. Using these, track construction becomes straight forward and error free. All three track component suppliers sell construction kits which contain the components you need in order to build a turnout. C+L in fact actually publish their instructions as a downloadable PDF file, in the Data Sheets section of their web site. So you can see for yourself, just how painless constructing trackwork really is.

So, if you are in any doubt, my comment is 'Come on in - the waters fine....'

Brian Lewis

I am making some buildings from styrene sheet and wish to cover them with brick paper. Do any correspondents have advice as to what glue to use? I have tried UHU but find that the paper peels off, particularly around columns. Any advice would be appreciated.

Patrick Peake - Perth Australia

Just for information, there is a colour photo of A4 Walter K Wigham on page 170 of The Big Four in Colour 1935-1950 by David Jenkinson, Pendragon Books, ISBN 1 899816 08 9 with the photo credited to J M Jarvis ref BRE159.

George McKie

Sound on the moving loco?

We have been using MP3 players mounted in a parcel/baggage van behind a loco for a while. In our case a 'Spam Can', 'Lizzie', Class 3 tank, Castle and in a Western diesel.

Steam loco. (Diesels are the same except it is all on board) A small pizzo speaker, (or a custom one) is fitted to in the baggage car and plugged in to the PM3 player. This is the early MP3 type, about twice the size of a memory stick. (We got fours from Argos for less than the price of a sound chip) The battery is removed and rewired through a miniature push switch fitted to the outside of the baggage car (in between the buffers on ours). Then using editing software the sound of a specific loco is loaded as normal on the player.

It operates as follows. In the case of the Spam Can, on receiving the whistle from the guard, the loco pulls out of the station and gathers speed until it is running at full speed. After two laps of the layout (or however many one requires) the loco sounds a blast on the whistle and begins to slow to a stop in the station. The acceleration and deceleration is done in the usual way on a DCC controller. The guard's whistle and the loco's whistle is the prompt to turn the controller on or off. It may take a couple of attempts to get the acceleration and deceleration right and the length of run correct, but it is all part of the fun.

We also have the added advantage that we have genuine station announcements, passenger voices and slam doors! The loco sound does not have to be an on board recording as using the editing software can alter the length of recording and add in whistles etc.

If you have a tender drive loco, the whole lot can be mounted on board in the boiler. On the Mainline tender drive loco we have, the switch is in the chimney.

We are working on a miniature amplifier to suit the player.

The MP3 memory can be loaded with a number of locos and each one can be selected by changing the 'folder' as advised on the instructions with the player. Thus moving the baggage car to another loco keeps the cost down So you could load up to three hours at least in various folders. The AAA battery lasts about 10 hours.

If you don't know how to do it, ask your children or grandchildren!

In the above case, it is the sound that 'regulates' the speed, whereas a sound chip 'moves' to the controller.

What I am looking for is a recording of a SR/BR 3-SUB EMU slamdoor for our Tri-ang Subs! Any ideas?

Ken Darville

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Trust has commissioned a limited edition model from Bachmann of one its resident, recently restored locomotives, WD No. 90733, to be renamed REMEMBRANCE – Lest we forget, later this year at a special ceremony on 11 November. This model is now in stock and available for immediate delivery at a cost of £119.95 + £4.95 postage (post free if ordered by the end of June).

To commemorate the rebuilding of 90733 and the 40th Anniversary of the reopening of the K&WVR, the railway’s Charitable Trust has sponsored the production of 500 models of this unique locomotive. There will be only one production run and then no more will be produced. All proceeds from these sales will be devoted to the restoration of the railway’s locomotive fleet.

The strictly limited edition Bachmann 00 gauge model (catalogue number 32-250W) is available only from the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Trust. It comes complete with an individually designed and numbered 40th Anniversary coloured certificate, featuring a picture of the model. Optional scale nameplates, which may be affixed at the discretion of the purchaser, are also included in the pack.

Many thanks to you and Graham Plowman of GPP Software for this survey and interesting reading it makes. Already some of the requests are on their way; as well as the 08 we can also expect overhead catenary very soon. However, the 'Royal Scot' came lower on the list than I expected.

One interesting point concerns the BR standard 4MT (2 versions) and 5MT. If you add the scores together there were 53 votes - which would have been more than the 08 scored. Now I know this might be considered a bit of a fiddle by some (and no doubt there are other similar items that could be combined) but it does give something of an idea of the demand for a mid-range standard loco.

No doubt the results will bring many comments both here and on other forums.

Stuart May seems to be well genned up on this lady, does he know of the location or locations of any decent colour photos of the A4s that were treated to this, sadly, short lived livery. Also, were any coaches painted this colour to match (bearing in mind that they liked to theme whole trains in the heydays of steam)?

Bob Hart

Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello, wot’s all this abart then?

Never thought I’d end up as George Dixon of Dock Green in the "why do we bovver police". I assume Dave Skipson includes me. I obviously watch too much NCIS and CSI. (Channel Five and Five US if you don’t know).