Ian Morgan

Back in the 1970's, I did some work up in the wilds of Scotland, and we had a Grandad Granada as a hire car from Godfrey Davies. One evening, watching The Professionals in B&W on the TV at the Applecross Hotel (only BBC 1 was receivable there then), they were using an identical car, with the number plate one digit off from ours.

On a slightly different note, I like to have the lighting to be a bit forward of the front of the layout, otherwise, items at the front of the layout end up in their own shadow.

Well, I am ready to show "Freshwater" at TINGS in September, if it goes ahead

Ok, I'm ready for when I can exhibit Freshwater again. It might be TINGS in September :-)

The Wartburg is a plastic model by Gabor, not 3D printed

Thanks, I had spotted them. DM Toys also have a Wartburg, albeit 1:160, but it is the estate version.

They are hollow, but have very small access holes in the floor. They are also very thin and could be damaged easily, I suspect.

I have just received these two from redandy, a Ford Escort and a Morris Marina in primer: I used to own cars like these, so they will be painted light blue and dark blue, and suitable registration numbers attached. I already have a whitemetal Ford Anglia and Volvo 850 estate, and an Oxford Models Westfalia VW Camper Van, other vehicles I have owned. I suppose, I need to start looking for a Vauxhall Viva HB90, Hillman Avenger GLS, Wartburg, Vauxhall Cavalier 2000 GLS, Volvo 240 estate, Fiat Tipo and MGB Roadster to complete the early years of my motoring history before comp

I have some Birchwood Casey. Carr's also do a range of blackening solutions. This thread on rmweb is worth a look:

Despite its name, 'gun metal blue' is what you need for blackening most metals. Does not work well on solder though.

This is a result of not having proper finescale wheel and track standards. The check rails have to be too far from the running rails to accomodate overly thick flanges and a narrow back-to-back distance. This results in the wheel having to pass over a gap in the running rail as it passes through the 'frog'. With finescale standards (and also on the real railway) as the wheel passes through the 'frog', the tip of the V is under the wheel before it has fully left the diverging wing rail. So, with normal OO or N standards, the wheel can drop into the gap causing the wagons to tip, or

I recently purchased a length of Electroluminescent (EL) wire from eBay to see what could be done with it. Fascinating stuff, comes with a battery control box as it need to generate a high voltage, high frequency, but very low power supply to work. It can be used for your car or even your clothes. Unfortunately, it only comes in fixed lengths, and does not illuminate much around it, unless it is coiled.

It is really worth the effort to get the trackwork right before progressing with the scenic work. There are so many layouts at exhibitions (remember them?) with badly aligned track, sudden changes in direction and/or height, and you just know it is too late to put it right, and that the operators will always have problems with derailments, uncoupling or jumping wagons. Keep up the good work.

I have some german Mössmer boxes that are now 35 years old. The blue closed foam is still in perfect condition, but the wooden lids and undersides of the removeable wooden trays had a layer of felt stuck to a thin layer of open cell sponge. The felt used to catch onto couplings, buffers, etc and so I used to lay a sheet of A4 paper over the models before covering them up. The thin layer of sponge has now turned to dust, so I am in the process of replacing the felt and dust with some thin, self-adhesive rubber sheet, which means I no longer need the paper to protect the models. Reme

And to make up for the previous post, some more of my photos of some 52s, this time at Nuremburg Eisenbahn Festival 2002.