Skippy

Regardless of its opposite-of-finescale detail and accuracy, the Wrenn A4 holds a special place for me. Perhaps it's just the echoes of my eight-year-old self (my father purchased it new in about 1977), but Peregrine in wartime black is built like a brick privy and has a presence that to me isn't matched in any other model loco I've seen running. When I had the chance to help restore it to running condition last year, I jumped at it. [Edit: I notice Chris (Sandhole) also uses the term 'presence'. I think it's an appropriate term - I have plenty of reasonably detailed locos, but none come rumbling down the track in the same way this one does]

Excellent result - your description of how your locos performed with the Gaugemaster closely matches what I've found. Everything, from my new(ish) Bachmann O4 to my father's Wrenn and HD locos runs beautifully. That brings back memories, I can almost hear that grumbly grind from here Cheers, - James.

Don't confuse feedback and inertia, they're very different features. Inertia (which it sounds like you don't want) simulates the mass of a real train. Feedback compensates for variables like dirty track, gradients and long wire runs to keep speed constant. It also generally offers much better slow running but otherwise is just like using a traditional DC controller - you can change speed as fast as you can turn the dial. Edit: if you're looking for an affordable recommendation, I've found the Gaugemaster UDF or UF excellent. It has feedback but not simulation (inertia).

Amazing that the best-preserved piece of infrastructure seems to be the timber buffer stop!

Hi John, For simple cropping and adding the bricks around the windows, you can use Paint (it comes with all versions of Windows). For something a bit more capable, free and still reasonably simple to use take a look at www.getpaint.net/ I use GIMP (free from http://www.gimp.org/)which takes a bit of getting used to, but has some very high-end features and pretty good help online. When I needed to square up a few photos it didn't take long to find an article that walked me through it in simple steps. Cheers, James. (edited to fix weird URL formatting)