Porco Rosso

I think the idea that N gauge/2mm is best for modern image will take a long time to make its mark. Many modellers who would otherwise build really good 2mm layouts are already heavily committed to 4 or 7mm scale. They probably made that decision when N gauge was mainly crude Poole Farish stuff. The guy making Birmingham New Street is probably the ultimate example. He started years ago and won't be finished for a long while yet. After all that commitment, he is unlikely to change scales, even though the N gauge stuff now available would make building the project in 2mm scale quite a practicable idea. Give it 10 years and things will have changed. A new generation of modellers will have come into the hobby, only knowing the higher quality N gauge models now available. There will also be a lot more modern image N and 2FS layouts on the circuit to influence them.

Looking back through these photos, maybe there is room for a similar topic covering steam locos on flat-bottomed rail. How many layouts, many well into the rail-blue era do you see with now't but bullhead?

'1 amp starter' refers to low-power DCC control systems, which only have a low power output. There are specific modules available to suit these.

What with the unbelievably long waiting times on the MkIII coaches to complete HST rakes and now this - Dapol really do seem out of touch with their customers in a big way.

A decent, realistic-looking turntable would be nice.

Looks very neat and well thought out - looking forward to more as things progress.

Yes, I must admit I am aware that even two holiday weekend passenger trains meeting at an M&GN loop was an interesting experience, with both trains likely to be longer than the loop itself. The solution is well described in one of the M&GN books - can't remember which though. Basically, one train stopped short of the loop. The other brought a loops-length of train into the loop, leaving the rest of its train behind. Then, the first train drew through the loop, coupling up to the back of train two. The front half of train two then carried on forwards beyond the loop for some distance. Train one then brought the rear half of train two into the loop, uncoupled it and left it there. It then reversed back beyond the loop and forwards through the empty road in the loop and on with its journey. The front portion of train two then backed up to recouple with its rear half before carrying on with its journey - or something like that anyway.

Two Beyer Garratts hauling very long trains, meeting at one of the M&GN passing loops would be an interesting conundrum.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/52572-why-is-this-so-rarely-modelled/page__st__250&do=findComment&comment=683432 still has the old BR flying lions. Now, that with BR blue does take a bit of believing!

and egg sandwiches

I was only looking in old MRJs this lunchtime and saw that the layout was conceived almost 30 years ago. The LNER didn't last that long! I think the approach is far better than building a new layout every few years and throwing the old one away - especially when the quality is high right from the start.

by time itself

melodramatic background music

tattooed to their

whilst telling lies