lekkie lad

One final question (for now) if I may? For the Gresley & Thompson coach rake, I assume the brake vehicle would be/could be a Gresley compartment brake third. (My rakes would only be 4 coaches in length). But would it be 4 compartment (Hornby) or would it be 5 comp or 6 comp (Isinglass)? Of should I be looking elsewhere? Many thanks Ian S

perhaps I need to take the plunge (again) with 3D printing! Ian S

Also thanks to 34theletter, Wickham Green Too and Great Central for info. I was trying to avoid paying the high process for the Hornby non-corridor Gresley. Ah well, ah well. At the time I bought the Kirk kits (I also had the Compo Lav and Compo non-Lav but these had to go to the scrap yard a while ago) I was not as au fait with building & painting kits as I am now. I could strip the paint but models aren't, as I find, the same. Right, on with another project!! Cheers Ian S

Thanks Ken. I will hold on to my money. I have been looking at the Isinglass website but I've had bad experience with 3D printed stock. Admittedly it was for 009 and was from the early days of 3D printing. Ian S

Hi there. Having had an unmade Kirk kit of an LNE Quad 3rd set (still unbuilt), I have thought about, in these current climes, of doing a small plank layout based in North London circa 1959 during the steam/diesel transition. Now that most pilot scheme diesels are available, plus Oxford Rail's N7 (I also have a Dapol N2 somewhere), it would not be hard to create. For the coaches I'm rather partial, along with the quad-art, to Gresley non-corridor stock. Hornby do some but I still have my eye on the former Kirk kits (now from Coopercraft). I fancy doing a couple of pairs of the Twin articulated sets. however, and here's the question, did the twin sets remain in BR service to the late 1950s? I've not been able to find any details/photos of that era showing for definite. Many thanks Ian S

Can anyone confirm (or deny), but I believe (from photos) that the LHCS TSOs didn't have the rainstrip above the external doors. On the OR website they have a pic of an I/C liveried TSO with this rainstrip. However, I'm not 100% sure about whether t he FOs had them. Certainly the HST Mk3s all appear to have a rainstrip. Ian S

Now if you could just commission Phil Sutton to use your Rat body (or him to pay you to use it!) for his next top class offering, I think it'd be a winner. Ian S

A colleague of mine (honest!!) has the Model Zone LMR 350hp shunter and the Invicta LMR coaches. The shades of blue differ quite significantly. Having had a look online for colour photos of LMR locos, the shade seems closer to GER dark blue. Certainly the only colour photo I found of a 350hp loco the blue was a lot darker than the MZ version. Can anyone advise what the correct shade of blue please? The Invicta coaches appear (from photos as I've not seen them in the flesh) to be closer to BR blue. Ian S

Mk2Z had a Mark 1 style corridor connector door (as can been seen on earlier end on photo). I needed a couple of the Mk2Z TSOs and spent probably more than they are worth getting them from the Usual Auction Site. But then again, a lot of other people wanted the same. Ian S

I think (as I got rid of mine a long time ago) the Hornby model was also somewhat on the narrow side on the width dimension. For the Bachmann vans I've added a bit more detail to the underframe - certainly the VDA handbrake levers have been replaced with etched examples - such a air reservoir, a bit of brass piping and the such like. Also got rid of the dodgy suspension/roller bearing covers for something a bit more realistic. Ian S

I've just made a start on hacking the first of 3 Lima CCTs to improve. it was going to be just 2 but then found I have 3 packs of the Laser Glaze packs. I picked up some ABS buffers at Scaleforum last weekend, but I'm not too sure if they are 100% accurate (but they're better than the Lima ones). I'm going to have a go at adding the brake gear (as there was a photo in a modelling mag of the underside of the Bachmann/Invicta model a few months ago. Don't expect these to be completed quickly - they're in a long line of projects I've started (painting a DC Kits class 501, rewheeling a train of Hornby PCAs, building a lot of Cambrian ballast wagons...) Ah well, never a dull moment. Ian S