Arun Sharma

Keith - information has been passed to Peter Warren. For 7mm gold fleet names and numbers, try Fox Transfers sheets FB7NLT1 and FB7NTB15

No, but you could no doubt send a friendly marsupial on your behalf

I imagine 'being a company' means that the Govt. is no longer responsible for pensions [other than the standard state pension]. Although oddly enough that is more often used as a [hidden] reason for privatisation.

Sorry, I seem to have misplaced the BTK articles at present. I am not aware of any online articles covering this line though perhaps Wiki may well have articles on the original line and its genesis. Afternote: Look up 'Varsity Line' on Wikipedia - quite an extensive article.

A few months ago Backtrack had a series of articles on the genesis of, and then closure of, the Oxford to Cambridge Railway. Essentially neither universitiy seemingly was ever in favour of it and resisted its construction. This was at a time when both of these universities actually were constituencies in their own right in the House of Commons. Neither did either university oppose its mothballing - Cambridge especially because it wanted the trackbed for its telescope dishes!

Yes, that's the LT design that Eastleigh used when they replaced the original 1940s bogies.

Perhaps extending wiring from Didcot to Oxford will happen once the rebuilding of Oxford station and the adjacent bridge over the Botley Road have been completed? Sometime around Oct 2024 perhaps?

Ermm! Sorry that's not quite true. Agreed that it may not matter at altitude when flying at top speed but when slowing down to land at around 140 mph, having that sort of wind either in your face or at greater than 20degrees to the longitudinal axis of your aircraft is not something you or your passengers really want to experience. Perhaps you might want to read up on the concept of 'crosswind component'.

As it happens the cab/body/seat/underframe masters for the 7mm 1938Tube Stock will be off to the resin casters next Monday. The bogies are a little bit more complex as they were assymetric [about their centreline] and with very small wheel sizes, that means they are not going to be straightforward to motorise. In practice therefore, the axles will be 1/8inch ones and I will be using 4mm motor & gearbox combinations to power the sets. That gives me much more flexibility and reduces any motor intrusion into the passenger saloon. This is a TV 12-27 motor with a Markits 1:38 gearbox. The tiny gear wheel associated with this gearbox means that there is no real liklihood of unwanted interactions with a third or fourth rail. It also allows the unpowered axle to have a sprocket with Delrin chain added for additional oomph. The wheelset is Slaters 7833A which has 1/8th inch axles. Regarding the 7mm Q35 - That will be off to the resin casters within the next ten days. The 7mm 1938 stock is there already. Regarding, the 7mm Q23 - Although it exists, it is an old kit and I am tempted to redesign elements of it [such as a separate roof and etched bogies] to make it rather more user friendly.

Yes - see Page 291 of The Waterloo & City Railway by John C Gillham [Oakwood Press]. The new Eastleigh bogies built to a similar design to LTs 1956TS were longer WB than the original Bulleid 1940 ones and used Metalstik rubber suspension.

The moulds for the Q23 are stiil extant so eventual Q23DM-Q31T-Q35T-Q27DM combinations will be available. The previous G stock single car now has the proper Q23 trailing end.

TTA 60771 [as found in Martin Buck's 'Wagon Recognition' book] was converted from a BP AVTUR tanker into a match wagon for moving ex-LT D78 stock around the Long Marston site pending their conversion by VIVA RAIL into Class 230 MUs. It may well still be up there and I am currently producing a conversion kit to convert the 7mm scale Skytrex TTA into the matchwagon. For interest, a couple of pics of 60771 are attached:

Like so many who might have possibly 'bunked' sheds back in the day, I didn't have a camera. Thus whilst I have pretty vivid memories of a host of steam sheds, works and station approaches, I have almost no photographs from 1960-68. Given a time machine, I would like to revisit some of those places and perhaps [additionally] be able to respond to those who worry about the correct shade of BR crimson/maroon. My memories of a very clean [invariably] 46245 City of London at 1a was that on a bright April morning in 1964 it looked almost pink rather than crimson/maroon. A colour hue which I have yet to see in any published photographs of her.

As has been pointed out above, there is much in the 7mm world that is unlikely ever to be RTR. The only 7mm kit that I ever designed that was likely to fall foul of competition [by a revival of a long lost kit as it happens rather than an RTR newbie] was a Scammel Scarab. The few 4mm LT underground kits I designed don't appear to be of any interest to RTR manufacturers and none of the more numerous 7mm LT road and rail vehicles that I produce ever seem likely to have been of interest to RTR manufacturers. The few 4mm steam locos that I have designed are frankly quite obscure even to afficionados of the Southern Railway so I don't see them ever being threatened by an RTR offering. However, if I spent my days designing 7mm Class 40, Deltics or Jubilees then they would be unlikely to sell but the SR 7mm electric locos 20001-3, they do sell! Unless you know someone who wants a specific bespoke handmade model, then as a designer, you either need a niche area to work in or have to do a lot of research and produce a product that no-one else is interested in [or actually finds too difficult to design..... ].

On the demise of Radley Models, my design work on the 4mm 1940 DMSO ceased although the 4mm TSO had been released the previous year - the logic being that some folk just wanted a couple of trailer cars attached to match wagons and being towed to Ashford and/or Lancing for overhaul. I have had a number of requests recently to revive design work on the 4mm DMSO although I am not sure whether it could be motorised easily depending on the availability of SPUDs and Black Beetles. Fortunately any tiny motor could sit vertically in the contactor compartment if a suitable powered bogie wasn't available. The prototype [1959] powered bogie has a WB of 7ft 3in [29mm] with 3ft [12mm] wheel diameters so perhaps a fairly conventional size - The earlier original 1940 bogie had a 9inch shorter WB and was quite different in appearance. At some point in the next month or so I will carry on with design work on the 4mm 1940 DMSO as a limited run.

Not at all familiar with them - can you tell me more or direct me towards a website please?

The 1938TS DM is being printed today and design work continues on its wierd assymetric etched/cast bogies. I don't think there is anyway of getting around some motor intrusion into the saloon in the sad absence of a 7mm version of a SPUD/Black Beetle.

CAD design work on the 7mm Q27 DM and Q31/35 Trailer suface stocks is now complete with the masters being printed over the next month or so - to be followed by resin casting. These follow on from the G Stock [and Q23] DM designed by myself and marketed by Phil Radley some years ago. Currently being printed are 7mm 1938 DM TS body shells and those should go off to be cast in resin in a week or so. Some complex etching and LW casting of their assymetric bogie components coupled with their tiny LOWMAC-sized wheels means that motorising them involves some interior detail compromises. 7mm Q38/CP, CO and R38 stocks [even R49] are possible DM/NDM designs for the future. On the tube side, a 7mm 1927 Standard Stock CT to go with my previous 1925 CL DM and 1931 Trailer would allow 3-car trains on the Northern City, Piccadilly and IoW trains to be modelled so is a likely sooner, rather than later, design. Precisely how these underground cars will be marketed post-Radley Models remains to be confirmed.

When the class 387 EMUs first appeared on Paddington to Didcot services, I remember seeing that they still had shoebeams fitted. So presumably they could be used to run Paddington to Oxford services in the event of a third rail being laid down between Didcot and Oxford.

I'm guessing of course, but I belive this talk of doom and gloom refers to 4mm LT modelling. It seems to me that 7mm LT railway modelling has never been so popular.

You could reasonably argue that since any railway line designed from new for public passenger and/or freight use has been agreed by an enabling Act of Parliament, the concept that it is for the greater good at the unfortunate and inevitable expense of a minority has already been agreed. Thus the requirement for public enquiries relating to route and fine detail is redundant. After all, you can't make omlettes without breaking eggs. Since the Govt [i.e., the taxpayer] is paying for it, it has to be carried out in the most efficient, effective, economical manner practicable otherwise the taxpayer is being fleeced on behalf of a voiciferous minority.

I enjoy looking at the various videos which have been uploaded to this thread. What has intruiged me is how few 'Brits' seem to be the guys/gals running the various tunnelling or box filling/digging out phases. Lots of folk whose first language is not english are introducing and doing the voice-overs for these official videos. Nothing wrong with that as they are evidently doing a good job but it does suggest that we might not be keeping this expertise in-house/in-country. When we next need such expertise, will it be available? Does anyone know how many apprenticeships have gone to UK citizens as a result of this project?

You're probably correct that was the case at its end, but having had its timetable [and en-route interchanges] savaged so as to to not be especially convenient its demise becomes a self- fulfilling prophesy. Don't forget that it used to interchange with several E-W running railways which were steadily snipped away first so as to deliberately make it less useful. It is something that we may end up having to relearn that if you remove all the smaller feeders, the main line withers.

There are critical elements to the two GWR routes - the one via Did and OXF as well as the one via High Wycombe. Extensive flood mitigation works [It is after all in the flood plain of the frequently unruly River Thames] would be required on the DID/OXF route. The route via High Wycombe to Leamington might be straightforward to four track but once getting past Warwick/Coventry some major tunnelliing works would be required as it would seriously interfere with the concurrent running of that part of the WCML. I fear the simplest solution [since we have seen just effective modern viaduct building schemes are (e.g., Colne Valley)] would have been to recreate the GCR on its original route through Brackley etc., as a non-stop route though politicians of whatever party are not well-disposed to admitting that they might have been wrong regarding some railway closures. On that subject, Charles Loft's 'Last Trains - Dr Beeching and the Death of Rural England' makes interesting reading.

As a fairly long tern project, I am building a 1/200 scale model [49inches long] of the 1946 battleship HMS Vanguard. The available plans lend themselves to 3D CAD design particularly with things like lofting together hull cross sections and printing in ABS. Large areas without much surface detail can of course be printed relatively cheaply in ABS on a FDM printer and good surface results obtained by sanding. This shows the 15in turret barbettes with the 'B' turret and one of the 5.25 in turrets in approximate position. The fwd, mid and aft superstructures have been printed in ABS but the rather more detailed 'flag' bridges which sit on top of them will be SLA printed in resin [as were of course the various small ship's boats]. Vulnerable parts such as gun barrels, propellors, mast fittings etc., will be 3D printed in resin and then used as masters for casting in brass. interestingly, the hull is 49 inches in length overall but the superstructure and main armament gun turrets only occupy about half of the length of the ship. You can see that the hull is made up of 22 lofted cross-sections and then smoothed overall. The sections are glued with MEK. M6 nuts, washers and bolts are also used to make sure the whole thing remains rigid. Jut to add additional stiffness, the bottom inch of the hull is also filled with two-part casting resin. The filler used is Isopon car scratch filler which is ideal for this sort of work.