Wheatley

The plans for the interchange (the car park and bus stands at the front) are on the St Helens Borough planning pages, but either the plans for the building are not there or they aren't called anything obvious like 'building elevations'. There are 138 documents attached to the application and I'm on a cheap phone so I didn't try to open all of them. The building is on the station side of the boundary between Northern's station lease (from Network Rail) and the Mersey Travel Interchange set out in thd application I found so there might be a separate application somewhere. Certainly typing 'Interchange' and 'railway station' into the keywords box is not working. The drawings for the platform extentions are on another application though ! https://publicaccess.sthelens.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=ZZZYAPPETA474&activeTab=summary

Sorry, I forgot all about this ! This one has been 'got at' to make it rigid rather than compensated by soldering fret waste across the ends but you can see how the overlapping tabs above the axles limit the extent to which the two halves can flex.

Excellent. Something else I don't have to cut off.

On that evidence I don't think it's going to be an issue for a while !

Why am I getting a bad feeling that this means it's now significantly more complicated (i.e. expensive) than it was ? I really wasn't expecting it to be 16 quid but I think the estimates of 4 times that might be conservative.

1. 80% of perfect gets you a respectable result. The remaining 20% takes 80% of the total time for the project, whatever it is. Practical examples - modelling in OO instead of EM or P4, missing out all the bits of brake gear you can't see unless you turn the wagon upside down, basing a model on a single photo and accepting you might have misinterpreted it. It's the Juvinus Molestus Sorcero Cashcowium Rapido. I could do some proper research into what the Latin for "Annoying Teenage Wizard Express" is but that'll do for the purpose in hand. It should be in Rowling's Vastly Improved Engine Green btw. I did actually accept that this would be a problem for hobbyists because our research tends to be more casual and we accept things at face value which a 'proper' researcher wouldn't. We also increasingly just ask other people and accept the answers instead of putting a bit of effort in, there are several threads on here along the lines of "Can anyone tell me what sort of trains were operating on this area in this era ?". I don't know, maybe go and look at a few photos ? It also becomes a self-feeding problem because the Internet Experten gradually achieve a largely undeserved reputation when in fact a significant minority of them are taking tosh most of the time. It's not exclusively a railway thing. If you want to start a fight in an IPMS group just ask them what colour Olive Drab should fade to. There's even a sort of Godwin's Law about that particular question as to how long it will take for someone to post that photo of a B17 with every panel a different colour.

At least the smokebox door handle is a separate fitting thank heavens. 🤪

The only layout name I'd nick would be Kyle of Minogue (the significance of which will not be lost at all on Mrs Wheatley) , although probably not for another layout. A band or a yacht maybe, not that I have a band or a yacht. There are two of us on here building Newton Stewart, and there are at least two South Pelaw Junction layouts, both in 4mm although different gauges

All corridor, the original intention was (I think) that they were for named trains. About 300 miles south of my area of interest though.

The answer to all of these concerns is to cross check with other references if it's important enough to do so. There are enough non-colourised colour photos of Mk1s to establish that within the relevant timeframe those on the Southern Region were mostly (?) green and those elsewhere were mostly maroon with a few brown and cream ones. Most of my reference photos for accurate train formations are black and white, and whilst they might be clear enough to determine which set of Comet sides I need, a lot of them are either too indistinct or too far away or too head on to pick out details like lining or shades of monochrome. Where I can see detail I follow it, elsewhere several of the RTR ones are the right coach type but whether they are maroon or crimson, line or unlined, depends on what was on release when I picked then up. Pragmatism, 80/20 Rule, bodging with a finescale edge, take your pick. Life is finite and the 'to do' list is long. I have to be precise at work. I don't necessarily at home.

That's no different to inaccurate paintings or retouched photos. Or even trying to interpret shades of grey on a black and white photo (see parallel thread on the colour of wagon interiors). Sometimes you'll be wrong but all historical research comes down to informed educated guesswork, the degree of guessing reduces as the amount of reliable information increases. There are examples in aircraft modeling where people have followed published photos exactly, only for the uncensored version to appear years later out of the MOD or IWM vault showing that that particular Lancaster (or whatever) was festooned with aerials which the censor removed from the original print. At the end of the day, if it really matters (ie your academic reputation depends on it rather than having to repaint a carriage or continue in blissful ignorance) then you'll either corroborate it with another reliable source or caveat it to warn that "this is based on xyz...". For further examples see the Victorian interpretation of an inguanadon with the thumbspike on its nose (its in a park somewhere) or the Horrible Histories sketch on paintings of medieval animals based on written descriptions. That's the joy of research. Sometimes it comes down to interpretation.

You're trying to apply normal person logic to Hornby, that's why. It makes sense to one of their marketing or accounting wonks but that's as far as it goes.

BR staff were not Crown or HMG employees, although we did get the extra Tuesdays off after BH Mondays (managers did anyway). We didn't get the Queen's birthday off which my civil service mate did. It will be outside state control in the sense that it can do whatever it likes with the money the Treasury gives it, within the framework set by the DfT and the rules set by the Treasury on what exactly it is allowed to do with it. Just like BR.

For hobby purposes perhaps, but any sort of academic or quasi-academic research will still require reference to primary or at least credible sources, not a colourised jpeg off a Facebook local history group. Although given hobbyists' collective tendency to start fights in empty rooms where we do know what the real colour is, I doubt this will make much difference.

Thank you. You can imagine how many non-railway hits typing "3D Haddock" into Google generates.

Not sure how much use this will be as it's all a bit murky: Essentially the side frames are only soldered to the ends of the wire running across the middle, which acts as a torsion bar. The bolster (?) pivots on the same wire, and the tabs above each axle overlap slightly and are there to limit the twisting motion. It's the same method as an MJT bogie. I found them all a bit floppy in use and soldered them all up solid, those less ham fisted may have more luck.

Crane's gorgeous. That Haddock behind it is quite interesting too, where's that from please ?

It is Gem, from Wizard and also Antics (I think !). The connectors are cut from nylon blocks, In theory you could use a single piece of wire but I laid all the WiT in first then bought the point motors afterwards, so it was easier to fit a stub of stiff wire (one of two of them might even be straightened paperclips !) and connect them up that way. The end of the WiT has a bit of wire insulation over it otherwise it tends to slip under the screw. I fitted a couple with Omega loops but they seem to work OK without, the throw on the Hattons motors can be adjusted a bit by changing holes.

As many as mine as possible are mounted on top of the board, either on the edge or under something removeable, with Gem wire-in-tube between the two. I used the Hattons point motors with the crank on the side so connections at both ends were just a couple of right angle bends. Hattons stopped selling them even before they decided to shut up shop so I need to think up a way of connecting them to PL10s or similar probably by using the adapter base. Alternatively, chop out the offending bits of framing and overlap replacement bits.

They'll do just enough to be able to say "Look we did something" then chop out all the other bits that actually make it work and blame the TOCs when the timetable falls apart. Viz: Ordsall Curve and the necessity to then create the Manchester Recovery Task Force to sort out the ensuing mess.

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Network-Rail-RIDC-Price-List-2023-24.pdf £21k per day to hire Old Dalby. That's a lot of tickets ...

The Brake 3rd and Composite modelled by Mainline/Bachmann both lasted until 1962 according to Jenkinson. The all 3rds (not modelled) lasted a bit longer (1964). The bodies are more or less spot on in terms of dimensional accuracy, but the detail is moulded on rather than separate handrails, corridor connections etc. The chassis are of their time and benefit from replacement vacuum cylinders, dynamos, buffers etc, Comet (from Wizard/51L) do all those and an etch to add some of the missing trussing.

About 75% of some national collections, maybe more, that's why you see temporary and rotating displays. Shildon (NRM) and Cosford (RAF Museum) both started off as reserve collections. At least the NRM put a significant amount off its reserve collection and small arteifacts on display, others don't have the space. Or waste the space ( yes you IWM North).

I beg their pardon, it's parked across a walking route so it's been split to prevent it being blocked.

Threre are several threads going back a couple of years, most locked. That's the first one found by typing 'Modelmaster' into the search, its about 15th down the first page of the results. There are several others on the second page.