Hroth

All I can say about the Bachmann "Thomas" himself is that the front buffer height would have been considered awkward even by Triang, and it doesn't have a front coupling to enable it to run tender first as a Tank loco should!

Nice photos, including "Beatrice", a locomotive that has graced these pages in the past! (Though with another dodgy bloke in a Bowler Hat in the foreground...) I should imagine that the interest in Wigmore Castle was that at the time of the photo it had recently returned to traffic having been rebuilt as a 4-2-2 from a 2-2-2 after disgracing itself by derailing in Box Tunnel after the leading axle broke. This successful rebuild resulted in the rebuilding of the other members of the 3001 class into the 3031 (Achilles) class and the building of 50 more locomotives in the revised style. However, increasing train loads meant they had a limited operational lifespan, the first ones being withdrawn in 1908 and the last in 1916. The 3031 class was probably the first* pre-grouping locomotive to be mass-produced in OO gauge, with the Triang "Lord of the Isles" in the early 60's. Its strange to think that 50 years later, Hornby are going to do another reissue of the same bodyshell along with the clerestory carriages that accompanied it! * Unless that was "Rocket", can't remember which was first!

I would prefer to use a razor saw to cut the rail. A slitting disk (the thinner the better) will do the job but as well as making a fairly wide cut, which is not only due to the thickness of the disk but also a result of vibration due to bearing slop in the drill, the cut will be at a more or less appreciable angle due to the thickness of the drill body. A razor saw will allow you to make a thin cut that is at right-angles to the rails. Whichever you use, go slowly and wear eye protection as mentioned above.

I'm sure you know they did! As for the French Compounds, they were Swindonised over the years and ended up with proper boilers, chimneys, etc and lasted until the mid 20's. Churchward did borrow some small elements of the Compound design but found that in terms of overall efficiency the French locos weren't any better than his own and in a couple of years after the comparison trials began, the GWR 4-6-0 locos built as Atlantics reverted to the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement. Perhaps Hornby could do a proper GWR Atlantic?

I see Peter Wyngarde was in that episode too, an ideal actor for playing rather louche characters...

Yetis are ok, so long as they're not the 1.2 petrol version with the dodgy DSG gearbox!

Not many people know that, or even that the barlycorn is a unit of measurement. On a repeat of Pointless broadcast earlier this week, the barleycorn scored slightly higher (6 points) than the Russian Versta!

Tsk... We've not reached the Watershed yet! Bedlam yes, but in an interesting and constructive way!

I've more than enough 128s...

Not an alternative, an addition to the Pantheon!

"Miscalculation" is a bit harsh for a structure that failed after over 150 years. Its not like they made a complete baIIs up as Bouch did with the Tay bridge (which fell down barely 6 months after opening). (I forgot to ask) Who are the current maintaining authorities? I hope some remedial work has been done in the 3 years since the photo was taken.

Perhaps they intended to provide it with a sound van, in a similar manner to the extra pickup flat wagon for the Ruston? Then someone with a bit of sense told whoever proposed it not to be a silly buqqer. And the van became the mk2 independent sound van, with noises off...

Which "Rocket"? The OO gauge one or the 3.5" gauge live steam one? Are you thinking of the Triang Met Cam DMU? The most recent Hornby one was a rebadged Lima, not too bad, DCC ready too. As for the rest, most of the tools were probably rusted together at the back of the Margate shed, and got tipped when they made the ill-advised move to Sandwich, though from SK's reaction on the TV programme, a lot of more recent tools got skipped too. The Class 28 was a Hornby Dublo effort, nothing to do with Triang-Hornby* and didn't survive the dissolution of Binns Road anyway. I had one of them Steeple Cabs, dreadful runner... * No matter what the current incarnation of "Hornby" would like you to think. All Triang really took in the way of models from Hornby Dublo was the E3001 model, which was better than the one they were working on!

Quoth (the Raven) surely? It would certainly put B'mans nose out of joint...