cctransuk

I am now at the painting stage of this Southern Pride kitbuild, and can report a couple more pitfalls to avoid. The visible solebars above the bogies are too deep, and are intended to be built up from a fold-up web off the floor etch to which a supplied brass angle is soldered to form the lower flange. Break off the fold-up webs and discard them, and solder 2 x 2mm. brass angle beneath the floor, to give the impression of a channel section. The plastic bogie pivot bosses are also too deep - discard them and substitute an 8BA washer and nut on the supplied 8BA pivot screws. A couple of 2 x 2mm. plasticard sections glued beneath the floor, either side of the bogie pivot screw at one end, will eliminate any tendency for the body to rock. Running is excellent, and I managed to fit NEM pockets to the bogies by cutting and bending one of the brass bogie end bars. I don't know how SP came to introduce these design errors but, if built as intended, the finished models would tower way above all other stock. Built as described above, they run with buffers and rooves exactly matching Mk.1 stock. Photos to come after painting and lettering. CJI.

I strongly suspect that the fairings will be mounted on the shared bogie - wasn't that how they did the APT? CJI.

No - but persons who have been, have stated the fact, and study of the drawings confirms this. CJI.

Now that is no-compromise, utiltarian, raw brute power - and you needed to be a contortionist to get into the driver's seat! CJI.

Sorry, that broken nose reminds me of a bottom-of-the-bill boxer! CJI.

Cellulose paint, contrary to popular belief, IS still available. Any good car factor should be able to supply it, either in tins or as aerosols. You may have to provide some evidence that you require the paint for professional use - a home printed business card for, say, 'Joe Bloggs, Model Railway Locomotive Painter' should suffice. CJI.

As I understand it, Midland / LMS / BR 'maroon' is Crimson Lake; BR 'blood' is Carmine. CJI.

I have today purchased a couple of rattle-cans of Ford Burgundy Red from Halfords, which is my standard representation of BR Coach Crimson / Maroon. This time, it is for a couple of Southern Pride kits of the ANGLO SCOTTISH CAR CARRIERs. To my eyes, it is a spot-on reproduction of what I saw at 1:1 on the 'big railway'. CJI.

Tony, My 'final opus' is a mere 5 x 2.4 m. with a central operating area. Ten operationally wholly independant baseboards, designed from the outset to hinge vertically, sitting clear of the wall-mounted storage cupboards above - which have the baseboard lighting mounted beneath them. This gives excellent illumination of the boards when flat, or in their raised position for under-baseboard work. CJI.

Presumably taken today - on Bodmin Moor! CHI.

The very reason why all ten baseboards of my first and final opus hinge against the wall, and can be secured vertically for under-baseboard work! CJI.

Yes, I do think steam is a gimmick - for the simple reason that you cannot scale the laws of physics. Particles of water vapour produced by a miniature vapouriser simply do not, and never can, behave in the same manner as exhaust steam, mixed with combustion products, under pressure. Manufacturers MAY be being asked to produce ever more gimmicks by a certain sector of their customers, but I suspect the real reason is ever more competition in an ever more crowded marketplace. Anything to attract attention to your products. Go to any heritage steam railway were steam locomotives have to work hard, and ask yourself if Hornby's wisps of water vapour in any way reproduce the exhaust of a heavily worked loco at the head of a train. I suppose that, if you cannot discern whether a model loco on a layout has a single or a double chimney, then we are fast heading back to Tri-ang trains, where models of nothing in particular were painted up as a variety of supposed prototypes. Ducking giraffe wagons, anyone? First it was fixed, flangeless trailing truck wheels; now oval single chimneys; I'm sure that I'm not the only one dreading the next compromise on the altar of gimmickry! CJI.

Invalid comparison. We are not talking about a range of anything here - just a single feature. Releasing it early / only part developed will generate a sector of the market that reacts "No way - not with a gaping hole where the double chimney should be"! CJI.

There would seem to be an unseemly rush at Hornby to bring 'gimmicks' to market. First, we had working loco headlamps that were going to have to be fixed. Now, we have 'smoke' generation - which won't work with double chimneys. For those amongst us who are attracted by such things, it is good that Hornby are 'pushing the envelope'. However, as in all innovation, it is important to 'keep your powder dry' - in other words, not to rush to market. If the end goal is worth the effort, the desired impact on the market will only be achieved if the result is 100% effective. By trying to sell half-developed products, one is bound to question Hornby's commitment to this project. True game-changers are never achieved overnight - longer-term commitment is essential, not chasing quick returns. CJI.

Black is far from being an ideal undercoat - far better to use something like Halfords grey primer. CJI.

I can't see either option being a good seller for KRM. CJI.

Not sure that I could agree with that at all - but early EE shunter liveries are not my speciality! Someone more well informed will no doubt put us both right. CJI.

Over-compensation? Heljan seem to have gone from Tubby-Duff to Skinny-Duff! Bachmann for me - if I were in the market for one. Shame! CJI.

I think that the container on the crane is precisely that - a container. Such 'boxes' were loaded into and unloaded out of narrowboats by crane - look carefully, the boats have several heaped boxes in each one. CJI.

Rot - look on the OS map at the relative levels of the A30 (180m. AMSL) and General station (100m.). Which uphill slog would you prefer before the days of motorised transport? CJI.

Bodmin has zero level, or even less steep, approaches - it is built in a valley, which itself has a fairly steep longitudinal gradient. The Bodmin North branch of the B&WR grabbed the only viable way in, and the GWR mainline is the wrong side of the watershed to get into the town from that direction. The GWR, being determined to get a link to Padstow, could only do so via a very steeply graded climb into Bodmin, with a reversal at General station high above the town. It then had to skirt the contours all the way back down again to link up with the B&WR at Boscarne Junction. A glance at an old OS map of the Bodmin area makes all this clear. CJI.

Have you seen the gradient of the road linking Bodmin General to the site of Bodmin North (start of the Camel Trail)? Something along the lines (!) of the Great Orme Tramway would be required! There is a reason why the old rail connection between the two was several miles long, with a reversal. CJI.

In view of the fact that Bodmin formerly had a BODMIN NORTH station as the terminus of a short branch from Boscarne Junction; (now closed with the station site occupied by Sainsburys); I would suggest that any hypothetical station on the chord would have been named BODMIN SOUTH. So, Bodmin might have aspired to three stations - NORTH, SOUTH and ROAD! CJI.

Pricey, IMHO. CJI.

As an aside - my local pub here in Bodmin, 'The Hole in the Wall', has just been awarded Cornwall CAMRA 'Winter Pub of the Year', and 'Cornwall Pub of the Year'. Despite what it says outside, DON'T go expecting food - just superb beers, ciders and wine and bagged snacks. The building is a former debtor's prison - think Dickens' "Little Dorritt" - and features a windowless bar with a perpetual fire - plus a stuffed lion in an alcove off the courtyard! Atmosphere - we've got it in wagon-loads here in Cornwall! CJI.