Chas Levin

Very pleased to see this: I have one in the pile, positioned towards the front (i.e. I actusally do intend building it quite soon!). With old kits, it's always encouraging to see someone make a really good job of it to modern standards - shows what can be done!

Excellent: always good to get something moving under its own steam!

Happy anniversary; unhappy wagon 🥲.

Nice work Nick, following with interest. Always good to go from undernourished to 'fat boy'! 😄

That is just superb, Rob: my favourite bit of modelling so far this year!

That sounds like another welcome opportunity Graeme to celebrate the wonderful diversity of human behaviour... with perhaps some diverse language too!

Thanks Mike and Rowan, nice to be able to narrow it down to a year or two with accuracy: so many photos are so difficult to date.

One of the great questions of the Modern Modelling Age: to what extent should we worry about ever so slightly less than perfect things which won't be visible once the model's completed, but which we shall know are there?

Similarly Tony, my wife is always telling me I'm too backward in coming forward: noted for next time and thank you! Yes, it was definitely more of a modellers' show, more kits and demos, fewer box-shifters - no disrespect intended, the only item I actually bought was RTR...

John Redrup is always exceedingly helpful and happy to supply parts where he can so I'd suggest asking if he can do so in this case...

Good morning Tony, I was at York too, for the first time, and stopped by your table a few times to say hello in person, but you were deep in a very long conversation with two gents and we had to leave before you'd finished, though to be fair, we didn't find your spot until we'd already been round the upper floors, having started at the top! It was a very busy show (this was the Saturday morning) and with a greater sense of bustle and excitement than the recent Ally Pally one, we thought. It also seemed to have stands - trade, demo, trader, Society and whatever else) crammed into every available spot in the building, again in some contrast to Ally Pally, where we thought there were fewer stands than last year. It was quite heartening, especially in view of recent conversations about the state of the hobby. Was it unusually busy for this venue? Is it by any chance a bit of a North/South thing? I've no view or agenda in asking that (I live in London), just that it occurred to me and I wondered what others thought... Nice Restaurant Car there - is that your ex-GCR resin one?

That's a very neat system - I've used it and it looks good, the brake gear slips off easily but it kept in place securely 👍

Is it perhaps an older title they no longer stock?

Very interesting Jon: you're the first person 've spoken to who has used Chat GPT for something genuinely useful and who has spoken positively about it!

Very good place to post it in Jon IMHO! I was at the york show on Saturday - pity we weren't there on the same day! I saw the NERA stand and scanned the titles out on the table but I didn't see this one (or perhaps they didn't have it out that day) as I'd have picked it up too! I'd share your interest in the wider background of these vehicles. I often 'read around' something I'm building and have read some other books on the Sentinel company too. I take it though that there's nothing that might be of direct use for modelling purposes? Very interesting point about the lack of back-up data. Is there no chance that they had obtained the data, but just hadn't included it in the report? Why has business report preparation changed so much - why is there pressure to obtain (or present) so much more data than before, do you think?

Thanks gents, food for thought - well, something to sleep on, more accurately! Definitely easier to alter the floorpan width that the roof, Rich; and I'd forgotten about the internal partitions Jon - bet I'd have remembered them at some really awkward point too!

A little short of modelling time currently, but things are moving, slowly and I'm finally ready to tackle the main body: Amongst my weaponry are such thoughts as: Roof can’t be cut to length or ends worked on before basic body construction (sides + ends joined), because it has to match the upper body shape, including closely matching the shape of the ends. Unmodified roof piece can be used to define upper body width and upper spacer sizes though. Floors can’t be done before body either - same reason - plus the seat heights need to be correct for windows, also steps in doorways etc. Lower body width minimum is defined by floor-pan; widening strips could be added, though, & hidden underneath. Upper and lower widths to be fixed by stretchers. Positions of upper body stretcher which also include roof fixing points must be fixed with roof bolts already installed inside roof, but stretchers to fix the upper body width can be fixed in place between the roof-securing ones before the roof is done (though care needed to ensure spacers don't clash). Roof bolts will be secured by loose nuts, tightened up beneath upper body stretchers, so the nuts will only be accessible with body detached from chassis+floor assembly, therefore chassis-to-body fixings need to be accessible from the chassis underside. First stage of body construction - turnunder/tumblehome - already done, but ends' curvature still to do. These, plus vertical angle of sides' tumblehomes, will determine body widths at top and bottom. I'm in slight danger of going round in circles here, telling myself that each section depends on its neighbours for dimensions: I need to decide on a part of the body to take as a datum and work from that. Both roof and floorpan can be widened if necessary by adding strips, but perhaps a good starting place would be to do a mock-up using both of them, with the sides held in place, to see if the resulting angles of the sides look right, then create the ends' curvature to match... 🤔

Nice vice work Rob: I'd have expected the vice and the metal bars to act as a heatsink, but evidently they didn't do so to a problematic extent. Unpredictable stuff, heat...

Nice photo Mike: do you know the date it was taken?

Hello Rob, no, I didn't, but I'll take a look next time I'm there. Interesting question how far we should take prototype imperfections in modelling. Uneven steel panels are a great example: some photos of big mainline express locos with the light reflecting off the sides show some of the body panels look incredibly uneven, bumpy and dented but as you say, anyone modelling that would be thought quite hamfisted! I was there to visit the Search Engine and library and I didn't actually spend much time at all in the main museum - those photos were taken from the Sarch Engine balcony. I also meant to have a closer look at that Pullman, named 'Topaz', as it looked so much shorter than I'd expected...

Excellent: please let us know how you get on Stephen - still getting used to using mine so others' experiences are very helpful...

A very railway-themed weekend spent in York, the main purpose being to do some research at the NRM: I walked back through York Station, as I never tire of looking at the curve of the roof and the platforms: We also discovered that the hotel we stayed at started out life as the Head Office of the NER: It's been done up inside of course, but very much in keeping with its age - 1906 - with woodwork in chocolate brown and walls in dark cream. One ground floor door was a massive safe - presumably for the payroll, as everyone received wages in cash in those days. We stopped off for a quick trot round the York Model Railway Show too, which was at York Racecourse: It was *very* busy, reassuringly so, in light of recent laments for the poor health of our hobby. There were not only a lot more people but also, I thought, a much better atmosphere - more genuine excitement in the air - than at Ally Pally earlier this month. I'm not sure if that's a North/South thing, or an Easter thing, or just a random difference. Great to see 'Grantham - The Streamliner Years', especially having just learned that the layout's to be retired next year…

Superb! Custom-built clamps are a step up...

I thought for a split second that you'd modelled Mrs Poncenby actually using the facilities... but then realised not. I too was relieved...

No need to apologise! That story's typical of the kinds of things that happen so often with the paint colour question, where peoples' memories are pitted against physical evidence; it does make it complicated...