Graham Hughes

Unless you are modelling a rack railway.

He won't need a motor as the track isn't long enough for the loco to go anywhere.

Have to think the bloke advertising a "00/TT 12.5mm gauge" loco built from an Airfix Schools kit has probably got that one in the right place though.

How do Hornby 00 Mark II carriages. 1 litre bottles of MEK, Corgi buses and a Chinese bone carving of "an elder man" get to be under rare gauges (whatever that means)?

I only just noticed that. it seems to have anything and everything in it that anybody wants to flog any gauge and none. I fail to see what Hornby 00 coaches and 5 litre tubs of MEK have got to do with rare gauges.

They were intended primarily for hauling coal trains from Parnik to Sofia. Parnik is only 20 miles from the capital which is presumably why tank locos were chosen, as the coal and water capacity of a tender is not required over the short distance. They were also used on heavy goods trains and as banking locos elsewhere.

Here's a video of the operation to go and collect the loco for restoration. The train of a blue and yellow electric loco, a red diesel and a lime green tender would be an unusual (and colourful) model. When they get 46.03 out of the shed it is behind another class 46, one of the German built 3-cylinder ones, and one of the earlier class 45 0-12-0Ts. Plenty of restoration potential yet.

The tank wagon is to supply water for the loco.

The first twelve were built in Poland and a further eight, with detail differences such as an outside framed bogie and smaller side tanks, were built by Schwartzkopff in Berlin. The front pony truck seems to be an odd set up connected to the leading set of driving wheels in a kind of bogie arrangement. I just had a thought, if they start using it on the steam service from Sofia to Bankya I am going to need to build one in TT gauge.

You could scratch-build the chassis with Mike Sharman "Flexichas" beams.

This newly restored beauty had its first run at the weekend after undergoing restoration. The whistle is rather impressive, as is the number of driving wheels for a tank loco.

No. the £3.5bn will be the share by population of the total cost of HS2. Your own estimate of costs has 10% of the total at around £3bn which is not that different.

So why did the UK government build the first High Speed Rail link speed up travel from the UK to France? Just because you want to govern your own affairs doesn't mean you want to isolate yourself from the rest of the world. Scotland will be paying £3.5 Billion in the form of the revenue which Westminster retains for "Strategic UK spending" for this rail line that not only won't come anywhere near Scotland but will, according the the KPMG study commissioned by the UK government when HS2 was announced, damage the Scottish economy to the tune £100miliion pa for Aberdeen and the North East and £66million pa for Glasgow, to quote the two examples I can recall from memory. Why did we need a rail Link to Glasgow Airport? You can get on the direct bus from outside the terminal to the door of Paisley Gilmour Street Station in a few minutes. I haven't been on it recently but it used to cost 50p. I thought this site was supposed to be non-political, yet it seems the all too predictable, ill-informed SNP-bashing and ignorantly depicting Scotland as being subsidised by England is allowed.

He's still got it on his website as the last loco kit left from his clear out.

Doesn't the 3mm Society shop have transfers suitable for the locos? For plans of buildings (and locos and rolling stock) the model railway magazines are a good source. Check the BRMNA Index and see what has been published, (although I am not sure how recently it has been updated) and watch out on ebay or somewhere like Magaizine Exchange for the issues with the drawings you want. (Or ask on here if anyone has them.)