rue_d_etropal

is the passenger service still running on the line to Fontveille. My brother lives about 5min down the road so I have driven across the 'level crossing' to the works in the woods on many occasions. Last time I was there the number of wagons was much reduced. Never have found out what the depot was for. The destruction of the bridge over the river in Arles did not help the Cf de Camargue much as the transhipment sidings were connected to the line which ran over the bridge. The area around the Camargue was not as prosperous as it is now. The town of St Marie has totally obliterated the site of the old station. If the line had survived another 10 years I am sure it would have been either preserved or upgraded. I had seen the railway embankment when driving round there but had assumed it was an old standard gauge line, only discovering it was not only metre gauge but also electrified last year. I have passed the old station at Arles many times, but only on the new main road, so usually wizzed pass without realising it was there. Apart from Nimes station, none of the other stations are really that interesting for a model. The layout at Nimes would not be easy to model, which is why I want to model the buffer end of the station at Arles, as there is always an excuse to shunt wagons down there, as well as running the loco (/baggage car) hauled trains and the automotrices. I have drawings of most of the stock I want, plus full dimensions of the 'modern' Decauville coaches. I plan to produce the models using 3D printing, initial9for a test) in 1/76 scale on 12mm gauge as I have a suitable loco chassis, and then in 1/55th scale using 16.5mm gauge. The area around Arles and the Camargue is special to me, and finding the railway is the icing on the cake. My artwork is inspired by the local Santon figures(there is a museum in village next to where my brother lives) , although it was the buildings I prefer to create, and I have used this in some of my fictional model railways. This is one reason I am not rushing with this project. A minor consideration, but one fact alludes me and that is the colour of the locos and coaches. The Decauville coach is almost certainly aluminium, but suspect the locos are either green or red. There don't appear to be any colour photos around which is a pity. It does make an interesting project though.

must be the heat, I was thinking of the other end of Provence , namely the Camargue. I tend to think of that as more Provence than the area around Nice. Nice is almost as far from Arles as Beziers the other way.

JeffP I take it that is of the remains, as the railway closed in the late 50s. I have managed to collect a lot online, but unfortunately missed the anniversary event a few years ago, and could not get a copy of the book produced. Luckily I do have the excellent feature in a magazine produced in the 70s, and probably not much different to the book. The station buildings and works still exist in Arles(or did the last time I looked on Google Map) and I intend to build a model of a small part of the station(buffer stops and station buildings across to the old water tower). I have some photos, but need dimensions. It is a pity the standard gauge line that runs west from near there is disused. I think there have been proposals for some type of museum line.

I have an interest in the area because I bought a house in St Pons. Unfortunately the 'preserved train service; had stopped by the time I found the line, but some of the track was still in place, although I only found out too late. The whole route is now a cycle way, but rails are still in place on one level crossing.A bit surprising considering how much money is spent resurfacing the roads locally. The book by Chris Elliott was for sale in local tourist information centre so I bought a copy. I was exhibiting at Liverpool exhibition soon after that trip to France and by coincidence there was someone there who used to visit France every year and told me he had helped with the book. I think Chris now actually lives in the valley, but I have not made contact with him yet. I have noticed talks about the railway advertised, but usually for when I am not there. Last year I started doing some research on the metre gauge lines to the south, centering on Carcassonne, with intension of building a model inspired by these lines which had closed down in the 30s. There was a reference to a new book being published, and also one on the line through St Pons. I also found that there had been plans for a direct route down to St Chinian.passing St Pons, which never went further than plans. Given the local geography, it would have not been cheap, but probably spectacular. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for books on the local railway lines. My metre gauge interest then actually switched to Provence, and the electrified lines based in Arles, not far from where my brother lives. One interesting result of the introduction of railways in the area was diet, and a switch from using flour made from chestnuts to flour from grain, which could be brought in by train.

David, If you or another one in the group had come forward and stated that when Chris first proposed the magazine then it would have sounded a lot more positive. Having been involved in the original discussion, we were all trying to help, but Chris seemed to turn his back on us. How ever much work he has done, it is not wise to ignore those who want to be supportive. On most of the online forums I have been on, there is somewhere to introduce yourself. Quite often this generates a lot of welcome messages, especially if the person is known to other members. I will have to double check, but I can't remember Chris doing this. That would have cleared up any misunderstanding that has happened.

Just found this blog from Kevin. I was the chap next door at Apedale. Thanks for taking photo, Kevin, it looked good in my local newspaper. My range of WW1 locos and stock, as originally designed for my own 1/35th scale project, which was also at Apedale. After repeated requests for other scales, I started with the 1/43 versions. The locos were relatively easy, but probably require more work to fit on chassis. The wagons, well the chassis required a lot of modification to the designs, to stretch to 16.5mm gauge. There as also a lot of redesigning to fit(just) 14mm gauge. One reason the wagons have not been resized to OO9!

I agree, but when Chris said he was planning the magazine, he was new to the MTI forum, and was not known to me, possibly others. Anyone can say they will produce something, fine, but he asked for money up front. Sorry, but that sounded alarm bells. It was nothing personal, just following advice given out frequently. There are too many stories with very similar beginnings which have ended badly. As for Paypal, he stated, only the other day, that cheques suited him better, and that has excluded not just non UK potential customers but also anyone without a cheque book. Any business advisor would recommend as essential some form of online payment system(Paypal being the easiest).

The lack of an online subscription system, or subscription form(with publicity info) to print off has been a sore point with some of us on the old MTI forum. It is a pity, because I think it can be successful, but the free business advice by some of us has been seen as criticism. Pity as you can not currently subscribe if you are not in UK or have a UK bank account, and then you need a cheque book. My children range from just over 30 years old down to 20, and none of them have ever had a cheque book . They do most deals online, and I used to asked for stamps quite often. In many ways I prefer the old days with cheque books, but remember having to wait for cheques to clear. Bank reorganisation has also meant I no longer have a local branch of my bank, so have to drive to another town to pay any cheque in. Systems such as Paypal take their cut, but when all the pennies are added up, it is not such a bad deal. Luckily both systems are running side by side for the moment, so some have the choice , but others do not.

Recently they have only been showing details of next issue. I did not think I was away long enough to have to get more than one back issue, and suspect I might have been lucky there were still several copies in shop today.

I am a bit puzzled. Been away on holiday so am going to have to get one of the mags from publisher, but when I look at website it is now showing the County as latest mag, but when in ASDA today they still has the diesel issue. Has the J39 come out yet or has it been delayed. Or are they putting out more advanced info on website? There was a problem getting on the website yesterday. Hopefully I will now only have to contact publisher for the 8F mag.

41 issues sounds a funny number, unless they have worked out one more mag will fit in binder. Also the choice , though very interesting, does raise questions, in particular where they are going to get it from. I even checked the Kitmaster list to see if they ever did one. Pity they did not look through the Kitmaster list as a model of a Garrett would have been popular. Ring binder????? none with the copy I picked up in local ASDA

For any rule there are always exceptions. When disabled rear access is necessary, it would not be difficult to allocate special disabled parking spaces for this use only. I sometimes get the feeling that shops want drivers to be able to park quickly(and possibly badly) so they can get into shop a few seconds quicker, but are less concerned about the safety issues once the driver has left the shop. In fact I have encountered drivers who take longer parking front end in than it would take to park the other way around. Vehicles with high back ends(not just vans) tend to block view when driving out of parking spaces. Back in the 90s one public utility company introduced a policy of parking back inwards. I never heard any more about it. It was at the same time one shop was trialling an electronic devise to check vehicles parked in disabled spaces. Again I did not hear anything more about this idea. Safety has to be the number one issue, even if it is inconvenient for a small minority. There are times when I do park front end in, normally when I have to load or load something large and awkward such as a layout. Last weekend I did park back in to unload, but felt it might be easier to park front in to load up at end of exhibition. I think I could have easily loaded car either way, and took extra care reversing out after the exhibition. As the surface was only grass I would not have expected any speeding exhibitors eager to get home, but it is not uncommon for us to pack vehicles loosely, and an abrupt stop even at 5mph could have resulted in load moving.

Those American bridges look superb, but I don't think I have seen many British bridges with those types of joined together sleepers. Again maybe regulations were different here, possibly connected to safety walkways.

Tony Wright said 3D printing is a good way forward, but is not just for young people. I think many might be surprised at the ages of many of the people designing 3D printed models. I had looked into designing complete bridges and have done a few designs for small bridges. Unless you have access to a printer then it is not cheap. It would be interesting to see what can be produced, and it might be of interest to others.

I know track on bridges varied, for various reasons, but sleepered track on such a bridge never looks quite right. Would not rail be either mounted on longitudinal timbers or even fixed direct to bridge in some cases. Nice to see the old Airfix(now Dapol) bridge being used/adapted for double track. I don't think there were always inner rails fitted, but then it probably depends on type of railway, speed of traffic etc This shows my 3D printed longitudinal beams fitted to Dapol bridge. The rail(code 100) actually slots through the beam, so appears to be lighter weight. For a heavier rail section code 143 FB could be fitted.

I remember the book mentioned. I am sure I had a copy at one time but think I might have sold it. The LMS electric loco(crocodile?) pulling passenger train out of Euston woulfd make an interesting model, and attract attention at exhibitions. A few years ago I built up one of the Dapol(ex Airfix) railbuses and painted it in blue, and it looked pretty good. I also painted up an old Pacer unit in green with whiskers which was OK. It would be controversial but how about some BR steam locos in Blue with double arrow sign. Idea would be that steam was not scrapped in 1968. The VOR locos did not look too bad painted that way.

here is my latest Gn15 layout(?), built for the 19-15 challenge. Still some more bits(clutter) to add.

Hachette produce some mags for UK including the 'Your model railway village' collection and their admin is not that good, although they did eventually sort things out. Pity is that they also did a French HO version which is now reaching end so I have missed it. Can't even find it on ebay, apart from a couple on French ebay.These collections seem to be popular in France, and sometimes end up in pound shops here. Looking at some of the French mags on ebay I notice there were some road vehicles in HO, which is interesting given that Oxford Diecast supplied the ones for the UK magazine. As with many models here, we seem to accept a lower quality so don't get new models, just scans of old ones. The Atlas Edition models(eg tram cars and railcars) seem to end up being available direct from China, and these are far far superior than anything in magazine collections here. Its a pity the buses are 1/43 scale, as that is one scale I don't model. I did manage to get one of the French buses in 1/72 scale, but shame they did not do any of the buses found in rural parts of France(as seen in one current chocolate advert on TV).

It will be interesting to see what other models are produced especially if they do some metre gauge models. Suspect it will be possible to get hold of them direct from China like the previous models. It's a pity Atlas Editions are not doing anything other than the Z gauge models for UK. The packaging on their HO models is far superior to that used by another company for it range of OO locos. And the Atlas Editions models are new, not copies of old Hornby and Bachmann models, but then they are also cheaper.

In these days of the internet it should be possible to order back issues online. With these collector type magazines, I distrust phone systems as one company charges for such calls. The link to their 'online shop' does not always work properly. I have seen the contact details in the magazine, but given the problems with missing issues mentioned above, I would prefer to have a reliable system in place. Odd that the website quotes 20 euros for certain back issues but the magazine says cover price. That suggests to me there is another company involved. Managed to get copy of latest issue in WHS, looked like last copy unless they intend to put more on shelf.

None in ASDA yesterday, so either someone had been in early or they had not been put on shelf yet. Based on previous take up, I suspect the latter. My comment about back issues. I have never come across a publisher only offering back issues at inflated prices . I have no problem with paying a reasonable postage but 20 euros is crazy. It just helps the dealers buy up the original priced ones then offer them at 20 euros. Finding small local newsagents who can order copies is getting more difficult, and as I have mentioned there is often a limit at wholesellers.

As I said, it is not helped by the publisher not offering a back issue option on their website. The ones they do list are at over inflated prices. I suspect some of the dealers are also newsagents , or have orders with several shops. Wholesale distribution might play a part, as I have found with other magazines in the past, that there are only a very small number of some magazines available to the newsagents in their area. I think many(if not most) newsagents in effect work on 'sale or return', so don't get left with loads of unsold stock. One reason I did not think the deals model railway shops had with some publishers was actually fair as they not only had to buy stock, but also paid a higher price for it. These collection type magazines take up a lot of space in newsagents, most of which are very small.

Re back issues: The Australian collection has only reached no 14, so the publishers must have copies for there. Most magazines have ability to order back copies(at normal price) on their website, but that is not the case for this one. I am a bit concerned about getting one particular issue when I am on holiday in a couple of months. I wonder if there are some people capitalising on shortages by buying up magazines to resell at inflated prices.

Interesting that recommended radius curves are 11.25in, when the Peco track is 9in, and Bachmann N gauge are happy to run round that. I would not worry about getting hold of items in UK as there are a few people importing other Thomas items . Wonder if they are developing a new chassis or have hooked up with one of the Japanese N gauge manufacturers .If it is a new chassis then that alone would be extremely popular. The wagons do look like Peco ones, which is interesting in itself, and if it is successful I can't see Bachmann only producing a couple of items. They may have used a lot of ex Mainline coaches and wagons before but they also created brand new models.

those dimensions in the German article are a bit odd. At that radius the point would be 393mm not 168mm, which is length of OO setrack points. A point 168mm long would be very popular for small industrial/dockyard layouts. It should be possible to build small locos even 6 wheelers to go round sharper curves. My old Rivarossi O gauge 060 happily goes round 15in curves. Buffer lock is probably more difficult to prevent but not impossible.