Ben Alder

Here is the Roco 60' as it comes with added handrails and as modified to give a more UK outline, and the London Road Models 50' Cowans Sheldon one.

GW grew from a complete backwater to the colossus it is today by putting a massive amount of input to the demand side of the product that no other hobby company would dream of. They created a market by opening their own shops with enthusiastic young staff and gaming and painting tables and encouraging youngsters in to participate in the game by supplying figures and explaining as they went, creating a community along the way, something the general sectors of the hobby either dismissed or ignored....

OK - found the answer - a file type that FB accepts but here doesn't 😕

Any idea why this is coming up when I try to add an image to a post, please.

Distillery kit is now available on Pop Up's site in three scales.

I was talking to Iain a week ago and he showed me his latest project that should prove popular - a distillery building. Here are a couple of small images - I'll post more when they are ready. Still in the design stages but he works quickly, and should be with Pop Up soonish.

My type of modelling! Looking forward to progress reports....

Are you a member of the NBSG? The Scottish historical railway Societies have pooled their photographic collections, along with some NRM ones and it is a very useful resource for research, as there is considerable overlap of subjects in each seperate collection.

5'8" version.

If of any interest, here is my blog on using it. The original pics have vanished, but I have uploaded as many as I still had along with some later ones. Some day I must get round to sorting it all out properly....

I laid the Carrs 5mm foam on the baseboard with Copydex and then used Tracklay for the track itself. Results in a silent smooth running P Way. https://www.tracklay.co.uk/product/oo-gauge-underlay-5m

Just found this - delighted with it. I'll be following it from now. What make are the trees backscene, please, as they look to me ideal for a future project I have in mind.

The Hornby Radial gives a closer chassis. It is 5'8" or so diameter, but close enough for the usual 6' Scottish driver - it actually comes out at 24mm flange to flange. The Radial wheel base id 6" short but again, to my eye ,passes. There is a fair bit of cutting away of the chassis required as well, but it looks the part when done. It also avoids any Mazak rot and rubber tyred drivers. Here is a shot of a 10'WB proposed what if HR build alongside a Radial chassis - I rewheeled this to 6' drivers - to get an idea of the visual difference. The boilers have also been lowered as the T9 as rebuilt had their pitch raised.

I have always been intrigued by the possible development of the Clan class and what might have beens with them. Here is a 5'8" version in black.

For point work take a look at the Finetrax range, a good balance of self assembly and guaranteed running. Once you go beyond the ready to plonk side of model railways, there are a range of skill sets necessary, all of which take time to acquire and perfect, and it is often an idea to adopt aspects that are proven and compatible with finer scale modelling. RTR loco chassis are a good example, with nearly all current ones being a reliable well running way to power a kit body . Once you achieve your desired finishes some of these things can be revisited and worked on without them having held back an actual running layout.

Closed cell foam, very similar to the Carrs shown above - I use that as a sub base with the Tracklay on top and they give silent, smooth running.I have some lengths of Streamline kicking about from twenty plus years ago and it is as good as new, so the product lasts well. Here is a link to a blog entry I did at the time - the images are gone from the text but I have added them, plus some later ones at the bottom, which should help.

Take a look at Tracklay. Makes the whole job very easy. I ballast the track in lengths when sticking it on the underlay and curve to suit when laying. https://www.tracklay.co.uk/browse/cat37pG1_961968.aspx

I have used Orbits since they first appeared and find them way ahead of other controllers, but they have vanished from the scene after Leon, the owner died. They do pop up on ebay now and then, usually for a song. I also reinstated my old H&M 3000 in a comparative test against a Morley a few years ago, and TBH, it gives even better control than the Orbits for crawl control, although they don't like coreless motors, so now have the two types back in use, switching between them as required.

Tracklay for me - it gives almost silent running and ballasting is a doddle as well. Used it for years on several layouts and it takes all the pain out of tracklaying and ballasting. https://www.tracklay.co.uk/browse/cat37pG1_961968.aspx

Having had the same problem at a first attempt I then attached the backscene to an oversized mount board and then trimmed it to the borders of the backscene.

Sorry to hear that - I kept in touch with him off and via PM, and would like to offer her my condolences. Where is what's on your mind here? I've tweaked the screen to keep it as I want and it doesn't show.

Drop me a PM with your address and I'll put a sheet in the post for you. Be warned though that it isn't lightfast even with a spray coating so should be kept away from direct daylight.

Wonderful .... right up my street... the Hornby Radial is a real gift to ScR modellers.....

Out of curiosity more than anything else, as I already have a DJH one running, I bought their resin body. It arrived speedily enough but with a real wonky chimney that I suspected was beyond any straightening up so removed it and replaced it with a white metal one from the spares store. There are were signs of the printing apparent on the model but, TBH, once painted and lined and on the layout they are not noticeable. Here is the body as it came - the chimney was both off in both vertical dimensions and worse than shows in the picture. I also decided to try and fit the new M7 chassis to it as I had one lying about, plus the work and cost of upgrading the old one would have rendered it costly in time and money, so with some hacking I managed to open up enough space to get the new chassis to fit. There was some damage to the body doing all this - the footplate fractured on both sides between the splasher and tank - and the cab roof and the boiler top split slightly, but a mix of superglue and clamps and some filling with Milliput sorted that all out. The body sits slightly high but nothing too noticeable and it finished off easily enough. A couple of shots to show it finished. Conclusion - a straightforward way to get a 439 but it to my mind would have a broader appeal to the modeller by basing it round the very good current version of the chassis.

Latest from Pop Up is a kit of Thurso station. It can be modelled as its current internal state or the earlier version, and with a bit of adjustment pass for Wick as well.