Ben Alder

Can anyone point me towards any drawings available of any boxes on this line, please. I have looked around but with scant success so far.

That improves the tender a good bit - pity it has to be done though....

Interlaced points were a feature of the HR, and,AFAIK, some other companies as well. Still some around today so could have an application for most eras.

Very grainy 1965 shot of an LMS van at Thurso. J hanger suspension and vacuum fitted. LNER design but BR built open beside it and a couple of Insulfishes on the rear siding.

FB group sounds good to me.

I did this mod with the 02, which was a DJ model and it has worked far better since. The rods on it are metal. Don't know if this was what you read and I have never looked at the 14xx.

PM me with your address and I'll pop them in the post.

I've got one or two kicking around if they are any use to you.

One near the end of its days at Thurso in 1983, with graffiti - how many of these wagons rose to such heights? Perhaps should have been a heavy metal group though....

There were still nuclear specials then and engineering traffic and now and again one off trains, usually fertiliser, that showed up and the later ones used newer vehicles but these never were much of a feature during freight days. Unfitted wagons had all gone by this time but trains still used a brake van, and one was kept at Georgemas for the branch workings.One or two of the occasional specials here.

By the time the large logos appeared regular freight had all but vanished from the Far North line, especially the northern half, apart from the Lairg oil tanks.What was left was mainly a declining domestic coal traffic that vanished after the miners strike and apart from an occasional spell of activity now and again that never managed to last it has remained that way since. It was traditional wagons to the end, but latterly an occasional van or two and weather beaten steel minerals that were to be seen. Here is a selection of the very last days of daily freight, taken 1981/2/3, to illustrate the paucity of traffic then.

Just came across this charming layout - wonderful piece of work, and point rodding in 2mm! How many 4mm layouts never add this feature.....

Thanks all. I've now several viewing options so we'll see how it all goes.

I came across this image some time ago, somewhere, that might be of interest for modellers.

An ex GSWR van body that served as the S&T store/hut for years at Thurso. It started off next the shed and after that was abandoned ended up in the goods yard.

Remind me again of the length of the visible bit of the layout, please. You might be able to compress the station building a bit if it is going to overwhelm the scene and the engine could shrink a bit. Its all a question of overall balance and it might be an idea to do quick paper or cardboard mock ups of different compromises to see how they fit in. That is what I did when designing the current layout. HTH.

Can anyone advise how to stop FB flooding my tablet feed with almost continual adverts please. I don't get any on my phone or desktop at all - desktop works on Firefox, set to strict, and I have adblockers installed, which presumably sorts that but phone is as it came. I have tried adding adblockers to the tablet but it doesn't have much effect - I have tried a compromise setting, allowing beer and book ads to stay and for a while this ticks along OK but periodically there is two or three days of ads every third post or so. Block them all and it goes away for a week or two but this last month or so they have been almost constant, making FB very annoying. The tablet is my main viewing device and I am getting somewhat frustrated with it all.

Here is a rather battered example I came across - no idea where or when - but it has had the tipping end painted, it seems.

Selective compression - essential in modelling unfortunately... the trick is to get it so the the whole thing blends in to the eye. I suspect that if you built the shed to the correct length it would overwhelm the yard layout.

Here is a close up of a 6 planker, from a D Warren pic.

This is going to be a go to thread! Far more interesting than steel bodied ones...

Both excellent volumes and full of useful modellers details - the steam one is handy for diesel era modellers as well, esp for the Highland as infrastructure was slow to change there.

I applied Sculptamould over wetted paper formers and spread a 1/4" or so thick layer. Once dry it is self supporting and holds trees and poles more than adequately. I have recently being cutting through sections to reposition some point motors and it needed a Stanley knife to get it done, so it is a robust material.

Here is a crop of it.

Afraid a bit like quill pens - their time has passed. Still have a box of nibs etc in the shop for a range of their pens with no hope of ever selling them. At least these are being repurposed.....