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KingArthur453

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  1. Andy, I'm relatively new to 4mm scale. Is it possible to buy the chassis separately from Bachmann or a dealer or is it a matter of waiting for one to come up on Ebay without a silly price tag?
  2. Hi Manna I came from Kingsbury Green and my usual haunts were Willesden and Old Oak and less often to Waterloo and the Southern sheds, which were very difficult to get into. On the very few occasions in 1961 that I could manage to scrounge the half-a-crown for a Red Rover, Wood Green depot was a stop on trolleybus excursions. I think you must be one of the very few modellers who can double-head a train with a pair of Ivatt 4-42Ts!
  3. Hi Manna. I don't know how I've managed to miss your blog for so long. I've just read the whole thing in one go and it's fascinating seeing how the layout has developed over the years. I've always wondered why no-one has modelled Edgware or Barnet and all the time you've been at it. Yoe may know this and if so I apologise but the very first edition of 'British Railways Illustrated Annual' back in the 90s had an excellent and well illustrated article covering all the Northern Heights branches. It was written by one K. Coventry and had track plans for most, if not all, the stations. I recommend it to you as it's full of information for anyone interested in these lines. If you've not seen it you might be able to get hold of one on Ebay or a specialist bookseller. One edition of the free LT Underground maps, published shortly before the war, showed the whole Northern Heights network and the Elstree South extension as part of the Northern Line although it was marked in hatched lines representing "Under construction". I grew up in Middlesex, very close to the 'Northern Heights' area. If you stand in certain local vantage points on a clear day the views, even today, will show you why the area was so called. My mother moved to the area in 1928 when she was 5. It was being 'developed' at that time but still quite rural and even in the 60s I passed thatched cottages every day (in London NW9) when I cycled to school. She could remember the night the Crystal Palace burnt down and because the area was high enough they were able to see the glow in the sky 15 or more miles away. When I was 11 and 12 a regular summer evening escapade with another train and bus spotting friend was to cycle over to either Colindale trolleybus scrapyard or to Edgware goods yard. I can't now remember how we got in to either place but of course there was no security then. We spent ages messing about on the old trolleys or pulling point levers and clambering over goods wagons. By the by, shouldn't your bus be an STL, rather than an RT, which didn't enter service until after the war? The blog has brought back many memories. Great stuff mate.
  4. Thanks very much Al. Ordered from Amazon already. It said "Only one left" so I'll give it a try Iain
  5. Hi Al I've been looking round the web for an acrylic paint pen with a fine nib but without success so far. All that's on offer seems to be sets of 20 or 24, which is going to leave a lot of unwanted pens. Can you remember from where you got yours? I have thought about a Rotring type ink pen but they are hellishly expensive and I'm not sure if the ink would take on enamel or acrylic paint. One of the problems of making convincing weed growth seems to be representing smaller individual plants like rosebay willowherb (which used to be prominent on any summer railway cutting) or lower-growing but bushy stuff such as common nettles. Oh, and brambles/ blackberries - if anyone wants to do a prototype study of these fine plants, they are welcome to come to the bottom of our garden and even more so if they are armed with spade, fork and shears! I think the fibre is more effective by the roadside than on the sidings. The abandoned remains of the disused crane looks very good. Iain
  6. Hi Alister Just discovered this thread, moved to the latest post and am confronted by....
  7. Hi Alister Just discovered this thread, moved to the latest post and am confronted by....period aircraft! Many moons ago I used to to live in a small cottage on the hillside below Crich Quarry, of Tramway Museum fame. As part of the TMS 'Grand Transport Extravaganza' weekend in the seventies, something always flew. One year I found myself looking down (really!) on a Spitfire that had presumably flown low over the museum and was escaping southwards. More spectacularly, a year later I think, we heard a rumbling sound then the whole cottage began to shake; rushing to the same window, we saw a Lancaster flying what seemed to be straight for us up the valley from Cromford! Almost immediately the aircraft veered very noisily steeply upwards and sideways as I remember it. Must have been '75 or '76. As a friend said at the time, it was the Möhne Dam experience without guns and bombs! It's the "A Prototype for Everything" department again! I was lucky enough to visit the Sheep Pasture and Middleton at almost the last gasp, on a Sunday in 1966 so nothing moving. It felt a bit like being in railway fairyland to one more familiar with Willesden, Old Oak and Nine Elms. A bit of kudos in the trainspotting contingent at my London school for those underlinings in the compendium. They're only really a few snapshots in my memory now but at least they are in colour. Great modelling Regards Iain
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