DutyDruid

My co-owner of the layout is actually the author of the definitive books on the D&S and I'm pretty certain I've seen pictures in the books of B-Sets in the books so "that's good enough for me". Thinking about it, if I could dig the books out and look at every picture I could possibly glean some coach numbers.

Thank you Sir! Very informative for a GWR newbie. Unfortunately, for me at least, the waters are now a bit muddier. Looking at this Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Railways_shed_codes it seems that the places I'm interested in (Taunton, Barnstaple, the D&S et al) actually belonged to the Newton Abbot Division (83A), although some of the places that are mentioned on @Miss Prism's gwr.org.uk website did seem to have sets transferred in and out of the Bristol sphere of influence. All told, this means that plumping for a B-Set that belongs to Bristol Division (82A) possibly won't be a true representation of a set that actually worked the D&S. Oh well, worse things happen at sea... Think I'll just have to plump for the set that looks best and be damned for my choice. As I keep saying, I'm a dyed in the wool Southern man so I'm already doomed in most people's eyes anyway.

That looks like an M7 and an ex- GWR coach that I don't recognise? One of the things I have been told is that it was very common for ex-SR locos to haul ex-GW coaching sets and ex-GW locos to haul ex-LSWR sets on the D&S.

Thanks. Done a lot of reading this morning but one piece of information is eluding me at the moment. As a dyed in the wool "Southern Man" the way that I understand the word "Division" in this context can be explained as follows. The old SR/BR(S) system had 3 divisions: Western Division that roughly equated to the old LSWR system Central Division that roughly equated to the LBSCR system Eastern Division that was mostly made up of the Kent lines. In this context, what is the extent of the "Bristol Division"? Thanks. Elliott

So, I've come to this thread a bit late... I've recently become the co-owner of a 00 Gauge layout called Wiveliscombe which we bought "sans stock", oh, and Barnstaple MRC are building a layout of Milverton in the same era as Wivey - BR(W). As the SR half of Wivey's new ownership team I'm playing catch up on the ex-GWR side of the operation and in another thread on RMWeb @Pteremy drew my attention to the suitability of these B Set coaches for use on the old D&S line between Taunton and Barnstaple. Now, as a dyed in the wool Southern man I know exactly where to go to find coach set allocations for ex-SR stock but I'm still wet behind the ears where ex-GWR stuff is concerned. I've done a bit of digging both here and on other websites and I've turned up some useful hints (including a link to something @Miss Prism posted in the B-Set allocations thread) but I've completely failed to turn up any suggestions as to whether any of these Rapido B-Sets are suitable for use in the Taunton area and more specifically on the D&S line. Exam question: Are any of the crimson or maroon sets Rapido are doing suitable for the Taunton area? Or do I just get one and indulge in a bit of judicious weathering? TIA Elliott

Being the SR half of the new ownership team of Wivey I consulted one of the previous operating team whom I know rather well and who was their research king when it came to trains that could be justified on the line. The upshot is that he has - and is currently seeking out - a picture of a 63' non-corridor Mk 1 (I think) at Wivey station and he thinks there might be a evidence of a 57' one turning up a couple of times as well. If it arrives soon, and I remember, I will post it here.

OK, thanks. That'll give me a chance to sort out which ones actually ran on the line so that I can make up a reasonably realistic rake.

After a quick consult with the gurus I need to follow up this with @Accurascale Fran if poss please. Are you actually doing WR variants? I've recently become co-owner of a layout called Wiveliscombe which is a real place on the old GWR Devon and Somerset Railway. There is evidence that these coaches might well have put in an appearance, the full length ones certainly did, so - despite the location tag in my profile - I could well be in the market for a slack handful if you are doing WR numbered ones. Cheers Elliott (Who is rapidly learning that 83F isn't as bad as he thought it was)

I would tend to agree with you... However, by posting that screen shot I am probably now on the naughty step and as punishment they now won't be doing the Longmoor Military Railway variants that I'm waiting for... 😭😭😭

Hi guys Anyone know anything about the website in the title? The entry for my new Club in Barnstaple is way out of date (by about 4 years), they have tried to contact the webmaster to get it updated but no one ever gets back to them. Cheers Elliott

When I first started as the Monday Boy in Wicor Models back in 2007ish the expectation was that first radius curves would be "history" by 2010. Strange to see that that has failed as well and both Peco & Hornby are still pushing them out.

Not wish listing and rather more in tune with the original intention of this thread. I've been reading a couple of other (real) rail forums in the last 24 hours and it's dawned on me that we are getting into the sort of area that is the 60th anniversary of the seismic shift was the demise of the railways as we knew them. OK, the final toll of the bell wasn't until 1968 but from here on in every year is going to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of "something" Just an idle observation, there's plenty of scope for "Commemorative Packaging Specials" over the next 4 years.

I don't know so much. How long were the SECR Birdcage sets in the Bachmann catalogue before we finally saw them on the shelves? Se against that, the EFE SR Boosters were announced in the October/November time frame and I've already had the email from Wicor Models telling me mine are ready to collect the next time I'm in town. To me, that has been a far more satisfying customer experience plus, when we were waiting for the Birdcage sets I was actually working in said shop and was constantly having to defend Bachmann's poor track record of delivery to customers.

Just checked, there is indeed 4SUB 4732 in there, along with a Mersey Rail 503 and one coach from preserved BR(S) 4EPB unit 5176.

First up, I have to say that this topic is far more controlled than it has been in recent years. My two penn'orth is this thought: If Hornby are going down the same track as Bachmann by only announcing things that are much closer to delivery than has been the practice in the past what might we see? I'm citing the new Boosters that are being release under the EFE Banner in the new year as an example - they have obviously been under development for some time but Bachmann have wisely chosen to hold off on the announcement literally until they were in the container on their way. There is precedent; Hornby did do something similar when they announced the 2BILs, announcement to release was barely 3 months iirc. So, I wonder if we might start to see models of the stuff that's in the old warehouse at Margate? Isn't there a Bulleid era 4SUB in there? I seem to recall reading somewhere that that was scanned shortly after its arrival. What else is there? Anyone know? In my mind the time since that facility was set up is about the time it takes to properly develop a new model.

That's nothing, until you've tried Christmas Pudding flavoured crisps you haven't lived...

I studied at the Richard Nixon School of Diplomacy (Motto: Why appease if you can escalate) and yes, I have been tempted a couple of times. However, the reality is that it was pushing 10 years ago and frankly putting the story out in places like this, and in an anonymous form, possibly serves a better purpose because it will put people on their guard to watch for it happening to them, or to maybe educate people who might be thinking of doing that sort of thing just how antisocial it is.

It is indeed! Had a couple of refurbs since that video was taken, and as seen there it was configured as a roundy-roundy. We found that having a layout that could be offered in either "end-2-end" or "round and round" formats confused some exhibition managers and as it was significantly more complicated to take the circular version to a show (required 2 cars and carrying a lot more legs and so on) we dropped that in favour of the version seen at Warley this year.

Sadly, @Fareham MRC did get stung once by another Club who didn't follow this mindset. It happened when we held our shows at Wickham Community Centre. They were based about 50 miles away had been invited to bring a layout, they had quoted expenses of around £55. When we started to do the paperwork on the Saturday their claim was £120. We questioned it with them on the Sunday morning and were told that there had been transport difficulties necessitating extra cars being used. We reluctantly paid up but sort of kept an eye on them at packdown time and there was one more vehicle involved than had been originally declared. Six months later someone who knew said Club dropped us a copy of their newsletter in which it boldly stated that they had managed to make the trip for less than they had quoted but because they thought it had been a well attended show they had more than doubled their expenses claim, the extra £70 going into their Club funds. Needless to say they haven't been invited back - despite asking to come... Morale of the story: If you are going to pull a stunt like that best not to brag about it in your Club's newsletter!

Unfortunately that's the wartime version that is currently languishing in a storage unit in Barnstaple because I don't have a workshop that I can carry on working on it. NB itself is mostly solder construction track (bullhead on copperclad sleepers) and is an essay in how not to build track. Norman Solomon has seen the photos of the crossings and was amazed that it actually worked. 2K is C&L flexitrack and Peco Streamline Code 75 pointwork I started the 00-SF trackwork on the wartime version and have built a double slip over a couple of Missenden Abbey weekends but the project stalled when we decided to move to the west country. Planning permission to convert (and enlarge) one of the outbuildings into a workshop has been obtained and work will recommence in 6 months or so

It was earlier this year, however having just checked both modelrailway.tv and it's sister channel modelrailroad.tv seem to have gone. I was also unable to find the thread on the channel in the RM Web media section. It also looks like most of the other "fluffy stuff" channels like bead TV and Cat TV have also gone so maybe Ashdown Broadcasting have bitten the big one. That said, the Facebook page is still there: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078020297940

Python "Church Police" sketch actually...

Right I've had a chance to look through what has been said and can now answer the points properly. NIctun Borrud started life as a Club layout at @Fareham MRC. It was built at a particularly difficult time in the Club's life - closure of the community centre where we met with all the attendant problems that brought. When we finished it one of the members decided he liked it - and let's face it, the way the line curves around that hillside does make it a rather attractive layout. His original plan was to build it in the new Clubrooms as a way of getting newer members involved with a layout and he was then going to put it in his garage as a fixed layout. The mistake he made was that we needed a short-notice fill in at one of our shows when we held them in Wickham Community Centre - and he exhibited it as a Club layout. Suddenly we found that the idea of having two layouts which showed the same place but in a different time frame had caught on with other exhibition managers and we kept getting invites to show both layouts together - as was seen at Warley this year. There is actually a third layout, a prequel to Nictun Borrud depicting the line as it would have been when it was built as a military railhead prior to the D Day invasion. It hasn't got very far because I moved house about a year ago and it hasn't been touched for nearly 2 years. Nictun 2K is still based in Fareham, Nictun Borrud has moved to the west country with me and I am planning to exhibit it on a semi-regular basis down here as well as still meeting up with 2K from time to time. The next time this will happen will be Ally Pally in March 2024. Elliott

Just a quick comment on this before I answer the points about Nictun Borrud/Nictun 2k. I think it's a matter of public record that I was one of the original presenters on Model Railway TV - which didn't get much in the way of good reviews here until I interviewed @Chris Nevard with his layout #Catcott Burtle (look at the thread in the media section and you'll see what I mean). Unfortunately, that was one of the last programmes we made for the channel owners - Ashdown Broadcasting who were also involved in Community TV with a channel called Arun TV as well as a number of other hobby-centric channels like Knitting TV, Bead TV and Cat TV. We never made any money from our efforts. In fact we never even got expenses or reimbursed for the materials we were using (filming the building of the Cambrian kit of an SR Pill Box Brake Van actually requires the building of 3 kits if you do it properly). However, the overriding problem though was that the production team didn't understand their target audience and didn't want to hear what we were telling them about how this world goes around. Set against that, I have watched several YouTube channels (some regularly) and they do do a good job, they understand their audience and they are their own Director and Producer so a lot of the problems we experienced don't hinder them. However, they have a completely different problem to contend with, they have to get into a much tighter production schedule than we ever were - for example Charlie Bishop of Chadwick has several times alluded to having the pressure of getting a video out every 2 weeks and several other YouTubers I watch on, for example, electric vehicles have made several comments. Where MRTV scored over YouTube was that we had a proper studio to work in, we had multiple cameras (and cameramen) and something that passed for a "professional editing suite" (when we were allowed to have input on how the scenes were cut). I have idly wondered more than once if it would be possible to resurrect something like MRTV but I think YouTube has done for that idea. Elliott

Guilty as charged M'Laud. I am an habitual offender and I would like the 3 dead bishops by the bin to be taken in to account when I am sentenced... Seriously, what's the question? I haven't been following this thread so am scrabbling to find @woodenhead's original post