Orange Cat

0.75 Mbit for me.

I would go for 14.2mm gauge. It is a lot more realistic and is not a particularly exacting set of standards to work to. Apart from if you want to run Tri-and stock I don't see anything to commend the use of 12mm, unless, like me you are modelling Continental TT to 1:120 scale. The standards are basically the same for 14.2mm and finescale 12mm, just 2.4 mm wider. I don't think there's a better scale to work to than 3mm, especially if you are interested in scratch building, dimensions are readily converted, the models are a size where you can see what you are doing without being so big that the cost of materials and the effort of cutting parts becomes an issue. If it hadn't been for problems with the supply of driving wheels back when I was modelling it, I wouldn't have given it up. I think I probably have the world's largest collection of 3mm locos with no driving wheels I keep thinking I should look them out and stick them on eBay. I would certainly go for it, and if it is by way of a small plank to test the waters give 14.2mm a try too. I think you will be very pleased with the outcome. The 3mm Society are a good bunch too, although they seem to keep themselves to themselves to some extent. Their magazine was well worth the subscription in itself.

There's a splendid photo, I think in one of the LMS Locomotives series of books, showing a brand new Stanier 8f 2-8-0, what must at the time have represented the ultimate in modernity in freight haulage. Next to it, in between the tracks, the blacksmith is shoeing a shunting horse. It makes a wonderful contrast.

Isn't that the whole point of the internet?

If anyone fancies modelling a horse tramway appropriate sound chips are available. I imagine trying to get the horse's legs to move in time to the sound file, or even at all, would be a challenge. That said, I did see a Tamika kit for a working model of a racehorse in Hobbycraft today. They also had ones for dogs, described on the box as Dog (four legged walking type). What other type of dog is there?

Regarding horses and donkeys on the railways I recall reading of a station on the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway where the water tank was filled by means of a "horse-gin", one of those things where the animal walk round in circles and powers, in this case, a pump. The railway company provided a donkey to power it but he wasn't very good at it. So the station staff used to fill the tank at night when they could "borrow" a farm horse, under cover of darkness, from the neighbouring field.

The mint ones are all right. https://www.pipershoney.com/products/302

There was a tunnel connecting the two shops originally. It was closed off when the shop on The Moor closed down and subsequently changed hands. I remember buying a whole load of Minic Motorway stuff cheap from Redgates after it went out of production. I still have a lot of it.

I have got a bunch of photos of Peterhead. Contact prints I got off ebay.

The question many of us are still pondering. I saw a chart the other day showing the results of opinion polls asking people the issues that concerned them. The EU had gone along scoring round about 10% for as long as the pollsters had been asking the question, then when David Cameron announced the referendum it suddenly jumped to over 50%.

Or go for a worried lack of animation for the ground crew who have let go of the ropes and stick the unmanned airship to the ceiling.

Why's that then?

Or every two years now, apparently.

I hate this show. I keep reading NESCOT and thinking we've got a new exhibition in North-East Scotland. Incidentally that bloke in the chipper seems to have had an unpleasant accident.

If Scotland is to be regarded as a one-party state, (It must surely be the only one-party state in history with a minority government elected in a multi-party election) what does that make the UK? Where is the viable alternative party of government in the current election?

There were drawings of J67 in Your Model Railway October 1984 and J69 in Model Railways March 1973 and Railway Modeller March 1988.

All I can say is look where its got you. Stuck with a load of serially unelectable tory MSPs who got in on the regional list vote having been soundly rejected in the constituency vote, in some cases not even finishing in second place.

Though not particularly large, in population terms. Somewhat equivalent to Scotland, which we are repeatedly told is too small to survive as an Independent nation. But then Norway has oil... oh wait.

Just out of interest, which large, wealthy European countries are not already EU members?

In Scotland they use it extensively to talk about Independence and the importance of not talking about it.

Even soot itself can be a lot more brown than black depending on the nature of the coal it comes from.

Independent.

If we abandoned that focus we wouldn't have to worry so much about how essential services are organised. The UK's public sector revenues, as a percentage of GDP, are less than 3/4 of the EU average. That's the average of all the EU members including the supposed failing economies of southern Europe and the former Soviet bloc countries in the east. We are even further behind the more comparable economies of northern Europe. It is quite enlightening to look at the comparative tables on the eurostat website and see that we actually spend much less than almost anybody else on things we are told are unaffordable.

Nigel Farage, probably.

First it's council elections, then a general election. When are politicians and campaigners supposed to find time to do some railway modelling?