SD85

1995 Central Hall exhibition. I think it may have been the last one held at that venue. Was 9 years old at the time and persuaded my mother to take me and a friend there. Went mainly for the MRC layout New Annington which had featured in the magazines at the time and which I remember being pretty impressive. I still have the show guide somewhere.

Went yesterday. First time I have been to York and it was definitely worth the journey. Thanks to everyone for putting it on. Was also nice to meet up and have a chat with Jerry and Gordon Gravett who was doing tree making demos. Definitely not a box shifter show in terms of traders but it was a good thing to have something different to offer in that area. I was drawn to the bigger layouts this time. Grantham was fun to watch but South Pelaw was as expected amazing. Definitely one of the best layouts on the circuit, because it's not just amazingly detailed and well done but it works flawlessly. Very well worth attending.

I went along today for the afternoon. Newchapel Junction really is great to watch. Seen it many times but it's always so impressive because something is always on the move, it's fully signalled and well operated and it runs absolutely flawlessly which is the key to exhibiting successfully. Harton Gill was good, not seen that before. Most ingenious layout though had to be the US harbour one where the fiddle yard was the train ferry which would move on and offstage with its load.

A newly tooled 8F is one of the most obvious steam outline locomotives for any manufacturer to produce IMO and it's just bizarre that no one seems to be contemplating it. The current Hornby model is 20 years old and decent enough but is rarely in the catalogue and as noted above has its issues. I was wondering if Hornby were going to retool it after doing the 9F and the Black 5s but nothing has been announced so far.

I don't understand why Bachmann seem to have given up on producing any new steam locomotives (not counting commissions for retailers etc like the Caledonain 812). Surely there are still some gaps in the market which can be filled? The main one is the 8F. Hornby's model is getting long in the tooth and is only rarely in the catalogue these days. Bachmann make the 9F, the Super D, the SDJR 7F, the Robinson 04, and the WD 2-8-0. It's surely a no brainer to put a new tooled 8F in alongside those and complete the range of heavy freight locomotives.

What do people use for their workbenches and could anyone recommend me a decent sturdy table which is relatively lightweight that I can use for modelling on? Looking to upgrade to a larger workbench/table but not sure where to get one. Thanks.

I went to the last MRC exhibition (I think?) in Central London. As I understand it that exhibition essentially was replaced by the London Festival of Railway Modelling. Do the MRC still mainly organise it or are there other parties involved? If so then could something like Warley continue in the same way so that the onus of organising the entire exhibition is not reliant on one club? Warley MRC have done brilliantly over the years to put on such a large scale show but it was probably likely that the issues they cite were going to come to a head sooner or later. Is there another way of organising a show on such a scale that can navigate round this? Thanks to Warley for putting the show on anyway, glad I got to attend it during the last two years.

A member of my club brought along the same model to our last running session and had the same problem. The loco did not like going over a standard Peco double slip. It did run well otherwise but seemed to be much more sensitive to pointwork than other models. For the record we run a system between sheds to a timetable with bell codes etc. and some of the trackwork was laid down a while ago, but the double slip in question seems reasonably well laid and caused no problem for the other stock that was running.

Could you please provide a link to the DJH news as I can find no evidence of this having looked around online. Thanks.

Personally I would say that not encouraging your grandson into the hobby would make your closing thoughts a self fulfilling prophecy.

Electrostar - not even available in kit form AFAIK. 4-CIG - seemingly every 60s third rail EMU has been produced but not this one, and if you want to the model the Brighton line after 1965 these are an absolute necessity. U Class - the main gap in Southern Region steam power, admittedly not easy to tool as there were several variations in design and detail. 8F - Hornby's model is 20 years old or so and only appears in the range sporadically. They strangely recently chose not to retool it on its latest release. I'm very surprised that no other manufacturer has considered making one, surely it would be an obvious contender for Bachmann to do as they produce a lot of other heavy freight locomotives. Would like to see a Z Class in RTR but they had a very limited use in real life in terms of their range of duties and were only based in a few locations.

Does anyone remember Cold Harbour Lane? A NE based shed scene that turned up in RM in about 1998.

The lack of any resources to model the Brighton main line in RTR post about 1920 is one of the more annoying aspects of the hobby. Seemingly every RTR 1960s third rail EMU has been produced but not the 4-CIG which was the mainstay of Brighton line traffic for decades. Electrostars aren't even available in kit form AFAIK and though the tooling options are complex due to the variations it is still surprising that at least one variant hasn't been produced yet.

Many thanks to @DLT for letting me operate the layout at Warley last weekend; it was really fun and is good layout to observe and run.

South Pelaw? I had a good day yesterday, thanks to @DLT for letting me operate Bridport Town in the afternoon, was fun to do so.