PJT

@JeepyHi Jim, The Drummond B4 chimney from Dapol arrived while we were away last week. I've just got around to comparing it to the one fitted to the model at the factory: The diameter of the bottom of the Drummond chimney is 0.2mm smaller than the original (7.09mm vs. 7.29mm), while the spigot sticking out of the bottom that fixes it in the chimney base on the smokebox is 5.7mm on the Drummond and 5.15mm on the original chimney. Opening out the hole on the loco slightly does the trick and the Drummond chimney fits as a snug push fit. The 0.2mm difference in diameter between the Drummond chimney and the chimney base on the smokebox wouldn't be noticeable were it not for the different black finish of the chimney (see photo). I'm happy to sort that out. Pete T.

Still got a K's one upstairs, somewhere, that I made something over 45 years ago as a replica of one that arrived on the Bluebell Railway in Port of London markings. Yes, you're right, it's very, very heavy and also has no floor (not that the latter makes any odds unless you pick the model up). Pete T.

@Jeepy Hi again Jim, Just found the above on page 32 of this thread... several other useful comments on there, too, especially concerning possible SECR origin of the RH cab front pipes. Given that the Dapol B4 Drummond chimney is available as a spare from the Dapol website, priced at £2.00, I've ordered one to see if it'll fit on the Terrier. Both the B4 and the Terrier seem to split the chimney from the smokebox in approximately the same place, so I think there's a pretty good chance it'll either fit, or be made to fit, without too much trouble. Once the chimney gets here, I'll report back! Pete T.

Out of idle interest to see who House of Hobbies is, I've just looked at their website. I think you may have missed a red strap line at the top which says 'Due to staff shortage we are unable to take phone calls at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience. Please email us with any enquiries.' From that I think it's more than likely you'll eventually get an answer to your emails, though probably nowhere near as quickly as would normally be the case. Pete T.

I've got a BR period Terrier upstairs. I'll dig it out later today and have a look and, if it looks like it has the same runs of pipework coming out of the cab front, I'll sort out a couple of photos for you. Pete T. Not such great news, Jim. My other O gauge Terrier is 32650 and the pipework out of the cab front is nothing like DS680's. The photo possibly indicates that DS680's pipework was a bit ad hoc (doesn't look neatly done). However, 32650 was an extended bunker Terrier brought back from the Isle of Wight in 1937, then served as DS515 as Waddon's predecessor at Lancing, then returned to capital stock in 1953, so it had plenty of excuse to receive all sorts of modifications, too - and that's assuming Dapol's pipework depiction on the model is anywhere near accurate, which it might well not be (Hornby's recent OO model of DS680 lacks all the pipes from the RH side of the cab front that are visible in the photo Hal Nail posted). More photos of DS680 will be needed, preferably from above, I think. Then there's the Drummond chimney referred to by @RodneySabove. I knew DS680 was intended to take the Marsh chimney from 32635 'Brighton Works'; the penny hadn't dropped that it wore a Drummond chimney in service. I have 4mm Drummond chimneys, but not a 7mm one. Added to the list of things to find!

I've got a BR period Terrier upstairs. I'll dig it out later today and have a look and, if it looks like it has the same runs of pipework coming out of the cab front, I'll sort out a couple of photos for you. Pete T.

Hi Jim, Having just had a look, I'm sure you've got it right - a fair bit cheaper and a bit less work to do than the bits I bought. I should have looked a bit more carefully! I've just taken three photos of the air pump pipework on my other Dapol Terrier to give you a bit of a hand - it's not as complex as you might think. @Hal Nail - Thanks for the suggestion for the lettering. I'll make an enquiry. Pete T.

You can get the plain black Dapol A1 Terrier very close to DS680 (Waddon) by ordering a few Dapol spares from Peter's Spares. The metal brake set (Dapol no. 110319), bunker top extension (Dapol no. 113197) and Westinghouse pump (Dapol no. 113864) are on their way to me in the post at the moment. Unfortunately I failed to realise in time that you need to order two of the Dapol spare part Westinghouse pumps to make one complete Westinghouse pump assembly (if I'd looked a bit more at the photo it was obvious!), so I'll have to order another later today. There's also a couple of SR/BR era lamp irons to add, but they're easy to do. I haven't begun to try to find lettering for the bunkerside yet. The nice thing about DS680 is that, though she spent most of her time at Lancing carriage works, she did get out on at least one excursion - there's photos online of her at Robertsbridge and Tenterden.

Reminds me that 'Screw, to the end of the earth' and 'Screw, for points' got inserted in every car parts catalogue we were involved with writing. Pete T.

https://montycasinos.com/montypython/scripts/travagent.php.html I'll have Eric Idle's voice going around in my head for the rest of the day now. Pete T.

As a method to lock a thread it has precedent in "real" life so no reason not to use it in modelling. Several vehicle manufacturers have used either hub nuts that have an area where you use a hammer and punch to deform the nut into a groove in the thread, or the thread in the hub nut itself is deliberately deformed so it self-locks. Quite right - distorting the thread with a punch is a process called 'staking' and, if done properly, is recognised for its engineering integrity. It's used quite a bit in my sphere of work, car manufacturing, an application example being a hot environment where nylon insert locking nuts (nylocs) or threadlock compounds would be compromised. Alternatively, nuts with pre-distorted thread can be used: Aerotight, Philidas or Cleveloc being the more common traditional designs. Pete T.

'Bagnalls' on the Somerset & Dorset! Plus, 3F tender locos were 'Bulldogs' and 4Fs 'Armstrongs'. Pete T.

Well done and thank you, once again, Hattons. Honourable behaviour towards us to the last. Pete T.

Kind of amusing to see we were all using the same techniques! Pete T.

Err, yes, me too. Especially 'non runners', 'inconsistent runners' and 'intermittent runners'. Pete T.

Well, it's half past four, got a cup of coffee. Have they already loaded today's pre-owned onto the website, or will it be after five o'clock today? Oh....................... It's going to take a while to get used to this, isn't it? For quite a lot of us, I suspect. Pete T.

Exactly, plus all the ranges available through Phoenix Precision's website, too. Pete T.

That's absolutely astonishing. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. Pete T.

As a bit of an aside, I see many people have commented on how useful the directory pages are on the Hattons website - an observation with which I certainly agree. Just in case people aren't aware of it, there's a very useful free web resource called the Wayback Machine (https://archive.org/web/) that archives regularly taken snapshots of websites - very useful after those websites have been taken down. I use it to bring up defunct websites from the motor manufacturing industry, for which it's really good. Looking on it this morning, I see that all the pages of today's Hattons.co.uk website are already archived and accessible. Of course, the Hattons Directory won't be maintained and updated in future unless someone from Hattons decides to continue it out of the goodness of their heart, or someone else takes it over and runs with it. At least, though, we will continue to have access to all the info that's there already, through the Wayback Machine. So long as the Wayback Machine continues, of course! Pete T. Edit - Just checked again, accessing the pages of the snapshot taken today by different ways, and while some pages of info are there, some aren't. Going back through snapshots taken last year, different pages are available. So it's disappointingly not perfect by a long way, but at least it's there. Apologies for giving a rather rosier impression above!

Perfectly put, in every respect, John. Thank you, Hattons, it's always been a pleasure. Pete T.

Having just had a good look around the pair that arrived here this afternoon and given them a quick run, I couldn't agree more. A lovely job. Pete T.

Surprised no-one's yet mentioned the well-known Riccarton Junction on the Waverley route, where the station together with the community clustered close alongside had no access other than by train. Pete T.

For your info, checking again just now, I can now load the Quad Art page correctly via the link as well as by going to the home page and following the menus, so it's all now ok for me (and I use Firefox as my browser). Pete T.

I'd second that. The upgrade to the 18V supply made a huge difference to the NCE Powercab for me, too. Pete T.

To that I'd add a real ability and skill in translating real-life observations, even apparently insignificant details, into your fictional scene, without them looking twee. Pete T.