Mrs Durby

True. I had the problem of a slipping o/s crank on a Pannier. Resolved it by removing the offending, grinding a slight slot into the side of the axle (slitting disc; depth c. 0.4mm) then replaced it and drilled out the 'D'-shaped hole into a 0.9 Dia. hole, then tapered a bit of 1mm brass rod, tapped it firmly in and trimmed off the end. Seemed sensible to do the other 5 while I was at it so I did and it hasn't slipped in the 10+ years since ! Oh, and you don't need to make your own cranks if you can fettle Romford ones...

How about a piece of c.1mm steel sheet and a pillar drill?

There's tidy! O/f are great for hiding 'outboard' compensation beams for the un-geared axles... With your double-slip troubles, are you compensating?

I had rather expected somebody to come up with these by now - but as nobody else has... Taken in 1921 by E T Miller, these images show Taff Vale A class No. 410 at the head of a train of ex-TV auto trailers, which by this date had been revamped as ordinary (!) saloon coaches. It is proably (according to John Lewis of the HMRS) the Taff's own first 6-coach corridor train (created from ex-steam rail motors and unpowered, corridor-fitted intermediate trailers) which saw a lot of service around Cardiff. (It is probably a similar daily schedule to the one reported earlier for the ex-GWR bow-ended E-set of five coaches, shown in BR days with the class 3 tank running round.) As you will see from the second image, the TV retained 2nd class throughout its existence), until the GW took over and downgraded the 2nds to thirds, although they retained the firsts, for quite some time. This were a common sight in late Taff and early GWR days. I can't remember what happened to No. 410, but most of the ex-TV auto train coaches lasted until after WW2, and many into BR days. Large images of these, with captions, appear in Brian Miller's (no relation, apparently), book "SW Railways at the Grouping", while smaller ones, with details (and many photographs) of the ex-TV coaches appear in John Lewis' excellent "GW Auto Trailers Pt 2". Both of them are recommended reads...

I'm always keen to find new (lower case 'n' - another clue), South Walean number plates in 4mm as I make a small number of them post-Grouping. Currently have a couple left from projects now 30+ years old, (there were rather more, but most have, in that time, got built, while others have jumped up the queue because a kit's come out - hooray! So as my list expands again, I'm keen to find new plates. So I'm firmly with 247 on this one (besides, there's large red flag at the top which reads, "Ignore this topic"... In fact, it's high time I looked up your current 'old South Walean lists' to see if you have suitable plates for some B&M Great Westernry I'm currently leaning strongly towards. Only problem is, what do I do with my two Rhymney 0-6-2Ts if I model the other side of the valley??? Hey ho...

This is a layout with many good points, not least its title. That obviously still works as I've been reading up on the start of your 'journey' with it, whereas otherwise I may have missed it! [Although it has to be said, that unless its' well stuffed with elderly 4-4-0s, it isn't really GNoS as far as I'm concerned! But maybe that's for another day.] Good luck with the electrics, by the way - other people's wiring can be a bit of a ..... I think the scenic work was excellent in its day; much of it still more than passes muster and it reads as if you're aware of what needs doing to bring it up to more recent standards - so more power to your elbow! And you are quite right, it does need a backscene; hopefully one not quite as bright as its original. (Did they have fields of rape up there in the 50s?) Anyway; always nice to see once-great layouts getting some needed TLC, so my very best wishes to you and lang may y' lum reek!

Way-to-go with the 00 compensation, Darwinian! Perhaps not so vital with tender locos, it certainly is with 4- and 6-wheeled tanks, although having to split the coupling rods on the latter to allow the wheels to move independently is a bit more time consuming. Personally, I'm rather fond of split axles too (not always easy around the final drive gear), but when it all comes together and you can just run it and forget about having to keep cleaning it, you smile and realise it was worth all that extra effort - 'coz it works !

Please don't take my word for it, Nigel; this was a quote from the HMRS Cambrian Steward at the time - oh, some 20 years or so ago probably - and he'd had it from a relative or associate who'd worked on the line between the wars. WW1 problems with paint supplies may have had something to do with it, or it may have had to do with skilled staff having 'left to join the colours', but there's ample b&w photographic evidence of a variety of tones within the plain green coaches around the time of the Grouping. (I've been looking for an example for you but can't find CC Green's Cambrian Part 1 at the moment...)

It was commonly said in pre-Grouping days that if you saw two coaches in a Cambrian train which were the same colour green you won a free prize! I therefore assume that the same comany's wagon's grey tones, especially in the days when each foreman mixed his own paints from basic materials, would tend to vary from location to location, period when painted and even from the stock-levels of whatever colourants were available that particular week. Indeed, some may have had strapping picked out in black (gave the apprentice something to practise on), and some not (there was a shortage of that kind of wagon that week so it had to be got out and back into traffic as quickly as possible... ) which could also be a reason. Putting that another way, 'any grey will do', and that applies just as much to the Cambrian as it does to the Midland, whose 'Midland grey' wagons varied in colour from nearly white to nearly black. At least you can get a really good idea of 'typical' greys from black-and-white photos, unlike coach and loco colours! Have fun...

Couldn't agree more! Far too many modellers go for a model where the detail is exactly the same from right under your nose to the smallest, least significant shed in the background; and you can often end up looking at anything but the trains because as soon as the movement stops, you look for something elsewhere. I find it better to use your peripheral vision at suitable locations, note what stands out, and paint that, but in muted tones. Some detail's fine, but only to focus the eye on something to distract from an exit scene or something which, by dint of lack of space, is far smaller than you'd like it to be. Of course, selecting what detail to put in and what detail to leave out is where one has to get a bit artful. And that's what makes art, 'Art', imho...