Captain Kernow

Hi Amanda, You can certainly add tie-bars to rocking W irons, provided they are sufficiently flexible. You don't really need the rocking W iron (or the sprung W iron, for that matter) to move very much up and down, to cope with minor imperfections in the top of the rail.

Some of the existing members are waiting to welcome it home:

No, he's just demonstrating where that baseball bat should land.

Another bit of excellent news for today.

Robin, do you really need me to answer that? All panniers are equal, but some are more equal than others.

I can't see it either, being a non-FB person, but I am also intrigued!

Oops! Fair enough!

I have built rigid and compensated chassis in OO and compensated chassis in P4 over the years. I've used most of the jigs described or recommended in this thread and still have all of them, including the basic Comet ones, the Perseverance equivalent as was, the Poppy's jig, the Hobby Holidays jig and the Avonside jig, but it was the latter above all else that I found really transformative, in terms of ease of use.

If this is 4mm scale we're talking about, it depends on how good your eyesight is, how steady your hand is and how good you are at repetitive stooping to undertake coupling and uncoupling duties!

If you look at a colour photo of a rake of bauxite vans in the BR era, no two vans seem to be exactly the same shade.

Very glad to see that you at least have the energy to respond to us here! And if modelling seems like a bit too much, there's always YouTube! - Or perhaps this? -

If it's just fine dust, I wipe the file on my jeans. If it's a bit more substantial, eg. whitemetal, then an old, pointed scalpel blade, applied to each groove on the file in turn, does the job. Long-winded and tedious, but effective.

I think the shade varied in BR days, so why not in LMS days as well? For a brief moment, I thought you were saying 'S7 scene'. Anything you wish to tell us then, Robin?

I think the sheep are real enough, but I'm not sure about the hairdo of the one on the right.

Yes, that's possible, but as someone who has built a few points myself, I'd prefer not to introduce any structurally unnecessary joints. Given that an 'isolating' joint has to be provided, the dummy fishplates further along are a pragmatic solution, in my view. So, in OO at least, presumably the only competition here for bullhead points are the Peco product or C&L kits? (or scratchbuilding your own, of course)

Do the plastic sleepers take MekPak or similar liquid poly adhesive? If so, one could cut out a small section of (say) 15 thou black plasticard and glue that in place?

How do you know that? It might be SuperDrug.

Reflects the 'cottage meadow garden' approach to track maintenance.

Recovery back to full health is the only priority now, Rob, together with the health of your family, so do please get well as soon as you can, so that we can enjoy some more of your sheepcredible modelling! I found some of this very helpful in passing lockdown time, by the way - Take the best of care, my friend!

By what?

In terms of metal wheels, steel or nickel silver appears to be better than brass in not collecting dirt.

Possibly better than getting one from a total stranger in Australia?