Barry Ten

The "9 0'clock bump" was a well-known phenomenon in South Wales in the late 70s/early 80s - someone will correct me but I believe it was always around 9 in the evening. when there'd be a general muffled thud in the neighborhood. About a decade earlier, when we were living in Cornwall, we'd get a similar effect on garage doors during Concorde's test flights, but they happened at random times of the day.

I believe the brake is indeed to the same diagram as the Hornby model, Tony - and yes, you have a PM!

These earlier Hornby Collett coaches are a good basis for budget modelling. They can be picked up cheaply - get the ones with GWR bogies, not the 1970s ones with Mk1 bogies - and they are not bad representations of bow-end stock. To improve them, the moulded ends are blended in to the sides with filler, then the whole lot repainted and relined. I added SEF flushglaze, separate roof vents, MJT corridor connections and moved some of the chassis details around on the brake. The restaurant car can also be made into a good model in GWR condition, but needs more work for BR condition.

If Ellie wants a quiet lie down under Paynestown, she'll be more than welcome!

I've shown this before I expect, but here's my J72 after a new chassis was substituted. I bought a part-finished Comet chassis and wheels from ebay, reasoning that the wheels alone were worth the punt. The chassis wasn't assembled very well (the centre axle bearings were just slopping around loose in the frames) but after some tribulations I managed to get something working out of it. I think I put a Branchlines gearbox in which is a bit noisy as it stands, but certainly gives adequate slow running and haulage. The whirr-whirr either drowns out the hip-hop, or the hip-hop drowns out the whirr-whirr, depending on your tastes.

Not for a week or two, Tony. Due to the logistics of getting back from York, I've left the box down in Cardiff with Dave for temporary safekeeping, although I hope to collect it soon. Not this week for sure! I'm in musical theatre all week, with three small parts in our local production of "Made in Dagenham"! Dress rehearsal tonight, then the first public performance tomorrow.

Here is my Mainline 4MT, purchased from (I think) a Carlisle model shop during a family visit to the Lake District in 1980. To put that into perspective, the other thing I bought that day was the special "Borchester Market" edition of Model Railways which I still have. The 4MT is a bit noisy but it runs quite well apart from that, and for the hell of it I converted it to DCC (a bit tricky due to the way the motor brushes work) but not too bad. The weathering was acrylics, brushed on not long after the model was bought.

If you've used bearings, and you're feeling brave, you can resolve this with a soldering iron. Put the wagon on a flat surface, identify which bearing needs to be adjusted down (you only need to adjust one side of one axle) and then remove the relevant wheelset. Warm the iron and then touch it to the bearing, applying gentle pressure in the desired direction until the bearing just starts to move in the softened plastic. Remove the iron immediately and assess whether the wheels are now closer to level. The plastic will reharden quickly so you can have another go if things need further adjustment. Don't dwell with the iron or the plastic will melt all the way through to the front of the axlebox. It's a method of last resort but I've found it works if done with care! I had to do it on on one or two Dapol cement wagons with the soapy plastic.

The Battle of Britain/WC was always loco drive, as was the B12.

I've been on the same plane as Mungo Jerry (aircraft, not astral).

Nice vid, Jesse (and Foo Fighters of course). Some friends of mine were at Thirlmere on Easter Monday.

A few shots showing Paynestown as it now stands. Over the last few weeks I've been adding some smaller details to try to bring the scenes to life, such as a telephone box, street lamps, greenhouses etc, from various firms (Langley, PD Marsh, Severn Models, Southwark Models, York Modelmaking etc). Still a lot more that could be done, but I'm trying to strike a balance between detail and open areas, so that it doesn't end up too cluttered. Ta!

Just the "Class B" drugs for me please.

I went to Ally Pally a couple of weekends ago (I just happened to be in London) and spent three days at York as an exhibitor. York was by far the more interesting exhibition, in my view. Granted, one can't always see as much when showing off a layout as when one is just a normal visitor, but I felt I'd "done" Ally Pally after two hours whereas there was plenty at York I still hadn't seen properly by the time we had to leave. And, the trade support was far superior.