John M Upton

I am running low on my bottle of Glue n Glaze and locally, it is out of stock. Now call me skeptical but would I be right in thinking that actually this is just bog standard PVA Glue watered down and served up in a fancy little bottle with a hefty mark up? If so, what are the likely water to glue ratio? Bog standard PVA Glue I can get for as little as 99p for a big bottle and the proper Glue n Glaze is ruddy expensive for what it is I think.

The four trains an hour between Worthing and Brighton is exactly what it was pre Covid, Southampton loses all direct trains to/from Gatwick and Victoria, no Bognor - Littlehampton direct any more (and only one an hour direct from Brighton/Chichester to Littlehampton) and one of the Victoria/Portsmouth Harbour's is ALL stops between Barnham and Portsmouth, except Bedhampton which is being effectively abandoned to SWR only.

Sadly not, the Horsham/Vic via Dorking is still an hourly stops everywhere except Battersea Park service, they have even put the Ewell East stop back in recently and no service south of Dorking after about ten o'clock on a Saturday night and nothing on a Sunday, a criminal waste of a good alternative route between the Sussex Coast and London rather than all that pratting about through Gatwick Airport!!!

Not very exciting but standard fare on the Horsham to Victoria via Dorking circuit seen here at Sutton:

I have always considered the ScotRail livery to be identical to the contemporary InterCity livery but with a blue stripe instead of red. I converted a Farish InterCity inspection saloon to to a ScotRail version by applying a blue stripe transfer over the red which, in such a small scale as N seemed to work.

Needs ploughs though. It was a spare Dapol Railfreight grey bodyshell with numbers removed from the cab sides, roof repainted rail gray and sides rail blue. Quite a simple job really. May do a Class 27 too at some point if I can scrounge together the parts.

A might have been that really should have been. Eastfield large logo blue Class 26, Dapol.N scale example:

Curious how this show which is not for another eight months is generating healthy debate and yet the Ally Pally show (same organisers) which is now less than four weeks away has no thread for it at all. As someone firmly planted on the south coast, the NEC is just that bit too far a trek so for me the Ally Pally show is my main one. I do hope that the new Warnley does not replace any of the other shows in Warners line up like Bristol did replacing Peterborough a couple of years back.

N scale Class 29, someone did look at it and then dropped it if I recall. If you fancy a real challenge, I have cash waiting for an N scale Class 06....

Could have named one after the King but then it would have been nicknamed the Charlie Line which may not be quite the image TfL were looking for...

Cheers for that. I shall wade through all my Scottish Highland themed books later and see if it turns up anywhere else. Either way, some serious work will be required on the model if I get one, a couple of windows in and the enclosing of one verandah for a start!!!

Someone somewhere mention a Dance Hall brake van reaching the West Highlands. Can anyone point me in the direction of a photo please?

Hello For a few years now I have been using the excellent grass mats made by Martin Welberg, purchasing them through The Model Tree Shop. I just went to order some more and it seems they are no longer stocking them. Does anyone know of another UK stockist please? This has rather scuppered my plans!!!

Was there any EFE announced? I don't recall seeing any but then again I skipped rapidly through the video as I had no interest in all the marketing waffle.

Monday/Tuesday were the last two days of the reduced overtime ban timetable which had some odd formations although I am pretty sure there were more trains running this time than the last OT ban week which is good to see.

You think that is underwhelming, you should see the Farish announcement list!! Basically the LMS twins, a brake van and the reemergence of the ancient Poole era Mk3a tooling.

Well that was a bit underwhelming unless you have been desperately wanting an LMS twin (or two). Cannot believe they have trotted out the old Poole era Mk3 tooling!!!

No interest in wading through a video of waffle, rather they just posted a list and got on with it.

Gone 09:30. Well?

I do wonder if a fresh batch of 31's for us N gaugers will be announced tomorrow as a result? Still somewhat bemused (but not in the least bit surprised) by another duplication announcement. I like the 31, they have a utilitarian no fuss get on with the job look about them, just a pity they were rarer than hens teeth in Scotland which is my main area of modelling these days. As for my history with the OO variants, I had the old Triang one which went like stink but had a somewhat worrying tendency to get somewhat warm, the modern tooling Hornby one I had one of, it was a misshapen lump that subsequently self destructed, the best of the lot, the innards not with standing, was the old Lima one!!!

The plan for the West Coast which went out to consultation last year and will probably happen later this year is detailed here: https://www.southernrailway.com/-/media/goahead/gtr-all-shared-pdfs-and-documents/timetable-consultation-2023/west-coastway-tt-wo-graphics.pdf The existing Southampton/Victoria via the Arun valley becomes a Portsmouth one instead calling all stops between Barnham and Portsmouth (so a half hourly Portsmouth/Vic service but one very slow!) The existing Brighton - Portsmouth becomes a second Brighton - Southampton The twice an hour Littlehampton/Victoria via Hove and all the annoying stops up the main to Haywards Heath remains as is. New service, half hourly Brighton to Chichester all stops via Littlehampton (essentially extending the old half hourly West Worthing all sheds) The Littlehampton/Portsmouth hourly all stops is scrapped, replaced by one of the hourly Victoria/Portsmouth trains calling at all stations Barnham to Portsmouth instead. The main thing is the loss of the direct connections, nothing will run direct between Portsmouth and Brighton and nothing will run direct between Southampton and Gatwick/Victoria so there will be a lot of changing trains at Barnham going on.

Ssshh, they're sleeping.... Two in the morning down Littlehampton shed - Consecutive numbers too!

Unfortunately, road works along the Sussex Coast is sharply up as well. There seem to be days when the entire A27 and A259 coastal trunk roads are just one giant car park from Brighton to Chichester!! As for those Gatwick Express 387's, they may be headed to the West Coast at some point (in addition to the one out and back 8 car London Bridge/Littlehampton peak City train) which could be interesting...

AI created "description" as well which reads like an automated 1980's estate agent...