luke_stevens

It is fun to joke about now but I never want to see the flickering of flames under a layout ever again! Lukr

I don't, and won't, go under their again... Luke

Being under they layout at the time I will NEVER forget that! Luke

Now that would be an exciting layout option! Smoke machine above the entry / exit boards slowly pumping a light smoke/smog/fog onto the layout. It would be SPECTACULAR, but we'd never be invited to another show!!! Luke

The only Mk3 livery avaliable so far is Executive, the blue & grey ones are scheduled for November, despite the power cars already being out. The LMS baggage car is the only thing avaliable and that is in late BR maroon. Hornby are delivering stuff, but it is in an illogical order and way behind schedule. A little healthy competition would be, er, healthy! Luke

And the next think for Paul's shopping list. https://www.nhbs.com/identification-handbook-of-trees-in-northern-china-chinese-book Luke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_China_Plain_deciduous_forests#:~:text=The plain hosts extensive broadleaf,Daurian birch (Betula dahurica). Just to keep us on track... Luke

But is that the right sort of tree for Northern China? 🤣 Luke

Think about tooling that Hornby already have that can be used for further items: Mk1 Restaurant: the SO/SK and Full Brake are already announced but with out any liveries Streamlined Coronation: same chassis as the Duchess, just a new body tooling Deltic: Hornby already have the class 50 bogies and it would go much better with the late Mk2's than the Cl 50 Class 50 early bodyshell Easy Repaints Cl 50 in Network South East, with Mk1's - for 2026 as the 40th anniversary? Mk1's in blue and gray - would go with late steam as well as diesels 08 in Freightliner / ESW First tooling samples One of the diesels (37/47/31) Gresley teaks coaches 3d print On of the diesels (37/47/31) Collett coaches Train Set 47 with cross country Mk2 coaches There is already so much announced that having a positive progress up-date on half of it would be great :) Luke

There were some other more realistic ones out there but there weren't all the types you needed and at €25 a signal they were rather expensive... https://miniaturmodelle.net/en/1:87-h0/led-signals And, to be honest, we have enough to worry about without trying to interlock the signal operation! Luke

I tried to suggest that before we had signals in the pre-covid era... Luke

Very nice video. Interesting how much better the video is without the background noise! At exhibition the other punters & layouts don't distract, but in a video they do! I would have liked it a bit longer but it is the best I've seen so far :) Luke

And here is the link to the Lincoln Loco's Class 56 body shell, if anyone else is interested... https://lincoln-loco.co.uk/class-56/ Luke

I would like to think MTB would be first, in particular as they already have the correct bogies for the Cl 56... One of the reasons Brush got the initial contract for the Cl 56 is that they already had a Co bogie used for heavy haulage. Originally designed by Sulzer for the Swiss Ae6/6 electric locomotive it was developed into the bogie for the Romanian 060-DA, of which the initial batch were built in Switzerland. The many, many subsequent locomotives were built at the Craiova plant in Romania where the first 56's were constructed. The MTB model would need new side-frames and a longer chassis but it would be a good start. But I believe several MTB models have been produced as commission for other manufactures / shops / retailers. Hopefully someone in he UK is interested enough... Luke

On the branch I can understand, but for the China main and the bidirectional the trains are fire-and-forget. Once a train is away I can't see it until it pokes its head through the endplates or rounds the bend at the far end. Luke