Steve Sykes

Is it the late Ray Fricker's layout?

Does anyone know whether there was any connection with the Eric Langridge who wss a premium pupil under Drummond at Eastleigh and later went to Derby? He died in 1999 at the age of 102. If so, it would explain the choice of LSWR prototypes.

Sadly Allen's etches for the C2X brakegear are a bit generic and don't capture the unusual angled shape of the brake hangers. Possibly a job for the piercing saw and some n/s sheet? Or if he's doing an etch for you, maybe he could add the brakegear to it?

Absolutely marvellous modelling!

I've got the Mike Peascod drawing of one of the 1910 0-6-0Ts that was in BRM a surprisingly long time ago (2009 I think) and I was thinking of possibly having a stab at that. My interest in the Furness was revived by staying in a cottage just above the Coniston station site this September. However my modelling pace tends to the glacial and so progress will be slow!

Looking very nice, David. Can I ask how you've done the carriage body? I'm just resizing the Furness GBV drawing from the CRA website with a view to trying a model - after all, a loco and brake is a train!

You'll be able to triple-head with Butler Henderson soon!

I'd be interested to hear more about the Cambrian loco artwork!

OK then, sticking the calipers on the two sets of loco buffers to hand suggests 1mm should do the trick, possibly with a little reaming out. One set was 1mm spot on, the other a little over, 1.05-1.1mm.

If you'te talking about wagon buffers, 0.8mm works for me.

Looks an interesting project. What period are you considering modelling - for the pre-grouping/early grouping period David Eveleigh has done a number of appropriate kits, covering the A class 4-4-0, the B 4-4-0T and is currently designing the C, D and Da classes. He also does kits for appropriate Great Northern and Midland carriages. Details of some of these can be seen on the 2mm Scale Association website, under Small Suppliers within the Products section. Steve

Being resolutely low-tech, not to mention idle, I attach the solvent bottle to the bench with a big blob of Blu-tack!

My wagons are mostly plasticard bodies on Association etched chassis, and I put a 10mm square piece of lead flashing in the underframe. This gives the wagon a bit of weight and seems to help them roll ok. I'm not sure what the actual weight is; must stick them on the scales!

Looking at their website, the Sally B is appearing at the Goodwood air show this weekend, so could be en route from Duxford today.

Unfortunately I can't make it to Camrail but I look forward to seeing pictures of Tucking Mill - hopefully some kind soul will take some and post them here.

I vaguely remember reading that the committee that was charged with redesigning the standard British cavalry sword at the turn of the 20th century decided that the ideal cavalry weapon was a long-handled tomahawk, but that the cavalry regiments would never accept a weapon that wasn't a sword, so they came up with the '08 standard sword as the next best thing.

Hi Tony, Have you treated the Scalescenes paper in any way? A friend locally has had problems with home-printed Scalescenes brick paper fading a lot, even though his layout is in a north-facing room that doesn't receive direct sunlight. There has been some discussion as to whether different printer inks are more or less susceptible to fading, and whether varnishing or treating the paper after printing might help to protect it; presumably it's the UV component of light that causes the fading. No definitive conclusions, I'm afraid Steve

I think it's the other way around. All the class had steam reversers located between the first and second splashers on the right hand side; those locos fitted with Westinghouse brakes had the air pump just in front of the cab on the same side. There were initially 15 locos with air brakes, delivered by Sharp Stewart in 1900 for working LCDR stock which was air-braked; the SER was a vacuum brake line. No. 712 of this batch is shown in Fig. 4 of Bradley's book on SECR locos which shows the right hand side of the loco.

There's a full set of drawings of the Banff trainshed and station in LNER Country Stations by John Brodripp, and I think there's a drawing of the Blacksboat goods shed in an old GNSRA Journal, if that's any help.

Nice models! I think we need to be a bit cautious about interpretation of colours from old monochrome photographs - the orthochromatic plates used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries responded differently to the various light wavelengths. IIRC in general reds appear very dark, while blues are much lighter compared to modern monochrome film. Given that the GWR wagon grey was pretty dark anyway, distinguishing between the two colours may be pretty difficult.