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I think that's the right answer - working dot matrix type in 4mm is still pushing the limits of what the technology can do but I suspect it will become feasible within a decade or so. In any case route indication is complicated by the fact that you've had to take a few liberties with the station approaches to fit the layout in. This means that some route indicators would probably have to differ from the prototype as the next signal may be something other than it was on the prototype I've watched all of the iTrain videos, but I've still not got my head around around how it handles UK signalling. I'm convinced it will do the job though when correctly configured. You might need to use the iTrain forum for assistance if you hit problems - they seem to be pretty good at sorting out what people have coded up wrongly.

TMC now have it at £91.79 excluding postage. Had to pick one up after my disappointment of Bachmann not doing one and it bringing back memories of seeing it on the Whifflet line.

Brian if I could buy a few brass Barry brake van kits I would. I’ve built one and would build a few more if I could get my hands on them, but last time I asked Redcraft or not planning to sell any more.

Hi Stewart, I am sorry to hear that and hope you feel better soon. I will pass on your regards. Thanks

Sadly, any mention of “Beaver” now immediately makes me think of Pru Leith on the Great British Bake-off inviting one of the female contestants to approach the judges and “show us your beaver” … cue snorts and sniggers from Paul Hollywood and much laughter around the tent (judges, contestants, probably the production team too!) HOURS OF SMUTTY HARMLESS FUN!

This is going to take a while, so don't be too vigorous or you'll get cramp! I haven't touched a vertex since posting that image... I've been looking at photo's of the gutters all evening, and other minutia, instead. Mostly the gutting though! As far as I can tell, from mk2b onwards the roof has a wrap around guttering, and the 2a doesn't. To make matter worse I found an image of a 55 pulling out of Doncaster with a rake comprised entirely of mk1 coaches in 1980. I'm already modelling the mk1 RB and BG, so I should probably do those coaches too. I can see this getting out of control... Accuracscale have good images of the underneath of their 2b and 2c models... but I expect they will differ a bit from the 2a and 2d I'm doing. I know some of the aircon stuff goes down there.

The photo in Lewis' "Auto Trailers Part 1" is definitely the same loco and auto-trailer setup as that shown in the GWR magazine article, IMHO, but from a slightly different angle and looking much more like an official company photo. The quality of the photo in Lewis Auto Trailers is much better so we can see that the trailer in No. 13 with the Calne destination board and that the loco is 1468. It has the cream backsheet but the inside of the cubby around the handbrake winder is either brown or black, probably brown? This book is full of photos of 517s, as you might expect. Three high quality full page photos in the first few pages concentrate on 517s. Readers of this thread probably already know this but, Lewis also says something useful about the all brown livery and the crimson lake livery on coaches: The all brown livery had the letters "G.W.R." twice, one at either end of the coach in the waistline panels whereas the crimson lake livery had the "G.W.R." once only, near the centre. So, if you can see the coach side in a B&W photo this will help to distinguish between the two liveries and that in turn might say something about the loco livery.

MSC 22 - now there’s a prototype just begging for either Rapido or Planet Industrials to produce! We can live in hope - stranger things have happened (Port of Par locos, for example!) Steve S

Tourist thing though isn't it? Anyone wanting to get to the other side gets the train!

I very much enjoyed BBC's Ghosts. When I watched the US version it was garbage when compared to the original.

Beavers are the ones with a paddle for a tail. Don

Another partwork car arrived today courtesy of eBay! This time it’s a Vectra. It’s actually the Chevrolet version instead of a Vauxhall but same difference. Not really my preferred era of cars I’ll be honest, I’m much more a fan of 80’s and older stuff but I’d seen these before and thought about getting one as my dad had an R reg one, a 1.8 saloon in silver, which was about a year or so old when he got it. I got this one with a 10% seller offer so the cheaper price swayed me in the end! It’s quite a nice little model really. Nothing exceptional (much like the real cars!) but not half bad. Definitely one to strip down and Vauxhall-ise one day I think.

The signal is really good but the weathering really makes it. Don

Turning back the clock and a bit of Rule 1... I think I said way back in my first post on Furnace Bank that I intended to run a number of different eras. Despite work being extremely busy, I have made time to escape to the cellar and have found the workbench a truly welcome relief. This post shifts the focus to the 1947-49 era. I'm really interested in the early days of nationalistaion and hope to capture some of the contrasting elements of really careworn stock that made it through the rigorous demands of wartime and the emerging new builds of the postwar and early nationalisation era. This post also proves that I have some stock that originates in the 21st Century... The pictures show my attempts so far at putting a bit of dirt and detail on the Heljan class 11. The application of Rule 1 is that 15101 only made it to Tyseley in 1951 and I've no idea what livery variation it carried by that stage. Anyway, so far I've improvised. A new 'TYS' shedcode has come from Railtec, but I suspect that 15101 would have had a BR shedplate by 1951. I've added a driver from Modelu and have yet to fit lamps; I also need to fit a buffer beam number and I think N gauge ones should be about the right size for the 11s. The shunter's truck is from Hornby - I wasn't even tempted to try any surgery on my original Triang shunter's truck...The three links on the 11 are from Jackson Evans back in the 1980s and look more like North Sea surplus than scale accessories, but they do make coupling up easier. The Heljan 11 runs beautifully and has saved me trying to convert a Lima 09 - different plans await that engine now. Other stock in the pictures includes old Hornby 21 tonners dressed up as SC ex-POs on Parkside chassis - one in black and the other still carrying pre-war SC livery. A Parkside LNER loco coal can be seen intruding into another picture and a 'Walton' ex-PO from Cambrian, commissioned by RD Wyborn many years ago. The lime wagon is a Hornby Minera Lime on a Cambrian chassis. The aim is to recreate the kinds of stock that could be seen at a Midlands steelworks in the late 1940s. I've got a fair bit on the workbench and will be posting more when the day job calms down a little. I'll also really stick my neck out and post some pictures of my attempts at modelling steam engines. The move to the late 1940s is a real challenge for me as I have absolutely no reference points. I was born in August 1968, so my only experience of UK steam has been on preserved lines. The late 40s is a purely academic exercise for me, but has been helped massively by David Larkin's recent wagon books and, of course the internet, not least other people's work on this forum. Hopefully I can get away with capturing something of the essence of the early postwar years. We'll see...

Ugly Caley 0-4-4Ts . How dare you sir ! Pistols at dawn !

Don't do funnies then?

That does seem very good value for an accurate, smooth RTR model. I converted mine to RC, I’m tempted to get another and put a decoder in it.

Thank you Michael. The aspects and shunt signal all work, just not wired yet. The route indicators are dummy. I have shied away from working ones for 3 reasons. 1. The working dot matrix type are much too big in 4mm, and don't look right. 2. They are very fragile - the first signal delivered was Y161 on platform 13, 4 aspect, shunt plus RI, and it didn't take long for me to brush it with an arm and damage it. And 3. It is going to be tough enough to configure iTRains to get these working, and working RI's on top would be a step too far in terms of both hardware and software. Giles

'E & Safety my dear Puppers 'E & Safety. Probably shut the entire network down.

Tales from High Peak Junction workshops, a.k.a. my workbench..... The met camm DTS front end repairs are nealy finished, meantime... Etched Park done a lash up with a class 104 DTS to keep the service running. Nothing more to report on 37403, its currently UVS waiting on the transfers and nameplates from Railtec. Back to the 08 poor running on my layout saga. Spent a lot of time on the match truck Conflat. Painted up the extra liquid lead now its set. Took ages over setting up the wheel backs pick ups so they are not too stiff and not too loose spring pressure, plus on the bar coupler hole, opened it out a bit so the coupling bar had a bit more slop so the conflat can more easily find its own level and not potentially off load the 08 end wheelset due to a too stiff coupler. Result, I am pleased to say. Test running has been good, best the 08 has run on my layout ( It did run ok on a billiard board flat test track at the recent Bingham 3mm meet ). The gubbins, decoder wire and micro connector twixt 08 and Conflat, all wheel pickups on the Conflat, liquid lead added to centre area to add more weight to aid current pickup. Thanks again to @bradfordbuffer for the prototype pics up thread of 08's with match trucks, at least I have got my justification now! And, on the layout. I even treated the Conflat to some stickers. Dug out my 3mm scale Woodhead transfers and found a random 'DBxxxxxx' number set, found a 'Derby' and a 'Match Truck', they will do and look the part. Just needs weathering now. I like the 'Derby' as the 08 is a DY allocated example. Got there in the end despite such previous setbacks as a wheel coming off the 08 and bonding in liquid lead on the Conflat foul of the wheel flange clearance area....🤔. Cheers D.

No need to apologise. Probably made in the grounds of the studios they used which was Pinewood. The last of the genuine Carry Ons, the next one was the awful Carry On England which hardly had any of the regular cast. Then it was Emmannuelle and Columbus, less said about those the better.....

How close to the active trains and presumably live conductor rail were they! They need more danger money! Night All!

As if they would resort to such an underhand way of getting round the regulations. The money grabbing little toerags. Sorry did I type that. I wonder how much they got from the Co-op to allow them to say it's there's. Interestingly I see that the other significant investor is a politician from one of the Gulf States.

They have done a good job considering the photo they were working from is not so clear. The Return to is partially unreadable and the wagon was condemned. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan/e3100a632 And this has the later brake rigging. One use not mentioned (I think) is the Weymouth Channel Island traffic. This one https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan/e347d1e47 is dual Return to - Weymouth and Feltham. Of course, Feltham is not where they were unloaded but the aggregation yard for those distributed to London area depots - NIne Elms for example was enormous! Paul https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan

Is J5991 45104 The Royal Warwickshire Fusilier? https://flickr.com/photos/pics-by-john/35664261825