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My Park Royal kit has had supplementary parts added by the seller; namely : - Hornby bogies, Hornby underframes, Romford wheels, injection-moulded seating, etched partitions and a Hi-Level Lo-Rider power bogie - though I may actually use a Hornby power bogie. CJI.

At the moment I am working on a 3D design for the LB&SCR C2x. The plan is to produce the model to 4mm and for EM. The drawing I am using is from the Russell book of Southern Locomotives. Although drawn to 4mm scale they are based on, in the case of Brighton works drawings and ga drawings. Now to my question. When I draw the splashers the inner faces are 18mm apart. However the chassis will be 14.5mm and Gibson wheels will have a BtB of 16.5mm therefore the wheels would not fit into the spashers. How do I over come the difference. Do I make the splashers wider or do I move the spashers in to accommodate the wheels sets. Keith

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix the awful couplings? Just had a go at re-attaching them, the screws werent threaded so upon reattaching the interior the springs popped out again.

I guess with parcels and goods still being a thing then having to add a second brake to the set wouldn’t appeal.

No it makes it a 33/1!

A friend of mine fought for years for compensation after he got his medical records released. He was eventually given a medical pension, and was able to enjoy it for just over 6 months... Before the cancer killed him.

If a building is Listed then it is a legal requirement to maintain it. Failure to do so is a criminal offence. However finding anyone willing to enforce it is a different matter. That sits with the local planners. They also have the power to step in and carry out repairs and then claim it back of the owner. However that is often easier said than done. Altering a listed building requires planning consent and listed building consent. Leaving it to deteriorate doesn't mean you will get it Also note that on the one hand everything within the curtilage of a listed building is considered listed, equally the actual listing is defined in writing and can be very specific eg just part of the interior. It doesn't have to be the whole building or site

The paints have been out and both 24s are now weathered. I've gone for the standard approach of washes left to dry then removed with a cotton bud followed by dry brushing and powders. I didn't want to create an overly mucky look but capture a well used loco. Here are the 24s pausing by Dalmunach's signal box before continuing with their duties. The 24 on the left is the older Bachmann tooling, the one on the right is the newer post 2020 tooling. Without annoying the Sulzer purists I think the older one still holds up well compared to the newer variants, especially once the buffer beam detailing pack has been fitted. Before I left Dalmunach D5149 was captured running push pull with the managers inspection saloon, a rare working on the line, especially on a bank holiday, I suppose that explains the empty goods yard too.

Rural Australia apparently has the opposite problem - largely because new doctors do not want to work away from cities and large towns. Lack of fine dining and things like arts have a lot to do with that decision. Districts are offering doctors free housing and the like, because they are desperate.

60 to 90 minutes. Gosh. Last time I tried to do that son and heirs boss rang " Er can you start at 5 am someone's gone sick." Swift end of session, but not before Grange had derailed and suffered what transpired to be terminal damage and Dunster Castle found a brand new track defect which make the bogie hit the mainframe. Still by reducing prototype 30 minute gaps between trains to 30 seconds we shifted quite a few trains. Adrian Vaughns "Signalmans Twilight" I think its twilight, has some fascinating detail of GW mainline power Mon - Fri with several trains having the same loco day after day yet others have different locos and different classes every day. I try to never run the same gods twice, different locos and stock re sorted to 17 or 19 from a pool of 60 or so at marshalling sidings, terminus and storage, yet the Fish never changes nor does the Milk but its 6MT (County or Castle) job up to London at 60 mph and a 4MT ( 43XX Manor std 4 but usually a Hall) back limited to 45mph (40?) empty, The rosters bring the 6MT back on Parcels / Newspapers and the 4MT on Parcels ECS,

My understanding is that the polybag wrapping of magazines has been driven by the mail distribution industry, so it's in the hands of the printers (who are often handling distribution) rather than the publishers, at least for these relatively small-circulation magazines. Being lightweight, they help keep postal costs down. There is some backlash against these single-use plastic wraps, though, from a sustainability standpoint; biodegradable versions are starting to appear - the TLS comes in such. It seems to be there are two drawbacks: these wraps are not as useful for modelling purposes as the old card-backed envelopes; the name and address insert is not valid ID at polling stations.

Descalated?

We spoke of foreigners at the Severn Valley a few weeks back. How about this foreigner at Didcot Railway Centre? And to keep the GWR people satisfied, ex-ADR 1340 Trojan 😜

More crashed than escalated, since it's going down!

Go on then; how can you qualify such a statement? Making facts up again? Well if you read BRM or looked at updates on World of Railways you would be marginally better informed.

Another medical use of the Magic Marker Pen! (and one that hadn't occurred to me considering that from the picture the thumb looked - to use the medical term - totally f*****) Very little puts me off my lunch (especially if it's Schweinhaxen deep fried in the Bavarian style with kartoffelpuffer and rotkraut washed down with ein großes). Even after a stint doing autopsies in pathology lunch was consumed. One has to get the priorities straight!

Hmmm.... if a Metal Clarinet is a Saxophone, does that make Metal Bagpipes an Accordion?

TT:120 has had some commercial success amongst those who weren't yet in the hobby, but much less so amongst those already in the hobby. While I don't expect many people who already have a layout in another scale to change scales, there would seem to be a significant number of people "in 4mm" who don't have space for any kind of 4mm layout at home and who have no medium-term prospect of having it. (Having been in the past involved with an ultimately abortive layout project, I can testify that nearly all the group seemed to be in that category. The traditional plan B for such modellers was to get involved with an exhibition layout, but with the exhibition circuit currently about half the size it was pre-pandemic - certainly in terms of layout bookings - and the larger 2 day shows most affected, that opportunity is now greatly reduced). And TT:120 could appeal to those looking for a side project - by definition there will be more limited space available for that . What might persuade people already in the hobby to give it a try is seeing layouts in the scale. But layouts - developed model railways have so far been conspicuously absent. And I haven't seen very much from people saying they are planning or have started building a layout in this scale. So I was interested to see this at a recent event - the first actual layout I've seen in the scale, bar the Hornby and Peco display layouts. (I believe there is another layout around, done by one of the Lincolnshire clubs, based on Dawlish though I haven't seen anything about it other than a growl on here about inappropriate stock running) A sound fitted 50 and 66 were in evidence - presumably pre-production models - so pretty well everything that will be available in a matter of weeks barring the Duchess and Stanier coaches is visible in shot. The HST is 2 + 5 - slightly longer than the GW Castle sets, which would be very manageable in this scale. The station platforms would seem to take 5 x Mk3 / 6 x 57' coaches (the Pullman in the background is 6 car) . The showguide quotes dimensions as 10' x 6' My first thoughts were - no fiddle yard, and for any home layout that's something that would have to be addressed. Also human beings don't scale : the centre well looked rather tight, so I think 7' would be a practical minimum width for a centre operated continuous circuit layout Cyrl Freezer floated the idea of a standard garage - 16 x 8' or larger - as a home for a model railway. I'm unconvinced by sharing a garage with a car, and unsealed concrete floors are not desirable. However my parents built a normal room as an extension behind a double garage - it was used for storage , took a desk, and was used by Dad for float making , tying fshing hooks and the like. It was heated. It struck me over the years as a potential model railway room, though perhaps awkward in 4mm . Access was from the side, and it was heated, floored and decorated like a normal domestic room Such an extension, maybe 8-9' wide and 7' deep would take this kind of layout in 1/120 scale. A lift out bridge on one of the short sides would cover access - an outward opening door would be prefectly normal here. . If behind a single garage you would probably have to drop back to a secondary route , maybe single track, with platforms taking 4 coaches and a loco comfortably. Bookshelves or storage cupboards could go underneath - possibly a desk or workbench could be arranged (do storage sidings in this scale need more than an 18'" wide board?) A 12 x 8 garden shed would allow a more expansive mainline layout, probably taking 8 coach trains Overall, the effect on display was crisp and well executed , reflecting the fact that everything in this scale is to modern standards. Critical comparison with individual models in other scales skates over the fact that the existing scales carry a considerable legacy of older models , especially in the second hand market, which will not be to current cutting edge standards (It's worth noting that both the TT:120 layouts I'm aware of are sponsored projects, built to demostrate the new scale. 18 months after the Hornby announcement - longer since the Peco one - I'm not aware of any private layout projects in 1/120 scale British outline. That does testify to significant resistance to the scale within the established hobby: I think what is needed is for people to actually see layouts in it, but it looks rather like a chicken and egg situation. Dawlish as a subject flags that 1970s/80s WR should shortly be possible: the big signature item that is missing is a Western . I don't expect one RTR - a bodyshell should be available from Lincoln Locos , but motorising it looks like a bit of a challenge, given the exposed wheels characteristic of a Western. Hymeks in TT:120 have already been done by several people. On the other hand once the Class 37 is out in TT:120 there should be a straightforward route to motorising a Deltic bodyshell so the ECML should be doable. How far the 50 can be used I'm not certain - are the EE bogies under a 50 identical to the 37 and Deltic?)

It would sound a lot better with a metal bag🤣

Interesting. I wonder if anyone has ever successfully mounted a Bachmann Hall body on a Hornby chassis? I like everything above the footplate on my two Bachmann ones but feel that if I replaced with new Bachmann chassis there'd be no guarantee they'd perform any better. TBH, Winslow Hall (ex-Kinlet Hall) isn't bad, but Broome Hall (ex-Rood Ashton) is a limping dog.

Only had to wait 5 months, but had a CT scan on Friday and had contrast dye too. What a weird sensation - they describe it as feeling like you've wet yourself - needless to say I hadn't! Anyhow, on another note I went to model world live the previous weekend and thought it was a really good show. As always these shows provide some motivation and opportunity to buy some supplies. So I finally ballasted the track in front of the shed; I used medium black cinders, and filled in areas between with chinchilla dust and real soil and a light scattering of other ballast colours. I decided to make up some hardstanding between the track for the fuel point. I used evergreen sheet and channel to represent a drain channel. The hard standing is all primed for further painting. In the background you might have noticed a very vibrant blue sky. Im still fannying about trying to decide on an alternative backscene to resolve the creases in the existing photo one. I was experimenting with a 'sky blue' aerosol but its far too blue for me. Till next time.

Thank you for your kind comments. I did start to "faff" putting locking bars etc on the points, but first time I put the track rubber over the track, ripped out a lot of it. Hence Just a "nod" to what should be there, and as far as I can judge from photos, I do have the correct number of rods from the sb and correct routing. This photo shows initial planning. I'm VERY happy to say all point rodding and signal wire runs for all 20feet of the layout now complete. Paul

If only I had known. You could have dropped it off here just a few miles north of Thornbury. Also on the way home from here you could have popped in to Elmore on the way……….. Keith

In 8x2 feet, you could probably extend Gumstump & Snowshoe to include an exchange yard at the lower level to supply traffic from the rest of the world, and maybe another factory/quarry/mine/harbour for more shunting. Something else at the higher level as well perhaps. Or reverse the concept so that the gradient is downhill to a lower level at the front. I designed something like this for my own possible use years ago, a BLT with a connection to a lower level representing a previous horse-drawn tramroad that had been upgraded as an industrial branch but never incorporated into the main line network; lightly laid track, small engines, hired in 16xx perhaps. It was inspired by the Melingriffith Railway to the north of Cardiff, and an imaginary connection to it from Coryton station. Just thinking aloud. Gumstump's steep gradients and short zigzag headshunts mean that traffic has to be taken up or down two wagons at a time, which means more shunting, and more shunting means more quiet playtime for dad...

The quote in your post mentions withdrawal,of approval for two rodenticides in open spaces not associated with buildings. Is there another quote about complete banning?