Andy Y

But have you tried loosening the clips beneath the boiler and the cab handrails as shown in the OP? Your previous post just said you'd removed the pony tuck, bogie and two screws.

Please read the first post in the topic. This is covered there.

Now sorted.

You'll get a better product by scouring auction sites and secondhand stalls for the original Airfix kit where you'll get a cleaner and better fitting product. Current Dapol wagon kit offerings are best avoided.

Hope that helps! I'm disappointed that the wheels in particular haven't received further blackening but heartened that someone's already tested the haulage capacity to extremes that I couldn't. For anyone looking for a speaker location I would suggest leaving the weight out of the firebox end as the sound will have a reasonable exit point through the cab.

Having just seen this, somewhat belatedly (I wish the report function had been used earlier but thanks to those who did), I wish to publicly state my disgust at this post and the fact anyone can think it's appropriate to use this forum for such comments. Any repetition (or any rising to it in similar tones) will result in a red card. Simple.

Yes; I was hoping no-one would be around today so I could have a closer nose around. Unlucky. This shot shows the progress of the trunking toward the 'new' tunnel a little better.

A fine and pleasant morning in Longdendale today; a shame it wasn't 1980 rather than 2010 though. Some panorama shots as the landscape is now. (click for fullscreen) Torside Crowden Woodhead (from the garden of the cottages that used to be above the tunnel)

Talking of heart-stopping moments Muz I dreaded turning round whenever I heard one of the empty cassettes at the end of the layout slide over!

There is more 'elasticity' to the wax than setting PVA Andy so it's possible to adjust it before it's finally set. Any stray ballast granules will still unwantedly stick to the sleepers and lift the paint if left - resulting in the need to touch up. Isopropyl Alcohol is available from most non-high street pharmacies; they may have to order it in for you. 500ml costs around a fiver but I also use it for track and wheel cleaning, paint thinning and removing excess weathering.

You're both absolutely right; the time taken wouldn't justify the cost differential but I think the issue for most is availability and accessibility with most modellers going for the easy life in picking up Peco for the points rather than the alternatives you've given.

Related questions periodically crop up on sleeper spacing, rail and sleeper painting in addition to ballasting. At a couple of recent demos I was playing with a short plank and talking folk through some of the materials used. I thought it may be a useful reference point for future questions. Peco track is the staple diet of modellers moving on from train set track. A basic limitation of the prototypical accuracy of the track is obviously the fact that it is OO gauge and any acceptance of it as it comes or to what it can be altered to is always a question of compromise. Improvements can be made that take the basic product beyond the common lay and ballast approach. The first step is to turn the track over and cut away the plastic webbing between all of the sleepers. A sharp craft knife will suffice but don't go too heavy handed as too much pressure will cause the sleeper to to spring away where the narrow clasp of the rails chairs grip the base of the rail. The sleeper spacing is then widened to a more acceptable compromise of around 7.5mm; PH Designs produce a useful tool if you have a lot of track to do - http://www.phd-desig...spacingtool.htm. The whole length of track to be used has the sleeper web cut away and spaced using the tool. I fix the track using latex based adhesive (e.g. Copydex) or a thin line of PVA glue beneath each sleeper. The track is then laid and positioned. It will be necessary to use the sleeper spacing tool to tidy up any movement in the individual sleepers which will inevitably happen during handling, gluing and laying. This makes a significant difference to the appearance making the track look lighter weight. Once the track is laid and tidied I use Tan Plasikote Suede Touch spray paint to give a base coat onto the plastic sleepers and nickel silver rails. Once the base coat has dried I then paint each sleeper with a mix of acrylic paints; in this case a mix of Tamiya Flat Earth (XF-52), Buff (XF-57) and Light Grey (XF-66). Before steaming ahead in painting the sleepers take some photos showing the actual track you wish to model; you should ideally do this in different weathers and observe the difference in appearance in dry sunny, cloudy and wet weather conditions. The colour that you then choose will at least have some foundation in fact rather than just a guesstimate and it will then be appropriate to the area and conditions you are modelling. In this case the sleepers are intended to look dry and sun-bleached with some time having passed since any treatment was used. The same research criteria is relevant to the colour of the rail sides and chairs. The colour will vary with traffic types and volumes and the ambient light. A little used track in sunny conditions will look rusty orange whereas a busy track seen in dreary light on a wet day may look a very dark grey. In this case I use a mix of Tamiya acrylics Nato Brown (XF-68) and Nato Black (XF-69) to taste and with tones varying slightly on different lengths of rail. Once the final colours have dried and all of the track is laid it's time to consider ballasting. Rewinding to the research really look at the type of ballast that's there. The chances are the actual chippings will be smaller than the size of most of the ballast sold. If the grains in your model ballast are over 1mm in length that means each stone would be 3". Were they really that big. The easy solution is to then use finer ballast intended for the 2mm modeller. Rewind again and look at the colour of the real ballast. Is it uniform in colour? What colour is it? Take care to select something that looks right for your model. In this case I've used Green Scenes GS408 ballast which has fine grains (intended for 2mm) and a nice variation in colours (light grey in this case). There are tools that make the job of laying ballast quickly easier but I find something very therapeutic in laying the ballast. I like it to sit a little below the level of the sleeper and rail to preserve the lightness obtained earlier on with the removal of the sleeper webbing. Along the side of the laid track I'll lay some masking tape to achieve a tidy straight line at the edge or cess. The ballast is gently spread between the sleepers with a brush and tamped down with a fingertip. Ballast is laid along the edge of the track and gently brushed into the spaces between the sleeper ends. Running a fingertip over the sleeper ends moves loose ballast grains into position forming a gentle slope down to the edge of the masking tape. Run your finger along the masking tape to remove loose ballast and tidy the edge. The loose ballast is then fixed in place with a 2:1 mix of Johnson's Klear or Pledge floor wax and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) with a few drops of detergent. This is the new formulation which is readily available at supermarkets (I keep the old Klear for other varnishing!). The mixture is then sprayed on with a cheap plastic bottle spray or perfume atomoizer, these are available from Boots for £1.65. Give the ballast a good soaking so the varnish can penetrate and adhere to the ballast garnules through to the board. As this product is intended to form a shiny coat on hard floors there will be a sheen on the track which can be dulled down with a matt spray varnish. Once the ballast has set (normally overnight) I remove the paint on the top surface of the rail with a fine razor blade, the paint peels away leaving the clean rail head behind. It's worth checking that no ballast granules have moved and stuck to the sides of the rails; they wouldn't stick there in the real world so we'll try to make sure that reflected. The cess at the side of the track in this case is treated with a painting of Tamiya acrylic Flat earth (XF-52) with a sprinkling of Treemendus Earth Powder on top. The end product looks better for the time and attention given to it. This article isn't intended to be prescriptive but to get modellers at a certain stage to think a little more about the track appearance. Source: Improving Peco Code 75

I'd like to draw the attention of contributors to this topic to the fact that the National Railway Museum supported by Model Rail and Bachmann are having a competition to find photographs of model railways that look most like the real thing. Details can be found on the NRM site here - http://www.nrm.org.uk/GetInvolved/competitions/modelrailway.aspx If some contributors aren't too backwards at going forwards for it I'd think there's a good chance that something from these pages could be in the running. The voting will be carried out by visitors to the NRM website. The closing date is 01 November 2010.

Point 1 - Good idea rather than continuing negative speculation. Point 2 - Can both sides please step back from the personal disagreements?

Not the shiniest shilling is he? Recording a threat of physical violence in the public domain and telling people his name is really bright.

Thanks for flagging that up. I have taken a copy of the listing and the comments therein and will be passing to the police. I appreciate it isn't the seller's fault and it's very, very clear who that threat has been issued by.