brianthesnail96

Cheers Dave, nice to have it. I did measure the room before we made an offer on the house! As for locos, we've got the Fowler, the Manly Waddle, and a Peckett on pre order, all with noise care of EDM. I've resisted a Terrier though! The Tower Barclay is a bit big really, quite fancy something a little different. The Agenoria RS&H would be a nice starting point.

There you go Mister Neil and a classic car in there too... it was actually her natural colour recently, for a little while! Darker now instead of brighter.

I've resisted putting a "37 years Piano free and counting" sticker in the window, thought it might be tempting fate/ gravity/ incompetent airborne removals firms...

Digital, for locos anyway- currently a Multimaus. Points are all old fashioned solenoid and switches- the switchboard hangs off the front of the layout. Won't be doing loads of shows with it, it's not the easiest to move after all (it was never designed to go on the road) but guest operators and stock more than welcome when we do! I need to be brave and learn the wonders of brass kitbuilding and get a bit more variety in the loco fleet. I'm in the nice position of being fairly well off for wagons (I need to build/ finish a few more, and could do with a couple more open wagons) but am a bit short on locos, which seems to be the reverse of conventional wisdom. Maybe next year... this year has mostly been learning about DIY!

Took "the red one" to it's winter storage on Sunday, still not convinced the rear crank oil seal issue is solved (but it's definitely better) but it can wait 'till Spring now! Mud ("the green one") is lurking in the background, having been evicted from the garage so I can fill it with all the new panels etc that are to go on. Looking a bit sorry for herself currently. Laura looks suitably baffled at seeing it in one piece and running after nearly 2 years of me owning it...

Good news! Have finally moved BT&S into it's new home- and it fits! For the first time I can have the layout set up in it's entirety at home. Previously the two shorter boards were in the spare room and the longest (RH end) board had taken up residence on the dining room table as it was a pain in the proverbial to cart upstairs. The new place has a "garden room" which is long (about BT&S long in fact- the left hand wall tapers, it won't go any further back towards the window than this before it wedges!) and narrow, so not much use for anything else- so it's become my hobby room and a general storage room. There's a little box room at the front of the house which again would be useless for anything else which has become Laura's painting room (she does narrowboat type art, roses and castles and such)- although it's smaller it gets much better natural light in the evenings, so domestic harmony is maintained... Excuse the clutter, I need to have a tidy up of the workbench (opposite the layout) which has been used as a dumping ground pre- sort. I also need to build some risers (OK, cut a fence post up into 20" long chunks, we don't do technical here) to lift the layout up so I can get to the wing nuts and electrical connections underneath!

I'm borrowing your picture upload test to test mine, hope that's OK!

Definitely Sharpness

Cornish, I believe. I've got SCV680M, originally PCV4M, which I believe had never lived outside of Cornwall until I bought it! I think the original owner probably kept the registration. It was on a diesel Ford Escort last time I looked- in some ways it'd be nice to try and get it back but it'll have been 680M for much longer than it was 4M now! Pick of the recent snaps for me is the Humber Pig- I love the "5 bar gate" bull bars, the "Flying Pigs" with the riot shield wings are even better- and the Mk1 AEC Milly. Both pretty high up my vehicle bucket list.

Running a few of the reg. numbers on the previous page through Cartell, the Flying Spur's is now on a Beetle (presumably a new one), none of the others came up at all with the exception of the GT40, which would still appear to be attached to said GT40.

Excellent news. A long time coming I feel. Must admit I didn't think it would be Hornby that would brave doing a decent representation of a true industrial loco, and now they've got two in the offing (three, if you count the two variants of the Sentinel). Great stuff.

Fowler looks spot on Chris, just the right level of grime. They seem to take it well- lots of nooks and crannies for the dirt to "snag" on. Agree that black suits it too. I like the buffers, one of the bits I'm not happy with on mine so I'll have to give that a go.

Either Triumph would be more than welcome to grace my driveway, especially the 2000 estate.

Not all Halfords will- I couldn't get my local one to make up a can for my car. There's a paint specialist local to me who do make paints up to a code but, although it brushes nicely, the rattle can they made up for me was horrible to use, and that was on a car! It was the planned colour for my Fowler but I decided not to risk it. Worth browsing the shelves in Halfords (and even better if you have an old fashioned motor factors locally as they are more likely to hold a stock of older paint colours- that's a very 70's shade there!) to see if anything takes your fancy, I've used the "off the peg" Halfords sprays on my 16mm/ft stuff and been very pleased with them. Incidentally my Fowler was eventually painted in a Tamiya shade, again picked by going into a shop (model shop this time) and looking for something I liked; it was supposed to be red...

I'm sure there's a British Leyland paint colour that's close... actually it's not miles off Mr Bean's mini, but a bit browner. Campbeltown & Machrihanish gamboge green (as used on Roundhouse on their 16mm steam locos) is again similarish but darker.

We were following a Spitfire for part of the Cornish leg of the Round Britain last year. Got to a clear bit of road and it disappeared, the 1850 Dolomite is no slouch but we couldn't get close. Turned out it had the 2.5 from a TR6 or big saloon in, when we eventually caught up at the next control. Flying machine! Fun as a "Gitfire" sounds, I've always liked the look of the Vitesse- and the 6- pot soundtrack.

R.e. fuel lines, replacement of, my 1978 Marina still had what I suspect must have been the originals. They were completely brittle, I replaced the lot. The other one has old but definitely not original lines and I've seen no need to replace them. Had a good run out in the Dolomite today, to the heritage museum at Gaydon via the Fosseway. Loads of classics out in the sun. Was only marred by the hoardes of doddery Honda Jazz drivers and/or horseboxes forcing me to curb my enthusiasm rather. Haven't driven it since last autumn so it was great to be behind the wheel again.

As far as religious teachings go, I've always thought Bill and Ted hit the nail squarely on the head with "Be Excellent To Each Other"... certainly I do my best to live my life by that mantra. Anyone who doesn't follow this theory is liable to upset me- regardless of sex/ race/ religion/ musical tastes. Needless to say, those who have made statements in this thread as to how they wish to live their lives outside of the society approved "norm" only have my admiration. Good luck to each and every one of you and enjoy your journey through life the way you choose. On a slightly unrelated note, probably the "minority" group of people I've encountered who are best at following Bill and Ted's advice are the goth/ rock community. It's a shame the same doesn't sound to be true of the LGBGT community.

I think you are being somewhat harsh on yourself there Chaz- that's a lot better than many other people's attempts (I'd include my own in that), 'tho I'd agree it's not to your current standard. I suspect a toning down wash so the black between the planks would blend in more (and the new planks for that matter) would be all that's required. As for the "LOCKE" wagon, I would suggest that the distressing of the livery was very effective and I'd be extremely pleased if I managed to achieve something similar! Being rather too young to remember ex- PO minerals in service it reminds me very much of the "ghost signs" you see on old buildings. It's certainly more subtle now though, and less likely to draw attention in a train.

Antics are showing the same list price (and both Antics and Tower showed the same "RRP" for the non sound one which would appear to be correct) so I've no reason to doubt it. Not saying that I'd pay for a sound fitted one myself, was just pointing out that it seems like the sound is sorted and it's likely that they'll be available shortly for those who are waiting for them I suspect many more are waiting for the BR ones, Richard had a lined black sample too but that was at Telford of course, I don't believe the sound fitted one was.

No, I didn't mention it (still trying not to justify one). The numbers you've quoted are the only ones I've seen so it's probably fair to assume that's what it'll be. I agree that it's quite a jump in price over the non sound one. I'm sure I read somewhere that the sound install is being done in Chirk, at least on these first batches, so presumably there's a fairly significant labour cost in there too.

Not sure if anyone has seen (heard) one yet, but Richard Webster had a "factory" sound one running on the Lionheart stand at Steam yesterday. No expert on what noises Terriers make but it sounded good to me. The factory sound has been done by the same chap responsible for the Lionheart locos.

Not strictly BT&S, but the tanker fleet should be running on "Berkeley Junction" at the Swindon Steam Museum exhibition this weekend. Will be bringing the MW for it's first outing and potentially the Fowler as well, although since it's technically main line they will be in a backup role (i.e.the branch operator has pilfered the Lionheart 64xx back for an autotrain). Doubtless it'll be complete chaos since we've never run the schedule before, haven't all operated the layout together and don't really know what we're doing, so do come and see us if you fancy a laugh. Chances are I'll be front of house shunting the yard.

I thought Mike's one (which is undeniably lovely) was a scratchbuild and there's no firm intention to introduce it as a kit? Obviously Mike is sorted for one, but as for the rest of us... (well, not me, as I'm a raving incompetent, and working in 7mm anyway). That said it's hardly the height of etiquette to advertise your kit range on a thread for someone else's!

Several whole seconds on Google show that N Brass Locos do one for 00 or 009 (and a selection of trailers). Unsurprisingly it's etched, obviously not motorised- but fitting a motor and pickups and hiding it all away without being obtrusive or having to resort to putting the curtains on should be easy enough (after all, it's what Bachmann should have done...) .