brianthesnail96

Aaaand in with the wishlisting already. Seems a little unfair when the existence of the company has been public knowledge for less than a day! Especially when it's all been done to death on the "what would you like from Ixion" thread in the 7mm section. I know I'm biased, since this does meet my requirements rather nicely indeed, but I imagine Minerva will be running a "one engine in steam" policy as Ixion does and should they want suggestions in the future they will ask for them, but that won't be for a little while yet. While I'm sure this choice does reflect the interests of the owners one suspects that they've probably paid attention to the market research and noted that three people asking loudly and repetitively for the same engine does not necessarily make it more viable than a larger number of people going "yeah, I'd probably buy one of them", and as such have gone for a bit of a "jack of all trades". I'm suprised that no-one has asked if they can do it in N gauge yet though...

Mr Webster dropped in to our club meeting last Friday with the samples that are on display at Kettering today. There's a few photos on the blog here. As I've said before in this thread, I'm no expert on Terriers at all and cannot comment on the various detail aspects- personally I have no interest in sitting with a reference book and nit picking- but aesthetically they are lovely and certainly capture "the look" for me.

Fantastic. Absolutely perfect for me, thanks gents! The only thing I can complain about at this point is that I can only afford to pre order one, given the projected delivery date... which isn't exactly Minerva's fault, especially given the very reasonable price.

They look great on the Jaaaag Nidge! probably my favourite style of numberplate, one of mine still has dealer fitted ones. Got a new set for the Dolomite from Tippers and they are spot on, great company to deal with too in my experience.

Yup, worked a treat Dave! Laura changed the colour in photoshop and Tim printed them for us. And yes, you've got the shed built, seem to remember it's even mostly insulated, the weather is getting warmer, stop messing about with plastic 'planes and get on with it!

I've been told that they should have decorated samples of the Southern liveried A1X & LBSC "Thames" on display at Kettering. Don't know why it's been pushed back further still but they are progressing with them.

To update my previous postings, Paul very kindly fitted the my Fowler with sound (which is every bit as good as said previously in this thread), while I messed about with transfers and weathering and such like. Got it (nearly- spot the missing detailing bits...) all back together on Friday and took it for a run on Golden Valley MRC's "Berkeley Junction", Harry kindly took a couple of photos, which I've pinched from the blog here: I've also put a couple in the BT&S thread in the industrial section here. Thanks again to Paul (and Mike) for doing the sound for us- worth every penny

Ahh, yes... if you look at the photo from the back, you can see where I managed to do just that- I suspect it hadn't quite gone off, and as such there's an edge line across the bottom of the cab windows. Happily it looks a little like peeling paint so I decided I could ignore it! That was polishing the black wash (and weathering powders/ talc mix) off with a cotton bud damped with white spirit, as opposed to a deliberate attempt to cut back the varnish, which I didn't think would work- no idea why, as it's a perfectly normal thing to do to a car!

Thanks folks I did definitely have the body Mike... Other Mike, I'm equally looking forward to seeing Primrose Hill! Giles, most of the ideas were pinched from your thread, so thank you- unfortunately I couldn't get away without varnishing the transfers on the cab which rather spoilt the attempt at the "oily rag" look, I did do the cutting back with 2000 grit on the cabsides then promptly lost it under the varnish- ahh well! I have to reiterate that I can take no credit whatsoever for the layout, all Dave's hard work.

Making slow progress with the partial rewire, new control box is made and one board wired and the second part way, just leaves the nice easy one then. Have been distracted with the Fowler, picked up the chassis from EDM Paul last weekend and spent the week applying grime and transfers (thanks due to Tim C for his help with the latter. Not quite finished yet, a few detailing bits AWOL for starters, but for a first attempt at weathering a loco I'm pretty pleased with it. Hopefully get some better pics of it running on the club layout tomorrow, which I'll put on the Fowler thread in the Ixion section.

Of course, and I'm not thinking about people using them who are willing to accept those compromises, more the people that complain bitterly when a Class 37 fails to propel a rake of long wheelbase 4 wheel wagons through them and starts slating the manufacturer for poor loco/ wagon design- or worse, that we end up with new locos having half an inch of daylight between bogies and body, missing steps etc 'cos that's what is needed to get stuff through the points (I exaggerate, but such things are common enough in the smaller scales). It's good to know that the Heljan diesels do go through "light engine" out of the box as I suspect they'll be popular for small space MPD layouts. I very occasionally operate a small diesel depot with tight radius (handbuilt) track and remembering which locos will go across the tighter points and which won't adds a whole extra dimension!

Perhaps they should make some with a more gentle radius to avoid the buffer lock issue. Oh, wait... In all seriousness, I'm sure it won't be long before people are insisting than Heljan's Co- Co diesels can negotiate these (they may already be able to do so, in all fairness- I've not looked). I think it's great that they are doing them, and I may even make a scenic plank with a couple in the future, but much like in real life there will obviously be restrictions on what can negotiate them, and users will have to select their stock appropriately. It would be a shame if the growing 0 gauge RTR supplier base were encouraged into making compromises of scale to make their locos and stock negotiate unrealistically tight (for that particular vehicle) radius trackwork, as seems to happen regularly in the smaller scales. On another note, considering that when Peco put something into production they intend it to stay there for a very long time, and therefore will have put a very durable production process in place, I don't think the wait we've had for these is unreasonable at all. I think society has just got used to having everything available instantly, and that's just not viable for a small (in commercial terms, not model railways) manufacturer like Peco.

Found this on my meanders around Flickr and it immediately thought of the Garratt- rather more knocked about, but the "oily rag" finish red paint isn't a bad match.

I was close! They are slightly earlier than I thought Steve- I'll have to see if I can borrow one at some point to check clearances as they are just about OK for BT&S age- wise, and would make a nice contrast with something like the Ixion MW. Saving for the Lionheart ones for now as they are more suitable (and smaller!). I think there may be differences in the discharging apparatus between class A & class B tanks (differing viscosities), but otherwise they are more or less the same design as Steve said- again, note the use of the word "think" here, I'm going from memory or when I looked into it some time ago. Not sure when the Air Ministry types disappeared but I suspect they may have been fairly uncommon by the early 70's.

Lionheart are indeed doing A & B tanks but to the much earlier Air Ministry design (built as class A during WW2, some later converted to class B.). I think the Heljan ones are ealy- mid 60's build and replaced the Air Ministry type (amongst others), but don't quote me on that.

The Wurzels are brilliant live, seen them a few times now- Valentines day last year being the last time!

Only had call to grumble once really, I can't remember the name of the courier but it was a fairly small one- the parcel was only a 1l bottle so nothing big. Delivered towards the end of the week, note through the door and presumably no attempt to leave with neighbours (there's generally someone at one or both of my immediate neighbours and they are more than happy to take stuff in for us). Rearranged delivery on the offchance as the depot was miles away (30 mile round trip- and I'm not exactly in the sticks here) and with the traffic there's no way I'd have got there in time after work, unfortunately I was otherwise engaged on the Saturday too. Same "sorry you were out" letter and they'd only hold it for 7 days, so it got returned to sender. Ended up paying again for Royal Mail, left on the doorstep a day later no worries. My favourite one was the Parcel Force courier who, with a rather large and awkward parcel (a car fuel tank), managed to open the side gate which I struggle to do at 6ft (bolt on the garden side), go down into the back garden, bypass Shed A (padlocked) and put it in Shed B (not locked), before shutting up the shed & bolting the gate shut behind him. This was great, except he didn't leave a note to tell me. It wasn't until I contacted the seller to ask if he'd posted it that he checked the tracking info which said "in shed"... I knew where to look the next time, I've had a few in there now! I have had a few (including signed for) where I've asked the seller to instruct the courier to "leave in boot of car in garden- not locked" which was generally what happened- obviously only for low value/ hard to break items. I've since reanimated the car though & moved it elsewhere so I've had to resort to hoping the neighbours will take stuff in. Did catch the Hermes chap about to do a runner and leave the parcel on the porch Saturday morning (I was still in bed when he rang the bell, he did try the bell twice and wait for a while so no complaints there, I should be less lazy) but given that he was about the same size as the parcel & really didn't want it back in his van, it wasn't going to get wet and with the van on the drive it couldn't be seen from the road/ pavement I've no problem with that.

Ahh, I was thinking more it being hidden from view, being "off stage" I struggle to make woodwork look anything better than what is politely termed "functional", so it's always nice to see it done well.

Lovely neat work there Chaz, very professional- seems a shame to cover it up!

Assume you mean the RS&H 0-6-0T, Kernow are showing the Electrotren Sharp Stewart in stock. I can't paste links on this PC (browser issues) but it's under H0 Gauge- Electrotren- Steam Locomotives. I'm sure it (and possibly the side tank as well) are available elsewhere too.

Beautiful work on the Garratt Giles. Has a fantastic "used but cared for" look that I suspect is much harder to achieve than "downright filthy". I keep coming back to look at your Fowler for inspiration- when you say you use talcum powder on a wet matt black wash, what do you use to polish it off with and do you leave it to dry first? I've been using talc for behind the bufferbeams etc in wet paint, either dusted on top or mixed in and slapped on, which gives a nice thick gloop of course, but too heavy for on the running boards. Just looking for more methods to try

Just substitute "the great hand from the sky" of indoor modelling for "the great bum from the sky" I suppose! Interesting question though- I'd view it as 5" etc is nearly always model engineering but sometimes railway modelling too- whereas the indoor scales are nearly always railway modelling but sometimes model engineering too. The distinction gets really fuzzy around the 16mm/ft, Gauge 1 and Gauge 3 kind of region though! Scale trains (as opposed to just locomotives) in 5" are quite something. I'd love to visit one of the Gilling Mainline rallies, running accurately modelled trains to a timetable on a fully signalled layout (including goods yard etc). Probably more accurate than a lot of indoor railways!

A sensible choice- they are very nice models and the sound is fantastic. I'm quite grateful that they don't fit (physically that is) on my layout!

See posts 205 & 209 Clive