brianthesnail96

It's probably just as well that we don't have the negative buttons any more- I prefer Metallica's Whiskey to the Thin Lizzy version (which is a sort of cover in itself of course). I prefer Hanoi Rocks' cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Up Around the Bend too, but that might be because I heard the cover first.

I have a sneaky suspicion that someone somewhere made a bit of a pig's ear of that, and reasoned that tax exemption and what now get commonly termed "historic 'plates" were linked, since they both used the same cut off date. Obviously we know this is just coincidence- the number plate cut off date was introduced in 1973 and the tax exemption in 1998 (well, probably 1997 to be pedantic) when the decision was made to stop the rolling 25 year tax exemption (as was). It would seem someone didn't do their homework! It's even more daft when you think that the reflective 'plates were made compulsory on safety grounds... but that's what it is. Not entirely sure what to put the Slotmags on- I quite fancy a Herald or Vitesse. What I'd really like is a Vitesse estate but since the factory didn't actually build any (although one of the London dealers did put a few together) that might involve a bit of DIY! I've got a set of banded steel wheels in the garage too that I think might be from a Herald. The offset is wrong for a Marina, they try and occupy the same space as the brake caliper on the front. Not many options for 4x95.25 (3 3/4") unfortunately!

Indeed, but that doesn't stop folks. That said, my estate ('74 "M") came with them, I was stopped in a random check on the way back from the pub one night and the copper gave me a ticking off (but no ticket). Was quite impressed he knew, with it only being a year out.

Sorry Nidge, I've been spam liking your posts again. I love the "Your Mother wouldn't like it" MG ones, not seen the one with the hard cornering 'B before. Agree with raised letter black and yellows on a dark green car- Adam wanted to put black and silver ones on the Dolomite but we persuaded him otherwise (by the simple method of buying him a set of plates for Christmas!), and I think it looks much better for it. Black and silvers are almost a bit of a cliché on Minis and the like too. The Dolly was still wearing it's normal reflective plastic plates that Henleys had fitted back in 1980 but they were just starting to delaminate so they were taken off for safe keeping. Three classics for the price of one there- I suppose at 30 years old the Land Rover ought to count. We can do shiny slotmags too... had these polished up the other week. Unfortunately they don't fit the Dolly (arch/ tyre interface issues), and I wasn't planning on putting them back on the Marina, so I'm considering buying something else to put them on.

The weathering on that hopper is ace- I assumed it was actually tin!

Ha, thanks Rich! Not a lot I'm afraid, Summer has been the usual chaos on the classic vehicle front- helping with retube and fitting a new valve spring on the roller, getting a very knackered standard Fordson tractor running again, getting the Marina sorted for it's trip to the bodyshop etc (they aren't all mine- I seem to have a number of friends with very eccentric vehicle choices!). No doubt progress will resume now the evenings are drawing in again! A few more wagons to build, some Lionheart tankers to relivery and a few that are built but need painting/ weathering. I do want to add a few little bits and pieces to some of the quieter corners of the layout too. I did take advantage of the dry weather to spray the Peckett so that's now in sand, but not yet weathered (and indeed is in bits), andI also decided that the Manning Wardle looked a bit dull in black so it's now light green. Dave very kindly sent me the BT&S nameplates off of his pair when they were reallocated to Royd Hall so it'll almost certainly become No. 4 with the nameplate instead of a transfer (makes my life easier too...). I'll crack on with these after the round Britain by Triumph trip in a week and a bit- finishing the few odds and sods on the car is the current priority!

I'd love one of those Aussie 6 Marinas, especially in one of the many gloriously lurid colours they did. Good run out to Gaydon in the Dolly today for the RBRR driver's meeting, passed loads of Morgans and a couple of Jensen Interceptors (drool...) en route. Obviously plenty of Triumphs at Gaydon itself, unfortunately I failed to take any photos but a particular favourite was a TR with a "shooting brake" type roof, not sure what it was other than "very nice"!

1300 I bet- presumably with front drums instead of discs too? I think the really early 1800s were dynamo as well but I'm pretty sure the A series kept them later. Are you in the owner's club? Young Josh is trying to log all the existing (and for that matter known to be no longer existing!) early cars- there's a surprising number of early ones left considering how rare they are as a species! Have just booked the hotel for the NEC again, should have a couple of interesting variations on the Marina theme this year if all goes to plan. V8 anyone?

Quite possibly had the super lethal early suspension too (as opposed to the mildly lethal "corrected" suspension introduced somewhat fairly quickly after the car was launched)! Amazing you are still here really...

That looks great Nidge, must admit I probably prefer the Dunlops but it's nice to see a Mini that's a bit different without being completely overcooked! Enjoyed the Canley pictures too. The Marina has backward wipers, except for very early cars. Apparently towards the end of the travel they start to lift off the screen at high (relative term!) speed, so they were swapped around. The scuttle panel has grommets blanking the LHD (normally RHD) wiper spindle holes.

Unless you actually state your sources then you may as well be talking a load of dingo's kidneys- stating "this is true because I am honest" is entirely meaningless. You prattle on at length about "shills and apologists" yet surely without actually stating your connections you could be just the same, only coming at it from the other direction? Since you will inevitably point this out, I should add that I'm friends with the team at Antics. No business connection but as the local 0 gauge group has links with the business (Antics sponsors the test track) I must claim an "interest". They get frustrated with the delays from Dapol too and I'm sure they'd rather have things painted in the right livery when they do turn up but unlike your unnamed trade contacts they inexplicably don't seem to want the very fires of hell to rain down upon Dapol when they get it wrong.

That's easy Rob, park it in a heated garage and only drive it when the sun is out... It's also probably not difficult to do a better job of the initial rustproofing than the factory managed, especially as there's some pretty decent products on the market these days. That said the Dolly had optional undersealing from new (can't remember what it was, might have been Cadulac- wasn't Ziebart though and it had done a pretty good job of protecting- only the front valance: wing joints, front corners of the boot floor (where pretty much every Dolomite goes) and the sill closures into the rear arches had suffered, and none too badly, which isn't bad really for 100,000 miles + and 35 years. Which reminds me, I really do need to go and paint/ cavity wax the chassis on the (current) Land Rover. Shouldn't have sold the one on a galv chassis! That said this one is remarkably good. Ex military and although it's right hand drive it's got a kph speedo so I suspect it may have spent some of it's life in a drier climate.

I think it's widely accepted that the Acclaim was rather more modern (front wheel drive and everything!) and better designed and put together than the outgoing range. They are a perfectly competent little car and as such are really rather dull... On the subject or Trigger's Brooms I waved my Marina estate off on Sunday, on it's way to the Isle of Wight for restoration No. 2. This will be the second set of sills, front wings (although the current set were secondhand when fitted) and front doors. The car has never really been "retired" though, until the last few years it's always been in fairly regular use and not all the last lot of work was the best- mostly with regards to paint prep in all honesty (and this was over 15 years ago I think)- it saved the car from the scrapyard and gave it another useful life so no arguments there. Having the works this time- it's stacked full of NOS panels, and it'll be getting a full mechanical rebuild too- will be getting the engine and gearbox ready to go back in while it's away. Looking forward to getting on with the engine as I'm sure it has cracked rings on cylinder 1, I'm intrigued as to how bad it really is.

There's no shame in an Acclaim! Usually a couple. They never normally give any grief either. I'd quite like one! Got a pair of track rod ends for one in the garage...

Bit of a cheeky one... Myself and a couple of other mildly daft chaps are taking part in this year's Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run- 2000 miles in 48 hours, driving a product of the Standard Triumph company. In our case we're taking a friend's Dolomite 1850HL (which featured in this thread back in Jan '15- page 34), we took part two years ago in the same car, managed not to break it so we thought we'd try again. Pretty hard on both the cars and the crews, but good fun. This is the 25th running, there's normally about 100 cars taking part but this year it's more like 150. Heralds, Stags, Dolomites, Spitfires, TRs of all flavours and hordes of big saloons. Can't wait! Route summary is basically leave North London (traditionally Enfield but they've moved it this year) about 6pm Friday, John O'Groats for brekkie Saturday, down the country (night run through Wales) to get the Lands End for Sunday breakfast, then back to the start for Sunday evening. Pint, hotel, sleep... Anyhoo, I've started putting a bit of a blog together, to chart our preparation and then our progress- it can be found at https://team132rbrr.wordpress.com if you'd like to see how we're getting on. As you've probably gathered this is a charity thing (and has been since about 1990)- this year's chosen charity is Guide Dogs. If anyone is feeling particularly generous and would like to sponsor us we have a JustGiving page (we're told this is the charity's preference) which you can find at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rbrrteam132 Cheers

While I must admit I quite like the sand Western (and indeed the class 14 which I'm pretty sure is just a preservation thing), I was more referring to my unfortunate habit of buying ready to run 0 gauge locomotives, ready painted in perfectly acceptable and indeed realistic paint schemes, taking them apart and liberally dousing them in Tamiya "deck tan". As such a few dabs of yellow daunts me not. I'll refrain from doing so to an 08 though- it's not particularly suitable and more to the point won't fit. The Terrier wasn't so lucky...

I can't help but feel you'd be better directing your strength of feeling towards some greater cause than approximately 2cm2 of yellow paint. There are a vast number of causes in this world that could benefit from people speaking up to make a difference, despite certain folks consistent efforts to persuade us otherwise I'm really not convinced this is one of them. Would I like Dapol to get the liveries right? Of course. Do I think it's a shame that they keep getting so close and then making a bit of a pig's ear at the last hurdle? Definitely. Do I think that getting very angry about it on the internet is a good use of my time? Naaa....

No, it's just a different way of doing things. The Dapol Terrier chassis is more traditional in design than the Lionheart one with it's fairly unusual belt drive. Not really better, just different. My comment about quality was more referring to the amount of diecast in the Lionheart one. This was in quotation marks as it's really a matter of what is perceived as quality as opposed to actually making much of a difference to most aspects of the finished product.

Yeah, right. We are talking about railway modellers here! Personally it's not nearly enough desert sand for my tastes, but there you go.

The merger announcement suggested that Dapol were taking on the "plastic" models (there's actually quite a lot of die cast in the Lionheart pannier, more than there is plastic) and the higher end brass stuff will continue to be sold and developed by Richard working alone as Lionheart. There are several wagon variants not yet mentioned that I would expect Dapol to re release, specifically the 16T minerals as they will complement the Dapol 10ft wheelbase wagons due later this year. The Lionheart Pannier is a fairly complex "mixed media" body, with lots of diecast and metal details- it's also a belt drive chassis. I imagine the Dapol 57xx will follow the Terrier in having a metal chassis with plastic cosmetic sideframes and a mostly plastic body, and I'd be very surprised if it doesn't have a very similar motor/ gearbox arrangement as the Terrier and 08. That will go some way to explaining the price difference. The end result probably won't be quite as "quality" but I'm more than happy with my Terrier both aesthetically and functionally and the 08 is shaping up to be better still. This is pure guesswork by the way, I could be completely wrong on the spec of the 57xx!

I think the remaining Lionheart stock has gone to Tower, looks like they've sold out now. I've hopefully managed to snaffle a black 74xx. The Lionheart 64/74 has a relatively complex construction and drive arrangement which presumably has an impact on the price. I imagine that the 57xx will use the same motor/ drive arrangement as the Terrier and 08. I also suspect that they are hoping to sell rather more of them than Lionheart intended, economies of scale and all that.

Ahh, excellent. Was hoping that a 57xx would be on the cards. No doubt Richard will be involved and therefore no doubt it'll be excellent. Surprised they are re- running the 64xx and 74xx even at a reduced price, given that they've only just cleared the old stock.

Woo, another Marinaist!

Couple more pictures on the Golden Valley MRC blog here, alongside a Bachmann one (blue) and an older kit built one (green-possibly MMP, but don't quote me on that). You'll have to scroll down a little way to find it, it's the second post at time of writing. I "drove" it into positon for the photos. It's very quiet and smooth, didn't have any issues with the pointwork although the track is pretty good so not too much of a challenge.

Ruston 48DS you say? Yes please...