John_Hughes

Yes, four of course, you're quite right - I must have had the lamp brackets in my head when I said there were three - I'd actually been staring at my piccy of 1450 on the Dean Forest when I wrote that, so thanks for the heads-up or I'd certainly have done something stupid!

An interesting idea, but the brackets themselves aren't square section. Still, it might be a good starting point, so thanks!

Certainly that limit was more honoured in the breach than the observance; in the early 60s the Salop - Aberystwyth stoppers were sometimes made up on non-corridor stock, much to the disgust of the guards.

Thanks for the thoughts - most grateful. The castings look a little on the chunky side, but perhaps they're better 'in the flesh.' The prototype brackets are made of quite hefty strip, and were presumably bashed into shape over a wooden former in much the same way as those lovely - and awkward to model - rear top corners of GWR tenders, but in 4mm they translate into not much more than shim; and of course the problem isn't just folding up brass strip (possibly annealed in a match flame first) but getting them to be identical to each other, or at least as near as makes no difference. I'll try and see how things work out, and maybe try those castings as well. Wish me luck!

I don't think the axles would be long enough, but you could always flatten some suitable ones (Gibson, perhaps?) to suit. It just might work, and the wheels themselves actually aren't bad, it was always the interface between them and the axle that caused the grief.

Does anyone have any ideas about modelling the three fire-iron brackets which typically adorn the rear of GWR tank-engine bunkers, and which frequently also had a bucket slung on one of them? In the past I've tended to leave them off on the grounds that it's better to leave the space empty rather than put on something that doesn't look right, but if I can find a good way to model them so that all three of them match nicely I might change that. Thanks for any suggestions, pointers and advice!

Something seriously wrong with the road system? Yes, absolutely, mostly caused by the presence of those pesky hills and rivers. If only we could bulldoze the former and put the latter underground then the whole problem could be easily resolved. My vote, my choice? It wasn't my choice to close that line, nor any other; that was down to pure governmental corruption. And it's not my choice to spend untold billions on easing traffic congestion in London either with a whole series of prestige projects that will benefit most of the UK not at all, and none of which will ever turn an operating profit. But does anyone ever complain about how those will be a lasting drain on the UK Treasury? No, they don't.

The thought had crossed my mind many times; metre-gauge, light electrification and street running in Aberystwyth and Carmarthen (and possibly Lampeter as well). I think of it as the Swiss Solution. Whatever is finally done, the simple fact is that the present situation is already intolerable. Commuting into Aber from - let's say - Llanilar can take three quarters of an hour in the morning rush, and no new road scheme is ever going to fix that. The continued concentration of main services in Aber, Carmarthen and - increasingly, Swansea - means that anyone without a car and needing to visit the hospital is effectively screwed. I know how often I've been called on to give lifts to friends who otherwise simply can't get to their appointments or to visit friends and relatives. Why should we put up with it? Because of the actions of a deeply corrupt transport minister and his willing sock-puppet a half-century or more ago? B*gger that for a game of soldiers!

Not Ahern, I'm pretty sure, so quite possibly 'The Padre' as he sometimes bylined himself. I lilke (and still use) Ahern's Miniature Locomotive Construction, but his advice was pretty poor on the essentials of chassis building. He doesn't even mention the need for the holes in the coupling rods to precisely match the axle spacing, without which little detail nothing at all will run.

Zimo chips are fine; I've settled on them as my standard for OO Gauge - but never - I repeat NEVER - install DCC unless and until the model is running perfectly under DC, or you'll probably fry the chip. How do you think I learned that lesson? No prize for the right answer

So do High Level, in various gear / motor / axle combinations. (Usual disclaimer!)

Yes, I know Haverfordwest / Hwlffordd rather well, and it was the erroneous space that caught my eye. What the distinction is between a slip and a typo is above my pay grade, but there's a real typo in the previous letter, so we can no doubt agree on that. More seriously, I had a good read yesterday evening and enjoyed the whole mag enormously. Certainly this is yet another topping issue - there really are glory days for MRJ.

Popped in by the postie ten minutes ago and looks as good as promised. I do notice though that one of the letters is from an inhabitant of somewhere called Haverford West; as opposed to Haverford East, presumably? The Typo Fairy is clearly still alive and well at MRJ Towers.

No Christmas Quiz again? That's a shame, but otherwise it looks interesting.

Wow, thanks Andy!

Cor, that's a neat idea. Are you making the files available (for a price, I assume)?

British Trix, I think; or was that Lilliput by another name?

Oh, I know all about how typos slip through - a couple of weeks ago I actually found one that the printer had inserted all on his own despite the proof being correct; you can imagine the row that that caused! But some of it is surely down to the technology used - fiuescale would surely have been picked up by any spell-checker. Still, the unnecessary hyphen in demon-strated gave me a few happy moments imagining a chap with horns and cloven hoofs (hooves? - depends on how old you are, I think) showing folks how to assemble kits at our local show. And I should have said how much I appreciate the Norris letters - a fascinating read!

Yes, another excellent one, and with a host of niggles addressed. Good to see proper layout plans, for instance, (dimensioned next time, please!) and a broad range of topics. I'll probably never build a 2mm goods wagon, for instance, but it's an interesting article all the same. The next big job is to fix the wretched typos; a magazine dedicated to accuracy really should be a tad more careful in its own back-yard!

An alternative was just to mount a red flag on or above the final coupling. I have an idea that the Ffestiniog Operating Rules at one time actually included this as an option if the LV board wasn't used.

I loved him on My Music especially; I remember with fondness his definition of Virginals as 'pianos that have never been played.' R I P Denis, you'll be sadly missed.

The Pen-dre hay barn was stocked with stuff scythed from various lineside locations, which then provided fodder for the donkey which in earlier years had apparently pulled the parcel delivery cart around Tywyn. An extremely OOS No. 1 Talyllyn had been shoved in there to peacefully rot away in pre-preservation days, when funds for a new boiler and who knows what else were simply not available. The swift arrival of the Corris locos was really all that saved the line at this point, and the true hero of the hour was the Machynlleth Station Master, who had covered both of them with tarps and concealed them at the back of the lower yard well out of sight of officialdom, or they would surely have disappeared in the post-war scrap-metal drive.

I should have mentioned in my earlier post how much I enjoyed Iain Rice's loco build article. More from Iain, please!

Yes, those Talyllyn buildings are indeed superb. I remember them as they were in the early preservation era, around 1955 or so, when a ride up the line was akin to a trip on a cross-channel ferry in a fresh westerly; happy days! No-one would want to experience the same air of decrepitude on a preserved line these days, but way back then it all seemed part of the fun.

Certainly the BC does include Oldbury and Langley; SWMBO is from Langley and a Black Country lass for sure, especially when she dials the dialect up to Max. The so-called Black Country dialect actually varies from one little settlement to another quite as much as Prof. Higgins' London dialects do; there was a time when I could tell the difference between Smethwick and Swan Village within a sentence or two, but not any more.