Crantock

I was at Hazel Grove on Saturday and overheard the discussion with a visitor on Bull Ants where you showed him one.  He recoiled at the cost and you explained they were individually made and the cost included the long distance postage. Visitor: "They come from down south then?"  Grime Street: "Sort of....Australia".  I cracked up.

Great layout.

I too have tried to do a Branchlines and a Comet chassis.    I am way behind you on the skills base.  I did the Branchlines first, indeed - spot the error - as a first soldered kit.  I got it to "just about works" stage and painted it by brush.  It was then stored as not worth the effort.

The next shot was a Comet chassis and again that is evolving.  It got to "runs OK......until you hit the points" and is now being reworked to accommodate tighter curves. Then your blog hit me with the cab being 3mm too low.

However, to be honest, the comet chassis looked poor.  The detail on the Branchline etching was  far better and so it got a visit from Mr muscle.  I suspect on mine there I will replace bit by bit to bring up to standard (a pun). 

But when i look at the quality and self confidence of your motion and compare to mine, held together with track pins and all over the shop when running........I seriously thought of a ticket to Southampton.

As a variant, how about replacing the hooks on the apron with magnets.  Not perfect - magnets on table and metal in apron = rusty wash.  metal on table and magnets on apron might be interesting in the washing machine and walking round the house.  So Velcro metal strips to the apron?