Mike Riley

For people that really want 2 bolt chairs they can use C&L chairs and stick them onto sleepers. More work, of course, then ready-to-lay. But easier than making turnouts.

But surely it is easier to remove the bunker side steps on the Hatton model than build a whitemetal kit?

Yesterday I compared the splasher size on a Mainline body with drawings in Russell Vol 1. The Mainline splashers are just under 1mm higher than on the drawings and 2mm longer measured along the footplate. On the model, there is a chamfer on the inside of the splashers to cater for the wheel flanges - as Edwardian said, in 00 the flanges are towards the inside of the splashers which are wider than the prototype due to the narrow gauge. Using a rigid chassis and undersize wheels (20mm) I think it should be possible the use scale sized splashers. Certainly if they were metal, maybe more difficult with plastic.

Does NR have a cunning plan to keep the line open while they do this realignment? If not, how long will be the closure?

Brymon Airways operated a triangular Plymouth - Newquay - London (LHR and LGW) - Plymouth service for several years. I was a frequent user. They were taken over by BA and the number of staff at Plymouth Airport increased noticeably. After a short while they said the LHR service was not profitable and it stopped. They carried on with the LGW service for a while before giving up. All BA wanted was the 4 landing slots at LHR to use for something bigger than a Dash 8. Mike

Bailey bridging is expensive compared with permanent bridges with the same load capacity.

Larry, If you change the CV values for the 14XX it will not affect the other locos. The values are stored in the decoder in the 14XX not on the controller. Mike

Larry, It won't damage the conventional motors if you use those settings but I think they won't run well or may be noisy. Out of interest I'll try it tomorrow - use the coreless settings for a loco with a Mashima motor (which is most of mine). But why would you use the coreless settings for a "normal" motor? Mike

John, Looking at this picture I don't see the washer between the idler gear and the left side of the body. I think that is why it is not fully engaging with the final gear. The washer is included on the etch. The High flier is my favourite - I have a number of them and they work beautifully. Mike

Larry, I think you are using Zimo decoders. The manual recommends the following setting for small coreless motors: CV #9 = 51 CV #56 = 133 The default setting for both these CVs is 55. The fact that Zimo recommend settings for coreless motors implies that they don't see any problem in using them on DCC. Mike

Re your tank wagons; there were two rail-served fuel depots at Launceston. On the GWR side it was Shell Mex/BP and on the SR side it was originally Western Petroleum, later taken over by Esso.. So your Shell tanker should be OK for the Launceston branch, Mike

If some HSTs are retained in Cornwall I presume that, at least in part, Laira would retain the capability to maintain the power cars

Keep the HSTs running in Cornwall and keep the semaphore signals and promote them as another tourist attraction.

The Cornish "broccoli" that used to be sent in large quantities from Penzance was actually cauliflower I believe. Although I've lived in Cornwall for many years I don't know what the Cornish name is for broccoli. Mike

Allan, I'm 9 years younger than you and I find your productivity amazing. But what do you do with these castles - sell them to Russian oligarchs? Mike

But you can reassign sounds to function keys. With Zimo anyway. I assume that the same applies to ESU. Mike

Modern Railways has a picture of the first train on 15th May - a single coach 153. It says it left with 108 passengers, most of them standing. By comparison the Stagecoach service between Exeter and Okehampton is a double decker and usually has a handful of people on board. I assume that the rail service is used my rail enthusiasts.

That young lady described it as an atmospheric railway. Are NR records out of date?

Thanks for telling us about this model, Allan. This will be an amazing model when complete. Mike

Martin, Thanks for your explanation. Although I'm a civil engineer, i had to read it a few times to understand it. But my field is roads, not railways. I think your conclusion is that, in practice, C&L will not provide gauge widening? Mike

Well, I've just ordered these for 1.99 post free from Hong Kong. But I still can't believe that one can get 5 quality motors for this price. How does the seller make a profit? Or the manufacturer? Mike

I found it difficult to understand how this could work so I have just measured the gauge of a length of C&L BH with a digital caliper straight and curved and I can't find any significant difference. Mike

The description says "Made out of tin, very well done. Wonderful details, the flying Scotsman as it was."

I wish you well trying to grow tea in Punjab - at the least you will need drip-feed irrigation. Patiala and surrounding areas are flat and rock is hard to find - aggregates for concrete and road construction are mainly crushed river gravel. I passed through Patiala last month and had a quite decent cup of coffee and got a new battery put in my watch for Rs50 (about 50p). I look forward to seeing your model of the railway. I think the locomotive is the most interesting exhibit at the railway museum in Delhi, mosf ot it being garishly repainted locomotives rust and all wit no attempt at restoration. The monorail actually works, though not when I was there. Mike

That's what I thought - right hand looking at the corridor side. It seems that most of the vendors are using the same (incorrect) picture. Full marks to KMRC who seem to have photographed what was in the box rather than using a library picture.