E3109

These are stunning. Out of my time range but I've no doubt they'll sell like hot cakes and especially at this price, you've got these spot on Fran and the inclusion of the friction pads is a very nice, nay essential touch. Well done!

Indeed, and until recently I'd always assumed that they migrated to the WR with TOPS numbers but in the 'Power of the 50s' book there was at least one shot of a non-TOPS loco down there which if memory serves me correctly was 402.

Not posted much on this for a while, for the last couple of weeks I've been chopping up Plastruct RSJs which is a rather laborious process. Basically the depot was a steel portal frame with everything else 'bolted on', and for accuracy this frame really needs to be bang on. From studying photos it's clear that every other main portal was roughly twice the thickness of its neighbour, and the thicker ones supported the horizontal RSJs for the overhead crane rail. Not the best photo but if you look at the attachment then the RSJs lettered 'A' are the double width verticals 'A*' is shown end on 'B' are the apexed roof sections 'D' are the normal width uprights, which need chopping down from the bottom as they extended only towards the area of the crane rail. My plan is to complete the entire portal structure independently from the main Lego bits which have already been done, and then to cement the two structures together. Not only will this ensure accuracy, but it will also provide structural integrity to the whole building. I really need to do a blog on this but in the meantime, I hope you can see where I'm going with it.

I may be interested in a few pairs too, if you put them on general sale.

26power, if you're coming from the north then it's far better to come off at junction 27, just be sure to follow the signs for Shevington rather than Standish. It's B roads but straightforward enough.

If they are to concentrate on an AL6 and 86/0 then they also need to fit plain wheelsets rather than SAB, as erroneously fitted to their previous 86/6.

Had an email off E-on (supposedly), that would be virtually impossible as I'm down as 'occupier' and they don't have my details. It was rather convincing, looks as though the scammers have lifted E-on's artwork and headers and there were no spelling mistakes. However, it did say "we have decided to give you a refund", which was a bit of a giveaway.

Thanks for all the replies fellas, a gold mine of info there. I perhaps shouldn't have used the term 'route setting', as it conjures up images of ARS and crossover ladders, as I say it's mostly hand points so they'll be set one at a time.

A long while ago, I was looking at bidding on a Triang EM2. It looked in reasonable nick and the price wasn't too bad. And then I spotted that the loco had a class 31 power bogie rather than the correct one, when I messaged the seller to point it out he replied, rather curtly, "If you don't want it, then don't bid on it". He obviously knew it was the wrong bogie, unfortunately the two types are interchangeable and I've seen plenty EM2s with 31 bogies at swap meets.. But funnily enough, never seen any 31s with an EM2 bogie. Do you think they know?

Wow, I hope this is true. The chassis was great, and the body was sort of 85% there. One thing I do hope they get right this time, is much better definition to the grilles, and the gutters surrounding them. In this respect, the old Hornby offering beats the Heljan hands down. If they're serious about an 'as-delivered' AL6 then I hope they use the correct shade of blue, rather than the version we're supposed to believe ! Heljan folks, if you're reading this they were built in Rail/Monastral Blue, please get this right... This really is good news and a hat tip to Heljan for revisiting the 86, I know it will cost them a few quid in tooling, but Bachmann did it with the 37 and they appear to have sold well since.

I'm not sure if this utter beast of a tune has been mentioned on the thread before, but I'd be very surprised if anyone who hears this on the radio wouldn't be tapping their feet to it, even if in secret. A rare example of a cover version beating the pants off the original. There seems to be a lot of music snobbery within the wider 'train world' but if you don't like this (even If you do it on the sly) then surely there is no hope?! Enjoy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aURU7wxbD94&start_radio=1&list=RDMMaURU7wxbD94

ISTR that some stock got sent up here about 1990 ex NSE and I'm almost certain that the carriages went round the Oldham Loop during rush hours, usually hauled by Manchester-allocated Peds I think. Try Flickr, should come up trumps.

Indeed Sagaguy. I've bought a couple of continental pans to replace the abominable Olivia's offerings but the only problem is (and I was chatting to Mr Petty about this earlier) my model is of Reddish Depot, RS (or 9C if you prefer) had OLE at full stretch, the continental offerings irrespective of manufacturers will not reach the contact wire. Looks like I really need to reacquaint myself with a soldering iron while simultaneously ordering products from Mr Edge.

Always found this firm to be inexpensive, although I'll add that I've never made a claim. Think they also offer an annual policy. https://www.alphatravelinsurance.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuu-mlKj13QIV55XtCh1oCw0PEAAYASAAEgI6zvD_BwE Caught a tropical disease not too long back, luckily the symptoms only kicked in on my return to the UK and ended up in hospital for a fortnight. Even luckier because on that trip, I'd forgotten to book travel insurance and went without. Lesson learned, and to be fair Alpha only added a little to the premium for the two years they deemed it necessary for me to declare it. Best of luck.

I can just hear it now, the lyrics. "Doctor can't you give me something, four-six-two-four-three, four-six-two-four-three"... Wasn't even born when it got gasaxed but what a shame.

Gents and ladies As a former mechanical fitter (albeit electrically trained) I have an aversion to using electrics for point operation. I'm ok with electrics, but not with electronics. The prototype of layout I'm building was almost all hand points anyway so I like to think that by avoiding the witchcraft that is electronics, I'm adhering to original principles. Does any manufacturer offer a purely mechanical method for route setting, if so I'd be very pleased to hear about it. Thanks in advance E3109

Just a tip off, Hattons have now sold out of Heljan EM1s. I would've let the forum know that stocks were running low but self-interest kicked in and I managed to bag 2xEM1s at a reasonable price via my sister's credit card a couple of days ago... As I understand it, Hattons won't be getting any more and frankly there is no way on earth would I be paying Olivia's prices for this model. It could've all been so different, had the model not been exposed to penny-pinching practices in the first place they would have flown off the shelf. Got a dozen now. Don't need any more, unless they surface at a good price.

As a (perhaps flippant) aside, it's a fact of life that men like fires. You only need to look at pics of picketers huddling around 45 gallon drums with holes in them during the Winter of Discontent to know this is true. Men like burning stuff, it's part of the human condition!

Hi Eltel I'm 'sort of' involved (at a distance) with the Wigan Transport Trust who provide heritage bus transport for the Wigan Beer Festival which takes place at the same venue, so I'm more than aware that Saddle Junction can be a nightmare even on a Sunday, due to the proximity of Asda and the Robin Park shopping complex. We've sometimes used a different route to the venue which avoids the dire congestion, the St Helens Transport Museum provide the vintage buses for the model railway show and as 'Sintellinsers' they probably aren't aware of this particular rat run. I know a couple of guys down there and given the circumstances re people missing trains and so on, I'd be more than happy to give them the alternative route for next year.

I attended both days and thoroughly enjoyed it, what I will say though is that there seemed to be fewer trade stands compared to last year which I found rather sad. I know that many businesses prefer the online route these days and I do understand the reasons for that, but in my opinion, nothing beats show attendances and hats off to those that continue to attend shows. Shows allow a personal touch with the various vendors and that counts for a lot, if I were a vendor of model railway kit I wouldn't be looking at the costs of attending, I'd regard it as a necessary expense and thanks to all the stallholders who have a similar view. My mate who has a bookstall there was saying I just missed meeting Andy Y, would've been a pleasure but there's always next year. Well done to the show organisers.

A good mate scrounges unwanted bits of defunct wood from railway sites, he's a big advocate of wood stoves but he won't touch sleepers however rotten they may be, as apparently the detritus collected there from train toilets over the years makes it hazardous.

In Laos they routinely use plastic water bottles as firefighters, and very effective they are too. Me and a few railway friends were on holiday there a few years ago, at a lovely place called Vang Vieng. It gets rather cool there when the sun goes down so naturally, we set about raising a fire using the above methods, supplemented of course by vast amounts of scrap wood. An hour or so later, we had a lovely alfresco bonfire and it was a rather pleasant environment for 30 minutes or so. The lady whose land it was was cooking freshly-caught fish on it at one point. Unfortunately, Vang Vieng has in recent years become something of a deadbeat hippy hangout and like moths to a candle, our fire attracted vast numbers of said deadbeats. We continued to load our fire with fuel, the locals assisted because they love fires too. Anyway. After about an hour, one of The Great Unwashed piped up, "hey man, stop making that fire so hot". Told him it was OUR fire, "if you don't like it then clear off", and then made it even hotter by burning his flip flops.

Despite the masking/paint issues a job very well done, I assume you've gone for the 73 because the bogies are similar? I know brass (and aluminium) can be a booger to get a decent key for the paint, I note that you used etching primer of some sort first. Rail match is good, Halfords might be a better bet though due to a larger tin for roughly the same price (approx £8). When I was heavily involved in restoring old buses, we used an etch primer that ate into the surface of the aluminium and many years later the paint hasn't given way, aluminium is notoriously bad at allowing paint to stick to it (maybe more so than brass) but the stuff we used was spot on. We used to scrounge it from friends at the local bus depot, I think it was made by Williamsons and perhaps it's suitable for model railway applications if suitably thinned.

IMHO, the Lima and (sadly) Bachmann 37s and 40s look like the bloody Fell loco anyway, I mean how difficult is it to actually mould the window rubbers onto the loco body where it should be, rather than the glazing (where it shouldn't be). It's a sad state of affairs where (in my opinion) the Jouef version still holds its own looks-wise, despite being too wide and despite having windows in the wrong place on one side. In this day and age, we shouldn't have to correct blatant errors with brass etches on £100+ locos. Cmon Accurascale.... You know you want to...

I know this is massively off topic, but what about the Intercity-liveried Reliant Robin?! I think it was owned by a signalman on the ECML and there was at least one other in a different BR garb. Tried to find pics, to no avail.