dibber25

You can't usually 'have' a building listed on request - certainly not in Grade 1. You can apply for it to be listed (if you're sure that you're never going to want to make alterations unless you successfully apply for permission). Grade 1 listing only applies to buildings at least 500 years old at the time of listing. Any listing at less than Grade 1 would be dependent upon there being some architectural or aesthetic reason for doing so. Grade 1 listing is automatic in respect of age. Back in the 1980s I was involved in applications for listing of a number of structures. Only two were successful, both at Grade 2, and the local authority subsequently gave Listed Building Consent to the ruination of both. (CJL)

Thank you for a considered and accurate view of how mainstream model railway manufacturing works. Were you ever at a Hornby December press conference, I wonder? Very sad that a response to your post disingenuously refers to the manufacture of mainstream ready-to-run models as 'random junk'. In fact, with the market as limited as it now is manufacturers have a wider choice of prototypes than they used to, because it's unlikely that large production runs of anything (except possibly Flying Scotsman) will sell out. Shorter production runs bring a wider variety of less-potentially-popular types into the equation - but only at the expense of much higher prices. (CJL)

I'll freely admit to not being 'independent' but I'd have to say there's very little to put between them in terms of reliable slow running and haulage capacity and I've tested both. It's really down to whether you want a lightweight branch line prototype or a main line heavyweight. (CJL)

I thought the discussion was about the blue/outlined in red panels for the skirts being done as transfers, not GER lettering. (CJL)

But the bogies under the Mk4-based Nightstar sleeping car stock (VIA calls it Renaissance) - which I believe are based on the Class 158 bogie - gave a much better ride when I travelled in 2012 than the clapped-out Commonwealths under the 1955 Budd cars on The Canadian! (CJL)

I have - for a while now - been considering doing a repaint of a J70 into GER as a Model Rail project. If the transfers are to be commercially available then it would make sense for me to use them and publicise them too. I haven't researched it but I understand there were two GER liveries - one with dark blue and the other with grey and red? (CJL)

6133 reflected in Shawnigan Creek when it was operating the Malahat Dayliner (Victoria-Courtenay) service around 1991. (CJL)

6133 is the RDC now owned by Jason Shron of Rapido Trains. I was lucky enough to get a cab ride in it some years earlier, from Victoria over the Malahat to Shawinigan Lake. The island isn't the same without the Dayliner. Had to go all the way up to Beaver Cove to see trains when I was there in 2012 - now that's closed, too.

These have now gone to a new home.

Rapido UK is dealing with all technical matters relating to the model.

The Fairford photo is one of several prints that I have. Not sure where I got them but, yes, I would say 1930s. I also have a picture of Culham taken by A.B.MacLeod, which is earlier - probably pre-1918 - and that has battens. They are present on photographs of the GWR-built station at Lambourn when it was brand new in 1910. I suspect they came in with the new brick-built station designs around the turn of the 19th/20th century. I'm guessing there was no equivalent to Rawlplugs and the battens were a one-time solution which allowed poster boards to be moved and changed around easily without having to repeatedly drill brickwork. (The salt-glazed bricks which the GWR used were extremely hard). (CJL)

They do but only the expansion link is missing. The skirts are a clip-fit.

I recall, once - back in the days of Model Railway Constructor - the Editor advised a newbie manufacturer that his product really wasn't good enough to get a favourable review. The model never came to market. That's the only time in my career of over 50 years. I recall, right back in 1963 that my boss at the time received an 'ear-bending' from Col. Beattie because something critical had been said in a review of, (IIRC) the Beatties catalogue! The conversation ended with the phone being slammed down so hard that the receiver broke! When I became an Editor I vowed that I would not review a kit unless I had built it. I saw too many 'reviews' where I recognised the manufacturer's blurb and photograph. I had my ear bent on occasions by all the manufacturers because I wrote something they didn't like. But it pales into insignificance compared to the relentless campaign waged by one reader at the time that the the late, great Merl Evans used to send pre-production models for review. He wanted reviews to coincide with the arrival of the model in shops and that was the easiest way to do it. Said reader, however, was convinced that Merl supplied specially prepared samples which were way better than what was going to be sold in shops. In fact, nothing was further from the truth. The sample had usually been to other reviewers before it reached me and it was usually a bit knocked about and in need of TLC before it could even be photographed! I've always believed that unbiased, professionally produced magazine reviews were a cornerstone of the hobby. What I've said here is a purely personal comment but I think there are potential conflicts if magazines were to review each other's products and for the avoidance of embarrassment all round I think it is best not done. (CJL)

This view of Fairford (a GWR official portrait) shows the batten strips protruding above the individual poster boards and the board on the nearer end of the building. One of series of pictures presumably designed to catch the station looking its best, it is interesting to note that the poster boards are placed at haphazard heights despite the apparent ease with which they could have been aligned with the window sills. (CJL)

I have a Corgi OB in Pearce & Crump livery - 'O' scale. It was done as a limited edition around the 1980s period. Rapido needs to keep prices down - nothing over £49 3s 0d, otherwise we'll have to put on the Mikado again. (CJL)

I have recently acquired a colour slide showing 11 (approx) brake vans standing in open countryside on what is obviously a brake van rail tour. The only information on the slide mount is "LAKES COAST RAIL TOUR". What appears to be the nose end of a Clayton D85xx diesel is just visible at the head of the train. Most of the brake vans are BR 20-tonners but there are a couple of LMS vans in the train, too. There are just two or three people in the shot, the rest of the participants must have gone somewhere out of shot. I have no means to scan slides so I've copied the shot as it appeared on Ebay. Does anyone have any idea what and where the Lakes Coast Railtour was? I've searched 10 years on Six Bells Junction but most of the Brake Van Tours listed have no information with them at all. (CJL)

It was a system used by the GWR to mount wooden poster boards. The lines you can see are timber battens attached to the brickwork. They would probably have been removed when they became rotten - certainly, I don't think many survived long in the BR era, though they probably got removed piecemeal as they became unusable. (CJL)

Forget WMPTE - how about some of these?

A clear-out of the garden shed has revealed a small quantity of 'HO' catenary masts (approx 10) some Lima and some of unknown origin. Metal is rusty but they would probably clean up and be OK for someone seeking a few extras and unable to find them new. Also a two-aspect colour light signal - appears complete but no idea if it works. PM me.

The project is ongoing. (CJL)

Dornoch ordered!

You're probably right. I've reached that age where remembering names is not difficult, it just doesn't happen. I also never kept file copies of most of the magazines I've worked on, so I couldn't look it up. (CJL)

You'll find that the BFI (British Film Institute) has a number of B&W images taken during filming. Ivo Peters also photographed Lion with a camera platform mounted on the side, a well-known image showing how they did moving backgrounds before greens came along. Simon Carstens is, of course, a leading authority on everything 'Titfield'. I once had the privilege of interviewing, for Steam World, the driver (I forget his name now - Ted Burbidge?) who drove Lion from Westbury shed every day during filming. (CJL)

I received your e-mail an hour ago and have forwarded it to Rapido UK for attention. (CJL)

But they'll be totally invisible unless you turn it upside down? The decoder access hatch and the mounting for a speaker are behind the skirts. (CJL)