RJS1977

Reminds me of the story about the guy who dropped a tub of low fat spread on his foot. The doctor told him to rub some of the spread on it every day and to come back and visit him in a week. A week later the guy visits the doctor again and says it still hurts. "Oh," says the doctor. "I can't believe it's not better."

I was saddened to hear on Thursday (via the Teifi Valley Railway) that Michael Martin passed away this last week. His stand was a familiar sight at shows in both Wales and the Thames Valley - including my own, which he supported from its inception in 2008 until his diagnosis in late 2014. For several years he had asked me if there was a wagon he could do for the show and it is unfortunate that I was only able to get photos of the Snow wagon to him before his illness led him to curtail his activities. However even through his illness he continued to provide support to me as I liaised with Dapol directly. It was always nice to chat to him at shows and catch up on progress on rebuilding the TVR - he was genuinely one of the nicest people I know. RIP Mike

I never knew that - I nearly bought a full-sized H&P fireless loco a few years ago! I have got one in 00 somewhere I built from a very butchered L&Y Pug chassis but alas it's never really run all that well - I think the operation to reverse the cylinders was too much for it! Richard Picton did a painting of one some years ago: http://pictonart.com/photo_12096247.html I did once design a layout based on Reading Low Level Goods Yard, into which the HP locos ran - if I can get it to work in Anyrail I'll post it on here somewhere. Incidentally the H&P fireless locos now have a road named after them by Reading station - Bagnall Way.

Just remembered that of course Jenbach station in Austria has three gauges, the railways in question being Achenseebahn,OBB and Zillertalbahn.

There's an irony there, in that looking at Simon K's blog, Britt was very fussy about what Thomas etc should look like - yet in some instances, like the dimensions of Thomas, it was the TV company who'd got it wrong! Though I agree that the illustrations in the book aren't always terribly accurate either - both Henry and Thomas ended up having accidents and going away to the Works to be 'rebuilt' to correct errors in Dalby's drawings (Henry also wound up with Gordon's buffers in one picture - when a child wrote in to RWVA to point this out, rather than replying that "the artist made a mistake", RWVA wrote the child a story about how Henry had damaged his buffers and the Shed only had spares of Gordon's so Henry had to use those until his spares arrived!). The line in Branch Line Engines where Thomas calls Percy "a green caterpillar with red stripes" was originally used by RWVA to describe Dalby's drawings of Percy, which led to Dalby resigning from the series.

If that's the Bachmann Annie & Clarabel, they're not right either as in the books, Annie and Clarabel are clearly bogie coaches! Can't help wondering if Hornby missed a trick with 'Emily' though - as there wasn't (and still isn't) a 00 RTR Stirling Single, I think even a lo-fi but dimensionally accurate model of the Stirling could have been a good seller if priced correctly and sold via the NRM etc

That's how copper wire was invented - a Scotsman and a Yorkshireman fighting over a penny!

In full-size car plants painting takes place inside a "clean area" to prevent impurities getting into the paint. Some of the problems BL had with paint in the 1970s were allegedly because some of the factory workers decided the nice new "clean" areas were the best places to eat their lunches! They didn't stay clean for long!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zBbLFevW1s

Tony - without wanting to hijack the thread, how's the rebuild going?

Yes,you're correct. Although Thomas came out in 1985, I'd forgotten the original tooling was older. It would be interesting to know what the comparative production numbers have been for the three models. However my reasoning still stands in that I don't think there's anything wrong with the tooling for any of them - they may not be up to modern "super detail" standards, but that's not the market they're aimed at.

Previously described by CJF in a book on signalling some years ago - (which is where I got the idea from, albeit that the book used centre zero meters), and he was recounting having seen it done some years before that, so by no means a new idea.

The Hornby 101 and Smokey Joe use older mouldings than Thomas and they haven't been replaced either AFAIK. But then those, like Thomas, are definitely at the toy end of the range, and it may be that it's considered more acceptable to use elderly tooling for toys than for models for the "grown-up" market. That said, I think that most models which have been replaced (e.g. Coronation, Bulleid Pacific, HST etc) have been replaced in order to produce more accurate/better detailed models rather than because the tooling was worn out per se.

Not a loco I'm particularly familiar with, but I can't help being struck by how small the water tank is (on both prototype and model!) compared with the size of the loco!

Might it not also depend on factors like platform length and the position of water columns?

Unfortunately my control panel's packed away at the moment (from last year's house move) - next time I dig it out I'll try to sketch out the circuit, but that's pretty much it. If memory serves, I don't think I used a load - I think the voltmeter's internal circuitry acts as the load. Of course anything else wired into the DC power supply (e.g. station lighting) will also act as a load.

Of course that's only an issue for people who run DCC... For those of us who run analogue (and have no intention of switching), this is of no consequence - indeed, if a version was available for say £5 less with the motor hardwired to the chassis (i.e. no socket and plug at all), that would be the version I would buy in preference. (In any case, if I was going to convert such a model to DCC at a later date, I have no problem snipping a couple of wires and soldering them to the wires on the chip!).

Which is actually a much worse greenhouse gas than CO2!

Did you know they don't watch the Flintstones in Bahrain,but Abu Dhabi do?

I've found them - two ramps and a centre section. Unless anyone here wants them, I'll give them to the Tri-ang Society at Warley.

Am I the only person who was temporarily disoriented on seeing those pictures by seeing something other than model railways in the NEC?

Yes, I think they switched to conventional metal wheels and pick-up about 1955 - my father's is a 1956 and that has metal wheels so it's obviously before then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB7f_kZQ9hY

Thanks for that - it gives me another reason not to buy one! I'm afraid the line hasn't come on in quite as many "leaps and bounds" as the video might make out - the loco and autocoach were both only visiting for the weekend. There is progress, but it is only as volunteer and financial resources allow.

It's a fairly easy job to make up a couple of block instruments using cheap needle-pattern voltmeters. They don't even need to be centre-off if you wire a variable resistor into the circuit.