RJS1977

Do you know if he still has the stones? (Or any other bits) - I know a heritage railway that's in need of a station!

Never trust domeless engines. They aren't respectable.

If nobody here has the right one, Joe Lock had a load in his "bits box" at Newbury today.

I seem to remember a model of Wellington (not strictly on the Cambrian, but on the route of the CCE) in RM about 20 years ago - I wonder if it's still around?

There's also my own on-off Aberystwyth (SG) & Rheidol Valley project - currently still in the process of rebuilding after my house move last year (will try to get back into it once next week's exhibition is out of the way). Still a little way off being operable again as the new location requires a U-bend to be incorporated into the main lines to join the fiddle yard back on, and also in need of a rewire. However the idea of "virtually" operating it in conjunction with other layouts is something I've often pondered. I have a Visual Basic program that enables me to receive bell codes to/from Llanbadarn 'box in accordance with a timetable - ultimately to become a sort of "Digital Crispin" with the help of some MERG kits. Unfortunately I don't know enough about web programming to be able to adapt it to send the "rings" over the 'net, but I'm sure there must be a way of doing it!

Given all the GBL releases of cheap static locos over the last year or so,I'm surprised we haven't seen more activity in this thread. Virgin-liveried Rocket, anyone?

Perhaps the ultimate is when Glamorgan play some of their home County Championship games at Colwyn Bay! (Can't get much furtehr away from "home" than that and still be in Wales!) When they played Lancashire there a few years ago, the "home" team travelled further than the "away" team!

Then I have been over it, as I did a complete circuit of the loop (without the commentary) while I was there! I have some video of it somewhere.

Where abouts in Chicago is that? I may have been through it!

There are similarly sharp curves (without the straight side of the triangle) on Croydon Tramlink where the town centre street lines join the tracknbed of the New Annington branch.

There used to be one of these at the junction of Broad Street and West Street in Reading (i.e. outside Broad Street Mall). An overweight policeman used to stand in the square created where the north-south and east-west lines crossed to direct the traffic and the tram drivers used to take great delight in timing their trams to pass either side of him to make him breathe in!

Nice to see a good spread on Dovey Valley in one of this month's magazines (ModelRail I think), though sad but understandable that it's being retired. A prime candidate for AIMREC if ever there was one!

Reminds me of my student days when a lovely couple from church would ensure that all the students and young singles had somewhere to go to for Sunday lunch. One one occasion, I was having lunch with that particular couple and a bunch of my friends when one of them complimented the lady who had prepared the lunch on how good the potatoes were and asked what she did to stop them sticking to the pan. Before she could answer, another of my friends said "They wouldn't dare!"

I worked out once how to do that as a working model(!) but haven't had a suitable layout to build it into! (And,like the animated scenes one occasionally sees of someone cutting a tree down,it would look odd being rewound to its starting position!).

ISTR PDH writing that Mertonford was the "ultimate destination to which it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive" that he would never model and for that reason resisted calls for one of the stations on his garden layout to be called Mertonford, though he did concede to adding the line "Change here for Mertonford and Craig".to the station nameboard.

It's very sharp marketing given that they're normally sold for £8.99! Arkwright would have been proud! F-f-fetch a c-cloth, G-g-granville!

Yeah,I guess anyone modelling Trevethick's loco on the Penydarren tramway isn't going to be too interested in "modern image"....

And the narrow gauge scale/gauge combinations like 009 of course. All John Thorne's four layouts have a recognisable style to them - the first I saw of his most recent one was when it appeared in RM, and I knew it was his from the photos before I'd read the article header!

I don't know, I'm not old enough to have seen the originals!

Realised this evening that Tilehurst Road bridge is of course visible from Bath Road bridge - saw a bus going over the top of an HST when on my way to the club this evening but as it was too dark to take a picture and I didn't have my camera anyway, you'll have to take my word for it!

Same here - I remember calling in on the Exeter MRS about 12 years ago when there was a possibility I might be relocating there (I was working there during the week and coming back to Reading at weekends for a while) and there was a list on a door for people to sign up to visit Buckingham. For various reasons I didn't sign up (partly not being an Exeter MRS member of course) and always regretted it.

I seem to remember one of Mike Gill's dioramas in Railway Modeller back in the 80s included an archaeological dig on a bomb site.

I don't know if it's still available,but many years ago MOSI sold cut-out 3d dioramas of the opening of Liverpool Street station.I have one back at my parents' house, unfortunately badly faded, but I've often thought it could be used to make an interesting model if the front-back distance was increased to allow room for at least one 00 track and maybe have my father's Triang Rocket shuttling back and forth!

Possibly cheaper/easier to rebuild on a secondhand wagon underframe?

Ah yes,forgot that one! However as I haven't been to Minatuir Wunderland, I haven't seen it modelled ;-)