Phatbob

I'm afraid not. "Global warming" actually means "global more energy in the weather system". So it will lead to more extreme weather. More hot summers, more rain in the rest of the year, more flooding as a result and so on. The temperature gradient that drives the Gulf Stream is declining as a result of global warming too. If the Gulf Stream stops, we will have the most gawd awful winters. The US Canada boorder is mostly at 49 degrees North. The mid point of the UK is at about 54 degrees North IIRC. So most of the UK would be Polar Bear country!

When it comes to interpreting visual evedence, I'm reminded of the following joke which illustrates the levels to which one may or may not put all one's trust in it. :-) An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician are on a train as it crosses the border into Scotland. The astronomer looks out of the window, sees a black sheep standing in a field, and remarks, "How odd. All sheep in Scotland are black." "No, no, no!" says the physicist. "that sheep is black." The mathematician rolls his eyes at his companions' muddled thinking and says, "In Scotland, there is at least one field, containing at least one sheep, that appears to be black on one side."

Shouldn't the ends be black on the steam era models, in the same way as passenger coaches were at the time?

No problemo, we've all done it! The suggestion of DU was clearly a joke, and not a bad one. As I said, tungsten is denser than uranium in any case, so a better choice for several reasons.

Nope. Not unless you alloy it with the wrong other metals. Some models already on the market have used tungsten chassis without any "mazac rot" style issues.

A titanium chassis would be very light. IIRC Ti is less dense than Aluminium! Uranium (depleated or otherwise) would be an abolute sod to cast as well as unbelievably expensive. Best option would be tungsten, which is easier to work / cast, cheaper and denser than uranium.

Another vote for the excellence of this particular model. I have a small fleet of them that I use on Appledore ( ) when running in "kettle mode". Superb runners, reliable and most importantly they look right. You won't regret blagging one of these.

I used black suit lining material for my layout "skirt". It has the advantage of folding up into a very small space for transport to and from exhibitions. It's been treated to make it flame retardent.

In the immortal word of Mr Punch, "that's the way to do it". Fulfilling 100% of dealer preorders huh? A novel concept to some other suppliers it would appear. The factor of x1.4 on preorders is most interesting.

😉

AFAIK all the Southern Reion ones were the 63', 10 compartment type, so there won't be any green ones as these are the 57', 9 compartment type.

I am reminded of an old addage, "if you think something is foolproof, you have yet to meet the sufficiently talented fool". 🤣

Delighted by this announcement. Although my wallet is safe until the maroon WR versions appear. C'est la vie.

More wild speculation with unrelated pic from me too https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=452713

Reminds me of a certain Merseyside icon:

While I agree with the essential point you're making here, which is entirely valid, I must challenge the statement that "No manufacturer delivers complete dogs of models these days, all models are more than acceptable to most modellers". May I refer the right honerable gentleman to the original Hornby 4VEP, by way of example. No windows and doors in the compartments is more than a minor error!

My order arrived in the post this morning. VERY nice. 👍

The train on the left would most likely be terminating at Tipton St Johns. They would runround in a loop at north end of the goods yard before returning to Exmouth. Looks like a Maunsel brake and some ancient LSWR coaches and a BR Std 4 tank.

I think it's about time the class 769 got a pukka enthusiast nickname. May I suggest that they be henceforth known as "Graylings". Rationale; a) they're constantly failing, b) if the eponymous Secretary of State for Transport hadn't cancelled various electrification schemes, the need to convert perfectly servicable electric trains to diesel would never have arisen in the first place. 🙂

Good point well made. One can but hope. It would explain the negative responses in person if Barwell's Basil Fawlty had instructed all his Manuels that "they know nothing" when asked about them. 😉 So, at the risk of being seen as wishlisting by The Mods, I'll have a few Diag. 2406 BCKs in BR(S) green please Bachmann. Oh, and the two 3-sets (i.e. big and small vents) in late condition in BR(S) green too please.

Agreed, it's all about atitude. Having said that, there are establishments I have frequented where the cup of tea is very much real. TIm at Arcadia does provide a most excellent brew and he's not the only one. :-')

I can't remember who it was at Bachmann I spoke to about a diag. 2406 BCK at the Glasgow show, but they also hadn't seen the memo. Regarding the set numbers, at £75 each they ought to be right. Yes, I know adding set numbers is easy, but that that price, they should be spot on. If one want to renumber these coaches, removing the set numbers in addition to the running numbers isn't really adding much to the task. Thankfully, Bachmann's printing is easilly removed with a cotton bud and T-Cut. 🙂

Very rare, but not unheard of. There were some short "shuttle" services that were just two coaches. e.g. West Croydon - Wimbledon, Victoria to London Bridge via the South London Line, Selsdon - Elmers End, Littlehampton - Arundel, Elmers end - Sanderstead. There were electrified branches that ran only two coaches off-peak (e.g. Tattenham Corner, Heywards Heath - Horstead Keynes) that would double-up to four coaches in the peak. HTH

Perhaps I should have mentioned that I "corrected" my model with a new chimney. I think it came from 247 Developments. It's the tall, thin one that you want. HTH

The other issue with this model for we BR(S) modellers is that the Southern Region allocated Ivatt Mickey Mouse Tanks all had the later type chimney, so Bachmann are being a little disingenuous in selling this model with BR(S) numbers.