Phatbob

I shall be there with "Bodmin Generally" on only its second ever exhibition under my auspices. Do pop along and say hello.

Scratchbuilt by Richard Ellis-Hobbs (Ben Racey of this forum). Proprietary chassis, but I can't remember which one. Might be worth sending him a PM.

Paul, The DMU bible says that the cattle class seats were originally clad in a maroon moquette. http://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-105/interior I, like you, am clearly too young to remember the original colour scheme.

I went along there today. The whole school is full of layouts! Absolute bargain for four quid. Good trade support too. Do pop along tomorrow if you can, you won't be dissapointed.

P.S. The 319 flex units will also be handy once the wires have gone up in the Valleys.

One ATW route that could benefit enormously from the introduction of 319 Flex units would be the Wreham to Bidston line. They could enable the services to be extended from Bidston to Liverpool James Street. After all, very few of the punters want to go to Bidston, they want to go to Liverpool and Birkenhead. Through running would increase patronage on this route and increasing the train length from two cars to four cars would enable that. It is my understanding that although diesels are permitted through the Mersey rail tunnel (I've seen Network Rail MPVs running out of the tunnel through Birkenhead Hamilton Square station), trains carrying fuel are not permitted through the single track tunnels beyond James Street Station. Even so, changing trains at James Street to get to Liverpool city centre has got to be a more attractive option than changing trains at Bidston. There is even a dissused turnback platform at James Street that could be recommissioned for the use of these services.

You need the Keen Systems replacement drawbar for Bachmann Mk 2 a, b and C, fitted with Kadee #18s. See http://www.keen-systems.com/Couplings.html and scroll down.

Gutted. I looking to replace my four kit built models of late production batch Baby Warships (D6334 onwards). The Dapol ones have much better detail. Looks like they'll be remaining in service and my £o££€¥ staying in the bank!

Etched brass door handles for Bulleid coaches are available from Southern Pride. http://www.southernpridemodels.co.uk/ Part No. is P9

If anybody in the North West of England is looking for a grand day out this Sunday, may I recommend the Lymm Historic Transport Day. https://www.lymmtransport.org.uk/ As part of the may attractions there is a small model railway show organised by our friends at the Warrington Model Railway Club. As part of the show, I shall be showing my "new" layout 'Bodmin Generally' for the very first time. Exhibition opens at 10:00. Venue is Lymm Village Hall, Pepper Street, Lymm. WA13 0JB.

These products have always been advertised as a random selection of vehicles. Where did anybody get the idea that they would all be the same? The purpose is to provide loads for randomly loaded car flats. I would be dissapointed if I bought two packs that had two cars that were the same! IMHO Oxford are doing the right thing.

They are, in essence, a Thameslink unit with "Networker" cab ends and no side windows.

Available from Sankey Scenics. http://www.sankeyscenics.co.uk/#/titled-trains-packs-d-to-h/4568442447

Do A/C Borg think that impedence is futile?

Does anybody have a drawing for these vehicles? I could also use one and I spoke to Andrew of MSE / Comet Coaches at the York show about these. It seems that Comet produce nearly all the other Hawksworth coaches but not this one. He said that if I could provide a drawing, he would do the etch for the sides.

The beer fridge was underneath the layout, out of sight. I kid you not.

As an antedote to the "non-british layout" haters, as somebody who spent this years Ally Pally show operating a Czech layout, can I run my H0 QJ on your layout at next years show please? I'd also like to add my thanks to the MRC and BRM teams for an excellent weekend. Likewise, I'd to commend the cheerful professionalism of the staff at AP and complements to the catering staff, given how many meals they managed to serve-up so quickly!

Thanks for the update Dave. I appreciate your tradtional British sense of "fair play". Speaking personally, if somebody else got theirs before I got mine, I would take it with the same mindset as when somebody else wins the lottery and I don't! Luck of the draw and all that. Life's like that, oh dear, how sad, never mind. But I appreciate your viewpoint and that others might not feel like I do. So long as they both turn up in the post together, I'll be happy to wait.

With regard to the 00 quadart set, are you going to produce and "all third/second" set, a "composite set", or both? I've had a thought regarding articulation of these coaches, that would enable a protypically close spacing of the coaches, while still being able to negotiate unprototypically tight curves. A cam machanism such as that used by Bachmann, Hornby, ROCO et al for close coupling with NEM boxes, could be designed to enable the coaches to share a bogie while alomost touching on straight track, but their outer edges would move appart on curves. This would enable them to get around tighter curves, without the need for a huge gap between the coaches, at least while on a straight.

Kev, don't forget to set the CV for the volume on the big speaker to eleven.

John beat me to it! This is exactly what I was about to post. One further solution is to attach a #19 or #20 UNDERNEATH the Bachmann NEM box. I drill a small hole through the coupling and box and fit a small screw to hold it in place. A drop of canopy glue between the NEM box and the shaft of the coupling stops it pivoting on the screw, but allows removal if need be. HTH Bob.

Remeber that bag of 500 painted, seated HO figures I picked-up in Utrecht Ian? How much do you want it now?

You need a bus to put on that bridge Kev.

Me too! Can we have some old school red on white electrification warning flashes in 4mm scale please? These are a pain as waterslides.

Given the way that Hornby announced loads of new stuff for this year, most of which was then cancelled and most the remainder not yet delivered, my sense of expectation over Hornby's 2017 announcements has been somewhat dulled.