Jol Wilkinson

Unfortunately, asking the hobby to come up with a plan is a bit pointless. Who is/are "the hobby"? And in what sort of plan will the owner of CooperCraft be willing to participate? Despite all the protestations, complaints and solutions so far provided, it would seem that the current owner doesn't want help. Perhaps if someone from this thread knocked on his door and had a conversation with him, then things might become clearer and possibly move forward. Unless/until that happens, then I don't see anything changing.

Buying it is one thing, storing, transporting and maintaining it is probably the biggest problem. It would be nice if it went to Quainton, where there are several other LNWR carriages or somewhere else with a LNWR connection, rather than in a car park in Kent

Warning lights tend to come on with about 7L left in the tank. Makes you wonder why so many people still run out.

There are many factors thatb affect fuel consumption, besides the driving technique, although that is probably one of the most significant. I rent my car as part of my retirement package and change it about every nine months, so I get first hand experience of some of the changes brought about through legislation, technology improvements, etc. The best fuel consumption I consistently got was on a 1.6L diesel fitted - as part of its standard spec - with "economy" tyres. My current car, although a later Euro 6 spec. diesel has low profile tyres (rubber bands on big wheels) and is about 10% worse. Mind you we picked it up in January and driving in the wet conditions we had in the early months of this year also has had a detrimental affect. Interesting comments about very low speed fuel consumption, I don't think any of my cars give a reading below 20mph, including the Peugeot 206 my wife had.

The livery on the Semi-Royal is partly correct as the lining is wrong. This should be gold around the all paneling, not white. However, as carriage was painted for filming then I suspect anything goes. The interior was apparently white when built. According to Jenkinson's LNWR Coaches, six were built, one - 803 - became part of the Prime Minister's WW2 train and was" the only one to remain substantially as built throughout its lif".

The original LNWR white had some blue in it, to counter the effect of the varnish yellowing. Philip Millard, the acknowledged expert on LNWR carriages, is of the view that anything from a blue tinted white (as per the photo) to a pale cream after several years of service, would be realistic.

Ah, the magnetic car effect. And what you did proves exactly why I try not to park anywhere near a car that has any indication that children may be in some way involved with it. Does becoming a parent cause a major deterioration of people's social responsibility?

I take great care with parking, owing to having suffered too many car park scrapes, dings and dents over the years. I don't park next to a disabled vehicle, a car with child seats or "baby/princess/spoiled brat" on board stickers, two/three door cars, etc. I usually look for a space in a car park at the end of a row (only one side exposed to danger). I park at the remotest end of the car park, leaving the car on it's own if possible.Yet some pillock (or the female equivalent) will still park next to it and invariably too close. It's a society issue. People only recognise their own importance and have little consideration for others. Perhaps putting a suitable reminder of their anti social behavior on their car might help.

One day would not be enough. Try a week, they might actually learn something then.

Fuel consumption for plug in hybrids is an irrelevant measure. The cost, pollution, government subsidies, etc. for electricity generation has to be factored in, which it never is.

Our previous Peugeot 308 2.0D returned 55.3 mpg over the time we had it. The best range I ever saw was on a Peugeot 2.2D 406 Coupe (lovely car). I had just filled up on a business trip to Scotland and the trip computer showed 999 miles (it didn't do four digits). I had just had done a slowish few miles beforehand, so the "instantaneous" mpg had been quite high. The Coupe had quite a big tank while the 308 has a much smaller one and the best it shows is 600 miles. Longer runs are great but short trips, especially in wet or cold conditions, really pulls the economy down.

Andy, I have a set of Trevor Charlton 4mm (etched zinc) sides/ends if you are interested. The inner and outer ends, doors and clerestory sides are part of the "kit". I had intended to make up a D1, but it is not now suited to my stock needs for London Road. Jol

I'll have to take a trip down in the summer. I used to sail from there many years ago and spent a little time in the Old Ship, before they refurbished it. It was a real "public house". Three rooms, one with the bar, and a kitchen. The gents were in a unlit brick outhouse. Run by Mick and Dob Green - she never would tell us what her forename really was - she would provide wonderful breakfasts before we went sailing. George the Lock Master was also quite a character.

AUDI Another Useless Dumb Idiot Other epithets for brands of badly driven cars available.

I use London Road Models 6% Phosphoric Acid Flux, with LRM 70 deg or Carrs 100 deg solder for w/m. Both work well with my Antex TCU set at 175 degrees. Water, the main constituent of most fluxes, boils at 100 deg so it shouldn't be necessary to go much higher than that, although most irons usually need to be 75 - 100 deg above the nominal solder melt temperature for succesful results.

Several experienced and knowledgeable MGB owners (on the MGOC Forum) hold a strong opinion that lever arm dampers in good condition provide more than adequate damping. Likewise "modern" one or two leaf parabolic springs don't seem to provide much advantage. On the other hand, expensive twin-link, Panhard rod, coil spring, tubular shock conversions do seem to offer significant improvements.

Can I suggest that manufacturing and selling your own products is a different business model to retailing Peco (or any other model railway) products. Without the C&L/Exactoscale items, it would just be another retailer competing with all the others. Until the deal is (hopefully) concluded, there is little point in speculation what the final outcome will be. If it reverts to the original format before Pete took over, then we will be no worse off. Lets just wait and see, wish Pete and his team well and let the potential owner know that their is a lot of goodwill towards the brands and enthusiasm for the products. A business worth keeping going.

So what is DCC about then? I'd suggest it is different things to different people. For some it's a way to enhance already well made and running locos, provide remote uncoupling and - mainly for diesel locos - providing sound and lighting. For others, it's perceived as a fix for their poor running locos which they don't know how to sort out. Others enjoy being on the leading edge of technology, so they can control their models (usually off the shelf RTR) with their mobile phones. That I don't understand, as I said to the young lady at the Nespresso sales stand in the local John Lewis, when she tried to extol the benefits of controlling a coffee machine with a mobile phone "app". Most of the layouts I have seen at shows with DCC seem to require a level of extra concentration from operators which doesn't help. I don't use DCC, preferring to avoid the complications it puts in front of the operators on the exhibition layout I have. I have also found that, by careful construction, matching motors and gears, and good quality controllers, we get very good running, which would probably only be marginally improved with DCC. I should also add that when I started building my current collection (a slow process to produce a small fleet, probably considered as risible by today's 100+ loco collectors) small DCC chips to fit 4mm pre-group locos were not readily available and expensive, which was another deterrent. If DCC works for you, then that's good. At present I don't think the benefits I would get would be worth the cost, work and inconvenience of converting. I know quite a few model builders that hold the same view Jol

But without the ability to make minor adjustments as you can with ply and rivet or with plastic on ply. So far I've found the plain track with plastic chairs "solvent" glued to ply sleepers perfectly robust (on an exhibition layout). Points were made with a mix of rivets at specific locations such as under the nose of the vee, etc, with plastic chairs elsewhere.

Ivan, they are the most accurate trackwork kits on the market, and probably costly to produce in low volume. You can produce something that works as well much more cheaply but it may not look quite so good and will take a little bit more time. Arguably, other than for the most fastidious, that wouldn't matter. Rivet and ply has its advocates and has some small benefits in terms of strength and "adjust-ability". Building accurate plain track from ply sleepers and plastic chairs to model a specific prototype is also easy. I find it ironic that people get so excited about the accuracy of the latest RTR products and then happily run it on toy train like, out of the box, track. The attached shows the only significant trackwork I've ever built, using ply sleepers, C&L or Exactoscale plastic chairs and some rivets in "high stress" locations. Provided the components continue to be available, then the low cost option will enable us to produce some reasonable looking models at reasonable costs. What is shown in the photo probably cost less than it would using PECO products. Jol

Some Peugeots - those with automatic wipers and going back a few years - have a menu setting for the rear wiper to work if the fronts have been activated by rain and you are reversing. It's probably a feature from one of the OE suppliers for vehicle systems, such as Bosch. Probably developed for people who are holding their phone when driving and can't cope with all the vehicle controls.

Steve, having designed 4mm kits from scratch I have a little experience in this field. I've looked into the practicality of "reworking artwork" from scans of tools, etches or original artwork and can tell you it isn't straightforward. Getting a scan of the two parts of the tool, which are in the hands of the etchers, will incur cost. Converting these to a workable CAD file may present problems. Sometimes kits need updating or additional parts are required (for a variety of reasons and outside the scope of this topic) and it is usually easier to start from scratch, which I've had to do with just simple items. Reworking the original layout may not be easy. Is there room for modified or new parts? Most designers maximise the tool layout to minimise waste so there may not be any spare area to use. There might be copyright issues - you may have bought the rights to use the tooling to produce the kit, but may not have rights over the artwork. That may seem odd, but there is now't so queer as folk and their attitude to property. Economics also come into play with something such as a loco kit. Whether you change existing artwork or create new parts, a new tool or tools will be required, each incurring a production cost. It is usually more cost effective, both in developing the new artwork and tooling as well as for production, to simply create a new tool (which may have several sets of parts for the same or other/additional kits to reduce costs). If you fancy a go at refining a design someone else has created and lost interest in, I have some CAD files for a small GNR tank loco you could work with - I am sure the original designer won't mind, but I would ask him first anyway. Jol

Other interesting street names near Trump Street include Gutter Lane.

You could use copper faced board (Maplins, etc) for the floor, as used in Stevenson Carriages kits. You can solder fittings to it. MJT bogies are now supplied with pop studs that seem to have a more square profile on the narrow section of the male piece. I have found that this sometimes restricts free rotation of the bogie and needs "rounding" with an escapement file one of the reasons I've gone over to the Brassmasters etched bogies)