Chris M

A pair of mk1 suburban coaches or a B set are more usual. The loco crew have to keep their heads inside the cab during this manoeuvre!

A few more random photos. What a great place to have a garden Not so great for drying washing. The houses and brewery form a scenic break between Worlds End and Ridgacre.

And Spring Hill

More photos of World's End station.

A rare working of corridor stock. The size of this layout 44" by 27" was dictated by the size of the boot if my car. The car was if course sold before the layout was finished. The run round loop was designed to hold two Farish mk1s, but only just.

I have been playing with my new phone so here are a few more photos. The end of the line Shunting round the back of the brewery. Farish and Dapol auto coaches

The BARB figures for the first episode show over 1.25 million viewers. That’s more than Big Brother or even walking britains lost railways but less than Paddington station at about 1.7 million. That’s probably a very good start. It will be interesting to see how the figures settle down in future weeks. If figures remain over the 1 million mark I guess it will be seen as a successful. I know nothing about the TV industry or expectations for this programme. I hope it becomes an annual thing.

I'm still loving the whole series. The steampunk layout started out looking like it would be terrible but ended up being very good in its own peculiar way. The result was right again - the Bodgers deserved to win over Steampunk but only just. Trowbridge did OK in the time but just weren't up to the same level as the other two. If I was going on the globetrotting theme I would have gone for either British or USA built locos in locations they were used around the world. That would open up a lot of possibilities for interesting modelling and a bit of learning but admittedly be of less interest to the viewers than either the Bodgers or Steampunks layouts. Looking forward to the coming episodes. Meanwhile here's my thoughts on the "fire & ice" theme.

So how long will it before visitors to exhibitions start asking to see your animations?

I agree Ropley is exceptional and exquisite modelling. This level can only be achieved by very careful and detailed study of the real thing.

Reality is that Dapol are unlikely to spend another £100k or so to re-tool the body. We have what we have. The perfectionist may decide not to buy it but the rest of us will. I do think those that are experts on this forum should offer their services to Dapol should they ever decide to took up for another totally new N gauge loco.

The CAD was discussed at length on the Dapol website with many people contributing in an attempt to get this loco right. Dapol did listen and did make changes as I recall. Its a shame that some of the experts here didn't contribute at a time when it might have made a difference. Interestingly the CAD does seem to show what looks like the correct profile of the bonnet but the route indicator box looks like it had problems then. Not that I i knew enough to comment at the time. The posts relating to the CAD have disappeared with the changing Dapol website but the last CAD before production can be seen here https://digest.Dapol.co.uk/forum/n-gauge-models/diesel/class-50-n/project-managers-blog-al/309-n-gauge-class-50-development

I would love to see photos of the layouts built by those who say this is a poor model posted on this thread. They will obviously be absolutely brilliantly accurate layouts in every way if this class 50 is poor or even “a right old mess” by their standards. I look forward to seeing what great N gauge modelling looks like.

Now you are going a bit far. I wasn't interested in the old Farish 50 because it didn't capture the look, likewise the old Farish Western. I need a large Prairie for my steam era but won't buy a Farish one because it looks so wrong. This model may not be perfect but in my view it is as good as my Westerns and Warships and makes a perfectly good model for a reasonably good quality N gauge layout. I spend my time building layouts and running trains rather than spending hours analysing as to why any model is not quite perfect. Like I said, if I wanted to do that i would go O gauge. We do need to think of what is possible within the realms of the scale we are using and the need to have a reasonable price. I agree with some others here in that these comments would be better sent direct to Dapol rather than bashing them in public. I'm can't see how this bashing helps the hobby or Dapol. As I alluded to a few pages ago there will be human beings at Dapol who have put hours and hours of their time into this model and will have a significant emotional investment in it. How do you think they will feel reading this? There is of course absolutely nothing stopping you from investing a load of your own time and money to make a perfect version...

If I want to spend hours comparing my model to an original I will go O gauge and have a class 50 running slowly up and down a short piece of track. In N gauge I run trains through scenery and I like the models to look right but they do not get close up scrutiny because they are running. In this context the new class 50 will be very good. It will be running on rails that are too high through bends that are too tight with a train which is too short (although 8 coaches looks about right to me) and have a ridiculously large coupling between it and the coaches. The coaches will all have a stupidly large gap between them. In this context the loco is very good. I always weather my locos gently, remove the front coupling and add front end detail. Its amazing how many people with model railways even at exhibitions don't do this. What I'm saying is this loco is perfectly fine for an N gauge loco and the use it is going to get. When I look in detail at the Dapol Western or Farish Warship there are a number of issues but they are still fine models and a very goo representation of the real thing.

Thanks.

It's all starting to come together. This is just a draft of course. SVRLad I will let you know when the show magazine is printed.

Starting to get Little Aller Junction ready for the trip to Taunton.....I just hope the weather on the layout improves.

What is SWAG?

Dad's army might have been a good one as a couple of episodes included a train. Also last of the summer wine had an episode of two on a preserved railway. Plenty of inspiration for animation based on the stunts on LotSW.

Even Morrison's have abandoned us N gauge enthusiasts.

I couldn't get to this show but would have liked to. Sounds like it has been successful which is great. The trade mix will be partly down to who was invited but also down to whether trade exhibitors were prepared to take the risk of getting sufficient revenue to cover the costs involved. People criticise box shifters and yet those are the stands that are so popular that they make sufficient sales at these shows. I'm surprised lighting was a problem. You can be sure that lighting in exhibition venues will be variable so surely all decent exhibition layouts should have their own lighting.

Another enjoyable episode. It may not be the best quality modelling but all the teams have achieved a huge amount in a short time. Well done to all. The great thing about the programme is the sense of fun that is portrayed. Including animation in the challenge adds to the fun. It is after all meant to be entertainment.

I'm happy with my Dapol steamies. They look good and the ones with traction tyres pull well. The wires between tender and loco are a pain as is the cardan shaft if they are handled badly. The more they run the queiter they are. Announcements so far suggest Dapol will have fixed many issues on this model.

I can only assume caravan manufacturers make more money than model railway equipment suppliers