toffee

And a big thanks to you as well then Neil ! When I saw the size of the packet I wondered if it was something else, no just extremely stoutly packed. Well done Neil ! John.

Emailed John yesterday about some transfers not being in a foreign kit I purchased two years ago and which as usual I hadn't checked properly at the time, I'd only checked very recently. The transfers I believe were late coming and hadn't arrived when the kits were sent out. Anyway, an email on the off chance some were still in the shop and they were on my mat when I got home tonight ! Absolutely amazing service from a shop that will always go the extra mile, thank you John.

Swansea -Padd reliefs, yes that's what I saw a few dated Saturdays, a pair of them going past Canton. Bournmouths ? Hymeks, then Duffs/31s if my memory is correct. I've had a look in a few notes and I've found the following, 1976. 33116 with 403 /401 Sun Sep 5th, 33101 with 426/417 Sun Sep 12th 33106 with 426/415 Sun Sep 19th In my head head these were 33 and TC because of engineering work entailing a number of reverses, at least that's what I was told at the time. Sorry I don't have arrival time. John.

Sure of that on Boxing Day Bri ? Hadn't nipped into the Great Western had you :-) on a more serious note, wasn't that reported in one of the monthlies, I seem to remember that one, trouble was their were so many wind up merchants around, present company excepted of course !! Did you ever see the inter-city's on the Brums ? I have no memory's of that happening, just on the Crewe's and the Cheltenham's, Bristols were in the hands of the cross -countries sets both Swindons and Gloucesters . John

Just found this topic so a bit late, what can I add ? Clear memories of seeing a green 65er at Newport High St around 1966 arriving from Pompy on a Saterday so that must have been one on these. Having a 'thing' for 65ers at the time I would try as much as possible to see the Pompy trains around 70-73 and have many snap shots of them arriving at Cardiff. The first few years it was always 2 of them on the 10.20 and 11.20 ex PH and they usually had a good crowd waiting for them to arrive as they were always a prime target for the cabbing mobs! My disgust when in 72? We were reduced to only one 65 turning up the other train being turned over to a Hymek ( because it went into TM and rather than runaround it was just a loco change ?). As said they mostly went round the curve at Dr Days and first stop was Bath. You must also remember that we also got a fair number of Merrymakers coming up from down South around then with Cromptons on which might confuse any linesiders, like wise one Sat a pair of Hastings units turned up on a Hastings -Swansea away day, mega cops for the locals ! I never saw a 3H unit in Cardiff on these but did see them in Bristol ( as far as they usually went ?). Likewise the use of 33/1 and 4TC was I usually down to engineering work on Sundays bringing diverts into play, I saw a couple of these on a Sunday. I don't remember the 123s working these trains only on the Crewe's around the mid 70s before going to 25s but they did work down from London whilst still L sets on summer Sat Padd- (Swansea ?) reliefs which I used to see going past Canton from the bridge. Nobody seems to have mentioned the use of the XP64 set on these trains in the early 80s? ( sorry my records arn't up to it ) wish I taken more notes !

That 85A Hunslet looks so at home ! Well spotted, I would have been sorely tempted if I'd seen it for sale to put a bid in. We have recently started taking the dog for walks at Chasewater and I'm trying very hard to avoid turning this micro I'm building ( yeh right !) into a Chasewater style model. It's the combination of small steam locos, a green 08, a working North British diesel, 3 coaches of which are class116/7 dmus centre cars in maroon and I think the biggest collection (5 ?) HAA wagons parked in the bay that does it :-) They even have one of these ! http://www.chasewaterrailway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/10484209_685774951510255_4540788588701138499_o.jpg Resist,resist, resistance is futile......aarrrggghhh. Seriously it looks really good ! John.

Now that would make a very good micro layout....

With our bedroom window being 200 yds from the WCML I can honestly say nothing wakes us up and there's plenty of sheds and 70s going past in the night, it was a bit odd when we moved in but soon it just became background noise and far better than a house we looked at the same distance from the A38. I used to wake myself up in the early years when the DRS choppers went thru around 3am with trains for the SE but soon dropped off again, it was about the only time you got to hear 20s properly as at other times I never noticed them. 37s don't wake me up ! I was woken up at 07-00 for a few weeks last year though when the morning Tesco had double headed 68s on going full blast, shame that finished they were well worth it ! John

I was referring to post 182 in which Little Loco Company say a NBL is high on the to do list

The answer is probably in here somewhere, bets now being taken ! The most obvious being Cl 16 Cl 21, Cl 22, Cl 29. One of several shunters. http://www.railway-centre.com/uploads/7/2/2/3/7223531/all_time_class_pre-tops.pdf

I thank you for that reply. I do offer both you and Minerva the greatest respect I can muster for your efforts to provide us with brilliant top notch RTR locos which we could never aspire to in a month of Sundays otherwise. It's a hard road riddled with pitfalls and we on the outside can easily pick holes, I'm honestly amazed at what you achieve with a bit of cash, a lot of ideas and modern technology, thanks again, model railways in general and 7mm in particular has come a long way since I started, well done. I hope I haven't bust the bubble by guessing Metrovick, to be honest it's probably not fair trying to second guess decisions which involve a lot of cash on your part and just whimsy on ours, but that's the turf I guess. To be slightly less up in the air, I'm truly surprised that we still haven't had a RTR 7mm diesel Sentinel, THE industrial shunter of the 60s/70s to my mind and an odds on big seller I'd have thought. Maybe on someone's to do list ? Cheers John.

As the guilty party who asked the question " what's next, go on have a guess" I suppose I ought to have a bash. I must admit that I was hoping for a clue to be dropped to tease us all, after all we all like a good tease in the model railway world don't we ? It was the "slightly bigger" that threw me, I was thinking diesel, shunter, class 03/4/7, whichever is you're favourite in the guessing bingo game, but "slightly bigger" ? Humm. Now the obvious candidate is a 21/29 of whatever variant you fancy ( at least 3 to my mind). As we've noted DJM has said it will do a baby Deltic, Metrovick ? Now that's a nice early dinosaur to have and would continue the theme of those that fell by the wayside and there is a prototype to go and look at, funnily enough in the same place as the BTH when no doubt it was crawled over to provide close ups for the coming model. Now this all supposes we are on the diesel road and we don't turn left and go down the route of vastly more steam prototypes such as taken by Minerva. But then again as Minerva has turned to steam does that not encourage a path to do the dinosaurs before the big boys turn to them after doing all the obvious choices ala warship/25/falcon ? So after all the above pie in the sky my guess is a Metrovick or maybe D61xx. Probably totally barking up the wrong tree, but as noted at the start, we all like a good guessing game ! Anyway, looking forward greatly to the BTH, I've ordered 1 and am desperately trying to stop myself ordering that Liverpool St lovely D8234, the highlight of so many trips to London around 1970, ain't nostalgia wonderful !

Come on somebody, start the guessing game, what's the next one going to be ? I'm honestly stumped.

not the best, but the light was bad, 3 people in front of me and 2 on my left shoulder. there lots turning up in all the usual locations.

Thanks, I did sooner than you might have guessed. 07 has been on Gresty lane for the last two weeks having an exam, well today she produced and worked the Mountsorrel, result ! I think the driver must have thought he was royalty by the end of his shift, cameras everywhere. I thought the nickname for the Edinburgh pair was Dotty 1 and Dotty 2 ? John.

To my mind they are better looking in the flesh than pictures. If you stand below track level and look up at them going past they do remind this old guy of a D800 Warship. They also make good guttural noises when being pushed a bit as when they double headed the Daventry Scotland train last year for a few weeks. Being lucky ? Enough to live next to the WCML I can see the Mountsorrel most days if I want to, only need to see Dottie 007 and the latest pair at the moment ! Worth tracking down

1950s/50s diesel next, pretty pretty please ! https://chasewaterrailwaymuseum.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/chasewater-railways-diesel-locos-bass-no-11/ Would do nicely or a 0-4-0 Sentinel, which to be honest would probably sell more, I'd have 2 !

Thanks, let us know how you get on !

Don't know about Bri, but me tongues hanging out here in anticipation :-)

Is there any progress on this loco ? Any chance of getting some parts/kit in 7mm ? John

Andrew, That passenger train looks a lot like what I was hoping to build with the still born Norfolk Coast Tramway. Thanks for putting it into reality for me ! Starting to have regrets about selling you the Ixion MW.........nah, I think it's gone to the right home :-) you are moving on at a fast pace and it's all looking good. I've moved onto a 1970ish Fowler worked shunting yard. Not the right place for a MW. Cheers John ( I think I might have been the one in your way layout watching at Mickleover show !)

Thanks Steve, The only pictures I've got are in the new Daid Larkin book ' Non-pool freight stock 1948-1968, vol 1 ' Kestrel books. Page 43 has two pictures, one each of the two Versons of the 'Charrington' name board as on the Heljan models. Sadly the book is B/W so the colour is conjecture, both wagons are rather dirty and the numbers seem to be in different styles ! 201 and 248. 248 has the style with the black line going top to bottom through the middle. End numbers on the tanks seem missing, apart from a 'Danger overhead live wire' plate on the side that seems to be it. Paul Bartlett whilst not having photos of the 35T ( as far as I can see) does have photos in colour of the later wagons with the same style of number as 248 ( black line through the number ) which appear to be white. I'd just go with those numbers as a best bet. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/charringtonstta Hope this helps John

Does anyone have any prototype info on the Charringtons Class B tanks ? And does anyone know of a source of transfers for the numbers for them ? Assuming they exist. Thanks John.

David, It was very good to see your ever so cute micro layout this afternoon, for only one point and 6ft long you seemed to have a lot going on and the source of much thought to myself on micros. I particularly liked the level of weathering on the Terrier and Fowler, that's the best looking Fowler I've seen. I'm going to have to buy one.... Few oil tankers and I will be away, micro here we come ! John in Lichfield

What a wonderful model ! I've kept look at Bedford St Johns for years for a model of 70s cutbacks and grot and it's all here. Superb, keep it up I want to see this finished !