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Sutton Hoo yesterday morning between the showers: This was our first visit since the revamp. The observation tower (where I am standing) went up in September 2019 but is effectively "new" because of the upheaval for the virus. The site was pretty busy with visitors, the overflow car park was getting full when we left, but the area is so big it doesn't seem crowded. A good day out, the National Trust have done a first-class job of the tower, their new visitor centre and the shop/cafe block. - Richard.

Back at the Middy today, 19 months to the day since my last visit. 19 months without standard gauge preservation, and almost 19 months without any trains at all except some Flirts mentioned elsewhere: One of many nice things about the Middy, it doesn't change very much. I didn't know we had pointwork like this, with a trap within a turnout. - Richard.

I am hoping the OP comes back and tells us what he has settled on. - Richard.

I have just bought a copy of Coppin's book - it is going to be an easier read than Tourret, and as you say there is a selection of drawings for possible model making. A good buy. - Richard.

Five and a half years on! The couplers on this wagon never worked well enough for me. I have just realised, the later Electrotren models with their NEM sockets on cams use exactly the same steel chassis panel with new wheel/coupler assemblies. It is really straightforward to extract the old ones and pop in a pair of new ones: I am back with Electrotren wheels, but more modern ones, for the time being. - Richard.

You might find the diagram books helpful. You can find many of these on the web site of the Barrowmore model railway group, for example: http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/BRPOStockP2Issue.pdf - Richard.

I picked up a copy last month in City Bookshop of Norwich, just £7.99 remaindered. The text is dense and I don't think I will ever cope with reading it BUT the book contains hundreds of photographs and diagrams and is worth getting for just these. - Richard.

I have found a few British H0 building kits in the Gaugemaster range: GM430 Mortimer station, the former Pola kit GM480 Teignmouth station, the former Heljan kit GM481 Teignmouth signal box, another Heljan kit GM482 Fordhampton goods shed, another Heljan kit Maybe there are some others lurking on their site? - Richard.

I wonder, can we use the Roco chassis from their steel carriers as the underpinnings for any British models? Length over headstocks about 35 ft 4 in (124 mm) Bogie centres about 22 ft 6 in (79 mm) The parent models are much too wide for the British outline but the chassis moulding measure only about 32 mm, only a tiny bit excessive and not terribly noticeable. Roco 46941 and 4749 amongst others. Some nice things about these chassis is they include cams for the coupler pockets and they run well. I am reluctant to let them go but really I ought to find out if I can ever use them. - Richard.

Sometimes I want an irony button but not often enough to justify one. Then I try a combination of our notification buttons. Then I end up writing some words - I noticed this too, if there isn't irony here then the officials (at least as reported) are verging on hypocrisy. - Richard.

I have built the Ratio kit for a pump house (or boiler house) to go into the place intended for the mess hut: The kit windows are printed onto acetate like a card kit so I went for the blocked-up look. The steps are Pikestuff ones for H0. The model is standing on a patch of foam board to let it hide an unwanted detail in the backdrop. There is a brick-built goods shed in the backdrop behind the tram platform, hopefully the pump house helps to connect this to the modelled part of the layout: At the moment I imagine a security fence going all around the pump house. This gets me to a good stopping point for a short while. I have built and painted all of the buildings for the layout except a couple of silos. The sensible thing to do now is the ground works and ballasting ... and I want to revisit my trains, and indeed some other interests like photography. - Richard.

There are a couple of the Alexander Models kit for the USATC S100 on eBay, price seems reasonable: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143993755740?hash=item2186b2585c:g:RYcAAOSw54JgZHcD - Richard.

The longer I leave this the more embarrassing it will become, but I did buy a Roco ferry wagon from him a couple of years ago. I paid him the £28 he wanted, most UK dealers would have asked barely half this but I had been looking for ages and never found one. It turned up in perfect condition, it was advertised as used but it looked like it had only been taken out of its box for photographs, never run on a layout. So - I got my wagon, and a tidy example too, but this would be a bad habit to get into. It would spoil the hobby for me and I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe he is shrewd enough to know, a woman buys two things at half price because they are a bargain. A man buys one thing at double price because he wants it. And most of his model train buyers are men. - Richard.

I have been giving Fairport a minor overhaul. It had got very dusty (in spite of the lighting rig / lid above it) and the crane had got broken. So I have worked over every surface and nook and cranny with a vacuum cleaner, a soft brush and a blow gun, and then the vacuum again. I have removed the silver birch tree and the fruit tree to use on another project. The layout doesn't really look as though anything is missing. So maybe these were too much detail in such a small space. I have also put the crane back together. Here is a photo from this morning, this layout is I suppose "finished" but it is a nice place to pose models for photos and it is also of course the furthest destination on my railway: I like the effect from the mirror here. The layout now has ladies' scarf, a long narrow one, to hang across the front to try to reduce the dust. Bought in the charity shop where I work, this is cheaper than buying fabric from the haberdashery stall in the market. - Richard.

If I mention Andy like this @Andy Y maybe he will pass by here. Pinning the topic would be a marvellous tribute to Gordon. - Richard.

One more. A tank wagon on hire from ECC / Caledonian Paper, newly loaded with liquefied industrial waste at Fairport: I built this layout for photography and then installed it above my bench where I can only see a few angles. One day I must take it out into the garden and try some more. - Richard.

Harry is allowed everywhere in my house except the hobby room and he knows this. One day he made his way onto the window sill and got stuck in the blinds: I ended up clearing much of the bench to get him out, this was when I noticed the crane. He doesn't try to get into trouble, he just does. He is good company around the place, really his most annoying habit is walking around my legs in figure of eight patterns when I am using the toilet. No decorum whatsoever. - Richard.

The layout progress is faltering. When I was 7 years old I had a cardboard baseboard for my Lego and I arranged loads of new layouts on this: I am in the same mindset here: I do not want to stick anything down. And leaves me with little new to write about the project. I have painted my BYA wagons, see https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67-how-realistic-are-your-models-photo-challenge/&do=findComment&comment=4510994 and a second post today. I am having a go at the Ratio 508 pump house/boiler house. The idea is to put this in place of the Faller hut, to provide a bit of older architecture to connect the foreground to the images in the backdrop. - Richard.

Thanks for encouragement a few posts above, here is another go. A BYA with its original cover latches still in place stands at Fairport awaiting inspection: One of the foot steps shows some impact damage, perhaps there has been a collision with a road vehicle. - Richard. Postscript. The crane looks ok in daylight but a bit fresh here. I have just given it a minor rebuild after Harry gave it a strength test. Only two joints came apart. Harry belongs to my neighbours but spends his time with me whenever they kick him out

Many thanks. I am actually rather pleased with this as a model. - Richard.

BYA steel carrier for H0 scale, from a resin kit: I'm not sure if this is good enough for this topic so suggestions welcome. It has taken me a year and a half to gain enough skills and summon up the courage to paint this. - Richard.

My intended "mess hut" now has an iron roof with shallower eaves and looks a lot more British: It would indeed be a good sports pavilion or village hall, but for another layout. I am still with Tamiya paints. - Richard.

John @Allegheny1600 told me about Lincoln Locos a while back, and I have just received their print of a Wickham railbus: This seems pretty fabulous to me. It really does look like an injection moulding, with none of the stepped surfaces and surfaces like sandpaper I have experienced on prints from other sources. The length is spot-on for the 38 feet of the prototype, and the shape of the bodysides looks just right to me too although I realise this isn't terribly obvious in my photo. Lincoln Locos design and produce their prints for 3mm scale; they did me this as a one-off for H0: https://lincoln-loco.co.uk/ Usual disclaimer. - Richard.

I didn't dismantle mine any further, but there is a gear in there. There is a longitudinal shaft driving both of the driving wheels. (Sorry I clicked the 'agree' button but realised this was ambiguous) - Richard.