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Welcome to the mysterious world of LD&ECR wagon lettering! There are well known examples (Tatlow Volume 1 P115) which clearly show that the verticals on at least some wagons are anything but vertical but the the horizontals were straight and level. The dumb buffered wagon illustrated looks as though the whole of the slanted style of lettering has been tilted round by the painter, so the verticals are better but the horizontals slope. The wagon behind looks to have the sloping verticals like the one illustrated in Tatlow. I was careful to say how things looked to me rather than to say "This lettering is xyz" because it isn't the clearest photo in the world and could be open to various interpretations. I would need a much clearer version of the photo to confirm which bits slope and which bits don't. I did line a rule up on the vertical of the L and the vertical of the D and they do look to me as if they are further apart at the top and therefore not vertical but I don't regard that as conclusive. It is more of a personal interpretation.

Cracking find that one! Just to correct a minor point, the LD&ECR was taken over by the GCR in 1907, so by the date of the photo, these wagons are under GCR ownership or hire. The GER did have very close financial and political connections with the LD&ECR including running powers (which were exercised) along the line to the collieries. I think the furthest extent was to Clowne, which is not somewhere you would expect to see GER locos on coal trains but there they were. The GER bailed out the LD&ECR financially when things got tough, (in return for access to the collieries via running powers) and a number of LD&ECR wagons were built to GER designs. As my modelling period is 1907/08, it is good to know that I can justify a dumb buffered LD&ECR wagon still in general use at that date. The lettering on the dumb buffered wagon does look distinctly wonky. It looks for all the world as if the LE and C slope one way and the D slopes the other! I would love to know what the small lettering between the D and the E says but we will probably never know. On the wagon behind, at least the letters all look as if they slope the same way.

My method for making handbrake pillars is to use small diameter brass tube for the main column and to solder a handrail pillar into the top. The L shaped wire handle is then soldered into the handrail hole in the handrail pillar. I have made them with a butt soldered joint before and they don't seem to last very long!

We live in a world of computers, CAD, CNC machines, 3D printing. The traditional skills we have as modellers will soon be as redundant as jobs like a tracer in a drawing office, a wheeltapper or a fogman sitting in a hut on a gloomy day. Things move on. Always have. Always will. I am just glad that my modelling times have been spent when I could get the bits we needed to build the models I want to build. If nobody else wants to build anything for themselves, that is really not my problem at all. I don't feel any great need to pass on my skills to a younger generation that doesn't either want or need them. When I do my tutoring at Missenden, the vast majority of people who come along are older than me and I can count the number of young, keen, enthusiastic modellers I know who want to build things the "old school" way on the fingers of one hand. Modern methods can produce some stunning results but if the hobby had been all about drawing something in CAD and having it laser cut or 3D printed, I would never have bothered starting out. I am happy with a file, a piercing saw and a soldering iron but honing my modelling skills at a computer keyboard doesn't fill me with any enthusiasm at all. I will leave that to those who do find that sort of thing satisfying.

Hello Tony. I don't have the twin boiler wagon. The very kind chap who gave me the carriages and wagons wanted to keep that as his own personal memento of Sid. The other ones shown were with me at the weekend. It would be tricky to prove a build date of specific wagons but some of the ones illustrated are made from lovely hardwood and are very old indeed.

They have certainly been around for a long time but probably not quite the 70 years mentioned. A Railway Modeller from 1972 has a Ratio advert which lists GWR 4 wheel carriages and wagon kits but no MR carriages, so it is likely that they were introduced some time between then and 1977. Although they have their slight inaccuracies, depending on the period modelled, they do still stand comparison with more modern kits and are still superior to a good number of modern 3D printed vehicles I have seen.

That would probably have been Alan, who manned the fiddle yard most of the weekend. Most of the Midland Carriages were built (and painted and lined) by Sid Stubbs and are based on "cut and shut" Ratio kits, so are not that old but there is one Clerestory, which was listed as being built by "Alex Jackson and Ross Pochin" (Not a bad pedigree!) that probably dates back to the 1940s. A few of the wagons are clearly made from wood and are of considerable vintage. The brake gear is as fine as any I have seen and the detailing on the bodies is so good that they look more like crisply moulded Slaters kits than the scratchbuilds that they are. There are a few of the older wagons that have suffered over the years and details such as strapping have fallen off at some point but I left those at home as there were enough in really good condition to stock the layout.

It was good to see you (and so many others) at the weekend Tony. My electrical problems turned out to be nothing more than sheer incompetence on my part. I had tried to copy the way Buckingham is wired but I thought I had come up with a clever way to allow a trapped loco to follow a departing train along the platform without the need for any additional switching. Peter Denny had needed a switch on Buckingham so I thought I had outdone him on this occasion. I should have learned by now that every single thing on Buckingham is there for a reason and the lack of the extra switch allowed two sections to be connected when they shouldn't have been. Peter Denny 1, Tony Gee 0. The answer came into my head around midnight as I was drifting off to sleep. Before the show opened this morning, two additional switches were installed and the layout was fully functioning today. When fully developed and signalled, it will be a good layout to operate. One of my aims was to prove that I could build an interesting to operate, double track, 3 platform station with a loading dock and a loco spur with only 5 conventional turnouts. Today showed that the layout meets that criteria. The only problems were baseboard alignment caused by people leaning on the layout overcoming the grip of the fixing bolts (dowels will be fitted before the next outing) and some expansion problems with the traverser, which slid across just fine at home but went out of alignment and had some rails catching due to the much hotter hall. As always, I will take note, learn and try harder! It is lovely being able to show off models built by people like Sid Stubbs, George Norton and Malcolm Crawley, alongside some of my own models. I am lucky to have such things in my possession.

They were apart from being exactly the same colour all over, with a clean black underframe and bogie and a plain grey roof. A bit of additional weathering was needed to make them look half decent but you are right, it was a good base colour to weather the body from.

I remember when one of the early RTR Siphons came out, very likely by Airfix, the colour was somewhere half way between maroon and brown. It was as if they had mixed equal amounts of each. I never did decide which one it was supposed to be but wasn't a good match for either.

I think your last sentence is a reference to the Manchester EM standards. There is some interesting information, including dimensions of the "Manchester EM" wheel profile, which is based on a prototype wheel with the maximum permitted wear on the tread. https://www.mmrs.co.uk/technical-articles/making-wheels/ I am currently building a layout to run stock with these wheels and they are an entirely practical prospect in EM gauge (using the original 18mm gauge that the Manchester people kept to). With an adjusted back to back, they should work on P4 as well.

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I wonder if Geoff Kent had something to do with that vehicle? The hand lettering looks like his work and at one time, he was planning a GWR period layout and built some stock for it.

I was just wondering if there had been any change in the situation regarding the show for 2023? A friend of mine has just found this: https://www.steamheritage.co.uk/steam-rallies-and-events/event/wigan-model-railway-exhibition My guess is that it is simply wrong information on their website but it is a possible cause of confusion if a show that isn't happening is being advertised as if it is.

You did Mick, along with quite a few others from your collection. They were much appreciated. I just didn't mention that I had seen it before. Cheers Tony.

Indeed I am. What a lovely train! Although I have to say that I preferred the look of those 4-4-0s before they were rebuilt. I have 11Bs under construction in both 7mm (Gladiator kit) and 4mm (Scratchbuilt). I haven't touched either for a while due to getting stuck into layout building but once the show at the weekend is out of the way, they will see some progress soon.

I really enjoy the challenge of taking an older kit and "doing a job" on it to turn into something that can stand comparison with more modern productions. One such was a Millholme GCR 0-8-0 and another was a K's Midland Single, which is now 4mm longer than it was. I also have a stalled rebuild of a McGowan GCR Atlantic, which would have been easier as a scratchbuild but still has a few kit parts incorporated and may get finished one day. So I have really enjoyed your work on this build. It is right up my street in terms of the prototype and the way you have gone about things. Lovely job! Tony

I knew about that one but this chap said that the failed loco was a Britannia and that he was shunting at Stratford at the time, so I thought it may be another incident a few years later.

I wish I could remember more details but I once met a chap who was building a model of a class J15 that he had been a driver on shunting and pilot duties on when a Britannia failed at Stratford on one of the named expresses. He reckoned that he was probably the only the only driver who had taken a J15 into Liverpool Street with express headlamps and that particular train name headboard on. I think he said it was "The Continental" but that is the bit my memory is hazy on.

I am not admitting to being behind schedule with the construction but I am pleased to report that today, the vast majority of the layout had some wires attached and the first trains ran up and down both main lines and into Platform 3 and the goods siding/loading bank. Just the other two platforms and the fiddle yard to wire up and we might even have a working layout. The control system is a straight copy of Buckingham in that nearly all the electrics are done through the signals, so there are virtually no section switches to remember. I say virtually as either the up or down main line can be switched to a second controller to allow parallel moves or for something to be isolated. This will allow a train to come up to the home signal and be held. I also hope to rig up the facility for a loco trapped at the buffer stops to be able to follow a departing train up the platform. Again, that is a copy of the arrangements on Buckingham. It is the first time I have had the chance to apply these wiring methods since I have had Buckingham and it will be interesting to see how it works in practice but first impressions are very positive.

I am not sure that the sound chip and speaker have yet been invented that can recreate the sound of "Big Jim" storming out of Keighley. I think Pete55 triggered this one by scratchbuilding his own 4mm model.

Well spotted, although they are cocktail sticks rather than matchsticks so at least they are round. As Peter Denny once said to me "We don't run it"!

These are my home made tweak on the S & W. Made from the same top E guitar wire as the AJ and with no remote uncouple and push facility, as well as being single ended they are almost 100% successful. With a couple of electromagnets down a siding, they work superbly. I have other layouts with permanent magnets fitted and they are OK but once in a while you get something uncoupling when you don't want it to. I have a few wagons with a hook at each end and carriage rakes have a hook at each end, so locos only have the bar, which is at the lower end of the buffer beam as suggested. They are very quick to make, using a split pin as a dropper. I didn't build the LNWR brake van kit, so don't blame me for the slightly scruffy work on the underframe!

I would like to think that the people who have visited Buckingham don't go away feeling disappointed. The vast majority ask if they can come again and the lovely comments in my "Visitor's Book" suggest that the old layout still has an appeal to many. I wouldn't swap it for any other layout ever built by anybody! The attached snap was taken just now. Everything in the photo is between 50 and 76 years old.

You are doing a superb job with the layout Andy. It isn't easy doing a major rebuild but still keeping the character of the layout intact but you are achieving just that. I once experimented with AJ couplings on an EM layout with short, small radius points and curves and I really struggled with them. The sideplay of wheels in track on 18.2mm EM and the overhang of even short wagons on the curves (especially on reverse curves) caused them to either miss when trying to couple, or to uncouple themselves when propelling. I hope you have better luck but I just thought I should pass on my experiences to forewarn you. I am hoping my new layout, using large radius curves and 18mm gauge, solves these problems for me but that is no help to you! Best wishes with the project. Tony Gee