t-b-g

You are quite right, Doncaster was the main ER base for accepting new diesel locos. Most of the acceptance trials took place on the old joint line from Doncaster to March, rather than the ECML. My good friend, the late Malcolm Crawley, worked on the acceptance trials in the late 1950s and often told tales of his trips on that route. That is not to say that new locos didn't travel up and down the main line but that was more positioning purposes rather than them being out on trials. Tony

One or two familiar faces there! Sounds like a good day was had by all. As has been said, it can sometimes take days like these to remind us of just what a good hobby we are all involved with. Sometimes it can be hard work, very frustrating and quite a lonely hobby and then you spend a great day with a bunch of similar minded people and all the fun element comes flooding back. I feel the same about exhibitions nowadays. The quality of the layouts and the traders matters less than the quality of the people I meet and chat with. Tony

There is a place for photoshopping in model railway photography but to may way of thinking, it should be kept for special circumstances and otherwise used as little as possible. I quite like some of the faked liveries and locos, like the Gresley 2-8-2 based on a stretched and doctored V2, as that is probably the only way we may ever see such things unless some modeller wants to spend time making such things (step up Mr King!). I don't mind background or foreground clutter being taken out and replaced with a generic greyed out area or a basic sky background. I don't have a problem with cropping or adjusting exposure, as those used to happen in the days of film cameras and just makes the finished image more pleasing to the eye. These sorts of things can be done without conning or cheating the person seeing the end product. My problem is when images are doctored to make the model look like something that it isn't. Straightening wonky lamps, removing dust or gaps under buildings is no more than a deceit. If a layout is being photographed for a magazine or for placing images on the internet, I want them to show what the model looks like in real life. I don't want them to show an idealised, sanitised version of what it really looks like. If somebody hasn't hidden the gaps under buildings, don't take or publish photos that highlight such things but please don't con me into thinking that the gaps are not there. Over the years, many photos have been published showing things not quite as they should be. Locos off the track, gaps in scenery and wonky telegraph poles. They in no way spoiled my enjoyment of the layout or the photos as they, in some ways, encouraged me that even people with layouts in the magazines were human too and made modelling like that more attainable to a relative novice. Adding exhaust/steam/smoke is another thing that I am not keen on. Has any model ever had a smoke unit that laid out that even trail of grey haze from the chimney? I think not. When I see an image like that, however well it has been done, I always think "Somebody likes playing in photoshop, what else have they altered?" and my interest in the photo sags immediately because I know that I am not looking at a photo of a model railway as it really is, I am being conned and I am looking at what somebody sitting at a computer thinks it should look like. I fully accept that not everybody feels the same and I would never say that anybody shouldn't play in photoshop (which is an interesting and absorbing way to spend some time as a hobby in its own right) all they want but it doesn't do anything for me. Tony

Many thanks Tony & Mo for a lovely day, playing trains with a bunch of good mates. Things really don't get much better! I can vouch for the quality of the running. Several hours of running trains and the only things that went wrong were human error "brown" faults, of switches and points not being set correctly. When I get round to downloading some photos, if any are good enough (thanks Tony for the kind and very subtle comments about my photographic skills), I will post one or two. Tony G

I don't know what Bachmann are doing but my choice in such circumstances is always to fit slightly smaller driving wheels. Real loco driving wheels could vary as they were turned down possibly several times before they reached scrapping tolerances. I seem to recall that this could be by as much as a couple of inches but I can't remember where I heard or saw that figure. It may have come from Malcolm Crawley, who knew about such matters. That has to be a much better option than increasing a wheelbase or enlarging splashers. Tony

Just testing! I should know..... I have one!

Pretty much any model railway spending is in the luxury/leisure category. It is all optional and through choice. The previous NRM special, the GCR 9J (J11) was clearly underpriced as some people bought them up just to sell them on at a profit. How soon will it be after the release that the first GNR 251 appears on ebay at a vastly inflated price? So why should such profits go into the hands of private moneygrabbing individuals rather than the manufacturers and the NRM, who have done all the work? Yes the price has gone up but such models are still extremely good value.

Got one (a nurse that is). She doesn't know about the Atlantic......... and I hope it stays that way. I will build up to it being a Christmas present "Would you like to get me something for the railway..... I have just the thing in mind". Apparently wallet opening is bad for my health (but only if she finds out about it!). And I am only a Yorkshireman by residence, not birth!

Reality check time! When will folk get it into their heads that the era of superb quality RTR models at rock bottom prices is over. The options are to produce downgraded models with less detail and lower spec. mechanisms or increase the prices. Manufacturers are tinkering with both routes at the moment and whatever they do, people have a pop at them because they are used to high quality and low prices and don't want things to change. Such people need to wake up. Things have changed. Bleating about it on a forum will not make the world go back to how it was a few years ago. Compare the price of this to just about any equivalent mainland Europe or American loco and it is a bargain. Sure, it is more than we are used to paying but it is a limited edition special at a very good price. If there are enough people wanting to purchase them at that price (and the initial reaction makes me think that there are enough, even I have made a rare visit to the wallet) then exactly why should Bachmann produce and sell them for less than that. All it would do is reduce their already poor profits. Now look at the price of a DJH kit, with a decent motor, gearbox and wheels and you are looking at somewhere around the same cost. As with all these things, we have an easy and free choice of at least three possible options. We can buy one. We can keep our money and not have one. We can whinge about it (this option can be used in conjunction with either of the first two). So anybody who doesn't want to pay that price, don't! Nobody is forcing you. There are lots of things in this world I would like to have but can't afford. I choose not to moan about it and I get a little fed up when I see "I really want one but I am unable (which actually means unwilling) to pay the price" postings. Tony

Perhaps the launch of the LBSCR variety is intended to be nearer the completion of the replica build, or maybe that one was announced first to throw us all off the scent.

One very happy bunny. The old Ks kit in the bottom drawer can now stay there.

I eventually got mine to manage 8 bogie carriages on Narrow Road but it took a bit of fiddling about. If anybody makes a RTR version that can get close to that I will be well impressed. It would probably have to have traction tyres or a tender drive (ugh!!).

That would be a real challenge to the RTR folk. Having kit built a "Hardwicke" I can vouch for how difficult it is to fit a motor and enough weight for it to pull a decent train into this delightful but tiny loco. It would be a winner for me and if we had Hardwicke, the LNWR 0-8-0 and perhaps a "Coal Tank" then I can see the LNWR getting the same sort of followers in RTR that it got with London Road models for kit builders. But I think that may have to be another time as all the clues point to something green and from the eastern side of the land.

It all depends. If we don't know what it is, it is difficult to say if it will be a one off not appropriate for further production. If we do know what it is, we could say that it is something that is suitable for other periods and liveries in the main range. Or maybe not.......

An old kit gets a new lease of life and there is a happy modeller with a loco that he probably thought would always be a dud. I have sometimes dealt with similar tasks and the niceties of whether that loco ran with that tender at that date, or if it has the correct chimney, really don't come into play. Job done!

The J3s and J4s were a right proper minefield of rebuilding and detail changes. It is one of those classes where you certainly can't just pick a number and expect a model to be correct. From Tony W's comments, it seems as if the loco may have been already numbered up when it came to him so he may not have gone through all the usual stages of identifying a suitable number for a loco with details that match the kit, or maybe it is correct. It would need a photo of the particular loco at that period to establish such things. The thing that looks odd to me is the size of the driving wheels compared to the splashers. I suspect there is a bit of compromise going on somewhere. It is what it is. An old kit that is now a decent (or having seen Tony's locos run should I say very good!) runner when it wasn't before. Tony

I hate to disagree with you Andy, but......... It is one thing getting grumpy from having to wait ages for a connection on a journey when you want to be elsewhere and you have misread the timetable or it is a poor one for your journey. It is quite another appreciating the history and railway architecture of a place like Darlington. After all, it was the birthplace of railways, the home of Darlington works and it has (or had - it is ages since I was there) a lot of historical railway interest plus some (boring to me but I know others like it) modern interest too. If somebody gets stuck there when they want to be elsewhere, they are going to struggle to appreciate their surroundings but to dismiss a couple of hours at Darlington as boring is very harsh indeed. So I thought the "rubbish" comment was quite justified. There is (or was - it may all have gone now) much of railway interest to enjoy there. Tony

There is something a bit surreal about a thread speculating on a new release when a good number of folk know what it is but won't (for decent enough reasons) say. It is like having a conversation with a huge grey creature with big ears and a trunk for a nose in the room. Is it only me that is strangely drawn to watching folk skirt all the way round it?

Perhaps a big issue to a small but vocal minority. The actual number of people who have commented about it must be tiny compared the the membership of the forum and the total model railway market place.

For £73 that is a rather lovely looking loco. Possibly the best value RTR model ever produced. If there was not a more up market version being produced and that one appeared in the shops at £100, I reckon they would have shifted plenty at that price. I certainly wouldn't have thought twice. As for the detailing, in that photo it looks very nice. If we can't tell which handrails are moulded and which are separate by looking at normal sort of distances, then is it really that important a factor?

So, a secret project going on in the North East. Got to be a Gresley "Hush hush".

Are Hornby just teasing us to crank up our sense of anticipation and excitement? Or is their supply chain really this bad? When (if) they do eventually arrive, what is the betting that the quantities are so small that some folk don't get what they have ordered/want, followed by a frenzy of ridiculous prices on ebay with people who bought them just to make a quick killing making profits at the expense of their fellow modellers again. It is getting all so predictable........

Tractive effort was never much of a guide as to how powerful a loco was. One writer once told how removing the coupling rods from a King (advertised by the GWR at the time as the most powerful loco because of its tractive effort) wouldn't alter the T. E. calculations. Taking the boiler off and replacing it with a Sentinel vertical boiler at a higher pressure would increase the tractive effort calculation but the thing would be unlikely to move itself, let alone a train. As for the A1 design, there is a diagram of a proposed pacific in one of the many LNER books that would have been very much a stretched Ivatt Atlantic (it may even have been a pre-Gresley drawing, I can't recall). Maybe something for somebody like Graeme King to add to his "might have been" collection? Tony

Any chances of keeping some of those bent rail sections as a bit of sculpture to show the history of the site? Some of those shapes are more artistic than a lot of modern sculpture. Tony

According to a local story, "Cock O' The North" once derailed in Bawtry goods yard shunting a horse box while working a local stopping passenger train during "running in". If every modeller only ran what really appeared on their line at a particular date, around 95% of layouts would need to start removing locos and stock. The later P2 design looks like a slight variation of the wheel arrangement of an A4, whereas the original design was something quite startling and different when it appeared. If the later shape had been produced, I wouldn't have my name down for one now but the original design has the "wow" factor in bucket loads and I couldn't resist. I just hope that I am one of the lucky ones as I have an idea that demand will outstrip supply yet again and I wonder how many folk will miss out, only to see the things being resold at inflated prices immediately. Tony