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This thread should be compulsory reading for all those using Peco track! The extra care and effort you have put into your track laying has made a huge difference to the appearance and realism, especially sorting out the track centres and introducing some very attractive sweeping curves. There are many, many layouts seen at shows, where the whole track arrangement is based on what standard Peco points will fit where. They stick out like sore thumbs and once the track department shows that lack of modelling input, the rest of the layout is usually a let down too. By adopting a real track layout and adapting the pointwork to fit, you have pretty much done away with the pitfalls of that approach and the resultant "straight out of the box" appearance that comes with it. No "I want some points here so this bit of layout has to be straight" syndrome on Grantham!

That is looking really good. I love the liveries and the locos of that period, with that mix of the brand new streamliners rubbing shoulders with some pretty ancient GNR stuff. I also like the way you have made a pragmatic decision to accept some compromises in order to get the project up and running within a sensible timescale. I really don't think your compromises detract at all from the overall look of the layout at all. Code 100 track, neatly laid and well painted, can be "got away with" quite nicely, especially on such a large layout, where the "wow" factor is in the scope and size of the layout rather than in the small details. I look forward to seeing you progress on here and perhaps viewing the layout at a show some time.

As a "keeper" of an old layout myself I congratulate you on your efforts to save and possibly return such a historic and worthwhile layout to working order. It is a totally different branch of the hobby, more akin to preservation than modelling but is certainly challenging and interesting. Lots of decisions need to be made, as to what can be kept and repaired and what might need replacing and if so, do you do it using modern methods and materials or do you try to recreate what the original builder would have used many years ago. Good luck with the project and I hope to see progress reports from time to time. Tony

Only if you think that every time a modeller designs some etched parts/castings/3D prints of something he wants to build, that he has some sort of duty to advertise and start marketing them. Hardly a "Secret Society" because there has always been a huge amount of stuff produced privately that has never been widely known or advertised. I prefer to just be grateful to Mike that some of the rather excellent etches that he has produced for his own private use are now being made more widely known and that he is willing to make them available to the rest of us. Back on thread....... Those finished locos certainly look the part and I really look forward to seeing Tim's progress.

Big Jim wins my vote for the best whistle, if that counts! What a fantastic sound, echoing up the valley.

Robinson 4-4-0 "Bogie pom-pom" before it was altered with a higher pitched boiler. Perfect proportions and stunning livery. Even better (but only just) than the GCR Atlantics and the Sacre (how do you type an accent?) 4-4-0 mentioned above.

If you can get a signal of that sort of quality made to order at something like that price, I and many others would be most interested! I actually make signals for other people and I know how long it takes to build and paint something like that. They are a bargain at the MSE price!

These signals are hand assembled from MSE etched parts (plus brass tube for the post). They are scale models and they look very nice indeed. The initial batch arrived in time for Doncaster show and has now very nearly sold out. They are being produced in small batches and the first one is a 30' tall LMS type upper quadrant. They are all identical (ie they all have the black stripe round the post and the white diamond) so at this stage it is not possible to purchase one without a diamond. MSE are very much dipping their (his!) toe into the water with these to see what sort of response he gets but if they sell well, he has plans to market small batches of various different signal types from different railway companies. Here is a photo so you can see what they look like!

It is quite easy to follow a departing train up the platform with DC. It is a move we carry out on Narrow Road on a regular basis. We have a seperate controller and each platform section is fed via a three position switch. One position and the whole platform is connected to the main line controller. The next position isolates the platform end and allows a pilot/light engine to back down onto the stock. The third position switches the extra controller onto the whole length of the platform. As soon as the departing loco is beyond the platform end, the switch is thrown and the loco at the buffer stops can be driven up the platform behind the departing train within a second or two. A two position switch (just to switch the platform to another controller) and a seperate isolating switch for the platform end section(which I am pretty sure Liverpool Lime Street must already have) would do the same. Some of our operators are up to the job of driving both at once, as once the departing train is on its way, full concentration can be given to the light engine following on, making sure it doesn't get too close and that it stops at the signal. Sometimes each loco has its own driver. Having seen the operating systems on the layout close up, I can't imagine that a little job like that would tax the people responsible, if it was deemed desirable!

He wouldn't lynch you.......... It would be much worse! It would probably require surgery to remove ones head from where it really shouldn't be. One bloke came close this afternoon at Nottingham. Something was slightly amiss on LB and the chap kept telling one of my daughters that she needed to pull this that or the other lever. They get this sort of thing all the time, being but "girls in a man's world". They are both very good operators. Of course, she had pulled all the levers quite correctly and it was a faulty switch causing the problem. She was too polite to say anything at the time but if looks could kill..........

Well, where do I start with this one! Have I ever been truly satisfied with anything I have ever built? Nope! But I have had 30 years of great fun trying to get there. I have been very lucky along the way and have exhibited many layouts, operated some of the truly great ones and been offered decent money to build things for other people. My exhibition appearance count is almost certainly up with that of "Beast" and I have made the cover of MRJ and been published in RM and BRM too. None of that counts for me as "making it" because there is nothing that I have achieved that many others haven't done much better than me. I am, like the late Peter Denny described himself, a "jack of all trades, master of none" To me, I reckon that "making it" as a modeller is when you get to spend time with good people that you are proud to call friends, doing what you enjoy doing. I have spent today doing exactly that and will do so again tomorrow (already today!). Perhaps I could add that one thing that does give me a little sense of self satisfaction is when an exhibition manager books a layout even before it has been built because he knows we won't let him down.

Very sorry to see that news. I hope it is nothing serious and that Mike is back in action before too long. Tony Gee

Third time lucky! The lettering is looking good now. I have done pretty much the same for the nameboards for a certain signal box at Babworth. Just looking at the real box, although the letters look ever so flat, the border looks to stand much more proud. What do you think of the idea of a sliver of thin plasticard around the edge? Again, looking at the real one, is the nameboard border actually black? It probably should be and it might just be the light reflecting oddly but the border of the nameboard looks nearer the signal box corner post colour than the lettering colour. Summat to think about! Cheers, Tony

Nice one Mick. Sometimes you do a half decent impression of somebody that knows what they are doing! Just the rest of the layout to do now........... Cheers, Tony

I agree entirely that wagons are very much overlooked for far too long. Things do seem to be improving with more recent releases though. Those steel hoppers have been around as models for many years now and although I haven't seen recent ones close up I don't think that they have changed much from their original (Airfix?) issue. I had a few when I was modelling BR period and modified the brake gear to look more like an ex LNER type as mine had an "E" number. The quality and detail on some of the latest releases as RTR models eclipses all but the very best kit models (unless you work like Geoff Kent!) and if I was still interested in modelling BR period I would probably go with mainly RTR stuff, which has come on in leaps and bounds since a few years ago. My friends who model the BR period are very impressed by the latest offerings from the likes of Bachmann and they are not the sort of people who will accept second rate models on their layouts!

GWR 262 T was spotted at a preserved railway a while ago. Should have been on a Prairie but wasn't. Passing through I have seen a Dodge Viper a couple of times, with a plate V 1 PER (or might be V11 PER - only seen it at an angle and from a distance!).

We were very pleased to receive a surprise visit from Tony and Mo today, while a bunch of us were together playing trains with Retford. He didn't know about the thread on RMWeb and when we showed it to him I think he was a little embarrased to see the sorts of things people were saying about him, while also being very appreciative! He is still a long way from being well again but it was very good to see him taking some excellent photographs and showing a bit of interest in model railways again. I hope today has done him some good and he is hoping to come again soon, so that is promising. He has asked me to pass on his thanks for all the kind words and messages of support, which I am happy to do. Tony Gee

I went to Bolton on Dearne station in the early 1980s and was astonished to see that not only did it still have gas lamps but that they were lit in the middle of the day. Having said that...... I agree 100% that lights on a model often stick out like sore thumbs. We generally model daylight hours, apart from a few adventurous souls who have built suitable "black out" arrangements. The building with lights on because somebody has spent time modelling the interior and wants to make sure that everybody knows about it.......... The loco with tail lights on even though it has a train behind........... Semaphores with lamps lit up as bright as colour light signals in broad daylight....... I can cope without thanks.

I hope that Leader never appears as a RTR model. I have sometimes seen models of Leader at exhibitions. Just occasionally. Sometimes they have been parked in shed yards and sometimes they have been working trains. I know that the models I have seen have been lovingly created by somebody. They are rare and unusual. This quality, of being rare and unusual, is entirely accurate and prototypical. If there was a mass produced model, that rarity would vanish. Every southern area layout of the period will have one. How many DP1s and 10,000s do you see at shows now compared to a few years ago? The few people who have taken the trouble to lovingly make one will feel that their hard work in creating something unusual has been wasted. So my preference would be to keep it rare and therefore that bit more special to see a model of it.

Never finished in polished aluminium maybe but they did get a metal finish sometimes! My dad was involved in this project as he was a Rolls Royce apprentice and then went into an engineering career in the RAF. I also have a photo somewhere of me as a six year old under the wing of a white "Lanc" at Bahrain in 1966. That looked very smart and quite modern. http://www.google.co...16&tx=114&ty=50

I have just had a lovely email from a Mrs Gaddafi. Apparently her husband is having some problems and would like to get some money out of Libya. If I just send her my bank details she will put millions into my account and I can keep a big chunk of it as a thank you................ A very old scam recycled!

It just goes to show that there are many forms of inspiration and each of us should be allowed to draw our own from whichever source we choose. When you look at the ratio of models representing real places compared to fictitious ones, the real places are in a massive minority. Perhaps more of us would model real places if there we could find something that interests us, has all the features we wish to create and most importantly, will fit the space available. In my case, I usually take a certain feature of a real place, usually seen in a photograph and I think "That is crying out to be modelled" and I will then start doodling schemes that could include one or more such features. A new project under starting orders at the moment combines a photo taken of the multilevel bridges at Chesterfield, combined with the lovely building from Chesterfield Market Place. I don't have the room or the desire to model that station fully as the passenger service was very limited and the goods yard sticks out at right angles but I can lift the design of the building and canopies and use them on a track plan of my own. If I were interested in modelling a scene more recent than pregrouping, I would look at a place like Birmingham (which I used to go to in the late 70s early 80s) and think "A concrete hole in the ground with most of the platforms hidden - I wouldn't consider that something I would ever want to model!" Yet Jim was inspired enough by the real thing to build it and in turn has clearly inspired others with his project. As far as I am concerned, the more different inspirations we have, the more varied and interesting the hobby becomes. It goes to show how diverse our hobby can be, from the chap who has a Dean Single "Lord of the Isles" running round a circle with a Deltic and two carriages going round the other way, up to the chap who won't allow a particular loco on his strict prototype layout because on the date the model is set, that particular loco was in shops for repairs. Neither is wrong, they are just different.

Not sure that "Outage" qualifies as a "Phrase that should be banned". My friend, who has 50 years experience in the power industry uses it regularly. It doesn't just refer to a power failure but to a planned shut down too. The word appears in various online dictionaries so it seems to be quite acceptable as part of our language. Now, if the thread was "words I don't like!"............

I well remember building Airfix kits representing various warships, then loading them with tissue paper, lighter fuel and bangers and setting them afloat on our local stream. First they started smoking, then they went bang. As far as I know the worst casualties were a startled duck or eight! I remember paddling in the stream, walking over the rocks in bare feet. I remember being about 8 years old and working out how to climb onto our neigbours garage roof, so that I could peer through his window at the secret car he kept in there (A Rolls Royce dating back to the 1930s). We also made a den out of a demolished house, complete with dodgy floorboards over a cellar, which had no way out unless you made up some ramps from rotten planks of wood! Of course we shouldn't have been there and of course it might have been dangerous but somehow we lived through it, enjoyed the experience and remember it 40 years later! What will our present generation remember? Getting a high score on Super Mario? Looking back it seemed to me that as long as we didn't get hurt (and if we did it was always our own fault, never anybody elses) or caught, then we had a freedom to explore the world for ourselves. No looking the world up on Google for us, we went out and found it! I would not be too keen to belittle the hazards of asbestos as I have known people who have been struck down by the stuff and it isn't pleasant. Hearing stories of apprentices making footballs of the stuff and kicking them around in their breaks and then nearly all of them being dead way before their time make you think long and hard about that one! Apart from that, I had a right telling off from one of my daughters today. I nearly ate a peanut from a bowl in a pub. Of course I would have died instantly if I had put it in my mouth because somebody else might have touched it first!

Exactly my point! Describing a "zero" as an "oh" is quite common nowadays. I was pointing out that having OO on a thread about phrases that should be banned was a bit harsh unless we want to change the way we refer to gauges generally. If we modellers verbally refer to the gauge as "double oh" rather than "double nought" then I think that it is reasonable to expect it to be written as OO rather than 00 as a result of common usage. In the days when most things were written by hand rather than typed, I would challenge anybody to spot the difference anyway. Continuing to call the gauge "double oh" and expecting the world and his dog to know that it is really two zeros has a good chance of failing! I know people who would refer to a B17 as a four-six-nought but I am happy using four-six-oh myself! I would not tell anybody that they were wrong to use either.