Dava

Is it time to retitle this thread as there is no sign of an end to the Tugs any time soon, they continue to haul the goods through Lincoln on my last visit today and to return to service gradually by DB? 20+ years & going strong. Dava

According to Tower Models this afternoon, they expect delivery about 2 months after the final prototypes which they've not yet seen, so maybe November at best, or before Christmas? Dava

Today I got a copy of the book 'Portrait of the Terriers' by Handel Kardas, published by Ian Allan back in 1999. It cost me under £3 + post and is the second I've come across at low cost in a week. Its by far the best of the little collection of 'Terrier' books I've collected since the Dapol model was announced (well, there's been plenty of time, hasnt there!) with many photos and some drawings showing the innumerable variations these locos experienced, recommended. I've ordered my loco, the blue KESR A1 version to continue my light railway theme, which like 'Waddon' will be exported to Canada. I rather think the success of the Dapol model will hinge more on its build and running quality than the exact verisimilitude of the rivets to a particular version. Mind you, I did see one of the 'Pillbox' brake vans at £70 rrp in a shop today and it did look a bit plain and not replete with underframe detail, so we shall see. Dava

How lively this discussion has become... The small model producer (or any business?) without a website has no future because people won't find you. You can easily digitise a printed catalog onto a website, unless it was hand produced on a Gutenberg platen. The era of the white metal kit is similarly almost over, being a toxic costly medium which does not give great results, deteriorating as the moulds wear out. I don't mind if I never build another one. People will still build kits but as well as brass and resin increasingly they will be 3D printed, so can be very short run or even unique. This technology will just get better and cheaper. Look at the designer-makers using Shapeways, if you want a 7mm LBSC Balloon brake or anything else then you will find someone to design it on CAD if (like me) you can't yet do it yourself, so you produce your own plastic kit. Railway modeling has always progressed by adapting the new technologies, its great to have affordable 7mm RTR, how lucky we are! Dava

Mr ABS continues to dominate the threads, providing an exhausting critique of every Dapol 0 gauge model before it arrives. At least Dapol release (eventually?) new models which folks want to buy. ABS models do not have a website, acquire like a black hole other ranges which disappear without trace, and have a catalogue which on their occasional appearances at shows is totally incomprehensible regarding pricing and if you dare ask, what you want is probably unavailable anyway. Tend to your own garden.... Dava

When I see the actual model (the A1 for me) I'll be consulting Colin Binnie's little book on 'The Brighton Terriers' with its excellent drawings to determine what work is actually required, rather than judging from a photo of the EP. Until then, may I suggest we 'get these matters in proportion'? Dava

So they could call the original Stepney and the replica Stephany? This predictive texting gets to us all! Dava

Given that the EP on the Dapol site is the A1x, we can see the detail differences between them,with the drum smokebox on the A1x being in plastic you can remove any rivets not required. For me the A1 is the more attractive loco. This looks to be a well designed loco we can look forward to, next month? Dava

These are, I think, the first RTR Atlantics in any scale and probably will remain so, if they were 0 gauge you'd expect to pay a lot more! Dava

Here's the latest from the local media on the campaign to save the CB&NSCR line to Sydney, Cape Breton. A mention of passengers to the port has entered the discussion, but no ideas on how or who would pay for the massive investment needed to overcome deferred non-maintenance and make the line safe for operation. http://bit.ly/1oG95LB

Congrats on that Manning Wardle, and good to see the 'Planet' again! Build that layout! Dava

How is Cambridge near A38/M5? Is there more than one? Just returned full-handed from trip to home brewery across my yard. On a par with cloudy Big Spruce Ales from Cape Breton over recent weeks. Craft brewing is big in Nova Scotia but we need a brewpub.... Dava

Good to see such good news in 00 industrial RTR, especially for quality at this price and a big step up from those odd Spanish-type locos masquerading as Scots and Welsh ones. Deserves to succeed. Dava

Here is the final adventure in this visit to Cape Breton, although timewise it was actually the first....a visit to the remains of the Sydney & Louisbourg Railway, with the Louisbourg station museum the destination. First the preserved station, a fascinating location but in need of a paint restoration job to contend with the salty Atlantic winds...the group who run it deserve every support. A view from the shunting neck trackside with remaining stock in the distance The buildings have many interesting exhibits, including a painting of 'the Ocean' express in better days.. There are some fine models, here is S&L 23 and train In the goods shed is a fine HO model of the entire S&L system, here is the coal pier at Sydney Outside is a steel passenger car with fine 6-wheel trucks A look inside before it deteriorates too much Fortunately this old wooden car has been preserved inside a display shed You can walk back in time through the restored interior, remember those Western movies.. Finally a good selection of preserved Speeders which just need a running line By this time the weather (the aftermath of Hurricane Arthur) was starting to close in, so it was off up the coast to Myra Bridge where the S&L rail bridge across the Gut is now used by the road. Check out the ex-swinging span which resembles a turntable. Finally we stop at the mining museum at Glace Bay. Outside there is mining equipment including this migrant worker, a loco from North British in Glasgow. We'll be back to Cape Breton in September, to follow the last days or the rescue story of the Sydney subdivision, the Sydney Coal Railway, and the two surviving Cape Breton steam locos stored somewhere off the Island. Meanwhile, here;s a shot of Grand Narrows from the air. Spot that tiny rail bridge from 18 July! Dava

Now for a nose around the Sydney rail yards. Its evening, the sun is setting, the grass is long, there's no-one around except stray cats. There is a collection of derelict freight cars in the yard,including a couple of old cabooses. The massive Sydney coal hoist which unloads coal onto the Sydney Coal railway (another time...) dominates the horizon. 3022 in its CBNSCR livery makes a brave sight, in front of 7232. And here's 7232, a Co-Co. They ran in last Saturday. That's it for now, Dava

Wow, thanks guys for your encouragement and comments, especially Pugsley for those great photos. No need to apologise for 'The Ocean' in Halifax, the thread includes Nova Scotia. The passenger train is indeed the sleeping cars built for the regional transmanche service ('Nightliner'), the last trains built at the old Metro-Cammell works at Washwood Heath, Birmingham. They are not a success on 'The Ocean', apart from being to the UK loading gauge as the contrast with the locos shows, their reliability in Canadian conditions is not great. Recently it looked as though the Halifax-Montreal service would close because of track/bridge defects in the New Brunswick area but the money has been found by VIA to patch the line up so I hope to ride this train later this year or early 2015. Meanwhile, back at Grand Narrows. The bridge is the largest structure on the former Intercolonial Railway, spanning the Bras D'Or lake. The line connected steel and coalopolis Sydney with the Canso strait over which a train ferry operated until the causeway linked it to the mainland. The structure is 516m long, the channel is up to 50m deep and it was completed in 1889-90, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Narrows_Bridge The approach curve on the Iona side has the very poor track which I don’t think a UK rail inspector would let pass on safety grounds. The swing span is left open for boat traffic as we can see. The hazard with swing bridges is that they can stick and this has happened on a few occasions with Grand Narrows. The condition of the span and swing equipment is that it looks neglected from years of deferred maintenance. Tomorrow we’ll sneak a look round Sydney depot. Then the museum at Louisbourg, and back to the UK! Dava

Great film, you get a fleeting glimpse of the loco restoration from Midland Mainline trains south of Market Harbro Dave

This is my third and longest visit so far to Cape Breton, the first time I've had any chance to see the rail line in operation. This thread aims to be a mix of observations and photos from me, and i'll welcome any comments and information from folks who know more about the subject than I do. If there's interest, I'll keep going! There is a story here as this may be the dying months of this line..or maybe not. There will be mentions of other sites and lines on the island and in the province too. And forgive the photo quality, I just took a compact Sony WX-80 with me! The last days of the Cape Breton & Nova Scotia Central Railway: a shortline tale The bright orange-liveried 1563 and on-hire blue 2269 locos eased their 7-car mix of 2 boxcars, a closed hopper, 3 empty coal hoppers and an oil tank around the sunlit bay of Sydney Harbour in Cape Breton, whistling for the road crossings past Wentworth Park and past the backstreets of the town into the overgrown old freight yards beside Intercolonial Street. They’d dropped off a few cars in North Sydney, and sometimes there were a few for Port Hawkesbury at the other end of the island, but apart from that the twice-weekly freight to Sydney rarely reached even double figures. The brakesman uncoupled the train in the yard and the driver ran the two locos up the shunting neck which at one time ran to the coal wharf at the harbour, before backing them in front of the locked freight car repair works. 1563 looked bold in its orange livery, but the outlook for the Sydney subdivision of CBNSCR was anything but. The parent company had been paid over $22m in ten years for maintenance and to subsidise the lossmaking line. But in truth the bottom had fallen out back in 2001 when the last coal and steel traffic ended, with even the remains of the Sydney steel plant, once the Pittsburgh of Canada, being shipped out as scrap. CNR had pulled out even before this and VIA had ended the Budd railcar passenger service way back in 1993, the terminal building still remaining derelict. Now, summer 2014, this could be the last sunshine for the Sydney branch. The operator had decided that even the subsidy did not make the line worth continuing, and they’d given notice to quit the service when the agreement ended at the close of September, when they would apply to close the line. Cape Breton Mayor Cee-cil Clarke had high hopes of a revival of the harbour with container or break-bulk shipping relying on a rail link, so he aimed to rally support to keep the line with a few diehard old-economy men backing him, but it looked pretty hopeless. It looked even more hopeless and a lot more worrying if you took a close look at the state of the line. Rotten ties, loose spikes, and wide gauge track were common. There were sections on curves where the railhead had deformed with the weight of the freightcars on the inner rail, and not only gauge corner cracking but chunks of the railhead had come off. Down by the massive Grand Lake Narrows bridge had about the worst length, a derailment there would pitch a train into the Bras D’Or lake, or maybe it would slam into the rusting great bridge itself, which the train crews ran over very carefully.... Dava

The boiler was apparently scrapped by the owner, say goodbye to this one , fortunately the ELR has the right idea Dava

This ensemble ran very well on Coney Hill, the coach could be given the brake end windows the Easingwold one still has at Cannock Chase Dava

The Planet emigrated to Australia, me to Canada! Dava

Coney Hill, it has its own thread but I passed it to new owners at the show Dava

Questa was good at Quorn, you did well! We were in the same tent. I am using wooden wine/port & plastic whisky bottle boxes to transport gauge 0 locos to Canada. Have to label clearly! Dava

Tower-models.com have the latest EP shots of the A1, it looks very good. The hard choice is whether to order the better looking A1 or the more long-lived A1x. Decisions... I don't have a layout at present! Dava

Good luck with this venture. Look closely at your business model, ideal customer profile, their average spend & net profit year round. Dava