Joseph_Pestell

Going to bump this as I have just mentioned it on another thread.

As an architect, you are going to be more than averagely sensitive to how something looks. So unless you can find a seriously large room or shed to build your layout in, you should probably rule out, for the time being, any sort of continuous run layout in 4mm scale (00). Given your interests, I would suggest you look up a layout called Wellington Road. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/36589-wellington-road-leeds-1975-79-period/ You could build something similar quite easily along one wall of your guest bedroom on wall brackets or a bookcase and build it in such a way that it can be incorporated easily into any future project when you have more space. It will allow you to try all aspects of the hobby within a short timescale and see what you enjoy most. Agree with the suggestion that you use a baseboard kit such as Tim Horn's. Given the price of good timber, if you can find any, they are a really good option. Finally, if you want track that looks good (Code 75), you are right that your 70s models are not going to run on it without serious modification and expense. So really better to start again. And no reason why Golden Plover, suitably renamed and renumbered, should not appear on a steam special.

I tried Googling it. Most unusually, no results. Gladiator have a different diagram LNW autocoach in their range but not currently available.

Yes, the Welsh Valleys could be an option if the political embarrassment factor of not delivering electrification can be overcome. Some of the journey times perhaps a bit long for units such as these.

I prepared etches myself before the computer era. The maths involved in working out that compound curve might be a bit complex if one could not use the original drawings or measure the real thing. But no particular problem to draw it.

A pity that the video clip does not show the incline fiddleyard in use.

That seems a much more sensible way of doing it, by which I mean you will have the joint in a place where it will be easier to match up with the sides. And it looks way better than the Ayjay (not that that is too difficult!). I don't understand why MTK used white metal ends at all. Would seem simpler to me to do the cab ends in etch with a fold line.

One of the South London clubs, Croydon or Beckenham also had a model of Holywell Town: EM I think. That would have been back in the 70s. I am fairly sure that they did not know about the special operating rule though as I recall locos running round the train in the conventional way. Would make a good starter project in O. And the engine always being at the downhill end of the train makes for a simpler fiddleyard arrangement that does not need a second operator.

Indeed, I think that is the one. Hardly such a thing as a standard LMS push-pull coach as many were conversions. But with Bachmann now producing models of several ex-LMS locos with PP capability, it would seem like an obvious option for them to produce a suitable item of rolling stock.

Should not be too difficult, by 2018, to provide some stock for Okehampton which would be interchangeable with other units in the Exeter area. I wish the Vivarail project well but I can't really see many obvious locations in the UK for them.

I can understand your emotion. But very important that life carries on as usual. Otherwise, we are letting the terrorists win.

Six months off and then an appointment at which Prem club is bottom at Xmas.

I think that I probably have one of those old Farish OO suburban coaches somewhere which I could convert. But looking at my Chester-Holyhead book, there is a much more interesting push-pull coach illustrated. Not a good view but it is more in the style of an early GW autocoach - perhaps a conversion from an LNW railmotor.

I didn't know about the loco downhill arrangement either. It explains the rather odd track layout at the junction end of the branch.

I think one can often gauge an LPA's attitude to planning by what they call their department/committee responsible for planning. Here, it is called Development Control.

Kelly's Directory??? If you can't find an original for that date, have a look to see if Belmont and Stanmore are covered in the Godfrey Collection of replica OS maps. He prints extracts from Kelly's on the reverse of the map.

Had a pint this evening in Bournemouth. A rather spectacular Brewhouse in Commercial Rd called In Pursuit of Hoppiness. The brewhouse is in what was a passageway through the building but is in full view of the bar. A range of eight real ales all brewed on the premises or at their sister establishment in Poole plus about 12 different keg craft beers, British, US, German & Belgian. Unfortunately, I was driving but next time I may just have to book a room at a nearby hotel!

Not the best Bond but probably not his fault. The films were a bit silly at that point. He was at the same school as my father, one year below.

Lidl has some very good stuff that yo don't even see in some of the mainstream shops e.g. roo steaks. We had a shop close in Shaftesbury recently (formerly Somerfield, Coop) and I am hoping that will become an Aldi.

Dave said that the Tesco was needed where he lived. He did not comment on yours.

Have you considered building elsewhere? It does seem that you have a particularly "difficult" LPA. It seems rather unlikely that it costs less to lose appeals than to have competent staff. I think it's more a matter of "politics" which means that the LPA say it's not their fault that x got built. But they always have that get-out. Our Town Council frequently voted "no objection" to plans that we did not like at all but which had no grounds for refusal in planning law. The District would then turn them down and lose at appeal. Our Town Council of inexperienced "amateurs" seemed to have a better understanding of planning law than the "professionals" at District.

Charging for pre-application advice is, in my view, counter-productive. It results in people putting in applications which would be better avoided. I don't think that what they are doing is legal if they oblige you to have pre-app advice and still more illegal to charge you for an agreement which may not even be applicable.

Disconnected gas supplies are often the most dangerous when it comes to unexpected demolitions.

That's not quite true. Local authorities have various sources of income - sometimes controversial as per Spelthorne. But we can agree that they are usually short of money. So it makes no sense to spend money on planning appeals that they are certain to lose. But they do! And no. I am not saying that they should compensate developers for unreasonable and unnecessary delays. I am suggesting that if the law obliged them to pay compensation they would make more effort to deal with planning applications in a timely fashion. I totally get (having been involved in one myself) that major planning applications need a lot of time. The sort of application that Dave is making (single houses and conversions) does not.

I agree with this approach. Diamonds rarely exist on their own. Consider it as part of a route and it becomes easy to switch polarity of the crossings on the diamond in conjunction with moving the points.