Joseph_Pestell

Careful of those Sybics. They are for Marklin 3-rail system. No wonder they are discounted. Piko should know that Marklin enthusiasts are fairly rare in France and only buy Marklin. Mind, at that price might be worth buying and converting.

Pierre Dominique have a good reputation and have done a few "specials" over the years - although earlier eras than your interest. Million trades as Jura Modelisme.I am sure that will come up on Google.

Presumably (and remember that I don't do CAD myself), if someone has done the drawings for a model at, say 4mm scale, it should not be too difficult to simply resize for other scales.

Nothing so far as I know in Carcassonne. Toulouse has Gottero (Boite a Jouets) in an arcade on the Grand Boulevard. Well-stocked but pricey as clientele seems to mostly be hospital doctors. Andorra has a famed shop but I am having a senior moment about the name. No VAT in Andorra but technically you can get nabbed by customs if you have bought too much. Both have regular ads in French model railway magazines. If you want to purchase by mail order, the best is Million. Huge stocks, among the lowest prices and always well packed for post. The French equivalent of Hattons.

Above floor engines - a good idea in many ways. But track access charging regime works against it.

I don't think clearances were particularly tight on the Midland. It was the Hotel Curve into Platform 16 (?) at Kings Cross which was limited to short rolling stock. The Met stock that originally ran on the Northern City line was quite large, so clearance should not be a problem on that route. 313s will have to be replaced soon (nearly 40 years old) so the question is indeed whether to have an integrated fleet with Thameslink or pass those services to "Overground" with the outer termini probably brought back to Gordon Hill and Welwyn GC.

Clearly 3D printing is making rapid progress as a technique and very useful for those (not me!) who have CAD skills. But what sort of cost per body are we talking about? Last time I enquired, it was prohibitively expensive for a production run. Much better to use it as a method of producing a master from which moulds could be made for resin casting. But things may have changed as the technique becomes more mainstream.

It's all there in Govt docs over the years. The Cost Benefit Analysis for Midland ML electrification came ahead of any other scheme on the railway (despite which GW, Manchester and Transpennine got put in front).

I don't think the DMUs are overpriced, nor even the carriages. But Ebay might not be the best medium for a more specialist item such as O gauge models. At the very least, he should have started lower to get some competition going.

We all seem to have gone a bit off topic. Since when was Weymouth on the Midland?

I think that last comment was meant to be a joke??? French electricity has the same phase/frequency as we do. You would not want to be transporting electricity over long distance on DC. The cables would have to be as big as the Channel Tunnel. I would guess that the 319s may end up in The Cardiff Valleys rather than in the Thames Valley.

Easier to make electric locos to UK loading gauge than diesel locos. Quite a lot of spare speace within the bodywork of many European electric locos.

This has been dealt with quite easily in various locations on the continent. When there is not enough room for the "knitting", you fix a conductor rail to the roof of the tunnel. Not sure if it has been done with AC though so you might need dual voltage equipment.

Keep in mind that the Airfix/Dapol Interfrigo wagon is 1:87 rather than 1:76. Other than that, a nice kit and aftermarket parts have been available to improve the ladders/walkways.

For "fancy brackets" (properly called corbels) have you had a look at the ScaleLink range. You would probably want some that are nominally for 7mm.

There shouldn't be! As already pointed out by Dudders, they were only built (converted) in 1959. If you want older (not LSW which is going to be covered by Dapol/Kernow), you would probably need kits from Dave Hammersley (Roxey).

I believe that Model Power have sourced from more than one European manufacturer for their buildings. I would agree with other comments that the DPM American buildings are closer to British than the various European ones. But for a layout set in the 1980s, go for scratchbuilt UK-type buildings from the 60s and 70s. Square boxes with very little by way of architectural detailing. Starting from a sheet of perspex (or similar) not difficult to build up successive levels of glazing bars, brick/steel panels etc. If worried about your abilities to cut straight enough, Plastikard/Evergreen strips are a godsend.

The "hole in the sky" approach only really works well if you have a large building or trees to hide it behind. I don't think that applies here. Other than moving Marsden nearer, I would suggest a small farm occupation bridge.

Can only echo what others have said. A great layout which captures so much of the atmosphere of the place - although certainly many years to go yet until finished. When I was very young (1970s), there was a model of the MPD on the exhibition circuit (main participant was the older brother of someone I was at school with). Clearly this project has been going on for a long time and I wondered whether that MPD model was the starting point for this project.

Missed out on Portugal back in the 70s since they were having their revolution the week that I was due to be there. Wanted to go ever since even though the railway scene not so interesting as it was.

Agreed. They have done a lot in the last few days. Full of character.

I have some slides from that era stored away somewhere. If I can work out how to scan them, I'll put some of them on here.

Agreed. CrossCountry has always been a bit of a "Cinderella". That's partly because it has very varying flows of traffic with more emphasis on leisure travel. But 220s are not cheap to run. Locos plus push-pull sets could work out much better for XC even with the daft track access charges regime.

I think that CrossCountry might be very glad to be rid of the 220s in favour of something with a bit more capacity (even allowing for the extra pantograph coach).

I think that you can safely assume that it won't be 319s on Newcastle to Liverpool. A short IEP could be a candidate but I think that Govt is finally realising what a folly that project is. Class 395 Javelin (or a 23 metre derivative) would be a good call on that route. I also think that we will see something similar to Class 395 on the Great Western's shorter routes. Really need the extra speed over the 319 to maximise capacity on the fast lines east of Airport Jct. With extra platform capacity at Reading we might even see Oxford / Newbury services of 2 x 395 split at Reading. So, yes, probably more new trains in the South and cascaded (but refurbed) 319s in the North - but only for suburban services. 319s 3rd rail/overhead capacity could be useful in extending Merseyrail services.