Bernard Lamb

Back in the day, around the early 1960s I would think, I used to buy it for use in testing varnished surfaces on coated paper. I had to have an invoice on the firms headed paper and sign the register at the local chemists. Was that a legal requirement back then or just a chemist/company rule? Bernard

What bearing does that have on what I wrote Mr Bear? Each one of them will be subject to due legal process. It is very easy to draw up a proposal, but a very different kettle of fish to actually get it delivered. As Nearholmer points out, different people on the same side view the situation very differently. There may be trouble ahead, as the old song puts it. Bernard

What would you consider to be a fair margin? Bearing in mind they are doing it as a full time job? With all the overheads and legal requirements that are involved in doing that. Bernard

A quick rough and ready count on an OS map gives 23. There could well be more private crossings, but as these are not marked more work would be needed to get an accurate number. Any attempt to close that lot will take years, and a lot of cash. Bernard

I would agree. The people at Contikits are very good to deal with. The other side of the coin is that their selling prices are just as realistic. You don't see items in their lists hanging around forever at silly prices. Bernard

At one time Skoda built Sentinel steam lorries under a licence arrangement. I did come across an H0 model, no idea who made it, back in the late 198os. Unfortunately I did not by it as we were in a hurry to get somewhere. Keep up the good work. Bernard

It is quite straightforward, providing you do a dry run and identify all the parts. Otherwise you will end up with not enough of some of them and too many of others. If you do find yourself in that situation, it is fairly simple to make them from plastic sections. In fact it might be quicker to just built it, in the knowledge that you will have to scratch build a few items. It makes up into a nice kit. I found it to be rather too small and wish I had bought at least one more kit. Bernard

Short yes, but it packs a heck of a lot of operational detail into that time. Bernard

The St Albans examples are definately a modernish introduction. I have seen photographs of grids in place on the Tollesbury line, dated from just beore closure, so very early 1950s. However pre war photographs of the line are rather rare. I have not come across any that show grids, although I have not see photographs of all the locations. Bernard

Thanks folks for the folow up comments. There is a video on ytube The full stoty of Flying Scotsman's trip to the USA, and it was 1969. Liverpool to Boston on the Saxonia. I was not aware of the details, nor that it was a political tour backed by Harold Wilson, nor to the extent of the stock that also made the journey. Bernard

This turned up on my facebook page this morning. Seeing that this seems to be the place for information about the history of these machines I will post it here. No doubt more knowledgeable folk can provide chapter and verse on were it is going for its holidays. Apologies re lack of copyright information. Bernard

That is expensive. In Ukraine they are using toy drones that cost around £200. One will take out a group of enemy soldiers but they need to use two to destroy a tank. War has indeed changed. The Russsians seem to be unable to stop them using all the high tech resources at their disposal. Bernard

I do not have this issue. I would, however, view all RM drawings with a degree of caution. Bernard

One little problem. There are about ten times as many potential victims as ther are people to train them. So where do we get all the new RSMs from? Bernard

The disgusting state of the shelving is a perfect example of why I will not buy any KR products. A lack of sensitivity and care for the little things is, to me, an indication of a lack of care in general. Sums them up in one photograph. But then I worked in QA for Dexion, solving storage situations for household name companies, for most of my working life, so I am biased. But right.😃 Bernard

I think that is a good summary of the problems of making certain scale working parts. The only, possibly economic, way that I can see it working, is to 3D print them in titanium. Then wait for the howls when the average punter sees the cost. It all comes down to the engineering saying :- you cannot scale tolerances. There is a minimum size, below which things will simply not work. The load bearing parts of valve gear being a case in point. I remember heated discussions at work, where a person would have a brilliant idea, and then we would go through the practicalities of making the article by the tens of thousands. Design for manufacture was what we called it. Bernard

Good morning Tony, I bought one of these models. Being described as '78047 based at Hawick' I was expecting that I could have a Borders machine that would actually be RTR and require little work, other than adding crew and a lamp. How wrong I was. It is still on the work bench and is the most frustrating locomotive that I have purchased in recent times. Yesterday it came out in sympathy with yours and a rod managed to detach itself, just while pottering along my test track. I will not bore readers with what else I have had to do as this has been done to death on the Hornby thread. Bernard

It looks pretty straight forward to me and looks to be very similar to schemes I know from other fields. If they have got it wrong, they will put it right. If you muck it up it is down to you. As a PR exercise I think it is brilliant. The comments already make it a success, However, wearing my QA hat, Accurascale appear to have very robust quality systems in place. They must be fairly sure as to the likely figures to be returned under this scheme. I would think that figure will be very low. That does give me confidence in their products. At the same time it gives me added confidence that I will never need to take advantage of this scheme. Bernard

Blimey! That was windy last night.

Which is fine when you have the correct tooling available and material that is capable of being formed on that tooling and a press that is up to the job. Stuck in a rather limited workshop in the back of beyond, such facilities would be of little help. Bernard

If they are different, a few strokes with a file on the end of the rail section on the larger one, will soon make them match. Bernard

Not these days. That is almost certainly true. However going back 50 years I could have shown you a shop with a couple of dozen Sheet Metal Workers who could produce almost any complicated shape from a drawing. The radiator front surround on a RR car being a classic example. All done by eye. The last time I saw these skills in use was on a trip to the Morgan factory.That was a while ago so even an outfit like that might have changed. Part of ny job was training Apprentices and Undergraduate Engineers in quality procedures. Some were very good and got the hang of things very quickly. But others would try to help by adding blank development and bend allowance figures to drawings. They had to be told not to do that, as the Sheet Metal Workers would take it as an insult. Times have changed and these skills have been lost. Bernard