number6

They never did an ex-pantry brake 1st after I did one of those... 7 years ago.

I can't tell you how many times I have been tempted to de-convert one of the brakes. It might be an expensive job creating a 3 car set of these - as you'd need four sets. I could find a use for 4 open 3rds likewise back converted, so I guess I ought to get my scalpel out... Has anyone done it yet?

Wow. My sympathies Dave! I'm always amazed how quickly the whingers and moaners pop up in these threads about new products. I wouldn't have the patience to deal with 'customers'!

Splendid. Nice meadow too.

There are loads of positive things to say about your layout and work and lots of things many of us can learn from it. I really like the clean and uncluttered look. I also agree that its great to see a near complete layout - it can be a bit demoralising gazing over bare plywood and unpainted track all time. Also those of us modelling in 00-SF have their bashers but I have to say its really refreshing to see a layout that effortlessly champions the gauge. Why wouldn't you want 00 track work to look like this?! Of course I dread a later update which you tell of what a nightmare its been? I have a feeling one of its attractions is that many us would love to find something like this on climbing through our own loft hatches? Splendid stuff.

Perhaps the correctly drawn BR symbol spoils it somehow! Most wags would have done it deliberately reversed - Sealink style. As an aside I recommend having a look through the slides that this ebay user sells. You can check back through past purchases where there are some wonderful images in the collection. I have a feeling that many of the ones I've found most interesting [taken around Sussex in the early 50s] were taken by Peter Hay whose images have appeared in various prototype mags over the years. Its my hope than many of these images will crop up in future publications or online somewhere. If you can be bothered search through the previous sales list.

Is there still time to request another livery? From image on ebay here.

A photograph in the Railway Modeller a hundred years ago of a line of MR opens on the W S Norris O gauge layout still motivates me to have a few of these on my layout. I have more than a few in the kit compost heap.

Impressionist modelling - be there, done that. We are entering the third phase of every new model announcement! First phase: joy Second phase: doubt Third phase: denial Fourth phase: acceptance and/or get the modelling tools out

Sorry about the 'red line' image causing confusion! I was trying to illustrate that the inner base of the gangway is pretty much level with the bottom of the cab - from the prototype images it is obvious this should be higher. In the real thing I remember a ramp up into the cab from the floor of the carriage as you walked through here when two units were in multiple so it must be at least a bit higher than the base of the drivers door in the side - which opened inwards over the floor.

You Colin probably have the best pedigree for that sort of email!!

IanJ's image of the cab shows the headcode box to be correct but perhaps its the height of the gangway that is too tall. Is the floor and lower part of the gangway not raised up a bit from where it is at the moment. The internal floor of the gangway seems level with the bottom of the coach body. Sorry to be so vague in what I think is wrong but its the large area of the of the door that makes it seems too tall to me. A reduced height gangway would sort it!

Thanks for those references - still hard to tell how the model compares though. It was this image from Kernow that made me wonder - as well as a gut feeling of what looks right [my usual yardstick!]. It is where the base of the indicator window reaches when compared to the cab windows that I have been looking at. It could be that the glazing insert for here could have a painted surround and that will shift the position of the window...

If we are rivet picking... Put me out of my misery here: is the indicator box in the cab end door a bit too high up? I am not convinced that it is in the right position but then I haven't found an end view of the model. Are there any front on views of the cab from the sample? It appears the top of the indictor window matches the top of the cab windows but should actually a bit below? I feel there is too much door below the indicator. I'd hate this to be the reason the 'face' looks wrong - something we all missed on the VEP until it was painted yellow...

Can I get away with pushing it with a class 26? They all look the same don't they?

Looks splendid. A REP can emerge from that with some bits and bobs and a big saw. Although I could weep at how close this is to a CIG yet how far it is too.That would be a major chop shop session...

The splasher lining looks like a right devil with the reverse curve - I struggle with the tiny Terrier splasher which is just a simple radius. So kudos to you. Agreed, the wheel looks like it belongs on a platforrm barrow or something! The SR number transfer sheet conundrum could be sorted with cross border exchange - any LMR modellers want to meet at Mitre Bridge to swap a bunch of 4s for 3s?

Collectors corner! OMG - what an amazing place that was. You remind me I have brought a double arrow still on its transfer sheet, along with a bunch of destination strips from the boards at Victoria when they ripped them out. The sound of the flapping of those boards as a train was displayed is a memory long forgotten until just then. I also forgot my door number is one of the SR number stencils like Judge Dredd - but not so elegantly displayed.

I've never been able to resist carrying home various things I find along the way. Caveat: All of these items were either gifted to me, bought legitimately or rescued from the long grass. You should have seen the bits and pieces my parents wouldn't let be bring home. I recently was eyeing up an SR concrete lineside hut... So scattered around are LBSCR bench originally at Burgess Hill. Numerous chairs [the other kind] SR and LBSCR varieties lugged back from Newhaven Beach Grampus wagon nameplate carried home by my eight year old self same place. Distant signal arm found in the bushes on the Cuckoo line Metal cap for a square SR post ditto Big enamel sign pointing to the Central Line [from the Northbound Bakerloo at Victoria via LT Acton Depot] A massive brass and ceramic insulator thingy about the size of a small dalek from the substation at Lewes. [Gifted by the blokes removing the equipment] Engineering bricks from the Pullman Works at Preston Park and one brought back from Vermont [not hand luggage]. A piece of metal catenary found on the bike trail once the Milwaukee Road at Avery, Idaho. Heavily weathered once green painted wooden platform number sign from Folkestone Harbour.

Got mine from Peters Spares in the post the other day - nicely engineered brass replacement. Job done.

We could do a 'whose has the best waddle' competition.

I love the sense of what makes for an easy conversion for you guys! On the the scale of difficulty there must be something under 'Very easy'? 'Effortless'? 'Breath-on-able'?

Hallelujah! Peters Spares: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peters-Spares-PS61-Replacement-Hornby-T9-Motor-Mount-/322089744372?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

I think its a bit of both. The wrong material and poor design - there is a very thin bits of metal connecting between the bed for the motor and the top of the gear housing - which is very easy to break. If snugly held inside the loco it is probably going to be okay. Possibly packing the inside of the logo body with some foam [my other magic material being Heljan packaging foam] it might all hold together even when snapped. When out of the loco any stress on it means its likely to snap.

Waiting in vain for someone to 3d print something... There is little hope that Hornby will replace the retainer in my version as the chassis was bought off ebay and hacked under a new loco. And then it broke... As I tried to fix the part it crumbled into smaller and smaller pieces. I have now fashioned a strip of brass that sits over the motor and the top of the gear housing. The hardest part is finding somewhere to attached it or screw it down. I am loath to permanently glue it down as something is bound to go wrong. I've used lots of recent Hornby chassis for various remotor projects over the years and this one has been the most tricky to adapt. Probably a pinnacle of design complexity. As a contrast I remotored an M7 chassis with a Yashima motor and this works in a similar principle it is rough and ready but works really well...