number6

I'd have expected nothing less! Plastic waste blowing around model dioramas will be a 'I remember when...' moment in years to come when we've finished cleaning up the planet and you don't see it anymore...

Fabulous work. Not sure I could do it on any model of mine but I was wondering if you'll have any 80s litter blowing around? These days its whole bathrooms and piles of plasterboard in gate places but back then it was a different class of crud: bottle of Panda Pop, a Marathon wrapper or packet of Smiths Crisps with the blue packet of salt perhaps, a jazz mag caught in the bushes... perhaps not with 5 year olds with the best view.

Fibreglass pencil. Run it over the inside of the white window until it gets to the opacity you like. Job done.

Pardon?! Not really true is it. It was 20 years earlier that the Lumière Brothers were showing their films in Paris in 1895 and a movie industry quickly developed from then. By the First War the film industry was well developed. Colorised film was also very early process. Trip to the Moon was colourised in 1902!

By the way, soaking the eyes of the lovers that to save other steam engines you need to sweat one or two copies. Shocking [and the quality of Google Translate].

I'd forgotten all about that Buffet wall. That looks excellent - amazing job on the paintjob and weathering - that window is so evocative. I almost miss the ambiance of those BIGs. My kitchen wall needs painting maybe I'll print a big sheet of this and fix it up... cheers

These have to be the most vanilla of all Brighton locos. They did have lovely names for a while though.

What real world situation involves arriving home after driving 240 miles and then setting off on another 240 mile drive 100 minutes later?! For most people its 2.4 miles or 24 miles... I also don't buy the 'you will kill the local network' thing - smart technology helps spread that load as we don't all have to charge at the same moment. It is something that needs addressing for everyday consumer load anyway. Nissan has a system where the car can deliver back to the grid and then be recharged later in the night when demands are different. Joining up house and vehicles is such a good idea.

No hardship really - I think we should all be paying at least £140 pothole tax every year.

Worrying about running out of electric is called range anxiety and I think it is pretty much exclusively suffered by those in petrol or diesel cars. Caveat: my i3 is a REX - range extender. It has a two stroke petrol generator on board. Does about 90 miles on a tank, has very low emissions and does 50+ mpg. It keeps the charge in the batteries and makes no difference to the way the car drives. I think a much better solution than hybrid. I've had a tank of fuel on board for months and never used it just relied on the batteries. On a long journey you game between the generator and the battery so you can always arrive at a charger or an overnight stop empty and make sure you are never 90 miles from a petrol station. Is anywhere in the UK that far away? So with a full tank and batteries you can do 200+ miles easily. Robert Llewellyn says on that Supercharge youtube channel nailed it by saying: - 'My bladder has a shorter range than the car.'

The display in mine shows maximum regenerative breaking with the brake pedal pressed but to be honest I rarely use it as the regen in normal driving brings me to a halt where I want. I found a Leaf it felt more 'slippery' and it will power off slightly [like old diesels used to] without touching the accelerator. In the i3 the balance is the other way and feels more sticky so one powers along and feels the deceleration/regen much more. Of course you don't gain as much as you use but to get a mile or two back on a medium sized hill or long downhill on a motorway or to arrive with more range than you left with [which is of course dependent on style of driving more than anything] is still a little thrill. I never saw the fuel gauge on the old car go up while I drove along. Of course this is all just algorithms and display showing range but to have any kind of encouragement to change attitudes to the use of precious fuel is good I think. Driving electric makes you calculate and 'game' the use of fuel - I've been known to thrash along at 70, blast off the lights or off roundabouts but I trickle along gently most of the time.

Got one. Cheap as chips to run. Absolute pleasure to drive. Anxiety about chargers evaporates pretty much instantly - do you need a petrol pump outside your house? And to be honest the amount to flak us EV drivers get about our choice of car beggars belief when you look at the tons shiny cars filling up the roads that must cost double to buy and four times as much to run - not to mention the amount of pollution, smell and noise they make. If you haven't driven one then go have a try.

I like the 700s. Extract yourself from a stuffy Southern service with their claustrophobic interiors, grubby seats and tables and onto one of these its a blessed relief. And to be honest to be moving at speed on the Brighton line is the priority not the softness or width of the seats. Remember that these replaced the hideous 319s - lovely to drive apparently "a proper train" but nasty inside. Perhaps I've been bullied into this opinion over the years, but those older trains: a draughty VEP or greasy late CIG were horrible too. But one of those Phase 1 BIGs or CIGs with the grey moquette - now you are talking. My grandad complained about PUL and PAN motor coaches on his commute in the 50s - impossible to read with the poor riding apparently.

Great stuff. I find it interesting that you build and paint each car one after the other. That presumably that helps with the boredom of the same job over and over if doing them all in one go. All those door handles on traditional units or the glazing for example? I always got stuck at one stage and back in the box it went... Finding better ways to go about things probably occur as well?

Something attractive and well proportioned. Splendid! Good luck with it.

You get the politicians you deserve, they are a reflection of our society and if they aren't clever...

My cousin worked for Ford in Germany developing 2 stroke engines - projects all now cancelled - future development of 4 cylinder engines in doubt. Volvo not supplying petrol or diesel cars soon. Renault Nissan getting lots of practice with Zoe and the Leaf. The pace of change is going to be different now to what it was 23 years ago. The biggest issue is that there is money to be made in EVs and their infrastructure and not much more to be made in fossil fuels. That is the motivator now not 'green issues' - that is a byproduct. The whole new network of how and where to pay for power, the delivery of EV charge and the software, hardware and service of all those things will have the savvy companies out there scrambling over each other to deliver it to customers. Meanwhile oil companies can't offer anything different and nothing anywhere near as convenient as EV - petrol pump in your garden sir?! Oh: and your children won't be poisoned on their way to school.

You can't mean that Chinese French stuff they are brewing up in Somerset? Erm... I did say clean, cheap and renewable... !

The temptation to wade into this how to charge electric vehicles in 2040 discussion is great. I can resist. No I can't! All I would say is have a drive in one - then ask yourself why all cars, lorries, buses and trains aren't lekky powered it is one way to reignite ones love affair with the car. Sorry but using 'facts' from the Telegraph doesn't really advance the case against. In 23 years one has to assume that power generation, methods of storage, delivery and the cost will all have changed out of recognition to today. The current power for vehicles is oil and in 23 years time the extraction, storage and delivery of that fuel will be the same if it doesn't first run out, kill ecosystems, heat up the planet or cost more than clean, cheap and renewable forms of energy.

Can't fault Dave Ellis - don't forget you can have any part from any SEF kit for a few pence. And you also get to see their brilliant exploded diagrams for the kits (which are a work of art in themselves).

Its been a pretty amazing day for me so far [okay technically yesterday] but this just takes the biscuit! Thank you so much Dave.

a film of THE film. Caveat: I love Ireland.

That would be an ecumenical matter... I sat through the film show they have at the Listowel museum for the Lartigue. The first 5 minutes was slides of the museum displays we'd just walked around admiring and one was definitely a photo of the film show. I was told yesterday the Tralee is too wide for 'proper' narrow gauge...

Well I definitely not doing that monorail thingy...

Is that an ugly duckling just to the right? Been quiet - and unhelpful - about vac pipes as I've been in the West of Ireland [repeat to self: I am not doing Tralee and Dingle, I am not doing Tralee and Dingle].