DavidH

I spent ages on a split screen, and my posting was an honest appraisal of what I thought I could see. Yes, I can see a slight prow on the real locos, but only from side-ish on. From the front, the roofline looks like goes straight across. The CAD shows a peak from the angle it is shown. Similarly, the bend in the roofline - from the angle the CAD images are shown at - looks wrong. But, I may be wrong, I make no claims at infallibility, and if Dave is withholding part of the image for commercial reasons, that's entirely and legitimately his call to make.

Hi Dave, I hope you don't mind a comment or two (I speak as someone with one on order). The images look great, plenty of nice touches in the detail there, especially the detail in the under-gubbins which is nice to see. But the loco's face doesn't look quite right to me, although this might be just the angle and the way the 3D image appears on a 2D screen. Above the middle small window you have a point, almost a gothic arch, but the pictures of the real thing suggest a smooth curve. The left-hand edge, at the top alongside the windows, your scanned image looks to have too sharp a bend. But this might be just due to the angle the image is shown at - as photos of real locos are usually taken looking upwards. The 3D image possibly emphasises the transition from roof to cab front - making it look like it's got a hunch. I've looked at other photos, however, and maybe it is the angle of the image. And finally, sorry for going on, but something I'd never noticed before, the photo of E5004 with the Golden Arrow insignia on Kernow's site doesn't appear to have a gutter at the edge of the roof. All the photos of other locos do have a gutter, was this something that was added to the locos later, or maybe the photo is simply overexposed and the detail disappears? I hope this isn't seen as carping. I've got the model on order as an incentive to finish a model based on Hove station ... well, when I say "finish" I mean, "operational"! David

Oh yes, certainly; but I've never seen drunks screaming obscenities at people as their train goes past at a steam event.

Unless said person already bought the magazine from shops most months, and the discount was enough to pursuade them to take out a subscription. That wasn't how I ordered this loco, but I've subscribed to other magazines in the past due to some enticing offer. Which is what the offer was of course intended to do.

I think they probably know that

Egyptian or Babylonian?

It's covered by trademark law, not copyright, as far as I understand it. Although HNRC might only really have control over the licensing of it's logo, rather than the livery. It's a legal minefield ...

According to Steam Railway, if I recall, the owner has refused all approaches to sell. Mind you, that's only one side of the story and doesn't say what the approach was or how it was made. The boiler was in an unrestorable state, so its scrapping makes no difference. At least, that is what was reported.

I wonder if this difficulty for some people to comprehend that a model is of a fictitious place is related to autism/aspergers. I don't know much about ASD, but wonder if for a person somewhere on the autism spectrum, when presented with a "real" model, they can see the model is "real", so it must be "real" - but then they are told it is "not real", a made-up place ... And to make things worse it uses a real name or one close to a real name. If your brain struggles to process the ideas, the links between real/not real, that most people have no problem with, then you end up looking daft. Perhaps.

Par for the course on Twitter and Facebook it seems. Most people won't notice or care, and sometimes I think they are to be envied ...

And then you'll just get people saying "Why can't they fix the parts? I'm not paying £100 for a model that I have to finish myself" ... you can't please all of the people ...

Did Andy really create the little icons so we could start picking on each other about them ....? If someone wants to disagree with a post surely that's their privilege, wouldn't it be better not to take it personally and turn it into a flame war? What this post really needs is a "leave it Ron, he's not worth it" feedback icon

It happens on Google Earth too, I was looking for an address in Edinburgh, and in one view there is a building site and the next there are new flats. I presume its because different zoom levels call on images of a different date and because not everything is updated at the same time. You've probably also seen Streetview change season halfway down a road ...

Now I'm worried that actually someone might decide to set up a demonstration table on it ... can you get a finescale rope or are they all coarse?

Ah, but the tramway is built on what remains of the old viaduct at Nottingham Midland.

If someone has a house that is so "blighted" by the railway they feel it isn't worth living there any more, I am willing to take that one for the team and swap my house in Tyneside, with easy links to trunk road, Metro, train, airport and ferry, which however has no planning blight, for the blighted house in the Cotswolds or Home Counties. The offer is good for 6 months or until self-interested MPs scupper the project, whichever comes sooner.

Of course, even if the French are backing off from high-speed rail, they do have a fair few of them already ... And in the comments below, despite the article headline, someone says that in California stations are being built and the costs have been reduced (facts not checked), and it's not been cancelled. So, is this good journalism or yet another article designed to a viewpoint?

Alas, not really - I know already that he doesn't like it, so he's probably not likely to write a balanced article. Of course, it's probably anathema to say it on here, but ... does he have a point? If costs continue to increase, and the cost-benefit ratio declines, is there a point at which the project has to be cancelled? Look at the Edinburgh trams ...

In the world of media and PR, nobody ever "points out a problem" or "raises a discussion point", they "slam", or issue "devastating criticism" ...

The internet doesn't seem, so far, to have had much effect on the need to send people all over the country, and I'd say there's still no compelling evidence to say that it will in the future. As for fast freight - surely that is catered for. Doesn't it go on the existing lines, in the capacity created by taking the highest speed trains off?

There is a fairly prominent case from 2007 where a cyclist got fined for doing something like that, which resulted in the death of a young woman. I had a feeling that the law had been changed to match what applies to cars/motorbikes but I can't find anything about it on the net. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/apr/01/cyclists-law All worth bearing in mind next time one is sorely tempted to ram someone off the road, run down jaywalkers or similar, or suggest other people do it (even in jest - someone may take it seriously) ...

Aye, I take such projections with a pinch of salt too. How much of that "creation" is "relocation", I wonder?

I thought that was the remains/frame of the wartime protective covering, which was too heavy for the supports, and was responsible for the collapse? I'd best check ...

The money side? That'll be the BT building then. Can't be referring to all those empty offices on the south side of the river ... David (on the North side)

2006 living in a woodland community with family. 2007 took part in Heathrow protest. That's it.