Chris Higgs

Have you used one of the Toplight resin coach roofs for the D125 BT? They are the right length but D125 would not have had the longitudinal rainstrips. Chris

There is a possibility to run a batch of these. I think they would cost around £10 each. Bogies not included, they are already available in Shop 2 - item 2-398. Chris

Not any sort of bogie bolster, although I can see why you might think that. Instead it is an underframe for one of these. I suspect many N gauge modellers of a certain age will have one of these lurking around. Perhaps we can pool them together and run the 'Ashburton Grove Pullman' on Copenhagen Fields... Chris

Nope.

Mostly these days I just reprise my existing etches, a sort of 'Greatest Hits Tour'. But occasionally I do actually produce something new. I leave it a while to see if someone can deduce what it is. Chris

This. so far as I can work out, only relates to the UK customs side of things, the EU customs is another story. If I recall correctly, the allowance is 350 euros (or it might be 450 euros). However, I travel regularly to and from the EU. It is a long time since I have even seen anyone even manning the customs posts on the French side either at Dunkerque or Calais, let alone actually checking anyone. Neither have I ever seen anyone checked at the Dutch airports. Once they had all proved they could confiscate lorry drivers' ham sandwiches, they quickly grew bored of it and lost interest... Chris

Given the bogie centre wheels on a real 31 are a different diameter to the outer 4, you would struggle to power all six. Gearing that would be tricky. Chris

Thank you for your kind words Nigel. I'd like to say that I took the spacing of the grab handles off a works drawing, but it really is so long ago now since I designed them, so I don't remember! EDIT: I remember now. The works drawing I had was of a Period 1 panelled coach (LMS Journal preview issue), and the grab handle bolt holes are in the middle of the panelling, as are the door stops. I made the assumption they were in the same position for the P2 and P3 coaches with no panelling. Photos seem to bear this out. Those with an intimate knowledge of LMS grab handles will know it's not as simple as that, as the bolts sit above and below the actual grab handle part, so the handle is shorter than the bolt spacing. Chris

I prefer the masking tape approach for the simple reason that I seldom get all the ribs straight and even first time, and it's a whole lot easier to remove the tape and try again. Chris

A tip I have seen for soldering whitemetal to nickel silver is to tin the metal with normal solder, then solder the part on with the low-melt stuff. But to be honest in 2mm I would glue, probably with a gel cyano. Chris

BTW, if you just wanted to experiment with your Peco points, you could use slivers of plastikard to narrow the flangeway gaps to match those of the Finetrax. Then you will see whether that reduces your waggling or dropping into the frog. It won't look that great, but will give you some feel as to what will solve the problem. It could just be that you 03 has dodgy BtoB settings. Chris

you might also want to read this: Explains why if you have a flangeway gap of 0.85mm and a wheel tread (not flange) width of 1.7mm or greater your wheels will not drop into the gap at the frog. Chris

As I understand it, the Finetrax N gauge range uses asymetric flangeways: " 0.85mm flangeways through the crossing frog/wing rails. 1mm flangeways at the check rails." (quote from Wayne Kinney himself on another forum). As I think that is quite a bit finer than the Peco equivalent, the theory says better running should be expected, and is compatible with 7.4mm BtoB. A 7.15mm flangeway gap with 7.4mm BtoB doesn;t give much scope for 'waggling'. If as a test you build a FInetrax point and find it isn't any better, I expect you can just sell it on on ebay to get most of your money back. Asymetric flangeways might be a more complex issue on a slip than a plain point. If you don't like the asymetric flangeways, you could always slice the checkrail chairs off and reposition them with a finer value. Chris

As mentioned its not just the flangeways on the points, its the relationship between those and the back-to-back your wheelsets are set to. So you would be wise to 1. build a test plank using Finetrax. 2. try adjusting the Back-to-back on your stock. Be warned though, the Finetrax is gong to make your Peco track look c**p (especially the points), regardless of relative running qualities. Chris

Taking a closer look at the Steel Gresleys, the only non-articulated types were Full third, Brake Third(4 compartment) and Composite Lavatory. That has a rectangular toilet windowm, the brake third has a recessed baggage section. So only the full third is difficult to tell apart from a Thompson.