roythebus

Triang have always had raised buffer height from the days of Rovex.

Having had a bit of steam experience on the K&ESR, dehydration is a very real problem even on the small locos at fairly low speeds. I had to give up being a trainee fireman a few years ago as I sweat more than normal and one very hot summer's day I drank over 3 litres of water on a round trip. At the end of the journey I collapsed in the end coach. Luckily the fireman was taking the train back. With a small loco it's not always possible to "escape" the heat of the boiler backplate as you can on a loco with a bigger cab. There's always safety notices on the railway especially about dehydration, examine the colour of your pee, if it's "this" colour you are dehydrated. No mention of salt tablets either.

The only time I've been thrown forward on a loco was on a class 25 t Rugby. We'd just prepared the loco, the driver moved forward to go onto a couple of parcel vans and the straight air brake didn't appear to work. He realised and warned me so I braced myself as we hit the vans at about 8mph. I injured my right arm a bit. Then the air brake applied. No harm done otherwise. It's almost impossible to get thrown forward on a train unless the brake is applied fully at a low speed or hitting something very solid at any speed. The process of passing a signal at danger on trip cock fitted lines is easy, the train stops, gets authority to pass the signal at danger, passes said signal, the train stop stops the train at very low speed hence the being thrown forward experienced. Driver re-sets the trip cock on the train and continues his journey. In the case of an unintentional SPAD, the amount of "jerk" depends on the speed of the train at the time!

Will the toilet paper have "now wash your hands" on every sheet, or will it be the wartime utility cut-up newspaper?

Be careful what you cut off if there's any gents using the urinals...

Remember pre about 1973 when ASLEF permitted guards to ride in the back cab of a loco, there would always have to be a brake van somewhere in the train for the guard.

Another thing modellers tend to forget is that wagons weren't shunted just for the fun of it. they were usually shunted to the correct place for loading or unloading and left there until ready for collection in the future. A wagon wouldn't just be moved from one road to another for the sake of it. Besides, a short headshunt makes the operator think a bit more about how he (or she) is going to go about getting the train marshalled correctly.

Many years ago on the MRC's original OO layout we had a pair of copulating horses.

It would be quite rare to see a train composed entirely of the same type of stock! Have a look at any photos of the era you are modelling.

Me me , me...thanks.

The Trix wheels, whilst a tad undersize are superb runners. I don't have a problem running them on hand-build 00-sf track.

Overall height would be useful too. And maybe height of body from top of underframe.

I may well keep the 1966 model as original as a historic model.

Difficult choice, the Wills etched chassis are quite good and easy to build. Looking after stray cats, had enough of that with my previous mrs! 7 cats in all...

Thanks, I'm aware of that. unfortunately we never had templot or indeed computers in 1979! The attempted recreation of Frank Dyer's plan reveals that he used a lot of very unprototypical curves and crossing angles, but the thing is, it looked right! And it worked.

My first mrs used to use the Nilgri line to get to and from her boarding school at ooty in the early 1960s, hence the visit there in 1987. When I find my other pics taken on the line I'll post them on here. I took a total of 31 rolls of fils, the processors lost 18 of them!! I was lucky enough to have a footplate ride from Ooty to Coonoor and back. I got to fire on the way down. Being a BR driver helped!

As some may know the Schewebebahn has been plagued with problems since new stock was delivered a yera or so ago. It seems to have been closed for many weeks except for weekends while the new stock is being sorted out. Last week a post on a London Transport FB group had a picture of the schweb' coming into its own at weekends as a concrete bridge over the main line collapsed blocking all 4 lines! The schweb' parallels the main line along most of the valley and is to be partly used instead or as well as a replacement bus service! If I can find the fB link I'll post it on here.

Looking through my collection of unmade and part-made kits, I found my SE Finecast P class loco, bought about 20 years ago from the Allypally show. I started building it, life got in the way and I never finished it, like so many other things. I fitted it with the small motor recommenced in the instructions but had trouble with that shorting out on bits of bodywork. Last week I stripped the chassis down and virtually rebuilt it. I found the Romford wheels running out of true for some reason. Anyway, I got it running again, but found the centre drivers still wobbly so it has to come apart again! During the test run I tried it with my 38-wagon test train and the little P class managed to pull it! I'll take a video of it next time it's on test. As an aside, the first loco I ever bought was the original Wills Finecast P class, cost £4/14/6d I think, plus Triang XT60 motor, Romford gears and wheels put it at over £14. I found that as well so will have to give that a run too! I've rebuilt that a couple of times over the years and I'm sure I changed the chassis for the original Wills with a later one when it lost the XT60. It's got to be worth restoring.

Looking very good for their age. Putting all the pipework on the front does improve any diesel or electric loco. Pity I now use Kadees! With tension lock I used to use a wire loop on the locos which when painted black was un-noticeable. The right size buffers make a vast improvement too.

I picked up a few Trix whisky wagons from Ebay for about £7 each a couple of years ago. I used to have a the complete set of them when they were itroduced in the 1960s. I worked in a toyshop in Fulham and got a good staff discount on then when they were about 7/11d (40p) a wagon, a day's wages way back then! In my Ebay search I goe some of the Hornby and Lima whisky wagons, it may be worth me taking some comparative pictures of them. The Trix wagons seem to have the buffers set at HO width. It seems a bit odd running the 3 types in the same train as I'm not sure which ones are the correct dimensions. The Trix chassis were certainly free-running and I'm loathe to change the wheels in them for that reason. they are also made of some substance that seems impossible to glue anything to!

If you use 44mm track centres remember to widen that on curves or your longer stock will foul anything going on the other track1 We made that mistake when we built the MRC's "New Annington" layout in the late 1970s/early 1980s with its spectacular elevated curve on the main line. BR mk2 stock would just about clear, Mk3 stock didn't. We had to change the track centres on that curve which involved a lot of digger but the final effect was worth it. I've recently tried planning the same layout in Templot and it doesn't work! It was designed by the late Frank Dyer of Borchester fame and although the layout DID work and looked good in practice the track geometry was to Frank's standards, not anything prototypical! As I've mentioned on here before, Frank made the track for the branch line to 16.2mm gauge and it worked perfectly no matter what stock we ran on it.

Martin Brent was chairman of The Model Railway Club for a number of years. I served on the committee with him in the lat 1970s/early 1980s.

I've just picked up on this obituary, I'd heard through other channels that Adrian had passed away. I first met Adrian at one of the MRC's shows at the Horticultural Halls in the late 1960, early 1970s when he used to take his tram layout along. Prior to that in 1968 when I worked at the Kings Cross shop I'd heard about him in there. I was saving to buy my prototype GS67 bus and had already had a set of patterns made by Mike Shepard in the shop for the LT Scooter 6 wheel single decker. One had recently been discovered in the west country (it's only recently been completed btw) and Mike suggested Adrian do the casting. Things grew from there and Adrian made more patterns for my expanding range of GS Models bus kits until I eventually had a range of about 10 or 12 kits. I used to meet Adrian at odd places to collect kits, usually from his house at West Byfleet and another time after he'd moved back to Poole somewhere near Westbury. Sitting in his car was interesting, there was a pattern for the Trix AL1 bogie sideframe. Adrian told me he'd made the pattern many years ago, it wasn't right as the wheelbase was too long so it could utilise an existing casting. But it was used. Business died off a bit with the appearance of the EFE 4mm scale buses in the early 1980s and I sold the business to Adrian. I could have as many kits as I wanted but never really took him up on this offer. At one of the post-exhibition parties in that period Adrian was invited along to a rather boozy event at my place in Mitcham Lane. He enjoyed the company and was a bit surprised when somebody brought out an 8mm projector and proceeded to show a selection of films that would make a vicar blush! I lost touch with Adrian for a number of years, the last time we spoke was maybe 8 years ago when he phoned me and told me someone was doing copies of my kits and advised me to sue the perpetrator for breach of intellectual copyright. Adrian did indeed do casting for a lot of other people, Mopok, Varney Bus kits, Bec trams and the people who done the N gauge stuff, can't remember their name at the moment. I recently found one of Adrian's suburban coach kits in its tube, made up but with the sides falling off. I don't know of anyone who really perfected a method of sticking the excellent printed sides on the vacuum formed bodies. For their day they were superb models. I've still got a few of my bus kits kicking around made and unmade. I have to thank Adrian for providing a source of income for me which went towards the preservation of my GS67 and my BEA coach MLL721. Rest in peace Adrian.

I've got a K's black 5 with Kean Portescap motor and gears, that'll pull anything!

Reading about this on railway staff closed groups on FB, one report says damage has been done to signalling cables causing widespread disruption. so much for centralised signalling centres. It would appear a wagon (or carriage) may have derailed on the points and caused a tank to rupture causing the fire. But best wait for the RAIB than getting involved in any more speculation.