roythebus

Yes I remember reading those points a couple of months ago when I last looked at this thread. somebody has to pay the deposit for the liquidators or they don't start and forced bankruptcy can be nasty. company liquidation is a lot easier legally! He should have handed over what information he had as I did when my company went broke. Those customers who are still trying to get their money back may as well give up unless they are claiming from a credit card or bank. The company no longer exists. I doubt they'll even get a reply from the liquidator. My company was a bit different as it had a turnover in excess of £2m. Whilst it went into liquidation in december 2003 it wasn't finally closed down until about 2 years ago! I suspect it laid dormanyt on the liquidator's files until they could be bothered to shut it completely.

I've not been following this thread too closely as I have no interest in DJM, but would make some comments that may not have ben made. Liquidators fees may seem high to us mere mortals but I believe they are fixed by law. That is not the wage of one person, but would also include the overheads of running the business, overheads which any business would incur. I note there's a directors Loan account of some £50,000. That is probably DJ's own money which he put into the business to keep it going, maybe a second mortgage on his house, I don't know, I'm not over-interested. That there only 10p left in the account is of little importance. Once the liquidators take over, that is outside the control of the former director. At that time there "may" have been many £1,000s in the account and that was legally used by the liquidators to cover their expenses. The fact that there was 10p is down to the liquidators. I know a bit about how these things work as I was MD of a company that went into liquidation in 2003. It was not pleasant but educational in a number of ways.

One thing people tend to forget is that on the prototype there's very little straight track. A gently curving platform always looks better than a straight one, especially on a small lyout.

You say tomaytos, I say tomartos... soldering irons at dawn? I too have been building copper clad track since about 1964 when I was in the 2nd year at grammar school. That never fell apart. I built most of the original copper clad pointwork for the MRC's New Anningotn exhibition layout. I don't recall a tiebar come unsoldered from a switch rail. there were over 60 pints on that layout. What I use as a simple in these days is a bit of 0.3mm brass wire in a flat Z shape through a hole in the tiebar. cheap and effective and easier than turning down small pins.

Well done, looks good.

It was known as the North Sidings, south sidings were accessed from Platform 1 on the other id of the station. I was a driver at Waterloo 1980-1988. Never got to use the lift though.

All is clear now, I realised that there's no check rail in the middle of the K crossing on the switched diamond, hence my comment. Interesting to see both sides of the switch rail are planed.

Yes, that was Barn Elms playing grounds, formerly owned by the LCC I think. My mum's old house is only about 400 yards from that frontage, but the other side of the river in Delorme Street, just off Fulham Palace Road. I lived round that area from 1961 to 1973 and again from 177-79. Mum moved out of there about 3 years ago and went into a care home. There's a lot of railway and tramway interest on that particular map, especially the layout of Hammersmith Station with the GNP&B tube recently extended to there, the Grove Road line being recently closed ( on the next sheet) and the Midland Railway coal depot and of course Lillie Bridge Depot! I've always wondered what the layout of the Harrods line was, now I know!

I used to use Coca Cola for rust removal and unsticking seized piston rings on vintage vehicles. The Coke factory in Milton Keynes used spilt coke concentrate in their steam cleaner pressure washers. Peronally I'd never drink the stuff having seen what it does to metal.

<insert plastic ruler in waste disposal system>....

I think I can see where Andy's coming from. the distance between the end of the K crossing and the movable switch will only be the flange gauge width, say 1mm, not the usual "point blade" clearance of 1.25 or whatever it is for the standard that is being used. Hence the throw required would be 1mm, not 1.25mm. Presumably there's a wing rail in the K crossing not shown on the template?

Talking about hidden narrow gauge, there's one on the Thames that connects the old Harrods warehouse with the riverside. On the south towpath between Putney and Hammersmith, hearer to Hammersmith, there's a quay where barges could tie up. there's a maybe 15" gauge railway that goes along the quay with another line that goes across the towpath into the Harrods warehouse. I've know of the line for about 55 years and never seen any sign of it being used.

Sorting through boxes of "bits" as you do sometimes, revealed 2 or 3 4mm Farish suburban coaches, a couple of them with Farish bogies I think. these seemed to be quite good representations of the LMS suburbans. I don's seem to have roofs for them which ISTR were shaped tinplate. Anyone interested in them as a restoration project? The bodies are one-piece plastic mouldings with seats.

Sounds good.

Beware when using copper clad for jigs, it can be very easy to solder the rails to the jig!

LT Bardics could only display red green and white.

I've just picked up on this thread again, when I was a driver at Waterloo we had to use the uniform arch quite a bit. Near that was the plans arch, a treausre trove of old drawings, digrams, photos, you name it. Beyond that were arches full of old office equipment, some of which was "rescued from the skip" or further use in my loft layout at home. But more interesting was the remnants of a narrow gauge railway system in the arches. This started in the plans arch, went through the furniture store and through locked gates into the bowels of the station. I doubt if it had any locos, but seemed to be about 15" gauge. I've read that during WW2 the station suffered several heavy bomb attacks and the fires in the arches burned for months, mainly because of the number of bonded warehouses in there! The main cable routes under the station were wiped out during a couple of raids, but with the usual wartime efficiency were replaced and working again in a relatively short space of time.

There's not many points at Clapham Junction...lots of through lines but very few points. For me Templot meant being able to build frre-flowing track that looks as good as I want it to look. A few years ago someone visited to buy some secondhand stock. He looked at my layout built to OO/SF with C&L bits and said "this protofour looks really good". He was a bit dumbstruck when I told him it was OO gauge. Says it all really. I'd agree with what Hayfield says, go with the flow, don't worry too much about the details. In my view it's the overall appearance that counts. And of course does it work?

Yers, that's what I thought.

Surely the magnet would help stop the wheels from spinning? I took the magnet out of mine and replaced it with a bit of lead. I would seem to me to be beneficial to limit the side play of the bogie. I don't need mine to go round 1st radius curves, 2' min on my layout.

I'm doing well then with 4 Mk1s!

Thanks, I may well try with the front bogie mounted a bit more rigidly and maybe side sprung. I don't think adding weight at the back end will help much as it will add weight over the trailing axle.

I couldn't get to Alec's funeral and can't remember how I got into conversation with Brian's daughter! A Facebook friend Noel Hutchinson knew Alec from the WR when he was at Southall shed. Alec worked his way up to Board level with BR. He lived alone at North Wembley until he had to move to the Woking Homes. He was often seen round woking taking train and bus photos. But we seem to be getting a bit off thread now! Still no answer to the original question.

Has anyone got any hints or tips for super detailing the Triang Lord of the Isles? I have one, probably 1980s version with nickle plated wheels, no smoke, shiny dome and plastic gears that runs rather well. I've already turned don the loco wheels to let it run on fine scale OO track but its hauling capacity is rather limited. In reverse it will push 6 Bachy Mk 1 coaches, forwards it will just about manage 2. I need to replace the bogie wheels, I believe they should be 16mm; tender wheels have been replaced, and I've added lead weight in places under the chassis keeper plate and in the smokebox where the smoke unit would have been. It'll now manage 4 coaches forwards with a bit of prototypical slipping on starting.

We also had the Trix Southern 0-6-0t, was it an e or E1? Plastic body with fine wheels. I had one many years ago. Oops, just read through nd found it was an E2!