Andy Hayter

Perhaps you would like to share your expertise with Sh1tty bowels - sorry Pitney Bowles, Ebay's wonder worldwide lose your package system.

I am struggling to understand what is new here apart for using the internet for instructions, design concept and feedback. I have been building kits for more than a quarter of a century that demanded I source wheels, couplings, buffers (sometimes), paints, glues, solders, transfers etc. from other sources. And that was before I decided I needed to improves handrails, fall plates, corridor connections, brake blocks and a myriad of other things.

Rubbish modeller you most certainly are not. One caught with a deadline I can buy - and anyone trying to finish a layout for an exhibition will immediately relate . I have been there and had to muddle through on the day. For you the extra pressure is T and her desire for it all to be perfect which is purely natural. There are however levels of perfect. What was perfect in the 1980s (Mainline and Airfix rtr models) are today less than perfect - sometimes by a long way. The layout for tomorrow (or is it Wednesday?) can be improved over the coming weeks and months. It can be perfected, titivated and extended. Do not lose the faith.

The answer to the original question will depend on why the line was originally built. Lines built to carry a specific (usually mineral) cargo to a transhipment point (port or railhead with standard gauge lines, would be less likely to carry significant quantities of other cargoes except those directly related to the prime cargo - so explosives, wooden beams and props for example. Lines built to provide rail access between different communities would be much more likely to carry general cargo. Here in France a 1880s edit required that all sub-prefectures (any administrative town) should be rail connected so that troops could be rapidly assembled where required following the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Those towns of significance were already linked on the standard gauge network. The remainder needed to be connected by secondary lines, and more often than not this would be narrow gauge to keep costs to a minimum. General cargoes were therefore common. The number of mineral lines was in comparison very small - but not zero, for example St. Geroges - La Mure but even this line was expected to go much further (to Gap) and provide general access between communities.

As others have suggested you hardly need an excuse to run TGVs and Intercities together. Most Paris termini handle both types of train. Many cities and large towns will have both. Down here there are TGV services into Valence Ville station - even though Valence has its own TGV station in the outskirts. The town centre station has trains that pick up from the intermediate cities between Avignon and Valence (the two adjacent cities on the LGV network)

Perhaps Hattons have an obligation to give the shipper the chance to trace the package and deliver it to you.

That won't get around the problem of people searching for Slater's wagons, Blacksmith Models or the like. They will not be drawn to a Coopercraft warning site.

It could have been worse. It could have been a whinge post about somebody whinging

That would be Worldpay. I don't know if the banks have access to track to the next transaction from Worldpay to Dunn.

I think the problem goes back to the fact that Dunn is a sole trader and not a company. The bailiffs can then only enter his premises by invitation or if they find free access - open window or door. They have no right of forced entry for a sole trader. Dunn seems to be aware of this limitation to their powers.

VAT might be one reason (which would apply to me for example), but I thoughts Ireland had no VAT on publications. It does seem like a rip off that I can get a UK digital 2 year subscription for £26, but pay more than that for 1 year French subscription. They won't be getting my money at those prices.

I agree that it is an excellent conversion; but I do take exception to calling the Bourbonnais 30's nondescript. With 1054 locomotives built* they outnumber the complete locomotive fleets of a number of UK pre-grouping companies. * As is typical of the time there were variations within the group - perhaps the most visually significant being the cab design, where the semi-open cab as shown in the postcard was later replaced by an enclosed cab as portrayed in the model.

I think that plastic bags based on soap is unlikely. More likely to be starch - and now for the nasty bit. Starch based polymers are not flexible. They set like Bakelite. To make them flexible to make bags they add polyester or similar fibres - which are not biodegradable - up to 49%. So when your biodegradable bag rots down it leaves lots and lots of plastic microfibers which do not rot down.

I have to agree with Bucoops. Just a couple of days ago I decided to follow up on a Mallard kit that I have been building to see if any more were still available. I quickly chased down that Mallard had been taken over by Blacksmith and a search for Blacksmith models took me straight to the page on Coopercraft's site. No warning of do not order, just lots of lovely kits at not insignificant prices. Of course I knew better than to progress my interest but not every kit builder is an RMWebber - and that is exactly why we then get people coming on here after the event to ask the score.

To be even more pedantic, Pullman never had coaches or carriages, they had cars. I know because I got told off by Mr T Bye.

Is this then a problem specific to Reeves, or more generally to Acrylic paints?

Also covered under railways of Cornwall.

Wouldn't that be misrepresentation or even fraud? I am sure advertising standards would be interested if that were the case.

The only reference I have to CF de Provence coaches is for a bogie coach made by Gecomodel and reviewed in RMF 2000 March page 60. If this is likely to be what you are looking for, I will look through and see how much prototype info there is. There is no drawing in the article however.

I have generally paid £14 - 19 for amazon printed books. I would not by it as a Kindle or e-version. As for the cover, sorry Roger but it does not portray the content for me. The title could equally be Provence villages, Provence holiday spots or Provence almost anything except traffic jams. I think you need something more obviously railway than a viaduct (minus anything railway on it, so is it for water or road or...). I do think it is worth a try as a self published work though.

Somewhere on these threads (probably in the pre-grouping section) is a picture of a wagon loaded with barbed wire. Open coils (no core) in an open wagon with IIRC some sort of wood support. It could be this is a form of X supporting the coils but I cannot remember the exact details

If you are looking for something specific, I may have it on my database. It only records those things that interest me but includes all articles I have come across that have drawings that might be useful for a build.

Just to add, neither Whitstable nor Hastings seem to have individual registration. So even had their catches been substantial, they would be recorded at wherever the boats are registered. Ramsgate or Faversham perhaps for Whitstable, and Folkestone or Portsmouth for Hastings. You would need to look at the boat registration number which is always painted prominently on the boats. The letters give the clue to registration. http://www.navalmarinearchive.com/research/fishing_ports.html Edit to add: Note the comments opposite "OB" Oban wrt Mallaig.

I think the key point is boat registration. There are lots of minor East Coast landing points, but they tend to be aggregated to the local major port. So for example, Redcar boats are registered with Hartlepool. That sort of situation probably applies all around the cost.

You are suffering from modellers' amnesia. If I had £1 for every time I could not find a kit, a set of wheels, a set of couplings etc., I could afford for someone else to build my models and losing bits would be their problem!