Andy Hayter

If you can install sprung centre drivers at a rate of 120 per hour for 8 hours a day, every day, I suggest you have just got yourself a job - in China.

I would check again - and not based on the size over flange, but on the size of the tread to tread. I ran a ruler over the image, and at the top the three wheel treads seem to be in line. At the bottom, the centre wheel looks a tad smaller - allowing for screen magnification probably 0.5mm I do not think this has anything to do with wheels on the other end of the axle.

Assuming this was a round trip working - full one way and empties back - it makes perfect sense to have dedicated barrier wagons even when not strictly required. Even if you did not need one on the outbound working, there would be no guarantee that the first wagon on the empties return would also not need a barrier.

Excellent If you guys can keep this up at 6 monthly intervals, I will remain severely impressed Many thanks for sharing the knowledge.

That depends on your point of view. Hattons have tried hard on many occasions in the past to honour pre-order prices. Now with prices having risen dramatically, they have said to their pre-order customers for the E4 that they could not honour the pre-order price. This may be because they would be selling at a loss or it may be because their pre-order price would be very much below the 15% permitted discount. Or of course both.

A few people have reported problems of differing types - derailing, growling noise, jerky running in one direction or another, poor haulage power - for example. A number of these problems seem to be down to track issues. The vast majority seem to be very satisfied. Of course if you are unlucky and do buy one with an issue, that is no comfort.

Richard You and even the GCR might not have envisaged the loading dock being used for cattle, but that does not mean that the local squire would not have required the dock to load a horse into a horse box - who knows maybe to be sent to Epsom for the Derby!! Certainly the army would have wanted it for horses to be sent to the front from 1914 onwards. It is looking a lot better now, but I do agree with the comments about the slope. Something I had not immediately noticed, but like a zit, once you see it, it won't leave your sight. I agree that a half relief building at the front would be difficult to make work effectively. You could bring the dock to the front of the board knowing that the shed was just off-scene front. Alternatively, is a small add on board at the front carrying essentially just the shed a possibility?

I would say at least double width. If you look at your cattle wagon, to load it will require a ramp - probably nearly the width of the wagon - and then you need the space to lead the beasts around the end of the ramp without the possibility of them jumping/falling off the edge. This means a full body length of the beast. Also probably some sort of fence or railings at the back for the same reason - as well as loaders falling off the back edge. Taking all of that into account I think a scale 20ft - 80mm - would be an absolute minimum.

Richard I remain completely in awe of the amount of progress you have made and the quality of the work. I nominally have nothing to do and cannot begin to match your progress. I always enjoy the next set of photos. Andy

Richard Regarding the rope work to tie down the cart, in all of the pictures, the rope was given a half hitch around the spoke and not around the rim of the wheel. I am guessing that in the event of rough shunting, a rope around the rim might cause damage by weakening the joint between the nearest spoke and the rim where the rope goes into tension. Whereas by wrapping the rope around the spoke there will be a small amount of play where the rope slides an inch or two down the spoke which will absorb the energy.

The Q2 2015 edition of Voie Libre has an article on Pechot locomotives - not had a chance to read it yet. The magazine is now available on subscription in English. http://fr.zinio.com/www/browse/product.jsp?offer=500352879&productId=500598843&pss=1&bd=1&WT.mc_id=PUB_WWW_www_500598843_publisher275114&rf=PUB_WWW_www_500598843#/menu_centre

2 motors would give a problem. Having scratch built a 0-6-0+0-6-0 Mallet based on commercial chassis. I had to test 4 "identical" chassis to find 2 that came close to having the same speed under the same conditions. I would have liked to get a closer match, but there were no more chassis available.

I think I need to explain point 1 better, since I am sure many will not understand how Bachmann UK can commission a model and not know the price - even if it is in US$. The reason for point 1 is that the price quoted for the model may include elements or not. Let us guess that the price is $75. If that is the price delivered to Barwell, all well and good. If however that is the price in China (much more likely) then Kader will organise and charge for export, shipping and customs clearance and these will all be added to the bill.

two possibilities come to mind. 1. The invoice and invoice price are only created at shipping (dispatch from China). Bachmann UK did not know the final price until then. More likely 2. The invoice will be in US$ (Kader's international currency) and the changes in pound to dollar have forced up the price in GBP £.

AndyY has a separate post about negativity, and I am afraid we see some of that here. Would it be easy to create the databases? no - no one said it would. Is it anything like very difficult to impossible? http://railsdautrefois.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=26 All in French I am afraid but 15 000 documents stored over 20 000 pages. (The English flag takes you to a page that is not a translation of this page.) Le Circle Historique du Rails Français started 5 years ago amid the same sort of negativity being expressed by some here. It now has 500 members and the website for the PLM and the one for the Midi underway. Rather than listing all the reasons why it cannot be done - for one particularly difficult document - why cannot we focus on how it could be done for the 98% of what is available? As for loss of revenue, as I have said a form of nominal charging would I am sure be accepted by most, and as far as the French group above, I think they have gained rather than lost members thanks to the site - and they charge nothing for using the site.

Also a shame that the PO wagon is labelled L&NERy. and as such is not really suitable for use with the GC 9J as they are claiming. I think I will give in nevertheless.

Which is what is happening in France, where there is already a very large Wiki-PLM site and a nascent Wiki-Midi. The problem in the UK may be that there are too many specialist societies who have vested interests in holding on to their information. I have an interest in the pre-grouping eras but I am not about to join the Brighton Circle (just as an example) just to get a single wagon or coach drawing plus their associated background data (running numbers etc.). And knowing my luck only then to find that such drawings do not exist. Please also do not misunderstand, I think these societies do enormous good work and we would be the poorer without them. However, more open access to the wealth of knowledge that they have would be of benefit to many - even if with a small user fee.

But still no GC brake vans - discounting the D&S kit that I missed on Ebay.

I spent this morning going through the pictures and drawings in Les Chemins de fer francais dans la premiere Guerre mondiale (French railways in the first world war) by Aurelien Prevot. I could find only one picture of an item of motorised transport on a wagon - a recaptured British Mk 4 still with German markings. This had no visible means of securing, which may be because it had been removed already, or it may be hidden behind the group of soldiers and railwaymen posing in front, or it may have been fixed low down on the underside. What was interesting was the means of securing the large numbers of spoke wheeled, horse drawn transport - from small delivery vans up to what seemed to me like some pretty heavy field ordinance - 155mm cannon on double carriage. It has to be said this was France and not the GCR, but may still be indicative of methods of the time. In all cases the vehicles were lashed with ropes alone. The lashing system seems to be universal. Starting at one corner of the wagon, the rope runs up to the spoke nearest horizontal(or just below) and is wrapped once around it near the rim. The rope then runs on across the hub to the opposite spoke (or the one just below if the opposite spoke is above the horizontal)has another single turn near the rim and then runs on to the next wheel - whether on the same vehicle or the next. Final tie-off is at the far corner of the wagon. So now I am not sure whether chains would have been used or not. I still think yes.

If such a thing exists, something like a 2mm/ft screw link coupling might do the job.

Not sure about the fixings in WW! Richard, but certainly later they would have had a turnlock (not sure that is the right term) fixing which is a lot like a turnbuckle as used later in underframes. Basically connected to two bits of chain with a hook at each end connecting into a central frame. The screw connection to each hook is opposite, so screwing the central frame section in one direction tightens the chains and in the other loosens them.

Actually Tony, between the wars horse racing was not so much the sport of kings as the sport of the populace. Most people would have heard of, if not actually witnessed many of these horses. It is estimated that in 1938 £500,000,000 (probably £500+ billion in today's money) was placed in bets on race horses, and in the absence of betting shops, which were legalised in the 60s, this would all have been placed at the track. It was of course the railway that allowed people to travel to the track - and there were more race tracks then than now. Using the names of successful thoroughbreds would I think have sent a very strong and well understood message to their travelling public. Edited for clarity

I had similar "problems" with my model club when I was in the UK, but once the layout had been started, there were plenty of hands ready to help even though I did not manage to convert a single one of them from their NE fetishes. Good luck with Dieppe Maritime, it really does look like an interesting project.

50/60 years before you were born?? You sir are but a puppy in modelling terms

If you look elsewhere on the site, you will see I did an analysis - rather crude but probably still indicative - that compared modellers ages and the period they modelled. As the GW Broad Gauge comment implies. There are a lot of modellers who model earlier periods than their formative years and some who model "today" when they are beyond their prime. I came to the conclusion, based on the numbers available, which were in themselves a sub-set of people on this website (so probably not a true cross-section of modellers) that about half of all modellers model what they saw in their formative years ( I think I took something like 8-15 years old as the basis). The other 50% model things like the big 4, pre-grouping or other "strange" choices.