fulton

19 minutes ago, Edge said:

 

 

Seriously, I’ve always been a big fan of mystery boxes and I’m looking forward to seeing what is inside of this one. 

On my last order to Modelu I took a punt on a mystery pack of miss prints, was not disappointed.

I have ordered direct from Microscale a few times, seemed to come quiet quickly as mail, cannot remember the postage,

1 hour ago, mabel said:

Old thread I know………. I contacted Hannants as they are probably the biggest UK importer of microscale decals. They flat refused (bordering on being plain rude) to order any railway/railroad related decals from microscale. Odd way to run a business but there you go….

but it was OK.

Just to add, I had two of these, yours has had the circuit board, for DCC and lights removed, due to the weight and using live frogs the running was very good, I had no need for stay alive.  

2 hours ago, JSpencer said:

In the newsletter, it states 70 different colour schemes for these wagons, however I can only count 53 between Rapidos range and those exclusive to shops.

 

So who else is doing them?

I know of a club, in cooperation with a museum, having a commission underway.

1 hour ago, AlfaZagato said:

 

 

 

@fulton  Is it motorized?  I was going to try to motor mine.

No only static, beyond my skills to have all the motion moving, maybe one of the other Aveling and Porter designs, with the large cab, then you could get away with just the flywheel spinning, anyway that would still be beyond my skill level! The layout it appears on is my model of the Aveling and Porter, Invicta Engineering works in Strood.

2 hours ago, AlfaZagato said:

I've recently picked up an Oxford road locomotive with intention to make something in line with Blue Circle.   No chance to handle the model beforehand since 'Murica, so the solid casting may give me issue.

This started with the Oxford model, wheels from Shapeways, the same designer has the body for Blue Circle, looks quite poor, IMHO, but his wheels used here, I think are OK.

40 minutes ago, Ruston said:

Have you dealt with Milicast yourself, Andrew?

I ordered and received the kit but a major part was missing. Despite 2 emails being sent I have had no part or indeed any reply to the emails.

I have used them a number of times without issue, but then I had no parts missing, so never had to test their aftersales. I'm also called Andrew!

Not all old cars were easy to work on, I remember in order to remove the starter motor from my MK2 Jaguar, the drivers seat had to come out, to gain access to a panel on the transmission tunnel, then to get it out of the engine bay the carbs also had to come off. Just watched a clip on the BBC, New York state, heavy snow, car overtaking a lorry, hits snowplough going the other way.

See it does fit.

It has always been my view that a clubs running expenses must be covered by the subscriptions, an exhibition is an extra, the club I used to be active in, still a life member, did this, the exhibition account built up a surplus so if/when the exhibition made a loss it did not impact on the normal club finances. An exhibition, in my view, is a window on our hobby, not a means of making money, one of the nicest shows I exhibited at was organized by my area NMRA group, a small show on Hastings seafront, venue normally used for art exhibitions, it was never expected to make a profit, we had spare funds to promote the hobby, nominal entry fee, most visitors were out for a day at the seaside, lots of good questions and comments, I think we gave a good impression of the hobby.

20 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

 

Some small works dug in summer, but deliberately flooded the pits in winter to give the clay a good soaking - it all depended on local geology, the nature of the pit, local micro-climate etc.

 

 

A good soaking each tide, clay being loaded at low tide from the River Medway mud flats, into a sailing barge, 100 tones each load.

10 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

 We also had problems with children shaking the baseboards to derail the trains. I am not sure that children are an asset to the hobby.

I've exhibited in some rough places, my home area of Medway being one, fortunately never had anything like that, must say I have been pleased with how well behaved most children are.

41 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 Over the years I have seen shows rise and fall. The Chatham show in the dockyard was good and I believe has been revived.

I was chair of the Chatham exhibition team for several years, our problem was our normal venue, in the Dockyard became unavailable, after three shows in another venue that also became unavailable, the final school really was not suitable, and we suffered loses, plus the team was getting older, so we called it a day. The Chatham club now has a much younger, the average age has gone from over 60 to the 30s, and talented membership, the Dockyard has become available again, a whole new team will be staging a new show this July, I think this is just the normal cycle that clubs, exhibitions etc. go through, one generation steps aside and the next takes over.

5 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

 

 

Having been involved in various club shows (and one large one at Cannon Street in 1986) I know how much work goes into each one. 

 

 

 

 

I still remember that show well, a great weekend, I was out on the platform with my EM Beluncle Halt layout.

Have a look on Britain From Above for ideas, after you register you can zoom in on the images, I've just had a browse under clay pits and brickworks, most images probably too early for you, but gives an idea.

From my time in construction, orders for bricks slowed down during the winter months, you can have all sorts of problems trying to lay bricks in wet or cold conditions, so I guess production would also slow down. I have an interest in brick and cement industries along the River Medway, even building houses on the former brickfields at Lower Halstow, where we found remains of the narrow gauge railway and tipper wagons, I still have a point lever I unearthed there. Here is an example of a simple interchange between the narrow gauge coming in from top and standard gauge from bottom, at the Smeed Dean brick and cement works, Merston Kent.

A busy couple of weekends, out with Plant City.

Also looking forward to the day with my Plant City layout.

Some workbench photos have been posted on another thread, somehow I found them fascinating, rather than clog up that tread, have started this new one. My workshop scratch built 12"-1', based on SER ground frame, window frames bought in, individual boards rather than scribed, workbench gets a clean/tidy up between projects, but soon ends up like this again. Please post your photos so we can all feel at ease with our untidiness, or be inspired to keep things tidy.

2 minutes ago, sjp23480 said:

Thanks for all the workbench pictures,

Somehow I found these workbench photos fascinating, rather than clog up this thread with mine, I will start a new thread.

The OPs LSWR map and the SR Isle of Wight maps, I bought quite recently as reproductions from I think a preservation group at an exhibition, nice decoration in the railway room, I suspect some of these being sold at auction are reproductions, just checked one auction house, description was careful not to say original, still sold for over £100.

On 18/12/2023 at 16:40, Wickham Green too said:

Sorry we didn't get round to discussing this on Thursday ........ yes, the vents do make a big difference - but take a fair bit of scraping & filing of the uprights and vent edges to get right. Start by running a knife across the upright below the vent so you know where to stop carving (!) - then ping the vent off with the twist of a screwdriver.

Have  now redone the vents, does look better.

I've used the PECO self adhesive cable clips, together with tying the wire into bundles.

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

My main interest in shipping is modern cargo shipping, ocean going ships. There's a lot of such ships in 1/1250 waterline (a hobby which goes under most radars) but unfortunately little is available in bigger scales than 1/1250, especially if modern is seen as contemporary or near contemporary (there were a few kits of 1970's ships). The size of modern ocean going ships means they'd only be suitable in smaller scales (I'd guess 1/350 and smaller, even a 1/350 large container ship would be huge). You can get finished models of modern ships relatively cheaply on EBay from vendors in countries like Vietnam which look pretty good and they're not bad looking, I suspect some of them are from model makers that work for ship yards to supply their builders models. And if you look at Chinese e-commerce sites you can get some quite nice diecast 'fit the box' models of modern cargo ships which can be quite big and which are primarily made as corporate gifts for shipping lines (I have a couple received from Evergreen and MSC).

I remember visiting a shop in Hamburg which only sold these small scale models, mostly waterline, massive range.