PatB

Excellent updates. I built Jim's Toad E a couple of years ago as my second (first successful) essay in etched brass. I'm not sure I'd describe it as "simple" although the lack of much in the way of brake gear certainly helps. The handrails took forever though. My first loco (Connoisseur Y7) was much less fiddly by comparison . Given the choice between brass and whitemetal for a loco kit, I'd personally go for brass, mainly because it feels more like "proper" engineering and also because it's much harder to knacker a part beyond redemption which, for someone as clumsy and careless as me, is a major consideration. The downside is that there are more parts to assemble but, if you treat the build as entertainment in itself rather than purely a means to an end, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

He was also not entirely correct. My parents had a Bendix Automatic front-loader which, I'm pretty sure, was bought when I was born (early in 1967). A bit young to be outside a secondhand shop before 1970 but extant nonetheless. Bloody thing was the size of a small house and weighed about half a ton too, although its massive construction didn't seem to translate into long term reliability as it seemed to go wrong an awful lot as it aged past its first decade.

About fifty years ago . I'll get me coat....

Given that you could have this for less than 300 notes (albeit in a lesser state of completion) well north of a grand seems high for something which includes a load of bits needing throwing away.

From a business perspective, it's not a daft idea. Put up easily available items at ridiculous prices. When some poor sucker bids successfully, go and buy the item elsewhere for half the selling price, post it off to the happy rube and pocket the difference. No capital tied up in stock and a guaranteed profit on every sale. Ethically, on the other hand...

Blimey! Lord Fisher takes me back. I had a brake van ride, with Lord Fisher in charge, on a school trip to the then very new East Somerset Railway. I can no longer remember the exact date but given that the ESR only opened to the public ~Easter 1975 and I can be certain that the trip was prior to the 1975 school summer holidays that leaves only a small window. I honestly can't imagine what the safety implications of conducting a group of 8 year olds on such an outing would now be but it seemed quite normal then.

I like to see a mix. I've been to one or two exhibitions where most of the layouts on display appeared unfinished and I'll admit that, as a whole, those were disappointing shows regardless of the individual quality or educational value of any of the individual layouts. However, the odd unfinished layout, especially if the work has been done specifically with a view to it being exhibited unfinished, can be fascinating and, I think, has a legitimate place at any show.

Lots of good stuff here, from an era which I remember well. Surely it wasn't that long ago . I find the 91 particularly interesting as, although newish, the nose is already quite grubby and there is also very obvious wrinkling of the metal around the tops of the cab doors.

The buyer was internet savvy enough to find, register with, and bid, on Ebay. I don't see that any greater ability is required to check prices from other retailers with an online presence.

I agree. I reckon a couple of feet would be the minimum, allowing at least some low-relief structures to set the scene and also giving some scope for a token curve to the platform roads. After all, the curvature in the photographs is a significant feature of the prototype and avoiding straight lines/parallels with the baseboard edges is always beneficial to appearance.

Maybe, but given that printed on detail is more appropriate to 1950s Hornby Dublo than a supposedly landmark model 50-odd years later and that the mechanism and interior workings, as described by Mr Burkin, would have shamed Triang I'm not so sure.

And, having recently reread Nigel Burkin's original review in BRM, I gather that any rarity it might have is due to it being rubbish and overpriced when new .

Love the Kilmersdon Colliery incline shot. It reminds me that I recently found an article on that very incline in an old magazine, covering the working practices and with a few good photos. Lots of scope for an interesting model given a bit (more than I possess) of ingenuity.

Well I've heard of blue-shift and red-shift as the result of very high speeds, so, presumably, when applied to rail vehicles rather than space ones, you get green-shift .

I seem to remember reading, long ago, that there is also a shot of an Austin K2 truck in which a driven front axle is clearly visible, when the K2 never came in 4WD, even for the army. Not having seen the film myself that's just hearsay though.

Long ago (c1971 or so), Prototype Models of card building kit fame, offered a printed styrene sheet body kit for the Sentinel intended to go over a Triang motor bogie. Is it, by any chance, one of those?

They were doing much the same thin 25 years ago when I lived there and was a Portway regular. I don't see them changing now .

Given that fully functional, albeit very small, terminus to fiddleyard layouts have been built in significantly less than 9 feet in 0 gauge, don't let that put you off . Whilst, perhaps, not really relevant to this thread, there are a number of tricks which can allow the space required to be shrunk quite a lot. There's no such thing as a free lunch, of course, but it's surprising what can be done. Raikes Street, a notable 00 example of quart into pint potness, can be found here.

Fully restored.

Well, I could get them to Midland on the 4'81/2" but then it'll be a long, 25 km, slog up the old 3'6" trackbed from there. Maybe if I get a few lengths of old rail.....

The pipe bridge/gantry is interesting and would be an easy to make and unusual model detail.

Even more impressive "Will post to Australia". I look forward to picking them up from the local Post Office .

I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who can't grasp the idea that burned plastic bears not the slightest resemblance to burned wood or scorched steel.

Well, well . I don't remember the pub but I used to be (c1989-90) a regular in the chip shop which, I think, was where the cafe seems to be now. IIRC they did kebabs too .

I haven't tried one on a train-set but I used a cheapo, generic one for a slotcar circuit a few years ago and it worked beautifully.