PatB

During my etched kit building phase, I used two methods. For long folds, I had a couple of lengths of heavy brass angle, which I put over my vice jaws to act as bending bars. In theory they would be a little fiddly to set up so they're accurately level and parallel, but I found that with my particular vice and angle combination, they settled into place naturally.

For smaller folds, I found a brilliant tool on a tool stall at a show. It's a pair of pliers, but with very broad (50 mm or so) smooth jaws. Very quick and handy for small stuff. I think they were about $20 or so. They're a bit like this, but the jaws are wider relative to the rest of the tool. My own aren't accessible for a photo at the mo.

Something else to think of is the geology and history of your kingdom, as this will, to a significant extent, influence your freight traffic. Is it rocky with mineral deposits (mining/quarrying)? Are there large areas of good agricultural land (heavy seasonal livestock and crop traffic)? Is it a seafaring nation (fishing and cargo ports)? Is it an imperial/militaristic society (military traffic, troop trains, munitions factories)? Does it have land suitable for forestry (timber lines, sawmills)? 

Of course, Britain ticks all these boxes in various places, which helps to make it such a rich source of prototypes. Southern European countries like Spain or Greece would tend more towards agriculture. Eastern Europe or Scandinavia might be more forestry oriented, whilst much of Scandinavia might also have a heavy emphasis on the sea. 

Sounds to me like a good excuse to run a castor based oil . 

5 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Assuming that's parent+child in the Seicento, it demonstrates that the child could survive the accident thanks to excellent child seats, but probably be orphaned in the process.

The usual dummy load for ANCAP tests is adult driver and front seat passenger, and appropriately restrained 2yo and 10yo (if memory serves) in the back. 

Back when I first joined Vehicle Standards, in 2001, ANCAP had just tested a group of the (extremely popular here) Japanese 4wd utes, such as the Toyota Hilux and its equivalents. All basically similar, with a hefty ladder chassis topped with a separate, non-structural cab. 

They all performed very poorly, giving the worst of all worlds. The frame was initially stiff, transferring lots of energy to the cab and occupants, then the chassis rail would suddenly buckle and the whole lot would just fold up, allowing lots of intrusion into the occupant space. I suspect a Defender would be similar. 

In spite of this, they all managed to get 2 stars. This at a time when the big Aussie sedans got about 3, and the Renault Megane was making headlines for getting the first 5 star result. 

The general consensus was that bare minimum compliance with the Australian Design Rules of the time was the equivalent of about half an ANCAP star. 

4 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

I like a bit of Kraftwerk, 'Trans Europ Express' and 'Metal on Metal'.

I'm afraid I can no longer think of Kraftwerk without seeing this

10 hours ago, GoingUnderground said:

The TC exception was the Sidney Suburbans, R.450/1/2 where, according to Hammond, in 1959 Rovex did obtain official drawings and worked from those to design the tooling as they wanted an Australian model to promote the recently launched catenary system in Australia, but using the existing 4 wheel motor bogie. Arguably the idea backfired on them as the Sydney Suburbans were unique to Sydney and the attempt to relivery them in blue to pass them off as Victoria's OHLE "Harris Cars" EMUs R.550/1/2 failed. 

quite apart from the basic inaccuracy, the strong Melbourne vs Sydney parochial rivalry would have doomed that one.

3 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of, out near Monkton Heathfield, with the iron gates and high railings, I go past it most weeks and it's been cleared out, but only in the past year or two.

 

John

I think I've heard of that one, but this wasn't it. This one was just on the Taunton side of Kingston St Mary. I'm not sure when it got cleared, but some time in the early to mid 90s seems likely. 

15 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Seriously though, I have only ever seen one 6/90, it was rotting away in a Leicestershire hedge along with an A40 Devon. Both cars were only really visible in winter even in the late 1970s. 

Back in the late 70s/early 80s there was a house near Taunton with a large collection of early 50s Wolseleys (amongst other things) quietly rusting into the ground around it. Also visible from the road were a Standard 8, and one of those rounded caravans that used to appear on the cover of summer issues of Practical Motorist c1955. Peering through the hedge that surrounded the rest of the property revealed some Mk1 Ford's, and other stuff I can't now remember, sitting amongst trees and in shades of rust brown and moss green. It all seemed impossibly ancient at the time. It feels very odd to think that a car built on the day I squinted through that hedge is now ~10 years older than anything I could see was then. 

On 24/06/2021 at 05:20, Mel_H said:

Not sure about the backscene...? Reading depot 7/4/76, 31421, 31322 and 1028 Western Hussar (photo: Brian Morrison)

Quite an effective use of the Peco "city centre" backscene, I think. 

12 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

I think that there's something train set-esque about this picture with the mix of steam and diesel,  old and new infrastructure including a turntable, plus the viaduct, river & bridge in the background.

 

Dundee 1981 by Alan Rintoul

 

 

A classic N gauge "one of everything from the Farish catalogue. 

My one experience with E10 was when driving MrsB's new Ural sidecar outfit home from NSW in 2008. Crossing semi-remote NSW, all the roadhouses had was E10. The bike ran fine on it. Perhaps, as per the Manchester research, better than on non-ethanol. The Ural flat twin is, after all, a 1940s engine, regardless of how it might be dressed up with Keihin carbs and electronic ignition. The fuel consumption, however, was significantly worse. Sufficiently worse that I ended up spluttering to a halt 10 km short of a roadhouse I expected to be able to reach comfortably. Not a huge issue, as I had a 10 litre can in the boot of the chair, but noteworthy.

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Oh, I don't know about that. The Great Central had a class of Directors and the LNER followed suit. The GWR went in for it as well but the LMS was above such things. But only the LNWR named an engine The Auditor.

I assume noone was pleased to see it. 

19 hours ago, PatB said:

Sometimes it's worth looking at the dodgy paint jobs more closely. Although not railway, I'm expecting to receive, tomorrow, a horrifically painted Scalextric BRM P160 that cost a minimal amount because they're so commonplace in the usual green or white. However, from a careful inspection of the photos, I think it's the much less common (I won't say R@RE) red version under the paint. Not that it's actually valuable, as it's also a bit battered but, if I'm right and can get the paint off, it might be an interesting piece. 

Well, it's arrived and I was right about it being a red one. It's currently in a Dettol bath to try and get the paint off. If it proves unsalvageable, I'm not too upset. It came bundled with another commonplace car for a fiver plus postage and so, if nothing else, I've got a pair of working 70s motors, 7 useable wheels, 2 pairs of axles and a couple of pickup assemblies. Well worth the cost, so an unusual but tired body shell was always going to be a bonus really. 

5 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

50 031 'Hood' at Slough on the Plymouth - Paddington by Anthony Guppy

 

 

So, thanks to not building any vans or catering vehicles beyond the Mk1 variants, a spiffy, relatively high status express is has at least 3 non-matching vehicles in its make up. 

1 hour ago, CKPR said:

The North Sunderland Rly (nominally independent but essentially a satrap of the LNER and latterly BR) owned and used a pair of GER 6w coaches alongside an NER 4w saloon until closure in 1951. 

Oil lit too, or, rather, unlit, as the line's management were concerned about the fire risk. Must have been super inviting on a Northumberland winter evening/morning. 

Sometimes it's worth looking at the dodgy paint jobs more closely. Although not railway, I'm expecting to receive, tomorrow, a horrifically painted Scalextric BRM P160 that cost a minimal amount because they're so commonplace in the usual green or white. However, from a careful inspection of the photos, I think it's the much less common (I won't say R@RE) red version under the paint. Not that it's actually valuable, as it's also a bit battered but, if I'm right and can get the paint off, it might be an interesting piece. 

8 hours ago, kevinlms said:

This loco looks remarkably like it has bogies (couplings are Lima's 'Dunny Seats') that would fit the the Deltic and others.

 

http://mmiwakoh.de/Eigene Webs/Ersatzteilblaetter/ET8058.pdf

 

I've had a look around the above site and cannot see where the spoked wheels with cranks came from. I assume it's from the US 6 wheeled steam switchers?

 

 

Those bogies look an awful lot like the inside of the tender drive as well. 

As for where the wheels came from, I wondered about a small, rod drive diesel, if such a thing existed, from their European range. 

2 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

HD should probably have done the class 24 instead of the Co-Bo. Unfortunately the class 47 was introduced too late for them, and the other express DE types were both 1Co-Co1s which may have been regarded as too difficult to make at the time.

Well, too difficult to make go round 14" radius curves anyway. Although a Mainline Peak from 20 years later will just about do it, albeit not happily. 

33 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I have a question about that.

 

Did Lima make the bogie chassis i.e. wheelbase specifically for the Deltic, or was it a standard item from it's continental range?

Obviously, the side frames were new, but was the motor assembly made using existing parts already in their range?

After all Tri-ang/Tri-ang Hornby/Hornby Railways did that for years, cobbling together models made up from parts already in the bins, with new bodies, so why not Lima?

 

It was good work of the UK Lima agent, to get Lima to drop it's HO British range and change to 4mm scale. Certainly a decision that must have paid off handsomely.

I'm not sure about the Deltic bogie, but I've looked at a couple of King tender drives, which are, essentially, a 6 wheeled motor bogie. I was surprised to find that the outer wheelsets (the driven ones) had crank throws moulded in, and so were clearly common with something else, as, obviously, a tender drive wouldn't need them. Unless someone was planning to release a Sturrock steam tender, anyway. 

9 hours ago, 30368 said:

 

Remember the ford picture well. But the really special picture is number 224. Nino Vacarella, the Sicilian schoolteacher, who was also rather good in a Ferrari Sports Prototype nraced 330 P4 number 224, the sole Ferrari works entry to the 1967 Targa Floria. He was over a minute ahead when he sadly crashed. What a car and what a race! Nino is thankfully still with us.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

In itself something of an achievement for a racing driver of the era. 

6 hours ago, NCB said:

 

Think HD only started to vary the numbers when the 2-rail versions came out.

 

I wasn't knocking Triang. The LMS 3F was a very nice model and I wanted one. It was the sort of thing which Hornby didn't seem interested in. The B12 was another.

I wonder if Triang's better provision of intermediate sized tender locos (3F, B12, L1 etc) was a small factor in their success. Perhaps not so much in the pure toy market, but for those building a 6x4 main line, as depicted in 60 Plans, they'd fit the space (and, probably, the budget) rather better than a Pacific. 

Back in about 85 or 86 I watched a heavily laden, then 10ish year old Mini Clubman reverse vigorously out of a parking space and collide, equally vigorously, with a bollard. Once the driver had inspected the large, V-shaped indentation in the back of his car, and sworn a bit, he drove off, leaving a humorously Mini shaped deposit consisting of an astonishingly large quantity of filler and crumbly rust, which had been dislodged by the impact. Honestly, you could have filled a dustbin with it. I'm amazed there was any car left to hold the subframes together. 

9 minutes ago, Il Grifone said:

The Dublo SD6 coaches still provide the best representation of Mk I flush glazing IMHO. If only they had made they scale length!

But they did. It's not Meccano Ltd's fault that BR insisted on building their replicas with too many doors and window bays. 

11 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

We are finally  coming to grips with how dry Australia intrinsically is, water conservation has a high degree of acceptance especially after the last drought, although there are always exceptions who spend 20 minutes hosing the leaves off their driveways.

 

In contrast my partner follows some YouTube vlogger who is coincidently living in Arizona. At the start of her tedious  videos she'll often turn on the kitchen tap to wash her hands or somerhing then  leave it blasting into the sink in  the background for the 4 or 5 hours her video about putting on lipstick or whatever and whinging about life  goes for. I've often wanted to post a comment "turn the bloody tap off!" I always give her a thumbs down.

 

On the other hand there are  other video bloggers she follows that do gardening, mainly in California, who are embracing water wise gardens and feature many Australian natives. Which is weird because the waterwise garden my partner  created here features mainly plants from California and Mexico ..

When I first came to WA in 1996, from the perpetually soggy UK, I found myself staggered by how profligate Perth was with water, considering its situation on the edge of a continent that is, effectively, a huge desert. Things have changed a bit in the intervening years, but there are still plenty who whinge about the slightest restriction on their "right" to dispose of 10s of thousands of litres to no real benefit to anyone.

47 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Meanwhile in  news from us colonies, the Bondi outbreak that started when  a driver who ferries international flight crew caught it and spread it to others by simply walking through Westfield's in Bondi Junction is still bubbling along. There were 10 new cases today but all but one were in people who were among the several thousand  people who were instantly put  into self isolation when the outbreak commenced and was tracked and traced so so far it isn't going anywhere fast.

 

As usual Sth Australia is shutting up shop to us lepers, other states will no doubt follow, and as usual  the Murdoch  press  when it's not  telling us how poorly our vaccination rollout is going because no one is going and getting vaccinated is filled with stories about how many people are carking it from blood clots when they go and get vaccinated.

The Australian rollout has definitely been hampered by clots, and not all of them from the AZ vaccine.