olivegreen

Same here - 10.37 in France (9.37 in UK) and everything is g e t t i n g v e r y s…l….o…w…. But otherwise OK in minus 9° and winter sunshine !

This one must have been on here before - if so, apologies but I'm new to this and short of going through 117 pages don't know how to check. Two-engined airliner flying along (4 if you want to drag it out a bit…). Man and woman sitting side by side chatting and getting on famously. The noise on the starboard side stops and the captain announces that the engine has failed but that there is no real problem - the flight will be a little slower and therefore a little longer. After a while the other engine winds down and stops. Captain announces that obviously there is a problem and that they will have to do a forced landing, but they are over mountainous territory and that catastrophe is looming. "Oh God", says the woman, starting to panic," There are so many things I wanted to do in my life, but now it's all over". "Come on" she says to the man beside her, "We've been getting on well I feel I can ask you this". Ripping off her blouse and bra she says "Make me feel like a real woman for the last time in my life". The man calmly removes his shirt and holds it out to her: "Here you are, iron this". (Exits stage left pursued by feminists…)

Thanks for adding that - I should have put it in my original post! Mike.

Many thanks for your encouragement, Jamie...but I have just looked through your own topic (on Ellerby) and am not sure which emotion I feel more: awe or even deeper depression! Seriously, wonderful inspiration. I feel (like you?) that life is too short for building my own track and sorting things out to EM or finer scale on the size of layout that I am building (and have been for about 15 years!), so stick with OO, RTR - usually modified in some way - and kit motive power and stock, but buildings simply have to be scratch-built. I am about to start on my winter project of a William Tite-style station building. See Axminster, Topsham, Whimple as they were, or several others on the LSW/SR western section to get the idea - and the challenge presented: gables, rooflines and chimneys galore! Mike.

I have just discovered this thread and despite the nearness of Christmas am now in deep depression at my own inabilities in the face of such excellence. Brilliant modelling, and thanks to all for showing us your art.

If that book sells out, there is always the Kingfisher book by Peter Cooper on the Maunsell (sic) S15s, if you can find one. I don't know when it was published, but I bought mine in 1986 (a snip at £2.75, I might add)! Contains lots of information about tenders and tender swaps. It gives a bit of info about the Urie versions and origins but, as the title implies, not much. (Edited to add the comment about tender info)

Me too - a few S15s are needed to haul my fast freights. As to the Z, even though manufacturers seem to be going for the unusual these days, however obscure, I would almost place a bet on not getting an RTR Z during my lifetime! Which reminds me, I must retrieve the partly-built Jidenco Z Class that has been in my 'too difficult' box for something like 20 years and see if I can revive it. That is, if my nerves and patience can stand the experience….

Actually I've just been told that that photo is a pre-launch picture of the conversion kit to be marketed by [xxxxx company] to be applied to an N15 to turn it into an S15 while we wait for the Hornby one. Pretty rude, I thought.

… and of course, to confuse the non-Southern enthusiast even further, some sets used for inter-company (later, inter-regional) services had British standard gangways at the outer ends. I don't know, but I suppose the same must have applied to the LNER. Isn't this fun? Great work in explaining all this, by the way! Mike (Edited because of gross finger trouble - spelling)

Reading back over the pages of this thread I am astonished at the criticisms already being made about the Kernow gate stock, when it hasn't even appeared yet. I wonder how many among us have ever tried to make up the Jidenco versions? I bought a pair - the versions with the scrolly gates - what must be 25 years ago and gave up when just the driving trailer was half-built, since when it and its unmade partner have resided in the 'too difficult' box. After ordering a pair of the Kernow ones, in a wave of renewed enthusiasm (and the intervening 20-odd years of kit building experience, of course) I retrieved them from said box and started again in hopes of then having 2 sets once my Kernow one is delivered. Well, that lasted about 2 hours: after kicking the dog and getting scratchy with my wife through sheer frustration, they (the coach kits, not the wife or dog) are now on the 'hopelessly beyond my limit of patience' heap. Roll on delivery of the RTR versions! Mike