john new

You raised a perfectly valid debating point in the OP, no need to apologise.

Make it a contemporary, heritage line, add a few rusty/tarp covered wrecks in the "long siding" (which every preserved line seems to have) and go back to enjoying your modelling life. That way you can even run something modern on a gala day weekend if the mood takes your fancy or a mate brings something round for an exchange visit.

IIRC Walkers had stopped that before I left York in 1986, however, although I can't remember exactly my memory of when is that it wasn't that long before I left. Their barge was the Reklaw. They worked the Ouse and lower part of the Foss.

Using J K Rowling inspired ideology (as opposed to conspiracy theory) the Confundus charm cast on the film crew made them use a location shown variously in North Yorkshire and the West of Scotland so that the muggle railway fraternity would have no true idea of where Hogwarts is. Similar Confundus charm activity would/did account for the Highland River Class debacle too.

I am fairly sure I have read somewhere a comment (But now can't remember where, or even if it was from A1SLT official/accidental info' leak or mere speculation) that alignment of a bore was a discovered issue. If that is the case, as I alluded to in my earlier post, there will be behind the scenes issues that could be prejudiced by open forum discussions. Only a personal view but I can't understand the fuss over this, there have been fatal railway accidents since before the Battle of Waterloo (the boiler explosion of 1815 at Newbottle IIRC); lessons get learned and life moves on, but incrementally more safely. At some point in the future we may find out more than has been already released and this is already quite a lot more than I expected. However, surely it won't be the end of the world if we, as mere enthusiasts, don't ever find out who was to blame (if it is down to human error) provided those responsible for safety know the full what and why and there are appropriate safeguards put in place.

Cloak and dagger or prudence given in due course there may be commercial compensation negotiations, or worse, litigation? As with the aeroplane bolt mentioned above - you say it did (it didn't) they take you to court, if it did then you, at the very least, seek compensation. All that is best done in private, personally I'm happy with having been told what broke, and the news on progress. If it turned out that It was simply fitter X put the wrong ring in/misread a micrometer, or designer Y miscalculated, internal procedures will change to prevent a repeat; do we really need those individuals publically vilified? The crucial bit after any error by any team/individual doing anything is that those involved learn so repeats are mitigated and if sharing findings with others will avoid it happening again it gets spread. That is valid for something simple like getting a cup of tea made the way you like it (leaf or bag, bag or milk first : sugar/sweetener/neither) and increases in validity the more important or risky the process.

Although this image will still be in the next SLS Journal with a request for info' there is a clue in the top enlargement of the two - is the round blob some form of local DIY tender light, perhaps for aiding coaling in some extra murky corner of a shed somewhere? if yes the conduit could be power running up from a battery or DIY dynamo slung underneath the tender.

it meets the ooomegoolie bird, a species in which the males, due to the absence of legs, rarely land!

Following on from my earlier post in this thread I now have a Hornby Hogwarts Castle but it is currently in the works for attention having failed its FTR exam. (Tender drawbar fault see this thread). Given my current workload it is unlikely to be fixed in time to work the school special extra Kings X-Hogsmead working on 2nd September (Hogwart's students arrive on the first Sunday in September). The current stand-by, and favourite to work the train is getting a repaint back to LMS maroon for disguise purposes - 5690 Leander. (In reality the only other red liveried engine in my collection)

Thank you all. Now have a good idea of where to start with fettling it.

Back to the main topic, as I am not going to get drawn into an argument on quality and standards - we will have to agree to differ it has all been debated many times by many people as you can see from the digital v paper BRM thread! This is the tender link in question and thanks for your tip Rob The spade connectors shove into slot A and you can clearly see from the box polystyrene it isn't that the Y end should have been a closed O and a permanently coupled pair. Not yet had time to dismantle anything to see if the copper spade actually carries power from some form of wheel pick-ups but there appear to be brass or copper connectors for it to connect to inside that tender slot. (If no current carried as built I may add tender pickups anyway). There are obvious fixes, some simple, some more complicated, for example the simplest is a home made drawbar with loop on each end, then remove that centre upright and glue a block of wood painted black in where the spaces are behind A - that then gives several options using a screw or vertical rod to fix both the drawbar issue and hold the tender top on. A wired connection to the tender would look like the water and other connections so no real issue there either. I just wondered if anyone had any ideas on using it as is without the wheelbarrowing tender problem. For example would a white-metal fireman on the tender (or even just a lead fishing weight glued inside behind the tender front) weight the front down and fix the issue by compressing the springing effect or will that just raise the rear wheels instead? Why I asked the question is - someone will already have overcome this issue.

Interesting observations above. I love the skill that's gone into Pendon and would love to emulate that quality, if not that setting. However, I know if it was my layout I was building to those standards I would be bored with it as a concept, and wanting to move on to something new, long before it was finished. I would far rather have some thing to operate, even with minimalist scenery, than their accuracy. Mind you from looking at theatre sets regularly (my wife is a Stage Manager) it is clear that attempting a style of very simplistic/minimalist scenery that will work in a model railway context, is not the same thing as just having crude/badly done full scenics. The first done well will look right with the brain filling in all the right gaps, the second will never look anything other than crap scenery. Your 100_4991a.jpg a case in point, a bit of dull matt in the right colour for road paint, possibly some ballast, and maybe some minimal greenery and you have a yard. It is pretty convincing as it is with just the buffers. For a station (which that is) not much more than adding platforms is needed to set a scene.

Was just about to look at the copy of that photo' you sent me and which is going into our next SLS Journal Trevor as when I page set it this afternoon I didn't notice the bent cab . Saved me one job but given me a heads up for a caption addition! PS (An update) This question is now being asked of SLS Members via our Journal 913 which will reach members in mid-September. Any answers received via J913 will be posted here and the converse (if RMWebbers solve it first) will be added as snippet in our subsequent J914. Still an analogue print magazine so there will be some delay.

Interesting update. Having searched on YouTube to see of anyone had recorded a quick fix for this problem the servicing video I found for a Hogwarts Castle shows a (presumably) later version with its drawbar fixed in at both ends. However, the one I have looks like it must have come supplied as a separated loco & tender - reason I say that is because it is in an original Hornby Hogwarts set box and had the two items been supplied connected the linked combo' could not have fitted into the formed styrene inner! I don't know enough though to categorically state it isn't a box recycled with appropriate replacement contents added by someone to make it look as though everything inside was from the original set with only the track mat missing!

This debate has made me consider swapping options and trying the new rather than stopping my subscription - For existing postal, paper subscribers if we switch to digital what is our commitment period, i.e,. is it classed as a new subscription, with sign up options/commitments, or just a transfer of the existing agreement? Thinking for the future - If we stop the subscription for any reason will we still have on-line access to the one's we paid for into the foreseeable future or would we have to download them for local storage? I ask as the latter would be a monster download if a reader packs it in. However, on-line access to the archive you've bought, rather than physical storage of metre's of paper in back issues, is a worthwhile selling point for me as I have limited storage room left. (what I have is already full of books and train stuff!!)

Editing and producing a bi-monthly Society magazine as Editor (SLS Journal) I agree a digital pdf would be considerably cheaper to distribute. Demographically for us though it wouldn't work as we have too many, non-IT savvy members. Equally, for digital content to work well it shouldn't just be a pdf of the print magazine it would need a second edit of the content into something much more fluid for the end consumer. Labour costs to achieve that are probably higher than printing. However, over and above that a key issue is how do you want to read your items? It is not a simplistic, absolute, one-option fits all digital or print choice either. I already buy almost exclusively digital fiction, no storage and portable on my i-pad & Kindle, conversely I have tried it for non-fiction and it doesn't work for me. I also now find quite a lot of news content on sites like the BBC is on video rather than in text format with still pictures - they don't get much watching from me as reading text is easier to comprehend than audio for serious material. Video for tutorials where you need to watch the action does make sense. For the long term I guess it is rather like the VHS -v- Betamax issue; the winner hasn't yet emerged between print and digital as the ultimate distribution medium has not yet been established, when it comes it probably won't be either as we know it today (DVD or pdf) just like although VHS ousted Betamax it was DVDs that ultimately triumphed over both physical video formats in the mid-term until digital format began the video strike back - although neither personal/home viewing format has yet killed off the cinema - albeit that cinemas have morphed into something very different from those of 50 years ago.

I have recently bought a 2nd hand Hogwarts Castle and brief test running shows the front tender wheels are being lifted off the track, I think by springy-ness in the copper power collection spade which is necessary to maintain collection continuity. Result a loco + wheelbarrow. This fitting has obviously given problems before as there is some damage to the location slot and the tender steps on the left side are bent, possibly from it heavily whacking the power connection clip on the previous owner's set up once too often! Before I do the blindingly obvious fix of modifying it with a permanently bolted in replacement drawbar (Just like my 1960s Dublo Ludlow Castle has) and transfer power via a wired link have readers come across any other solutions not requiring a replacement fixing? As you can see from this video link the tender is running wheelbarrow fashion and the tender steps catch on the power clip. The link = https://www.facebook.com/john.new.92/videos/1782740948512065/ Incidentally it is issues like this with modern locos' that led to my earlier post in the BRM thread. [That said, one factor across the board not just in BRM, is the trend that everything has to be super scale, fragile and expensive! What ever happened to robust and reliable?] The Hogwarts set was aimed at children, even for an adult this is a fiddly fixing and not really fit for purpose.

Whilst I have been in the hobby long enough to understand all that, from the pioneering MRJ onwards, the downside for modellers like me who have to pack everything completely away between sessions is modern stuff breaks too easily with the slightest error of packing or handling. There is at least one other RMweb thread about this issue so I won't comment further to take the posts off topic.

As a current subscriber (because of an original joining offer) I've felt BRM is going downhill lately but I can't put my finger on why. That said, one factor, across the board not just in BRM, is the trend that everything has to be super scale, fragile and expensive! What ever happened to robust and reliable? I certainly don't want to go digital, paper copies are much easier to read and you can rip pages out for long term storage. BRM is fortunately one of the mags that is A4 so anything you want to keep can be ring-bindered - a positive over Rly Mod for example. I have several DVD's to catch up on, an annoying format you can't shove in a bag and watch on the bus or quickly grab for a five minute browse. Only inertia is keeping me from ringing the cancellation line. PS And it is not that I am an IT luddite, I was an early adopter back in the 1980s, chaired a National IT user group in the early days, was a user rep' on a major IT software platform through the 1990s until I retired in 2008 and still use IT heavily every day on SLS business, it is just that in this instance I don't feel digital improves on traditional.

Similarly in Weymouth. Before it closed and got converted into flats the pub on the King St/Commercial Road corner adjacent the Harbour Branch crossing point was renamed the Oar House. The local licensing panel soon scuppered the rename!

The common sense and sensible way to do it.

This is a guess - wouldn't it be variable? Ideally on one line you would want them all the same way round but there would be variations from station to station, partly dependent on the prime expectation of traffic flow and local gradients and other factors, the side used would be influenced by issues like, for example, where was the mill? Prioritise the fulls, no revenue in an empty, and load weight. Also where gradients were steep there would possibly be only one end you could realistically shunt in from, I guess Goathland is a classic example of that factor (Accessed both sides from the Pickering end as also is/was Levisham) and the opposite way around to Grosmont where access to the small station goods yard was from the junction/Whitby end. At Whitby, it is a terminus so everything accessed from the arrival/departure end, and the dockside location determining which side of the running line.

This one is white so I don't think it is brass. (Loco not to hand at present to recheck).

I'll have a look. Thank you

Having got it out after many years of storage just found same problem on my Flying Scotsman, motor spins fine but does not grip the small gear wheel. Does anyone do this repair?