Robin Brasher

My first suggestion is a Southern Region R1 0-6-0T in a red Hornby Dublo 2-rail candy striped box. This should be an unlimited run at a reasonable price and available from my favourite model shop at the outset. It was the motive power for Simon K's brother's first train set.

The standard throttle got hot with low current motors as well. Does anyone remember Circuit 24. This was produced by Jouef based on the Le Mans 24 hour race and was very popular in France. Meccano marketed it in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1964 but I don't think it ever caught on. I remember going round the department stores in Croydon in December 1962, They had all sold out of Scalextric but they had some Circuit 24 sets. I should have waited until after Christmas because Scalextric replaced their rubber track with metal clips with some better quality track.

Thank you for the comment about princesses riding in open wagons presumably pulled by Princess Elizabeth. Returning to Scalextric I think that the motor cycle combination had a Tri-ang TT gauge motor and it went very fast. I think that the 00 gauge Rocket used the same motor. I bought a clapped out Winston Churchill for £2 when I was at college on a small grant and replaced the motor with an Airfix 5 pole motor. The Battle of Britain locomotive is still running very smoothly. It shows how closely the slot car World was related to Tri-ang Railways in those days. Slightly off topic I thought I was on a low income at college with a grant reduced from £12 per week to £6 per week as my father was on a good income and he paid me the other £6 . I did not realise how lucky I was compared with present day students with student loans.

I originally had one 00 gauge layout in the spare bedroom and a 4' x 2' N gauge layout to take to exhibitions in my car. Somehow the N gauge layout grew to 16' x 4' which took a long time to set up at exhibitions so I built another 4' 6" x 2'6" N gauge layout that I can take to exhibitions. The 16' x 4' N gauge layout is now 12' x 4' in the spare bedroom so there is nowhere to put the 00 gauge layout so that gets erected in a local village hall. During lockdown I could not get to the village hall so I built an 8' x 4' layout to fit in the lounge and run my 00 gauge trains. I have now got four layouts in a small flat with barely enough room for one. It looks like it is normal for model railway enthusiast to have four layouts. There may be only 150,000 model railway enthusiasts but 600,000 layouts.

Model Railways can be a party play thing as well as Scalextric. I had a party in my flat at Worthing about thirty years ago. All the men ended up playing with my layout and all the ladies stayed in my lounge and chatted with each other. I noticed that Chris was running a bright yellow engine on his Tetbury layout. We used to have an authentic layout based on Evercreech Junction in our model railway club. On club nights we used to run engines that were unlikely to have run on the Somerset and Dorset Railway like a Deltic or a Coronation Pacific. Everyone enjoyed watching these although we would have been criticised if we had run them at exhibitions. I think that most people run guest trains in private that would never have run on the railway they are modelling. It is a pity that Tri-ang Minic Motorways never caught on. Model Railway layouts usually have moving trains and static vehicles although some people have adapted the Faller electric vehicles to run on British layouts.

The programme was a mixture of Scalextric and model railways. I still have a few Scalextric and Airfix slot racing cars from the 1960s so I was interested to see the developments but my main interest is model railways. I am surprised that there are only 150,000 model railway layouts in the Country. This would mean that there are 18 model railway layouts in my town which is about right. In the 1950s I thought every boy had a train set. The computer programmes to measure buildings for Tetbury are beyond my ability. I just used a tape measure and then worked out the other dimensions from photographs. They have used computer programmes to measure the buildings in the 0 gauge model of the Swanage Railway in the barn at Godlingston Manor in Swanage and a modeller in Holland has done the same to create his model of Corfe Castle Station. It does enable people to model a station without a site visit.

I used to help with the Swanage Railway stand at Modelworld. I remember the huge pool with a model of Titanic and the iceberg and the circus models. One of the members of the South Dorset Modellers used to exhibit his circus models there and he is still making them. Another makes model boats and military vehicles so perhaps there is scope for other disciplines at model railway shows. I used to make lots of Airfix kits and collect die cast cars and buses as well as being a model railway enthusiast so I find the Hornby programme's films about Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric just as interesting as the films about model railways.

All my Hornby Dublo and Wrenn locomotives are still running as is my Tri-ang Princess so those were purchases for keeps but I wish the same could be said for my T9. My T9's motor is fine but unfortunately the gears no longer engage with the wheels. The motors of my airsmoothed Merchant Navy and H class burned out within a year. Perhaps Hornby could take a leaf out of Ace and Darstaed's book and build some locomotives that are built to last. The new Hornby locomotives run well at the outset and are excellent reproductions of the prototypes but I don't think they are any longer purchases for keeps.

A firm fitted a smoke unit to my Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth in the 1960s and I enjoyed the effect. I am surprised it has taken Hornby so long to reintroduce smoke units. The artwork on Hornby and Airfix boxes is wonderful. I developed my modelling skills in my teens with Airfix kits and the large ships like the Victory took me the whole of the Christmas holidays to build. I enjoyed reading the historical information about the Airfix kits. In the 1960s it looked like Scalextric was going to take over interest from model railways but the interest seemed to be short lived. I am pleased that Scalextric is continuing but I don't hear much about it. Around 1960 a garage in Orpington built a huge Scalextric layout. I left the queue to operate it for dinner and when I came back an hour later the same boys were waiting in the queue. There were some problems with boys being over enthusiastic with the throttle, which included me when a motorcycle combination went flying off the track. After some youngsters had been waiting over an hour for a go the garage announced that it was only going to let adults at the controls.

I am not sure if Hornby is looking at the 0 gauge coarse scale market as inspiration. Either Ace or Darstaed were making 4 and 8 wheel pre-grouping coaches a long time before Hattons and Hornby produced theirs and Hornby is still not producing many bogie pre-grouping coaches. Similarly Ace was producing a Hornby Dublo look alike N2 goods train set in 0 gauge a long time before Hornby started making its Hornby Dublo locomotives.

There was an interesting mix of themes for the Hornby programme last Monday. Perhaps Jenny would like Hornby to reintroduce their transcontinental series with more powerful magnadhesion so we could have an Australian layout hanging from the ceiling. I think Sam is very enterprising making money from his videos. I wonder if anyone has run a Hornby locomotive to destruction to see how long it would last. My friend had a Tri-ang Winston Churchill that he ran on an exhibition layout in Boscombe until the flanges wore out. It would be interesting to find out which locomotive would pull the most coaches. According to the Railway Modeller the R3971 Hornby Dublo General Steam Navigation can haul 21 Pullman cars on a layout with 1:48 gradients and 3' radius curves which is probably the best of any Hornby locomotives. I was also interested to see how the lady packed the Airfix Mustang. She took one item from each of around 46 trays and then weighed them to see if anything was missing. When I bought Airfix kits there was a slip inside to return for missing parts. The lights were missing from my Ford Capri but I never got round to returning the slip.

There is a scale chart updated to 12 February 1961on page 293 of Dinky Toys and Modelled Miniatures by Mike and Sue Richardson. The Bulldozer is to 1/34 scale and the BEV Truck is to 1/38 scale. Most of the cars, vans and lorries are either 1/48 or 1/45 scale which seem close to 1/43 scale unless you put them against 1/43 scale models. In the 1960s most of the Dinky Toys cars were made to 1/43 scale which is the same as the 0 gauge trains. I think it is a pity that Dinky Toys did not make all their models to model railway scales.

Thank you for your comments about Dinky Toys. My replica Dinky Toys Regent Tanker, in the Atlas range, together with other Dinky Toys, blended in well with the 0 gauge layout we exhibited at the Allendale Centre at Wimborne. This was the Wessex Group of the Hornby Collectors Association layout at the Central Southern 0 gauge exhibition on Sunday 24 October 2021 where we had about 350 visitors.

At the Central Southern 0 gauge exhibition at the Allendale Centre at Wimborne last Sunday there was an 0 gauge Coronation class locomotive easily hauling a rake of eight Coronation Scot coaches with lights. If it can be done in 0 gauge Hornby should be able to do it in 00 gauge.

Last Thursday I ran my Coronation locomotive with a rake of seven Coronation coaches. The baseboard was not completely level and the locomotive was unable to haul the load without slipping where there was a slight incline so I removed one coach. I wonder if Hornby had ever tested the locomotive to see if it would pull nine coaches. Perhaps Coronation could be a candidate for a Hornby Dublo version with a diecast body or Hornby could make some Coronation Scot coaches without lights that would have less drag.

The arrival of a Hornby five coach rake of four-wheel LSWR coaches and the Kernow LSWR brake van has enabled me to run a balanced range of rolling stock with the PC and Hornby repainted bogie coaches and my collection of Wessex Wagons.

There are very few records of four and six wheel coaches on the London and South Western Railway except a Board of Trade report following a derailment of 19 June 1886 on the Swanage Railway which is mentioned on page 241 of Swanage 125 Years of Railways by B.L. Jackson. This train consisted of passenger guards van 260, 1st class coaches 338 and 373, 2nd class coach 119, 3rd class coach 319 and 3rd class brake 243. The formation is similar to the coaches made by Hornby and Adams Radial Tanks could have been the motive power then. I ran this train at the Wimborne Railway Society meeting last night. The members liked the coaches except for the luggage van and did not think that the lights were necessary.

LSWR terrier crossing Corfe Viaduct with a rake of Hornby LSWR 4 wheel coaches. I have still not activated the lights on 3rd class coach 302 that arrived in February so I don't seem to be very interested in the lights. I think that the LSWR van on the road is a souvenir from the Watercress Line.

You will be pleased to read that I have now received the remaining three L&SWR coaches without lights. The model shop wanted to sell the L&SWR coaches with lights, I wanted to buy them and all that was stopping the sale from going through until December was Hornby. Now I am able to display the rake of coaches in front of the original Swanage Station as it was in L&SWR days.

I have now heard from the large model shop which has told me that a small batch arrived which Hornby sold and distributed to a few model shops but the main production run is not expected until December. I have decided to cancel my order and order the remaining L&SWR models without lights which are available now. I was not entirely happy with the lights as they shone through some of the paintwork and some went on and off without warning.

I originally pre-ordered through Hattons but after seeing comments about Hornby cancelling their pre-orders I cancelled my order and pre-ordered with another large shop because I thought that would be my best chance of getting the models. I don't think Hattons has ever had the L&SWR coaches with lights in stock and I don't think any of the L&SWR coaches are available from them now. I think I made the right decision in cancelling Hattons' order.

I enjoyed watching the video. You will be pleased to see that the L&SWR coaches without lights are generally available. Unfortunately that is not the case with the L&SWR coaches with lights. I pre-ordered four of these with a large model shop that does mail orders on 22 January. Two arrived a couple of months ago but they have all been in stock at Hornby since 1 July and are now available at some shops I reminded the shop today and they said that I will get the remaining coaches although I may have to wait. They had ordered 70 R40107 1st class and 85 R40110 with lights and are going to chase up Hornby. If Hornby had cancelled their order they would have informed all their customers. I have also ordered R40108A L&SWR 3rd 308 from my local Swanage Railway shop so it will be interesting to see which comes first. In future it may be better to wait until the models arrive on Hornby's web site and then order from whichever shop has them available.

Has anyone received any news about the LSWR 4 wheel coaches R40107 and R40110? These have been available from Hornby since 1 July. I ordered mine from a large model shop that does mail orders on 22 January and at 3 August they still have not received them. One shop has only got three left. I have heard that Hornby is delaying supplying some large model shops by four weeks.

I think that R30086 will be a very good model and will be worth paying extra for the enhanced livery. I enclose a picture of the prototype visiting Swanage on Monday 5 July this year.

You will be pleased to see that the Swanage Railway Heritage Carriage Group has recently obtained an LSWR carriage body that was part of a house for nearly 100 years. It will be used as a workshop and store. It looks like it has five compartments two of which seem to be in LSWR brown and salmon pink livery. I am still waiting for the Hornby R40107 1st class coach and R40110 LSWR brake 3rd. These are available from Hornby but not yet from the retailers.