johnlambert

It could be saved, I'm sure. But it is probably more economically viable as a spares donor than a complete car.

I prefer to stick to a theme, albeit a broad one. I've found that it's a good way to reduce impulse buying of things that look pretty but don't generally fit the scene I want to create. When I started I was clear that my focus (in N gauge) was BR Western Region in the late 1950s and early 1960s as seen on the Banbury-Birmingham area. That meant late crest locos, maroon coaches and green diesels/DMUs. Of course some locos carried the early British Railways emblem well into the 1960s, so I "had" to have some early emblem locos. Then there were crimson and cream coaches running with maroon stock in the early 1960s so that was more stock I could justify and if I wanted to portray an early 1950s scene I could even mix GWR-liveried items with those carrying early British Railways colours. Most of my BR Mk1 coaches carry the 'W' prefix although there are a few 'M' and 'E' coaches too, which I understand could happen. I haven't bothered to check whether the coaches I've got would have operated in the Birmingham area, neither have I checked whether the locos I've got were allocated to local sheds, at some point I'll do some re-numbering as I've got an idea which engines were based at local sheds and I've tried to stick to classes that were working in the area. Surprisingly, this meant that I can't justify the current Graham Farish pannier tank as it was allocated to a different area. Goods stock tends to be generic grey or brown wagons, I should really make sure my brake vans have the right markings but I've not done so.

The Flying Spur was a four-door sports saloon. The car pictured is the Park Ward 2-door saloon.

Funnily enough I watched that episode on the iPlayer last night having stumbled across a couple of episodes on BBC4. All the ones I've seen so far have been very good.

Not sure about streamline but I used PL11s successfully with N gauge Settrack points.

Wouldn't the "wire between the track" be just the same as the old Hornby Dublo three-rail system? Especially if it were feeding the motor directly.

All Riley RMs had blue badges; dark blue for the 1 1/2 litre and light blue for the 2 1/2 litre. The latter is also longer.

There was a half-cab pannier tank in the 1981 Hornby catalogue and a full-cab 5700 (I think) type. A few years before the Hornby Thomas range.

Unfortunately I don't think Micro Machines are accurate enough to go on a model layout. I've got a James Bond themed gift set with various vehicles. The cars are somewhere between N and OO in scale but are more representative than accurate models (the Aston Martin DB5 is particularly poor). There is a Cesna light aeroplane and a helicopter that don't look too bad but I don't know what scale they'd fit. The Space Shuttle (Moonraker 1) is quite nice but probably only good for T-scale or in the distance.

A handful of pictures from Warley. I'm too tight to buy a show guide so I can't remember which layouts they were.

As an N gauge modeller I must admit I try not to compare prices of N gauge locos and stock with equivalent OO gauge items. However; I understand the cost of production is similar, the difference in raw material cost is trivial and the economies of scale are worse as N gauge won't (more's the pity) sell in the same volume as OO stuff. So it seems reasonable to me that the prices should be similar. I don't have space for a OO model railway and I'd be happy to pay more for a N gauge model than the same thing in OO because the small size is an advantage that is worth a premium price to me, No idea why O gauge stuff is more expensive, it might be that economies of scale come into it again; I presume the O gauge market is smaller than the N gauge market.

I'm frequently amazed by drivers who will sit right on your back bumper whlie you are passing traffic in lane one, but won't use the empty lane 3 to go past.

Only a couple of photos from the NEC. A real rarity, a 1963 (I think) FIAT 2300S coupé This one was taken for a friend who was unable to attend, he wanted a picture of a Humber and this Super Snipe Estate was the only one I was able to get. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the Triumph TR3 belonging to the HERO historic rally organisers. I took that for a spin (not literally) and returned thoroughly impressed by this funny-looking, 60-year old roadster.

So much clever stuff crammed into one layout, thanks for explaining what you did/would have done if you had time.

I recently spotted this, which I didn't immediately recognise. From the rear I thought it was a Morris Minor van converted to and estate car. It's actually a Renault Dauphinoise, which I'd never heard of before. This Chevrolet Corvette is more familiar. A terrible photo but this Rover 3.5 Litre Saloon (P5B) was absolutely spotless.

I used to have to read lots of press releases and turn them into news stories, some were so badly written it was depressing. Yours might not be a masterpiece but compared to some of them it's pretty close.

Good to know, thanks for that.

First time commenting but the Fawley Flyers layout looked very impressive for three days work. Ballasting, point rodding, signals, it was just a shame that the Kerosine Castle didn't get a run. But fair play to everyone who has competed, it can't be easiy getting a layout together in 24 hours whilst under the scrutiny of the television cameras.

One irony was that the Ford V8 in the later Sunbeam Tigers had 3 year warranty from Chrysler, where Ford cars with the same engine only had a 1 year warranty.

Nice idea Ian but with some items available in N that are unavailable in OO (albeit only a few) and quite a few items available in OO that aren't available in N it means an N gauge person cannot vote for a Class 117 DMU because that's announced by Bachmann. The 117 was, as I recall,one of the highest polling N gauge items.

The short-chassis Bristol would be the 404, the only short-chassis model made in large-ish (for Bristol) numbers. There were two short-chassis 406 cars produced, one with bodywork by Zagato, similar in style to the better known Aston Martin DB4 GT, and one with bodywork similar to the 404.

That sounds like it will be a great diorama.

What a beauty! Looks really good without the bumpers and minus the badge on the rear boot lid.

You mean some sort of poll, where you could list items you wish to buy? Nah, never going to catch on

Not keen on the convertible, which I think was aftermarket rather than factory sanctioned.