Ozexpatriate

Like this one of Nos. 37 and 38 Phil? Though that one is not Derby. It's from this website. No. 18 is shown hauling a coach here.

First let me state that I haven't as yet purchased the current Dapol catalogue - though I do intend to. Having said that, have any images been published online regarding the planned GWR railcars? CAD, mock-ups anything? (And yes, I believe I know what they are supposed to look like, I'm just curious.)

Terrific. I look forward to hearing more.

I'll have to make a note to remember this one for consideration for model of the year in 2013. While I'm not a diesel person, this model looks fabulous. Thanks for the great review Andy!

Yes, after all, 3D would be just 95% of the circumference.

Mike, Pat Hammond did say: The picture on MREmag looks like a photograph of that decorated model and not a mock-up. Hopefully the Steam Museum got to see it too!

Can be a minefield. On seeing my framed Leslie Ragan NYC posters (in this vein) on the wall the response was In a very undeterministic tone, part surprise, part calculated not to offend, but part guarded. (Very guarded.) I do find that most people, more so those not looking for partners, are interested.

I guess it was either that or "taste clever".

Ian, It's a great idea. Have you had a chance to test it out with some guinea pigs (or at least children who don't have a model railway) to see whether they find it engaging?

A good cause indeed. According to Pat Hammond: By my lights, if we have the Steam museum to thank for commissioning a Star, and therefore causing the tooling to be made, then they deserve my custom, even if it costs a little more. Hopefully we will also benefit by Hornby producing more Stars in early Collett liveries in future.

I understand it was a bit more complex than that but in the interests of avoiding politics, and this being the 'things that make you smile' thread, it's not suitable to discuss it further here.

I never thought I'd have to model a third rail. I'm sorely tempted here.

Sadly all of the Hostess Brand "snack cakes" Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Sno Balls (you have the Halloween version of the Sno Ball) etc are, despite their extraordinarily long shelf life, an endangered species. Business declined, there were labour issues, and now the company is bankrupt. Hostess and Wonder Bread were iconic brands, but were also the very definition of bad nutrition - the awareness of which led to declining sales.

Gymnorhina tibicen is a very distant relation to what I believe is Pica pica, also known as magpies, to our friends on the old sod. The Australian Magpie is much more akin to a crow. (I've done my time being dive-bombed by the way! One liked to nest by the Sandy Camp Road level crossing on the Lytton branch line. He went after me more than once. ... many moons ago.)

Dame Edna was all too familar with her good friend Sir Les Patterson's * regrettable habit of regularly 'driving the porcelain bus' or 'laughing at the grass'. * One time Minister for the Y'arts. One hopes Dame Edna is comfortably at home in Moonee Ponds, Victoria with a vase filled with gladioli, a copy of 'Woman's Day' to peruse and one eye on the laundry hanging from the Hill's Hoist in the back yard visible through her venetian blinds.

It's History Channel's "The Men Who Built America". EDITED I ended up watching all the "Men Who Built America episodes on VOD. The first episode, "A new era begins", on Cornelius Vanderbilt (of the NY Central) and Andrew Carnegie featured more of the collection of 'stock' railway clips than the others. Virtually all the train clips were very short - no more than five or ten seconds or so. There were frequent clips of 2-6-0 K1 No. 62005 hauling "The Jacobite" - very clearly with number and the train nameboard. gives an excellent idea of what the clips looked like. There were frequent clips of what looked like it might have been a 76xxx 2-6-0 4MT tender locomotive in glossy black (76079?) or perhaps a 78xxx (78019 or 78022?). I'm not sure. In the second episode featuring Andrew Carnegie, a big ex-LMSR 4-6-0 (45503? I didn't note specifically that it was a Patriot with smoke deflectors) appeared in b&w footage, along with what might have been a Castle in the next scene. In the fourth episode, "When one ends" additional archival b&w footage of what looked to me like a ex-LNER A3 (60042?) in front of a station signboard saying "Brackley Central". Seeing these clearly British locomotives in a 'documentary' about 19th century American industrialists was really incongruous. I think the editors were OK with any black locomotive in steam in the countryside. ... In a similar History channel type production, (History of the World in two hours or some such thing) there was a quick scene of a train (no more than a few seconds) where I was so surprised, I didn't have time to pay attention to properly recognize it. My recollection is that it was a GWR green coppertop - perhaps City of Truro or the Dukedog (suitably Victorian looking).

Pete, perhaps, but I can't think of it. I expect the pharmaceutical commercials go national. How long ago was it on TV?

This commerical (Intel Ultrabook Convertible) has been getting a lot of airplay on TV in the US lately. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7F4ZDdbjk I assume that after the first scene we are on the Bluebell. I'm guessing this is Horsted Keynes (as the presumably fictional "Duncan Park") with the London Brighton & South Coast Railway Class E4 0-6-2T 473, "Birch Grove" pulling into the station. Can anyone confirm this for me?

Only in the Kero-line-ass! (Carolinas) Thanks in large measure to Austin Powers, the British meaning of shâg is understood in the US these days.

Simon, No Gresley A1? (just kidding). From your list I like the A4 and the A3. I like the splashers and the flowing curves in the frames. No - it looks like it has a tooth missing.

SP 4449 is quite magnificent in 'person' and now in her new home.

As an entity, the Bulleid Leader was most certainly exothermic, though of course one could argue that the pistons/motion were endothermic. As to hell, I'll leave that to the philosophers. Augustine of Hippo perhaps?

There is an episode of Big Bang theory set on the northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight. This is season 2, episode 17, "The Terminator Decoupling" and features Summer Glau (The Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) who sadly detrains at Santa Barbara. The move from LA to Montana is season 3, episode 13 "The Bozeman Reaction". Sheldon's "It's official, I'm an HO trainiac" is from season 5, episode 3, "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation".

I formed the impression that Bachmann had indicated that this decoder would sense the supply and operate happily on either DC or DCC stimulus. Many models offered in the US (even with sound) operate this way. I don't recall if we have discussed it here in this thread, but I do recall a conversation on the observation that the BR versions are DC and the GWR Green (shirtbutton) version is DCC. It did seem an odd choice. Since Bachmann released two Cities, I'm pretty satisfied for outside framed GWR 4-4-0s right now.

What an outrageous assertion! According to the Amtrak schedule, the Surfliner manages a start-to-stop timing of 64mph between Solano Beach and Oceanside! (It's probably the fastest part of the route.) Sadly most Los Angelenos have forgotten their extensive network of overhead electrification on suburban and interurban routes, now commemorated at the Orange Empire Railway museum. To tie this back into the thread, it was the Pacific Electric Red Cars (a subsidiary of the SP and self-styled as The Largest Electric Railway System in the World) that feature in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". There is a distressing amount of railway ignorance in Southern California particularly. I would be stunned to see it actually take place. LA-Vegas proposals pop up and disappear perennially too.