BernardTPM

Visited Christchurch while on holiday as a child back in 1961 and was most impressed then with the streamlined blue train! Still have a couple of my Dad's glass-backed slides (not to be confused with glass-plate negatives). Got a projector for them somewhere...

That's the one, but I think when I bought it it was about 10% of that price!

There was a larger plastic Hong Kong copy of the Dinky Duple Vega Major that was around 1:43 scale (there was a smaller approx. 1:76 version too). Used to find it in toy shops until the 1980s, so one could turn up at a swapmeet or maybe ebay.

A possible method of skirt removal that would minimise possible damage to the outer surface would be to file from the inside of the body, at first with a coarse file to remove the bulk of excess plastic and then a finer one until the remaining thin film of plastic can be pulled away. It can be left open after that or, better still, a segment of the correct diameter tube added to complete the boiler shape. As the 3F is a simple parallel boiler the latter shouldn't be too hard to find (taper boilers another matter entirely!). There. I thought someone would come up with the number for the one with a flat-sided tender.

Loosing the skirt under the boiler would help it. IIRC there was only one 3F with a flat sided tender (though if that's not so, I'm sure someone here will know and, if I'm right, someone will be able to tell you the number!)

I never did think H0 road vehicles ever looked right for 00/4mm. It's even more obvious when you have models of the same thing side by side.

Not as long as it would then take to smooth it all!

Nice job on Spencer! Branchlines do a bracket to mount a Mashima M16K on the Minitrix 2-6-2 chassis. Nothing online, but their try telephone sales on 01373 822231 For nameplates it might be a good idea to enquire with Narrow Planet http://narrowplanet.co.uk/products - drop them an e-mail as they may have already done Spencer. There were normal height versions of the 2 foot gauge Peckett too: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tHQGyCBToCE/T4GBRgQbtvI/AAAAAAAAA_I/4eNLUKCpvOs/s1600/120401%2BDSC_0491.JPG Below the footplate they are almost identical. Apparently the section of 'saddle tank' over the firebox on the ex-Harrowgate example is dummy (and has always been that way).

Saw one of those cabs (well, the ex-Military RL version) earlier this week in Rhyl - first one I'd seen for years (the T.A. base on the edge of West Ham Park was probably the last time previously - 1990s/80s?).

Thought on those hoods - might the slightly thicker aluminium foil be a possible alternative; it should certainly roll better than styrene and keep its shape instead of trying to spring back.

Welcome back, Pete. Nice to see Kyle again; hope it works OK!

If you look at the ebay pictures most of the interior painted metal parts appear to be a mid blue, so I'd guess not.

Interesting, but not entirely unsuprising, that the Caledonian coaches appear to have BR upholstery. The First Class pattern is quite distinctive and has been remanufactured - the Bluebell Railway have done some very nice Mk.1 FOs with it. I suspect they CR upholstery was last done in the late '50s/early '60s when these coaches were first restored to CR livery and ran about all over Scotland behind the various pre-group liveried locos like CR 123 and NBR 'Glen Douglas'.

Wouldn't the Peco body be to 1:148 scale, rather than 1:152? I know 0.06mm per foot doesn't sound much but around 2mm sounds about the right difference given a 64' Mk.1 is 4mm longer in British N compared to 2mm scale.

Ironic that the 'European' scale is actually 1/10" of an inch to the foot scale, but it's US origins explain that! 3mm scale isn't quite 1:100 (1:101.5, I think) but that (1:100) would be an almost perfect Metric scale!

Much better, though the bogies are still to tall, stretched in the vertical axis. Compare to the real bogie side here on Paul Bartlett's site. If compressed back up the axleboxes will probably end up at about the right height against the actual wheel centres. The axleboxes are a bit narrow as well and the bolster has coil springs instead of volutes, though both those are minor points compared to getting the basic shape right. The bogies on the K41 are probably closer to the ends than the K42. Moving bogie centres inwards was, along with the revised profile, one of the ways the GWR altered their coach design to fit a smaller, less route restricted loading gauge for the '1938' series.

No. Not looking for one either.

I see no list (just a log in)

Interesting upgrade of the old Tri-ang Bagnall!

I'm glad the bullet-biting didn't backfire, Colin. Well done!

That's the one, David. There was a very good drawing in a contemporary Modern Railways. This was of considerable use when I helped with the Farish 20' 9" chassis (which was based on the drawings I'd done for the chassis I wasn't able to afford the tooling for!) and again with the 2FS etched version. There are some pics of the prototype AB van on Paul Bartlett's site: Side: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvaa/h274e5215#h274e5215 End: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvaa/h3986651c#h3986651c

There were a few A.B. prototype wagons built in the 1964-6 period, including a batch of container flats. The brakes are basically the same as the early A. B. production wagons (OAA, SAA, VAA, etc.) but all with small wheels. One of the prototype vans was in Scotland with the ex-NSE snowblower.

I doubt any shops are still selling this one:

Beautiful model, Colin. That's certainly a shade of BR(SR) EMU green.

I remember from the 1971 Combined Volume several of these were in use as Parcels/Newspaper vans. Some cars were also mixed in with BILs. The very rounded window corners were a bit like the Tri-ang TT suburbans!