AlfaZagato

I wasn't thinking so much the 'classic' EE, but the fact that most of their shunters that came about had 6KT's and EE electrics. I'm not the most familiar with LMS practice to be honest, I mostly just know the 'small engine' policy really outlived it's welcome. Maybe the Royal Scots never happened?

Late to the party, I am. Are these confirmed, or likely to have, run behind the Garratts? Not just for looks, but making lovely annoying super-trains on my club's layout would be much easier with bogie stock that will round corners without pulling off. With these having been made, will the LMS side-dump hoppers be in the future?

What would have happened if diselization had overrun the end of small-engine on the LMS? Class 4 'C's or 'Bo-Bo's running multiple in the 30's? Some sort of quill-drive four-axle supplement to the jackshaft shunters, rated for 50mph on 6 coaches, adding two to three coaches for each loco in multiple. Mechanicals? I'd imagine English Electric or Armstrong-Whitworth; both seemed to have the strongest presence amongst the LMS diesel shunters. Styling? Depends on the purpose. I'd imagine a box built to the lowest common gauge for a '4F,' while something like a '4P' styled to match that year's coaching stock.

So, a 2800 with a campaign sash?

Knuckle is the generic. Janney and Buckeye are from different Foundries and are to slightly different patents, and are about as compatible as Kato, Micro-Scale and Dapols are in N.

Yeah, like that. Maybe more bunker. Man, if I could art...

Speaking of too many wheels, how does a Texas-type GWR tank sound? 2-10-4 evolution of the big tanks, with several tons of coal behind the cab - for balance, you know.

American railway climate favored decreased use of labor, and increased use of materials. So, we had massive, entirely exposed designs engineered to operate with minimal maintence on long runs. English (and Continental) practice favored the opposite. Locomotives and other stock were built with weekly or even nightly work being done. Look at the fact the UK network wasn't fully equipped with continous brakes until the 1970's, when the US had blanket Westinghouse brakes by the 1890's, I think.

Six-cylinder compounding, as well?

As promised, I've taken some pics of what I've done so far. Tonight was solely the 56xx. I've long had the body built, honestly to a mediocre standard. This will be my first locomotive kit, so on this build I'll stand the molded handrails, and the castings that came with the kit. Most of my work tonight was finishing the hole for the trailing axle. I think I managed to get the hole too high, though; the trailing wheels look to be a floating axle. The instructions were not entirely clear on the procedure, admittedly. The wheels do turn freely, though, and have a good amount of side-play. I have yet to test the chassis as modified, or with the Langley body mounted. Next stage will to be finess the fit between the chassis and the body; what I had thought was a good fit hadn't accounted for additional wheels.

I thought I might start chronicling what I do on my cramped little workbench. I haven't much to show yet except ideas and plans. Firstly, I've a Langley GWR 56xx kit I'm working on. I have managed to satisfy myself with the fit of the body to the Poole-Farish 94xx chassis, so currently the goal is to get the hole drilled for the trailing wheel. I've already managed to burn out a bit, and the local Ace hardware only had one on hand, so I'll need to wait until Thursday for them to restock. I will have pics of this later this evening. Secondly, I have an old Airfix brake van kit I'm looking to kitbash into one suitable for OO9. My first attempt at this was atrocious, and plagued by a temporary lack of a straightedge or a square. I had meant to take a pic of the first attempt, but I knocked it apart in a fit of boredom. I did manage to save the sides with the duckets, so I'll try cutting ends and a floor from sheet styrene. Thirdly, I'm looking to build a micro- or shoebox layout in 009. My general idea is to use what I have on-hand to do so, which is admittedly limited. Bringing up the Airfix conversion is part of this tertiary mention. General question to any who might read this, though, is, should I pursue the shoebox concept, should I build some sort of sub-structure to actually mount the layout to, or should I just build the layout onto the box directly? Also, given this is a railway modelling site, I have intent to keep it railway related, but if anyone is interested, I can post about other projects I have. Let me know!

Took me a couple minutes to register what was going on beyond the livery.

Eh, they'd figure it out.

I've had a couple of ideas knocking around in my head pertinent to this thread. Before I get too much into the details, I am a massive GWR fan. Firstly, I've long had a concept for a 2'6" gauge Shay, mildly Swindonized for use on the Welshpool & Llanfair. I honestly can't give any reason why this could have happened, other than wanting a Swindon-Lima monstrosity grinding about a layout. Something like a class B with a cut-down Collet cab, No. 2 boiler, and chopper couplings. Next, what if Nationalization hadn't happened? Maybe a diesel or electric Cathedral? I know such an idea has been posted before, but my thought was the GWR used the same jigs and tooling for the cabs on a Metro-Vick diesel-electric prototype, similar to how Bulleid used the same or similar ends on his three EE's as to the EMU fleet. Finally, I had discovered that the W&L and the Vale of Rheidol were more-or-less in alignment with each other, and thought it unlikely but possible that they reached out across the 40 miles of intervening Welsh countryside to connect. Given the distance, I figured Swindon may have tried downsizing the Hawksworth Ten-Wheeler County, rendering it outside-framed.

Better question, is there alternate sources for some of these prototypes? I think there is an old whitemetal kit for the VoR locos, and the L&B locos are (technically) available R-T-R, but the Garratts?

On building a box-tank, I've been considering using the USDM Bachman "Bill" or "Ben" as a donor chassis, as the motion looks very similar to my eye, and I figured building a handful of boxes would be a simple exercise. If you'd want an N-gauge version, N Drive Productions produces a similar chassis in N.

Unrebuilt Spamcan in 00. From what I understand, no-one has ever done one RTR, and, unlike everything else I've suggested, it is a well-known, important, and significant class in the history of mainline English rail.

I've noticed there's no market for 'naked' locomotives in the UK or on the Continent like there is in the US. Am I to gather that is on account of how much was done in-house on English and European systems, against the third-party approach favored in the US?

If pre-grouping designs are to ever considered viable, a Neilson box tank in N or 00 would be lovely. I do mean ala Neil from the Railway Series, and not Samson from Thomas and Friends.

Dave, have you thought about jumping on the recent move for RTR 009? Everything so far has been Lynton and Barnstable, so why not release a George England and some FR bogie coaches, or a Kerr-Stuart 'Tattoo' and some prototypically generic opens?

I'm surprised no-one has suggested this yet, but how difficult would an USATC S160 be? I think one or two survive, and that's a noteworthy gap that can't be filled any way short of scratchbuilding. That's also me being a patriot and thinking their isn't enough black behemoths about. Could do the model in at least 00 and N, if a big 2-8-0 beast is too much for a reasonable 0 gauge option.

Just some finality on the track system, I'd love it if Peco was readily available near me to be a reasonable option. At times, I would pay near as much for Peco track as I would for Kato Unitrack. My other option is *shiver* Atlas.

More of a question than a suggestion, Dave, but is there a printing process that would allow randomized numbers on stock? A major pet-peeve of mine, and likely other modellers, is running block freights with most, if not all of the wagons having the same running number. I would think, given computers and printers being where they are, we could have a system that prints a sequentially higher number on each unit, until a certain value is reached, where the number resets to the base. I don't know that it would cost all that much more a unit, either, easily within acceptable margins for both the manufacturer and the final customer.

Electro-diesels in N. I can dig it.

I doubt you're playing non-UK subjects, but a not-$1500 N scale Milwaukee Road 'Little Joe' would be neat. And I could see it selling rather well. I'm not the only one over here who laments a lack of a reasonable model in N.