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Preservation has been rather haphazard. Here's some that should have made it:- 60014 Silver Link 60113 Great Northern 60700 46256 Sir William A. Stanier 6004 The last Claughton 30461 LSWR Paddlebox 50455 L&Y Dreadnought 62618 The last D16 Urie King Arthur 10000 EE Diesel 10201 SR Diesel It is gratifying to know that we will see various replicas filling the gaps.

NSW has standard gauge tracks-the Rail Museum at Picton has many standard gauge locomotives, including The Major-an 0-6-4 of the same class as Cecil Raikes. Various ROD 2-80s were imported to work the collieries in the Newcastle area, with at least one preserved. A pity 60012 was not preserved.

The Angel and Royal-many years ago we used to regularly go to the Medieval Banquets there-a terrific night out in a great pub. Nothing at all boring about that.

One of the things that struck me reading Yeadon's Register was the amount of maintenance steam engines needed, and the number of sub-depots around the system that could perform repairs-such as Gateshead, Peterborough and Haymarket, Even places like Lincoln had wheel drops. Whereas modern diesels can be maintained by module replacement, steam engines spent far more time out of traffic for even mundane attention.

The Doncaster Chief Draughtsman thought that designing a locomotive around the con-rods was ridiculous-as shown up by the cylinder problems. It will be interesting to see the new P2 under trials, and how it compares to the A4s, 71000 and Duchesses. As for new builds, I recommend the Pennsylvania Duplexii site, where something far more ambitious is being built. The original duplexii engines were an expensive lesson in harmonic vibration-prone to sudden uncontrollable slipping, but the team involved in this project state that they can solve this. With Franklin valve gear specified, it should go like the wind. Bulleid was an exceptional engineer, provided he was kept in check by the likes of Gresley, who would never have allowed the Leader or chain drive valve gear. I thought that his Turf Burner was an ideal solution for CIE-especially as the MetroVick diesels were duds with their Crossley engines.

The foundation of engineering genius is a machine that is economic and reliable. Bulleid's Pacifics were not, and were comprehensively rebuilt-only stopped by dieselisaton. My nomination for genius is Alfred Raworth, Chief Electrical Engineer of the SR, responsible for the line electrification, who laid down the concepts for Southern Diesel-DEMU push-pull working, and whose ideas were used for the WCML electrication.

Brilliant! It's got the look-more please!

Looks miles better in the raw, after stripping the awful paint job.

It would be interesting to see through life costs for the class 35 versus the class 31-one class scrapped too soon, and the other over heavy and expensively re-engined, and in service much longer.

I think the team who took on 71000 in the face of derision and saw the engine returned to mainline running made everyone realise what was possible. The late Colin Rhodes had the vision and tenacity to achieve this.

So have I.

This looks like the shuttle to and from Lincoln via Honington to connect with the London trains. The Derby Lightweights moved away from the Lincoln area when the Class 114s were introduced, but I recollect seeing a set at Lincoln St Marks in 1960.

Couldn't find class 114 ECML workings in my files, but Cravens units worked out of KX on Grimsby trains.

Here's one I found:-

Passing Sincil Bank Junction with the direct line to Honington and Grantham on the left and the entrance to Robey's sidings on the far left, accessed off the Brick Siding loop. I thought that I could date it as no later than 1956, as the houses on Great Northern Terrace are still occupied, but this clearance did not commence until c1960, and the area was still being demolished in the mid-sixties. My guess is Newcastle-Colchester and I think 1955-1956.

Yes it is-I will check the height as you said. for the roof, I have MJT cast ends and aluminium section. The coach ends are a pair of Kings Cross (!) castings, and I spent yesterday trimming the MJT castings to fit the coach ends. At one stage I was just going to fit a formed plastic roof, but decided to persevere with the metal components. I was going to build the kit as a diagram 111 with no guard's ducket, but the coach side etch location is blank-so a ducket will be fitted for diagram 154.

A 51L kit, with MJT floorpan. The sides go together much the same as MJT, with separate panels. I will probably use nuts for the next turnbuckle underframe. Considering the vacuum reservoir, I wondered if they were located crosswise-It seems difficult to understand that they were a standard fitting on 61'6" stock, and not on short stock.

Thanks Bucoops-you are at exactly the same stage as me, with Fox bogies and MJT suspension. I scratched the turnbuckle underframe, as the 2D etches looked unsatisfactory to me.

On the subject of LNER coaches, I am detailing a D154 52'6" chassis. The MJT underframe arrangement drawing shows the vacuum reservoir cylinder between the truss post and the vacuum cylinder-this is fine for a 61'6" chassis, but not a shorty. Can anyone advise the location, Please?

Definitely-his Scottish Photographs are superb. HR 103 at Dalnaspidal is an especial favourite. Books I would nominate are Fenman's Images of Steam, Colin Walker's record of the GCR and Eric Bruton's BR steam.

I thought it was just me becoming more and more annoyed at documentaries that are poorly produced, repetitive and Vacuous. I am surprised that no-one mentioned my pet dislike-presenters who think they should get in the way of the subject taking up screen time with waffle, instead of staying in the background, and generally dumbing down. I was looking forward to a documentary on Lincoln, and having watched most of it, gave up bored. The TV documentaries of the sixties and seventies should be compulsive viewing for presenters who feel they should give something of themselves.

I managed to acquire nearly three dozen RM Wagons of the LMS articles that ran from 1963 to 1970. Terrifically informative, inspiring and encouraged me to have a go, and move up from Airfix minerals. Going by today's editorial dogma, they would be rejected-lots of words, usually one picture and a drawing. Rather regressive to me.

Lovely locomotive class, and such a variety for modellers. I have a Mainly trains etch and a Hornby body that is currently being hacked and modified to suit. If I can source another body, I will produce a condensing version with earlier cab.

To fix the buffer shanks, cut plastic insulation tube from 12V wiring and glue onto the shank end.