John B

One of the approaches to modelling that I've found most interesting on this forum came from a layout thread entitled "On the Chapeltown Loop" - where a South Yorkshire setting was used to represent a full "system", US-Style, in the confines of a small-ish room. Yes, there were compromises. Yes, it was scenically incomplete (but had "enough" to look great!) and sadly didn't get finished due to a house move, but the approach was inspirational. It was well thought out, well arranged, operated with puropse, and looked / felt like a model of a railway. Have a look here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73204-along-the-chapeltown-loop/

The fourth shot (in Eastleigh works) looks like a T9.. note the extended smokebox and watercart tender..

Just noticed that the banner ad for Intentio appearing on some RMWeb pages has a typo in the hyperlink, resulting in not reaching the Intentio web page (which I reached just fine by typing in the web address in the banner ad!) I'll be watching with interest for 4mm items!

Cause of death: Suicide by hanging. His song performed, encore in Detroit last night, was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "In my time of dying". May he rest in peace, and let us enjoy his musical legacy.

Thanks Steve. It must have been the Safari issue as I was attempting to purchase via my iPhone. I'll try again with a different route...

Tried to subscribe to the "Online Edition" offer currently being advertised via Facebook... $39.99 for a year sounded pretty good to me. Pocketbooks allowed me to create a user name & password. When it came to payment, the PayPal option didn't work. Several times. Andy - can you pass this on? Thanks!

This great hairy hoon, called Bourbon, is one of 4 cats who own me. He is banned from layout access due to his ability to flatten gantry cranes under his sizable derriere. However, he does make it his mission to fit into any box that enters the household.

Less is definitely more in this case. Lovely work, the decompression has made a great difference.

Thanks Martin, I'll give Templot a go, finally! Seems I'll need to wait for C&L's website for the gauges, as attending a show they're at isn't a possibility in the near future as I live in the USA. Being used to Scalefour Society and EMGS gauges, I'd also prefer separate check gauges.

As C&L are currently on shutdown due to the acquiisition and move, is there another source of OO-SF templates and gauges? I've looked at the templates on DCC Concepts' site, and they are clearly not 16.2mm..

Thankfully I have never been addressed as "Jack". I suspect if anyone did, I'd ignore them, not even suspecting it was me being spoken to! Oddly, living nowadays in a country that has been vilified for foisting some of the worst excesses of slang on the English language, I find the use of "Sir", "Madam" and "Miss" much more prevalent in the USA than I ever did in the UK. "Buddy", "Mate" and "Pal" seem to be mostly used between people who are genuinely acquainted with each other..

As an overseas subscriber, I'd like to add that the articles I look forward to, and return to, most often are those of Paul Lunn - whether layout design concepts or other examples of modelling ingenuity. Long may they continue!

[snipped] As am overseas reader )with an Amazon Prime account) I still chose to purchase this book (and others) from The Titfield Thunderbolt. Their airmail service is excellent, I received my books as quickly as I would from Amazon, and Simon also accepts credit cards AND PayPal. Having Wild Swan books available for purchase online is a great step forward since Simon took over publication. And the service is always friendly and superb. Highly recommended!

The late Tom Harland, of Bramblewick fame, was a fabuously talented artist. He rarely turned his eye to railway subjects, though. I have in my (small) collection a number of Tom's works a L/E print from a series commissioned by Dale Farm / Northern Dairies, entitled "Collecting Milk on the North Eastern Railway". It's a beautiful depiction of Withernsea station in NER times. Copies are often available on eBay for a modest sum.. Another of my personal favorites is David Shepherd's "Nine Elms, the last hours" - depicting a couple of filthy locomotives in the squalor of Nine Elms shed at the death of steam. Twee or saccharine it is not!

I worked near the Morristown & Erie a year or so ago. Morristown, a lovely, historic town (once the headquarters for George Washington's revolutionary army) is the M&E headquarters, and has an unbelievably compact, ripe-for-modeling yard. Overall view of Morristown shops. Running line in the foreground. Alco C420s #18 and 19 are the mainstay of the working fleet Some dodgy shots from my iPhone in failing evening light, but you get an idea of the compactness of the site. I've got some more (which I need to put through the shrink ray) if anyone is interested..

As a postscript to Dave and Richard (and thanks for your taking interest in the matter): After numerous emails going back and forth last week, where the stories varied from person to person that my order (placed Thursday 11th, all in stock items) had either not been picked or had been picked on Monday 15th, (yet no picking emails sent), I was left on Saturday morning with a further email from Ben Ashwin who was going to try to find out from the Logistics Manager what had happened. This morning (Monday 22nd) I eventually got the "Order Picked & Packed" email and a text confirmation of DHL delivery by Wednesday. All now sorted. It would be interesting to understand why the order took 11 days from placing to packing, though... I should add again that I've been a Hattons customer for many, many years and indeed they have been my first retailer of choice ever since I emigrated to the USA, so this blip in service was very unexpected and unusual. The DHL option, incidentally, is fantastic. Especially now that they send texts or emails offering the opportunity to specify a shipping date / time and also a signature release.

Hattons are apparently "upgrading" their warehouse to improve order dispatch. Or that's the reason I've been given for an order of in-stock items that has been charged for but not yet dispatched a week later. It was stated by one employee that the order had been picked on Tuesday (ok, 3 days late) and would leave on Wednesday. No confirmation emails received, so I enquired again this morning, to be told that the order had "just been picked" and would be dispatched "at the start of the week" (read: next week - 10 days after order!) And this certainly ISN'T an upgrade on their previously excellent service Now I realize that this isn't life-threatening. However, I do try to plan deliveries that come via DHL for a time that I will be home, so I can sign / receive them. I'm often not home, due to work, and a trip to the "local" DHL office to pick something up is 95 miles round trip, which would take at least a couple of hours in normal SoCal traffic. Hence why I placed this particular order within a 3 week window when I knew I'd be home.. .As a long term, regular Hattons customer, this is the first time I've ever had a significant issue with dispatch on an order. I don't mind a delay *IF* it is correctly communicated, and *IF* I get a consistent story. On this occasion I have received neither, and feel like I'm either getting the run-around, or half the truth, or both. Not impressed. I don't have a local model shop to give my business to. However, if I don't receive a consistent story and some action soon, I'll be forced to look for an alternative supplier..

Having just driven through Mesquite twice in the past week on the way to and from Zion National Park, it's actually in Nevada - just across the border from Arizona on I-15 and about 20 miles SW of the Utah state line. There is a UP branch serving what looked like a cement loading plant, amongst other intriguing modeling possibilities. Looking forward to seeing this develop. The "high, dry and dusty" isn't often modeled, seemingly. And I much prefer Armor Yellow to pumpkin-colored BNSF these days.

Hull. The "new" Hull and Barnsley-built line to the Joint Docks drew an elevated semi-circle around the city, and crossed the street level NER lines radiating to Scarborough, Hornsea and Withernsea, In LNER and BR days, most of the unique H&B locos were gone, so the "standard" ex NE, LNE and BR types such as WDs, J71 / J72 / J27 etc would be seen on both.

Mmmm. Maybe he's "matured". About 18 years ago I had the misfortune to sit behind Mr Izzard on a flight from Heathrow to Dublin. He was a drunken ar$e of the highest order, and behaved like a complete to$$pot to the cabin crew. I haven't been able to find him remotely funny since.

Thanks to Steve (Grantham) for reminding me of the late, much missed Martin Brent. Most of his models (Winchelsea Road, Arcadia, Rye Harbour - my favorite! - and Hope Mill) were of an area of the country I was largely unfamiliar with, yet captivated by his models I was inspired to seek it out. The old Model Railways featured the first three of those layouts. They were all fabulous.

Layouts: North Shields by Chris Pendleton, Tregarrick / Orford / Butley Mills etc by Iain Rice, Lochside by Ian Futers, Borchester Market by Frank Dyer - with a whole issue of Model Railways dedicated to it. Allied Marine, by Allan Sibley and Brian Dornam, at that time Industrial modelling was very rarely covered. Other articles: Monty Wells' series on detailing diesels in Railway Modeller in the 80s. Number 1 Shop, in the early days of MRJ. "Wagon Page" featuring Ken Werrett's drawings in the Modeller.

So refreshing to see some Cascade Green around still, BNSF on the Surf Line is almost exclusively (boringly) Pumpkin colored. I was stupidly thrilled to see a yellow warbonnet (unidentified) Geep outside the Miller Coors brewery in Irwindale the other day.Unfortunately I was doing about 70mph on I-210 at the time..

We're a week behind you lot in the US, so I've only seen the first two episodes so far. And having read the "critiques" on here, I was expecting the worst. And amazingly, I didn't hate it. Chris Evans is not to my taste, but like others I remebered his first forays into radio, and how he settled in. And he is a genuine petrolhead, a real car enthusiast, as could be seen by his visible frothing over the Mclarens in Episode 2. And I found Matt LeBlanc, another real petrolhead, much more engaging and quietly amusing than I dared hope for. No, it's not as good as Clarkson, May and Hammond, even if their schtick was getting very predictable and Clarkson teetered on (and sometimes over) the edge of boorishness. But with some settling in, and hopefully more of Chris Harris, Jenson Button and Sabine, there's hope for improvement. And it's still waaaaaay better than the utter shi-ite that is Top Gear USA. Of course, the very best thing they could do would be to make Suzi Perry a presenter. She would REALLY boost the ratings..

I'd love to see them available on Apple iBooks (I don't do Kindle!) but would certainly enjoy a hard copy of them too. As a kid I read all of the then-available books in the series from Beverley library.