thegreenhowards

I’m going to stick my neck out here and voice a controversial view. In my opinion high street model shops are the walking dead and won’t exist for much longer. Indeed high street retail in general is in decline - the future is Amazon and retail parks. Specialist retail such as a model shop which appeal to a far flung sparse clientele are the most vulnerable. So the future is direct retail or box shifters. There will still be a place for retail through exhibitions (our equivalent of the retail park) but this will be more focussed on direct selling, box shifters and cottage industries. So I think Hornby are embracing the future and if that means cutting out the middle man and passing some of the cost savings onto us, the customers, then I’m all for it. I now expect some robust counter arguments! I write this on the train on my way to Harrogate Model Rail show for some retail therapy and to see Grantham and Heaton Lodge. Far better than a local High Street model shop! Andy

That looks really effective Rob.

Hi Rob, I’m loving the scenic work - very convincing. And I enjoyed the photos of 37264 - one of my favourites. I had a good run with her in Summer 1983 when she was still NB and then several runs on the Far North. A question though, do you have photographic evidence of her in all over blue with a Scottie dog? l looked at putting one on my model, but came to the conclusion that she was ‘dogless’ until she went to Crewe in late ‘83 to have boiler reinstated and emerge in large logo. Regards Andy

As you will have seen above, I’m trying to model the SRPS Railtour train of the 1970s which included an eclectic mix of big four and pre grouping coaches including a pair of Caledonian coaches, a BCK to diagram 111A and a TK to diagram 124 as illustrated on the SRPS museum website. As far as I am aware no 7mm kit exists for these coaches. But I have spoken to the proprietor of Caley Coaches (https://caley.com/index.php) who produces 4mm kits for these coaches and 7mm kits for some Caledonian coaches. He would be prepared to produce etched brass kits for these coaches if there was enough demand to warrant the cost of c.£200 per coach in preparing the artwork etc. The cost of the kit itself once the design is done would be c.£100 per coach. So, I feel that if I could find four interested people prepared to pay £50 per coach each to underwrite the cost of the design, we would have a workable proposition with kits at c.£150 per coach. So far, I have one other interested person. If anyone is interested, please respond to this thread or PM me. If we get to four people, I’ll go back to Caley Coaches and thrash out exactly how this would work. I imagine a deposit upfront with full payment when the kits are ready. Andy

I too noticed this at Glasgow. Great news for 00 modellers of the WHL. I’m doing Glenfinnan in O gauge and I’ve already got the station building and signal box commissioned from Dawson Hall. I could do with the waiting shelter but, while Peco sounded like they might consider 0 gauge, I suspect it will be a long wait. Andy

I had a full day on the layout today and got the wiring done on two boards. The first one was the most difficult as it contains 4 of the 5 points on the scenic section. The rest should be straightforward. I’m using Cobalt iPdigital for the mainline points and wire in tube with GM autofrogs for the goods yard. This allowed me to try my first loco under its own power. Not a great vid, but it records a big milestone.

I’m looking forward to seeing it again - making a trip up from London. Andy

I also picked up a couple of MTH LMS opens at the Kettering show. What do you want them for you may well ask! Well, @David Bell shared some photos of the SRPS Railtour set from the 1970s which rather inspired me. Particular one at Loch Treig in Anderson’s ‘Diesels in Scotland’ which I can’t show here for copyright reasons but if you’ve got the book look it up. Here is a link to another photo of the train(scroll down). https://www.derbysulzers.com/25035a.html It contained a delightful mix of big four and pre grouping coaches with a few BR mk1 or 2s thrown in as required. So I’ve set myself the challenge of recreating some of it. While these are in BR livery, I think I just need to renumber and add the ‘LMS’, or am I missing something in my ignorance of the LMS? Andy

Sadly, things are not quite so simple with the quads and quints. A quad consists of 8 coaches of two different lengths. Each 4 car set contains two 38’ and two 43’ coaches. The two brakes were practically identical, as were the two 43’ thirds in the all third set and the two 1st/3rd composites in the composite set. But you then have a 38’ third and a 38’ second to add (yes the GN suburban still had second class in the ‘20s). So that makes five coaches to tool. I’ve built 1.75 of these (two coaches to finish on my 0 gauge one), and they are lovely rakes and definitely a must for a GN suburban layout, but hard work to build. I’m not such an expert on the quints, but I think they were all 43’. The all third looks similar to the GN quad one, so some commonality, but not much. Andy

I’d have thought commercially it would need to be a diesel that nobody has done. The 24 and 22/21/29 or an HST power car are probably the most obvious here. Or in steam terms, the standard 4 tank or a standard 4/5 tender engine. Of those the 29 would be my hope.

I’m plodding on with track laying. I now have four Boards fully laid and I’m starting on the wiring. I can only set up thee at once while I’m working inside, so here are the three which form the Fort William end of the layout, firstly looking East …and then West. I picked up a point kit at Kettering GOG show yesterday to form the turnout at the Mallaig end of the station. So can start laying that board soon - just got to build the point first which I’ve never tried before! Andy

I agree that they’re a must have, particularly for any layout set between KX and PBO. Given that post war they mainly ran with a mk1, Thompson or standard Gresley CK instead of the original CK, they could be produced with tooling for just two coaches, so quite achievable. And the twins sometimes ran on their own so people would only have to buy one twin. Andy

….and for many, they won’t be able to wait for the second run!

If you’re going flangeless , you could probably 3D print them marginally too small, so that they don’t actually do anything. But I think your plan A is best and failing that the internal bogie. Skinnylinney’s suggestion is what I was trying to explain to you on Monday night. Andy

They looked good on the club layout this evening Rob.

Their blurb says it works on Powercab and other similar DCC systems. I’d give them a ring and ask.

I’ve been in Scotland for most of last week so a somewhat belated reply. I have noticed that my DCC locos run more slowly on my basic NCE powercab. Not a problem on a shunting or branch line layout, but for my 30’ roundy roundy and my garden O gauge, things were definitely too slow. I upgraded the power supply to 18V with one of these. https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/18v-dc-at-2a-uk-a-medical-grade-power-supply-for-dc-dcc-systems-2-5mm-dc-plug/ 18V supply means about 16V at the track I believe, probably similar to what Tony has on LB. The difference was very marked, particularly on kit built locos and Heljan diesels in 0 gauge. They now run at what I’d call typical express speeds. This is definitely a worthwhile upgrade for any NCE Powercab users out there. I also have a 5amp booster, but the power supply made the bigger difference. As for large exhibition DCC layouts, what about Heaton Lodge. They don’t come any bigger! Andy

I went to Model Rail Scotland today. Interesting to see some WHL buildings on the Peco stand as below. These were in 00 but I asked about the possibility of then being produced in 0 and the Peco chap said that a few people had asked that and sounded encouraging, so fingers crossed. I have the station and signal box already but the waiting shelter would be great and they should make layout extensions easier! There were some great layouts at the show, although more than a fair share of operating hiccups. Alloa was best in show for me. I spent an hour and a half watching it - superb. Andy

I’m looking forward to seeing that! How are you thinking if doing the underframe? It might need bogies or two floating axles to get round corners. Andy

Do you know the origin of the centre coach? It has an ex LNER look about it, possibly one of the Thompson match board full brakes chopped around. Like this one. If so, they used to be made by Mailcoach and with the ex Ian Kirk stuff being re-released soon, then it may become available again. They are plastic sides and easy to cut and shut. Andy

I’m going to enjoy going through those links. The photo of 175 with all that clag brought back some memories!

I donated to OP4 and personally I think it would be quite sensible to sell some of the coaches and locos which we are never going to have the time or resources to restore in order to fund the restoration of some of the others. I would also like to be able to display some of the coaches awaiting restoration if that was ever possible. I certainly don’t think they should be sold to bridge a revenue shortfall / cost overrun though if that was the intent. Andy

I do like a baby Deltic! As for those DMU things, I hated them when I was growing up and I still hate them. Real trains have locos on the front!

Nice to see the Gresley and Thompson SKs in the Leeds rake. Is that exactly as per WTT, or a bit of artistic licence? Andy

The tree does look unusual Gilbert. Both halves look like sycamore or possibly Norway Maple but for it to have a gap in the middle like that it must have suffered some kind of trauma. I’d say it was possible, but if it’s possible that there is second tree behind, I’d say that was more likely explanation.