Forester

Not to buy anything new at inflated prices but to wait until everyone has calmed down and the true market price for the item has crystallized.

Guilt or not, it doesn't make economic sense - when there are plenty of cheap wrecks on ebay to cut up, and plenty of buyers with deep pockets for items in collectable condition..

All types which have been over-produced for many years.

How could you possibly have missed the demands for a South Eastern 4-4-0 ? D, L, D1, E1, L1 ?

Not unless they do the modified U-look-alike Pullmans in blue. The lack of true U-types has always hindered Golden Arrow train pack sales.

Did they honour the price you ordered at? (I'm right in thinking the price has just gone up?)

What "bit" of the Southern had Schools and T9s? Asking for a friend in Hastings.

Think you're using power classification because it happens to suit your argument, rather than any rational description of "large".. If that's what you want how about some missing Southern Class 5s; W class, H16, or some Sevens: G16 class, Z class ?

Plenty of pics exist of E1 4-4-0s on SE boat trains of six and more Pullmans including 12-wheelers. Like to see a Jinty tackle a duty like that.

They single-handedly coped with SE Pullman trains at one time.

Was working the Night Ferry useful enough for you, Jason?

Don't want "real surprises". Just want the things we've been asking for for a decade: Manor, SR "U", SECR "D", LBSC "K".........

That's what they told us to get us to pay £165. I'm starting to dislike the way they do business nowadays.

The fact they were stored for thirty-five years, not run, is a selling point as far as Mainline is concerned! They were good-looking locos for their time. You'll find plenty of interest. Take lots of good photos, start fairly low on an auction and let the market decide.

Hattons have Beachy Head on offer for one day only at £139. Feel I've been robbed again.......

The current livery is a little brighter! The SECR Birdcages appeared as a dull brown on the first Decoration Sample and some purple was added to lift the colour. Personally I would have added even more, but they are not bad out of the box.

Grief! Did signalmen have to learn all that?

Taken from the excellent Graham Muz Blog (much more there) : "The 31-920 version number 2421 as modelled by Bachmann is in the condition she was in post renumbering from B421 in 1931 and prior to February 1937 when she received both the SR composite loading gauge changes and being fitted with a Maunsell type superheater and therefore receiving snifting valves on the smokebox."

Ebay Completed Listings show nearly all are selling well under the maximum discounted New selling price. Likely further to fall.

I only offer a point of view that a great model railway (I should perhaps emphasise that I'm referring to a model for public display) should start with a Vision not a Place. What am I trying to convey with what I am building? It could be the excitement I first felt about a place I now know well, in which case an accurate model is necessary, but not necessarily sufficient. The excitement still needs to be conveyed to others who don't know the place and to whom it may seem like just another station/ scene. It could be done by a representation of weather, lighting, general activity, decay, some special feature .... Of your images I feel engaged by Pics 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, 16, 18. but not by 6, 7, 11 and rather neutral about the remainder. All this depite the obvious accuracy and enormous effort taken to create the scenes (and of course respecting the fact that single images cannot convey a whole scene, which if I saw complete I might feel very differently about). Not criticising any model (I could never even start to build to these standards). Just offering the view that accuracy is not necessarily enough to engage the viewer.

It could indeed. But it rarely is because the modeller has often become so tunnel-visioned by obsession for accuracy that the need to add that little extra flourishes gets easily forgotten. Perhaps It's no coincidence that many of the world's greatest paintings are impressionist, as there the wow-factor often gets painted first and the rest of the scene painted only to the extent needed to explain the subject.

To me this absoutely nails it! Just as a painting masterpiece way surpasses the original scene that inspired it, so a masterpiece model railway should do more than copy grain for grain the image on a photograph. The imagination should come into play to express something above a mere collection of metal formed into shapes, or bricks piled up into buildings. There should be an attempt to portray, say, the feelings of excitement of a journey, the power of a loco, the activity of a station, the people necessary to keep the railway running, or maybe the grime of steam - something that adds an emotional wow factor that stimulates thought and memories, not just a flat rivet-correct copy of something. Just my view.

Perhaps someone with experience of restoring carriages will help out here, but.... My limited understanding is that the wooden roofs of the earlier classes of Pullman and the wooden K-class Pullmans were canvas-covered and the paint used was a special product which sealed the canvas for weatherproofing. Pullman Cars either used a white product or were given a finishing coat or three of white paint. With the introduction of steel K-class Pullmans of 1928 with riveted steel roofs, there was no need for canvas and pictures of them new show bare steel roofs painted silver. Hornby therefore seems to have adopted a code of giving their models of steel Pullmans silver roofs, their wooden Pullmans in early crest days white roofs and Pullmans in late crest days grey roofs. Looks reasonable to me.

It's not the custard that's the problem, it's the Blood which really must be correct! Nurse?.............

Pullman Car rebuilding and renaming is a nightmare subject. The earlier Pullmans were made of wood, were regularly in need of major rebuilding and easily converted into alternative layouts during the process. The "New Century Bar" you have is the 8-wheel K-type First Class Car formerly named "Octavia" (the first Octavia) of 1924 which was sent to work overseas, then renamed "Diamond" on return to Britain (by which time there was a new K-Type "Octavia" of 1926). It was remodelled into a Bar Car briefly called "Trianon Bar" for the Golden Arrow first post-war run in 1946, then became the "New Century Bar" later in 1946, then the "Daffodil Bar" in 1955. The 12-wheeler you mention was the 1917 Third Class Car No 5, remodelled into a Bar Car confusingly called "Trianon Bar" to replace the above 8-wheeler Trianon on the Golden Arrow (it was considered to have a more useful layout), then equally confusingly but briefly called the "New Century Bar" then back to "Trianon Bar" then "Buffet Car No 5". With me so far?...... Not sure I am! Your 8-wheeler New Century Bar is wood-sided upper half, I think? It was fully flush-plated in aluminium when overhauled to become the "Daffodil Bar" in 1955. This was a time when many, but not all, wooden Pullman Cars were plated over, so it can accurately run with both plated and wooden-sided Pullmans. In general it is perfectly reasonable to run plated- and wooden- sided K-type Pullmans together from 1950s onwards. The 1928 steel K-type Pullmans can of course run with either. The purist might want to check which Pullmans were plated at the time their railway represents, and which were not..... ........but I have a headache and will leave it there!