stewartingram

2 for £199? Is this a new form of BOGOF? When I saw the announcement I initially strongly considered a green one to replace my earlier Heljan, but having now seen this ruling there is absolutely no chance. Sale lost I'm afraid.

I thought I posted this the other day, but can't see it now so I'll repeat the post here. I'm looking for cabside transfers suitable for B1 and 03 classes, but similar to the Sentinal locos, which carried the words (possibly slightly different for each class) shown in the pic. Does anyone know if they are available please? Thanks in advance Stewart

As an infrequent traveller along the Vale whilst at school, in my Grandad's car, and also on the Bletchley railway, I do remember the brickworks around here. No fine detail, but as a trainspotter , if it had wheels and a number, well....! The Chimney corner site I assume to be the one adjacent to the Midland mainline bridge, where the A6 snakes from one side of the line to the other? And Coronation pit is further south, on the right where the turn for Stewartby village is? If so, then Chimney corner definately had electric locos which I am sure were n.g, as I did get numbers there occasion in passing. Further on, it must have been the sw end of the present Marston Moretaine bypass, which now crosses the site, there was another brickworks which used a continuos cable-hauled wagon system, similar to the one at Fletton (Peterborough). I remember the wagons at both sites constantly moving, and trying to get their numbers. As for Coronation pit, I can vaguley remember seeing the line their, was there a bridge or tunnel arch that was visible? I seem to recall a loco there but too far away to be visible properly. I still have that picture in a book of a loco at Stewartby; for copyright reasons I cannot post it here, but pm me & I'll arrange something if you want. Stewart

I remember seeing the ng working, and there is a pic of this in OPC's Oxford to Cambridge Railway book. I also worked for a few years at Kempston (Fire HQ) around the time that Fragonset were doing the locohauled trains on the Bletchley line, took a few pics of them at the time so knew the area well. There is an active Bedford-Bletchley Users Assoc, fair bet that someone in it is a historian? Stewart

The last photo can be easily summed up - "What a Waste"

They DID put that screw back in then!

Don't forget to remove those brackets from underneath, and replace the screws otherwise the bogie derails on curves (as per the LNER L1)....

Still looks like a well made MTK kit to me.....

It may have been noticed, by my posts elsewhere, that I've been working on printing onto A4 sticky labels, then placing these onto plastikard. As different parts of the kit are designed for thinner or thicker card, would it be possible in future designs to keep all thicknesses on the same pages? Just a thought.

One of the crossings at Three Horse Shoes (March-Peterborough) has a vertical on one side due to restricted clearance. I'm on shift in London until Tues so can't provide a pic, can anyone else?

As far as I can recall, all W&M railbuses were delivered to Cambridge in the lighter green, which I believe was the then standard MU green. I can remember a similar shade on early Met-Camm and Derby dmu's at the time. Repaints were into the later standard darker green (not the same as loco green), as portrayed on the Bachmann Cravens. I can certainly remember the different liveries; what does stand out is the standard of repaints, unlike when for instance green locos/mu's went into rail blue, not following the style of the vehicles at all and with features just overpainted.

I haven't got my L1 yet, still waiting for 67722 to be released. I did however observe at length the Hornby one running round their Warley layout. It was noticeable that the front truck turned with the curves, but upon coming out onto the straights, it retained its posture at an angle for some time. And no, this wasn't a trick of the light, I moved around to sight it from different angles, and on different curves. In defence though, it did NOT derail. As my LMS tank is of a similar design but has only run basically up and down a plank, I've refrained from any mods as yet, although it is a poor performer on the curves of points, consistently derailing. I've refrained from posting till now, as I felt (1) not having 1st hand experience of an L1 & (2) speculative comments are detrimental to the both the discussion and the manufacturer. However I think my comments on the Warley observation are justified, and I am not particularly worried even if my (eventual) L1 also has the symptoms, as it looks easy enough to fix. Gut feeling, looking at the LMS tank and previous posts, is that the 2-pin pivot does not allow the bogie to re-centralise (correct word?) as it comes out of the curve. Any slight track irregularity at this point with a non-centralised bogie may possibly cause derailment; if trackwork is good it will probably be ok. This perhaps explains the lack of complaints to Hornby. Again a reasoned guess, stiffness on the pivots along with lack of downward force is probably the cause? I do feel that the single pivot point is mechanically a better design here.

I followed a link on the web the other day, (but forgot to note where), it seems there may be hope yet for this project! Apparently the bus operators that have signed up to run on it (franchised?) are likely to pull out. Stagecoach are saying that the new local township that was to be built is now unlikely due to the recession, therefore they (Stagecoach) are unlikely to run at any profit at all if relying solely on passengers from existing villages.They are looking at pulling out of using the busway. The other operator, Whippet, only have 2 buses for the route, it appears they had no interest except maintaining a presence, as Stagecoach is there rival in the area. I believe the operator contracts run out at the end of this year, the bus companies have invested heavily in new vehicles specifically for the busway and they have yet to turn a wheel on it (press runs excepted). They are looking at compensation for this. So if these two don't sign up again who will? Hopefully nobody, so maybe a sensible future for the misguided busway is looming? Conversion to railway anyone?

Easy - doesn't need to be cleared, will it ever need to be? Never going to open.....

Well I'm still hoping that Model Rail take up my suggestion for a follow up to the dep. Sentinel. As Chesterton Junction PW yard (in Cambridge) had their Sentinels replaced by 2 purpose-built 03 shunters (delivered as dep.91 & 92), one of these would make a good LE based on the new Bachmann 03 I reckon, a good stablemate for the Sentinel. Edit: footnote to add that I've seen 91 and 92 depart the PW yard to run up to Cambridge for servicing on the main line, so why not the Sentinel?

And don't forget, the term for doing this is sometimes known as 'modelling' I believe.

Causes me an expensive problem this one! I already have a pair of Hornby 21's, which I wish to replace. Thing is, I want them as before, D6110/12 as seen on delivery as light engines through Cambridge, with the communication doors connected. With the Hornby pair, I used the motor bogie elsewhere. Any chance that Dapol will do a dummy loco cheaper for the 2nd one I wonder?

That red is rust I rust I reckon. Mine is on order, ready for use on the Leicester-Norfolk weekend holiday train via the M&GN(!) a mixed rake of Hawksworth & Stanier stock.

Now I'm getting worried - there's got to be a cost to this?

Sorry but NO! The W&M's were based at Cambridge from new until withdrawn & stored there. 2 (may have been only 1?) were then moved to Derbyshire for a short period. They never worked anywhere else. Incidentally, Cambridge was a bit of a magnet for railbuses, as I saw 1 of most if not all types there (can't check numbers as I'm at work). We always thought this was for maintenance or comparison tests, as they were quite successfully used in the area until lines closed.

I stood on the ECML footbridge at Everton Crossing, north of Sandy one day with a tape recorder. Heard the sound of an approaching n/b Deltic, but all I could see was a Brush type 2 - which was piloting the Deltic. Wierd experience, great recording, I still have it on tape somewhere, must dig it out!

Impressive loft ladder, what about showing us the layout next?

I believe the notifications on 'in stock' & 'due dates' on the Bach webpage actually refer to the Barwell stores location? Having said that, I'm eagerly awaiting the 2 green versions of the Cravens unit (yes I know, its not an A2!) which I've pre-ordered with Trains4U; these have been reviewed in all the mags (presumably airfreighted) and are shown as delivered in the last 30 days, yet none of the dealers appears yet to have them delivered!

One of the Yahoo groups had a contributor who is a professional consultant in the rail industry. Though he couldn't give much away, he claimed a while back to have been approached to quote/consult/whatever on replacing the rail track, probably on top of the new concrete. Don't know any more than that, but his many postings on subjects seemed to point to him being genuine! Let's hope so anyway!

Be cheaper to lay some explosive down, bit like a big railway detonator...