Adrian Wintle

That looks very good. It does need an old shopping cart lying around somewhere though, probably in an alley with some galvanized garbage cans... With regards to the window air conditioners, they are typically fitted by either raising the sash and fitting some form of wooden panel to fill the rest of the space, or by removing a pane and filling the space with wood (likely plywood offcuts, probably painted with whatever paint was lying around at the time). As they are usually self-installed, they would likely all have slightly different installations on the tenements. The one that came with my house was fitted in a sliding window with a piece of plywood cut to fill the gaps. Adrian

I'm not sure that the OM traffic necessarily really matched the ocean liner specials. I had thought that some of it was for 'mail drops' at Plymouth when the ocean liner was actually going to Southampton or elsewhere, as it would get the mail to London quicker (4-6 hours maybe?) since an express train could do the run up the channel faster than the ship could. Adrian

There were effectively no 'normal' K38s. There were only six of them and all but one had Ocean Mails branding. See http://www.rmweb.co....brake-liveries/ I'm not sure that they would run with an ocean liner special. I'd suggest that a couple of toplight brake vans might be appropriate (http://www.dartcasti...ogmore/3955.php or http://www.dartcasti...ogmore/3954.php are possibilities) For a kitchen, they probably would have used an available dining car, possibly a Dreadnought or one of the 70' toplight cars, although the instructions with the Comet kits suggest just 3 or 5 Super Saloons and 2 passenger brake vans for the formation. If you want to add a dining car, an H15 might be a possibility (Comet W2). Note that the Fishgaurd boat train formation (toplights) didn't have a restaurant as far as I recall, it was a 70' brake first (A11), a number of 70' firsts (A10), and a 70' stowage van. For the Torquay Pullman, see http://www.precision...ls.com/l20.html, although the photos in Russell show a much less homogeneous formation than is implied by this information. From the Precision Labels list, the cars included Eunice, Juana, Zena, Ione, Joan, Loraine, and Evadne (this matches the link industrial provided). Adrian

There was a series on modern Opens in GWRJ 35/38/39/40. I don't recall which diagrams they considered to be modern. Adrian

There was also a series on the later Minks (17'6" body) in GWRJ 9/10/12/14/16 for those building the Ratio kit etc. Adrian

For everything you ever wanted to know about V12 vans, get hold of John Lewis' article in Great Western Railway Journal 66. He states that early fitted V12s had offset V-hangers, while later builds had them almost central. There are photos with both bonnets and louvres. This is part of a series of articles on GWR 16' covered goods wagons (GWRJ 62 - overview, 63 - V5/V4, 66 - V10/V12, 67 - V14/V16, 68 - V18/V19, 70 - liveries). Adrian

Diagrams of the 6-ton yard crane were in the GWRJ Preview Issue (Issue 0). I don't have it handy, so I can't refresh my memory as to the look of the crane (hence the different suggestions above). Adrian

Mike's Models do a GWR Medium Yard Crane - is this the 6-ton crane? http://www.holtmodel...o.php?code=MM37 There is also the wagon-mounted 6-ton crane from Cambrian. http://cambrianmodels.co.uk/gwwagons.html Adrian

The Revell Tugboat (1/108 scale) might make a starting point for a 1/87 one. It should be cheap and reasonably available. http://www.revell.co...ps/80-5207.html There is also this, but I know nothing about it: http://www.megahobby...atkitdumas.aspx The Lindberg tug is 1/82 - also should be cheap and easily available http://www.lindberg-...model77221.html and in 1/48 http://www.historics... Tug DU1251.htm Adrian

The other difference is that the Dapol tanks incorrectly have brakes on the centre axle, while the Hornby ones do not. Adrian

I believe the Model Power kits are reboxed Heljan kits (they certainly come from one of the European manufacturers). There may be a deal that they don't ship wholesale to the UK to avoid competing directly against the manufacturer. Adrian

The body is that of an LMS Brake Third, but the underframe (as in all of this style of Hornby coach) approximates that of a GWR coach. Adrian

Or when they decide to nest in the barbecue over the winter... They didn't this winter - I think the neighbor's cat has been culling them. Adrian

At the cottage: Adrian

I believe it is a Period 3 coach, but otherwise you are correct. Adrian

I had missed the Boeing train in the second photo above. Very nice (although Santa Barbara seem to be a bit out of the way for a Wichita to Seattle train ). Adrian

I haven't hit a deer while driving, but that isn't for lack of trying (on their part). We did nerf one with the rally car I was codriving, but there was no damage on either side.The closest I came while driving was abut 2 ft, braking hard as deer #1 ran across in front of me followed by looking in the mirror to see deer #2 run across behind me. On the way back from the cottage last weekend I pulled over to move a turtle out of the road. Fortunately it was just a small painted turtle rather than a snapper - they can get quite aggressive if they've been sunning themselves all day (guess how I know that...). Adrian

A young coyote, taken out of the side window of the car. He was foraging on the road and was totally unconcerned when I drove up beside him, stopped, and took photos (range about six feet). This is near our cottage. Adrian

Unless, of course, they were doing maintenance that involved the elevating mechanisms... I'm pretty sure the IJN wasn't one of the navies whose idea of maintenance was making sure everything was perfectly lined up and then putting a new coat of paint on it... Back on topic, there is a 1/144 Kilo class submarine sitting on my workbench at the moment, waiting for its next coat of paint. Adrian

Yes, in the previous model they did Wellington in Shirtbutton (R2459) - mine has been modified to have its original name of Devizes Castle. Adrian

The tank would be a Chieftain, I believe. Adrian

Since Hogwarts Castle was Olton Hall in disguise, Bachmann's use of the modified Hall tooling was closer than Hornby's use of the Castle tooling (neither had a Hall in their range at the time). We did have to take two of them to make one working Hogwarts Castle, which probably makes the Hornby effort more cost effective. Adrian

Trumpeter or Dragon kits are quite nice. 1/350 is the typical larger scale (1/700 is the normal smaller scale). You should have no trouble finding a selection of modern vessels to choose from. Tamiya has also done some in 1/350 - USS Enterprise and USS New Jersey (1980s) for sure. Airfix has done HMS Illustrious in 1/350. Adrian

Microscale does sheets of lozenge camo in 1/72 http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=MS72-908&Product_Count=&Category_Code= Adrian

Yes, but... Unlike locos, that livery on coaches was brought in late in the war and lasted until nationalization. In very broad terms (and with lots of exceptions) Loco with Great <crest> Western would have coaches with GWR over a crest Loco with Shirtbutton would have coaches with Shirtbutton Loco with G <crest> W (or GWR) would have coaches with Great <crest> Western There really aren't any higher-spec coach models that go with Tintagel (unless you want to run an inter-regional train with other company's stock*), but some of the latest versions of the Hornby Colletts have beautiful livery applications, even if the coaches themselves are a bit long in the tooth. *e.g. there were multiple Brighton-Cardiff trains that were diagrammed to be a SR set of brake third, third, first, third, brake third, occasionally with a GWR third as the leading coach in GWR territory. I would guess that this was more likely a Hall duty rather than a Castle, but... Adrian