Arun Sharma

As of today, DS75 is now available in both 4mm and 7mm scales from Radley Models.

Another factor in electrifying Didcot to Oxford presumably indicates an eventual electrification of Oxford to Milton Keynes/Bedford/Cambridge i.e., resurrecting the freight electric spine concept.

You do have a rather agreeable way with words.

Not the most difficult kit of all time - less couplings, a small piece of plastic card and the appropriate motor bogie, this is the kit of DS75. The resin bits are now appearing from the resin casters.

B2X tender is well on its way - initially in 4mm but soon in 7mm [together with a 7mm C3]. This is the 4mm tender tank and water filler:

Probably in the next couple of weeks - I just have to paint the test build and finish the photographic set of instructions.

I should add that the resin bogie sides have been replaced by [slightly wider] lost wax brass ones - This makes it easier for EM and P4 modellers.

Interesting puzzle - Maroon paints tend to be transparent so which colour primer/undercoat is being used is absolutely critical. Secondly, older maroon models tend to go dull so matching that suggests that a careful use of varnish topcoat is important. Personally, I would use either Phoenix-Precision F30 LMS Crimson [dull] or Phoenix-Precision Cherry C160 LT Derby Red. Depending on the state of the paintwork on your older models, you may need to use a white plastic primer. As a way ahead, I would suggest that you take a few squares of plastic card and spray them with grey and white primer and then spray either of these two topcoats on the two different colours and see which combination is closest.

Did you mean A418 rather than A413?

I think this was actually an A1 - Alcazar springs to mind. It was one that several experiments were done on to prevent the bogie 'hunting'.

The other thing that I seem to remember from years of placing a bicycle in BGs, is that they were painted white inside with 1ft square blackboard black painted panels on the doors and wire bulkheads so that mailbags and the like could be placed in identified locations.

As far as I know, there are two sources of 7mm Mk3 coaches - The injection moulded ones would require considerable work as their moulds were seemingly designed without the tumblehome that these coaches have. The other ones which are brass etches look pretty good and might suit this power car though I haven't compared them dimensionally. It would be pretty straightforward to design a Mk3 coach by taking the cross-section of the 3D CAD from which the rear part of the power car was constructed and extending that to a suitable length and then adding a corridor connection at both ends. Arguably it would be even easier designing the modern sliding door variant as that avoids having to produce the chamfered cutaway on the manually opened passenger doors. I think if I can find suitable imagery of the BT10 bogie, I might consider this as an experiment.

The former rather than the latter I think.

This is a test build of a 7mm scale O gauge resin kit designed and produced as a speculative venture by myself. It is not available as a marketed item at present as parts of it were designed for another kit supplier. So it may one day be available in a slightly different form [from elsewhere]. Whilst composed largely of resin, the bogie frames and all of the small castings are lost wax brass. Window frames, wheel discs, motor chassis and cantrail/side grilles are etched nickel-silver. The model cannot represent every class 43 power car owing to the differing compressors fitted at build. This car has the Davis Metcalfe compressor originally fitted to 43002-43152. Additionally, there have been so many subsequent variations relating to roof grilles, vents & fans consequent upon reengining and fitting of new cooler groups that I would have had to produce a range of different roofs. Similarly, different TOCs had their own variations relating to headlamp fittings and the horn vent on the nose cone. Relatively early in their lives the cars had their number one fuel tank removed from the offside as well as having the guard's compartment windows modified so those would cause more variation. Another limitation would be the decals available in 7mm scale - Those most readily available are the InterCity Executive ones from Fox so that has pretty much dictated what scheme this model has been painted in. On balance therefore it has been painted into the non-swallow version of the IC Exec livery though I do rather like the swallow version of the livery. The sharp eyed will note that the white waist line should be 1.5mm higher up but that's too late to change now!

Regarding 31302 and the ECS - see pages45/6 of SW194 Aug 2003 for details. The task was to move a 450ton Pullman set [Brighton Belle] from the Stewarts Lane carriage sidings to Clapham Junction [South Lambeth Yard] so as to clear the SL shed outlet as the yard pilot [an N15] was blocked in and unavailable. This would have been around 1948.

Could have been - though not certain. I'll have a hunt through my bound copies of SW. Clapham Jcn was certainly mentioned by Mr Hardy .

RNH Hardy who was shedmaster at Stewarts Lane [amongst other places] wrote a long series of illustrated articles in Steam World about 10 years ago which included details of the milk dock there. The usual milk dock shunter was an engine nicknamed 'Spinky" which was a Neilson-built 0-4-0 crane tank [BR No: 31302]. Amongst its other claim to fame was that it once hauled a complete ECS Pullman set to Waterloo as no other engine was available.

This must be where the light at the end of the tunnel come from - or is the one used to search for waylaid mojos?

Thanks Phil - That flexi-pile cap is just the thing I'd need to produce an accurate column base

I am designing some 7mm scale OLE in the absence of any suitable UK outline commercially available stuff. My question is, what is the diameter of the metal tubes that are dug into the ground as supports for the masts? Additionally, these tubes are most prominent on the GWML - were they used on other OLE projects? Many thanks in advance.

The rather strange looking safety valve bonnet is because it has the whistle bolted onto its left side.

All the castings for Stowe Magna's C3 are now here. The large bits of the boiler furniture have been added: There is an irritating cut-out to clear the inner rear driving wheel splasher - This comes from the fact that this chassis is 4mm-16.5mm gauge and thus to avoid unnaturally narrowing the lower firebox a small compromise has been made. However, once the boiler is glued in place, some filler applied to the area will hide the gap. In fact, I would probably advise removing the inner frame splasher associated with the rear driving wheel as it is barely visible anyway. Next job is to fit the Westinghouse pump, sandboxes, clack valves and injectors with their associated pipework - and apply some filler! That will be followed by finishing the tender and completing the internal cab bits. I'll give the tapered cab handrails a miss though I might do them when I do the 7mm version.

Would the griddle cars used on the 25kV class 309 [AM9 as was] also have had propane gas cylinders [in underframe boxes] or would they have relied on electricity for catering?

The resin kit for the class 487 TSO is very shortly to be released by Radley Models. The ends have now been remastered and produced in resin like the rest of the car. All I have to do is write the [photographic] instructions and then it will be ready to go. The TSO has been released first because some want a train of these cars coupled between match wagons as a non-service train under tow to a depot for overhaul [over surface lines]. The basic parts as shown below: