brack

You mean I dug a ditch in my garden for nothing?

The JZ (and predecessors) narrow gauge was stuffed full of oddities - in amongst the hagans, rack mallets, and klose designs the one that stands out to me were a class of compound 2-4-2 tender locos with both drivers flangeless (but very wide treads), kept on the track by the front/rear axles having a klose steering mechanism, inside cylinders with outside valve gear... One made it into the 60s, most of the rest went in the 50s. Reputedly the fastest 2'6" locos in the world when built. Keith chester has written a couple of books on the system.

Like I say, not my model, I had the chassis sorted, the boiler and all the fittings, then sold it to tim ellis who finished it off, so I can't claim much credit. The approach worked though, and the minitrix pacific is fairly cheap to find and robust and easy enough to hack about. I wouldnt have wanted to buy a brand new farish chassis then take a saw to it!

My wife's observation (which I agree with) was that the war of the worlds layout was some very good modelling but the operating railway part felt like an afterthought to the scene, whereas on the other two the railway was integral to the whole.

Any chance of a 7mm version?

I started a model of a class 30, then sold it on in partly built state to another modeller who finished it off better than I could've done. A minitrix pacific chassis block is spot on for dimensions if you cut it down and use the outer 2 pairs of wheels (the centre wheelset is smaller diameter). I bought chimney, dome, slidebars, buffers and cross heads from n brass, plastic tube for the boiler. I had remotored the chassis with a nigel Lawton motor that fitted within the boiler barrel, but it ran pretty hot. Tim removed it and stuck a kato chassis beneath a bogie tender to make count Louis. I'm only responsible for the chassis and getting together the kit of parts - Tim Ellis built all the good bits. I haven't seen a better model of a class 30 though.

Monomyths? When I was Jung we just had archetypes...

If you wanted regular free trips to china to look at model railway factories, just announce you're crowdfunding 3 dozen different models in 5 different scales and people will very generously throw cash your way for airfares and hotels...

Steady on, now nobody likes a dishonest estate agent, but to insult a profession of dishonest conmen, just trying to make a dishonest living off humble folk in need of a home in such a way is surely beyond the pale...

Deutz model naming makes sense when you realise that the OMZ122 is actually referring to the engine installed (the E, Z or D for the 3rd letter denotes how many cylinders, in german), and the suffix letter after the numbers is either F for feldbahn on narrow gauge locos or R for rangierlok on standard gauge locos. So the NG one is an OMZ122F and the standard gauge OMZ122R. Bagnall only built the 11 locos listed in the IRS correspondence. The loco pictured is metre gauge, the only standard gauge loco built was for FH Lloyd's steel foundry and it lasted til 1957. Since FH Lloyd were a big supplier of castings to bagnall it might have been offered on good terms to get a loco out there and working? It did not look like the deutz built locos with the same engine (OMZ130) and certainly didnt match the 2 standard gauge locos pictured in bagnall's publicity material (retouched photos of deutz products in germany). Theres a photo in Baker and civil's big book of bagnalls.

Lots of blowing up the hedjaz railway, shooting holes in the water tank etc. The hedjaz is a fascinating line, but to do it justice would require lots of scratchbuilding. I once built a model set in Sudan, but was never quite happy with the sand in the desert - it always looked not quite right to me, perhaps because I've never been in a proper hot desert... interesting choice though.

They could just be there to collect one or two of the contestants?

When I lived (in ireland) with Americans they were amazed that I could distinguish where people were from in the north east to an accuracy of within 10 miles or so (there are clear differences between newcastle, pitmatic northumbrian, tynedale, blyth/tynemouth, south shields, sunderland and Teesside to me). On one occasion I met someone in the back end of Dublin who when asked said he was from newcastle (generally my answer when asked and I'm in a foreign land), no you aren't, I replied, where are you really from? Just north of newcastle he replied, I again queried where, eventually narrowing it down to him having lived 800 yards from where i lived until the age of 10. My own accent isn't too strong (never has been), I suspect because my parent's isn't. I once had a quite disturbing conversation with a new zealander working in b&q, until I realised he was actually asking if I was interested in decking in the garden...

Have a look at n brass locos kits for wickham trolleys - they look to have similar wheels, perhaps an etch fixed to the face of dished wheels? The proprietor was helpful when I had dealings with him several years back, might be worth asking. Failing that, romford 9mm wheels with brass or styrene inlay.

Interestingly I've heard it alleged that she might've left a suicide note that rossetti destroyed so that her death could be ruled an accident and she receive a proper burial. Life imitates art indeed...

Journalism innit. At least poor ophelia got a Christian burial in the end despite some debate, which offers some hope to our great leader...

For what it's worth, when we end up in discussions regarding past wrongs, discrimination or empire I feel it necessary to point out that those on the bottom rungs of the ladder who were native born and male hardly appear to have any degree of privilege from those circumstances, and that the conditions of many of the poor in these isles were only a hair's breadth away from what we call horrific oppression and effective enslavement of minority (or majority) groups in our overseas colonies. For all her lack of voting rights I suspect Mrs Pankhurst and many of her well to do supporters in practice, if not on paper, had far more rights, privileges and opportunities than many of their contemporary males. Consider the workforce which provided the labour for our railway construction in the middle years of the 19th century. Would it be conscionable for such folk to exist and be so treated now in any remotely civilised country (and yet it still occurs)? Like many things, the past is separated from us by but a few lifetimes, yet the distance is so vast we cannot accurately translate our experience to it or apply our current judgements or thought patterns to those who lived then. Anyway, has anybody despoiled a Hornby wagon lately, or scribed some styrene? I've been detailing up a ruston diesel in CAD (by request, rather than for myself) but it isn't real modelling! I did buy this last week though:

Even more peculiar when there is no shortage of actual derelict rio Tinto 060t in the local area, not to mention the 11 in a scrap yard in zaragoza.

Arrowslit?

Norah Elam sounds like an amalgam of all the candidates for an infamous political party (or limited company) of our times. Militant, fantasist, xenophobic, anti vaccine, anti league of nations, anti vivisection, anti medical treatment, fascist, anti semitic, nazi sympathiser....

Public Health reasons. I hear looking at those sort of images can lead to blindness...

Frame and cab are M-W, essentially identical to contemporary steam locos. They were building one of these at the same time...

This one? Probably not a diesel engine as we know it, but it would perhaps have run on diesel? 1903. Unless you have military involvement in CA's alternate geography I'm not sure how youd get away with one..

The black and silver is a beautiful livery. A few years back there were a few photoshopped images of other classes in it and it suited every one. Eg.

The unusual thing is that the aforementioned fishguard & rosslare still exists, but the GWR's shareholding was passed through BR to stena, so although the railways in the republic were nationalised that particular line still isn't (wholly) state owned. Anyway, something far more attractive than those featured above, and definitely pre 1923: Hunslet works no. 800 (Ok this is actually a photo of no. 44 which was wn 1203 of 1919, but No. 28/ wn 800 of 1903 was identical. No. 85 on the W&L and no.81 which survives in freetown are of course later examples of the same design).