Wheatley

The same reason I model a particular location in the 1950s/60s rather than the operationally more interesting 1930s. Apart from a few BR Standards and Mk1s the locos and stock are the same, just a different shade of black.

Door to Door furniture container I think. Wrong different colour but right layout - https://peco-uk.com/products/sr-furniture-removals-conflat-wagon-with-container

That's fine, but if that's the case they should stand aside and let an operator who can meet the minimum infrastructure requirements run it. I could run a really profitable coach touring business around the West Highlands if I didn't have to fart about with all that tedious red tape around drivers' hours, PSVO licences, MOTs, VAT etc. This is no different.

Touch in the missing white bits with a very fine brush (OO or OOO) then weather or graffiti as above.

The reviewer doesn't think much if the Jacobite set does he ? Although in fairness he doesn't criticise the piper directly ! "This set contains an impressive 20 poses, but all are clearly depicting Highland dress. However a good many of these do so really badly." If you're looking for modern(ish) every day Highland dress (ie kilt with jacket and tie) the Airfix/Dapol lineside sets are amenable to being cross-kitted by chopping heads and limbs off and re-arranging. It strikes me that the legs off the 8th Army soldiers with the top half of some Airfix/Dapol commuters and some Milliput kilts might work. I bet the 8th Army are polythene though.

Thanks, although it was Bachmann 16 tonners I meant - they are/were sold out whenever I've been looking for them.

Having used Smiths and Slaters the Slaters ones are much finer but they're also shorter and you'll need to open the hook out (unless that's changed since I last bought some). Depending on what your minimum curve is you may find you need sprung buffers, or sprung hooks, or both, or that it just doesn't work at all on sharper curves. I can get them to work on R3 (19") curves but only short wheelbase wagons and dead slow. These days I can't see the hooks anyway so they're just cosmetic with a Lincs coupler or simplified AJ doing the actual coupling.

Land-Rover 90 / short wheelbase Defender. The '90' was a misnomer, they were actually 94" (unlike the 80, 86, 88, 109, 110 and 127, which were actually 80, 86, 88, 109, 110 and 127). Proper Range-Rovers were 100", no idea about the modern ones.

I dont think it's particularly controversial to point out that there's a fundamental conflict between conserving surviving historical material so it can be studied in detail, and playing with it. Let's not kid ourselves, the latter is essentially what the heritage railway industry is about. In most cases it does no real harm, if half the Class 37s currently preserved go for scrap then future historians will still have double figures to try to make head or tail of, but where something is truly unique and truly representative (not just a bit unusual or slightly different to the other 34) then surely it is right that it is conserved 'as is' rather than stripped and half the bits replaced just to get another one running again. For a few years, until it needs major repairs and goes back in the scrap line to re-await its turn for re-restoration.

If the source is a published photo see if there's a photo credit. If it's one of the photo libraries, HMRS etc you may be able to approach them directly for a higher resolution copy, possibly just of that lettering.

Hmm. You've got me wondering now whether I just used MJT compensation units and stuck the Caley sides on ! I don't think so because I wouldn't have thrown the Caley etches away and I don't have any knife edge units sitting in the spares box ! They're 30-odd years old though ... Edit - no, they're 'as supplied' back in 1992.

Nope. The hole is still there, glassed over so you can walk over it. The only thing left from Billy's photo on page 1 is the yellow framework for the overhead crane, it's now green and supports what must be the world's biggest marble run (which is actually really good fun !).

There will undoubtedly have been military traffic handled at Kirkcudbright but I think James has it as far as the Palvans are concerned. Railway modellers tend to think of creameries in terms of "MILK FOR LONDON" in 3000 gallon glass-lined tanks, but most of Galloway's many creameries produced cheese, powdered milk, baby formula and margarine. That's the first photo I've ever seen of the plywood variant, thank you. I feel another one coming on ...

Do you have a source for Dundrennan please ? This was discussed on a much earlier version of the forum, and we couldn't establish what the traffic was. Dundrennan was certainly discussed as a attractive possibility but it would be odd for wagons to be branded to be returned to their destination rather than their loading point. Also, there are at least two or three in almost every late 50s/early 60s picture of Kirkcudbright and that's a lot of artillery shells ! The other obvious source is the creamery across the bridge from the station. I have three, kitbashed from Ratio van ends on the 9' chassis from the Ratio GWR 5 plank open. The 10' chassis from the vans went under the 5 plank bodies to make some O30-somethings, and the left over sides were combined with spare corrugated steel ends ends and chassis from the Parkside spares box to make three free BR 12ton vans :-) Edit - beaten to it by 26 !

Good luck working out where BRB Residuary disposed of them all to, the trademarks for the Network SouthEast livery are now owned by a bunch of gricers ! https://www.nsers.org/ 👍 The franchised TOCs did not, in general, inherit design rights, patents etc, but they did have the right to use them and in some cases were required to use them as a condition of either their Operating Licence or a Group Standard. The ROSCOs might have acquired the IP rights for the rolling stock and I think EWS did for the FOCs, but in very general terms anything used by all the TOCs (BR symbol, design of an APTIS ticket, TOPS etc) was either imposed or used under a global licence from somewhere else. Post privatisation liveries are another matter - in those cases they are generally either owned by the franchisee (resulting in lots of hurriedly applied white sticky-backed plastic on Mk 4s at the end of GNER for example) or in the case of Scotrail (and possibly Merseyrail), by the franchising authority.

In some cases it can be cheaper, especially where you need multiples of 'It'll do' quality rather than showcase models. I still batch built 16 ton minerals from Airfix and Parkside kits, the buffer heads and handbrake levers get replaced with MJT and Ambis bits respectively and I've almost run out of the various sheets of Modelmaster transfers with a couple of dozen on each sheet. When I started it was the only way to get a 16 tonner, then the Bachmann one appeared and they were probably a bit cheaper than the kit + bits version, now the Bachman model is more than twice the price of the Parkside kit, if you can find one. 17 quid per wagon difference buys a lot of paint, transfers, wheels, etched brakegear, buffers, springing, compensation, couplings ... Its not necessarily about price though. If the RTR version does the job I'll buy it, especially if it saves me spending hours on something complex or fiddly or easy to do badly like Toad handrails. If the Bachmann Presflow had been out when I beat my three Airfix ones into shape I would have bought Bachmann ones instead. Nearly all my brakevans and tank wagons are RTR. Conversely I own one whole Bachmann 16 tonner.

We went today at the request of No.1 son. Unfortunately the Cob is still in Station Hall which is the part currently closed. The building is having a new roof and the displays updated before re-opening later this year or early 2025. Sorry !

I wonderd at first if it was a livery sample painted with a brush (the hinge anyway) but I think it's actually been sprayed and just not masked off very well.

If anyone else is wondering where the Karen Harrison Building is, it's the lean-to offices on the north side alongside the ECML. I don't think they'll be conserving anything large in there. Page 22: https://planning.org.uk/docs/20220307/131/R6BD9SSJN2200/vnnizl2vwyw1vzmq.pdf

Every time I look I see another ejector pin mark.

It all depends where Old Dalby sits within ROGS and what their Safety Management System allows them to do. It's an experimental establishment so I presume it's written in quite broad generic terms with a separate safety validation for each individual project. The booking form does say that electricity is extra, on top of the £21k !

Operating a 90mph loco at 75mph on a line certified for 125mph ? They wouldn't bat an eyelid, it's a test track after all. It's the "carrying fare paying passengers" bit which would pique their interest, I've no idea how that would work!

The vertical part is way too thick and the actual hinges (as opposed to the straps) are the wrong shape, at least compared to this pic of 5025 - https://images.app.goo.gl/zGhbJRgMooGt7G8u7 But the silver paint is making it much worse.

Same. I'll buy a couple to supplement mine, and the existing ones might even get pushed up the upgrade queue a bit to get etched brakegear, but I don't understand the "must replace" mindset unless the original was poor to start with. I did replace my 30 yr old Mainline/MJT/scratch Mk1 TPO with the Bachmann one but theirs had all the windows in line and the same size. I also managed to not buy any LNER 12 ton vans or LMS brake vans until they were in the bargain bin at a price which would have been rude to ignore.

Everywhere but usually on specific traffic flows. Port Sunlight for Lever Bros, one of the either dog food or biscuit factories I think, and whatever was being loaded at Kirkcudbright, probably cheese or some other dairy. I also found a photo some time ago of a long line of them somewhere in mid Wales waiting to be loaded with bagged peat. On wagons and kit building generally, there were way more variations in the real thing that RTR has ever covered, even where they've done different versions of a particular diagram. I think I've found 12 'as built' variations in the BR Standard (sic) 12 ton van so far and that's without starting on replacement wheels buffers and axleboxes. Some of the earlier Parkside chassis are showing their age but they're dead easy to upgrade with different axleboxes and etched brake levers, and in some of the kits you get a spare one too :-)