brianusa

Sadly this is a world wide phenomenon; why some are reluctant to ship to a foreign country. There are those here in the USA who won't ship to Canada even, let alone the UK or Europe. Presumably they can't be bothered with the extra effort of tacking a customs form on the parcel. I have a similar problem with those in the UK who won't post over here no doubt for the same reason.. Brian.

Is that the young Finching's all dressed up in black? Brian

Why not hook on a 4000gal tender just to see what it would look like? Brian.

The pictures are worth a lot of words! My reason was that with the larger engines a bigger tender looked better aesthetically, or at least I thought so. After seeing the pictures, I'm not so sure in this case. While railways don't care that much for aesthetics there are some in this community who fret about such things and its always good to find satisfaction in such cases. Another example was the eight wheeler from the Great Bear which fount itself behind even a 2251, which did appear overpowering. Brian.

Pity about Horrabridge, Nick, but hopefully this one will work out for you. Brian.

Good point, although 4K tenders weren't around when the class was introduced, they probably would have looked better with the larger one behind as did the 4700s later. Brian.

"We'll overlook the big light-bulb!" To me, Kev, light bulbs on toy trains go together like fish and chips! John Betjeman's description of trains before tea in front of the fire, etc, were a turn on and have been ever since. I have since replaced the bulb with the more appropriate flat front.

Sadly one of the main differences between tinplate collectors and our scale brethren is that we are prone to 'collecting' as opposed to operating or as we might say, playing with trains. At least that was on my mind when my fancy turned to tinplate trains. It had always lain dormant ever since my first Hornby train set too many years ago. Being warned of the collecting habit, the availability of stock and the cost, I decided on the LMS. Not only did they have a lot to acquire but as it turned out they were the cheapest. It really started when I found some Hornby trains at a second hand store in Berkeley, California. I came away with a lot of trucks and some accessories which provided the impetus along with a 1931 M3 acquired at a TCA meet for $10 and so it all began. Just about this time E Bay came on the scene as up till then I had to rely on trips back home in the hope of Hornby purchases. I did quite well this way but how many transatlantic trips can you make! I did however find a Royal Scot in Bristol one time, various trucks and odds and ends at each likely antique store we saw. David Salisbury's old shop in Seaton or Sidmouth, can't remember which, and a shop on Honiton main drag which sold used Meccano products. My first O gauge layout was on a table underneath the OO layout which was about 12' x 5', and could be pulled out to play with. Not the best situation but then with my wife's retirement, a house move to near Seattle, with the stipulation that any new house had to have a train room, a deal was done! They layout is now about 16' x 12' and occupies most of the room and it has served me well for over twenty years now The track is the same but the locos and rolling stock grew to where most rest on shelves on the walls when not in operation. The layout itself is a double over and under track in an E configuration with the middle E being the yard, station area, with the two mains on the scenicked outside. Over the years, I have bought one of each of Hornby LMS locos, all except the PE which may not like my 54" curves or the even smaller Lionel 31" variety. For old times sake and coming from Plymouth where I did my train spotting, I recently bought a Hornby County of Bedford and a rake of carriages. The usual rolling stock has found a place on he layout filling up the sidings and ending up adding more on the shelves. Lionel trains are still run along side their Hornby cousins; not for serious runners but after all these are toy trains so that's a moot point! Brian

Surely a lot of our layouts are compromises; the point is whether it still appears appropriate for the area modeled Brian.

Reading these last few pages, in spite of corporate promises it doesn't appear that much will change. How many times have passengers read this stuff, which doesn't come to pass and we will continue to revisit it all over again in the future. Brian.

Not a bad looking house - lucky stationmaster. Rent free? What are the blue lines for on the pavement? The UK must have the most colourful streets in the world! Brian.

I'm always amazed how you guys are allowed to use a living room thus! Brian.

Did the Manors and Granges ever come with a 4000 gallon tender at any time? Brian.

Hi Annie, most here call their trains coarse scale which they're probably not actually; they're toys. Intended to be toys and played with by little girls and boys. However, to please the pedants and others, coarse scale sounded more grown up, so coarse scale it is and you have fine examples of the genre; everything from the basics to the Hornby we are all familiar with and which constitutes the majority of our layouts. Which means that toy trains can and do appeal to much older girls and boys as well. Brian.

One thing, Andy, I would like to know, is how do you find time for the essentials in life other than trains? Things like eating and sleeping, not that trains aren't essential to life and the pursuit of happiness, of course! Brian.

I had one on Buckfastleigh and thought it pretty cool and it didn't cost a fortune in those days. That was quite a nice little proprietary layout, Buckfast to Staverton with the rest of the line eventually joined up behind scenery to provide continuous running. The stations were built from card, certainly not up to those shown these days, but I was happy with the results. It was a steam days layout but without the fidelity to era which meant a lot of locos and stock that never went near South Devon, were seen in this unlikely scenario. Strictly OO DC. Brian

How about the St Austell/Kensington car ferry? Not so many cars needed, not so heavy trains and no elaborate terminals; just a couple of sidings, at least at St A. Perhaps its been done already!

Awakening an old topic, the Princetown branch! Any info on the quarry workings? I have the usual books on the subject which include the track diagrams so know a bit but pictures of workings are scarce. Probably not many interested in trains back then, even fewer with cameras. Brian.

Pictures with a high sun angle always look good. Nice and summery and also brings out the details. Brian

Andy, I wouldn't like to try that in O, let alone anything smaller. It looks rather large right now but a bit of paint will work wonders. But we never worry about such things with tinplate layouts! Brian.

For those of us who were /are alive, you have summed it up rather well! Brian.

Just come back to this topic after returning to W7 and a new computer. "My understanding is that Yealmpton was originally going to be a through station - the line was intended to extend as far as Modbury. If that had come to pass then the loop would have indeed had have "up" and "down" sides, and hence to have trailing access to the yard as it was oriented you would need to access it from the non-platform side of the loop, via a diamond. As a terminus, the Yealmpton configuration looks a bit odd IMO. (Come to that, as a placename Yealmpton looks a bit odd!)" The through station idea was soon dropped but the track arrangement remained and other stations on the branch had the same layout. As for being odd, the river Yealm flows nearby and Yealmpton village is just up the hill, hence the name. There are a lot more odder place names on the country! Brian.

Lurgy, that's the second time today; I used it in another EM this morning. Its amazing how some crazy words or phrases last for ever. I usually used it to describe an unknown unfixable locomotive problem on my OO period. Was it from the Goon Show over sixty years ago? How old does that make me! Brian.

When they cut back foliage, they don't fool around down in Debmn! Brian.

And all this time I thought it was because the LH Down loop allowed reversal into the yard via a crossover as at Yealmpton, and others. The platform line in this case being the UP line. Brian.