Hroth

To keep your list tidy, each time one comes out, use this command to lop the current issue off the list and create a new list. awk '{if (NR!=1) {print}}' currentlist.txt > newlist.txt You are using Linux???? ( I know its using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but thats what computers are for! )

Yes well, begins with "S", doesn't it! As for the livery, I think it was blue (and another company) when it was in the old transport gallery in the basement at William Brown Street.

Its a Sentinel steam waggon. There's one on display in "The Museum of Liverpool Life" at the Pierhead, along with Lion, a Liverpool Overhead Railway carriage and other stuff of railway/transport interest. (It may even be in Criddles livery, at least its a blue livery if I recall correctly...) Edit: Always check before posting..... The one in the Museum is a "Criddles", but its a green livery! http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/collections/transport/sentineltractor.aspx

Considering the variety of locos the Triang "Jinty" chassis has appeared under (especially the Gronk), the "misalignment" of wheels and splashers with the J39 is a minor inconvenience. I'd also hazard a guess that a complete modern Hornby jinty based model as a donor would work out cheaper than a discarded Bachmann split-chassis. All I've got to do now is select the victim for the butchers knife/saw/drill.....

Perhaps it was meant to read A2/1 at one point, and got sub-edited to complete incomprehensibility? In any case, there is a point of view that that class was an awful hybrid created by a certain CME. Treading on eggshells, to try and avoid starting off a religious war..... Then again, they might just be doing a copy of "Tornado"...

Dunno. But it keeps shrinking!!!

Exactly what I was thinking. A sort of "Homage to Margate", along with a nifty rename to "County of Kent".....

At least with the County there's no faffing with valvegear! As for the livery, just carefully scrub the GW off the tender and apply a BR totem (Unicycle or Dartboard to taste). I wonder if I could cram the Triang B12 chassis in there.......

Perhaps Hornby are looking into using the Pug as a basis for a Y7? Something a bit less Tobylike..... Back to matters in hand, WHAT a pretty engine the J50 is! Hornby are coming along nicely with this one.

Its possible to collect the whole set so far on ebay at £19.99 + p&p each. wonder who buys past GBL issues at silly prices? £9 for a single model to "play" with is a convincing proposition, its cheaper than buying moribund Triang/Hornby locos to cut&shut and experiment with livery changes and weathering effects. Anything more is madness. And if you want to collect the things, you'd have taken out a subscription,,,,,

Heavier, yes. But next time it'll be the other loco/floor that comes off worse!

Just broken my GBL Western down. Do my eyes deceive me, or is the cast chassis essentially a reproduction of the Lima chassis, even down to the correct size/shape "hole" for the motor bogie? A bit of drilling and cutting, and I can drop in the bogies from a Lima Western that had a nasty accident a while ago..... (Just have to fish the bogies from the spare parts box - they'll be somewhere near the bottom!)

The South Devon, a GWR constituent, used broad gauge saddle-tank locos on express services, admittedly they were 4-4-0 designs, but not quite a world away from Percy (apart from being approx 2'3" wider across the wheels and having 4 more of those). In "Railways in Camera", a collection of Public Record Office photos, there's a picture of one, called "Leopard" derailed near Camborne in March 1891, whilst working "The Flying Dutchman"!

And yet Percy and the Mail Train (An 0-4-0 hauling a mailtrain? hmmmm.... Although Hornby also did R1144, a Jinty-hauled "Night Mail"! ) contains some objects unsuited for the 3+ age group. I admit that the sharp wires that lock the mail coach mechanism would be removed by doting parents, but the mailbags themselves are ideal objects for nasal re-location! Did you read that story about the man who sneezed up a rubber sucker from a dart gun? ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-32710540) And HE was evidently 11 when he inadvisably inserted that item! Changes for mucked up link, misplaced punctuation and strange capitalisation!

Ho-hum. If you have to be a member of a forum to VIEW the discussions, then I'm firmly of the Groucho tendancy. Now we've got the unknown unknowns out of the way, Western HO! Thinking of the Western, how were the bogies of the Peak and the HST treated? Were they cast metal screwed to a flat bottom under the body, or something more involved?

If anyone is interested, there were 4 8Fs in WHS Liverpool One this lunchtime.....

By "accurate", do you mean reflecting the current cgi cartoon version of Thomas and if so, to what extent? Changes to the livery and the current cgi "face". Shorten Thomas for a more compact appearance. Drop the front buffer beam and incorporate "continental" style lights. I saw part of one of the "Thomas and Friends" programmes on 5 earlier this week and one thing that set my teeth on edge was the buffer height disparity. Thomas (for some reason connected with the story) had to bank a train of wagons. In the establishing shot, it could be seen that his buffers were well below those of the rear wagon (no brakevan, btw) so there was no contact, and yet in the action shots it could be seen that he was quite happy to push away at the train... I've got a Bachmann "Stuart" which is a loco that is included in one of their DCC junior starter sets and is, in fact, their "Thomas" without the T&F livery and face. It does have the shortened body and the dropped front buffers so can't run tender first with a train (no front coupling!) or shunt without derailing wagons. As for the coaches, all the current Hornby 4-wheelers are based on swb wagon chassis and really are terrible. An improved 4-wheel coach, perhaps on the CCT chassis, would be an asset for the whole range, not just for Thomas. So long as accuracy doesn't affect practicality, I'm with you regarding the need to update Thomas and to provide better 4-wheel coaches. As for Toby, we can just live in hope!

If the MP is: Tory, "Its market forces. Your fault you didn't buy in time". Labour, "He's a BLUE engine???". Lib Dem, "We're terribly, terribly sorry and we feel your pain". SNP, "You're no true Scot if it isn't a Scottish engine!". Plaid Cymru. "Croeso i Gymru!". (Other British political parties are available, please see.....) As for "Exeter", Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo........

Picked up my 8F from the local Sainsbugs this lunchtime - an excellent static model, tank vents straight and no gaps anywhere. The assembler must have found their glasses again! Now for some cogitation before the paintshop... I like that comparison of the HD 8F with the GBL version. For a 50 year old model, the HD is a cracker!

Obviously the BBC have had a lot of interest in yesterdays "Today" segment! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r6vt7

A nice looking 8F - now for a renumbering into an appropriate '67 identity, with a "not under the wires" diagonal, limescale around washout plugs, etc, an overheated smokebox door, and so much FILTH that its barely possible to discern the number, let alone the BR crest..... A wonky tender vent would be positively in character!

However, to be fair, the Bachmann Thomas is a bit of a joke too, with the front buffers mounted way too low to allow coupling with any other stock. Yes, it may match the current CGI rendition, but that is something created by ignorant graphics designers. Then there's the multiplication of new characters and the modification of traditional characters by HiT in the name of commercial exploitation and copyright extension. I've got the Bachmann "Stuart" variant of their Thomas and far as I'm concerned, I prefer the Hornby version. Yes, the Hornby version of Thomas is expensive and they need to review prices in view of internet competition from "grey" imports, but it wouldn't surprise me if a proportion of the "new" Thomas locos turn out to be better paint-jobs on up to date standard models, rather than old tender drive ones. We'll just have to wait and see! ps. Comparing similar Thomas and Railroad models on the Hornby website, it can be seen that "Percy" is £40 whilst Smokey Joe or a 101 is £27.50, "Thomas" is pre-order at £40, the SDJR "jinty" is priced at £32.50 and an LMS Class 5 is £71.25 while "Henry" is £90. Its possible that the price differential with regard to licencing and other production effects is not that great. There may well be some more wriggle room but it seems that Hornby "Thomas" prices are not now as over-inflated as they once might have been.

The volume would have to be speed-related too! Just imagine a rake of chatty Annies, done up in LNER colours, behind an N2 on a Minories style layout as it hurtles towards the buffers.....

Sooooo - its the 70th anniversary around now (going by Radio 4 coverage), and Hornby announce "Available from December 2015". They're probably thinking of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the introduction of Thomas into the Railway Stories in 1946 then. Looking at the models and prices, my local model shop had the "Percy and the Mail train" set for £50 last Christmas, and still has various individual 4-wheel goods wagons for £5 a throw, though a 3 wagon selection box is about £24. OTOH "Annie and Clarabell" are a snip at £20 as individual 4-wheel coaches in the normal Hornby Railroad range are nearer £15 each! To a certain extent Hornby appear to have missed a trick or two by not upgraded the tooling (going by the individual product shots), and not including a TTS offering for at least Thomas. Thomas WITH REAL SOUND would have been a sure-fire Xmas seller, though it would have to be in a DCC trainset, which would bump the price up a bit, I suppose, but if Bachmann can have a Junior intro DCC set....

I've bought from the shop several times since the re-opening, excellent stock, very helpful staff. Well worth a visit!