Hroth

Well, they're pricing to the ebay standard nowadays (just like all the charity shops do). At least with Rails, they have the grace to clearly label it as rubbish ie restoration project/needs attention. However, I do wish Hattons would separate new and seconhand listings completely so you don't have to wade through the dross if you don't want it!

The plastic GBL use for their mouldings is atrocious - it can't be recycled as such, as its a homogenous colour, but it must be the cheapest, nastiest styrene they can get hold of! It was a hateful task cutting through the J39 running plate (and remove the internal boiler stiffeners) to insert a Hornby Jinty chassis.... (It lurches around beautifully now!)

Dunno what the fuss is about. If Hattons are too dear, then its your perogative as a fickle customer to shop about and buy off whoever is currently undercutting their prices.

Popped into my local Sainsbugs this AM and liberated their LN, complete in all its dogeared cardback glory! If anything, the livery application is even worse than that in the photos in post 5459. Not only is the lining a bit wavey, but the paint is missing on the top-left corner of the firebox! In addition, the nameplates are falling backwards off the splashers..... As for the bright "copper" water feed pipework, it looks as if its been pinched off a Triang "Sir Dinadan"! Haven't decided how to treat it but some sort of complete repaint is on the cards..... Perhaps just paint it black and hide it amongst the Patriots and Royal Scots?

Yes, basically a set of logarithmic rulers - far easier to use in the workshop or at the drawing table than a log book. When I was learning to use my British Thornton sliderule at school, I always remember the teacher saying that it was an AID to calculation, that you should always have an appreciation of the approximate number you were looking for and its magnitude. Not like nowadays when people punch godknows what into a calculator/computer and don't check the output! The railway engineering world was quite odd in the UK - there was quite a lot of ideas swapping and cultural exchange. And Swindon was the go-to place for innovation, especially in the period 1900-25. I'm surprised that the GWR managed to keep things going, what with all the staff poached to sort out messes on other railways and always lending their locos out to show how to do it.....

Looking at the photos, it seems that the livery application is a tad slapdash, and the boiler underfilling is reminiscent of an old Triang Princess! (I won't even comment on the strange speckled hump in the tender...) Looks like another "Last Days of Steam" repaint coming up!

Nahhhh.... It's a halfway-house to a new attempt at a detailed B12/3 - just need to stretch the boiler and add another pair of drivers.....

I suppose the point is that the model is the sum of its parts, and a view of the pre-assembly parts and the effort required to assemble them to a rtr model is essential in the development process. Incorrectly moulded parts that don't fit or are even missing essential detail can be corrected more readily at this point rather than after a completed sample (decorated or not) is emitted by the factory in China, its not like they can pop down to the toolroom and get it sorted, is it! Its good to see that Hornby pays this amount of attention to detail in the manufacturing process. Apart from all that, all those bits and bags on the workbench looks just like one of the more complicated Airfix kits - now only if they went back to the Triang CKD format... Not to reduce price, but to allow you to have essentially a rtr model that you "built yourself". Such fun!

For certain reasons (ok, a Terrier and probably Manston) I coughed up for a club membership mid-June. The "introductory mailing" arrived this morning. Not impressed! They may as well not bother as I'm sure they know that people only join for the general discount and perhaps to get access to a particular club model.

Arrivals: Platform 1: Lord Nelson - Delayed. (Frogs on line....) sowwee....

I'm popping into my local Sainsburys on Friday (today!), who always have ONE copy of the current GBL offering, usually with a torn and battered card backing, to see if they've had the LN yet. I suppose the late running of this model is an attempt to emulate the characteristics of 1:1 railway practice.......

I've been very happy with a number of the GBL offerings, mainly because they provide cheap replacement bodies for some of my locos that have seen better days and because they make excellent subjects for experiments in weathering before I attack a valuable (ie working) loco. The Western, in particular was an easy conversion as GBL almost exactly duplicated the Lima plastic chassis (though in diecast metal) and it was easy to fit a spare set of Lima Western running gear onto it. Given the inaccuracies of the base model, its a cheap enough way to double my stud of Western diesels! I've missed a couple of GBL replicas that in retrospect might have been useful, but I'm not paying ebay prices for those now! (edit for additional guff)

Thats a useful little engine! I could do with a couple of those...

I'm always wary of April magazine issues. Editors feel duty bound to slip in a jokey article/review in honour of the season, and they're mainly the most atrociously cringeworthy efforts possible. Its enough to make you want to bin the things unopened when they come through the door!

A Q1 is all very well, but where do you put the key? Nods to WA Stanier and leaves, pursued by a (Great) Bear......

Hmmm - perhaps you're right. I'd interpreted "foam" as the thin soft flexible stuff, rather than expanded polystyrene. Perhaps the solution is to loosely wrap the model in whats called "archival, acid-free" tissue paper before placing it in a expanded polystyrene cradle, or in one of those wrap-around plastic clip/sleeve assemblies that are popular at the moment. As for dinky tyres, they're just exhibiting prototypical behaviour. Perhaps in line with modern practice, they ought to have a "discard by" date code embossed on the side? Now back to GBL. I've fitted a Lima motor bogie/trailing bogie to the diecast GBL Western chassis, after a bit of drilling, grinding and fitting. Had to remove some of the roof stiffeners for clearance, though with no external modifications... It goes like a bomb, but stopping from full chat is fun, especially if there's something in the way like a wagon or a buffer stop!

Foam is unreliable stuff. Its also used as light-trap material in all sorts of (mainly) 35mm cameras. There's nothing more depressing than opening the camera back to find strings of sticky mush where the foam used to be... I suppose its possible that the failure mode is when the material is under compression. I've also experienced it with a Zenit UPA5 portable photographic enlarger where the case was lined in the stuff to hold the enlarger components in place. What a mess! Foam for long term storage: just say NO! edit: (Just found a link to a pic of a typical UPA5 foam disaster ! http://www.submin.com/general/collection/accessories/zenith_upa5m.htm )

Popped into my local Sainsburys this lunchtime and snaffled their sole copy. I don't know how many they get in, but there's always only one when I visit! (the card backing is usually sadly mangled too...) It looks a bit better in the flesh, though it still seems subtly wrong, no matter how you look at it. And the cylinders need gluing into place! Anyhoo, its going to be a 1963-4 vintage loco, minus nameplates, as dirty as hell, weeks away from the scrapyard. Static diorama fodder, naturally. OR Stretch the firebox, stick a pony truck under the cab and, voila! Hawksworths "Pacific".......

Whooeee!!! Is it just me, or is the cab/firebox relationship completely out of whack? I had a look at County of Chester on wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_1000_Class#/media/File:Bristol_Temple_Meads_2_geograph-2423243-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg) - they look completely different locos. Is this one of the worst GBL renditions so far? It looks like they pinched the boiler off a Manor!

Possibly, if you weren't too fussy* - having had a look at the images offered by goggle when I searched for "Western diesel golden ochre", its as good a stab as any! * Blind man on galloping horse caveat......

Yep - I was going to reference the "egg yolk yellow" that was on my fathers Morris Marina, it was L reg so that pins it down to 1972-3. My mother HATED it! I think the tin of "touch-up" paint has long congealed, if its still at the back of the garage..... Just googled the Marina - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Marina The second pic down on the r/h side of the article IS that awful colour!

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.....