Hroth

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!)

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.....

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!

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!

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

I thought I'd missed the 8F, seems more than two weeks since the Brit appeared! Nevermind, I'll be looking out for the 8F and the Western; the J39 looks like a potential purchase too.......

Or how about the black and silver livery used on 18000? Now that would be striking! Funny to think that the Western would gravitate to unconventional machines to replace "Kings"...

You don't need another 'Western', but you WANT at least one! You could have four more - Desert Sand, Ochre, Green, Rail Blue.....

Looks like the Lima version, there's a deep windowsill around the windscreen, and the gap under the buffer beam between the front steps, for the coupling to stick through. I could do with a cheap maroon Western to go with my green one....

I remember reading a quote from the early years of railway modelling (probably by LBSC?) that "a coat of paint hides/covers a multitude of tins...." The excellent weathering job on the Brit seems to bear this out!

True, but with turning wheels, you can shunt dead locos, and the "valvegear" really does set my teeth on edge! Also, If I took the Araldite route I'd be inclined to insulate both sides. A 12v short is annoying enough, but if something went wrong on DCC? Oh well, someting else to put on the prioritised "Things to do" list!

*sigh* I buckled and bought the sole copy of issue 32 from my local Sainsbugs..... Getting it home, a side-by-side with the tender drive R.063 shows impressive similarities. with both the loco body and tender, though there are some inconsistencies (have a look at the cab front windows, and the tender window frames!). The colour is very similar to that used on the Hornby R.852, the Ivatt 2MT Mogul, which sports a similar curious shade of green! Just a thought. I've just detatched it from the base and looking at the "chassis" I wonder why they didn't just go with a moulded bit of plastic rather than the diecast metal, which makes the model unsuitable for background stock on a live railway. (A job that the Dapol kit locos perform excellently) I've just had a browse through ebay and a set of Hornby drivers and valve gear would come to something like 20 quid. I'd almost be inclined to scratchbuild a chassis and perhaps even motorise it..... It'd still be cheaper than all but the most fleabag Triang Brits on ebay!

Its nice that they've finally implemented a way to view the stock without having to see the pre-owned stuff. Another improvement might be to filter out pre-order items as well! As for the error messages, I've not encountered them often, those I have were mainly at times of high load. Ians example sounds like someone left a field empty when inserting a new stock item, although the software should have sanity-checked the input before accepting it. The message should have been caught and written to an exceptions file and the user "merely" presented with a dialog saying that the item was currently unavailable and then returned from whence they came. Thats at least better than being presented with meaningless gobbldeygook!

Apart from the ringbinder with the Britannia model, is it just me or is the Brit a close replica of the very old TRIANG model?

Ahhhh.... the days when 32k RAM was enough for anyone...... My loft is full of antique computers; including a BBC B and a Tosh 1000 (still works, though the batteries have long gone south). I've also got a BBC Prestel modem, a pre-Hayes 300 baud modem, and all the subsequent standards inc 14.4, 28, 33 and 56..... Most of the stuff really does need to see the inside of a recycling bin now! Back on topic, my local sainsbugs had an N class last week, though I didn't buy it - it was particularly hump-backed about the firebox! I may have a look at the Britannia when it emerges. Anyone have a clue about the loco after the Brit?

I've been following "Lime Street" for the past couple of years - its a marvellous, evocative project! I used to walk through/past the station on almost a daily basis from the mid-70s to the mid-80s and remember the demolition of the rear range of what I assume were bedrooms that ran parallel with Lord Nelson Street. All that was just a lead-up to the question; Are you going to coat that wonderful model of the hotel in the uniform layer of dark grey filth that my memory insists on superimposing on it?

Saw the B12 in Sainsburys yesterday, its a nice looking version. Its the first GBL issue I've bought since the intro Mallard and Coronation replicas. It may go to replacing the body on a Hornby B12 thats met the floor one time too often, although having said that, while the A4 got motorised using a surplus Flying Scotsman chassis, the Coronation is still awaiting a cheap Duchess chassis... I might look out for the Pannier, it may do to modernise a Hornby 27xx!

Tangential to airsmoothed Merchant Navys, but interesting all the same; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32000416 "Youngest steam engine driver for 50 years qualifies for main line service." He was driving "Clan Line".