TinTracks

Hi. I spotted this item last night but was stuck for time so just added it to my watch list. Without looking at it too hard I just assumed that it was a motorised GBL static model. I've just about finished one myself and have 2 more to do so was interested (nosey) to see others take on the project. In the light of day I've just had another look and I think it's deffo a bitsa this n that as you say. Cheers, Rich

Likewise the Ripon Canal in N.Yorks. Back in my boating days I was amazed to see how clear the water was between Ripon Boat Club Marina and Oxclose Lock where access was gained to the River Ure. Especially at times of low water,( usually when some scally had opened the paddles at Oxclose and deliberately drained the canal overnight), it was possible to make out rocks, vegitation even the odd fish swimming about. Granted the canal had not had any commercial traffic for many decades. Regards, Rich

Possibly. Regarding the Ebay figures we may also be looking at chinese knock off copies of Preiser originals. A long while ago I was lucky enough to obtain a large amount of Preiser seated figures, very useful for populating carriages. I've also been given some of the chinese copies. These copies always appear to be skinny and lacking in facial definition. Regards, Rich

Yes indeed. Perhaps ''requires miracle'' would have been a more fitting description. Regards, Rich

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285388513152?hash=item42727b1f80:g:lXkAAOSwvxNktmaI&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4Oc1mlQWjY9iCQRGfmD4uEKgeqBaHyGzbMw1wGtk The seller says that it's in need of a clean and repair. Hmm.. Regards, Rich

https://auctions.goldingyoung.com/lot-details/index/catalog/880/lot/550536/A-Country-Artists-for-Hornby-OO-gauge-Steam-Memories-Western-Star-loco Hi. It looks like the market has decided the value of these static ( GBL alike) models. This Brit from the same series sold for a fiver (plus commision) Regards, Rich

Hi. That's a lovely picture. I was in Oban in August 1975 but didn't get to see this. TBH I had other things on my mind at the time, we were there on honeymoon!😉 Great thread BTW. Thanks and Regards, Rich

Hi. I've recently had some good results using Vallejo 70950 black acrylic. Thins well with a drop or two of water and seems to have good ''self levelling'' qualities. Regards, Rich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_Parcels Hi .lots of info and dates in the above link. Fom personal experience it was a fantastic service for its time. Sometime in the mid 1980s I ran a printed circuit board factory. One of my 3 spindle CNC drilling machines had burnt out a spindle significally reducing its production capacity. A company called VERO based in Southhampton put me a replacement spindle on a train via Red Star Parcels. Later on the same afternoon one of my lads picked the spindle up from the Darlington office. We had the machine back up running on full capacity by, I think, 6pm the same day. Amazing service for its time. Hope this helps, Regards, Rich

I still say that about two rail.😉

Erm, maybe not https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3538812/Inventor-creates-upside-down-model-railway.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7fMCWLonsw Looks like Jennifer Kirk beat everybody to the upside down railway. Regards, Rich

Yes indeed, but the cops find that quite handy when it comes to lifting the little scrxxts. Who'd have thought that Facebook would become an essential tool in crime fighting? Regards, Rich

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Please excuse my use of capitals . About eight years ago, one dark November night, I was mugged at the local cash machine. The scally snatched my £300 and scarpered like a rocket. Unfortunately I'm arthritic and can only walk with the aid of sticks, were I only ten years younger I'd have given chase and thumped him (probably getting myself into trouble) but my only option was to call our local bobbies (Redcar & Cleveland) By the time I'd driven home, less than ten minutes, there was a bobby outside our door waiting for me. I gave him full details of the encounter. He said he'd go to the bank next morning and lift the CCTV footage, fair enough. Imagine my surprise when about two hours later the bobby called to say that they'd made an arrest!! Turns out the scally couldn't resist posting about the full escapade on his Facebook page. Next day the cops got hold of the CCTV as evidence, the scally had his day in court and got RETURNED to clink. He'd been out on license after serving only part of a sentence. The bit that irks me is that he was returned to clink for only TWO WEEKS ! after owning up to this and several other offences he'd commited whilst 'out and about' on license. I can't blame the bobbies for, what I consider to be a soft sentence. More recently, about two months ago, somebody tried to steal our next door neighbour's motorbike. Sean must have disturbed the scally so there was only a bit of damage to the bike. Sean reported the matter and the bobbies were on scene within fifteen minutes. You ain't gonna believe this but within a couple of hours they'd caught the beggar. Similar to my incident the scally had filmed himself climbing over the back gate and eying up the motorbike then went and posted the whole lot to his Facebook account.'' You're nicked my son'' We must be very fortunate. Full marks to Redcar and Cleveland Constabulary. Regards, Rich

Agreed. Some years ago one of the tinplate fraternity decided to part with his collection of mint boxed and rare 0 gauge locos and stock. He'd had them stashed away in the loft for a few years. Unwisely he'd carefully wrapped them in bubble wrap before putting them into storage. To his horror he found that the bubble wrap had stuck fast to the 1930s/40s litho finish on just about everything. The collection was reduced to scrappers/spares. I don't think he ever recovered from the shock. Lesson Learned. Regards, Rich

Here are some more of this guy's offerings: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185972755422?hash=item2b4cd70bde:g:AswAAOSwjGljReVS BR never painted that on the side of anything, ever. Hi. To be fair,Chappo does say that it's for a Hornby Dublo TPO which is tinplate, likewise most of his wagon stickers are to fit over old rusted/scratched Dublo tinplate wagons so no raised detail to worry about. Non of this defends his clearly wrong, plain barmy, description of them being waterslides. I can't be sure but I've a feeling I had an interchange with this chap a few years ago but can't recall the details. I wonder if the Jinty is inspired by this from Dapol. (Who assume did some research?)The locos carry the same number. Personally it's the first time I've seen such a logo combination https://www.ellisclarktrains.co.uk/products/Dapol-o-gauge-7s-026-007-class-3f-jinty-0-6-0t-br-black-e-c-47569 The Palethorpes artwork nearly made me choke on me beer. Then came an inspiration, toad in the hole for tea! I've used sticky overlays on projects for pals who wanted some old bashed up tinplate rolling stock brightening up. I've done a couple of TPOs they're fiddly but, with care,can be made to work well. When required I use the overlays from a lovely chap name of Tony Winzar. He has hundreds of artworks for old tinplate Dublo and 0 gauge rolling stock and sometimes lists items on ebay under pipersdell. (BTW, Tony, gent that he is, describes his products as stickers or vinyl overlays) Overlays have a certain popularity amongst some of the tinplate fraternity who, like me, can't bring themselves to throw anything in the bin ! Cheers, Rich

Hi Steve. I had a go at removing the spigots by turning the loco upside down and holding it in a rough wooden cradle. I then flattened off the ends of the spigots with a file and tried to reduce/remove them by using my pillar drill and large size drill piece. TBH it didn't work so well, neither did a grind stone in a mini drill so I ended up using the original spigots with a Milliput block on the end to give me a fixing point. To get the front cab windows I mocked up another cradle from scrap wood and , using the back windows as a guide I drilled through to the cab front. Regards, Rich

Hi, Here's an unfinished conversion I did during the first lockdown. I'd not done any railway modelling for years so started a few projects to get my hands and eyes back into working together. The NCB transfers are from the excellent Railtec range. The loco is converted to 3 rail running by shorting together the wheels on both sides, re routing the motor connection and adding a home brewed centre pickup. The new chimney and safety valves are from the scrapbox. Hornby cylinders filed down to fit behind the cast ones. It's quite a weighty beast, if it flies off at the corners it could cause some damage!! The NCB brake van is a hacked down scrap Dublo ex LMS item. I cut off one veranda and carved off the door surround. I mounted the van body on a standard Dublo wagon chassis with glued on plastikard running boards. I can't find them right now but I also converted a couple of scrap Dublo SD grain wagons into open top NCB hoppers to go with the loco and brake van. Somewhere I have another one of these locos painted in LNER Darlington Green and fully lined out ''station pilot style''. These loco bodies make great projects and nice to see other peoples conversions. Regards, Rich

How about a ''shorty'' 0-8-0 version of Big Bertha/Emma. ? Maybe using a parallel boiler Scot body (or similar) I'm currently eyeing up a 9f chassis and a paralell boiler Scot body I have lying around to see what kind of marriage from hell I can come up with. Regards, Rich

Sounds like the sort of ideas I come up with after too much indulgence IPA, G&T etc Thanks for sharing. Rich

Me too! During the first lockdown I set to tarting up a few old carriages to save my sanity. In a moment of madness I decided to re paint some of those awful Lima shorty Pullmans into poor man's'' make believe'' DB Karwendel rake in two tone blue. I found the RAL numbers required and matched them to acrylic paint products produced by Vallejo under Model Air and Model Colour. Like 33c I pulled off the dropper top, stuck a cheapo metal spatula in the mini drill and gave it a two minute stir. Stuff goes on lovely by brush and clean up is a doddle. Being quite pleased with the results I repainted a couple of old rusty Marklin tinplate carriages into the ''Pop Farben'' Colours, same again very pleased with the results. I've also had some pleasing results from the Railmatch acrylic paints as long as they are well stirred. I'm pretty much converted to acrylic and now tend to use enamel only for repainting Dublo or Marklin diecast locos Regards, Rich

Aged about 8 or 9 I had a problem with pronouncing the same word. Reading an article about said locos in one of my uncle's railway mags I convinced my young self that this must be a french word! Fla--Tee--Ron. I think I was well into my 30s before I realised my error. Regards, Rich

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404308093357 Well blow me down. After all these years of dabbling with Dublo I had no idea that even the figures were available in either 2 or 3 rail ( apparently) Joking apart it's a nice lot (although I'm not too sure about the figures with the USA type ''engineer's'' hats and the winkle picker shoes) that looks set to fetch a few bob. When the first plaggy figures came out in May 1961 they cost 3/- for 12 hand painted figures. I think the second set cost 3/6. Happy days. Regards, Rich

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185799055825?hash=item2b427c99d1:g:NkAAAOSwt3tep~1F&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8PpT1PaRIPnLk3e9OGYfpo1cRUiPBdA Hi Steve. There's always the good old GBL option for a body. Cheers Rich

They sure do. I like the hats and stuff printed onto the top of the luggage shelf and the detailed lavatory interiors. Nice touch . I wish I could get mine to look like that! Regards, Rich