John Urquhart

Yes, I did the same thing, securing the springs at either end so they don't fly away - they are tiny, and like so many features of these coaches, easily damaged. The yellow floor needs to be closely aligned with the chassis, with two tiny (and easily lost) screws - fortunately I had some screws of the right size in the spares box. Great model, but very easily damaged.

Advice for anyone thinking of dismantling the Oxford Mk3 coaches, to install passengers or any other reason: DON'T DO IT! I am struggling to reassemble the coupling mechanism, tiny springs pinging off the NRM pockets, steps flying to all corners, hoses popping off... It's a brilliant model, but I am hugely regretting installing passengers.

And here we are. Not in a 156, but a Blue-grey Mk1 and a Kyle Line Mk2, but you get the idea... also a view of the TMD

Bits of kitchen roll placed on passengers' laps, useful to conceal the fact that the passenger has had a below-waist amputation. And the little circles from a hole punch make plates on tables in restaurant cars. Real passengers prefer window seats facing the direction of travel, and I put them in the coaches in the same way.

My Spotrail unit ran like a dream, until I removed the bodies in order to fit drivers and passengers. And newspapers on the tables. Looks terrific. I had a problem, not the fault of the design, but I want to share it in case anyone else encountered it. Anyway, after refitting the bodies, it ran like a dog, the powered bogies derailling on curves and summits. The problem: the self-centering coupling sockets were no longer moving freely throughout their range, tending to stick at the extremes of movement. It seems possible to fit the bodies almost too tightly to the chassis. The solution was simple; fit the bodies just comfortably to the chassis, and a drop of suitable oil to the wings of the mechanisms, both on top and below as you look with the model in a servicing cradle. And there we are, the mechanisms flick back to the centre position from the extreme, slickly. No more derailments.

Mine arrived yesterday: SpotRail with sound. A thing of real beauty, with amazing innovations. DMU modelling won't be the same now. Wow. Really good instructions with plenty of humour. Just one thing: how do you attach the snowploughs/obstruction deflectors? John

The Hornby 67 is a terrific model, like all Bo-Bo locos is sure-footed and, being weighty, pulls any load it is shown. The Dapol 68 shares these advantages. My 67s (I don't possess as many as newbryford, but working on it) don't derail. Ever. Neither do the 68s, of which I have just 2, for now....

It's here! Model Junction in Bury St Edmunds rang me this afternoon - (other model railway dealers are available, but you won't find a better or friendlier one) - I now possess Scotrail Daring. I have taken it from the box, but not yet run it, just swooned at it (seen photos of Emily Watson looking at Justin Trudeau? That's it) because it is a thing of astonishing beauty. Buy it. Buy another. Remortgage, buy Phil Sutton's next models, abandon everything else to eBay.

hanging on here....

Do you share my preference for the locos with nose doors, even if plated over, ahead of the three big cab front windows? And the early pattern of vents over the arrangement where they were moved to cantrail level? So, paint them blue, put on full yellow ends and (if they were so adorned) put a highland stag on them, for Inverness......and I'll buy the lot. Sound, stay-alive, the full bhuna, because SLW have forever raised the standard for RTR diesel models. Much of the rest of my collection are forming an orderly queue towards eBay!

I am suitably censured for my earlier intemperate remarks which, now I re-read them, make me more than a little embarrassed. Sincere apologies to CJL and others.

I have posted on this in Dapol under: 66779 Evening Star, Model Rail issue 230, Dapol Collectors Club confusion

A RTR model of 66779 has been anticipated since the prototype was unwrapped and so I was a little excited by today's Model Rail magazine which announced that Dapol Collectors' Club were offering it for £85, plus membership. The article appears to encourage contacting Dapol but - guess what - the Dapol site has nothing whatsoever about the model. The MR article further refers to the running number as 66799 which will be no use in a web search because, of course, the TOPS number is 66779, and, in another bit of unforgiveably poor journalism, does not identify the scale of the model. The only reason I can think of for joining the club would be to have access to the model, but I am not parting with £25 only to discover what I suspect from the price, which is that it is an N scale model - I model in 00. So, sloppy journalism, what is it?

Phil Sutton and Jamie have raised the bar so far... I'll be using the discarded cardboard packaging to send my other locos to eBay! Two questions - excuse me if they have been posed, and answered, already, but Google doesn’t think so. 1. Can CV29 be adjusted, in the usual way, to change direction? 2. On D5107, where should the enclosed shed plates go? The makers plates seem from photos to go below the cabside numbers, over the printed equivalents. There is something on some photos visible on the cab front doors next to the overhead warning flashes - is this the place?

Stunning, beautiful model. Trip to Model Junction this morning for 2 decoders, then a happy day running in... Running mine with East Coast rake for now.

Latest Model Rail mag has David Lowery offering precise instructions for respraying a 66 into 66779. Does this mean an imminent catalogue edition is less likely?

Here we are, more about "Elgin for Lossiemouth". We used to tease folk from Lossie about being mean. As with the Lossie couple who win a fortune on the lottery. She to him: "What shall we do about the begging letters?" He to her: "Aye, keep sending them." Anyway. Mk2 Sleeper Lounge resprayed from Airfix original by my new ebay chum, Ray, with my installation of curtains (remember those lurid orange ones?) Sofa seating, passengers and lighting. Couupled to 3 Mk3 SLEs waiting for 67001 Night Mail and overnight service to Euston. Meanwhile, kettle on inside Elgin East 'box with busy noticeboard behind signalman operating llevers which do, in fact, match the track layout: K1 "Lord of the Isles" hauls West Coast Railways Mk1s over the double slip in front of Elgin East: Here is the TMD with loco lift over inspection pit with single road shed beyond, and Gordon & MacPhail's bonded warehouse and distillery in the background: Lastly, Class 56 waiting to leave yard with steel coils: Finally for now, fishing hut with bar, beer taps, barmaid and duty drunk: And in conclusion, pathologically tidy workbench: Unable to resist poke at over-long Presbyterian sermon when the minister delivers three paragraphs of doom, "lastly", "finally", and "in conclusion".

Jim, Neil/andytrains, benachie and Caley Jim, You are very kind! I had been expecting to be told off for playing fast and loose with history and for inflating a passing loop station into a 5-platform 4-aspect station witth a TMD and a goods yard, instead of which it seems that I have brought smiles to fellow Scottish enthusiasts! What would a thread involve? I have already discovered that my photos need to be drastically down-sized in order to be displayed here, instead of which I think I will just take some new ones with the photo dimensions minimised in the camera. What would my new, non-judgemental chums like to see? There are 3 signal boxes East, West and TMD, all with lighting and cast metal interiors, a fishing lodge, with illuminated bar with beer taps, barmaid and resident drunk... the Tables Hotel, borrowed from Dunvegan, and a representation of the Lochalsh Hotel (one of my favourite places on Earth, no exaggeration), dimensions boosted by the positioning of a mirror. You're also going to find Gordon & MacPhail's bonded warehouse next to a mirror-enlarged distillery, along with a greenhouse enjoying the balmy Morayshire microclimate. There are trains, too. My previously described historical progression finds me at a privatised ScotRail, DBSchenker and East Coast Trains stage. My Domestic Manager is at work today so I have a prolonged running session planned before settling down to watch Glasgow play in the Pro 12 at 3pm.

Here we are: mine's called "Elgin for Lossiemouth", and it occupies the entire dining room. Well, who needs a dining room when you have a perfectly good kitchen? The first thing to say is that it looks nothing, nothing whatsoever, like Elgin ever did, or is ever likely to. To further infuriate rivet-counters, it's a tail-chasing figure of eight. I like watching trains go by, as well as I enjoy the operational opportunities of a yard, TMD, 2 through and 3 bay platforms, the largest of which can accomodate a 2+6 HST. My maternal grandfather was stationmaster of the Elgin GNoS Station between the wars, which allows me to claim rights. I progress through eras, with 3 or 4 trains in operation at any time, that would be historically compatible; then, I replace the oldest rake with a rake of the historically next-newest, and preserve the historical continuity. So, Blue and Grey co-exists with Large Logo but when Blue/grey goes back to the cupboard, it is replaced by InterCity; Large Logo then gives way to ScotRail, IC then gives way to GNER and privatisation. Eventually we have East Coast, EWS and privatised ScotRail. Does this make sense? Finally, after a 2-weekly deep clean, we clear the tracks for Blue/grey once more, and start again. Thus, every loco gets a run every few weeks and I am continually looking to refresh the looks through Model Junction, my marvellous local (walking distance) model shop and eBay. Class 37 is disproportionately represented, as is the HST, in GNER, East Coast and... 43172 Harry Patch. The latter on an excursion, plainly, but it is such a striking model I had to have one. A K1 "Lord of the Isles" hauls a rake of West Coast Mk1s, Kyle line green features too. DCC and sound are important features, and lighting, both buildings and stock, variously from pickups, motion-activated and switch-operated. Infrared detectors rotate 4 aspect colour signals. I did say it is nothing like Elgin! Passengers in coaches and on platforms are essential, and every cab has a driver - I don't get a loco running without one!