Devo63

A very sad loss. I met him when he came to the Adelaide F1 Grand Prix one year. He gave a wonderful talk about his career and the development of racing over the years.

It seems that my family have nearly always owned cars and other motor vehicles. My Great Grandfather John Rich started his commercial life in Cardiff around 1902, at the age of 14, with a bicycle hire business in a back lane behind City Road. Before the start of the Great War he was already running a hire car and taxi service around Cardiff progressing to a bus service in 1920. At first he had a route from Kings Way to Rhiwbina and later added another to Whitchurch which was in competiton to the Cardiff Tramways Company (CTC was later taken over by the Cardiff Corporation) but dropped that route after only a couple of years. He was involved in a quite fierce battle with the Corporation for the Rhiwbina route until he finally sold his business to them in 1927 and retired at the age of about 40. He lived at 35 Richs Rd on the corner of Birchgrove Rd. Next to the house was a small shop he set up for his wife and the bus depot was next to that where he also built a lot of the bodies for the buses. During this time all four of his sons had become motor mechanics (my Grandfather, Cyril, did his apprenticeship with Morris Garages better know as MG). The old bus depot was still standing in Birchgrove Road in July last year but was for sale at that time in a very poor state of repair. With the proceeds of the sale John bought a large place known as Porthkerry House where he lived until his early death in 1940. The house was taken over by the WD and was used by American soldiers until the end of WWII and was effectively ruined in that time. I have no idea if the house still exists. Every two years from when he sold the bus run he would buy himself a new car, usually a Rover but at least one Daimler. The bus depot had been let to Typhoo Tea from the late 1920's as a delivery base providing John with a bit of rental income. After the war the depot was opened for a while as Rich Brothers Motors with at one time all four of them working there before the usual family arguements got in the way. All of them had owned cars from an early age with Cyril buying his first car in the early 1930's. He also competed in various forms of motorcycle racing. I don't know what type of racing it was but we do have a photo of him somewhere with long spikes on the tyres of his bike. My Great Grandmother was another early driver starting before WWI. We have a photo of her at the wheel of a car (possibly one of the taxis on a Pierce Arrow chassis) with a number of family members on board. Her own personal car was a De Dion-Bouton which she owned until her death.

One of the things that is really noticable in a lot of those photos is the number of British made cars and the variety of marques visible. On my last trip to the UK most of the vehicles that I saw were from the Continent or Asia with only a small amount (in my opinion) of local product. At least you do still have auto manufacturing - our car industry in Oz totally died a couple of years ago. Dave R.

The Railway Modeller ad shows a bit of the internal mechanism via cut-aways.

Reading back through my previous post I noticed that I had neglected to mention a very important step when pouring the first half of the mould. Before pouring the RTV or plaster you should make 3 or 4 indents in the plasticine with a rod to make registration points for when the two halves of the mould are joined for casting. If this is not done it is fairly easy ceate a misalignment which leads to mis-shapened castings. Dave R.

My father had both the Graham Farish 9400 and the Prairie in the early 1960's so the 1961 date appears to be right. I haven't as yet been able to find a review of the 9400 class although I must admit to not searching very hard. I have found an advertisement for the Prairie in a double page spread in the March-April 1951 Railway Modeller. Sold at the time as a kit the prices were: Unpainted 79/6, Black 84/- and Green 89/- plus 1/- for P&P. The advert states a limit of two locos per order and only available direct from Formo Products. I have a 9400 from the 1970's which is still going strong. The body appears to be the same as the earlier model but the chassis and motor were improved. This is just from memory as my father had sold his original model prior to me taking up the hobby. The only items he had left when I became interested were an HD 'Cardiff Castle', an original release Triang 'Lord of the Isles' and a Triang 'Nellie' 0-4-0T plus a few Triang coaches. Dave R.

In South Oz these were always "the Deli". We tried to avoid our eastern neighbours variations of language, eg. in SA we eat Fritz while the Easterners eat Devon. One local specialty was the "Pie Floater' which was available from the various bakery owned pie carts located around the city and suburbs of Adelaide - now all gone. At the Adelaide Railway Station pie cart you could enjoy your meat pie drowned in pea soup with an old wino on one side of you and a politician or visiting celebrity standing on the other while cars whizzed by behind you only a couple of feet from your rear end.

Until my first year of high school a cap (referred to as 'boys own' type above by Michael) was a required part of the uniform at the two private colleges I attended. Mine were dark green at the first school and purple at the second. We also had matching coloured blazers which were usually bought a couple of sizes larger to 'grow into'. The caps for most of the colleges were plain, single colour types but Pulteney Grammar School had a concentric navy(?) and white ring ring pattern to them - perfect as a target for gobbing from overpasses and bridges. In senior school we were finally allowed to wear long trousers as part of the grey standard school suit. An early memory is of the couple of years after Australia introduced decimal currency. My great-grandfather would give me a two bob coin every time I visited him. I would accompany my father to the bank and exchange it for a brand new twenty cent coin (the old coins remained in circulation for years) and would buy bags and bags of sweets at the general store. It wasn't until years later that I found out my father would reclaim the two shillings from the bank manager and gave it back to my GGF when we next went to see him for a repeat performance. The things I miss the most from the era are the many corner grocery stores and little hardware shops etc. that have been driven out of business by the large conglomerates. There was one local hardware shop, still labeled as an ironmongers, which closed down in the mid seventies. In the back corner was a couple of shelves stocking a supply of various Triang bits and bobs, a selection of Airfix plastic kits and a rack of Humbrol paints. Dave R.

I have cast a fair amount of metal parts over the years using both RTV and plaster moulds. RTV is great for complex shapes that may require undercuts etc. to the parts whereas plaster is handy for simple pieces. RTV is best if you need a large number of copies of a part. Plaster moulds only give you a few castings before they are no longer any use. I make a simple card container (sometimes the bottom of a milk carton will do) and place a layer of plasticine in the base into which I press the master. At this stage I use some scrap plastic or wood to make basic pouring gates. They nearly always need adjustment to get the metal to flow properly but doing it this way cuts down on some of the carving later. I pour over the RTV or plaster to make one half of the mould and then allow it to set completely. I have a small hand vacuum pump which I use to suck out air bubbles from the mix before it sets. Once set everything is removed from the container and the half completed mould can be placed back in ready for the other half to be poured. Be careful not to dislodge the master when removing the plasticine. I use a simple light oil spray to stop the second half of the mould bonding to the first but there are probably better products around for this. I forgot to do this on one plaster mould and had to chisel out the master and start again when it all bonded together. RTV moulds can be used almost straight away but I usually give them a clean before I first attempt a pour. The plaster variety need to set very hard and be devoid of moisture before you can cast. I sometimes bake plaster moulds in an old toaster oven at about 80°C to make sure they are thoroughly cured. I still have a couple of kilograms of casting metal in twelve inch rods that I bought a few years ago from a local war gaming and model supply shop which is sadly no longer in business but I have located another casting supply shop when I eventually need to buy some more. I do most of my casting in the back shed or the carport using a small gas camping stove ring and a small ladle I acquired in the dim, distant past. Also, as recommended above, I have safety goggles and leather gardening gloves for a bit of protection. I dust the inside of the mould with talc and clamp a pair of thin plywood sheets to either side of the mould to provide support and then start casting. It sometimes takes a couple of pours before the mould has heated up sufficiently for even distribution of the metal and you may need to cut more air channels in the mould to get a better flow. Any failures can go back in the ladle. I have been doing this off and on for the last 30+ years. I have had a fair few failures but these are outweighed by the many successful castings I have made. One last quick note - there is sometimes a bit of shrinkage to the castings when cooled compared to the original master. This is usually most noticeable on larger parts such as boilers etc. and allowance may need to be made when crafting the master. Some of the modern casting metals don't seem to shrink as much as the older types but it is something to be aware of. Dave R.

A few more

The Kitmaster interiors haven't been printed since the early 1960's but they do still pop up on a well known auction site from time to time, sometimes at ridiculous prices. I still have a number of unused kits of all four types that my father bought back when they were first released for use with the Kitmaster models. These days if I want interiors for models I photocopy them onto thin card and use the copy instead.

Very nice build of a rare FAA type. I think this could inspire me to build up a few of my stashed 40's and 50's naval aircraft. Also your HMS Buttercup build has made me dig out my old Matchbox HMS Bluebell model with the thought of maybe finishing it off after all these years. I bought it when the kit first came out and only progressed as far as the hull and a few sub-assemblies before putting it into storage. I always intended to buy some after market detailing bits and bobs to tart it up a little. The photos on your Buttercup build show the sprues. It appears that Revell have updated the kit with extra parts. My version has a clear plastic cradle for the hull and seems to have less variation in the parts for different versions. Edit: I just noticed that your corvette kit is 1/144 scale while the one I have is the 1/72 version! I should pay closer attention to detail.

The March 1968 MRC has plans for 'GWR brick-built signal box at Torre'. The front and left elevations are at 4mm scale and the rear and right are at 2mm scale. it is quite a large (tall) box but I have adapted the plans in the past for smaller scratch built versions. If you can't find a copy elsewhere drop me a PM and I'll send you a scan.

It has metal wheels and ran on a steel track - it must be a choo-choo* train! Put a face on it and you could name it Thomas. * Alt: chuff-chuff, puff-puff etc. etc.

"It were always raining in Denley Moor . . . I remember that . . . 'cept on days it were fine, and there weren't many of them . . . not if you include drizzle as rain . . ."

I don't think the Special DX Goods is a GEM model. I have a feeling it was from the M&L Premier Kit range. From memory, they also made a number of other LNWR locos - possibly a 5'6" 2-4-2T, an 0-4-0ST and 'Cornwall' both as a regular tender engine and the inspection saloon variation. I have about half a dozen GEM LNWR kits built/building at present. My GEM 4'6" 2-4-2T no.2504 is to be redecorated as Cardiff Railway 'The Earl of Dumfries' when I can find out more information about the lining etc. I don't know if it carried the LNWR lining in Cardiff service or a simplified variant.

Dame Olivia de Havilland is still going at 103. Kirk Douglas always seemed to excel in his movies. Some of my favourites are 'Lust for Life' where he played Vincent van Gogh and Kubrick's 'Paths of Glory'. I also liked him in the western parody 'The Villain' in which his Cactus Jack character always fails in his attempts to steal the money from the heroine using various tricks straight out of Loony Tunes cartoons.

I've had a similar problem with this model which I bought new when they first came out. It ran well for many years before the power problems started. The wheel quartering was the next problem as the plastic gear and spacers packed up with the loco then spending a fair amount of time as a siding decoration. A couple of years ago I purchased replacement spacers and gears from Peter's Spares and completely disassembled the chassis, cleaning everything thoroughly before reassembly. Adding a new set of brushes and springs to the motor has made it run again just like new although it is not up to the quality of the updated Bachmann model.

Three elderly brothers, Tom (96), Dick (94) and Harry (92) shared a house together. Tom was in the bathroom and had just placed one foot into the bath when he had a sudden loss of memory. He called out to his brothers for help saying he could not remember if he was getting into the bath or out of it. Dick started to climb the stairs to help him but tripped half way up. Sitting on the stairs he asked his brothers if he was heading up or going down. Harry sitting in the kitchen said to himself " Those two have lost it." rapping the table with his knuckles he mumbled "Knock on wood, I'll never get as forgetful as them". Rising from his chair he shouted to his brothers " I'll be with you in a moment to help you both but first I need to check who is knocking on the front door".

At last another Drop Bear prank but with a serious note about the devastating fires on Kangaroo Island.

Already watched it on ABC I View. Holding back on a judgement until I see the next part.

I was wondering how common a problem I've had with K's tender drives is and if anyone has had the same problem. I have four of these (for many, many years) and only recently noted that the pick-ups on all of them were wired up to run the reverse of the bulk of my RTR and kit built models. Some of them I bought new back in the 70's which only goes to show how often I've used them. Two of them were still in the boxes in which they had left the factory, still wrapped in the original tissue paper, with the other pair fitted to an old modified Kitmaster City of Truro (a very nice conversion to a Badminton) and a Stirling Single which I had bought second hand a long time ago. Over the last few days I have corrected them to run the 'right' direction when power is supplied. Three of them were quite easy as they had two white metal castings held together with self tapping screws. All I had to do was flip the wheels sets from one side to the other and solder on new pick-ups. The last one had a heavier one piece casting with the axles held in place by two brass rods soldered to the base - probably and earlier product from K's and maybe kit built. As I didn't want to dismantle the whole thing I managed to pull all the wheels from the axles and swap sides, finishing with re-soldering the pick-up into place. Was this the common way these left the factory or have I managed to find four wrongly assembled drives? Dave R.

How about for next year adding Dean's 4-2-4T? Something that could scarcely leave the shed without derailing must be quirky enough for a lot of people.

I'm still interested in the history of no. 35 in the above photo. As I mentioned, it looks to be a Sharp Brothers product. Unfortunately my collection of information for the LNWR is very poor compared to my GWR library but I do have a bit of a soft spot (and I don't mean a bog) for the trains heading north from Euston.