Graham_Muz

Being a Southern Railway modeller of the period 1946 to 1949 it is not unusual for me to need to re-livery Ready-to-Run models that come on the market as generally they cater for either pre-war or post Nationalisation eras. This is currently the case with the delightful Beattie Well Tanks that have been produced by Dapol for Kernow Models. I have therefore modeled one side as 3329 in its 1946 condition and the other side as 30586 in the early transition style with ‘British Railways’ and the number in Southern ‘Sunshine’ style lettering. I have a number of my locomotive fleet treated in a similar way with differing styles of letting / eras on each side, at the end of the day you can only see one side at once! This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Hi Mark Good to hear you can make it this year. I am afraid that a two day show is not an option for us as costs would riase too much. As for the date it is always the first Saturday of November and I can not see the Society changing that. I look forward to seeing you there though.

The topic of duplication of models between ready to run manufacturers regularly raises its head within the hobby especially on the many online forums. It has once again recently been mentioned in light of the National Railway Museum’s announcement that via Bachmann they have commission a model of their Midland 4P compound 1000, when Hornby has already this year reintroduced in to its “Railroad†range their 4P from its 1980’s tooling and have started to promote it in the same livery as the NRM model [insert your own conspiracy theory here]. Last Christmas when Hornby announced their version of, the quickly becoming iconic, new build A1 Tornado, there was much online disgust as Bachmannalready had a model in their range. This to me shows that some within the hobby do not understand market segmentation which is a classic marketing strategy tool: This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

As well as the obvious fireworks , loud bangs, ooohs and ahhhhs associated with the 5th November the first Saturday of November also heralds Wycrail the exhibition organised by my own High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society. Wycrail is firmly established as being a family show and is now one of the largest and well supported one day model railway exhibitions in the South East of England. This year, Wycrail welcomesCatcott Burtle from the Chris Nevard stable and also Aberdeen Kirkhill along with over 20 other high quality and inspirational model railway layouts. This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

As regular readers of my blog will know, I can often be found assisting Mike Wild, editor of Hornby Magazine operate his many layouts at various shows they attend to promote the magazine. This weekend it is the turn of his British Railways Midland Region layout Berrybridge to make a appearance at the Warrington Show. Once again I will be spending the weekend playing trains (unfortunately not a Southern engine in sight, but I am sure I will cope) and generally trying the convince members of the public that Mike is in fact Mike and not me! This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Hi Chris Indeed he did, I am unware of what happend to it when he passed on, his photographs were given by his estate to the NRM (which is why they were availble for the Second book on the Leader by K.Robertson), maybe the NRM got the plate too if those dealing with his estatre even knew of its significance? He was, when I spoke to him many years ago, in the process of writing his own book about his time on the Southern and also the Leader but to my knowledge this manuscript has never come to light as it is not with NRM.

Thanks Ian...im back from playing astonauts now.... He is my Bulleid Leader made up using some of the Golden Arrow Production parts (and as seen on Fisherton Sarum) Note to OP, it is of course Bulleid not Bullied...

Tomorrow I shall be attending one of the quarterly meetings of the South Western Circle, the Society, and I quote from their website: “was formed in 1962, is a society for railway historians and enthusiasts interested in the London & South Western Railway (LSWR). The society has a membership of over 500, and aims to assist and encourage members to enhance their knowledge of the LSWR and its successors with research and quarterly publication of the Circle’s magazine ‘The South Western Circular’ Modelling activities have a high profile amongst the membership which is able to draw upon the Circle’s sales service of kits and components, comprehensive drawing service and photographic collections.” This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Gresley Indeed C J Allen's book is already within my collection and provided the inspiration for the models in the first place.

Obviously in some instances, despite what you might be told elsewhere, size does sometimes matter. In response to a comment made on a previous post on my external blog I thought I would provide some further information as requested. To recap the overall scenic section of the layout is 8’ long by 3’ deep split into two 4’ x 3’ boards. These two boards bolt together face to face for transportation. At each end of the layout are two fiddle boards, that due to using cassettes are simple flat topes with no track each being 6’ long. The one at the east (right hand) end of the layout is two levels to allow for the difference in heights between the shed track work and the main running lines at the rear. All this has been designed from the outset so that they fit (i.e. total set up length including fiddle yards of 20’), along with the rest of the layout equipment and rolling stock into the back of a Ford Mondeo estate car. This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

OP updated to include linkes to DIW's workbench threads

The elevated coal stage at Fisherton Sarum like the shed, as discussed in my post a view from the line #2 below opened in 1901. Just like the Shed itself, the coal stages were also built in a house style and as such as well as Salisbury similar stages existed at Eastleigh, Basingstoke and Plymouth Friary. Construction was wooden lapboard panels within a steel frame and a slate roof. Loco coal for Salisbury was supplied from the South Wales coal fields by the Southern Railway loco coal contractors Stephenson Clarke, their wagons were manually unloaded within the stage into wheeled tubs that could then be tipped into the coal space of the waiting engines.... This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

The 1948 locomotive exchange trials took place from April though to September 1948 with Waterloo to Plymouth being one of the chosen routes and utilised during may and June 1948. I was keen to introduce some of the locos that ran on the Southern during the trials into the locomotive fleet on my Fisherton Sarum layout as it is based on Salisbury and as such was a stopping off point for the trials. This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry Some of this has already been covered else where within my posts here on RMweb but this is an update on my main offsite blog, so I make no apologies for a little duplication. My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

The shed opened in 1901 at Salisbury was the fourth to be built and replaced the two older sheds that were near the Station itself (on what then became the west yard) that were together known as Fisherton shed (Fisherton Street being the name of the road next to the station, and forms one of the reasons for my layout being called what it is). Just in case you were wondering, the first shed (of the four) was located at the original Salisbury Milford terminus. The London and South Western Railway realised at the end of the 1800’s that they required larger engine sheds and servicing facilities at Basingstoke, Eastleigh,Salisbury and Plymouth Friary. All of these sheds, despite being of differing sizes for example Salisbury at one of the scale had ten roads whilst Plymouth Friary at the other had three, were built to a common ‘house’ style in substantial brick with large arched style windows, slated covered gable style roofs with longitudinal glazed sections, glazed end gables, ventilators running the length of the shed atop each gable. Each shed was provided with wooden smoke troughs over each line and a number of offices including those for the shed master, timekeeper, washroom, stores and mess room. There was also a sand drying room with its associated furnace and chimney. more.... This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Which is partly what Hornby are doing with their market segment positioning of the RailRoad range

I would not go as far as to say poor quality, as I do appreciate the amount of work a "small team" noting that some teams are smaller that others, have to achieve to get the the magazine published each month. I also fully understand how some errors creep in such as typos or captions for photographs supplied in good faith get through the net. I am just highlighing that if something is going to be criticised then they should be able to substantiate the claim.

There has been much discussion over the last few years on model forums, and no doubt over a cuppa or three at many a model railway club, about the standard of the current ready to run models. Bachman first raised the bar approximately 15 years ago with the introduction of their Blue Ribbon range and since then we have all come to expect great detail and accuracy, no longer will the hobby tolerate one model being passed off as another by a simple repaint. Since then all manufacturers have attempted to proved greater detail and accuracy beyond what 20 years ago we could have dreamt of. There is the often raised issue of greater detail meaning more components to damage during handling, some modellers it would appear want the detail but don’t expect to handle with care… With this continued increase in quality, accuracy and general level of detail I do accept there have been a number of howlers in the past few years of models that are in fact just plain wrong: This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Bill Just a slight correction, to prevent a further myth perpetuating, the T9 tender frame mistake (along with the injector pipe work going in the wrong direction) was an actual design issue not a simple chinese assembly mistake, as it was not in fact possible to simply turn the frames around without cutting off one of the lugs which would then block the body fixing screw.

This is the first in hopefully a series of posts looking at the various items of rolling stock that have and operate on Fisherton Sarum. Over time the intent is that the series will include locomotives, coaching stock and wagons. First up are Bulleid’s masterpieces the Merchant Navy class in original ‘Air Smoothed’ condition. I am not going to get into discussion about the success or otherwise of the design as plenty has been published elsewhere, but to cover some of the models that I have built / can be seen running on Fisherton Sarum. This is an extract of the latest entry on my modelling blog click here to read the full entry My full model railway and meanderings blog can be read at www.grahammuz.com

Steve Try the SeMG website's emu pages, indexed here hth

As being discussed here Hornby's 4 Vep has now hit the shops initially in Blue but with the NSE livery version due later this week. Also the Bachman 32-165DC DCC fitted and weathered N Class as discussed here is also now available.

Hi Robert Great, I am pleased the review has had a positive outcome for you. I hope the orders continue coming in. Oh any by the way when you list the drain pipes on Ebay its 'Bulleid' not 'Bullied'

Jam, certainly worthy of addition to the links OP. I have updated the OP accordingly to add a few of the other layouts missing from the list. I have also arranged a tidy up of the Group area moving a couple of threads that have now ended up as layout threads into the main layout topics of the forum to maintain the policy of keeping layout threads in that area with a link from this Group area to ensure that such threads get the widest audience.