Caley Jim

It has just been noted on the CRA forum that it is available on Ebay It is also on Amazon, but at an eye-wateringly inflated price!! Jim

I wonder where the nearest asylum to Biggar is? http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/95081-kirkallanmuir/page-3&do=findComment&comment=2614666 There's the State Hospital at Carstairs, but you've basically got to kill someone and be found criminally insane before getting in there! I don't think building a locking frame counts. Happily-round-the-bend of Biggar

Not so. The Medical and Dental professions ( and their staff) along with the clergy have an ethical duty of confidentiality. Jim

I too think the second plan looks better and has more operating potential. You can always extend the platforms a little to the left by having the ramps tapering as the goods platform and goods sidings 'close in' on the main lines. Jim

Before tackling the big run down the ten foot between the Down Main and Down Loop, I decided to do the single rod run at the other end of this board. This goes from the catch point on the up sidings to the associated turnout on the Up Main. I knew this would be a tricky one as it is up against the boundary wall of the Allanmuir Agricultural Supplies warehouse. I have a habit of doing the hard bits first. After that the rest is easy (or should be!). In view of how small the tabs on the single rod stools are I used a No 11 scalpel blade to make the cuts, despite this most of the tabs didn't have much grip, but some DAS slurry took care of that. Again there will be a boxed in compensator to disguise the baseboard joint. Also fitted are the rods crossing over from the main run and the boarding over them. The turnout in the foreground has passenger routes over it in both facing directions, so it has a double FPL as was CR practice, hence the three rods going to it. Jim

My 7½ year old granddaughter is of the same ilk. Masses of Lego and always drawing or making. So far no sign of a railway interest, though she was heavily into Thomas in her younger years! From similar experience with a tender drive in the Kitmaster Evening Star, I agree about Derwent. Jim Edit to change to granddaughter (I'm not as young as I look - hopefully! I mean the 'look' bit. As my mother said on reaching 70 'I've had my three score years and ten, from now on is a bonus')

If you arrange the breaks in the rail so that only those parts of it which are in contact with the wipers when the table is aligned with a track, you will reduce the risk of accidentally driving a loco off the table and into the pit! Jim

The Caledonian is well served in this respect with recent books on the history, wagons (with a supplement just published), coaching and NPCS and signalling, all by the CRA. Locomotive are covered by 'Caledonian Locomotives 1882-1922' and 'The Caledonian Dunalastairs', buth fom David and Charles, and 'The Caledonian Jumbos' again from the CRA. Admittedly these are all separate volumes, but to produce the detail of information which is contained in them would require a tome of academic proportions at a corresponding price! Jim

From my experience daughter's rooms are never tidy! They're usually like Katie Morag's - 'a midden'! Maybe that's why our learned friend's flabber is so gasted! Jim

Or alternatively, 1mm MDF. Jim

The rebuilt Glasgow Central not only had scissors crossovers for loco release, but a second scissors half way along the platform so that two trains could be accommodated and the inner one could still get out, provided there was not one at the outer end of the adjacent road. Regarding the present scene, there is a tandem turnout in regular use at the East mouth of the North bore of the Mound Tunnel as you come into Waverley station from the west, mostly used in a facing direction.

Bit like a Rolls Canardly. Rolls down one hill, but can hardly get up the next! Jim

Sadly, it look as if it's gone a little green with age! Jim

Only if ye pick a windae first! (the one by which you'll be leaving) Jim

But if the electricity is static, will there be any movement? Jim

I have a couple of old Players cigarette boxes with several of these which my father built, locos and ships, along with some un-built sheets. Jim

She could always go to Beamish for inspiration for a loco (I'm thinking of the line beside the manor house). Jim

On Sauchenford we just used the slide switch with a hole drilled transversely through the top to take the operating wire. On a piece of test rack i have I used a toggle switch with the operating wire in a loop around the toggle. You only need just over 1mm throw at the turnout. Jim

James, check your PM's. Jim

I have a power Point presentation I gave to my Probus Club sometime ago called'What the Railways Did for Us'. It was an attempt to show how the railways changed society and some things which we no take for granted which came about through the railways. E.g. standard time and package tours (the latter courtesy of Thomas Cook). Happy to send it by PM and you can use what you like from it. Jim

Is that what you'd like to do to the perpetrator? Jim

Modelling time has been somewhat sparse of late as other things have taken priority, however, being confined to barracks by the snow has given me some time to install the first run of point rodding using Laurie Adam's etched stools as described in the last MRJ. Having studied photos of CR rod runs and consulted on the CRA forum it is clear that the supports are not the same as the LSWR ones. The top rollers are simply pivoted on a bolt running across the top of the stool and there is no horizontal slot for them to run in. There is, however a slight 'cox-comb' effect to the top as each side support projects slightly above the aforesaid bolt. I therefore opted to omit part E and cut part A midway through the top set of holes. To fit the stools I set my dividers at 16mm and marked a row of holes where the run was to go. I then went along with a craft knife and made a cut at each mark at right angles to the track through the DAS slurry ground cover and into the Ply baseboard, just deep enough for the leg of a stool. A stool was then fitted into each cut and aligned using the Mk1 human eyeball, adjusting the cuts where necessary. The rods were then threaded in, any further adjustment needed made and the ends soldered to a small piece of sleeper strip. One end goes into the boarding in front of the box and the other is at the baseboard joint. Any of the cuts showing at the side of the stools was filled in by softening the DAS slurry with a little water and making it good. Any gaps under the stools were similarly filled with some slurry by pulling the stool up slightly and putting a little under it before pushing it back down. The CR was very considerate of we modelers and boxed in the cranks etc. One such box can be seen in the first two photos where a rod branches off to a turnout. My cunning plan to disguise the joint between the baseboards is to have the compensators there, boxed in, of course, the box fitting over the joint and being removable for transit. It will not be quite in the middle of the run, but since the far end disappears under a bridge, this should not be too noticeable. The run was painted with two thin coats of a mix of Humbrol Nos 70 and 173, which I think are 'leather' and 'track dirt' respectively. The challenge will be to mix the same colour for the other runs! The down home signal has been moved a couple of MM to give room for the rods coming across from the box into the ten foot between the down loop and the down main. You can just about see them behind the signal. The box covers the cranks and there will be a (initially) 9 rod run going along the ten foot. Jim

Our daughter and 3½yr old grandson walked down here from their house up the road this afternoon (he wanted to go a walk!). In some places around our house it was up almost to his waist. Still snowing off and on and church communion service cancelled on Sunday. Getting some modelling done while we're hunkered down, so may post some photos on my layout thread shortly. Jim

More here too. Of course everything is at a standstill thanks to the 'red alert'. We're just hunkering down for the duration. I like CA's temporary buffer stop, BTW! Jim

Bob and Willie, two P4 modellers, were getting on a bit in years and one night at their local Model Railway Club they were discussing whether there would be model railways in heaven. They made a pact that whoever died first would come back and let the other one know. A few weeks later Bob suffered a fatal heart attack. Two days after the funeral he appeared at Willie's bedside. 'Willie, the layouts in heaven are fantastic. Every scale you could imagine and all highly detailed and with totally reliable running. You couldn't ask for better.' Then, just as he was leaving, he said, 'Oh!, by the way, you're on the rota to operate with me next Friday.' Jim