Caley Jim

60 thou square styrene strip? Nick it with a craft knife and break rather than cut and that will give you the 'broken ends' effect. You could 'distress' the strip first be scraping with a craft knife. Jim

It certainly looks like pig iron, but the ones in the wagons look shorter. I suppose a good whack with a sledgehammer might be all that was needed to break them in two. In 2mm I cut lengths of 30thou square styrene rod, arranged them in a metal tray the same size as the wagon and flooded them with solvent. I then sprayed them with rattle can grey and dry brushed 'rust' over them before gluing them into the wagons. (apologies for the c**p lettering!) Jim

On the CR these were called 'raves' and were, as you say, fitted to wagons designated for coke traffic, and were so lettered on the top rave. A standard CR 8T mineral wagon did not have the capacity to hold 8tons of coal, but would hold 8tons of denser minerals, e.g. iron ore. Similar raves were often fitted to open merchandise wagons to allow them to be used for sheep when the demand for that was high. Regarding company specifications for white rims, I would refer parishioners to my post on page 1 here (22 May 2022) referring to Mike Williams' book on CR wagons :- 'The book also quotes an R Y Pickering card order for CR wagons which states inter alia :- Wheels and ironwork one coat lamp black with a little japan added. Wheel tyres and numberplate letters white. This would imply that white tyres were a company specification.' Jim

I always use a button gauge between the tip of the first switch fitted and the opposite stock rail to ensure the gauge isn't tight. Second switch is then fitted with it's tip no further away from the crossing than the first. Jim

Used to do that in The scouts, but we called it an eye splice! Jim

You can post the video on Youtube and link to it on here. Jim

But Charles I required people (at least in Scotland) to take an oath acknowledging him as Head of the Church. That was one thing that 'stuck in the craw' of the Covenanters. Those who had a price on their head and refused to take the oath were summarily executed. Jim

These things can all be programmed into the decoder, so are individual to the locomotive. Turning the 'regulator' to the off position will result in the loco coasting to a halt, unless the brakes are applied. You can use function keys to turn on or off inertia and or acceleration/deceleration to provide 'direct drive' for shunting. The easiest way of programming these variables is via a computer, using a SPROG and DecoderPro. Jim

As an active member of the Church of Scotland (CoS) can I point out that, as far as we are concerned, the Lord Jesus Christ is head of the Church. When Charles I tried to impose Episcope on the CoS with himself as head of the church it led to the Covenanters and 'The Killing Times' of the mid c17th. My 8 x great-grandfather was a covenanting martyr. While the CoS plays no part in Government, the General Assembly (GA) frequently makes comment on national and world political issues. The CoS describes itself as 'A Reformed Church, always reforming'. There have been women elders since 1966 and women ministers since 1968 and by 2016 women represented a little over half of the eldership and approximately one-third of ministers. The office of Moderator of the General Assembly has been held by a woman on several occasions and the Moderator Elect is a woman. It is a 'broad church', though some recent decisions of the GA, e.g. to allow same-sex marriages and ministers in same-sex relationships, have led to some congregations, either all members or some, leaving the CoS, mostly those on the more Evangelical wing. @drmditch, I could not agree more with you on that point. Jim

I've now checked with the person who compiled that booklet. It doesn't include the MET as he found London codes very complex, as we see above. His reply includes the following :- 'Kew has Metropolitan Railway rule books for 1868, 74, 77, 1904, 21, and 33. Usually the headcodes were in an appendix to the rule book, though the Met may have been different. The only appendix at Kew is RAIL 1134/354 Great Western, Metropolitan and West London Railways Electric traction. Supplement to Metropolitan Co.'s appendix No. 2 to the working timetable dated Apr. 1912 Which implies the Met did have appendices to the working timetable, but they don't seem to have any at Kew. It may be something LT have.' Jim

The 2MM Scale Association have published a booklet 'Train Lamps and Headcodes', available to non-members here (3rd item down the page). I don't have a copy, so can't comment on whether it includes the MET, but I will find out and report back. Jim.

Mine are quite the opposite! Very loose in the slots and around 1mm play fore and aft! Jim

I recall reading that somewhere too. The loops on my (KISS principle) drive shafts are generally in line and they tend to flail about a bit anyway. I've never been sure whether the noise was coming from the shaft or the gearing. Jim

Where was that photo taken? Looks like Bo'ness as I don't think the CR coaches have ever left there. I have travelled in one of them behind 828 and 439 double heading. Jim

According to Mike Williams' book on CR wagons, there were two pre-diagram book gunpowder vans of 5T capacity built in 1865 and 1867. these had wooden underframes and riveted metal bodies. 3 new vans were built in1889 to Dia 4, which were basically Dia 3 covered vans with the wooden bodies lined with lead internally. By 1900 a further 21 of these had been added. The model depicts a Dia 78 van, 49 of which were built between 1904-5 and in 1922, which were of '1/8in plate steel with wooden lining'. Jim

A friend of mine and is wife, who have six of a family, announced that they would have weekly 'family meetings'. A few days later he was passing the bedroom of one of the children and could hear a discussion going on behind the closed door. Turned out this was the 'union meeting' to decide on strategy. The family meeting idea was abandoned! Jim

Haven't the French always been revolting? From what I see on the news today, they're at it again over the pension age going up to 64. They don't know when they're well off! 🙄 Jim

I can (and have) spent many an hour days on the NLS maps website! Jim

Very best wishes, @Northroader. Take it easy and hopefully you'll be back on mainline duties soon. Jim

I understand it was standard practice for the shafts to be removed and placed under the pantechnicon on the floor of the wagon for transport. Jim

I've been pointed to this thread after sending the following to @AY Mod :- Once again I am finding it increasingly frustrating to use the 'Pre-grouping - Modelling and Prototype' forum on an Android phone, running Android v9. Attempts to access it via either the bookmark I have created or the RMWeb home page result in a 'This page is not working' message. I can access it by going via a response to a post I have made in one of the topics, but it is very, very slow to load and I get repeated 'Chrome is not responding' and 'System UI is not responding' messages. I do not have this issue with either of the other two fora which I routinely access, 2MM finescale and Railways of Scotland, so I cannot see that it can be an issue with my phone. I have no such issues on my Desktop using Windows 10 and Chrome. Is there something that needs to be looked at in the Android version of this forum? Having read through this, I swapped over to expanded view (wasn't aware of these options) and it now works fine. Odd thing is that it was only on the one forum that I was having the problem and only on my phone! Jim

Been away for the weekend, so a bit late in posting this, but here's some of what you missed in the Blue Mountains. Katoomba Station The Three Sisters (on the left) From our trip to Sydney & Melbourne in 2015. Jim

There's a simple two word answer to that - 'prove it'! 😁 Jim

I thought it was the lefty lawyers that were stopping government policies working, not the wokerati? 🤔 Jim

When fitting memory wire actuators to some of the turnouts on Kirkallanmuir I tried using just one for a crossover, but I found that getting everything adjusted so that both sets of switches went fully over and the microswitch also changed was such a faff that it was easier to fit one per turnout and wire them in series. Jim