doilum

Great rivet detail on the tank. Much easier than assembling from individual plates of shim brass. If all else fails, it would look great amongst the weeds by the loco shed.

Much neater than my hand scrawling with a permanent marker!

Given the chance to press the great reset button of history, 1/48 would have been the perfect O gauge on 27mm gauge rails. A completely imperial scale without the mathematical gymnastics of S gauge. Whilst personally committed to the benefits of the metric SI system, the extra space created by 6mm rather than 7 to the foot would make all the difference to small and medium sized layouts.

Ok.

Absolutely agree. Some of the wagons come with a simple fold up etch brass compensation device. For those that don't, getting four wheels perfectly level is the key to successful running. A piece of glass or a short length of level track is needed on the workbench. Fix the axle and W irons at one end and the assemble the other axle loose and see how it sits on the glass. This should indicate which, if any of the W irons needs a little packing before Mek packing in place. A tiny strip of paper or 5thou Plastikard usually suffices. Some of us also prefer to assemble the buffers and coupling hooks before assembling the sides together.

Just a left field thought: if you remove the outside cylinders from the Peckett are you left with the X2 model? Good luck with this project, it appears to be quite promising.

Any chance of this being the layout I saw in Llandudno circa 1962?

I think many contractors engines were. I have the complete list of MW locomotives, many were supplied new to collieries only to be moved on to contractors after a few years. The equivalent I suppose of the modern Transit van.

Had mine for years. I am sure that a friend paid around £40 this time last year for the upgraded model

Not sure if you had seen them but there are good images of Bowers Row in the Marlow Donkey of June 2019. Sadly iñ black and white but taken in August 1969.

A strong case for the corporate colour scheme. It might have to be case of modelling my first fictitious loco and declaring rule one loudly. It would of course have a written caveat in its box just incase it mislead a future industrial historian. I am still intrigued by the different shades of orange, favouring the slightly faded version.

What about the 03? "Painted dark blue"

Would you they have brush painted it with coach enamel or sprayed it? If sprayed I would lean to the all over blue scheme.

There is a definite blue tint to the wheels and frames ( guess who painted them black yesterday!) The blue seems very similar to the colour used by the NCB for its road vehicles, later in conjunction with bright yellow. I may go and have a look for a suitable rattle can later this morning, or for ailing that, visit the local paint factor and have one made up.

The more I look the more I like. I have just realised that the frames and wheels were also blue. Time to check how much blue I have. The tin of new old stock RAF ident blue (dull) has a price tag of 11p. Probably over 40 years old. Maybe time to invest in some new paint!

My previous house had an O gauge round the basement rooms. The lift out behind the door was an op en box with an 18mm deck and ,12 mm sides 200 mm deep to ensure that nothing could fall off. More importantly, the feed to the controller ran all the way round the perimeter with push to break switches strategically placed to deal with any disaster. I'm not sure how this would work with dcc, but when the cost of replacing a full express train is considered it might be worth working it out.

A bit older. A B+/Málaga.

Surprised no-one has previously mentioned bits of wood. The ability to knock together scraps of wood to act as a third hand is one of the secrets of soldering in general and loco/stock building in particular. A set of miniature G clamps become indispensable.

Many years ago I got caught out by a sudden summer downpour. Many inches of rain in twenty minutes. Trouble was the Dutton had been left topless and was now full of water to the bottom of the dashboard. Surrounded by a crowd of head shaking colleagues I went back into the caretakers den and returned with a hammer and six inch nail. Three holes in each footwell did the job and whilst the water slowly drained, I returned the hammer and blagged a couple of binliners to sit on. It started first touch unlike several almost new vehicles close by.

The story has been told before, but one Working Men's Club arranged for a full brake to be marshalled in the middle of the train to allow the steward to set up the barrells for the free bar on their annual visit to the coast........

In the case of coal, all the infrastructure had evolved around that standardised wagon both at the colliery and consumer end. It took the development of the MGR system with rapid loading bunkers and moving discharge hoppers to provide the clean design sheet needed to change. At the same time coal exports were ending and the Victorian infrastructure became obsolete. No coincidence perhaps that the switch to coal imports and the move to bogie stock happen around the same time?

This should be almost zero cost. The dregs from a tin of white emulsion plus a couple of match pots and a scruffy 2" brush. Keep the strokes horizontal. It should be lightest close to the horizon.

Just thought I would give this a reboot in the hope that someone remembers quartering driving wheels on plain axles.

OK, definitely not green!! Is it blue?? The orange on the tank looks much more yellow than the smokebox front. Ruston can claim that his lining is prototypically correct. I might still be tempted to add the Peppers lettering for historical context rather than accuracy. Overall I am surprisingly impressed by the standard of turnout. Definitely worth modelling.

Another good reason for post 1948 livery!