PupCam

Looks like a visit to the book stands at Stevenage then over the weekend. Watchout wallet ...

Remember! DO NOT PARK in the car park for the "LEISURE PARK" (Cinema, MacDonalds, KFC, TFI etc) across the railway YOU WILL GET A PARKING TICKET IF YOU LEAVE THE LEISURE PARK! Hopefully you will all enjoy the show. Alan B

What excellent photographs Tony! Got any of New Barnet / Oakleigh Park (my stretch of the ECML)? Deltics etc would be more than acceptable ..... Alan

I might have to prefix "locomotive" with "diesel/electric" because I can't resolve the question is a Deltic better than an A4 in my mind, in much the same way that I can't resolve the question is the Supermarine Spitfire a more beautiful aeroplane than the Hawker Hunter so I dodge the question by prefixing aeroplane with propeller or jet as appropriate! Maybe I'm just indecisive .... Alan

I believe there was a locomotive named Shergar although it disppeared from the shed one day and no one knows where it went ......

Having had a lot of experience using servos for R/C aircraft over the last 30 odd years and now given the very low cost and the numerous and very flexible ways of driving them are R/C servos not the obvious solution these days? Personally I'd use an Arduino to drive them as they are very cheap and flexible but that route needs a certain ability and knowledge of coding so a "Ready to Play" solution from MERG or Megapoints etc might be more appropriate? Although specific brands and models of servos come and go R/C servos certainly won't be disappearing anytime soon unlike the more traditional, proprietary and fra more expensive model railway point and signal motors and the results (IMHO) are far superior and capable of being far more realistic (e.g. easily programmed bounce). Alan B

I hope he's got the necessary permit! Anyway, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. No doubt see some of you, including Tony of course, at Stevenage in January. Alan B

Personally I don't feel obliged to spend my time looking at layouts that don't appeal to me "just because the owners have worked hard to produce it". In any exhibition situation people effectively offer their creations for the possible interest of the attendees but it is not their right to expect those attendees to express that interest and spend time looking and possibly discussing them. If an exhibitor is just looking for a "Pat on the Back" they are doing the whole thing for completely the wrong reason IMHO! Absolutely spot-on! Let's not be "Prototypest" or "Layout Typest" (made up words I know ...) but personally I can't get excited by 3 rail layouts, Lego layouts, children's Thomas the Tank Engine layouts. I feel no guilt that I did not stop to look (didn't even slow down) at such things even though someone had lovingly took time to collect/assemble/create such things. Clearly the organisers think that a suitable percentage of the visitors will enjoy them and thus justifies their inclusion and sobeit. But please don't expect everyone to think how wonderful they all are. I prefer to spend my time looking at what I consider to be fine modelling, realistic, interestingly engineered etc exhibits but that's just me. I generally prefer British layouts and particularly prototypes I'm familiar with but there are some spendid "foreigners" and Mauch Chunk is just one such current example that appeals to me. There are plenty of British and foreign layouts that don't. Show me the person who say's they spent an equal amount of time examining every exhibt (yes, that includes all the demos and traders because they work hard too) and I think I could possibly show you a liar. Anyway, each to their own. Alan

Thanks. It turns out that they are physical tickets that, if ordered after the postal cut-off date, are held at the venu for you to collect on arrival. Whether the queue for collections is the same as the queue for ticket purchase I have yet to determine. Still, at least I've saved a whole £1-50 by spending an hour and half online, registering and buying two in advance. Huh, the modern world .......

ADVANCE TICKETS Please could someone tell me whether these are digital or physical? I assume they would be digital as, at this late stage, physical ones won't arrive in time. Also, if you buy your tickets on arrival are there any additional "booking fees" or is the total cost just the face value of the tickets and a long wait to be served? Could someone enlighten me please? Thanks Alan

Oh I don't know .... I made the crankaxle for this Anchoridge K3 as a project to test out the new 4 jaw chuck for my little Unimat. I think I bought the chuck in about 1984. Of course, it might also provide supporting evidence that modelling in P4 is just time consuming (where's my tin hat!) although, to be fair, you do actually have to do some modelling in order to make any progress whatsoever which maybe where I've fallen down! Alan

Yes, as an ex GNRS member I was aware of the corrections. Despite the errors I still think that they are excellent books and seem to remember that some of the comments made at the time seemed rather churlish but there we are (no I don't know or have any connections to Mr Coster I just like his two books .....) But of course not, that's the sort of behaviour one would only expect from a bear (Poly or otherwise ) - I was too engrossed in the approaching Deltic, Brush 2 or Brush 4 (Class 31 /47? What's that all about ...) or whatever else was coming. No time for railway modelling yet, it's all go being retired you know, but inline with Tony's general ethos of making things for yourself I set to on the EMCO Unimat with some chunks of aluminium and started making a 1/8 scale model of an AJS350 engine just for fun. So that's delayed the BSA build, the 1/3 scale Sopwith Triplane, the 1/4 scale Pup and as for "Clayton East", well I probably haven't seen that for 15 years. I did come across its fully interlocked lever frame the loft recently though so all is not lost. Crikey I haven't seen Bako for years. Last reference I saw to it was, I think, in a '60s Gamage's catalogue!

According to the series of photographs inVol 1 of Peter Coster's "GN Main Line Engineering Commentary" (I've abbreviated the title) it was certainly in place in 1936 and yes, it was Laing's. I think Mr Coster's two volumes are excellent although, if I recall, they came in for a bit of criticism when published. They are by far the best books on GN architecture that I've come across (come to think of it they are the only ones I've come across!) and extremely nostalgic reading for me especially Vol 1. I can still remember the smell of cresote on the floor boards of the Oakleigh Park footbridge at the north end of the platforms as we lay on the floor to see what was emerging from Southgate tunnel. Do you recognise your former colleague Brian PolyBear? Alan B

It was a Laing (I think) Show House to encourage commuters out into the new estates being built in the suburbs. Alan

An excellent film in and around Kings Cross showing how it was. You need to get the smoke effects sorted out for LB Tony!

Excellent set of photographs as usual Adrian, thank you. Alan B (Mimram)

Sorry to hear that. As a lapsed P4 modeller and an enthusiast of all things LNER (particularly if they came from Doncaster ) I know Welwyn North well so would have been fascinated to see it. I particularly like models of real locations I know, which might explain why I spent so much time looking at Copenhagen Fields when it was at Stevenage in January. It is a spectacular representation of the scene and, if you get the eye-line right, you are instantly transported into the middle of a wonderful Eric Treacy photograph - what could be better? I very much enjoyed Biggleswade when it appeared at St Albans a good few years ago for the same reason. Anyway, perhaps I'll have to stop playing with aeroplanes and become a bit more active in railway modelling again in some way, shape or form. In the meantime, I can be transported to my youth by watching some of the excellent videos of Tony's LB although, for the full effect, I would really need to be lying down on a GNR wooden floored, lattice footbridge with my head wedged in one of the diamond shaped holes, straining to hear an approaching but distant Deltic. Happy days! Alan

I haven't seen that post but I'd love to hear (and see) more about this if you would be so kind! Alan

Thanks for the tips gents. I'll give it a go!

When you do, could you show/demonstrate "the knack" of removing the top bonnet please? Instructions suggest you squeeze it in the area of the lugs but it all seems pretty ridged to me and I didn't want to force it! Thanks