£1.38

Creating the Big Four was surely a far, far cheaper option for the Government than nationalisation, which would have involved buying up all the shares in the railway companies. Many were still relatively prosperous at that time. There was some optimism that the good times were about to return. Nationalisation only became a sensible option after WW2 when the railways really were tired and very run down - and buying the shares was cheaper then than settling the large amount of money the Government owed the railway companies for the war.

I certainly remember the 153s being repainted very late in Central Trains history, with a few waiting until EMT. There were 2 different Centro liveries on 150s IIRC - the early one that Bachmann/Farish reproduced and the later one with the new logo around 2006-7? Centro-liveried 150s certainly travelled outside the West Midlands area. I travelled on a few on the Robin Hood line, for example.

Its definitely a Fiat Tipo

When I saw that image. my mind too came up with the idea of a Webb triple compound with high, medium and low pressure cylinders, each working on separate uncoupled driving axles. Now a model of that would look good!

On the Furness, or at least its predecessors, Broughton was once a terminus but later became a through station on the Coniston branch. Here the passenger facilities were one side of the line and the goods facilities were accessed on the other side of the tracks. Once the through line was built, they were at slightly different levels too. Carnforth was a terminus as far as the Furness was concerned. This had completely separate facilities for goods and passengers.

South America has/had some amazing railways - like the Central Railway of Peru climbing over the Andes on a series of spindly viaducts and zigzags, for example On another continent, Eritrea has another very interesting system with some very photogenic locations..

I can think of several without breaking sweat. Don't worry about it - just do it!

You would have thought someone at Severn Trent would have worked out the unfortunate double meaning of this offer!

Looks like fun I sometimes think it would be nice to do something different - something nice and relaxing, away from all the usual pressures

'Britain From Above' has several good aerial shots of the area shortly after the war, showing the destruction very well. I think it was incendiaries rather than explosives that caused the damage, with buildings being demolished afterwards to make the area safe. Here are a few other photos of the aftermath. Comparing the first and second pictures you can see that the building on the right has been partially demolished - presumably to avoid debris collapsing onto the railway. Demolition beyond the bridge has progressed quite a lot.

Surprising how complex the trackwork at the north end of Ludgate Hill station still was immediately after ww2, even after the station had closed.

Now think this is more likely a Yorkshire Engine Co loco - see https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/BRITISH-INDUSTRIAL-LOCOMOTIVES/INDUSTRIAL-DIESEL-AND-ELECTRIC/i-phwMcph for something very similar

Making something like that ought to be as easy as a conventional turnout - drawing it accurately in Templot is the challenge!

For the scissors crossing, I would start by drawing 2 tracks parallel and the correct distance apart - important to set the correct distance apart first (Tools/adjacent track centres) before you add the second track. Then add a turnout to one of the tracks (template/insert turnout) and adjust the turnout size/position to suit. Then tools/ make ordinary crossover adds a turnout on the opposite track. Repeat that for the other crossover. You can curve the turnouts on the right to better suit the map after you have drawn them. If the tracks aren't at all parallel, you have to do the crossovers manually, but best to start with the 2 running lines and adding turnouts to them. I am guessing you know how to split the track once you have created a turnout, so you can create the next one. I also guess you have sussed how to do a diamond crossing, which you need to finish the scissors off. You then need to tidy things up by shortening or deleting and plain track under the turnouts and the diamond etc. Much easier to do than to explain.

Oxford may well bring one out in due course as the 4mm version has already been developed.

Sorry Ian, I am trying to be helpful, but there are several other problems with the diagram - like the main lines are way too far apart for a prototypical railway and not parallel. To create two parallel tracks, create the first track and then use the tools/ make parallel track (either turnout or main side). You can alter the distance settings for sidings etc. but the standard setting is usually ok for main lines.

I can see a few problems with that plot Ian, including a 12" curve and some track that doesn't line up properly. Suggest you take another look at it before you go much further

Going slightly further afield, I always thought that Duffield would be a nice junction to model. That has the branch coming in behind the main station building. Just that little bit different. It may be too wide for your site though.

One common problem is that the wheel boss sticks out from the face of the wheels, so the full wheel face does not come in contact with the press. Using plastic or card packing between the outside face of the wheel and the wheel press should improve matters considerably. That way the press should press evenly on the full diameter of the wheel.

I remember reading somewhere that some PO wagons did get repainted. Some official recognised this and a circular was quickly sent out to prevent any more getting the treatment. A whole train though would seem unlikely.

Fair enough if you are modelling a real station or whatever, on a real line in a real time frame, but many models are of fictitious places on fictitious lines, or maybe outside the time frame in which the real location was open as a railway. There are certain physical constraints that cannot be ignored and rules and regulations that should not be broken (but accidents alone prove they were not always carried out to the letter), but otherwise..............?

or private owner locos hauling railway stock.... ...just one example was when Sheppey was isolated from the mainland in SECR days, after a ship collided with the bridge. Just about any loco on the island was hired and used to run services. A Wantage Tramway loco rescued the GW slip coach after it overran Wantage Station on at least one occasion. It is dangerous to generalise. Someone will always find an exception somewhere, sometime, somehow.

A truly imaginary railway, to my mind, would step away from reality and into a fictitious but believable time and place - maybe mild steampunk or Game of Thrones stuff, for example. Not quite as extreme as this though... Take the unique atmosphere of Yakub Rozalski's fantastic paintings, for example... https://www.artstation.com/artist/jakubrozalski The problem for me is the trains. Other than some C19 French, German etc stock I am struggling to get any real inspiration.

The twin arch bridge in the background in the original set of photos cannot be in the immediate vicinity of Moorgreen Colliery as the line crossed nearby roads etc on the level or on overbridges. The line to Langley Mill did go under the former Great Northern Erewash valley line, but I think that was a three arch metal girder bridge.

An early relation by Sharp Bros 1849 for the Monmouthshire Railway