£1.38

Your equipment and materials are highly inappropriate for track building in 2mm finescale. You have done remarkably well to get that far! 1. a small electric soldering iron, maybe 20w 2. Very thin flux-cored solder wire 3. A liquid flux like Carrs Green label Use plenty of flux and carry a small piece of solder on the tip of the soldering iron to the work. That way you have one hand free and can carefully limit the amount of solder you apply to each joint.

So sad to hear this. Your layout looks so amazing!

Britain from Above has a distant shot of Saffron Walden http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw025909?search=saffron&ref=0

We mustn't forget that individual railway wagons were often subject to long delays too, quite apart from waiting at signals. They were put in lay-by sidings for faster traffic to pass, shunted, left in sidings and marshalling yards awaiting a train and often waited for some time on arrival before being unloaded. Speed limits on canals are quite restrictive though. I can walk quite a lot faster than canal vessels.

A lucrative TV deal, probably!

On draught, Broadside is only 4.7%

J125 - suggest southbound just north of Pilsley Colliery. The bridge would be Locko Lane and the woodland Broomridding Wood. You can just see a footbridge at the very back of the train which was located just north of Moorhouse Farm. This also crossed a Midland Railway colliery line which is just to your dad's left.

Branchlines definitely do them.

One arrangement in early stations was to have wagon turntables connecting sidings either side of the main line, with a track at right angles to the main line linking the two sides of the station. Examples could be found on the London and Birmingham and some later LNWR branches, for example. In early GNR days, parking a goods train on a busy main line whilst shunting took place would probably be very dangerous. More likely there would be lay-by tracks next to the sidings. Later maps of Little Bytham suggest this arrangement - though I have no idea when they were installed. http://maps.nls.uk/view/114654249 The Edenham line was defunct, I think, at the time of the map. Peterborough East appears to have had one TT on a main line at this period http://maps.nls.uk/view/114488420

A cut down version of the Alexandra Palace might be an alternative idea

Branchlines do a chassis kit for the 04

Metropolitan Vickers had a high reputation for producing EMUs, electric locomotives and electrical railway components going back to pre-WW2 - usually for export to places like India and South America, but also on the London Underground. It is not surprising that the basic loco shell, chassis and electrical components were of good quality. See http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/4397091/Ferrocarriles-Argentinos---Metropolitan-Vickers.html for just one example Concentrating a small class of problematic locos in one place must have made sense from a maintenance perspective, not to mention the benefits of driver familiarity that could build up over time. The Barrow district was near enough a self-contained region, so an ideal place to send them - and (the cynics would say) if they did break down, the main network would not be greatly affected.

A long engine could always be turned on the triangle at Downpatrick. Incidentally, at some termini they turned whole trains that way.

Had you considered the London Road Models turntable kits? They do a 42ft one

George Norton's kits are now done by London Road Models. They should be able to provide some instructions for the 4mm version.

The Potts one is my favourite saloon. Every light railway should have one. From the Colonel Stephens site.

My uncle had a bound set of these. As a child it was absolutely fascinating to see the amazing railways that existed overseas - like the Central Railway of Peru and the Khyber Pass line, for example. It really opened my eyes to the fascination of railways in general. Luckily I have been able to ride some of these lines in more recent years and relive the excitement I first got reading the pages of Railway Winders of the World. Only problem is that GW branch lines and other British stuff now seem very ordinary and a bit boring by comparison!

Turning Circle 37 ft (11.28 metres)

Requirements for Customs and Immigration control must have restricted the number of places where trains and ships were literally side by side. Places like Canada and the USA were countries that could have a justification for largish ships on domestic traffic, so no reason why trains and shipping could not be close together. Another British example was Blackwall, which originally was used by steamers to Kent. It was also right next to the East India Dock, but separated by a large security wall, as these places tended to be. Edit Greenore in Ireland was right next to the quayside

I can certainly see some resemblance, closer than anything else so far suggested - even so, I think it is a very poor model.

Apart from the fact that it is obviously a van, it couldn't look much less like a Commer Walkthru than that - or any other Commer for that matter. I can't think of anything at all with that styling, from any van manufacturer.

What does SV mean on the sign? If it is stop valve, then the siding may have been where empty fish vans were washed out prior to their next assignment?

The Planet castings look nicely detailed and sharp. I had considered buying one a while back but was put off by photos I found on the web. I suspect they may have been smothered in thick paint. I will now be buying one! Thanks for your detailed build postings. They are very inspiring.

The quick setting exterior wood adhesives cause little or no warping of wood in my experience. Everbuild 502 is my current supply, obtained from a local timber merchant. I have even managed to stick 2mm MDF down with it successfully. With plywood, basswood and similar, the old trick is to dampen the top surface of the wood just before sticking it down. This balances out any expansion caused by the glue on the lower surface. Works for me..

Looking at the history of the line, every major place north of Leicester is only really served by a loop or a branch line. The original main line missed every intermediate place of any significance apart from Chesterfield. Derby is really only on a main line from Leeds to Birmingham, whilst connections to Nottingham have always been devious. I suspect it will always be a Cinderella line, unfortunately.