yantsank

Excellent shot, this. Which prototype is the Garratt based on? Buffer and chain couplings, but maybe narrow gauge? -JS-

I didn't know the Arion Stereo Chorus was worth anything at all? I've had one for years and it is seriously battered, but it still works. Stretching this a bit to include 1980s gear - I own a Carvin LB40 fretless bass which was in terrible shape when I acquired it in 1995, but was repaired to satisfaction eventually. My bass is currently 2000 km away from me, so posting a link with specifications: http://www.carvinmuseum.com/decade/images/83-lb40.html Vintage gear I'd like to own ... hm ... not sure, would probably be happy with a good classical guitar of that vintage, assuming it has aged well and been looked after. -JS-

Lovely! P4?

I come from the automotive industry, so not sure about this - do railway vehicles of this side allow for a calculated degree of torsion in the body, and would the limits vary for different types of vehicle? For example, a big American tank car would be much stiffer than a centerbeam car just because of its optimised tubular shape, and a boxcar might be somewhere in between. An open gondola might be no better than a centerbeam car. If torsional stiffness varies substantially between car types, then the difference between adjacent cars might have more of an impact on train stability than the absolute position of car types in a rake, or so it seems to me. -JS-

Very interesting indeed. Assuming these are at 1:87, what is the feasibility of altering these to suit P4 track, which would be much closer to Indian BG at that scale? Good work on the diorama too - really captures the ambience. -JS-

"Ugly, daft and pointless", eh? I was born and brought up in Darjeeling and them is fighting words! Anyway. The "streamlined" B-Class was "inspired" by the Iraqi State Railways PC Class locomotive, and seems to have been a "diversion" created by James Shaw, the last British General Manager of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Of course. it made no sense at the speeds on the line. And during the first run uphill, the nose cover had to be hinged back and wired open so that the sandman could sit in there with his bucket of sand. From what I'm reading in David Churchill's recent (and excellent) book on the DHR B-Class, the streamliner required an extension of the frame by nearly three feet. It needed a tender (which probably still survives somewhere on the line) as there was no access to the traditional coal bunker under the casing. I'm not sure how it went back downhill - did they turn the thing (unlikely due to the gradients involved), or did they run tender first? An oddball machine, but I'd stop short of calling it ugly - it is one of the fascinating parts of DHR lore. And I'm certain most would agree that the original B-Class certainly does not belong on this thread! B-Class (probably 779) at Darjeeling Station, taken by me a couple of years ago.