Compound2632

These days, with DCC (although possible with DC) we have lights etc. operating according to the direction of travel. I wonder, has anyone set up a driver in the direction of travel? I imagine pop-up / pop-down figures in each cab...

Generally Baltic pine and similar, treated with creosote - from the later 19th century onwards, under pressure at the railway companies' own creosote works such as the Midland's at Beeston and the LSWR's at I forget where, but the subject of a rather nice late steam period 00 layout that I saw recently, either at Abingdon or Basingstoke shows. I'm not at all sure exactly when the pressure treatment was introduced. Timber sleepers can still be found today in pointwork but I don't know how they are treated. Vast quantities of Baltic timber were imported through Hull and West Hartlepool. I think, but will welcome correction, that tropical hardwoods were generally used locally and not in Britain - it being a case of it being more economic to use local materials than to import from temperate pine-growing regions. The railways generally consumed vast quantities of timber - where is it all now? (Largely, in the atmosphere as CO2 contributing to global warming.)

Note the difference in splasher shape - the section between the wheel arches is flat on the model and curved in the photo. As built around 1880 they had the flat style but this was changed, probably on first re-boilering, to the curved style. In the case of No. 1400, around 1890-1892 - there are coal rails on the tender but no MR initials.

I suspect that a lot of this comes down to the idea of reducing the size of the Civil Service having been such a shibboleth in some quarters. It's cutting the headline number of people employed that matters, irrespective of how many people one needs to do the job. So consultants have to be employed to make up the shortfall. Well, that's my theory, anyway.

Oh right. So in order to be appointed Secretary of State for Defence, you've got to oblige your son to join the armed forces. That excludes the childless, for starters! It is an established principle of British government that a minister is not required to have specific expertise in the area for which they have responsibility; that's what their civil servants are there to provide.

My point was simply that it was anachronistic to mention fascism in the context of the origins of the Fabian Society.

That would over-restrict the field; in particular, it is discriminatory against women.

Hardly. Fascism was a product of the Great War, first emerging in Italy, the term first being commonly used in reference to Mussolini's government. Unknown as a term in 1880s/90s Britain, though one might see Thomas Carlyle's 1840s 'Great Man' theory of history as possibly tending in a fascist direction.

That would seem to be Rapido's take on it: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=907727848003572&set=a.127611732681858 Collusion?

Having seen the picture of one, I'd want both - one for scribing and one for drawing. Do they come with lockable screw adjust, like the better pairs of compasses? It occurs to me that there may be some difficulty in keeping the scribed or drawn line parallel to the edge, as the offset distance will depend on the angle at which the tool is held. Something like a T-square might give more accurate results?

Doh. Corrected in post.

Founded in 1884, its members played a significant role in the founding of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and from that the Labour Party. It also played a large role in the founding of the London School of Economics in 1895. Early members included George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice and Sidney Webb; all highly critical of Marx. It is currently an organisation affiliated to the Labour Party and was a significant influence on 'New Labour'. Hardly a sinister organisation, unless your definition of sinister is anything to the sinister of Genghis Khan.

Interesting that you're getting good results with hot water in the bottle. I use a similar method but with the bottle put in the cafetiere and very hot water in both - the water in the bottle being primarily to stop it floating. But I've not tried the pre-rolling step, having only very recently got a set of rolling bars. Do you find that you get a constant radius right to the edge? I've taken to bending over-wide pieces and cutting them down to width, to avoid the flatter edges. Standard wine bottles are 3" diameter and good for 10 ft radius roofs - which do for most goods vehicles - but I have a special 2.5" diameter bottle for 8 ft radius carriage roofs. By-the-way you do realise that it's not absolutely necessary to use a fresh bottle every time?

Ah well, not the LMS, I'm afraid.

That seems generally to be an indication that it has been circulating on Facebook or similar, appearing in several poster's feeds simultaneously, more than one of whom reposts it here.

He'd be taking it to bed with him.

Keep saying that! The class may have many variants but all one wants is for the individual models produced to be accurate for the class member and date represented.

Yes but there's surface texture, dirt, ....

We need a list of words that are more difficult to say when sober than when drunk...

Surely not before 1879, when round-ended 3-plank wagons first saw the light of day, as we are given to understand. Not very clear but I'd say wooden end pillars. The covered goods wagon behind it doesn't have the style of end framing of the pre-iron mink wood minks; it looks more like a Midland wagon. But could be some other early type.

Like what he said. Apropos the 517, I note Churchward buffers - I trust these will be easily removable! Shame Armstrong buffers aren't part of the tooling suite, then we could have one in Wolverhampton livery... Reading http://www.gwr.org.uk/no4-coup-tanks.html, I learn that in the period 1894-1915, all but 50 engines arrived at the long-wheelbase state, if they were not already in it, i.e. 94; I take it the long wheelbase is what Dapol are doing? I like the statement there that 'bunkers were in a state of constant flux', though I doubt Dapol's designers do.

Cunning, as ever! You remind me that I had noticed at the time that this was the case.

Catching up. Lots of good stuff here. On wagon interiors, should one scribe plank lines? The planks were only chamfered on the outside top edge... @billbedford has suggested just drawing in lines with a pencil, which seemed to me impractical on a built-up wagon, but if you're painting insides before assembly, could be an option.

Which does, of course, raise the question of preservation of the collection for posterity - hosting of scans on third-party sites not being necessarily the most secure means, as we have seen.

Every one of which is a delight.