37Oban

Hi Jesse, I agree with t-b-g. Making your first turnout can be daunting, but after that you soon realise that prototype track formations are your oyster without the constraints of commercial products and you'll wish you had taken the plunge earlier! Roja

my vote goes for 8 Part of an over-looked fleet of department vehicles and ideal for a small layout. In the same vein, any of the earlier tampers/liners/ballast cleaners. Not very likely that they would ever be produced but you can always dream! Now, where's my scalpel and plasticard? Roja

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought buffer locking was when the head of one buffer jammed behind the head of the one one on the adjacent vehicle when being propelled through reverse curves? This doesn't look like buffer locking, especially as the vehicles are being pulled around the curve, rather it looks as if the buffer bodies and shanks are too long. Easily rectified by either a) commit surgery and shorten the buffers, or, b) replace with shorter, or even sprung, buffers. Roja

Hi, I've "converted" a football fan to the delights of Le Tour! He's grown fed up of the myriad excuses of over-paid wusses who complain about being tired if they play two games a week! He watched the stage yesterday and was blown away by the riders, and has trouble getting his head around that they are doing the same again today. I wonder what he'll think when they reach the mountain stages!? Roja

Hi, I spray all home-printed card and paper with artist fixative which contains a u v blocker, ultraviolet light being the main cause of inks fading and changing hue. I've had one card model sat in a south facing window for almost 18 months ( I really must move it!) and, touch wood, it's not faded. On most model layouts that don't get much direct sunlight the fixative is a good investment. It also has the advantage, if you get the correct one, of waterproofing the paper/card so you can repaint areas with acrylics or use a pva glue to attach additional details. Roja

A man after my own heart! Roja

Looks like a good clump of brambles back there! Roja

When I worked with my father as butchers we had a Jewish couple as occasional customers. They would phone in a wee order then collect at a very quiet time! They loved the crackling on belly pork! Roja

I was that rarest of beasts, a vegetarian butcher, working with my father in a small business. Drove my mum nuts for 3 years trying to provide separate meals for me when the rest of the family were tucking into chops and roasts! It was a bacon butty that did for me! Roja

I think it would be a shame to lose The Station. Two, or more, pubs in close proximity to each other was not as rare as people think, and often catered to different clientele. Where I live there were once 5 pubs within 250mtrs of each other, of which 3 of the originals still remain and another one opened about 35 years ago. In the time period in which LM is set this would be especially true. The Unicorn would be popular with locals such as farmers shopkeepers and, dare I say it, a more mature customer. The railway company, seeing this, and wanting to encourage visitors to LM, would open their own pub, the Station. They would see it as more modern (!) and enticing to their passengers. Also, the younger ages, and more adventurous drinkers, of LM would also frequent it as it would appear a: more upmarket, and b: sell a different range of beers and spirits. Roja

The correct gearing is a very important factor in both the prototype and models. The gearing should be matched to the intended duties of the model. Look at the prototype. There are a lot of factors at play, which modellers ignore, because they aren't really relevant, but in the real world they are very important. Some of the factors, in a steam locomotive, are boiler pressure, cylinder size, steam flow, wheel size and rolling resistance. Locomotives are designed to be as light as possible for a given duty to give maximum traction at the rail for the minimum rolling resistance. There comes a point where additional weight, both in reality and model, only increases rolling resistance giving no extra benefits and expending energy uselessly. Roja

Hi, we have sycamores, (acer pseudoplantanus) which is a species of maple native to Central Europe and south-west Asia, and known as sycamore maple in the US. It can be found all over the UK, both wild and in gardens and parks. there is still a large one in the wee orchard of the house my grandparents had. Roja

You know what people can be like, after a while they get a bit complacent about things and may occasionally nudge against the boards. If this happens I suggest repainting the edges with a slow drying paint! That'll stop them!

You wouldn't want anyone nudging the boards when they use the walkway so it needs to be a colour they can see and avoid. Something like shocking pink, electric blue or a vivid lime green!

A sudden rush of blood to the head? Roja

Hi Shaun, the distinction between hard and soft woods sometimes seems to defy logic! I've never heard of fustic, gurria or afromosia, but then again, I was once a butcher, not in the cabinet trade. English oak can be incredibly hard if well seasoned. One day my father came across a piece at the back of a pile of wood his father had stored in a shed "in case it was useful!" He had no idea where it had come from, or how long it had been there, decades at least, but he thought it would make a great post to repair a gap in the fence around our orchard. A hole was dug and it was placed in position. After much hammering, half a dozen bent staples and a lot of sweating it was pulled out of the hole and chucked to the back of the pile with only small marks to show for it's adventure! Roja

Hi, I thought that maple, even the varieties that are often labelled soft, was actually a hardwood? Roja

Officially you can if you're a proctologist!

And maybe a "keep out" sign lit, at night, by a feeble oil lamp!

Hi, I like what you want to do! Until fairly recently, from the 50's and 60's, each part of the country had it's own particular breeds of farm animals. In Lincolnshire, where I am, we have Lincoln red cattle, Lincolnshire Longwool sheep and Lincoln curly coat pigs. I haven't researched it yet (I may have a wee look later) but Guy has beaten me to it! I can't recall ever hearing of Blue Albion cattle, but British Shorthorns were common around the country. If you can't find a picture of a Blue Albion then you won't go far wrong if you use a picture of a British Shorthorn and substitute the reddish-brown tones with a scruffy blue-grey. Very few breeds of cattle are one single colour, and those that are are usually red or black. Also, sheep are rarely, if ever white. Dirty beiges, fawns and greys and very pale, light browns: it's only seeing sheep at a distance that makes them look white against their background. Some breeds have brown, or black, faces, and the Leicester whiteface has, you've guessed it, a white face, which only accents the colour of it's fleece. The nearest most sheep get to being white is when they have just been shorn or when they are washed for showing, and even then very few breeds are actually white! Good luck with your research into this subject, I think you'll find it a fascinating endeavour! Roja

And not just on the GWR. When Keadby shed received it's first cabbed locos the crews refused to work them at first stating similar reasons! Roja

Hi, love these videos showing Irish stock, but I must admit that some of the locos, and 077 in particular, sound like something from Thunderbirds when setting off! Roja

I have the opposite problem - soldering a doddle but electrickery... Yet I find quantum theory understandable and making a strange sort of sense! Says something about how my brain works! Roja

Ah, it's not just me that it happens too! Roja

Hi, the magnet will only load ferrous materials, basically steel and iron. Unless other metals, such as aluminium, brass, copper etc contain rare earth magnets the elctro-magnet will be useless and a grab would be used to load these materials. Roja