GRASinBothell

Or The Dreadful Doctor B... Gordon

Does that mean you'll be changing your Sunny South Sam avatar??? Gordon

"Southern Railway Passenger Vans", by David Gould (Oakwood Publications) notes that the vans were painted dark blue to match the sleeping cars (of the Night Ferry). Presumably the open wagons weren't run in a passenger formation, so there would have been no need to paint them anything other than freight wagon brown. Gordon

I sympathize. My Ace M7 took a nose dive onto a concrete floor early last year, bending the footplate and buffer beam. It took me some time to get around to fixing it, and there's still a little curvature to the footplate that I couldn't entirely eliminate. Gordon

And having posted yesterday about my package sitting in Los Angeles since April 22, it finally arrived today, although USPS tracking still shows it in LA (and Royal Mail still in San Francisco)! Gordon

Forest of Dean coal, I hope... Gordon

I am waiting on a package from the UK that has sat in Los Angeles since April 22. Apparently it is "in customs". It only took a day or two to get there from the sender mailing it. Mind you, Royal Mail tracking shows it in San Francisco all that time... Gordon

You could just about fit a bus on the road over that bridge! Corgi did a (1/50 scale) AEC Regal in Wye Valley Motors colours... Gordon

Hmm... The other picture got lost. Here it is. Gordon

You could always go for one of Paul's Sentinels to go with them. It would cheer up us steamophiles! Or perhaps one of these. It's from Lionel Corporation Tinplate (i.e. MTH renting Lionel's name) and is a replica of something Lionel introduced in 1917 (just as the US was belatedly entering World War 1). The two cars are a bit light and thus rather lively, occasionally jumping off the track. I have acquired a couple of Marx military wagons that I run behind them, so they are less likely to leap off the track. Gordon

Ah yes, I had some trouble getting on there myself yesterday. Gordon

A nice little train for only 62.5p. Where do I sign up!!! Did you mean to post this on the Classic O Gauge forum, where these coaches are being discussed? Gordon

Don't reject 1/48 or 1/45 products out of hand. Depending on what plank size they are representing, and what was used on the actual building you're modelling, they could be closer than a genuine 1/43.5 scale product. I don't imagine this type of construction was totally standardized. Gordon

My layout also has a Tardis and the DeLorean from "Back to the Future". Since those are both time-travelling vehicles, I see no problem in having them there with locos and rolling stock of any vintage with no anachronism! The angle of the shot doesn't show the one thing I really need to correct - the absence of a crew on the City. The open cab and low tender really highlights that, when you look from behind. I have the S&D figures, but really need to create a brass cab floor first, so they don't fall out. Gordon

I think that's a little generous. The Great Western came to an end when the clock struck midnight on 31 December 1947. And to add "Ye olde", I think you need to go way back before that! Or has privatization, with modern corporations adopting the names of old companies left us needing a new way to refer to those old companies? Anyway, to go with the theme, here's a City on an Ocean Mails express. This would be some time in the first decade of the twentieth century... After a discussion on the HRCA website, I'm fully aware the penny farthing would have been an anachronism by then! Gordon

Surely "Ye Olde Great Western" would have required one of Mr Gooch's singles (and perhaps a minor regauging of the track to 49mm)! Seriously, keep the pictures coming. I must get the camera out... Gordon

An Eastoke station would have been convenient for me. We lived on Southwood Rd, right around where Eastoke Ave joins it from 1963 to 69. Pity it never happened... Gordon

Any day now, I'm expecting to see Paltry Circus sporting a new Hornby advertising hoarding with this and other catchy posters from that time... Gordon

I'm reminded of a line in a Ben Ashworth book that says something like "...the only time I saw a 45xx in the forest...", so if you are going to be very strict about following the prototype, then a 45xx may spend a lot of time in its box. You'll be hard pushed to find photos of anything larger than an 0-6-0 pannier or saddle tank. But then, there's always Rule 1 to fall back on! There's a photo in HW Paar's book of a train leaving Coleford station during WW1, taking troops to the front. The coaches in that picture were bogie coaches. Gordon

I think you'll find it can only turn one way - clockwise. Direction is controlled by one of the control rods. The other is the brake. Just experiment. You'll know when it's fully wound. They were built for children, so are hard to break. Gordon

Well, a few electric ones post-war for export, but a lot more pre-war. Gordon

Kevin, Thanks for the response, but don't go looking on my behalf. I was just surprised that they used the identical body for clockwork and electric. Even Hornby didn't do that. Gordon

I was a little suprised to note that it has a key hole, despite being electric. Was that the normal approach for Bassett-Lowke? As you say, a good size for a secondary express. My Ace Schools and Celebration have to fulfill that role. Well, you can add my Lionel Hall to the list, I suppose, but I run that on a separate line, to avoid any risk of getting AC into the DC locos. Gordon

Thanks. Well, it's at least a post-£sd price, so not THAT historical! No e-mail address, I take it? Gordon

If you're a member of HRCA (Hornby Railway Collectors Association) you'll find in the spares directory section of their website a list of the Horton series transfers that David Cooke will be producing in the near future. I looked through, and didn't find any for milk tank wagons. Gordon