spikey

As per the heading, is this a form of Asbestolux sheeting or what? And does anybody make anything like it in 4mm scale? While I'm at it - sheet and batten roofing as in the Wills materials pack of that name. What material is the real-life "sheet", and what sort of premises would be roofed in it?

That's as I remember them, including the primary school one for which the coal was delivered as per Fat Controller's recollection - except I've never met a "coal tanker". I do though recall one occasion when the delivery came just as for domestic coal, that is to say in sacks on the back of a flatbed lorry. We kids were ever in awe of the coalmen's ability to stand at the side of the coal lorry, grab a hundredweight sack full of coal, and drop nearly all the contents down the coal hole without it taking the sack with it ...

Propblem no longer a problem, so nothing to see here now ...

It's actually got three private sidings off a headshunt. It was going to have just the one, but that changed when it suddenly became essential for me to invest in a Hornby Ruston. So now it has a goods in, a goods out and a whatever, at the far end of which will be the boilerhouse. As to what it makes, I have no idea. That will depend on what's in the wagons going in. As long as the name on the sign's suitably non-specific and what goes out of the premises goes out in vans, we don't need to know. This way I also get to justify a wide range of tanker traffic too

That was plan A, with the wagons being unloaded into a bin à la coal merchants and then barrowed into the boiler house as required. But then it occurred to me that if I was running the real-life show, I'd try to get it so that once we had a stockpile enough to keep us going for a month or so, we could somehow empty a wagon straight onto the boilerhouse floor or as good as. The stockpile would be on the opposite side of the track outside the boilerhouse.

Much obliged to you, sir. That'll do me.

The factory I'm designing for my railway will have a boiler house, to which coal will be delivered via a short dedicated private siding. Unfortunately the works is too small to justify the wagon tippler I've long fancied building, so it's going to be a case of a couple of wagons a week coming in and a couple of chaps with shovels offloading them. Period is ten years either side of WW2, btw. Visually, the best setup would be such that the wagon is shunted alongside the boiler house wall, in which there is a fairly large doorway through which the coal can be slung. But would that be plausible, particularly as the wagon would presumably have to be far enough from the wall for the side door to drop down once the level's lowered enough? Is there a better way of arranging for manual unloading?

That's what I thought.

Gosh! So now I have to ask ... how on earth do you do stay-alive for ordinary analogue control?

Thank you, gentlemen. The problem I have with roofing in strips, whether plastic card or card card, is primarily one of my somewhat reduced dexterity nowadays, but also that of the adjacent buildings. They're roofed with Wills slates: I've tried scratch slates alongside them and I find the contrast with the look of the "strip" slates is a bit too much, even for me. Taking this one step further, the reason the adjacent buildings are built from Wills materials sheets (brick and slates) is they needed to be a reasonable match with a couple of buildings I bought some time ago which are built of the same materials. At the moment, the way forward looks like being to redesign the factory premises so that the main one has a flat roof, and the subsidiary buildings have roofs small enough to use the Wills sheets without me trying to join them ... ETA - Does anybody happen to know how small a pitch angle (if that's what the angle at the eaves between the roof and the horizontal is called) they normally went down to with an industrial slate roof?

I very much like the look of Wills SSMP203 slates, but I really don't fancy trying to join those sheets to make my required roof areas. Is there really nothing else available in 4mm scale plastic apart from these and the Slater's A4-sized offering?

FWIW, here's the link to the post I put up last year outlining the build of my own small low-budget turntable, which still constantly surprises me by working well when required...

OP said he doesn't want to get into woodworking beyond the basics, and as you said, Sundeala does need a lot of support. Whatever, I hate Sundeala mainly because of the weight and its tendency to sag. AFAIC 6mm birch ply on top of a simple 70 x 20mm frame round the perimeter until I've got the point motors in place then added any cross-bracing that might be advisable is the way to go. But hey, whatever spins your dreidel ...

Maybe they've still got some sheets left from the days when folk used it because Sundeala was recommended in "Railway Modeller"every month, and they'd dearly love to see the back of it? Whatever, I just wanted to welcome you to the forum and say that having used Sundeala myself 40 years ago when I knew even less than I know now, I wouldn't use it again even if it was given to me. If nothing else, it's very heavy, and IMO has no advantages whatsoever over sensible materials like birch ply.

Hah! Very good, Gordon ...

Thank you, gentlemen. That's me sorted once again. I actually managed to get to the model shop this afternoon and came home with three Humbrol tinlets, a mix of which will do for the fan of sidings I'm trying to get finished this week. OK they're enamels, but can't win 'em all Whilst there, I was fascinated to note that Railmatch paints are now sold in what appears to be black glass bottles. Am I alone in thinking that a singularly daft idea?

I have urgent need of a convincing rust colour with which to brush-paint the sides of the rails in some steam-era sidings which are rarely used. Acrylic preferred though not essential, but it must dry completely matt. Anybody care to recommend one please? ETA - I've never been impressed with either of the two Railmatch "rust" colours.

Probably a silly question, but this doesn't mean that you've now got two capacitor banks in series, does it? If so, they ought to be in parallel to increase total capacitance. Whatever, what's the maximum number of points you want to change at once, what sort of length is the wiring from CDU to most remote solenoid, and are you sure that wiring's man enough (if it's still OK to say that)?

Well woddyer kno? I've just checked out the site and lo, we're now back to how things used to be! Let's hope they stay like this

I've just taken a look at the pre-owned section of Hatton's site for the first time in a couple of weeks, and am dismayed to see that the lead pictures of a lot of the rolling stock now show the boxed items. OK, you can still see the item out of its box by clicking on the lead picture then on another shot of it, but now you can't always rapidly scan through the listings and instantly spot what you're looking for. Is it only me who thinks the change is a singularly daft idea and would urge Hatton's to go back to leading each listing with a clear shot of the item out of its box?

Forgive me, but I'm struggling to think how that might actually benefit you. What would you do with that information?

I've just had the pleasure of spending 20 minutes in the company of a lovely old girl who turns 92 tomorrow, and at one point she started going on about the fact that her first husband had died suddenly not long after they got wed. Purely by way of conversation, I said at one point "So what did he die of then, Enid?" "Oh, nothing in particular" says she. That'll do me. I can't think of anything I'd rather die of.

But if your primary concern is saving the planet, finding an alternative to using the car would be a much more effective way to do that

Well my factory finally has its own Ruston to shunt its extensive network of sidings, so I now need to consider the refuelling arrangements for it. How much diesel might a Ruston use in a busy day's shunting and what sort of provison was usually made for refuelling? (Period is early 1960s)

Is it glued, or simply a push fit?