spikey

If it did, it doesn't look like anybody was taking much notice of it ...

Sorry, but I have to ask about "micro accounts", which didn't exist when I was running my own businesses. Does a business such as DJM not have to produce a proper profit and loss account each year then?

OK, I have to ask ... which Dan is which?

Gosh, it can't be long at this rate before we get to pie barms. BTW, cod, chips and mushy peas may well be the food of gods and emperors, but believe me, when you've worked nights alongside a bloke who regularly ate them stone cold on his break at 2am, the memory of that never leaves you.

Not so long as you like apple pie.

Thanks truffy but a pal of mine's just now tried the same purchase and got the same result, so it does indeed look like something's well wonky at Widnes.

Asking here 'cos Hatton's have all gone home now. I want to buy a secondhand loco which is currently listed as in stock, but when I get to the "review order" page in the checkout process, it tells me that the item is a pre-order! Anybody know what this indicates?

Question resolved itself.

If I might make so bold as to say so, andyman7, you make some very good points in a very sensible post. Nice one.

I discovered today that Compass Miniature Railways in Rotherfield, East Sussex is now a Bachmann dealer and has re-opened the shop. They're now stocking what seems to be the full range of Woodland Scenics, and apparently there's more new stuff arriving soon including Railmatch paints. Given that there's nobody else retailing model railway stuff in this neck of the woods since the inevitable closure of The Hobby Box in Uckfield, this has got to be good news - and good luck to them! http://www.compass-house.co.uk

Me neither. But judging by the attitude of the chap I spoke to on the phone last year when I had the temerity to ask about replacements for dodgy carriage wheels, that won't be any time soon.

A while back, somebody asked who pays the insolvency practitioner's fees if there's no money in the kitty. I didn't know either, so very much FWIW I've just asked an insolvency practitioner, and the answer I got is that if the company had no assets whatsoever, in theory their fee would be paid by the directors personally.

Because of the same reason the Tesco coupon with £6 off a £40 spend is invariably on the doormat when I get back from Tesco's having spent over £40.

A neighbour's child has just looked over my shoulder and pointed out with delight that she "can see one of that lady's bottoms!"

You have a good point there, for sure.

I've been wondering about this all along,but it's been quite a while now since I worked in a toolroom or ran a moulding shop so I have to ask ... Assuming the factory's set up for the production of finished scale models of the type we're talking about, would that actually make sense nowadays unless they were so miffed with the customer that they'd feel better if they rendered "his" tooling FUBAR? All they'd gain is the advantage in the short term of having a standard mould tool body available for a different job, which I wouldn't have thought was a particularly big deal for a single-impression tool body. If I were in their shoes, I'd just sit on the complete tooling including assembly and printing jigs and fixtures, look after them, maybe write them off in the accounts, and see who comes knocking on the door ...

Mick and Steve, thank you very much indeed. Off now to do some further reading at those links, but I've already noted that if you can wet the stuff and smear it over joins, that sounds like it won't be a problem blending it into the ballast shoulders

Cheers mister. I like the look of that! Couple of questions - can you give me a clue how thin you managed to get this stuff without it cracking? And where might I find Chris Nevard's work (and preferably some tips from him)?

Nope. That would (a) be too thick and (b) give me a surface that looks like cork sheet. Good idea, but I'd have to fill the grain and besides I'd have to use filler to blend the balsa to the ballast Ahah! How thin a layer could I get away with using, assuming that I could roll it out to a consistent thickness by using a couple of thin strips of wood as depth guides?

Not 'arf. Few things would make me happier on the railway front than to have a nice 00 gauge J94 (and a nice 14XX come to that) that runs both quietly and reliably at scale speeds on DC. As to the potential value of the tooling (and its likely fate), one significant factor in that would be the cost of any alterations that a new owner might have to make to it in order to utilise it on their machines.

My talent for poor forward planning has resulted in a problem with the goods yard. Having just completed the ballasting with Woodland Scenics Medium size, I'm left with very nice ballast shoulders which are something like 2mm above ground level. However, what I want to end up with is the yard surface level with the top of the ballast so that it blends into it without a step. This is 00, by the way; there are two main areas of surfacing to be done, each measuring roughly 15cm x 70cm, and the existing surface is a thin layer of polyfilla over cork over ply. All I can think of with which to build up the ground level is either more filler or textured paint, by which I mean Wilko's emulsion tester pots with chinchilla sand stirred in, but I have reservations about both of those. I'm not confident of my ability to get a nice smooth surface with filler without resorting to sanding, which I can't see working well at the boundary between filler and ballast shoulder. And I suspect that I'm going to have a cracking problem as a 2mm-ish layer of emulsion + sand dries out - if it ever does. While I'm doing some trials with both filler and the paint mixture, can anyone suggest alternatives that I should be considering? I want to end up with a more-or-less smooth surface - smoother than say Treemendous Earth Powder sieved onto dilute PVA.

Not only does this man have moderator skilz, he also speaks the language of yoof! Is he perhaps some kind of hipster too?

I'm not convinced, but by all means delete "she in the trackie bottoms" and insert "the character fannying about with what looks to be one of Mr Grumpy's filters". Whatever, have they yet been apprehended and marched before the beak? Enquiring minds need to know!

I am obliged to you bobthesod for that explanation, which I have only just noticed. I had to retire just as video shot on a DSLR was becoming A Thing, so I've never really got used to thinking of one being used for that purpose, for which use a tripod is obviously essential much of the time. I can also now see that having the camera on sticks enables one to be far more aware of ones immediate surroundings. However, what has brought me back to this thread now was wondering if BTP ever caught up with Mr Grumpy and she in the trackie bottoms who feature in Andrew Young's excellent snap. Has anyone heard anything of this - or indeed of any prosecutions arising from that day out?