ecgtheow

Hi Tony, The loco was built by John Brighton & his team at Steamline Sheffield, which will sadly soon be no more, as they are no longer taking orders. And yes I only noticed the tender wheels were not all on the track after I posted the photo! William

Yes RTR stuff was not so good in the past as it is now, but in its day it could provide the basis for making an improved model. The MR Compound shown below uses the body from a Hornby tender-drive loco & a Comet chassis. It was not made by me I fear to admit on this forum. In mitigation I have made simpler locos from kits in the distant past, but not to this standard. William

Tony, Please don't regret making the M & GN a "working" railway. It was sometimes called the "Muddle & Go Nowhere Railway" when it was supposed to be "working", so it's good to see it now working on your model. William

Stacking multiple exposures with each in a different focus seems to be commonplace in US model railway magazines, but there is a more realistic if expensive optical alternative in my opinion by means of a shift & tilt lens. Using such a lens one can arrange the focus to be along the line of a whole train, which is of course what we are supposed to be interested in with the background /scenery not too far out of focus by using a small aperture as described by Tony. I can't post any illustration at present because my layout is not set up after a recent house move, but the professional photographers in this forum almost certainly could.

But, it's for me. Other than scratch-building, is there another way to make a Silver Jubilee catering triplet? Yes, Tony, there is from Mike Radford at MARC Models, as someone else has replied. I've seen some Mike built & they looked very good. Also I assume that the parts fit, because they are recent kits. William