Bucoops

Good point, I hadn't looked that closely at them yet. As they are scaled down from 7mm I assume it's easier for accurate brackets to be made for those. The mounting brackets appear to be as per the full size variant but would need drilling through and need a bracket making to swing it off. I will ask about the possibility of incorporating the mounting hardware.

Not a bad price - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274912215331

I've been watching this seller increase their O gauge range on ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/floyd_kraemer/m.html - straight away there's a few useful bits for 7mm modellers, but the other day I asked if they were able to re-scale to 4mm. These arrived today (Ignore the NER body, it's all I had to hand to give a quick trial fit): LNER Bucket seats (low and high back versions): Heavy duty dynamos (2 types): And also representation of seating for the D30E restaurant car (will need plasticard tables and I just spotted I put the beading on some to the outside instead of the middle): I don't think this is a D30E but the seating appears similar - this photo was used to get the approximate shape: The seats may need tweaking on the outside edges to take into account the tumblehome but they look really good. Paul said he is open to further requests in either scale.

Thanks Bluebell and IOWSR in 2019

It's not LNER?

I read that something like 40,000 LGV driving tests were cancelled due to Covid which is a major contributor to the shortage too.

Big Ben is quite appropriate - it goes "Dung!" which is of course cow poo. (With apologies to Bad News for nicking their joke:D)

It did cross my mind but thought it would be a bit hypocritical in this instance. Normal Service will resume shortly.

I feel slightly unclean and traitorous now. I have bought something from Gostude. I assume I now need to whip myself with birch branches? There was an element of the usual with it (although amazingly as it was some wheels I'm surprised it didn't have "kit built" in the title) as it still had the original John Dutfield price label on it which was about half his asking price (although still about £10 less than if I bought direct from the manufacturer). At least take the label off before listing it!

Thanks - a good job was certainly done as to the untrained eye the only thing that seemed "off" was the number was very high, and I did notice the cabside number plates had WSR cast into them - but I just assumed that was to "prove" they weren't originals to deter thieves.

I did want to go on the open top one but was overruled - the SWMBO and mini SWMBO get cold easily I did overhear the crew when changing over telling the new crew it was steaming very well, and it did sound nice when working hard. Still a weird copper capped thing to me though, tender behind or otherwise Certainly no complaints - the coaches were in good comfortable condition, the stations were all well kept and as I said everyone was very friendly.

Well we ended up going. Usually go First class on preserved railways when available for 2 reasons - 1) we like our own space and 2) it means a little extra money for the railway. No first class available but they are doing private compartments for £150 for up to 6 people so we did that. The bus ride from Minehead to Dunster was quite nice, but of course we would have preferred to have been on the train for the whole journey. I have no particular interest in GWR origin things so didn't take a great deal of notice of what was around. The restored sleeping car at the other end was nice though. It was only after I got home that I realised the number on the loco we had didn't make sense - so I googled it and found it used to be a tank engine. Where did they find the tender for it, or did they build that? We had the entire compartment coach to ourselves (only used one compartment of course so they didn't have to clean extra areas). In fact the train was very lightly loaded. When we passed the one going in the other direction that looked a lot more occupied. It's a nice line, loads of lovely scenery. All the staff were jolly and helpful and polite. Hopefully they can overcome their current issues, although it's unlikely we will venture that way again as Butlins was predictably rubbish, and the WSR is just too GWR'y for me (which is my problem no theirs!).

Couldn't do the other end where I think the camera is closer as no signal

Hello

Not the same I know but I was rather concerned about the structural integrity of the morris minor that I got the speedo round to zero again

Must admit I really don't like Comet bogies. I find them too fiddly. Leaving the brake shoes off helps (and you don't get them with MJT anyway although I think they are available as an extra) but I just don't get on with them. I have also tried building a set using Bill Bedford parts but again I just couldn't get on with them - I can tell once assembled they would work very well, but perhaps it's being left handed and a general ham-fisted fool I just couldn't get them to stay together. MJT turnbuckles are a bit on the "representative" side rather than accurate but I'm happy to stick with them, although I do use 16BA nuts instead of the washers which I find helps.

Agreed, the photo of the real coach is of GNR origin, the model LNER. Don't know a great deal about the GNR variants, but there were quite a lot of diagrams under LNER, different widths, with and without duckets, turnbuckle or angle iron underframes, and 51ft or 60ft underframe of course.

Going Modern again - Greater Angrier.

M&GN - Muddle & Go Nowhere Not the company but the service nickname - GER's Jazz trains.

They could at least have made sure it was on the rails properly

When you've sold out will they be back in black?

I did also wonder if it's a generic 6 wheeler as they are de-regueur at the moment.

Flying Scotsman?

Whatever floats yer boat

I must be more tired than I thought - I read that as was used for Class 1 drugs....