Bucoops

Couldn't agree more - I've not bought much from LRM but what I have done the service was flawless.

You had some strange cats if they licked your no2 end

My mum tells me I drank a bottle of kitten worming fluid when I was a nipper so I'm worm free.

You're more than welcome You're also very patient with people who haven't got a clue what they are doing (i.e. me!).

Just dragging this one to the top to say I recently bought something from High Level for the second time and the customer service was totally faultless, same as the first time

Just dragging this one to the top to say I recently bought something from LRM and the customer service was totally faultless

Thanks - that may be it - I've been using my heat resistant cutting board which appears to be a posh bit of hardboard. I'm sure I can rustle up a tile from somewhere. Meanwhile I had an online chat with a former N7 fireman and he confirmed the handbrake is on a stanchion, and nosing through the Yeadon's book this morning it looks like it too - very hard to tell though. The Yeadon's book is very good but is lacking in footplate photos. Only place I found offering a handbrake is Markits. Who I'm *still* waiting for bits from so not holding my breath I'm at the point where I'm tempted to just sell the A1 wheels and buy Gibsons... There's not the correct part in the kit - wonder why?

Pong. Sorry, need a shower.

The GERS drawings (I have them already, thank you) are of the GER built and earliest LNER built versions. The part 3 that I am modelling has quite a few differences. And so far I've yet to find either a drawing or decent photo of the back of the cab of a part 3 I agree the handbrake wouldn't work in real life there but I don't know if it should be on a stanchion like the earlier ones or not. Strangely 69621 has a much narrower "shelf" at the back which is what made me accept that the handle being on the shelf itself may be correct - makes me wonder if the other variants had a larger shelf for a higher coal capacity. What I haven't done is ploughed through the Yeadons book yet to see if that has anything. 69621: I'm not going for super accuracy - I've not got that level of skill (or patience!) - similar to the Jamieson kit this one is quite old and no doubt more modern ones are better. But I guess if a decent view comes up before I'm ready to put the roof on I could look at changing it somehow. Tough one as I can understand the desire to get it right - but also there's the desire to actually finish something

I'm trying my best to get my daughter interested in trains - old ones at least. One of the reasons I'm sticking to OO for my modelling revival (not that I'm reviving much...) is so I can put Thomas on as and when required! 2013 - NYMR Seems to be working - we went on a miniature railway not long ago and she burst into tears at the end. Turns out she didn't want to get off

What about something like this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Space-saving-Retractable-Flat-Network-LAN-Patch-Cable-RJ45-Cat5-2-5M/272211527334

Indeed, no industry left now The Main Marconi bulding is now home to a cosmetic company Even E2V is now owned by the Americans. There's still a siding there, but sees very little action. It's an overhead line equipment yard now at least in part.

Thanks They're interesting creations with their squared off boiler casings etc.

One thing that has been bugging me with the N7 over the A1 - cutting parts off the etch. I've been using a scalpel blade but it blunts blades very quick;y and is hard work. What are people's suggestions for removing parts without the risk of distortion that using snips carries? Thanks

There's a facebook group called Chelmsford remembered and someone posted a photo of a locomotive at Hoffmans bearings - I decided it might be a Manning Wardle - going by your pictures I think it might be?

Hmm, might be easier than I was expecting... Cab front is on, and cab floor. How the handbrake would ever work in the position the kit says I do not know, but I have left it in that place to give it a little knock protection. The motor rear shaft will have to be shortened, but the backhead should cover anything that does stick through. You can see I need to do a bit of work to seal the bunker side too. My bend wasn't QUITE there.

Oh - the other side of this sheet is the High Level gearbox planner I can fully understand why Chris is the go-to person for gearboxes.

High level have run out of 1020s - I tried to get one for the J15 kit.Or rather he thinks he has enough for fulfiling existing orders. It may after a count-up prove otherwise. But that's where I got the 1420 from. I grabbed a couple of them off ebay when they had the 20% off coupon recently. Although they then got sent to the wrong address so took a while to actually make it! There's a couple of churches nearby I could get some lead from there (joke ) - what I meant was how many grams total?

Loadhauler won't fit between the frames unfotunately. HIghflier and Roadrunner will. Slimliner of course would as well. I need to make sure there's room for a DCC decoder as well. Maybe one day a speaker. What kind of weight should I be looking for? As you say, plenty of room in the tanks for some weight.

At the minute I haven't - The overhanging side in the photo is the side I've not fitted yet. Seems the other side is a better fit. So I was a bit premature when I said it wasn't as bad as I thought... I need to "find" about 0.5mm adjustment somewhere. Interesting info, thank you - that might explain why the 1020 is so hard to find compared to other sizes!

I've also been looking at motorising the N7. I want to try and squeeze a Mashima 1420 in. With a 54:1 ratio would give a scale top speed of about 50mph. Not really sure what speed an N7 could do but going by this noone seemed to argue with gearing for about this speed (the arguement was the calculation was wrong) - https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2858 Squeezing a 1420 in may be interesting but because these locos had to pull 10 coach trains I figure a bit of power would be useful! Fortunately with the whopping great side tanks it might be possible.

Starting to take shape now - needs a but of tweaking at the bunker but not as bad as initially thought.

Annoyingly the sides are too long at the bunker end (although better than too short!) - the need to line up with the footstep point for the cab door and also the tank front alignment is fiddly as it tries to line up over thin air where the footplate has its cut out.

I'm a ways off painting anything yet but will be thinking hard about what to use when the time comes! Mental note: When doing a seam on a bit, don't just run the iron along in one go, let the first part go solid first. Tacked the bunker back on, spot on position, then when I ran the seam it promptly fell off and I've ended up with a huge mess to clean up putting it back on. Ugh! For the curved top of the bunker back I tried to fill the gap flush with solder but it just kept wicking away so will try some lower temperature stuff later on, failing that, milliput time...

Don't *think* they had steam heat but were definitely ETH - that's what the last 4 were used for after their revenue earning life.