HonestTom

I think there's also an element of "My politics are just common sense, they're not controversial, why would you not want to read about them on a model railway forum?" They think that because it's something they're into, so too must everyone else be, not realising how tiresome it is. Or they're deliberately spoiling for a fight, which I have come across on other forums before. I think this one is a little more debatable, and it depends on the nature of the war imagery in question. For instance, would an interest in the ROD or the Longmoor Military Railway count?

I love the DLR. Looking forward to hearing more about this.

I don't know why you'd want to bring politics into this forum in the first place. Isn't the whole point of this (or any) hobby to enable us to get away from all that nonsense for a bit?

That looks pretty dashed fine. I might have to give it another go. The 4F wheelbase and wheel size look pretty much identical, so I was surprised when I couldn't get it to work. Did you have to do anything to the body to get it to fit? (off topic, but I like the presence of the R1 - I was thinking of getting one as a follow-up)

Hi all, I recently picked up a couple of the Great British Locomotives C class with a view to motorising - one I'd like to keep more-or-less as is, and the other I'd like to turn into a freelance Victorian light railway engine. My question is, has anyone around here motorised one of these and if so, how? I've heard people talk about using a Hornby 0-6-0 tank chassis and about using the Airfix/Hornby 4F mechanism. However, the latter doesn't seem to fit under the splashers and the former will require some serious carving - something I'm a bit reluctant to do if there's a better alternative. Any thoughts? Many thanks in advance.

I wondered if it was meant to be teak, or the closest he could get while working to the constraints of such small pictures.

That's some truly fantastic weathering work there, and even more impressive in such a small scale. I'm a particular fan of the rust on the wagons.

Re the slate wagons, perhaps the loophole is that the Thomas wagons don't actually look like the ones in the TV series. I don't know my slate wagons well enough to say what the TV ones were based on, but they certainly weren't Talyllyn. The Quarry Hunslet is just perfect for me, not so much for my bank account. I have two narrow gauge projects on the go at the moment, and up until now none of the RTR offerings have quite fitted. The Hunslet is ideal for my Victorian mineral railway - plus it's an engine I'm very fond of, having ridden behind Cloister at Kew Bridge Steam Museum many times. I didn't much fancy the idea of tackling a kit with those fiddly-looking outside frames.

The Talyllyn slate wagons are an interesting addition - they appear to be reliveried from the Thomas range, which I thought Bachmann wasn't allowed to do. I wonder if this means that in future we can hope for a Talyllyn, Dolgoch or Midlander? The Hunslets are definitely on my list. A small, Victorian narrow gauge industrial engine is exactly what I've been hoping for, and the Hunslets are among my favourites. Good on Bachmann for really going for it with their narrow gauge range.

Slightly off-topic (sorry), but a non-enthusiast friend of mine got me the Hornby Skaledale police box for Christmas once. He explained, "I'm not sure what time period or area you model, so I got you something you could use in any time or place."

A really well-observed piece of modelling. As others have said, the attention to detail really brings out the atmosphere. I particularly like the ground cover.

As an NG modeller myself, I'd love to see something to complement the models already in the range - something like an armoured Simplex perhaps, that could be seen on many different lines. However, given that they've only just got their first wagons out, they might hold off adding anything else until they've had a chance to see how sales go.

I like that diorama a lot. I may have to steal your method of creating rubble, it's very convincing.

Very interesting... did any of them end up in the UK by any chance?

When the characters first appeared on TV, i.e. when they were still using models, the shades of red were very slightly different, but not particularly noticeable. Since going over to CGi, the difference in shade is much more obvious. Unfortunately, while I'm tempted by both Skarloey and Rheneas, neither of them quite match my areas of interest when it comes to NG modelling. However, I will very definitely be getting Rusty for my agricultural layout. If they ever get around to Duke, then I believe the meme "shut up and take my money" comes into play, regardless of whether it's suitable for my layouts.

I've often thought it would be fun to do a Spaghetti Western layout, as a fan of those films. I look forward to seeing the developments on this railway. I actually considered doing something similar in standard gauge once - using Spanish-outline locomotives and rolling stock "Americanised," a la the trains in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

A fairly obvious one for the 50th anniversart of the end of steam would be producing the 15 Guinea Special locos, perhaps in a four-pack. Or a heavily weathered 8F or something along those lines. Don't know if they've still got the tooling, but they could be cheeky and reintroduce the Lima 94xx in the Railroad range to steal a march on Bachmann.

I look forward to seeing what you do with it. With a layout in a space like this, I find it can be hard not to make it look forced into the space. But the way you've got the buildings and the track laid out, it very convincingly evokes that cramped urban industrial feel.

I meant to say this earlier, but I'm a big fan of Perseus there. I like quirky industrial prototypes, and that one's a nicely plausible little chap. The bell really tops it off for me.

I tend to use watercolours for a lot of my weathering. It's quick, it's easy to use, it's cheap and if you mess it up, just wet it, wipe it off and start again. A standard set of artist's watercolours from Tiger, Wilko, The Works or the like shouldn't set you back more than a fiver, and that'll give you every colour you could possibly need. As others have said, get some cheapo wagons and just have a play. You'll find it's easier than you think - dirt isn't precise, so really it's a case of "if it looks right, it is right." I'm currently working on a layout whose entire philosophy involves taking some of the cheapest, nastiest rolling stock and accessories I can find and going at them with a paintbrush, which shows how addictive this sort of thing can be.

So many to choose from, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with King's Cross. The recent upgrade works have removed the clutter from in front of the original Victorian architecture, so you can really appreciate the elegance of the design. A close second is Surbiton, which to my mind is the finest example of Southern Railway art deco architecture. (I'm also a fan of Marylebone, Fenchurch Street and - purely because of holiday memories - St Ives)

I like this a lot. I'm currently working on a low-budget layout, just for a bit of fun, and one of the locomotives is a Lima shunter. I bought it because it's basically about the cheapest locomotive you can get that isn't utterly beyond redemption, and now I'm thinking maybe a modification like this would lift it up a little.

These kinds of layouts are nicknamed 'Tuning Forks' for obvious reasons, and plenty of people have made them work very successfully. As was posted above, just give one of the sidings a number of specific locations for wagons to be dropped off. For instance, an industrial location such as a factory, mill or brewery might have one loading dock for incoming materials, a second for outgoing finished goods and a third point where, e.g., fuel is unloaded. Bring a random selection of wagons in and then have your engine sort them to their appropriate locations. Here is quite a good website for the basics of goods traffic. It's intended for N gauge modellers, but it gives a good indication of what sort of industries required what sort of wagons.

I'd guess the next loco would be something LMS, as they've done GWR, SR and LNER. As they tend to favour medium-sized pre-grouping prototypes, maybe a Midland Railway Johnson 0-6-0, or a Caledonian Railway 812.

I have a micro-layout based on the Lincolnshire potato railways, and literally last night I was looking at my array of rolling stock and thinking, "That's it, I have everything I need, no more wagons for me, no siree." And now Bachmann bring out two wagons specifically for the potato railways to tempt me once more. Curse you, Bachmann! Curse yooooou! (but seriously - great job, I'll definitely be getting at least one of each and probably more)