Philou

Having lived in Ledbury it sort of sums it up really! The closest first tier road was the M50, but on the scale of motorways, it was/is quite minor. However, tying railways and the Archers with Ledbury, at least it was mainly GWR-land. Cheers, Philip

Hmmm ...... the road numbering on the map is all to pot - eastern UK and Scottish numbers. I thought it was supposed to be 'sort-of' west Midlands/Herefordshire area. The map certainly has a Ledbury/Hereford feel about it. Cheers, Philip

There's a rather large spider about the size of a small dog (only joking) on show in the National Museum of Wales that DID come in lurking in a bunch (or is it hand) of bananas - quite lively too apparently before it was ... err .... caught. It's years since I saw it, but I assume it came in aboard a Geest ship at Barry. Cheers, Philip

My experience so far in France is having had three parcels (loco in each plus three coaches in the one), and, so far so good, no additional charges were requested - all having been sent via Royal Mail/La Poste. In sending out printed material from here to the UK (car pron), I send 3 or 4 at a time under printed matter (imprimés) rate and have been charged €3.70 (or thereabouts) all having been received in the UK without additional charges (thinking postal rather than VAT/tarrif tariff). Perhaps MSL could do the same (depending on weight natch)? YMMV of course as to how each country deals with postal rates. Cheers, Philip

Having mentioned Chalindrey, it's where I saw one of the first Euro-based Class 66 (66255 IIRC) a few years ago now, still in it's unchanged EWS branding (no DB or Europorte markings), on the 'train des eaux'. It was taking empty covered wagons (UK type IHAs) to Vittel and Contrexéville to load up. Why I remembered it in particular was that it had sucked a couple of umbrellas into the louvres! Cheers, Philip

Ah, Chalindrey! My local station. The roundhouse is still there and in use for storing a few locos overnight - it's also a diesel refuelling point. The rest of the roundhouse is used currently for dismantling loads of asbestos-filled coaches and other stock. There are lines and lines of them awaiting disposal at Vesoul - including some stainless steel ones. The chair of our club works at the roundhouse and the club is about 1km away. Cheers, Philip PS: Seeing Arcachon mentioned - when I was there two years ago, it was a continuous parade of TGVs in the station!

Hello to all, I'm pleased to announce on behalf of Lord and Butler of Cardiff that the shop will re-open to all as of Monday 12th April. Opening hours for the time being will be Monday to Saturday 10.00am to 4.00pm. There's lots and lots of lovely new stock and all that's missing is YOU, the customer. A warm welcome awaits you all. Please note: Social distancing and anti-Covid measures will still apply for the time being. Cheers, Philip

If Hornby won't, perhaps one of the new boys on the block will? Two motors and ready for 21/22 pin DCC - won't be cheap mind! Cheers, Philip

Dear deity, I just read the review that @Steamport Southportkindly directed us to. I can relate to that but not as badly. Oh my aching sides, I haven't laughed so much in a while. Mrs Philou is wondering why I'm in tears, unfortunately I fear the idioms and expressions used will be lost somewhat in translation into French. Tearfully, Philip

May I ask @Wayne Kinney if a set can be made by those that wish to, without affecting the kit as supplied? If the answer is 'Yes', can I make a suggestion that once all the leaflets have been used up and/or the tooling become worn, then it would be an opportunity to alter the instructions to reflect the making of the set? A Mk1 and then a Mk2 version if you will. After all, despite compromises that have to be made modelling in 00, should we not be striving to achieve as near to prototype as is practically possible? It's what most RTR loco manufacturers seem to be doing. If a set can be achieved by means of a tap of a hammer on a simple jig by those that wish to, why not? I for one shall be interested in these new points, especially if they can be curved! (Modelling GWR, I think I'll leave the joggle alone!) Cheers, Philip PS: Is 'flair' correct? I thought it was 'flare' as in flaring. You Wayne have flair, but your check rails need a flare.

I'm not into 0 gauge, but they do look very good! Good luck and happy modelling to those in the 'senior' scale. Cheers, Philip

Veet over here - stinky and very caustic! Do not exceed the time or dose .... just sayin' and don't ask - TMI already! Cheers, Philip

I also suspect that apart from taking a long time to prepare the hair, it was probably done on a Friday night ready for the weekend. Nowadays (Covid excepted), every evening is the weekend! Cheers, Philip PS: Here in France, where most of the perfume is manufactured (that tells you something), I think it was their king Henry II that made it law that everyone should have a bath at least once a year!!!! PPS: Forgot to add that IIRC when I used to make the occasional wedding cake, the columns were about 100mm high and seeing as you need only 80mm they could well be ideal.

If you can find some appropriately sized tube, you can then make some ribbed aluminium foil to coat it. There is an article in the January 2021 RM that shows you how. I think the wedding cake support could be the way forward especially as the prototype columns seem to be slightly tapered. Cheers Philip

I came across the video quite by accident - and was a bit of revelation as I've never used IPA as I can't buy it around here - just a track rubber. Years ago, in the 60s and 70s, I used to use Ronson lighter fluid - can't get that here either. Seems like white spirit will be the way to go. I do have a question regarding alternatives: Years ago Peco used to do 'Electrolube' - is that still a thing and where would it come in the polar/non-polar scale? One thing I have noticed regarding electrolube (and it MAY be relevant to other contact cleansers) is that a number of older locos that had been enthuastically serviced by my father and stored away, now suffer from insulation breakdown on their wheels as the electrolube has bridged the gap! The matter of crud on rolling stock wheels was mentioned a little way up - I thought that was mainly due to plastic wheels rather than metal ones? Cheers, Philip

As mentioned above - a polite brush-off ................. (see what I did there?)

@jamie92208 Hi, just found your thread that I found really interesting - at least you do have something to go and look at! Round here on the classic Ligne 4, we're limited to four up and down Regios daily and a handful of freight weekly. Fish'n'chips ..... mmmmm! You lucky lot out in the far west! I discovered a place in the Deux Chevres just north of where you are that has a restaurant doing fisn'n'chips suppers. I have a Welsh cousin living there - another big ex-pat area. A few ex-pats around me here in the frozen east but no fisn'n'chips!! @Allegheny1600 France WAS so much advanced than the UK in the 90s and 00s with its avant-guarde architecture (bizarre if you will) but it's all gone to pot what with closing down nuclear, infrastructure falling to bits (especially secondary rail-lines) AND an annoucement earlier this week that they're looking at the closure of 40% of the TGV network - though the PoF has declared that flights of less than 2h30 will be proscribed (exactly how he's going to control that I can only guess) that may help the train network. Keep the photos coming, Cheers, Philip

I should have gone to Specsavers! I just looked at the pictures and didn't scroll down further - just as well I wasn't bidding for it!!!

@zr2498 The bottom one in your post appears to be a kit body on a rather old chassis - possibly H/D though the pick-ups remind me more of Triang/Hornby ones. It looks quite good for a kit, but looks unrefined in terms of detail around the front end. (Modern injection moulding against cast whitemetal). Cheers, Philip

Just to say that mine was factory fitted with sound and worked out of the box - was the issue 'sorted' then or is it an intermittent issue in assembly? To add that last Saturday, I took mine to the club where they have more than a yard of track set up to enable testing to be done under DCC. There was an 'oo-er' moment as nothing happened, nor to any other chipped loco. Turned out that there was a loose connection twixt the Roco hand-held and the track. Once sorted, it worked! However, the members present couldn't work out what was the 'problem' with the sound as there was no 'chuff-chuff'! I let them think about it for a few moments. Insofar as the lights are concerned, I decided to let it ride until I get my ECoS fixed and I shall fiddle with F0/F20 at my leisure. Looked good and went well. I await the Fell and the Leader as and when. Cheers, Philip

I think @Gravy Train has touched on the point regarding bracing - especially using card, as slight variations in humidity can affect card - hence an ideal way of covering a question that was raised right at the beginning of the thread - interiors! Your interior walls become the bracing. A suggestion if I may? Get yourself a printer if you can afford one (don't buy too cheaply as the replacement cartridges cost more than the printer). Replacement generic cartridges can be bought cheaply on a well-known on-line warehouse - £20 for 20 assorted cartridges for mine - what's not to like? Once you have your printer, you can download almost any type of covering for very little outlay - and you can print as many times as you want. I happen to like Scalescenes AND the interiors are part of the download if you want a complete building (just a satisfied customer!). You're doing well and the buildings are looking good. Just a constructive critism - do take care in blending in the brickwork when doing the corners (the quoins) and the roofing material should be laid in overlaying strips - do that, with your interiors and lighting, and I'm sure they'll be superb! Cheers, Philip

That is good news as I held off buying any due to the concerns regarding the length. I have some staff coaches that need a load of assorted wagons to go with them. Cheers, Philip

According to the RM review, there are to be new bogie frames offered to customers - I'm not too bothered and realistically how many times would you use such a loco tender-first - other for when it's working light? I seem to recall that the reverse turbine was an exceedingly small affair on the 1:1 model. Turning the bogie and snipping the pocket might be right way to go for this particular model. Cheers, Philip

Tested mine this afternoon while Mrs Philou was having her hair done - had me flumoxed for a few minutes as the lights came on and nothing happened. I turned up the voltage a tad on my trusty 30 year-old Gaugemaster and the turbine started, which was good news but no movement - 'Oh' - thought I. Turned up the volts again and more sound and then it moved of at a low smooth speed - huzzah! Reversed the polarity and off she went sedately to the end of the yard length in the other direction. I could only test it on DC as I had a ..... errr ..... mishap, yes, that's it, a mishap with my ECoS that I still haven't had repaired. With the sound chip under DC, it will not move off until it's started properly - just like the real thing. (I have other sound chipped locos that behave similarly and I had forgotten that!). I shall need to get my DCC controller up and running to go through all the functions! Quite impressed and it looks good despite the reversed bogie frames. Look forward to the Fell in due course. Cheers, Philip

We ... e...ll, I haven't and I shan't until the loco will have a decent track to run upon and some decent stock to pull - probably at the end of the year (but not saying which year!). Cheers, Philip