Regularity

You’ll find that difficult, as they don’t have the GWR franchise...

Do you want remote, hands-off uncoupling? Are you prepared to put in electromagnets, or hinged magnets, in specific locations? Are you happy to do the back and forth shuttle for delayed uncoupling? The above questions lead to a choice of “delayed action” magnetic couplers, with a “trip pin”. Would you prefer to use some form of manual intervention, such as with a bamboo skewer or TeePee brush, or a small magnet? For this option, you can use scale couplers, or remove the trip pins from other brands. Do you want to go as far as lining up the couplers before making a collection? You will probably have to do this if you use scale couplers (not merely scale sized). Some modellers will always opt for Kadee couplers, some will use othe brands, some will mix them indiscriminately, some will use Sergent couplers. (Dead scale, use a steel ball to lock the coupler, and a magnet on a stick to raise the ball for uncoupling: http://www.sergentengineering.com .) But first, how do you want them to operate? Edit: to add link.

Says the man who lives not too far from Stonehenge...

The prototype had the bearings and springs at 6’6” centres. With 5” wide wooden solebars, this puts them 6’1” apart, or 24.3mm. The axlguards were typically ¾” to ⅞” thick, so you would have less than 6’, but more than 5’11” between them. With 3” wide steel solebars, the beating and spring centres are the same, as is the 6’1” over the outside of the axlguards as far as the axleboxes are concerned. This means there would be a 1” gap between the axleguards and the solebar on each side. The prototype dealt with this by cranking the axleguard 1”, just below the solebar - and largely hidden by the springs. Slater’s accommodate this in their etched sprung units for 7mm and 1:32, but below those scales (and possibly even for those scales!) it is hardly noticeable and does provide for a bit more space for those who need it. Steel solebars are 6’3” apart, from their inner faces, or 25mm in 4mm scale. Unless there is a derailment, most modellers are unlikely to see the full extent of adaptation required to account for scaling effects and the fact that gravity doesn’t scale - it is constant - so having slightly thinner solebars (say, 4” scale width) set slightly further apart, and not cranking the axleguards, is an extremely simple and unnoticeable way of incorporating this. Hope that helps.

Let us not forget the bouncing nuns of St. Beryl.

It was a general point: 24mm gives you enough space to avoid any problems. Edit: by “chassis rails” do you mean solebars?

Someone working to P4 or EM standards would probably work to slightly closer tolerances than 1mm movement either way, and for a 4 wheel wagon, there should be virtually no side play no matter what the scale/gauge.

Wouldn’t the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway’s second Locomotive be a little out of place and time on Derek’s layout?

Or more simply, “piste off”...

Neat.

I do love it when the influences of a layout are apparent, but the layout is still distinctively different and excellently blended into something believable. One question, though. Is it not usual for the rails and posts of fencing to face onto the railway property, and not the other way round? I am asking particularly about the boundary between the railway and the quayside. The obvious answer is to check with the prototype via photos, etc, but I am feeling lazy.

Nah. The sandpipes are set for P4, despite the 00 wheelset. Sometimes manufacturers get too carried away with prototype fidelity. Not wishing to be rude to you or anyone else (rare and unusual as that may seem) but when RTR is this good, who dares to build a kit or make from scratch?

To which the obvious question follows... ...although, as a friend pointed out, it surely depends on whether you are filling it (starts empty, ends up full), or emptying it (starts full, ends up empty). And yes, that doesn’t help - if you start off empty, is is half empty, or half full when you reach the half-way mark: half way from being empty, or half way to becoming full? At this point, he reminded me it was my round and we talked cojones about something else.

Must have a glass top...

If your body looks like that, I think you should see a doctor...

Well, it’s how a lot of our words started......a lot though, are the result of applying Norman French spelling to Germanic words, which destroyed the phonetic spelling then in use. I mention this, so that next time you hear one of your countrymen complaining about the English language, you can remind them that the mess was largely the fault of the French-speaking aristocracy. And emmerdé means in the...?

Ils sont rusé comme Monsieur le Renard?Hien, quel panache!

There is a difference between what I typed, and what was auto-corrected. Enjoy this one. There is a UK company called Model Railway Developments, and their exhibition stand, adverts, business cards, promotional literature all carry the logo MRD...

A lot more skill than technology, I expect!My point is that, like the word “awful” (originally, awe-full, i.e. “full of awe” - a description applied to the newly rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1697), the common use of a word can become estranged from its etymology over time, sometimes so much so that the original meaning is not just lost, but completely inverted.

A true craftsman will do the very best he can, with what he has available.

Agreed. I went on a course 5 years ago where one of the presenters was a detective sergeant. He counted a conversation he overheard between two co-workers on a train to work one morning, then showed how he could use this seemingly trivial information to get past building security with an important private message for one of them...So, you were born on the first of August 1963, then? Interesting. It also meant that you did it by hand, which was old fashioned! That may be how it came to derogatory connotations? Rather than the precision of a machine engineered product, something put together by a person, with no standardisation of sizes, just to fit? Usually when someone says something is a “bit of a bodge” nowadays, they mean it was cobbled together and is a bit rough ready. Which is a slur on shoe repairers (not shoemakers, they were different). And me from a shoemaking town. “Me, I’m Just an average bodger,” is often used either as a form of humble bragging, or as a way of saying, “I could do better, but didn’t try”, which is why I dislike it - who wants to aim for mediocrity? (As an example, I would never have made it as even a 10th tier football player, and average would have been an improvement, but I always wanted to be better than that!)

Les français, ils sont focus!

I’ll set them up, and you can bowl them...

Yes to the dog box. No idea about the hinged flap. I think there was a drawing of this vehicle in the MRC a few years before it folded.

Do you have a dog? If so, he can find it by sitting on it and saying, “Rough”...I’ve already got my coat on.