Regularity

When making the orchard trees, did you hold them upside down when sprinkling on the red?

BRM has featured S scale in the not too distant past, and will be featuring it again.

Andy and I talk irregularly, and I must crack on with the promised material.

In 1977 a school friend and I had an officially sanctioned visit to Northampton No. 1 Signal Box*, and from what I can recall, 2G33 would be a Euston-Birmingham via Northampton service (2B33 for the up service, possibly 2A33).

We didn’t get the 304s very often: usually the 310s, but they were not unknown, in fact a 304 was my first “cabbed” unit - the driver was also a member of the local Model railway club! Although the headcodes were no longer displayed, they were in use - still are, I suppose - on the train described displays on the track diagram.

* When our teacher found out, he insisted that we write it up! Turned out he was a railway enthusiast.

I thought the second photo was a picture of the prototype!

Despite knowing the truth of the matter, I still do.

Re the yellow: the “official” paint didn’t hold up that well in service, and several major depots used to send a lad down to Woolworths to get a can of Dulux for a quick weekend touch up. Nothing to worry about on your model.

I have a source of potentially useful bevel gears:

http://www.motionco.co.uk/pair-bevel-gears-mod16-bore-p-146.html

I first did that when 15...

...it wasn’t the last.

How are you going to arrange the final drive from the N20 to the axle?

Edit: answer in part 2!

You thought a K’s kit would be easy? Not built one before, I take it?

I haven’t built one, either. At least, not finished. Got part way with the chassis for a Terrier, which rolled quite freely, but as soon as I fitted the motor and gears, the metal worm stripped the plastic worm wheel, and when I moved onto the body, one side was 1/16” longer than the other!

I bought a new motor/gearbox for it, but used them elsewhere, and the body was useful: melted down and cast into home-produced moulds, it created a couple of GER open wagons for East Lynn.

The coupling rod centres and wheelbase should match exactly, though, due to the use of a jig during construction.

How did dancing help?

...is that my taxi?

Those Stephen Poole wheels (also available separately) came with longer axles, to suit S gauge.

Regardless of that, the aluminium tyres were a disaster regardless of how far apart they were set...

Wow. How long was that passenger train standing in the station?

Very nice photos.

They look good.

Presumably you have copies if Stan Robert’s articles from Railway Modeller, 74-75?

Just make sure that the shelf is suitably braced!

To assemble one, you might wish to visit this website: https://throwflame.com

Some of their kits, including the 48DS, were also available in Gauge 3, albeit I think under a different trading name. If you thought 1:32 was big...

A lot of gauge 1 manufacturers advertise within the G1MRA Newsletter as this means they reach at least 95% of the market. Similar for small suppliers in G0: until I saw a G0G Gazette and visited a traders show, I had no idea how much was available in that scale.

This is a big problem for the less popular scales. Small suppliers simply cannot afford to advertise in the mainstream press, and why should they when they are unlikely to generate many if any new sales? And yet at the same time, how do the scales themselves make modellers aware of how much is actually available, as a means of attracting new entrants?

Anyone wondering about changing or trying a different scale is encouraged to visit the annual meetings of the specialist societies, to find out more about what is and isn’t available.

Hope you don’t mind the diversion: that’s a nicely finished Model.

I agree, Don, but in the quote provided, Cyril was dogmatically making a distinction between Model engineering and railway modelling which isn’t necessarily true. It is possible to build everything and achieve a comprehensive working layout that is operated in accordance with prototype practice.

I don’t disagree with his opening statement: we all need to find our own fulcrum for the balance between enjoying the building and enjoying the operating, but in my mind, if he had ended with, “...short cuts... ...may have considerable validity” then it would be a different story. Better still, Don, to also point out that this does not mean that some modification to the purchases won’t be required.

I get the point; like many of Cyril’s aphorisms there is a starting point for debate.

However, having met him a small number of times (and had my perception of him confirmed by others who knew him far better than I, such as his son) I know that Cyril wasn’t trying to start a debate, or suggest that every modeller has the “right” (whatever that means) where to draw the line. No, Cyril was being dogmatic. If you disagreed with his point of view, he simply talked over you and simply refused to accept a counter argument.

This is a shame, as he had some cracking ideas and was an exceptional journalist.

It is entirely possible to achieve an operating layout relying 99% (some of the coaches use etched zinc sides and ends from the late Trevor Charlton) on your own resources:

http://www.s-scale.org.uk/gallery9.htm

I expect he bought his own sausages.

A real sausagist would make his own.