PJT

From your description, the motor mounting sounds similar in its design to the Hornby Lord Nelson model, one of which I bought last year. Putting it on the track for the first time, the loco made an awful noise in one direction while it was fine running the other way. Opening it up to see if there was a simple remedy rather than sending it straight back to the shop, the cause was easy to see, the back of the motor not being seated and sticking up at an angle. Simply pushing it back down where it should be fixed the problem which hasn't occurred again since, despite the motor being held in place by a simple tight push fit that in appearance doesn't inspire you with confidence. Hopefully your Princess will be ok now, too. Pete T.

But shhh! Don't tell everybody else how good they are, or they won't have any stock left next time I need them... Pete T.

I meant to but then forgot to mention the running qualities in my previous post. I now have two mainland O2s and five island ones (before anyone says that's greedy, I confess that I have a serious thing about the IoW railways and the five island locos are individually detailed as my favourites from the 1960s fleet). Having run in each one for an hour or more each way, the quality of running is very, very good. I realise the 'all driving wheel axles geared and cosmetic sloppy coupling rods' method is not to everyone's taste and has clearly created a lot of frustration and derision with one or two other models that feature it, but in my experience with the Kernow O2 it seems to work just fine. As the very satisfied owner of seven O2s, if there were serious issues I think the odds are I'd have personally come across them by now. Pete T.

I suppose the easiest way to answer that is to say that the prices are roughly equivalent to those for Hornby spares on eBay, AC Models website and Peter's Spares website (to name but a few). That means they're more often than not higher than any of us would like (but that's always the way, especially for car spares, isn't it?) but not unreasonable when you stop to consider long term storage costs, labour costs and the compelling fact that they're running a business and not a charity. Something like a loco set of valve gear can vary from £5 or £6 (for older models) to probably £20-£25 for more complex valve gear on later models where manufacturing costs and 'market values' have crept up. A couple of weeks ago, in one order I bought a couple of Class 55 Deltic detail kits (£5.00 each), an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 detail kit (again, £5.00) and two 9F tender bodies (each complete with lamp irons, ladder, etc. for £20.00 each), if that gives you some idea. The tender bodies by the way were brand new assemblies, not slightly soiled bits they'd removed from some warranty return locos. It's always best, if you can, to get together an order for at least two or three items to spread the p&p cost - otherwise it'd be quite possible to pay quite a bit more for the post and packing than for the spare part itself. But that's just common sense, isn't it? To be honest the best thing to do is to send them an email asking for price and availability of the parts you need and, when you get a reply (which always also includes the p&p, by the way), if you decide the prices are too much then just say so. No-one will take offence. The service department are lovely people to deal with and I guarantee you won't get a 'thanks for nothing' or 'thanks for wasting my time' type answer. Pete T.

And another very enthusiastic vote from me, too. I'm a serial spare parts buyer. I'd estimate that I put requests for spare parts into their service department every 30-40 days, each time emailing them a shopping list built up over the weeks beforehand. Frequently I ask for parts not shown on the service sheets, giving them a description instead. They then reply, stating what they have in stock (which for 90% of the time is everything I've asked for) together with prices; upon payment, the parts arrive here in a couple of days. Yes, of course the process is a little old fashioned in this increasingly on-line world, but it works very well indeed and their degree of ability to supply the parts I need leaves all the other major RTR manufacturers for dead. Despite Covid-19, the only thing that has changed in recent weeks is that the office hours have been temporarily cut back to 8.30am to 1.00pm, so depending on when your enquiry goes in, you might have to wait until the next day for a response. Absolutely nothing else in their excellent level of service has changed at all during the lockdown. Quite remarkable. Pete T.

I've not tried to swap the gear from one loco to another, so I can't help with advice on that. However, there's a point of detail which, depending on how pedantic you want to be, might complicate your decision. On mainland O2s, the pull-push versions had cab doors while the non pull push ones didn't (whereas all Isle of Wight O2s had cab doors). This seemed to be a very rigid rule; for instance, when a mainland loco lost its pull push equipment, it also lost the cab doors. I recently also took advantage of Kernow's offer to get a non-PP 30225 (which in real life lost its equipment and its doors in later SR days to a loco being prepared for shipping to the island for Ventnor West branch use). It's actually incorrect, as is your 30193, because it still has doors (all of the Kernow O2s have doors). It's not an error I'd write an enraged letter to the Daily Telegraph about and it's not high up on my 'to do' list either, but one day I shall remove the doors from my 30225, which will probably also involve making new cab doorway handrails since they're all part of the same moulding. Please excuse me adding a further twist to your dilemna! Pete T.

Please excuse my way off-topic digression above - but I thought those talking about the 2CV would probably like to know the story. I'll let you get back to the best looking loco now... Pete T.

And the great motoring journalist LJK Setright called the 2CV 'the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car'. Just as a little aside to your 2CV conversation, here's a little known story about the car. After the last 2CVs were built (in Portugal in 1990), British Motor Heritage entered into negotiations with Citroen to become custodians of the body tooling. The former Rover Group subsidiary already manufactured MGB, MG Midget and Triumph TR6 panels and complete bodyshells, using original tooling to make them, for the classic car market. Eventually, in the early 2000s, they would go on to make classic Mini panels and bodyshells too, but in the early 1990s an opportunity was seen to do the same with the Citroen 2CV; after all, a fair part of the 2CV's early production history had taken place in Slough, so the car had significant British heritage, so to speak. Unfortunately the negotiations came to nothing in the end. A few years later, though, the boot was on the other foot when British Motor Heritage was invited to produce body panels for the Citroen DS model. That proposal came to nothing as well, in the climate of uncertainty during BMW's later period of ownership of Rover Group. It was, however, just as serious a proposal as the 2CV one had been and a lot of goodwill was involved. Pete T.

That's a beautiful photo, Tony, even with the slight blurring. I find it so surprising that a loco design that looks so awkward and gangling when stationary can come so much into its own at speed. With its over-long proportions, when moving fast it looks so dynamic and purposeful - actually I think, in your panning photos from yesterday, only the A4s come near it in terms of powerful images. For me, anyway. And I never thought I'd say that about a Thompson pacific, real or model! Pete T.

I'm a firm believer that you won't get better metalworking tuition than that from a toolmaker in a well-equipped tool room. Similarly, for woodworking a pattern maker's shop is a wonderful place to learn. Our pattern makers used to do a wonderful line in display cabinets etc. on the side, strictly for friends of the pattern shop - or as bribes for more senior management. Unfortunately, the telling phrase in that last sentence is 'used to'; same goes these days for toolmakers, too. I'm going to say enough of this (very happy) reminiscing, otherwise I'm sure we could fill the rest of the day, and this thread too. And it is after all a modelling thread. Nice digression though! Pete T.

Especially when you're trying to open 40 tons of steel press tool that someone left in store on a disused airfield runway for 5 years with barely a smidgen of grease or oil on it. Pete T.

... and that's the third in the golden trio of most useful tools: the gas axe. Pete T.

I think the name you're looking for is a 'Birmingham Screwdriver'. That's what the Black Country Yam Yams used to call them to wind up the Brummies in Longbridge. Pete T.

Oh, never a truer word spoken! Looking back over the last couple of pages, funny how so many of us went through the same (or remarkably similar) experiences in our further and higher education. It's lovely to read it and brings plenty of knowing smiles to my face as I do so. Shame it seems so much less acceptable nowadays to get your hands dirty as part of your learning. Even if you don't intend to carry on at a workbench once you've embarked on your career, having first-hand experience of what you may be asking others to do is so vital - but so often lacking. Pete T.

Yes. Where I used to work in a previous life, we had a customer in Greece who was restoring a Triumph TR6 and complained to us that all his wheels fell off after spirited driving one day. Guess what? He'd fitted the splined hubs on which his wire wheels secured on the wrong sides of the car and thus fitted the centre knock-off nuts ('spinners') the wrong way round, too, despite the fact that all spinners clearly have stamped on them 'LH only' and 'RH only'. When fitted the correct way round, the spinners are self-tightening - unless you drive everywhere in reverse of course. By the way, we Triumph chaps used to say 'Lotus? That stands for Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious'. Pete T.

Unfortunately Pam's of an age when she was repeatedly told she was just stupid at school. Everyone who knows her would protest that no label could be less appropriate for her. Still after 50-odd years, the scars have never quite healed and her handwriting (and sometimes very phonetic spelling) is still very exclusively hers, bless her cotton socks. Amazing, isn't it? Once you've noticed it or had your attention drawn to it, it hits you right between the eyes! Pete T.

So's my Pam. Unfortunately I'm very definitely at the other end of the scale. Pete T.

My Pam does that. I wouldn't want her to change it for the world! Pete T.

Just as a last comment from me about the headcode characters not being a 'proper' typeface, I forgot to mention when I made the comment above that while the headcode characters are sans serif (i.e. without 'tails' on the strokes), the headcode 'B' has been designed with serifs to further help distinguish it visually from an '8'. I can't think of any other type style anywhere that mixes together serif and sans serif characters. Can anybody else think of one? ...crawls back under his typographical stone... Pete T.

Oh, you and me both! However as an old work colleague of mine used to say, 'We're still here, so we must have done something right.' Pete T.

Ah, that'll probably be me included amongst those few folk. Sorry, I somehow skipped straight past your post and link halfway down the first page (and I wasn't following RMweb in 2010 when you provided us with the answer the first time round). Thanks for the link to the information and source and thank you for coming up with an answer to a puzzle I've tried to solve for decades, despite me having more than a passing interest in type design. That's made me happy for the rest of the day now! Pete T.

Close, but like the other san serif faces I mentioned, not close enough. Sure, Granby has a flat-topped '3' rather than round topped, as headcode '3's do, but as another example, look at the Granby '8' and then look at a headcode box with an '8' in it (no, not a Heljan printed headcode!) - they're very, very different. Similarly, the 'B's are very different. I could go on... Pete T.

Quite right. I use ammonia solution from my local hardware store to clean my airbrushes (definitely outdoors!) after using Klear, too. I've heard that the blue liquid Windolene is just as good for removing Klear from airbrushes, but I've no personal experience of that, nor possibility of using it to remove Klear from models - might be worth trying it out on a bit of scrap plastic or painted surface sometime. Pete T.

Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places, but I've tried for 40 years to find the origin of the headcode typeface. It's kind-of similar to condensed versions of Johnston or Gill Sans but has significant and obvious differences with some characters (the 3 is the most obvious) that means if you try to use either of them they still don't look right at all in a headcode box. Neither do condensed versions of more modern sans serif faces like Helvetica or Univers; again just looking at the '3' character rules them straight out. In a previous life I did graphic design and technical illustration and a substantial part of our four year course at polytechnic involved typography - including much hand rendering of typefaces, so you really got to know and understand the differences between them. Even back those days I couldn't puzzle out the headcode typeface. I came to the conclusion that it was probably designed simply as a set of characters specifically for the purpose, to be as clear as possible within the constraints of the desired size and proportions of the headcode boxes. There are other instances in the world around us of sets of characters designed for specific purposes that never make it into fully-fledged typefaces or get given names to know them by but, typically of me, I can't rcall any of them at the moment! Pete T.

Probably, if you could stick it to the back of your glazing acetate without the adhesive showing. 3M Spraymount would do it cleanly but it isn't completely permanent (it's designed to be repositionable). The more permanent version, Photomount, is thicker and cruder from memory and would show up far too much. Pete T.