sem34090

Good Lord - Sorry chaps. I know everything is being put off, so sorry about that. I'm very wrapped up in this Isle of Wight tube train business currently but am hoping to return to CAD and modelling within the next month or so. I'll try and dig out that radial conversion.

Amazed to see those bits are still fuelling your modelling: I'll have to send some more! Which reminds me that I still owe @AVS1998 some coach kits... I first promised them to her something like six months ago.

Ah, Generic... If only! They'll do as a nice stand in though and you've done a lovely job on them!

We have some news - The N2 has received its temporary new livery as E9505 in 1948 LNER/BR transitional condition as I don't have any BR transfers currently.

Was it really 12 years ago?! I'm only just about an adult and that fact's making me feel old!!! I still have considerable amounts of stationary from there; My collection of railway ephemera is kept in some of their plastic wallets.

So, my N2 arrived today. Before doing anything to it I did just want to quickly check that it's not a particularly rare variant; 6917 in LMS Post-War Black. The lettering is cream, shaded red, as I believe was correct for the LMS at that time. I only ask as in most of the photos I can find the lettering is yellow, rather than cream. If it's not anything special then she'll be gaining LNER livery for now then BR once I have the right transfers.

More like no money... Especially after buying HD products! Certainly doable though, really. I should've known, really as I had to do Aberystwyth to Highgate and back in one day a few weeks back (Essential Travel because of this '38 Tube Stock preservation bid I'm running). That was 'fun'; Aberystwyth, Shrewsbury, Crewe, Euston, Highgate, then back via Warren Street, Oxford Circus, Marylebone, Birmingham Moor Street, New Street then Shrewsbury again. A bloody long day!

We're still working on that. We're thinking roughly 1964-5 but with the layout largely representing the late '50s. The theory is that by the mid-60s Dublo stuff was cheap enough for our theoretical modeller to afford. Sadly that would seem to rule out Prototype kits then. I probably have some somewhere, but yes that would be a good idea. Could be useful, although Leicester is quite the stretch from Aberystwyth!

Another question, I'm afraid. Does anyone know when the Prototype range of card kits was first introduced?

Digging through my stock boxes, I came across a £12 purchase from a while back - A HD 4MT tank, which appears to have been converted to 2-rail (rather than being produced as such). It's had a set of Romfords put on, and has been repainted and detailed to a reasonable (in the '60s) standard. It's also been lined out using transfers that are probably too modern, but I'm not going to be messing with the paint job very much. It will likely gain a slightly better chimney at some point - The idea of this is to still try and be faithful to the prototype, but use 3-Rail materials and stuff that was available 'back in the day' to do it. Can anyone suggest a source for a replacement chimney, ideally one which would've been available way back when? Would conversion really be as simple as just re-instating a collector shoe underneath or would I need to look into putting un-insulated drivers back on it?

The project has now been well and truly set in motion - An N2 and the points, as well as the straights, for the layout are on their way here now, so hopefully some progress will be seen soon.

So, a layout plan has been devised. The greyed-out area is the fiddle yard for my joint 4mm 'Finescale'-ish project with @483006Terry (Called Endar). Any advice would be appreciated regarding how to make this work properly, but for the moment I can't see any major failings. Working with @L49 (and probably @483006Terry too) on this, we've gone ahead and have a plethora of the older (short) Suburban coaches on order. It may be nice to have some of the later MK1 Suburbans at some point but they're rarer and more expensive. @L49 has ordered a Gaiety Pannier for restoration, and I'm just waiting for the right 4MT tank to come up on eBay! Based on the above we're going with Dublo track. We had considered Trix Express, but this seems much harder to come by. If anyone knows of any, particularly points, for sale then please let me know! Really looking forward to this project taking shape now.

Does anyone know what became of the Merco Lithograph rolling stock sheets? I saw some for sale via Freestone a while back but can't seem to find any trace of them now.

Morning All, So I decided that this was a sensible time to be browsing eBay, and to cut a long story short an idea was born. Many Dublo and Vintage layouts seen on the exhibition circuit these days are essentially large train sets. They look like excellent fun, and they're certainly very popular, but I began wondering about creating a layout which was more in-keeping with prototypical practice, using the RTR stock, possibly some kits and of course some scratchbuilding of the 1950s/60s. Part of the inspiration behind this idea is my wish to get my hands on some Dublo models, but the other reason is that I hope it will give me an outlet for exploring scratchbuilding properly for the first time, but without the frustration of trying to match modern RTR standards of detailing. Essentially, I suppose, what I'm proposing is rather than having a model representing a 1960s Prototype I would be producing a representation of a 1960s model. There will be quite a few concessions to modernity, I imagine, and I can see a few more modern-production items appearing (Particularly with some of the buildings), but it could be a fun exercise and may replace the O Gauge track that I have laid on one of my spare baseboards. The most likely plan is to be a North London inspired terminus, with Blackwall (L&BR) and Alexandra Palace currently providing some ideas for potential track layouts. This leads me to ask if anyone has available to buy, or knows where I could find: - Wrenn or Peco 3-Rail Track - Dublo N2, preferably Matt (I know they're readily available on eBay and elsewhere, but thought it worth asking here too) - Dublo Suburban Stock in Maroon (Again, I know they're readily available) - Dublo 4MT Tank (Again...) - Dublo Class 20 (Any condition, although preferably running, would be good. There aren't many on eBay currently and I'm after one to bash rather than keep as-is. I have plans for some Metropolitan stock.) And, of course, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I always imagined something like the M&SWJR, but extending further North.

As a current history student at Aberystwyth I believe they might very well still have a good history department. Not that I would actually know, given this blasted online 'teaching' which I'm sorry to say I'm finding impossible to engage with. I was slightly worried about being bored, originating from the South East, but I've found it to be a beautiful place and would really quite like to settle here long term. Obviously as an enthusiast of narrow gauge railways there couldn't be a better part of the UK to be living in. Also, with my Talyllyn membership I get into most of them for free...

I think that's the last of the inaccuracies to be worrying about if using these for GWR-built stock.

As I'm now living in Aberystwyth on a full-time basis I think at least one of these is a must, but all three will be needed eventually.

That doesn't look anything like SRNI No.1! That's not the Gladstone (Was he the man who made the bags?) that was being referred to. I think, Sir, that you would be best off looking in the direction of KESR No.2 Northiam if you want to know about this Gladstone. I'm hoping to do a rendition of it for my 7mm Southern Railway (Northern Ireland) Micro layout. Of course, I'd be overjoyed if our honourable friend ( @Skinnylinny) were to produce a kit for those lovely Hawthorne Leslie 2-4-0ts!

Because, sometimes, the mass-produced item works better and looks better on the layout. I'm happy with my Kitbuilt London Underground stock, but if decent RTR equivalents were to be produced at a price I could afford then I'd replace them because my Kitbuilt ones don't work terribly well and by the time I've upgraded them the cost will likely be equivalent to the RTR purchase. Not saying that this is the case with James' lovely rendition of Lion, mind.

Given it's not an H Class that's not a particularly great comparison.

So, contrary to my previous comments I've actually bought a couple of the six-wheelers to repaint into the livery of my fictional EN&LR company - Here's the result; They're still very much LBSCR-derived, but they'll do as a stop-gap measure until I can get around to building something better.

And thus the M&SWJR may been seen as the true East-West divide... Either that or the DN&SR.

Somewhere I do have an adapted Terrier chassis so it may be worth a shot, but my scratch-building skills are really quite atrocious. I suppose the answer to that is "practice".

When I was younger (so much younger than today) I never nee... No, I used to believe that a visit to my Grandmother in Leighton Buzzard (from my home at the Western end of Surrey) constituted a trip to the North as at that age it was probably the furthest North I'd travelled. However, there was more to it than that - I was loosely aware of different accents by that point and my grandmother, being a native of Bradford, also had a 'Generically Northern' accent, thus completing the impression of further travel. At any rate, we were outside of Metroland so it must've been the North... Nowadays I'm living in Aberystwyth for as much of the time as I can with a hope to move further inland to better-connected Machynlleth longer term. I'm never quite sure where Wales falls within the greater North/South divide but within Wales I'm pretty sure it's marked by the Dyfi (Dovey), which passes Machynlleth just to the North of the railway station. Currently I'm off the scale, in terms of the South. My involvement with managing a railway heritage project saw me visit Havenstreet (Isle of Wight) for some essential business Yesterday and I've had to stay the night in Ryde before returning North. Unfortunately I was the only committee member available for the perilous trip.