gr.king

Good luck Tom with the change of work emphasis towards something more enjoyable and less stressful. Take care to ensure that the weathering work doesn't become a chore as the music-teaching evidently has done.

But tortoises are no use in the winter months because they hibernate...

Interlocking that actually helps non-expert operators, rather than baffles and frustrates them to the point of causing breakdown of operations? Not something that lies within my (limited) experience. Very impressive if it achieves that goal, but I certainly wouldn't fancy buying all the necessary gadgets and wiring it all up, on top of building/detailing the whole layout.

It shows my confidence in your modelling skills...

But for family circumstances, and a deep dislike of the still-evident gross unreliability/inadequacy of "organised" transport systems, we'd have loved to be there too. A clear day atop the Brocken would be a real revelation, after our only visit in thick mist and rain in 2017.

That gives you ages to scratch build the locos, ready for them...

Balance the books by scratch building some locos to go with a chimney and some lamps, if you ever get those.

Re: Based on Bawtry: Very nice looking baseboards, track laying, buildings and scenery. All your own work? I reckon I can just about see on that map where one of the Wright Writes regulars now has a bungalow. Would prefer to see Bawtry in 1930s guise though...

I didn't think about this yesterday, but if the viewing of S4C Clwb Rygbi, without added English subtitles, doesn't shield you sufficiently from an annoying understanding of the commentary, there may be an additional degree of obscurity available, as I remember on one occasion a few years ago stumbling up coverage of a game of shinty (possibly on BBC Alba) with commentary of course in Scots Gaelic. With no idea of what the rules were, and no comprehension of the commentary, the viewing experience was certainly "different".

If the annoyance with modern sports commentary extends to Rugby Union, and your only fluent language is English, try watching the "Clwb Rygbi" on S4C. You won't understand any more than the very occasional word of the commentary...

I believe that in many instances in which locomotives were ordered from outside manufacturers, although the number / colour / quality of that various paint coats to be applied was specified to some extent, the manufacturer for the paints was not always specified, and the top coat or overall finish was supposed to be "to sample", i.e. "matched" by eye to an available sample. That "match" would obviously be influenced by any colour vision anomaly that the chief painter might have, and by the type of light under which the "match" was judged, so I suspect that any attempt to discover an exact and universal specification for the shade of colour used will be futile.

For non-approved turning I've repeatedly used the electric drill clamped (but not crushed) between the jaws of a Black and Decker Workmate, so that it is also supported over the metal frame. The deck of the Workmate can then be used, with or without additions, as a rest/guide for the turning tool - file for metal of course, file or sharp chisel for wood or plastic. No harm ever done to the wedding veg, but eye protection and exercise of care / caution /common sense certainly strongly recommended. PS - that general care certainly ought to include avoidance of loose clothing near the work, no loose bits and pieces standing on the deck of the workmate, and making sure that the workpiece is firmly secured on an axle / spindle / mandrel (if needed) and kept properly tight in the drill chuck...

Shades of green? Easy: Light and dark....

When we went to the Danum Gallery last year, my wife ordered a "light lunch" of cheese on toast at the cafe. The portion on arrival looked like enough to feed her for a full day...

I'm glad you posted that, as I acquired a small amount of K&L track incredibly cheaply about 18 months ago, found it still perfectly usable and easier to curve smoothly than the SMP I've mainly been using from boxes acquired long ago. Whilst I've mentioned the track to some others older than myself, who I might have expected to know about "K&L", it has taken until now for anybody to confirm that the name is in effect just the earlier designation for C&L, which is what I suspected. I can confirm that I've found it necessary to run a file across the tops of the inside portions of the chairs in order to make the track more suitable for a slightly wider range of wheel profiles. With SMP I only ever had a problem with flange contact when running a LIMA J50 with its original pizza-cutters around a curve. 20+ years ago a set of Perseverence frames, Gibson rods, Markits wheels and 40:1 gears, a Mashima 1630 flat can motor and some lumps of lead in lieu of the original crude mechanism eliminated many of that loco's shortcomings besides the flanges...

Most kind. Says who? I haven't been asked in any definite way so far, and frankly, this close to the show when I'm likely to have decided on my plans for the weekend, it's a bit late for anybody to start asking, especially when nothing at all has been said to me about any measures to avoid repetition of the multitude of things that were not "organised as promised" or arranged for "reasonable working comfort" when I arrived to try to do the job last year...

On second thoughts, there's another way of looking at that Clive. You have a market town about five minutes away from you, which I believe still boasts a W.H.Smith branch, plus a load of little "specialist" shops. WHS ran away from here several years ago, thanks to the rent demand greed of the former owners of our main shopping centre, a policy which no doubt contributed in no small way to the current state of the place - masses of empty shops whose former tenants have been driven away or driven into insolvency (like BHS, House of Fraser and so on) thanks to various things such as ridiculous rent demands. Our town's long-standing, and highly valued, independent local stationery / print / books / magazines / news firm abandoned its town centre retail operation some years previously too, and just a month or two back the last significant town centre magazine / news shop also threw in the towel, "encouraged" by the council's insistence on a move to new premises to make way for another re-development scheme whose value to the town remains to be seen... At least we no longer have the curse of a different local authority controlling all of the land just outside the compact town boundary, and repeatedly offering planning permission on green-field sites bordering the town, for supermarkets and retail parks that should, and would otherwise have been built on brown-field sites within the town, helping to keep the town centre alive.

I'll ask a man with a punt to fetch you a Red Cross parcel across the flooded fen (including a copy of RM). That would almost certainly be me...

I feel that I may know who printed that body. If it behaves as well as a J21 body I had from what I believe to be the same source, it should be okay when suitably "tarted up".

With any luck my area's sole surviving half-decent stockist of magazines may even have one, when the pack horse eventually completes the trek over the wolds to this widely ignored part of coastal Britain.

I'd be keener for every example to have the base of the cabside meeting the running plate without a gap, along a perfectly horizontal line, with no evidence of parts that don't quite fit being forced together.

For a short while my brother-in-law worked in a factory near Cambridge (Bar Hill) making the printers that add the batch numbers and "best by" dates. His Mk 1 nose detected plenty of airborne MEK.

For those who collapse in terror at the sight of a fraction such as 3/8ths, just multiply by 0.375, or ask a gadget to do it for you.

I remember being told many years ago that Mekpak, for "safety" reasons, was no longer purely Methyl Ethyl Ketone or Butanone, if indeed it ever was, but the (therefore potentially misleading) name had been retained unchanged. I believe that some "discerning" users immediately noticed that the smell had changed, and in some cases the performance.

With relatively large bogie wheels and low-slung outside cylinders, you might consider having a centre pin on the main frames, and a curved transverse slot in the bogie. If the middle of the curve is further forward than the ends (sides), then the bogie will also move forwards slightly as it swings aside on a curve, keeping the leading wheels clear of the cylinder fronts. You need not then, with any luck, butcher the fronts of the cylinders to get clearance. The rear bogie wheels move laterally less than the front ones, so may not be such a problem. If you do have to nibble anything away from the inside edges of the cylinder rears, at least the slidebars and piston rods are there to help to conceal the crime.