roythebus1

Quite. :)

Ok, thanks, that'll save me a bit of time trying to find something that isn't there. My AG Thomas books are signed by the author as well. :)

when I worked at the York Way model shop in 1968, the shop manager AG Thomas produced a series of books, "A modeller's sketchbook of private owner wagons". these were, as titled, sketches of PO wagons where he showed the style of lettering and colours. I found one of the books during a sort-out yesterday. If I can find it after the sort-out, I'll have a look in there and see if this wagon is noted.

The west end (A end) motor cars didn't have electrical connections. they could couple with a D end car and the brake pipes could be coupled as could the Ward mechanical coupler, but that was it. The last Q stock I worked was 2 pairs of Q38 pilot motors, taking 4 cars of 1959 R stock from Upminster to Ealing Common for scrapping in 1972. My motorman was Rick Thomas who let me drive all the way to Ealing Broadway as it was good practice for me. There was an Acton Town motorman in the back cab of the east end. There was a through brake and main air pipe with some sort of coupling adaptor between the R stock drawbars and the Ward couplers. At Ealing Broadway the Acton Town motorman drove the unit back into Ealing Common depot. An interesting journey to say the least as the train only had the Westinghouse brake operative and was limited to 28psi in the brake cylinders as the blow down valves wouldn't work on the R stock cars.

There's no paint on the Gaiety body and ISTR it's missing the chimney. Is it worth keeping?

The only thing I could think of apart from slotted signals is confusion between absolute block and permissive block. There's some cupid stunts around making videos at times!

Yes, the OP from Facebook says it's Byron.

Just found this on a Facebook group, not my picture. Brit with E3167 and an AL3. The AL6 has a camera on the roof for pantograph recording. Note BR cast lion emblem, white cab roof, and original livery. The AL3 has probably just come out of works for air brake fitting single pan, air tanks on the roof. The Brit had recently been in works, photo taken near Newton-le-Willows. 1966.

I don't know, I've never seen anything like them before. Photos to follow. Here's a few photos for starters.. Ratio coach kit box and instructions; selection of tinplate wagons and HD 0-6-2T bodies, plus what I suspect is a Gaiety body. there's a couple of HD chassis, motors working but wheels missing and a box of chassis bits including coupling rods and crank pins. Last pic is inside the suspected Gaiety body.

Another thread that's probably been done a thousand times before, but I've never used acrylic paints before, always enmel or cellulose.. I've got an old Badger airbrush and a compressor I bought when I was about 17, a long time ago. But hey, it still works.. I've got some etched brass kits to paint and found the car-spray type etch primers give too thick a coat, so I've got some model etch primer, can't remember what make. So I've read I need to apply a primer before the acrylic top coats. What's the best way to apply the acrylic, thinned down a bit, several thin coats? Used from the airbrush cup or the glass jar? Time between coats of paint? Cleaning the air gun after? How about spraying plastic rolling stock? Undercoat or primer required? I've got one jar called something like coal black which gives a textured finish, should it be like that? I've tried brushing it on and it doesn't cover too well, maybe it's designed as a wethering colour rather than a top coat colour.

From what I remember from my stock training on Q stock in 1970, the batteries were actually under the passenger seats, 110 volts for the guards door controls and motorman's control gear. The long box on the top picture is probably the contactors.

Don't get bogged down in a thread about toilet roll trains..

The Maerklin 4 wheel coaches are mint condition in mint boxes. there's only one set of terminals on the Simplec point, I couldn't remember if they were for the solenoid or the frog switching. Another interesting item is a pair of what appears to be pressed cardboard coach sides. They are panelled with ventilators over the windows, possibly made from papier mache. No idea what they are suppoed to be. I must make time to photo this lot!

I remember buying a yellow TC diesel and painted it green like the engines I'd seen at Liverpool Street. The first 2nd hand i'd ever bought and, as it was TC, it ran the other way to my Jinty! So I could have trains running opposite ways on a double track ovel on one controller, magic!. circa 1962...

Standard 4 tank runs round at Kensington Olympia...1966 if I remember correctly, but maybe 1967. My picture. :)

Is the 73 main line certified? that could be a source of revenue for the Bluebell if it is. Then that gives a good reason to keep the modern marker lights.

Going back to the early days of the 508s at Waterloo, the late Bill Hughes was on the down Windsor approaching Putney, applied the brake and ended up stopping at Mortlake, going through Barnes and 3 level crossings in the process during the evening peak. Luckily the road was set for him already. The whole issue was hushed up. an awful lot was hushed up in those days. I ended up on the sand drag at Hampton Court and got a prize at the coconut shy (railwaymen will know what I mean). that too was hushed up. Soon after these incidents they put the "panic button" in the cab that overrides the WSP. It didn't help very much.

Just found this useful ink in a thread on the "prototype questions" group on here: http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/passenger-stock-lms/3d_printed-ltsr-coaches.htm

No, firemen (who put fires out) are firefighters. :) Stokers on ships, firemen on locomotives, funnels on ships, chimneys on locomotives. My late father-in-law was a stoker on Motor torpedo Boats in WW2. He said the diesel kept falling off the shovel. It was indeed a term left over from an earlier era.

I drove them for 10 years and didn't take much notice of roof detail! ISTR they were all opened out to full open coaches towards the end of their lives.

I usually attack the coupler arm with a soldering iron, gently heat it and bend the coupler shaft upwards a bit. Otherwise a bit of .010" plasticard does the job.

I've been tinkering with my son's LOI over the last couple of years and found all what has been said. I can't comment on the latest example. Mine has the XT60 motor, I turned down the driving and trailing wheels to give then finer flanges and fitted bigger bogie wheels at the front. I've read they should be 16mm, not the 12mm fitted by Triang, but that was done to allow the loco to go up their inclined piers on train sets. a bit like the footplate cut-outs to allow the bogie wheels to clear on sharp corners. I've filled those in on mine and it looks better for it. Not only does mine tip forward as it moves, but it also runs crab-wise for some reason! there's virtually no side play on the driver or pony wheels, so it's a mystery. I done away with the Magnadhesion magnet and replaced it with a block of lead. there's also strips of lead to add weight under the pick-up plate to try to aid traction, but then you have to take into account how the weight balances on the driving wheels! The simple answer for the tender is to replace the wheels, don't mess with the old plastic ones, it's a waste of time. I've tried to work out ways to spring the bogie truck sideways so it actually steers the lco into curves like the real thing does, but that's on back burner at the moment! Waiting for long handrail knobs.. I also thought about a new chassis similar to the Bachman idea of different gearing on the trailing axle. My loco managed 8 BR Mk1 coaches after the slipping stopped!

I've still got one part-built in the box that I started in 1978 as a project for Bec models! there's a few bit missing and the axles have gone rusty. there's also a Big Big Hymek that I motorised to get finished or sell on. I'm not getting any younger.

Having had an afternoon to sort through the 7 boxes of "stuff", probably the most valuable item in there is the Triang 2-car SR EMU, good condition in boxes, after cleaning runs well. It has original mk2 couplings; a part-built Kitmaster Beyer-Garrett, part-built Ks LNER 2-8-2 complete; Millholme A2/3 unbuilt, an LNER 4-4-2T part built, a LNER 2-6-4T unbuilt; there's quite a nice etched brass LNER full brake, can't make out what make it is; a couple of plastic quad-arts part-built and unpainted, a wooden quad art set, maybe CCW, and a couple of othe rCCW kits unbuilt including a Pullman car. There's a few Kitmaster French and German coaches in varying condition, 5 Airfix interfrigo wagons part-built, an Airfix railbus part built and some early Maerklin tinplate coaches mint in boxes that are probably worth all of a fiver each! Hornby Dublo, a brand new in box right hand point-2 rail possibly with solenoid motor, some HD tinplate and plastic wagons, and the usual collection of odds and sods. when my phone battery has re-charged I'll take some pics and post them here tomorrow. Contact me if there's anything anyone is interested in.

Yes, I'm still learning about it after about 20 years of using it!!