roythebus1

I changed to using Kadees in the early 1980s when the NEM couplings became available and I was into modelling the current DB scene. they worked miraculously well including going up a spiral using Lima 1st radius corners and very long DB coaches! Since then I've acquired a lot of BR stock and built a British layout. So far no problems with Kadees or buffer locking For cranked couplings, it's possible to crank the Kadee coupler arm using a the side of a soldering iron bit to slightly melt the arm and make a Z bend in it. the tightest radius on my layout is probably 30" and the main line is minimum 3', so no problems there. But my test track is a number of set track corners making double S bends. If the stock goes round there' it'll go anywhere.

I meant the take-over of the tooling dnd HD stock by Wrenn, however it was arranged. It's how it seemed at the time.

Yes, you're right, I've subsequently looked it up. Thanks. Memory fade...

I remember just after the take-/over of Hornby Dublo by Wrenn they had far too many breakdown vans in red livery and offloaded them very cheaply. I bought "quite a few" and simply painted them brown. I've still got some on Airfix meat van chassis. they also offloaded the remaining HD stuff quite cheaply. I persuaded Mr.Patrick to stock up, but he limited the amount he'd let me order as I was inly 14 or 15 at the time! At my grammar school we had an annual open day and a couple of us got together to make a big model railway in the science lab. One lad had a lot of HD stuff, another had Trix Twin and my pal and I had Triang. I got the Triang rep to get me a couple of pre-production converter tracks and a couple of adaptor wagons. The chap with the Trix Twin couldn't join us at all! The Trix rep showed me a catalogue that showed a proposed Brush type 4 (class 47) as well as the A3 and A4 as well as the freight liner wagon mentioned in a post up the page. They also produced quite a good BR standard 4-6-0 and a Britannia in metal. I had one of each, the 4-6-0 was a good looking loco and a good runner, also running on the MRC's old layout with fin scale wheels. there was aplastic bodied E1 (I think) which I got from a local newsagent, and in Patricks stockrooms I found an EM1 and a Warship. They were sold in the shop. I also discovered some Triang/Lines Bros tinplate buses and cars which Mr.Patrick gave me. I was saving up to buy my prototype GS bus by than and the money they raised helped me on my way. I still have the GS bus, having bought it in 1969 at the age of 17!

I think you'll find VAT was introduced pre our membership of the EU/Common Market. It came with the end of Retail Price Maintenance and was originally set at 10% of selling price if I remember correctly. Wholesale price was as you say usually 50% of the retail price, giving the retailer a mark-up of 33.3% of the selling price.

As I may have mentioned earlier, the Trip AL1 was made to 4mm scale. The late Adrian Swain of aBS Models made the patterns for the bogie sidefames. I saw a brass master of one in his car in abut 1974 when I met him somewhere to collect a batch of bus kit castings from him. He told me the bogies were overcall length to "do a Triang" and use the existing motor bogie from the Western diesel. Remember too Trix "done a Triang" with their range of loco and carriage kits. They were of course dearer than tiring CKD kits but made their locos affordable. Over the few years I worked a tPatricks toys I must have acquired 5 of the AL1s in kit form. I still have a couple today, one being converted to an 85. All ran on the MRC's New Annington layout in th 1980s with no problems. I also got a Britannia kit, a Western kit and several coach kits in blue/grey and a Pullman.

As I worked in Patricks toys in Fulham at that time (1965-1968) full time and part-time after school, I was privy to bargains and other information. I saved up for the Hornby Dublo AL1 when they became available. I don't recall having any running problems with it as it had a Ring Field motor bogie as fitted to the "SR" EMU. Just the side frames were different from what I remember. Unfortunately the loco was converted to a class 73 following a Model Railway Constructor article on the conversion with the coming of the Bournemouth Line electrification. Pity I didn't know in those days what it would be worth these days! Whether this was a Chris Leigh or GM Kichenside article I can't remember! But as an AL1 it ran well on the MRC's test track and on the Longridge Brampton Sands and Calshot layout, though th GWR bracket signal didn't like the pantograph! I remember showing the loco to a driver who was on an electric loco at Harrow & Wealdstone, stabled in the Stanmore branch bay in connection with promoting "Britain's New Electric Railway.

I may have some of the Kings Cross drawings, I used a lot of them when I built track for the MRC's New Annington layout in 1980. They were very good for their time.

Seen today on the Real Trainspotting FB group, a class 47 failed on the S&C with a heavy ballast train. A class 25 was summoned to assist. that couldn't move the load. It so happened an A4 was going light engine the other way and was summoned/hijacked to help and the entourage eventually got going, triple headed by a tender-first A4, 25 and dead 47! 1980-ish.

Ignoramuses or ignorami? Pacific 231G.

Remember the Snow hill line had a very frequent passenger service since its inception up to W2 when services were suspended. The line was of critical importance to freight as one of the new north-south links. Camden Road was one of the places where 4 rail dc and 25kv ran alongside each other for quite a distance. Indeed special trains were run from Camden Road to Coventry and Birmingham in 1966 or 67 with AM10s to celebrate the opening of "Britain's new electric Railway". I still have my ticket somewhere. Camden provided an alternative change over from electric to diesel for freight liners to to East Anglia for many years. I wouldn't see any benefit running trains from the south east into Broad Street instead of Liverpool Street, the 2 stations were next door to each other and had a mean height difference of about 50'! Otherwise any cross-London stuff was WLL or the Acton Wells-Kew Junction line.

Which reminds me of the tale told by a senior Eurostar manager a few years ago. there had been some rather heavy drinking on the train from Waterloo to Brussels, mostly Belgians. The chef du train made the announcement, "We are sorry we have run out of beer. But for our Dutch passengers there's still some tins of Amstel." There was also a local lad (I live near Eurotunnel) went for a job with E* as chef du train, and the local job centre was a bit surprised when he turned down the job as his job qualification as a chef didn't include knowing anything about trains, but plenty about bacon and eggs.

Do you go to a fire station to catch fire?

Surely you can find a Mold in Flint?

Absolutely. Much the same can be stated about the misuse of that word, yes. Absolutely.

Some nice pics there. I had a visit to my ex wife's family who live in the railway town of Tiruchrappali (Trichy). I took over 30 rolls of film, the developers lost about 18 of them! As I was a BR driver at the time we got cheap or free travel over there, I had a couple of footplate rides out of Trichy out towards the coast on the metre gauge lines, and a cab ride on the Nilgri Hills line. I really must try and scan my pics of the trip, I've already put a few on here somewhere.

I once had to secondman a train of engines from Rugby to Crewe, can't remember the CONsist, but it was an electric loco pulling another 4 or 5 dead electric locos. I had to ride on the back engine in case of a breakaway and apply the handbrake. As it was winter it was rather a cold journey. I can't remember either what the TOPS list described it as .

Shunting locos were known as dobbins because they replaced the horse in many places for shunting. Jocko was the man who rode the horse, the jockey. As for Jinty, I refer you to the answers given by the Rt Hon friends above. American railroad depot, pronounced deepoh, not as the French Depot. Meanwhile let's not get started on "control". The driver is in conTROL of the train. The controller is in CONtrol.

Sorry but they simply don't look right with those bellows type corridor connections. The Mk1 coaches are coupled very close using the centre buffing late under the corridor connection. why I've used is the former AB Swain Mk1 closed up buffers, they are the correct type as the prototype buffers have a removable collar which is removed when using the buckeye coupler. Buffers are extended at the outer end of the rake when coupled to a loco. Have you tried the Kean System close-couplings? I'm currently doing a Mk2 set with them and I can get coupling to less than 1mm gap between corridor connections and the design of the close-couple system means the coaches go round very sharp radius corners without buffer locking. It seems a shame to go to the trouble of detailing these old coaches which I must admit are very good for their age, then spoiling the effect with a huge gap between the coaches.

You my want to consider the new point kits mentioned at the top of the page by Wayne Kinney, they'll save you the expense of buying track gauges and a lot of time! and all the parts are ready-machined and cast for you.

Tomparryharry mentions the million £ business. I ran my own £1m almost single handed in the 1990s in the form of a vintage bus company which developed into something I never envisaged. It grew from the depression of the T*****r years of "loadsamoney", then got clobbered by the selling off of the railways (I was a major provider of rail replacement buses for Connex), and local council cuts in public transport. I was somewhat surprised to learn one of my local steam railways was only just turning over £1m in the mid 2000's, and has only recently achieved a turnover of nearly double that. But railway enthusiasts have an unlimited supply of rose-tinted glasses and want to preserve everything now, not tomorrow later, but NOW. This leads to all sorts of cash flow problems and needs good management to sort it out. I volunteered he same local steam railway, being a former BR driver I thought my knowledge (albeit limited when it comes to steam locos) would be useful. But no, poor management with a degree of ambidextrous incoordination and some acidic comments from a one or two people put me off going back there. I met with volunteer coorindinators who told me that those making the acidic comments were those with vested interests in certain projects, essential people. But if they're deterring people like me from going there, so be it. I have better things to do.I don't mind railway banter, I've had years of it, but when comments are directed against someone in direct earshot that is something different. I'd suggest there's a lot of this sort of thing that goes on with most preserved railway, and indeed most organisations regardless. I know someone who lives quite near the WSR and is a volunteer on there who also has connections with my local line but haven't met with that person for a while to discuss matters. It's a great shame that these organisations are steeped in internal politics.

But I learnt fluent if not limited German from such magazines; "Achtung Spitfeuer Aarghhh!" and "hande hoch".

I had one of the Battlespace turbo machine and tested it on The Model Railway Club's test track which had 3' radius curves. the antique controllers were capable of delivering 24v. The turbo on that voltage literally took of on the very high speed entry to th first curve. It ended up at the far end of the Lower Hall, much to the consternation of the serious modellers.

Pete Hendy would be the ideal man for the job and I remember reading elsewhere that he's being kept on as some sort of advisor anyway. I've known Pete through the preserved bus hobby since about 1969, so he must be due for retirement soon as he's a couple if years younger than me! Back in the early 1970s he was London's only independent bus conductor, working for Pioneer Coaches on their 235 route up and down Richmond Hill in his gap year. He said then he was going for a job on London Transport, I thought maybe conducting or driving, but no, he got a job as secretary to the head honcho at the time. Little did we know that many years later he would be that head of the organisation! He's been in transport all his life so ought to know it inside out. He still has his PSV driving licence too.

As the title says, does anyone supply cast buffers for the various Airfix wagons? I've got a few that have lost buffers and I don't really want to use new kits just for the buffers. I've done a couple of conversions, a Hornby Dublo breakdown van body on the meat van chassis looks good. when Wrenn took over the HD range, they hd a lot of red breakdown vans so sold them off very cheap, about 2/9d each. I've also done a K's white metal p/way open wagon on a meat van chassis. It certainly runs better and the chassis is square, unlike the Ks offering!