BachelorBoy

A fair point. I shall recuse myself from this thread.

Not really. If it acceptable to make a diorama of Nazi soldiers and their weapons, why is it not acceptable to model Nazi railways? I am just trying to understand the difference. It's question about the philosophy of modelling across different types of modelling.

Black-and-white photos are colourised frequently these days. I am worried (not just for railway modellers) that this is going to make historical research more difficult. Colourisation is becoming much better. But if buses, or shopfronts, or railway buildings and rolling stock are included, the colours are only going to be guesswork. Plausible, but still guess work. Once colourised digital photos start circulating online, detached from the original post that may say they've been colourised, it's going to make it very difficult to tell which photos are real, and what are colourised. This is not going to help.

I was thinking more of a model railway with marching Hitler Youth and SS troops, and perhaps Hitler himself on his own train, and loads of swastika banners. That would raise eyebrows, I think, even in the UK *** NB this is an exaggeration to make a point ***

Nice work, sir

I traced this in Glyphs from a crane in Malaysia. Let me know if you want a copy.

Grotty bits are usuall the most interesting bits to model :-)

Mind you, a Nazi-themed model railway would raise a few eyebrows.

I am surprised how much some modellers will argue over the exact shade of a colour, but have blind spots about lettering, and will use anachronistic or otherwise inappropriate typefaces.

Some typefaces here designed to look like signwriting https://www.myfonts.com/collections/tags/signwriting-fonts?page=1

Smith's rub-down transfers* will look very wrong because they are based on typefaces. Typefaces are designed to look good for print (and increasingly online). Typographers may take years to complete them. Most signs in those days would have been painted freehand by signwriters. They don't correspond to typefaces (unless the typeface has been designed to look like it was created by a signwriter) *Actually I just looked at WHSmith's website and no lettering transfers are listed anymore :(

Hong Kong trains in snowy NE England https://www.checkerboardhill.com/2020/09/mtr-train-testing-tyne-and-wear-metro-england/

The Great Leisure Heritage Rail project to restore at least one Class 56 Malayan Railway Pacific for trains from KL to Butterworth seems to show some signs of progress. I had been very sceptical https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1215608552733824

Me too.

NORMAN GOH and TSUBASA SURUGA, Nikkei staff writers March 6, 2024 12:22 JST KUALA LUMPUR/SINGAPORE -- Malaysia is reviving a plan to build the country's first high-speed railway connecting its capital of Kuala Lumpur to neighboring Singapore after the two governments failed to reach an agreement on an earlier version of the project. The first seven proposals submitted recently by the private sector include bids from consortiums led by state-owned China Railway Construction; South Korea's Hyundai Rotem, a Hyundai Motor unit focused on railways and defense; and local conglomerates such as MMC, Gamuda, YTL, WCT Holdings and Berjaya, according to people familiar with the matter. MyHSR, the government-owned entity leading the project, declined to name the companies interested in the project. Japanese companies did not submit proposals during the expression-of-interest process that ended Jan. 15. MyHSR will shortlist three to four consortiums for the next phase, the request for proposals round, as early as this month and present its review of the bids to the cabinet, sources said. The Malaysian government is expected to present the proposal to Singapore over the next few months to determine if the city-state wants to take part in the project. "We want to finalize [the proposal] as quickly as possible, hopefully over the next three to four months," a Malaysian official told Nikkei Asia. MyHSR is also discussing an option to extend the line from Kuala Lumpur only to the southern state of Johor if Singapore decides not to participate. The expression-of-interest phase of the bidding follows Malaysia's call in July last year for the private sector to submit proposals to develop and operate the project through a public-private partnership model. In August, Singapore said it was willing to discuss any new proposal from Malaysia "starting from a clean state," then-Acting Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat told parliament. The city-state said at the time that it had not received any new proposals from its neighbor. The revived plan comes as momentum grows for Malaysia to enhance its transport system and help make Johor a regional investment destination. The government signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore in January to jointly develop a special economic zone in the southern state as a new engine of growth. Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, who became Malaysia's new King in January, said he wants to revive the project. "I will make it [come back] on," he told Singapore's Straits Times in an interview published in December. But Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said the government will not fund the project, and is instead seeking privately backed proposals. Due to the country's financial constraints, the government favors proposals with "comprehensive financing," an official told Nikkei Asia. During the initial review of the private-sector proposals, the Chinese consortium consisting of China Railway Construction, China Communications Construction and the Export-Import Bank of China, was seen as a strong candidate for the shortlist, given its financing scheme, sources said. The high-speed railway project with Singapore was first floated in 2013 during former Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration. The 350-kilometer link, which was agreed in 2016 and due to open in 2026, would have cut travel time between the two cities to about 90 minutes, versus more than four hours by car. The high-speed rail line had been expected to boost cross-border business as well as development of areas along the line. The two neighbors have close economic ties, with the air route linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur one of the busiest in the world. At the time, the project was estimated to cost around $17 billion, and companies from China, Japan, South Korea and Europe had expressed interest in contracts to build, operate and finance the trains and rail assets. But the project was hit by multiple delays due to escalating costs and changes in plans. The project was eventually scrapped in 2021, after Malaysia and Singapore failed to reach an agreement. Malaysia paid more than 100 million Singaporean dollars ($74 million) in compensation to Singapore for the termination. But analysts say significant hurdles will need to be overcome if Malaysia is to complete the project. At an estimated cost of up to 120 billion ringgit ($25 billion), funding is another obstacle for the government, which seeks to pay for the rail line with capital exclusively from private companies. Adib Zalkapli, director at advisory BowerGroupAsia, said the project is "very ambitious," and will be "costly" for Malaysia to complete without clear government support, although the country's tight fiscal position poses serious constraints. To shore up the country's fiscal position, Malaysia in October passed legislation to limit the country's debt to 60% of gross domestic product within three to five years. The country's debt as of December had reached 1.5 trillion ringgit, or over 80% of GDP, well above this target. Additional reporting by Dylan Loh.

I'd love a model of this: the finest loco produced at Gorton, and possibly the most powerful built in Britain.

Try Boomer Dioramas on YouTube. He loves using all sorts of art supplies such as modelling paste for tree bark, etc.

I think you'll find that Mongolia, the country sometimes referred to as Outer Mongolia, has only ever had railways using Russian broad gauge. :-)

Tax avoidance.

Bonkers.

The gaps in RTR OO are tiny compared to the chasm for TT120 so far. I think you are right that you can build a "serious" model railway in TT120 with the models available now. But options are very limited.

If that were the case, the economy would never grow.

If that were the case, the economy would never grow.