Tony Cane

These were moved in groups of 5 or 6 locomotives, one in steam and the others being towed.

Hi Muz The nearest match to the flat top numbers used on some USATC locomotives that I have found is, not surprisingly, from another U S military organisation. The USAF use some similar style numbers, see https://www.dafont.com/amarillo-usaf.font There are others, and of course sheets of what the Americans call decals are available. The issue will be to find one with the numbers in white and of a suitable size. It may be worth contacting a relevant modelling Group for potential sources. You may be lucky and get the eight numbers you need for the cost of stamp. Regards Tony Cane

The transition from Maunsell green to war time black created a number of variations in livery. As an example the information in the Bradley book on Adams LSWR locomotives for the A12 Jubilee locomotives gives the following October 1939 five locomotives painted Maunsell green with Maunsell lettering unlined in late 1939 to February 1941 ten locomotives painted Mausell green with Bulleid lettering late 1940, early 1941 two locomotives painted malachite green

According to Tourret you are correct.

I would suggest that the etched anchors for railway coupling safety chains are used to provide a robust fixing point on both the tank and the wagon. What I have in mind is item 30 on the etch shown here https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/couplings/uc006/ These can be melted into a small hole with a soldering iron, or glued into a clearance hole for the spigot. The small hooks can also be used to attach the chains/shackles, either directly or via a small ring fabricated from wire.

I was 80% through a build of 4 of the Southern Pride kits when the models were anounced. As built the model is 4mm over height, even with the correct wheels. There are three places where the error occurs. The most significant is that the well is too deep by about 3mm. then the mainframe channels are deeper than they should be, and finally the roof overlaps the doors instead of being flush with the top of the door. One difference between the two manufactures is the fact that there are two different roof constructions use on the prototype. The lower numbered vehicles have the roof light offset to the right, and the higher numbers have then central in the panel. From the various photographs and lists of numbers being offered on these model only Heljan are doing both types.

Here is a picture of the real thing and one of the model I made some30 years ago.

The notice in the first picture has the text "European war" on second line of small text. So this probably is a WWI picture backed up by the number of female staff?

My solution to add on brass parts and priming is to chemically blacken them. This effectively primes them and then a "model" primer can be used on completion.

The nearest item I have to gauge this is some 2.37mm dia bras tube. This goes in with the minnium of clearance, so the AF distance seems to be 2.4mm.

Markits do a rather expensive set of proper BA nut spinners. The 12BA one certainly works on crank pins that a 2.5mm nut spinner will not work on, and a 2.45mm drill will not go in to the 12BA spinner. I got my set from Roxey Moldings.

On the assumption that there are two components in the red sleeve, a diode and a resistor, this appears to be a "stay alive" circuit. This is intended to power the decoder through brief failures in the supply from the rails.

Just tried to read a PM but a video screen covered part of the message and I could find no way to move it or delete it.

As I have an interest in ambulance trains, and also build models of them, I would very much like to have the pictures. Please PM me with any costs if they are still available. Rergards Tony Cane

Hi This can be obtained from Shapeways, just search for 1/87 staff car.

Some wartime freight for the White Pass and Yukon Route.

This is as simple as it gets. A small micro-switch actuated by the tie bar.

I have a set as made by Blacksmith, 8 sets in total. PM me if you are interested.

Your proposal that the line to the yard was built during WWII reminds me of an anecdote about the line to Limington during WWII. A senior American Army officer tasked with loading elements of his command at Lymington for the D-Day landings, was appalled at the facilities he had to work with. Having been assured that the railway authorities would give him every assistance possible, he called a meeting of relevant parties, to get an urgent upgrade of the railway. Having expressed how inadequate this twisting single track line with limited siding space was he insisted that something had to be done. The railway officials explained the history of the line and that it was built as cheaply as possible and was perfectly adequate for peace time traffic and could not see how it could be significantly upgraded in the time available. The American officer was having none of this. He spread out a map ,lined up a ruler between Brockenhurst and Lymington , drew a straight line and said “that is the route of the new line we start building it tomorrow”. As D-Day was a success I assume he found an alternative way of getting the “facilities” to meet his requirement !!!! You plan includes various small landing craft in the layout. While these are available as kits the cheapest are typically 1/72 scale, so slightly over scale. There are more expensive kits, typically resin, to 1/76 scale which may be more suitable for the limited space on the layout. As a further thought the LCVP, at least, is available in 1/87 scale, which may be useful in fitting in the model. The attached picture shows a model I built of the, again relatively expensive, resin kit in this scale.

Guess what I have four of, currently on the workbench, and nearly built after much modification of a certain kit.☹️

I have about 40 pairs of the old metal couplings. Most have been modified as shown in the picture, to give an uncouple, push and leave function. If the wire is snipped off they work as normal.

On the bassis of a picture is worth a thousand words I have attached images of what I am proposing. The tool used is by Draper, lowest price I can find is about £15.00, but a cheaper and posibly better tool can be found here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394180045623?hash=item5bc6f62b37:g:DEoAAOSw0Hdi4S19&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4CF45YrcpdVaHE7PetnOOzJWH87YKGl0i3JTG75KzRgHXTLBmUI52W7lnrCsIu9iAeHK6uikBHRRKgoTFAGkJj%2FB1yGCLsaq7KPKJmmqQfNbiPNw3IuKN6sYvbCy26%2BwaUgZ0zWAvnCSwBN9Vr%2BtxSOavJ4a8Id738ejLX%2Fkh1yACSQFpxfUTf5tmTPxdNeobDs8srvF6UOjLWIrv6oIppIUmy5LQA8hJSfyE%2FZsCxkVmXGcrQ%2Fy7s0HRlBB7jb1PI7HGEnREuSXk1EOBNNr5Y7lRIMW5ep0K4t5UjkdsBnU|tkp%3ABk9SR6yx_sWCYQ The connectors are known as bootlace ferrules and come in a wide range of sizes, but be aware there are two different colour codes. Basically one German the other French. You can get 100 for about £2.00, the size you need will depend on the size of the resistor wire. The one I used was 1.00mm but a slightly larger one may be needed. If you are short of space the metal part can be shortend and the plastic sleve removed. I could hang the crimping tool on the connection made, so probably the wire would break first. I use these all the time for layout wiring as the ferrule makes a much more reliable connection in a terminal block

May I suggest an alternative method of connection. A bootlace ferrule could be used to join the two wires by inserting the wires from opposite ends. A crimping tool can be obtained for less tha £10.00 and crimps are very cheap. I can provide further details if you are interested.

While CCTs were used as covered car carriers there were, as indicated above, new vehicles built by Newton Chambers intended for use on London to Scotland trains. There seems to be two kits in N gauge for these. https://electrarail.co.uk/newton-chambers-car-carriers-1829-p.asp https://www.ultima-models.co.uk/catalogue/br-wagons.html These had special short wheelbase bogies so the second kit seems the more accurate. As to the Starlight Express, acording to the book detailing the full history of these trains they were sitting passengers trains. They were introduced to compete with cheep overnight travel to and from Scotland by motor coach. If there was a market for uncomfortable overnight travel then BR decided it could do it better !!!! As to car carring trains there were both sleeper and daylight versions. Pictures show both with six of the Newton Chambers car carriers and about six other coaches.

I very much like the concept of the layout as designed and applaud the use of a WWII setting. I have two observations that may be of use. Firstly the switching of the diamond crossing. When I have needed to do this I have used an adjacent point to switch the polarity of the frogs. For example if on your panel P3 is switched to the orange route then the frogs on the diamond are also changed to the correct polarity for that route, and restored to the purple route when P3 is restored to its more normal state. Two single pole change over switches are needed, and if the point motor only has one then this can be used to switch a suitable relay. As to possible locomotives you are not limited to SR types. Many locomotives were transferred due to wartime traffic requirements and could be found working far from their normal area of operation. An extreme example being the use of a SR 0-4-2T D tank as station pilot at Wick in Scotland.