Nova Scotian

Noticed yesterday that Via's "The Ocean" is now cancelled through November, with bookings suspended for December. Others in a similar boat, although they state some services are returning. I've not heard word on a fix yet for the need to turn The Ocean after its arrival in Halifax and before departure, but I also have poor networks here and have very little clue in general!

Someone really should have a word with them about the unrealistic gap between the body and the bogies

Needs to be white, "Aspen" spec, steel wheels with most of the hubcaps fallen off, a 1.8D badge on the back, and it must be permanently attached to the bumper of the car infront by a too-short braking distance. If there's anyway you can get a middle-management sales type in a crumpled suit folded into the front of the kit talking on a large Erikson mobile that'd be perfect.

That's actually a really interesting thought re. HMCS Sackville. I've been on a few times as a tourist, in a work capacity and one extremely odd invitation event. Not a chance you're getting me to the US right now, even without COVID-19 it's not a place I want to be, which is a shame. However if I do end up going I spend much of my time in New Brunswick only an hour from the border (so only 4 1/2 hours away). The New Brunswick Train Museum in Hillsborough had/has lots of potential and some interesting rolling stock (the stuff kept inside at least, anything outside is rotting very quickly). But they've not steamed in two decades, I think most of the track they did steam on has gone, and I can't imagine it ever coming back. Orangedale (Cape Breton), Sydney and Louisberg (CB) and middle musquodobit all disappointing, I think Orangedale used to run a switcher for a while, but certainly no more. Middleton is apparently about to gain a new resident, but again I can't imagine they'll ever get anything in steam or running. The loss of the Kentville roundhouse stings and I wasn't even in the province for it! If someone buys me a lottery ticket that then wins maybe I'll find a stretch of railway no-one ever wants again, set up a preserved railway with some RDCs, couple of switchers, and end up bankrupt within 20 years

I grew up in Reading and seeing this photo (before the caption) immediately brought back vivid memories of walking along that glass footbridge, stopping when something came in, running down the escalators so as not to miss a fast train to London etc. I had to double take on the photo to make sure that wasn't my father on the platform.

Going to channel the "youth" here; "Pics or it didn't happen". I found the Wrenn Adam's Radial online as it seems to have gone to auction at some time recently. But let's see some of the 70s-90s artwork

At this point if they cancel your orders again they could probably run afoul of trading standards. Refusing to sell once because an item was mis-priced is fine, but doing that repeatedly is a problem. And sharing a bargain, of sorts, a Western Pullman for 780 GBP. Cheaper than any of the other retailers I could find it at within three pages of google searching http://www.burevalleymodels.com/p/11218/30-420---Western-Pullman---Ultima-Digital-Sound-Train-Set No affiliation with them, but have regularly shared some of their gems and my father is a happy customer of theirs.

Your modelling plans are incompatible with my rmweb enjoyment. Please reconsider

Every year I bring my kids over and we go on steam somewhere. Often Swanage, but we've also spent money at the Bluebell railway (near family), Pecorama, Vale of Rheidol, Ffestiniog and others. For this summer I had planned on at least the NRM York, the North Norfolk Railway, and possibly (if we ended up doing both coasts) the West Somerset Railway. I've promised them York next year if we can travel. I'm not overly hopeful, my parents are aging and I'm not going to be the one to kill them by travelling internationally. We have so few decent railway heritage sites left here. There's nowhere in a 12 hour drive radius I can go to find a working steam engine as far as I can tell; nor any not-for-profit lines operating. Hell, with our sleeper service shut down until at least November I'd have to drive 12+ hours just to get a regular passenger train. I hope the lines in the UK survive this - both the financial hit and the health impact on its volunteers and staff.

Odd - tried those in both chrome and safari and it just takes me to the homepage for judith edge. What browser are you using?

Thanks - found them and their links. Those are good prices http://www.tower-models.com/towermodels/ogauge/towercollection/tc1/index.htm http://www.tower-models.com/towermodels/ogauge/towercollection/tc3/index.htm The Mercian kits (with motors, wheels etc) can be quite reasonable, in both O and OO. Any experience from the group on whether they're a good starting place too?

The way the site is built that URL takes you to the homepage rather than the kit (as does copying the URL from any of the kits from what I can see). Can you confirm that's for the Hunslet 230 hp 0-4-0DH ? Does Judith Edge have options to order motor/gearbox/wheels with the kit, or would one have to do that separately? I like their kits.

This is great - thank you! Will edit and add to my first post shortly with this.

I'm sure it's not really wanted or needed here... but I'm jumping in anyway because forums. I did find Andy's initial response slightly mean-spirited, but far worse is your constant baiting of him and the attacks. I follow enough threads here I end up unfollowing some because you just can not leave things alone. KT3 thread, for example. Can you maybe leave the mod baiting aside?

No-one has a good day at Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft - this throws your entire story into doubt

Thank you. There are a couple of "starter kits" out there, and from a position of ignorance I'd have thought they'd be relatively popular as when one is starting out one doesn't know the difference between the different wheel/gearbox manufacturers etc - nor have a particular leaning toward compensation/springing, pick-ups etc. Getting something that folds together, solders and runs would be a massive confidence boost to being able to get into that stuff. I donated some of my tools when I crossed the pond, as there were concerns about shipping cost (stupid thing to do), and obviously anything electronic is a problem as we're 110v here. Then a few I'd built up on the larger side of things I probably left in my divorce (bit of a hurry to get out!) - so it's only now that I have most of the tools for being able to take a decent crack at plastic kits again. It's why I was now looking for whether I could make an expensive leap to brass! I raised IKEA because some of their more complex builds, while still all turning out the same, still involve following instructions with a relatively set list of parts. For the first-time build something more like this would be ideal until I'm confident enough to tinker.

Yeah, sorry about that. OO is the sensible choice; cheaper, good availability (esp of plastic kits), and goes with the RTR stuff I already have. O is the siren call, and the various sales have sorely tempted me (I keep looking at the Heljan 05s at 175GBP and drooling. I've done a few plastics kits; some ratio coaches (but need to order some metal wheels from the UK (or one of the links you shared) before I can continue to work on them), some of the old Dapol kits etc. Pin vices is a good call - I've not been using and should get. Thanks for those four links; extremely helpful. I had not come across britishmodeltrains somehow, not sure how I missed it in my various googling over time. They have many of the bits I need (including cheapish wheels) where I can order from Canada. Greatly appreciated. This is my local shop and it has some humbrol paints, some scenecraft etc, but doesn't cover off anything on the brass side or really anything useful for UK https://maritimehobbies.ca/

Book suggestions: Anything by Iain Rice is worth having if only because of his writing style. Bob Essery is another prolific author who specializes in MR and LMS. Technical books that include works drawings are very useful. Geoff Kent's three volumes on the 4mm Wagon are very good indeed. There are lots of prototype pictures and I still use these even though I'm on 0 gauge. The 4mm Coal Wagon by John Hayes is an omnibus. Starter kit suggestions: - A couple of Parkside wagon kits in your chosen scale. You can build brass underframes, brakes, etc if you're handy with a soldering station and get some soldering experience at the same time! - Judith Edge Hunslet 230hp 0-4-0 DH - Tower Models (Blackpool) do 2 starter kits in their Tower Collection; an Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST and an 02 Diesel Shunter, both are £250, and both are complete with motor, wheels, etc, just add paint! - Branchlines chassis and detailing kits - Budget Model Railways - 3D printed bodyshells to fit on RTR chassis. They are not prototypical, but cheap and easy eg 4 wheel diesel shunter body for £15 to go on a cheap RTR chassis. - for 0-16.5, try also A1 Models who do 3D printed bodies to go on RTR chassis. - for something bigger, try IP Engineering, their Ezee range of kits is inexpensive, eg a complete train and circle of light duty track for £100. - SEF Finecast (with caution) - Smallbrook studios (O-16.5mm) - Comet chassis Tool suggestions: a knife such as Olfa files (diamond ones, or a pack of mini files from your local discount store) a sanding stick (ladies nail files can be useful) a couple of pin vices. 0.020" and 0.032" drills useful Testors gel liquid solvent. fiberglass brush very useful Cocktail sticks Wooden clothes pegs - carve to shape as required Scotchbrite Coffee stir sticks Paper cups = disposable for paint mixing Bulldog clips Paper clips - a handy source of iron wire Blu-Tak Barbecue bamboo skewers 12 inch ruler in my chosen scale and a good 6 inch ruler Swann Morton scalpel handle, a pack of 10a blades, and a little whetstone to resharpen blades Pair of smooth jawed needlenose pliers and a small pair of flush cutters - Xuron makes lovely ones 6 inch medium cut file, flat or half round. Use this only on brass! A good little set square. Seriously. It is the tool of 1001 uses. A little box for all the above and a cutting mat. ______________________________________________________ Good evening Due to COVID-19 I am spending much more of my time in my house without my trains than my apartment where I had begun to build a layout for my kids in OO. Note; this makes it sound like I'm rather well off with two residences; I'm divorced, my kids are 4 hours away and I have a small apartment near them, and my partner pays the mortgage on our shared house because child support! ANYWAY I'm fascinated by the skill of kit and scratch builders on this forum. I remember some of my father's Keyser kits, which always looked better on the box than the whitemetal lump I saw inside. Kits at model railway exhibitions as a kid ranged from "how do they make it look so amazing" to "stuttering wobbly lopsided coffee grinder". As I am unable to progress with building the layout for the kids for at least a couple more months I want to have a go at some starter kits and see if I have any aptitude. It gives me the opportunity to build some oddballs that I really like, and I'm also quite interested in trying some different configurations if I get good. A bit of a mechanical tinkerer. These questions have certainly been asked before, and when I searched through the forum I found pieces of what I'm looking for, but nothing comprehensive and it was spread out over the different scales. I'm hoping you may all have some advice that I can potentially drop into this first post (at the top) as some guidelines for newbies such as myself. The question is in two parts: 1. What starter kits are good value, well designed and likely to have a decent outcome? 2. What tools are needed to be successful without resorting to ingenuity I lack in the build? bonus 3rd: I have an unnatural attraction to O gauge, but the cost again seems so much higher, should I suck it up and go big? Breaking these down further: 1. Many of the kits I've looked at for locomotives really start to add up, even in OO, when you add wheels and motor/gearbox. A 100GBP kit quickly becomes 250GBP. My assumption for a starter kit would have been that an 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 and likely either diesel or inside motion steam would be ideal. This avoids coupling rods and wheelbases being too long, and the idea of outside motion valve gear etc terrifies me. I am drawn to brass, but should I be open to whitemetal? I am a competent airfix plastic model builder. I've done some of the older Dapol ones too, which are good fun, and I was reasonably successful (other than one dry-run slipup that means my 05 wheels will never turn...). I am a spectacular IKEA furniture builder. Who provides decent instructions, preferably with photos? DJH seems to do full colour photos, Judith Edge seem decent? Highlevel are extremely wordy, and my knowledge of various running gear components is only so-so, which is why diagrams help. In terms of what's available I really like some of the Judith Edge industrial diesels, and I follow Michael's posts on here. I will start with a couple of wagons, as everyone suggests. Who does decent, reasonable brass kit wagons in OO? I'm not focused on one region or era; covering anything from 1923- mid 60s would probably be the most useful in the long run. I have an affection for SR steam and Western Hydraulics, but I don't really care too much. If there's an opportunity to build L&YR stock that could be fun for something I have planned way down the road. For the loco - where should I go, what should I do? The highlevel Barclay looks like the best value as all the pieces are there, which is not to be sniffed at given how much wheels and motors/gearboxes now seem to be retailing for. It's especially important to me as I'd prefer to have everything in one box to ease customs, import, ordering, postage etc. I'm Canada based. I'm also not exactly knowledgeable, so knowing which axle, which wheel design, why one won't quarter properly on a whatyamacallit axle with a 1.5m driveshaft etc etc. I would like to have something I can put together, that fits with some fettling, where I can see if I have aptitude and can learn the intricate pieces on from there. Unless there's an O gauge shunter kit that I should be looking at??????? Just not 475GBP with a questionable reputation like the DJH Class 14.... The DJH 03 starter kit has been discontinued. 2. I have little to no equipment. I have looked at soldering irons, of course Canada makes this bloody difficult as it's all third party resellers through large online multi-billion pound blood-sucking enterprises. However, I have found some retailers that can ship mostly reasonably, or have local supply, of Weller. I can order Hakko too. I figure I need 60W, or is that overkill? Adjustable heat settings, right? That gets up to about $175 before tax, so 115GBP with tax. Then a couple of different temperatures of solder and some flux? What type of flux? Dremels? Is it worth getting a chassis jig? I have no idea how to tap a screw, or what a 12db (??) screw is. All the wonderful kit builders on here seem to have various rods, screws, bolts etc on hand. How does one replicate that starting from scratch, and does one need to? Some of you turn brass on the lathe, I can't imagine for a newbie that's going to be something I can handle or afford? Files, stanley knife, cutting mat etc I have from plastic kit building. Paint etc I'm not too worried about as I'll deal with that when I get to it. I used an airbrush 15 years ago, they can't have changed that much! (BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER) So, long question short; what's kit is needed to get started properly? I've seen a few different books recommended - it's hard to search through the forums, so if anyone does recommend a book/booklet I'll drop those into the top of this post too. If I can get the equipment and kits within my budget, I am sure I'll be back asking for specific advice on building. Thank you everyone for your help. If this exists somewhere already feel free to point me in the direction of it with a gentle "pi$$ off" and I'll be merrily on my way

Occasionally I share with my partner an interesting modelling technique someone from RMWEB has used. She almost always asks "is it that man who built the real thing and is now building that really detailed model?" I think that's intended as a compliment; as I only mention good modelling to her and each time she assumes it's you

Wrenn rolling stock (ex-dublo), pretty sure it was on more recent track. That said, it's been at least a year, probably more, since I saw the user and I remember searching for them a while ago and thinking they may have deleted their instagram account. All the buildings and trackside etc seemed "of the period", and I'm guessing were probably Triang and the like?

28,500 self-identified in Nova Scotia as French first language Not quite NB's number, as the only officially bilingual province, but we're prettier and the Chiac spoken around Moncton barely passes pour le francais nest pas?

The gent disappeared from Instagram more than a year ago now, but there used to be someone on there who posted videos often daily of an extensive Wrenn layout. Pretty much everything was Wrenn and it was a well used layout (no shelf queens etc). No idea where he disappeared to, but piqued my interest at the time because it seemed like an interesting choice to lock into one period and manufacturer based on what was likely nostalgia. I have to say it looked really good, and had an appeal for me. I remember my father's heavy Wrenn locos as opposed to the 80s/90s Hornby/Lima etc and they've got character.

Something failed to fly out of the way of that second IEP in time...

Ugh. I just spent massive amounts of money this weekend, and am now having to fight the urge to buy the Lyme Regis pack. That's a fantastic price. Not a "bargain" as such based on RRSP, but most places seem to be sold out of the Rocket pack, Chester Models are listing as still in stock (I have not called to confirm if true). Given prices these are going on ebay, it probably counts as a bargain? https://chestermodelcentre.com/railway/trains-sets-train-packs/r3810-liverpool-and-manchester-railway-stephensons-rocket-train-pack

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