Malcolm 0-6-0

That really is a wonderful bit of modelling.

Are you going to depict some means of holding the various wooden beams etc., that are supporting the wheel, in place?

He might be thinking "I must get that chair that's propped up against the wall fixed. I kept telling 'er in doors that she oughta watch 'er weight ...."

An old established family business then ......

I can understand why ........

Is that the one that the local real estate agent is offering as a renovator's delight?

Coincidentally I am currently reading Daniel Deronda by George Elliot. Her work which I enjoy, does penetrate to the heart of human relations with that crusading earnestness that seems to have been the lot of well-educated women of the period prevented by their status as ladies from actually using all that creative energy in physically productive ways. I can imagine her as a friend of a well meaning Inspector of Workhouses (and flower arranger). Although from what one knows of Victorian workhouses anything less likely to give charity a good name is hardly imaginable. Truly the abode of The People of the Abyss.

One of the cruellest rules applied in Victorian workhouses was synchronised flower arranging .........

Which tells you why his own political party chucked him out of the post of PM and later on his electorate decided to chuck him out of his seat. Tones is what we Australians are trying to not be seen as. But as I said a couple of pages ago Australia's loss is Australia's gain. Oh one other thing there are secret moves afoot here to have his citizenship revoked so you Poms may have to keep him for ever BWAAHAAHAA .............

There's some other funny Abbott stories. Just after he entered parliament way back in the early 90s the PM of the day the delightfully acerbic Paul Keating famously called him a "young fogey". Also when he entered Parliament the Liberals (conservatives) were in opposition and there was a push from the ultra conservatives to get rid of their then leader (later PM) John Howard who was lagging in the opinion polls. For a time the front runner was the elaborately coiffed Bronwyn Bishop who made Maggie Thatcher look like devout socialist. At the time Abbott was just an ordinary opposition MP and somehow he got drawn into the ongoing debate - he famously remarked in an attempt to prove his conservative credentials that he "was the love-child of John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop" which didn't go down all that well with both of them but continued to haunt him. About ten years later after Howard had become PM, Abbott was Minister for Health. A brick layer from Sydney was widely reported as saying that his mother had told him that Abbott was his father - the result of a fling when both were at the University of Sydney. Naturally the press leapt on this and to quell the rumours and the damage to his career a DNA test was done which proved that he wasn't. Obviously young Tones had put it about then and the only real proof had to be real proof . But then I got peripherally involved (really peripherally ). At the time I was serving on a Federal Government Ministerial advisory committee in my day job, and we were all summoned to attend a meeting with the Minister (not Abbott) in the Ministerial wing of our federal parliament. One of our party was an inveterate networker. So there we are being led down the corridors of power by a Ministerial staffer when as we passed Abbott's office he happened to emerge. The inveterate networker couldn't resist the opportunity to talk to Abbott and as he turned back to talk to him I said in a less than soft voice "bloody hell it's his long-lost father" to which I copped the death stare from Abbott ..... The other famous story is that about a year after he became PM he was at a record low in the opinion polls. So a spill was called in the Liberal Caucus - no one stood against him as his arch enemy Malcolm Turnbull (who did replace him 6 months later) wasn't ready to run. But Abbott only got 65% of the vote which meant that 35% of the Liberal Party MPs just couldn't even be bothered voting to support him. I'm sure Tones and Bojo will get along famously.

Pale greens work with red, dark don't - I think it is a trick caused by the two shades being the opposite of each other on a chromatic scale or whatever it is by which action colour is reversed as in a photographic negative. To me the juxtaposition causes a flickering effect in how the brain perceives it.

Men and women of the UK you're welcome to the divisive little turd. Australia's loss is clearly Australia's gain ...........

Wouldn't the doors to the cab foul the internal splashers over the rear set of wheels. Also besides the green/red combination which never works properly the front wheels are too far back.

That's a little too hi-tech for some of us - I'd suggest one of Mr Edison's cylinder phonographs on a well wagon. Or Monsieur Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville's use of a lamp blacked paper cylinder from 1857 (Phonoautograph) is sufficiently ancient to appeal to the traditionalists amongst us. It appears to have reproduced the sound of the human voice very akin to the sound of a steam engine starting up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonautograph The smoke from our model steam engines could be recycled to coat the paper.

If you look at any pic of Bob Katter there is always someone standing just behind him - that's the chap who operates the wires to make his mouth move ......

That really is a great bit of modelling - I've been toying with a similar resuscitation of that old model myself. It's given me some handy ideas.

Perhaps this warrants a name change for the layout to Little Muddle and Unhinged ...............

Aaaah yes, taken just before his nose fell off .........

Quibble and Cuss had a knife sharpening service? Typical lawyers trying drum up business .....

Looks like a very young Muammar Gaddafi ..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi

Dunno but there's a whiff of something ..........

I understand the trimming to remove an unnatural shadow on the back scene. But, and please don't take this the wrong way as I am quite in awe of of your modelling skills, there remains a problem and that concerns the strange visual dissonance created by the bridge over the mainline tracks. On the left your back scene depicts a gently rising landscape artfully blended into the trees and scenery in front of it. But as the eye moves right that gentle landscape disappears. beyond the bridge we look at a scene in which the visual topography of the landscape is altogether different - the gently rising hill is replace by the hint of declivity with a plain in the background. And the double track under the bridge just stops as if there is a precipice just a few yards away, or a decline that would make even a rack and pinion railway useless with the problem that one can see the ends of the track. I understand that in the 3 dimensional reality of the layout that is probably not a problem but both it and the scenic dissonance I mentioned are all too apparent in the 2 dimensions of the digital image. I suspect that is because we are seeing views that would not be normally be seen without the flexible nature of the camera positions. I'd normally refrain from offering suggestions about how to solve this problem, as I wasn't asked and it isn't my layout, but perhaps some form of forced perspective depiction of a double track curving out of view with a slight modification to the back scene so that the gentle rise on the left is continued beyond the bridge span and then allowed to fall away masked by the foreground to the left of the branch line scenery. In the general visual delight that is Little Muddle the visual effect of the bridge as a scenic break just doesn't convince me.

On the subject of battleship history, I suggest this - https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22817327182&searchurl=an%3Doscar%2Bparkes%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dbritish%2Bbattleships&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2

Ummm ... and you are? Oh I remember you're the chap whose built this Little Muddle whatsit, well could you submit your request for an exemption to the committee and we will rule upon its merits at the meeting next June. We're far too busy critiquing to entertain these requests which come without regard to the due process ...........

I note on the right side door you have modelled a sill there - would it help to extend that slightly so that the gap (if the door was shut) does not appear to be apparent. Perhaps you could round or distress the edge slightly so that it looks like wood worn by heavy work boots.