MrWolf

I've really enjoyed helping Chris with this project, working out details from the old drawings and figuring out how to make them work in miniature. The realisation of the models is all his work though and for that part all I've provided is a second opinion. They look really impressive actually on a layout.

I would have thought freight grey too, though obviously I couldn't confirm it. Logically the Great Western had plentiful supplies of the stuff, the train is made mostly from items off the Swindon dump and spent it's time scuttling about killing weeds. I can't imagine them wasting cash on a special livery for something like that.

Es freut mich, alles Gute.

My father bought one of the early ones with metallic red paint, chromed forks and 4 speed BSA pattern derailleur gears, it cost him £27 back in 1954 which must have been an absolute fortune. It lived in the front room of my grandparents house, as even then, fancy bicycles tended to walk. I had a Vindec with Campagnolo fittings and Weinmann centre pull brakes I used on time trials, followed by a Peugeot Clubman that I still have, although it's become a real woodsman's axe over time!

There's a lot of things out there which just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. Fallen for that a few times, first wife being a prime example....

Excellent work Graham and well done for taking it to the next level and turning it into a small business.

YES!!!

I thought that only worked with cows?

Sadly not, but it's typical of the type of bike that we are short of.

Early model of New Imperial, very nice and a rare sight now. My father's first bike was a rather dog eared 1936 model bought for £2 in 1956 or 57, like the one below, I've still got the green log book for it somewhere. It's a typical prewar commuter bike of which there should be one or more on any layout from 1930-60. Image: Bonham's

The little veteran NSU is a thing of beauty and despite being a pre Great War design, could pass for anything made between about 1903-28 and plenty were still around in the late thirties because they were easy to maintain. Of the others, the Triumph with girder forks will pass for any of their single cylinder bikes made between 1930-46. The BMW R75 was originally made for the Wehrmacht and civilian production isn't thought to have taken place until 1946. The R25 entered production until 1950. The American bikes look like Harley Davidsons with the "Knucklehead" engine that was used 1939-48, The rest are from the 50s, 60s and 70s, most of which, such as the Zundapp were imported into the UK in reasonable quantities, having dealer networks established to provide support to owners. A very interesting selection and thanks for sharing.

Not good, I hope that you are on the mend soon. I trapped a nerve in my lower back once, it actually scared me more than other far worse incidents because I'd be doing something and without warning it felt like all the wires had been cut and my legs gave way. It lasted about two weeks until I woke up one morning and it had sorted itself out as though it had never happened. It was very weird. I had a close encounter with the man in black once too. Some poor devil stood on something that went bang and I woke up three days later having had treatment for my injuries and sepsis from foreign bone fragments. That made me slightly blasé about my recent health scare, but I didn't realise how much it had played on my mind until I got the all clear.

I only put the roof up if it was raining, dry days in winter it was roof down and heater on full blast!

Absolutely right. I was only saying the other day that of the five lads who became friends in secondary school and sixth form, there was only two of us left by the age of fifty. Two died in car crashes and one from a stroke. There's me sometimes thinking that I made a hash of being a grown up, flying around on motorbikes and going off working in places that are on nobody's gap year bucket list and generally doing stupid things. Then realised I should be grateful for the life I have.

Rotring pens, now that's a blast from the past. My last one went MIA over twenty years ago, marvellous things for making line drawings and illustrations as well as technical drawings. I'm too heavy handed now for the modern fibre tipped version, plus they don't last five minutes.

Ditto 1968 Triumph Spitfire. Winding both side windows up seemed to make it worse!

That's given me a mental image of a Cambrian Railways wagon fitted with a Tri-ang ducking giraffe mechanism. A repaint of the giraffe required for authenticity of course. Something that I have considered doing with a GWR bogie iron mink. I'm not sure if I'll get more stick from the purists about the ducking giraffe or the fact that it's OO gauge...

You would, as other makers have done, need to manipulate the computer model to make the rims and tyres attached to the mudguards at various points to support them. I doubt that you could print a spoke of around 1/8" Ø at 4mm scale. The art of compromise and all that. It would be a great project though!

There were a lot more bikes in daily use rather than weekend toys in the twenties and thirties and also a lot more women riding than now too. There's a few white metal ones out there, but most are not particularly good, I don't think the sculptors could get the details or the engineering at such a scale. There's a few decent ones that can be detailed with work because they are real old stagers: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153521759358? But there's odd things to be aware of like riders wearing helmets, something that doesn't really take off until about 1960 and not mandatory until the early seventies. There's a very good BSA M20 in one of the Airfix RAF bomber re-supply set, but it's 1:72 and a tiny part of a big kit. There's the old standby of the two bikes from the RAF recovery set, again 1:72 but the riders are moulded on and both giving a right hand turn signal. At least they work at a junction as static figures.

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. - Walt Disney.

That is something that I have often thought. Unfortunately ours are two from 1949 and one from 1951. One of the two I'm after is 1946, basically the 1939 model, but with noticeably y the wrong front forks for a prewar bike. It does however give me an excuse for the next addition to the equation being about 1936, which would be rather nice. It's all down to opportunity and the asking price!

Likewise, it came from Hattons and like many, the tyres came adrift on the driving wheels and I had my first ever demonstration of the wonder of superglue at NorCol models in Leicester.

Same for my generation, around Loughborough it was Brush engineering, Rolls Royce or Goodwin Barsby. Those of us deemed to be destined for university were given zero careers advice and were told that the uni would provide. Of course the uni didn't, assuming that as we had made it this far, we must have come from a family of career people and already have the right connections. Try explaining to most people born post 1990 that joining the right bit of the military is better than a degree in many cases and opens a lot more doors. Plus it's a good option for anyone who doesn't want a huge debt and doesn't have a rich family. They generally parrot out some pacifist mantra. Not a lot of use when someone comes at you with an AK on his back and waving a panga. 😉

That all sounds very familiar, except I'm 53 in May, substitute the apprenticeship for university and the pharmacy technician part for restoring / trading in vintage motorcycles and being an artist and that brings us up to date. My father was pushed into engineering as an apprentice toolmaker in 1956, hated it, survived the slow death of the Midlands manufacturing industry until 1988 and went driving lorries on multi drop work to schools, hospitals, prisons and other state controlled institutions for a lot more money and a lot less aggravation.

Which will no doubt be announced about ten minutes after I finish converting a 1466 into 530 🙄 Which was announced about ten minutes after I finally got around to upgrading the ancient Airfix model.... 🤣