papagolfjuliet

Thing is, they haven't made their own Western in ages either, while Heljan and Dapol have both produced OO models which given Hornby's usual piratical business practices would have seemed obvious targets for sabotaging with a cheapo Limby product.

Speaking of the Hong Kong pirate copy of the Lima clockwork train set, here it is. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375053045733?hash=item5752e74fe5:g:iuoAAOSwkhllUcRf

Although why they've produced the Lima Warship, which was inferior to the Mainline one, but not the Lima Western, which was superior to their own one, is a mystery.

Narrow Minded Railworks produces a model of that, albeit in OO9. https://narrowmindedrailworks.com/collections/009-locos/products/oo9-009-doble-sentinel-steam-7192-locomotive-fits-the-kato-chassis-11-109_304828119424_

Also, the French have an approach to dealing with people who sack large numbers of workers which goes some way beyond lighting up the braziers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/17/newsid_2540000/2540123.stm

If you've ever wanted an excuse to run third rail stock without the fuss of modelling the actual third rail, look no further than the Eden Valley Railway: two MLVs, one containing a gen set and both stuffed with batteries, providing the motive power for a 4-CEP.

Not the biggest louse up ever made by a motoring manufacturer in Spanish speaking countries. The reason why the Mitsubishi Pajero is named the Shogun in the European and Latin American markets is that 'Pajero' is Spanish for 'W****r.'

One last batch. The Caley 670 0-4-2 in the last photo is an especial delight, if anybody from Rapido is reading this? ;)

Most of them are securely gummed on, alas, and the very few loose ones have no writing on the back. Anyway, here's another lot.

Here's a first batch of pre-nationalisation stuff. Help with some of the IDs would be welcome. For example, which is that (evidently industrial) Sentinel?

Years ago, and I can't even remember when or where, I bought an album of railway photos. All the contents appear to have been taken by the same person over a period of about sixty years. Here's an initial selection, starting from the back of the album so with the (mostly) BR shots first. The majority of this first selection are Scottish. I hope they're of interest.

This episode of The Saint features an extensive chase/gunfight sequence shot on the ECML at Hitchin, with lots of lovely departmental stock on view.

There are others. The Tri-ang BIg Big Hymek was copied by a firm in Hong Kong, as was the Lima clockwork 0-4-0T and HO ferry van and lwb open wagon. Speaking of Lima, the reason why its N gauge BR 16t mineral wagon and brake van were so overscale was that the Lima toolmakers were given the (already too tall) Tri-ang OO models and told to copy them, assumed that they were HO, and scaled them down accordingly. Really true.

The cheap mine tubs incidentally are here. I have no connection with the seller. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235272162721

Another one which I don't think has been mentioned here. About fifteen years ago a Chinese firm produced two sets featuring this, and it is exactly what it looks like: a direct pirate copy of the Hornby Holden tank (even down to the way the bunker is mounted), scaled up to American O Gauge and battery operated. You start and stop it by depressing the chimney cap, and the batteries sit under the tank top. Unfortunately while dimensionally it is 1:48 scale the track gauge is about 3mm under O. It has no reverse gear. I've just dug mine out and have started undercoating it, which is a long job as the plastic is very shiny and virtually translucent. The two sets were named 'Farm' and 'Construction.' I have never been able to find them since.

Speaking of things which are widely and cheaply available at this time of year, I happened to pick up one of those Penguin Race sets and it struck me that it might make a basis for one of those mine tub rides one sees in theme parks or for a mine-based microlayout, so I found some cheap 3D printed static OO9 tub wagons on ebay and started to, ahem, mutilate the penguins... The problem obviously is that the penguins' arms/wings engage with the escalator section, so the options are 1. mount the tub quite high on the body and hide the sides of the track with railings of some sort (possibly Scalextric crash barriers), or 2. mount the tub lower, drill through the body, and insert a length of rod. I'm leaning towards the latter option. As to loads, it turns out that you can buy fool's gold granules quite cheaply online, so a gold mine scene beckons.

Worth noting that Viz founder and main writer Chris Donald, who probably wrote that, is himself a railway enthusiast who owns Akeld station on the old Coldstream branch and used to own the Hawksworth BG which is now a camping coach at Goathland. So he knows whereof he speaks.

In the Prototype For Everything Department, the New York Subway car now at Quainton was originally imported to the UK for use as an American diner on Teesside. https://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/nycar.htm

What wonderfully simple, almost toylike engines to model. Hornby Caley Pug less cab, a bit of plasticard, and a cut down Tri-ang Nellie chassis and or even a Tri-ang clockwork chassis for something marvellously old-fashioned...

I offer you the Ffestiniog's solar powered ex-LNER Wickham trolley.

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Parenthetically back in the very early days of RMWeb I recall somebody shring some images of a model of D0226 they'd made using a Hornby inside frame 08 body and a Bachmann/Mainline J72 chassis as a basis. Must give that a go some time.

Although of course for many years 'Vulcan' carried much more interesting liveries: first two tone red, then DP1 blue, and very nice it looked too in both. Funnily enough the one livery it hasn't carried since arrival is the correct English Electric black and orange livery.

Presumably the '1849 Fitzwilliam locomotive' is the Isaac Dodds 0-4-2 of that name?

Oh goody. An outdoor performance area. That's always a sure sign of something awful.