Oldddudders

Pete A lot less interesting than the other detailed replies you've had to date, but border crossings in the passport sense hardly exist in Europe now. I live in France, but when I drive into Begium, or Germany, or Luxembourg - each of which is still a sovereign state in its own right - I only know I've arrived there because ther MAY have been a sign by the road! Minor roads lack even those, so it is only roadside "furniture", names and general signs that tell you you've crossed over! I believe this is in some contrast to the US borders with e.g. Canada, where friends have indicated delays can be long and tedious, and officials can get decidedly "funny". Oh, yes, there is one crossing that is still regimented in Europe - getting back into Britain, where I was born, still takes a check with passport and steely stare from an official at the Eurostar terminal in Paris! The UK has not signed up to the "no passport" agreement common to many other EU states, so naturally the states that it borders with via the Channel take a similar view of Brits entering their land, too!

Bit slow on this, sorry. Port Isaac is aka Tresoddett, courtesy of Posy Simmonds (sometime Grauniad cartoon strip artist, e.g. The Silent 3 Of St Botolphs) who lives nearby. As for the pub, yes boozy evenings in the Golden Lion, before staggering up the hill. Wherever you stay in Port Isaac, it's always uphill from the Golden Lion!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-Hornby-DUBLO-3-RAIL-D1-SR-GOODS-VAN-MINT-BOXED-/400121791049?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5d291e0249 Sincere Dublo enthusiasts and other suckers kindly form an orderly queue. Oi! No shoving, there!

US modellers have been at this sort of thing for years. Given the enormous number of railroads that have operated in that continent, adding one of your own devising is hardly likely to cause disturbances. Thus a number of the most feted and successful of US model empires have featured imagined companies. Two that come to mind are W.Allen McClelland's Virginian & Ohio, and Tony Koester's Allegheny Midland. Each identified very closely with a particular area of the US, reflecting topography and traffic from that region, and was scenicked accordingly. Locomotive liveries - steam and diesel - were intended to be "typical" in design, reflecting the era of the model's assumed prototype. Freight cars were - just as would be the case in the UK - a mixture of "fictional home road" lettered cars, and faithful models of actual prototypes from surrounding railroads, the ones with which the fictional road "would" interchange traffic. Unquestionably this is tougher to do in the UK, although the proliferation of TOCs has helped a little. Tougher still in the steam era. Needs some careful thinking through, perhaps.

Intrigued to learn that such a vehicle is called a "container wagon". In my day I think they were called Minfits, or, oddly, POs? But then, I never did get into O gauge, so I'm sure that explains everything.....

I know I'm not the brightest on these new-fangled TOPS numbers for locos, but how can a loco be a Deltic and a Class 52 at the same time? Has he rebuilt it with hydraulic transmission, perhaps? That would have some sort of scarcity value, at least....

I can't answer your question directly, but if you want to make OO flexible track look a little better with more realistic sleeper spacing, this chap has an affordable product to help you. http://www.phd-design.co.uk/

No Julian, by no means a waste of time! The wires are visible - and anyway, even if no-one ever visits, you know they're there! A box ticked on the to-do list is always time well-spent!

More delicious vignettes there, Rick! Good to see such progress!

If my painting looked half as good as yours, especially with such a complex livery, I'd be well pleased! Lovely job!

Any sort of fire tends to get the emergency services involved - people nearby dial 999, that sort of thing - but the need to identify the extent of damage to vital systems, and thus the safety of the vehicle and those it is attached to, probably means it would not be very different. Unlike a car, where we drive onto the hard shoulder, and everyone drives slowly past gongoozling to see what all the smoke is about, the railway comes to an inevitable halt, and traincrew are not paid enough, nor given the training, to enable instant judgement on all the technical issues. Just imagine if they decided that the fire was now out, off they go, it breaks out again - and this time the whole train goes up, also setting fire to the packed passenger train passing on the opposing line.....

Sorry, I was implying that the report was grisly, not your choosing to link to it, which I believe was right! I also think the OP's idea is a good and original one - until you look into the detail of how it would pan out, and then it doesn't quite work, sadly. Bob 65B's idea of the tarp and imagination is a great alternative - without beggaring a good piece of rolling stock - but probably misses the operational interest of that detaching move.

I'd be more than happy with that appearance in OO, so getting that fine detail in N is quite an achievement.

Fire on a train is a hideous thing, because the draught of the motion helps it accelerate rapidly, and as we know, even if you pull the cord, the train can't quite stop on a sixpence. Cromptonnut's grisly link makes the severity pretty obvious, but because of that, the idea that a coach would be detached, while the rest of the train went on its way, is clearly never going to be allowed, since any fire of such magnitude to "stop" a vehicle is going to invoke a major inquiry, thus the train will terminate - in open country if necessary - with passengers detrained. The whole train will then, having been examined for basic safety systems etc, (i.e. brakes and other key systems operable in, or at least through, the damaged vehicle) be moved - at a prescribed slow pace - in its entirety to a nearby siding, there to be left, the damaged portions covered in tarpaulins, and further examined at leisure by the necessary experts to determine cause etc. I suggest that only after that examination process has been concluded, photos taken and all evidence prepared, will consideration be given to moving any vehicles. At that point the damaged coach may indeed be removed from the rake and the rest of the rake released for depot attention, since it would be likely that smoke-logging etc has damaged or tainted adjacent vehicles, inside or out. I never had to deal with a fire on a train, and I'm jolly grateful!

Hmm! My recollection is that when I was at South Central Sub-Sector in the late '80s, an Initial Proposal came forward from the RCE, proposing the renewal of the pavilions - and probably balustrades too - in re-constituted stone. I would have endorsed it forward for NSE approval, which should have meant budget provision was made. Sadly I then moved upstairs to NSE HQ, so lost touch with progress. Your pics appear to show the pavilions to be in apple-pie order, which convinces me the work must have been done. I do hope so! The chap I was thinking of on SEmG is John Divine, who seems very much in touch with civils matters on the Brighton line.

Not every exhibition visitor is from the same drawer. A percentage are dads and lads, for whom the big roundy will always be attractive, since it is the ultimate expression of the "trainset" dad had and lad would like. "Something different" is always a winner with those whose palate has become a bit jaded - in my era it was GWR BLTs which packed the exhibition programme, so an LMS BLT seemed novel! For me, at exhibitions, in magazines or on RMWeb, the atmosphere & detail are the clinchers. As three RMWeb examples off the top of my head, Torrington, Kylescu & The Mound, and Newhaven Harbour all have that certain something that grabs my attention when I see them listed in Active Content. If there are new pics in the fresh contribution, I am always impressed. Size does matter to some extent, because micro-layouts often lack operating variety, even if they hit the spot with the atmosphere and exquisite detail.

Rod I think there is at least one serving civil engineer from this patch on SEmG, where you and I periodically lurk. Given my belief that the pavilions were reconstructed - using reconstituted stone, rather than the vrai chose from Caen - in the last 20 years, he may be able to talk to contacts who hold drawings etc. Just a thought!

Big Up Jazz Volume Two - The Attitude. Released 1994, purchased last week and been playing for 8 days, which is some sort of record (sorry) for me.

I think Nick's right. Streamline OO/HO track was designed with the international market in mind, and it has been quite successful in some overseas marekts, e.g. USA. It does look poor in comparison with scale OO track, but remains the only choice for those of us with too little time/skill/patience to do the job ourselves.

A superb, scopy, imaginative concept for a less-than-commonly-modelled prototype. We know you have the collective skills, but the magnitude is enormous. Assuredly one to watch!

All good romantic stuff! A pullman mid-set does indeed remind me of the 6-PUL, of course. Just a thought, though - if you're not going to use red blinds, it needs a tail-lamp!

Great use of a narrow space there Rick. The train in the landscape, with a great foreground, all in less than 18", probably? This layout just gets better!

A pint of Tinner's, please!

Actually, the 25's elder brother, the 24, helped displace Bulleid Pacifics and other steam from the Kent Coast lines in 1959-61, so their influence does extend south of the Thames. The different TOPS codes, 24 vs 25, are a later invention - they were all from the same manufacturer in much the same number series originally. As for the point made later in the thread about new steam, this is one of life's paradoxes. Tornado is a success, without a doubt, although it doesn't interest me. However, the substantial money needed to build it - which has apparently already been recouped by Tornado's promo appeal - would simply not have been made available for restoring rusting hulks, for which the "market" is limited to those of us who patronise the preserved railways etc. I have sympathy for those whe resent the loss of a future opportunity to get another loco restored, be it diesel or steam, but rusting hulks do nothing for the image of the preserved railway, which to pay its way needs a smart, wider appeal beyond the enthusiast movement, rather than looking like a scrapyard.

Terribly tiny, I know, but I'm always blown away by the "smoking"/"no smoking" window labels on my Hornby Maunsells. They really were part of the coach furniture until comparatively recently, so any kit going back a few years ought to give the modeller the chance to drive him/herself batty fixing them on the windows! Perhaps printing them on acetate would help do the trick? Does acetate work with model aeroplane window glue? I suspect so.