Nick_Burman

Oh yea, forgot to say - one advantage of Peco 75/100 switches is their geometry - the fact that you can join a small radius switch next to a large radius one while still retaining parallel tracks is nothing short of a stroke of genius. Plus the fact that they are more compact for a given radius (the Peco Small Radius is the equivalent of an US #5). I wish that PECO had transmitted these characteristics to the code 83 and the future code 70 switches (or has it?), rather than following the US 4-6-8 denomination. Cheers NB

Well, it had been announced... then, silence. I have a bit of US HO which I would like to give a place to run. Most of it represents a pre-1929 shortline, so code 70 or 75 track is a must, code 83 is just too heavy for this. I'm not going to order Peco code 75 if Peco 70 becomes available. Cheers NB

For the kind of US modelling that interests me code 83 is just too heavy. The alternative would be Walthers/Shinohara code 70 but it's unreliable (one rather grouchy US model shop owner called it "S***ohara"). Another alternative would be Micro Engineering... hard to find at times and their flex is a pain to bend. That leaves Peco 75 as the closest alternative - bullet-proof (almost), easy to work and readily available. Which leads to the question - what of PECO's code 70 line? Cheers Nicholas

Actually, given that these wagons are used for scrap service and tend to get a hefty beating the only thing missing is a bit of weathering... (actually the side needs to be bowed a bit back...) Cheers Nicholas

Reminds me vaguely of Randolph Street on the South Shore/Illinois Central suburban electrification in Chicago... Cheers NB

Hello, I'm interested in buying a locomotive off US Ebay, yesterday I added it to the shopping cart but then discovered that it had "import charges" added to its price. Now, I live in Italy and AFAIK I don't pay any customs duties on model trains bought in the USA (I checked the Italian Customs customs page several times), but I do pay VAT + €7.50 customs clearance fee. So, what are these "import charges"? Are they the VAT + customs clearance charges? Or are they some kind of Ebay-sanctioned scam (apologise the harsh word)? Cheers Nicholas

Hello, I have a lot of train books, mostly of the coffee-table kind, which I would like to try and turn into a few coppers rather than just giving them away. The catch is that I live in Italy and trying to sell the books locally is useless. Does anyone know and British online which deal with buying/selling/trading books online and which would accept a listing from outside the UK? Cheers NB

Casn anyone ID the manufacturer of the signals in the picture? The location is on the Sao Paulo Railway in Brazil, sometime in the 1940's. The finials say Westinghouse Saxby & Farmer to me, but I would like a confirmation. Cheers Nicholas

Which Liverpool museums? I don't live in the UK. Cheers Nicholas

Anyone knows where one can find drawings for Railway Signal Co. signals and signal posts? More specifically the equipment supplied abroad. Cheers Nicholas

Hello, A couple of years ago Heris announced the production of a 7-plank open wagon lettered for the "Societè Belgo-Anglaise des Ferry-Boats". They also announced the same wagon lettered for the French Etat railway and for Palestine Railways - this last one was supposed to be a commission from the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa. Since then, nothing. I've looked on the internet for any trace of the Belgian version, the only thing I find is the announcement pamphlet. Does anyone know if the wagon has been produced or if it will be produced at all? Cheers Nicholas

Hmmm, what about fish? More specifically, freshwater fish. After all, there was the story of the MAV live fish wagon which was trapped in the UK when WWII broke, this was used to carry live sturgeon from Hungary to London for the Jewish community. Cheers NB

Will the 7mm NG/On30 range be also reissued? Cheers NB

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No problem if you have a large walkaround layout - stick it in a hoop the size of a key ring and hand it to the driver, who will be following his train around the layout. Cheers Nicholas

One of my modelling dreams is for someone to come out with a set of miniature staff machines... Cheers Nicholas

The Norfolk & Western J class 4-8-4s had 5'10" driving wheels and yet could keep a passenger train rolling at 60mph without tearing either itself or the track to pieces. Once one hit 110mph while hauling a 15 coach train (over 1000tons) during a test on the PRR's Fort Wayne Division (a very straight and level section of the Pennsy). In an old issue of "Trains" magazine a former N&W management employee recalled how once he was called to help shepherd a stricken J class who had suffered a broken connecting rod while hauling a passenger train back to Roanoke Shops for repair. Rather than wait for a tow, the crew chose to field strip the damaged side and return slowly light engine, running on one side only. Having dismantled the affected side, the locomotive set off at 10mph with nary an undue shake or vibration. The engineman decided to try and open up to 20mph, again no strange vibrations. At a nod, he opened up further, 30mph, no problem... by the time Roanoke came into sight they were cruising at 60mph! The author of the recollection remembers the look of sheer astonishment and disbelief from the crews of trains passing in the opposite direction at seeing this "one-legged" J roaring by as if everything was normal! Cheers Nicholas

Lots of trains there. That opening clarinet solo evokes instant images of NYC's rooftops with their fire-fighting water tanks and plumes of steam coming from heating systems seen during an early morning... and of El trains slowly rumbling over a nearby avenue, their passage casting shadows along side streets... And it's not unduly difficult to attach images from the Pennsy and Long Island Railroad to other parts of the score... GG1s scurrying in and out of Sunnyside Yard while LIRR "Ping-Pong" MU sets bowl past to and from Penn Station... A PRR L1 2-8-2 struggling to get a freight underway somewhere on the Bay Ridge Branch... sitting aboard a commuter train somewhere on the Montauk Branch, watching Kings County fly by through the window while a K4 or G5 on the point gobbles the miles away... it's all there... Cheers NB

Gradients would not be a problem were it to be built using either rubber-tyred or linear induction technology. In either form 8% gradients would be easily achievable without compromising operations. And the terminal station could be pushed well down under to help reduce the climb. Technology isn't a problem here; funding and politics are. I've been hearing proposals for an "Avon Metro" ever since I came to the UK for the first time at age 8 (I'm 43) to visit my grandparents in Clevedon and so far nothing has materialised. Cheers Nicholas

I've been slowly ploughing through this topic with interest. However I would like to point out that the Allegheny Midland was hardly "typical" - it was the Nickel Plate Road (NKP) brought into Appalachia. Tony grew up in a small town in Indiana located along one of the NKP's main lines, some of his earliest memories are of NKP USRA 2-8-2s on local trains dropping and picking up cars at his father's brickyard and of their celebrated 2-8-4's roaring through town with 100+ car time freights in tow, at speeds sometime going over 60mph. And of staying up in bed late at night listening to the nightly through passenger train, hauled by a 4-6-4 (and later by ALCO PA-1s), whistling for the crossings in town. So when time came to build his basement empire he chose to imagine a free-lance company to extend the NKP into the Appalachians - mainly because it was easier to convincingly model mountain territory than flatland Indiana. Initially he went diesel and late 1960's to be in line with the Virginian & Ohio; later he backdated to the late 1940's and returned to steam traction as more good-running, plastic and affordable steam power became available (one of the reasons he went diesel in the first place was the fact that he did not want to take out a mortgage to supply the funds for the number of brass locos he would need and that he did not want to spend long hours tweaking them into reliable runners). However the steam era AM was a near copy of NKP practice - USRA 2-8-2s with "doghouse" tenders, 2-8-4's, "Water Buffalo" 4-8-2s and even a PA on the passenger trains. The articulateds were the only concession to non-NKP power, being models of Chesapeake & Ohio machines (a railroad which, incidentally, shared a commonality of financial control with the NKP for a while). Even the font chosen to decal his locomotives and rolling stock was the same as used by the NKP. Eventually nostalgia won and now he is modelling the same NKP mainline he grew along - complete with his home town and his father's brickyard. Cheers Nicholas

And the funny thing is that one class of van being used was clearly marked NOT to be used for cattle! The wagons were clearly on their last days... Cheers NB

The CP locos were bought new in 1949. AFAIK the Gironde locos were 65t rather than 45t. I think CFTA still has one loco lurking at Gray works. Cheers Nicholas

Hello, Would it please be possible for someone to furnish me with the basic dimensions for the Seacow/Sealion ballast hoppers? Cheers Nicholas

I know I'm a bit late in this topic, but...I don't have a firm freelance project, however the idea floats in and out of my mind from time to time. After poring through the internet, I have decided that my putative pre-grouping line would use industrial design locos of the beefier kind, a la PD&SWJR and Cleator & Workington Junction Railway. Cheers NB