Edge

I once drew up a scheme for another 'Big Five' company; The NWR (guess at the provenance there) It was a while back, but i seem to recall that they formed in the grouping and were based around Carlisle, but got as far south as brum (my hometown, and the planned layout was a fictional Birmingham terminus for the railway), and even ran trains through to London on the WCML under a track-share agreement with the LMS It was a rather impressive history, and i drew up a fair few fictional engines for the line (awful pencil drawings mostly) but my skill was never quite up to the task on hand to actually make them. Incidientally, 'Locos that Never Were' is both a stonking good read, and a good resource for making freelance projects believeable.

Well, i'm currently planning a layout that is a factual company (NCB) and has the occasional factual engine (a couple of panniers in NCB and Stephenson Clarke livery) I've got a lot of freelance stuff on there as well At the moment, we have NCB black Ivatt 2-6-2T 'Sans Pareil', NCB Terrier 'Propsero', NCB Class 17, and NCB 'Austerity' (J94) 'Caliban', as well as a large number of wagons including 'Toad' Brake vans liveried with NCB letters. Planned are: an NCB black 'USA' tank, NCB workers coaches, a bunch of other Austerities/J94s, vivid yellow 08, and a bunch of totally fictional industrial engines based upon the Bachmann Junior and Thomas Ranges. And if you think that that is bad, wait until you see whats going to be passing through on the mainline P2 with blue/grey carriages (well, obviously they've rebuilt one) SECR Grey 689 on birdcage stock (well, obviously its a preseved railway having an industrial Gala), BR liveried Garrett (well, bit of a squeeze, but sort of the right time) Class 50 (well, i like them) and the Flying Scotsman in USA guise with two tenders and the 'Devon belle' observation car (well, shut up) So with my good self at least, I hope that the freelance layout is not dead

Its actually Hrnby under the Rivarossi moniker. It's to 'HO' scale, not 'OO'. And as far as I am aware, manufacturers dont share things like CAD/CAM files. The MR one has a much wider selection of british liveries though. the only possible livery that could be used on a british layout with the 'HO' one is the USATC livery

Lest we froget as well: Flying Scotsman, Coronation (Duchess of Hamilton Really, but let's gloss over that one), and King George V all went to America on special tours, and that Pendennis castle ended up in Australia. GWR Dean Goods(?) 0-6-0s and GWR 2-6-0s both ended up in france in WW1, and a large number of the 0-6-0s went back in WW2. I recall hearing the story of one engine (a Dean goods I think) that went to france in both WW1 & WW2, was captured by the germans in the latter, captured by the Russians from them used for a long time, repatriated and then shipped to China! It may even have been brought back by the preservation movement, I cant remember that far

Oh yes, forgot to mention that Class 66,08,20, and 67 have all either run abroad or seen use there

I dont understand how it is possible to be hit by a train at a level crossing. It is so very very easy to avoid it: I mean, the route that the thing is going to take is marked out . Stay off the rails, and stay alive, why do people have trouble with that concept? And why is their journey time more important to them than their wellbeing? Ive seen a guy vault over a level crossing gate, and run accross in front of an oncoming train because he didnt want to wait. Madness

A GWR Prarie made the rounds a few years back. poland, Turkey, France, Holland I think. It even headed the Orient Express for a liitle while. I also know 'Fenchurch' from the Bluebell went to Holland for a visit

Has anyone else noticed that the 'keep off' end is actually higher than the other end?

If its never been run on a layout, how does he know that it performs well on a short test?

This is quite exceptional craftsmanship http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OO-LIMA-CLASS-17-BR-CLAYTON-DIESEL-ENGINE-CAB-No-D8900-JUST-BEEN-SERVICED-/181080311562?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2a293a470a#ht_570wt_959

Should this model sell well i think it would be a safe bet that any follow up model would be from the FR or WHR. I imagine that the 'Fairlie' was another front runner for this first model, and could be considered close to a sure bet if there is another made. As with the MW, it can be made in a huge variety of different liveries and guises (with a little modellers compromise, it could be everything from 'James Spooner' to David Lloyd George, with only the saddle tanks of EoM making a big difference). The onyl other engine that I would consider to be a reasonable competitior would be 'Russell', but I'm not sure that they will take a gamble on her until the maket has been proven. However, speculating on such things is putting the cart before the horse a bit , I'm definitely going to do my part to make the MW a success, and I hope it is but the first of many 009 locos in british RTR

As i said, I believe that this is a brilliant step forward. I doubt it will be too long before we see double ended engines coming from somewhere should these engines be a success. I firmly believe that generic 009 would be a bad move in RTR. It simply would gather enough support from the enthusiasts, who I belive would much rather wait for a prototype engine. Dont get me wrong, I adore freelance engines and railways, but I firmly beleieve that they will never sell in RTR. All in all, I personally believe that Heljan has played a blinder here. With the cafuffle over 'Lyd' in recent years, and the introduction of L&B RT stock,a nd with the profusion of kits that even I could build, anyone now has a decent shot at creating a believeable slice of the L&B.

Now now now people, surely we should all just love all of god's little lines I will be sorely tempted not to buy the entire range of locos, plus a couple more for repaints into freelance liveries If there is one at Porthmadoc Harbour station in BR livery as 'Lyd' (yes, I know the cab is wrong, but there have been greater leaps of imagination e.g. Modelzones commission of that Heljan railbus) then I will certainly buy it. Come to think of it, even if its not in Porthmadoc Harbour, I'm likely to buy it. Maybe if Peco do the L&B coches in FR livery, a set could be arranged? I'm also eager to see what else might be in the pipeline. I imagine it will be another well known design, maybe a Double Fairlie? Or an W&L Beyer? All in all thoguh, Heljan are to be applauded for this. i'm ruddy useless at kit building, and I adore 009, so my efforts so far look as thought they have been made from plasticine. Happy that I can have a good loco now

On a practical note, perhaps the A frames for the track (and indeed, the locomotives and stock)could be 3d printed? It could well save you a lot of money

What?!?!? Why did no-one say anything

That was sort fo the problem really, they were interested in the hobby. Not me. Grrr. All men have a hobby that their partner rolls their eyes at at some point its just one of those things I guess. Toleration is the name of the game EDIT: edited a long time after the fact to remove a stupid opening line

A1Steam have announced their intention to use an identical tender to the one on Tornado with 2007.

It's suprisingly good at slow speed shunting as long as you are gentle with the throttle. The wheelies comment is entirely justified if you are heavy-handed. Mine went off so fast once that it reared back and got its coupling stuck in the sleepers Model Rail Sentinel is excellent (got one, planning to buy two more), but dont discount 0-6-0 locos like Jinties and Panniers as well. They are well-catered for in models and are very fine models of their prototypes

I dont think so. The tooling would never be able to take the 'Bugatti' front end without a pretty obvious seem being there. Also, the chassis wouldnt be of much use because of the necessity to retool a new set of valve gear for 2002-2006 (2001 & 2007 had/will have poppet cam, 2002-2006 had walscherts) and an A2/2 Pacific would need an entirely new tooling altogether, very few parts survived on the real engines, and there are almost no common components when tallking about a model.

I suspect that the 2007 project, although at best years away from anything resembling a loco, was one of the factors in deciding upon a P2. They could have a limited edition model in half a dozen livery variations (I wonder how they would have looked in garter Blue...) out rather quickly as and when demand may support it. I for one will be getting one. It doesnt fit with my chosen era, or prototype choice. But wht the hell, I like it

My pal was involved in a tragic bungee cord accident, but he bounced back from it

Then you are one of the enlightened few, sir. I once saw a 40 year old man throw a temper tantrum (including jumping up and down) when someone called it a 'trainset'. Have noticed more than a few stern looks over the years when the same was said. EDIT: The gentleman involved was part of a club that I was also involved with, and flew into a rage when he was told he would have to loose an inch from his scenic backscene. I'm pretty sure that he and the club parted ways after that little fiasco

That'll be one in USATC Grey, one in Br Green and the Longmoor one please. And a couple of sentinels too! Thank god I model preserved railways no other excuse to run this stuff together

I think I have to Holy Grail of these. Walk up to any and all of the beautiful models at any exhibition and say in a loud, bold voice: "like your trainset mate' And prepare to run...

Hi, does anyone have a pic of this engine somewhere? I rather like oddities such as this one, and it would be nice to take a peek at how well they have captured the characters from the books