vac_basher

Worst: 11,12,13,14,20,21,22,38,43,47,48 Fair: 01,02,03,05,06,09,10,16,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,34,39,40,41,42,45. Best: 04,07,08,15,17,18,19,31,32,33,35,36,37,44,46,49,50 And yours? Does it really matter? 03,05,09,10,17,20,23(x2),24,30,34,35(x2),41(x2),45,46,49,50

Spec's on mate B) I didn't say I didn't rate 50035. If you read the other part of my sentence you may see that I said I'll be having 50035 twice. Yes, I admit 50026 wasn't one of the best ones nor was it one of the worst one though. I'd say it was a fair machine. If anybody has any more info about this I'd be interested in hearing about these tests.

Craig, sorry, I didn't realize that Dapol will be manufactoring in the Far East. In which case my argument has little ground to stand on. Appologies.

On the other hand, quite honestly, I would not. I know we should be supporting British products, but I just can't see a British company making a product which is as good value for money as what's being offered from the Far East. Plus the fact that Dapol have announced loads of new 4mm models and haven't even delivered any of them yet does leave me somewhat skeptical. Even the pre-production fotos of the LMS Twins, for example, haven't convinced me. To me the Bachmann Twins look far more realistic and detailed. I do wish them good luck with there plans, as it has to be said they're certainly trying and maximum respect to them for that. I have a D1001 in shiny maroon. It's a beauty. I think it looks very realistic and I'd certainly buy other glossy locos. There are some photos of my Western in the link below.

I have long-term plans for another 19 Hoovers B) And I won't be having 50035 just once, but twice!!

Dear me, this has stalled I haven't been able to decide wether to go for a rectangular baseboard or a triangular one. I've also been finding it difficult to decide on what material to use for the office buildings. My original intentions were to work with plasticard, then I thought perhaps a sheet of perspex might be more practical. Hopefully within the next few days I'll get this going again....

I'm quite pleased with this photo. Although I admit I did tweak the contrast in Photoshop, so I could get the "vintage" look. I don't know if that counts as cheating in this topic There are a couple more similar photos of Lion in my layout thread (see link below).

Do you have any evidence of the world I perceive being not imaginary? And I think there's a possibility that an infinite number of parallel universes do exist, therefore what you're calling unprototypical or imaginary is in fact an absolutely reality in a parallel universe. (I'm just messing with you by the way On a serious note, I think you've made an interesting point)

Adam, your UFOs made me laugh. Well done. Very very funny

I'd immagine that the occasional buyer or gift buyer may pay full RRP, but a somewhat experianced modeller/collector should know by now that savings can be made if one shops around. I believe the box shifters are selling the Hornby DCC-Sound Class 50 for around £180ish, which is quite a considerable diffrence from the RRP

That was close! I've reccently had a "minor obsession" with Class 33s. Fortunatly it seems I'm over it. Just as well otherwise it could have been very expensive B) (Expensive not for price but for quantity required - Not that I consider a £100 model to be really be expensive. Sure, it's allot of money, but that seems to be the going rate for a new top of the range super detailed ready to run model thesedays) On a serious note, this is great news for those in the market for a 33. The spec sounds very good. I do hope my Crompton obsession doesn't reutrn otherwise I'll just have to upgrade

Here's my latest one.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the tunnel has been opened up in the past decade or so. Maybe somebody with better local knowledge could say for certain.

50005 recieved the dark NSE blue in October 1990. 50041 did not get the darker shade of NSE blue. Only on the side with the 5 air vents. (On the other side I believe it was somehow damaged in June 1990 and never replaced)

Last night I just happened to have some new locos for Smugglers Lane on the kitchen table too, so I thought it would make a good photo (using some immagination you can see where I'm going with this diorama B) ). Now, if only the sun would come out for a quarter of an hour I could take some photos of my new models on Smugglers Lane. Come on sun!!

Thanks Peter/Beacon. Jim, I remember the "smiling" clock face thing from when I studied marketing I was tempted but instead went for 5.07 which I thought was a good random early morning and/or late afternoon time. Raffles, quite right how they all smile!! Why would I need two 47555's?

This isn't exactly precision engineering, but as I want to keep the costs down as much as possible on this diorama it will just have to do. The brick pattern is made of match sticks (it's incredibly difficult to find a perfectly square match actually) and the clock digits are made of ear cleansing sticks. I would have liked to have incorporated a working clock, but again I opted against doing so, as to keep the costs to a bare minimum. Since taking the photos below I have added the arms to the clock. It is worthy of note that my static clock does tell the correct time for exactly 2 minutes a day

Looking at some pics of the Class 50s at Bristol, I've had a brilliant idea.... I'm going to build a small diorama of Bath Road, on which I'll be able to display anything from Westerns and Warships, to Vacs, to 33s, to 47s, to HSTs. For a while I'd been playing with the idea of doing the whole depot (from the signal box "backwards"). Although that's not really a possibility at the moment due to time and financial restraints. So I've decided to build this, which if ever I wanted to do the whole depot, could provide the basis for it. As with Smugglers Lane, I don't mind the operating potential is inexistent. I just want a(nother! ) small layout I can take outdoors to photograph my stock on in natural light. I want to spend as little as possible on this diorama, so what I've built so far in the past couple of evenings has all been done with bits left over from previous layout I've built. Here are a few photos of the progress so far. Running total:- Cost so far: £4 Labour so far: 5 hours

All my Class 50s dreams would come true with another 16 in my fleet. Don't tempt me Larry!! Seriously, you'd enjoy your models much more if you had some sort of a layout/diorama to run/put them on. Have a look at my Smugglers Lane for some inspiration.