C.A.T.Ford

Gary Chivers do a kit for a D3. I've done a couple and they are quite good given that an 0-4-4 is a pig to balance. CAT

Oh Boy! a feast of interest in layouts supported by an ideal balance of traders. My advice is to award the Exhibition manager with a bottle of wine and to buy another to toast the teams health. Quality in spades backed up by a friendly team helping the exhibition visitors around the show. Cat

In truth a quick fag near a Banda machine would have been dangerous as the fluid was industrial Meths. However this was never mentioned and it was typical to find someone cranking away with a cigarette in their mouth. Mind you unless you knew where the machine was in the staffroom it could be difficult to find in the perpetual cigarette smog.

Yep! Definitely a Banda machine! I've spent many an hour doing worksheets on one, by the way the AV techs at school would provide you with the carbon sheets Four different colours if my memory serves but handle turning was not part of their remit. However Gestetner work was all their's as long as you typed up (stencil setting on the typewriter) the stencil first and drew any diagrams using the ball ended pen thing I now use for embossing brickwork. There was also a scanner which produced stencils from prepared artwork. It was a rotary device which gave off clouds of Ozone and needed people to leave the room while it worked, however you had to go into the room when it had finished when the room was full of Ozone. Schools were exempt from the offices, shops and factories act so anything went. CAT

I've checked my gate stock set against the drawings in Mike Kings Pull-push coaches and the Modeller is quite correct. The battery boxes are centred under the doors and the brake gear on the wrong side. However whether it is worth the amount of work it would take to move the parts and the collateral damage it might cause is an interesting point. I'm pleased with the crimson on my set, I think it very reminiscent of a coach which has been out in service for a time and faded a touch. CAT

Uckfield show this weekend I'll be taking the CBD&RM down on Sunday (after they've been to Church of course). For those of you without the scars, if I tell you the C stands for Catford you should be afraid be very very afraid! Being a Catfordian I'm very proud of my M.A. in armed robbery from our local University (I'm working on a P.h.D. in building society blagging) CAT

< I will have back up also as Southwark MRC are exhibiting and they near Millwall ground and 'no one likes them but they don't care' and they always come tooled up.> What! I've met them, they are as bad as the Spanish inquisition only they don't ask questions! mind you the "squeaky winders" gang from the clockwork gang are worse.

The show was an improvement on last year In my opinion and I thought very well attended. There was an excellent display of layouts and a good trader base along with interesting demos. I thought the "Round table" sessions were really good and encouraged the people taking part to acquire useful skills to help their modelling. This idea does everything the old lectures didn't with less stress on the group leader. The atmosphere was particularly good among exhibitors and public with everyone seeming happy and to cap it all I managed to buy a motor fitted O2 and gate stock set from the ever wonderful Kernow. CAT

I once bought a Radley Met. BoBo kit which some poor person had attempted to glue together with P,V,A, The resultant splodges of glue closely resembled thick porridge. It took a couple of hours to clean up mainly by peeling thick strips of P.V.A. off, but made up well using Solder where appropriate or glue (Not P.V.A. or superglue) where glue needed to be used. You may think that the person who tried to use P.V.A. was a loony but I prefer to think they were Naive and lacked a source to indicate the correct way forward. At least they bought a kit and had a go instead of sitting there croaking "I can't do that"and never trying. CAT

" stuck together with the likes of UHU, Bostik or Evo-Stik. With regard to the last mentioned, at least 40 years ago I built some BSL kits for Thompson carriages. Because the sides and floor pan were made of aluminium, and the roofs made of wood, I had to glue these together, with Evo Stik. The bogies and underframe detail were soldered together (the latter attached to the floor pan with glue). Guess what? Over the years some of the sides have 'sprung', and roofs have lifted. Yet, all the soldered components are still as good as new. " Tony: Can you please tell me the solder and flux to solder Wood to Aluminium and thus prevent the deterioration of the glued joint most of us would be forced to use? CAT

I think these wheels are Bonds and I have a reason for this thought. When my Father taught me scratch building he bought two chassis from Bonds one for a small prairie and one for a 57XX. Both were for outside third pick up but had similar wheels. Once the models were finished I was allowed into his railway room to see them run and then thrown out of the room and never saw them again until I was clearing left over bits when he died. for old-times sake I wanted to see if they could run and so replaced the wheels with Romfords. The square on the axles was slightly different and I had to ease out the Romford wheels with a square needle file to fit. With this in mind you should find the wheels a sloppy fit on a current squared axle. CAT

Andrew I see you have discovered the worm hole to the Gamma quadrant that exists under every modellers work bench. I have a theory that the ferengi sell the parts on Deep Space nine at an enormous profit. You can tell how much this annoys me by the comfort story I've made up to lessen the pain! CAT

\QXC Sorry about this my cat wandered acrosswwwwwe]# (just did it again) the keyboard. You may judge for yourselves if he has made a contribution to the thread. Personally I think he was supplied without intelligence perhaps I should send him back? CAT s-0

A big thank you to the Mid Essex club and Ken for an excellent show from the Batcombe crew. I could not have had a better show to return to exhibitions after my recent cancer surgery, everyone was so helpful and cheerful. There was a great atmosphere all day and plenty of interest from the public and fellow exhibitors. Good to see Steve Flint flying the Peco flag at a local show, I'm sure he was impressed. A special thank you to Cat the figure painter who painted a new grass snake for us when we lost our old one in the van. It had the yellow band behind the head, the black bars down the body and the underside was slightly lighter! Now you know why she was a demonstrator. CAT

Just got back from setting up Batcombe and was very impressed by the quality of layouts and the trade support. Precision paints are there so a great opportunity to stock up without the problems of postage. CAT

Just managed to get to my Mike King P&P book all the pictures of class P are pre 1927 and none show a riveted smoke box. The plate on page 15 shows a P propelling a three coach set away from Otford. While Chapter 10 has coach drawings and more class P plates, What would we do without Mr. King? CAT

Excellent info Northroader it saves me feeling bad about not being free to find the photographs! It should be remembered that at the time of the P class being P&P locos the SECR used a mechanical linkage through the set similar to the GWR. The LSWR were playing with cables over the roof and the LBSCR were developing the air pressure system which became the SR standard. I just wonder how many of these systems were "adapted" by crews. CAT

The six wheel Pull-push stock worked the Sevenoaks Tubs Hill-Bat and Ball shuttle I have some pictures of the train in a couple of books in my library but I'm busy preparing my layout for an exhibition and can't afford the time to hunt through a hundred or so. CAT

OK. Not a large exhibition but the quality was excellent. The traders sold me everything I wanted and the layouts were a feast for the eyes. I was particularly taken with Wendover a GCR/ MET layout. CAT

Or maybe it's a J which is of course a huge H. CAT

(OT - while on minimalism does anybody remember the large single cylinder Field Marshall tractor with a cartridge start? As a 12 year old I was allowed to drive one on a relative's farm beside the Crewe line just north of Shrewsbury. I suppose it had oustanding low speed torque - but for me a most satisfying tonk-tonk-tonk noise.) dh I have just cause to remember the Field Marshall tractor. A good friend had always wanted one and working his way up from stationary engines eventually bought a mark one. These did not have the cartridge starter, you fitted a starting handle onto the centre of the fly wheel lifted the decompressor lever got the engine spinning on the handle and then dropped the decompressor and bingo! Thanks to some smouldering card board you screwed into the cylinder head it fired and ran. I seem to remember he told me they were either five or seven litres. Yeah right! we cranked like mad dropped the lever the thing kicked back and I got a drones eye view of a Field Marshall tractor as I was thrown over the engine cover followed by a crunching impact as I hit the ground. It took a week for my arms to stop aching, they must have been real men back in the day! CAT

I fail to understand this. The Brighton were (Other than "Balloon" stock) predominantly an arc roof railway when it came to coaches. Having said that the Southern adopted several several Brighton traits in its Pull-push stock the air control and the four window end. CAT

You can tell by this post slightly earlier in the thread that I can tell you what they are. They are a rather good attempt at a Brighton Pull-push set You should compare them with the Railway Modellers you already have to see what you need to do to improve. The RM versions are reasonably close to the Brighton open corridor ( corridor but no compartment doors) Brighton units. PM me for more details if you need. CAT

Alan Parsons. I Robot. CAT

\aaaaaaaaaa` This is a message from my Ginger cat who is a keyboard freak. Sorry CAT