daftbovine

The photos can be rather misleading, Bodiam's blue looks rather light in the Hattons pictures but a lovely deep blue on Dapol's Facebook page. Looking at online photographs of the 'improved engine green' versions I thought they looked too yellow but when I saw the actual model at a show it looked the right colour.

I have just paid for my black late crest version. As I live in South Africa, I might have to be patient. I have two delivery options, my daughter or DHL. I think DHL will be too expensive so I may have to wait until February when my daughter comes over on holiday. Could some kind soul weigh the box complete with loco so I can get a quote for having it sent by courier? (just in case) Thank you. This will be my first 0 gauge loco but not my first Terrier.

Converting them to DCC certainly can be done but is a bit fiddly. You will find that getting something called a Digi-Hat available from DCC Supplies will help a lot. http://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-100525/digi-hat--the-easy-way-to-convert-graham-fari Whether it's worth doing is debatable, it migh be easier to either stay with DC or buy some of the newer DCC ready models. The newer models have a lot more detail but aren't as robust so that is worth considering too as your son will be running them.

I've started collecting Hornby Dublo 3 rail even though I never had it as a child and started off with Lone Star. I like the weight and solidity of the Dublo loco's and the fact that you can send them racing round the track at break neck speed. They still run very well even after having been stored for years and are easy to work on and repair. I'm glad there are still people who collect and run them.

With all this talk about colour, I'm glad I've ordered a black one. The 'improved engine green' versions look a bit too yellow to me but that could just be my computer monitor or the fact that I am used to the Hornby 00 and Dapol N colouring which may be wrong. I like the story of the 'improved engine green' coloring which legend has it came about because Stroudley was colour blind and chose what he thought was a pleasant shade of green, being a bit of a Victorian tyrant, no one dared to mention that his green was actually ochre.

Has anyone heard anything about the ETA of the BR black versions?

I've bought a few empty boxes off eBay, much to the amusement of friends. Believe it or not they are useful for storing loco's in. Quite a few of my purchases have been unboxed loco's from swap meets. Hence the need for the appropriate boxes.

I think the main target market won't mind if the models details are updated or not, they and their parents just want to be able have them in time for Christmas. We have a Tomix Thomas that makes an appearance on our club's modular layout, he is instantly recognizable by any child over eighteen months and their faces light up as on as he appears. Bearing in mind that we are in Africa it just shows the influence of television characters.

How do you shoot a blue elephant? With a blue elephant gun. How do you shoot a pink elephant? You hit him until he's blue and then shoot him with the blue elephant gun. We used to tell these jokes when we were in primary school, that's how old they are!

Don't forget to try the balloon trick once you've finished with the swatter. It works remarkably well in conjunction with the swatter and is the most inexpensive of the lot. Family members may think you have lost your marbles though.

I think this and the BRM track plan book are designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. I bought digital versions of both just to give me some ideas, I don't intend to copy plans slavishly but to incorporate elements into my layout. With publications like this there are always sections that you don't need to refer to if you are experienced but there is always something new that can be learned. I think both publications are useful and worth the purchase price.

I think your layout is is absolutely great, I would love to see it at a show but I'm thousands of miles away in Africa : ) The cameos are so typically English they make me homesick and the scenery is superb. Your hard work and enthusiasm shine through and above all it looks as though you had great fun building and researching it which in my opinion is what this hobby is all about.

A report back. Yesterday I did a static grass workshop for members of my local club. Static grass is not readily available here and the electric flyswatters have only just started to appear in local supermarkets. We found that we got good results with a flyswatter with FRESH batteries, this is important because the flyswatter seems to go through batteries very quickly. We had to hold the flyswatter close to the fibres to make them stand up properly. I made an earthing "pin" to go into the glue out of a strip of brass. The Noch puffer bottle only seems to work as a very expensive dispenser and none of us could get very good results with it. The star of the show was the balloon! After using the flyswatter I went over the grass with the balloon. The swatter + balloon combination worked as well as a Noch Grassmaster that someone had brought along. I added a pinch of salt to the water I used to water down the PVA glue. If too much salt is added the glue will dry opaque. I have no idea if the salt makes any difference but a small amount doesn't do any harm. As mentioned by a previous poster, weather does make a difference and getting a good static charge in damp weather will be more difficult. As an N gauge modeller I prefer the medium length fibres even if they are a bit over scale for N. For short grass I don't use static grass but use Woodlands Scenics fine turf. I tend to use static grass on embankments, riversides and other overgrown areas. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with static grass and the flyswatter, something I would not have tried if the expensive Noch Grassmaster had been the only option. Regards Veronica.

Most cats are very enthusiastic railway modellers. Ours used to like sleeping on the layout and one rather fat one squashed a ratio cattle dock. Their fur ended up in quite a few loco mechanisms. We don't have any cats at present and I miss them despite the minor damage they caused.

I wasn't going to renew my membership but now I will.

I spoke to a friend who is an electronics fundi, he suggested using a salt water solution to thin down the PVA mix as salt water is more conductive than ordinary water. He didn't think the graphite would work well as a lot would be needed to make any sort of difference. He also said that it is important to check that the track pin or whatever you push into the glue doesn't have some sort of coating on it which makes it less conductive. Another idea was to beef up the power output of the flyswatter by wiring up a power supply from another flyswatter in series with the existing one. This needs to be done with care and only if you know what you are doing. Regards Veronica.

I have done a google search for conductive glue and found some references to it but the glue they mention is used for printed circuit boards. There is however a reference to graphite as an ingredient, that is easily obtained so I will try adding some to my PVA mix next time I'm doing static grass. It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference to the result.

I was interested to see White Rabbit mention that the glue should be conductive. As It's difficult to get glue posted to Africa, can anyone suggest a way of making ordinary PVA glue conductive? I immediately thought of adding metal filings to the glue but that's probably a silly idea! I have used ordinary PVA glue with a flyswatter static grass applicator with reasonable success but I have been looking for ways to improve the results. Regards Veronica.

I've just found this thread - it's great! Very inspiring. I wonder what the layout would have cost if you'd bought everything new off the shelf? That would be an interesting comparison. Regards Veronica.