PatC

I'd like to echo the praise for Railtec's excellent service. I ordered a couple of sets of transfers yesterday morning. I received a confirmation email late afternoon and the package arrived about 10.30 this morning. That is outstanding service. Thank you Steve.

I agree with Big James about the Manning Wardle. There were various smilar designs of 0-6-0ST contractors engines that were in use for decades in all sorts of settings and could legitimately appear in a huge range of liveries. Can't believe a manuafacturer isn't looking at them in light of the the current interest in RTR industrial locomotives. I'd also look at RTR narrow gauge. 009 is in the ascendant at the moment but, given the popularity of RTR O gauge, I think there might be a market for RTR O16.5 too. So a Quarry Hunslet or a Simplex in O16.5 (but easily convertible to O14) might be a place to start.

Last show I atended as a punter was the Sothamapton MRX at the end of January. Everyting seemed normal then. By the time our club's annual show in Romsey came round at the begining of March, and spending much of the weekend on the door, it was clear that a lot of people were already worried about the virus. I got the impression that quite a lot of our older visitors were having one last fling before things got bad.

That looks brilliant. I've been following your progress on this for a while now and I think you're doing a splendid job. I know that bit of the island and you've certainly captured the feel of the place. Really looking forward to seeing further developments.

Blimey! I'd forgotten that I started this thread. Where did nine years go? Thank you for all the recent images chaps, some interesting things there. Particularly nice to see images of 05 001 and of 03 079 and 179 together. I only ever saw 179 sitting outside the depot at Ryde and 079 at Sandown. I have to confess, my plan to build an IOW engineers train hasn't actually advanced in all this time. 03 179 and the iron ore hopper are done but the Cambrian Dogfish kits remain unstarted and the 15 ton brake van was built in 1930s Southern guise so I'll need another one to finish in 80s condition.

Have alook at the Dinorwic quarry Hunslets. Lady Joan was origianlly 'named' No 1 and carried a nice brass nameplate to that effect.

Chivers, now Five79, used to do a kit for a Forney, something essential for a Maine two foot gauge line. They are currently in the process of reintroducing much of the range, so worth checking out. They used to do HOn30 freight cars and, I think, a couple of passenger cars as well and I think I saw that these may be returning at some point.

There was an update on the Island Line sitution on the BBC local news last night; https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000ly1l/south-today-evening-news-20082020 from about 13:20. Not a bad report, other than the fact that they keep calling the D stock 'tube trains'.

Funnily enough there was an update on the Island Line sitution on the BBC local news last night; https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000ly1l/south-today-evening-news-20082020 from about 13:20. Filmed at Vivarail's Long Marston site, the report says that the first of the D stock is due to arrive in the autumn but that the 38 stock continues in traffic until the end of the year. There'll be a total shut down from January to March while the infrastructure is adapted. The loop at Brading is discussed (no mention if the Sandown loop will be retained) and there is a short bit of archive film from the 1920s showing a Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T in the station. Not a bad report, other than the fact that they keep calling the D stock 'tube trains'. I'd hoped to get across to the island this year for the annual visit to the steam railway with my youngest lad and one last run on the 38 stock down to Shanklin. Not sure it will happen now in the current climate.

At long last, I've finally got myself a copy of this excellent book and I was delighted to see that it's a revised second edition which takes the story up to the announcement of the order for the Vivarail D stock. I have to say that there is so much more in Ryde Rail than I was expecting. I've only just started to read it but I've already learned a lot and seen much that I don't recall from elsewhere (and I've collected a fair few books on the IOW railway system over the years). My personal memories of the Island date back to the early seventies and, as Ben B observes above, it's actually pretty depressing to see the decline in the system even during the era of the truncated electric network (Sandown rather depresses me nowadays compared with how, relatively, interesting a place it was when I first encountered it in the 70s, with the engineers sidings, the signalbox and the presence of the 05 shunter and engineers wagons) . Even in the mid eighties I can remember packed seven car trains and the Pier shuttle being part of the summer scene. Lets hope that we see a little bit of a renaissance in the years ahead. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the Island's railway system.

I don't think this has been posted before. Having dithered for so long that I missed the bargain price from the Bure Valley Railway's shop I've managed to pick up the Hornby model of Terrier W10 'Cowes' for an even better price https://www.ttcdiecast.com/Hornby-r3812-sr-terrier-0-6-0t-w10-cowes-129723-p.asp

I very rarely post on RMweb, I just don't have time to explore everything on here. I have been following the various Terrier threads over recent months as I have a soft spot for them, both real and model. The promise of vastly improved models from both Hornby and Rails/Dapol resulted in me selling off most of the old Dapol/Hornby locomotives that I've acquired over the last thirty years or so. My Rails KESR A1 arrived this morning and having just had a good look over and a quick test run I have to say it is a truly splendid model. What on earth are people complaining about? It's a model, therefore there will be compromises. For £110 it is an outstanding piece of work and the people at Rails and Dapol fully deserve our congratulations and thanks, not our derision. At the end of the day, if you don't like it, don't buy it and go and build a kit instead ( which will cost a lot more). Frankly I'm still amazed that we can buy such fine models so cheaply. Have a look at the price of something similar in European HO.

As of this evening Narrow Gauge South scheduled for 18th April at Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh has been cancelled.

I just thought I'd bump this thread up as the show is this coming weekend.

Romsey & District Railway Modellers Society are pleased to present their 41st annual model railway exhibition. As in previous years the exhibition will be at Crosfield Hall, Romsey. SO51 8GL conveniently close to town centre parking and the bus station and only a few minutes walk from Romsey station, served by GWR and South Western Railway services. More information at http://www.rdrms.com/exhibitions.html

I think there's a pretty common misconception that life in Britain, and manufacturing industry in particular, changed overnight in August 1914 the way it did in September 1939. In fact life at home, in many places, went on much as before for some time, anyway 'the war would be over by Christmas'. I've seen plenty of adverts for holiday rail excursions and charabanc trip dated 1915 and even 1916. There's a well known image of the RFC fighter ace Albert Ball VC sitting in his new Morgan sports model while on leave during, I think, 1916. So clearly Morgan were still making two-seater cyclecars 2 years into the war, hardly an essential vehicle for the war effort. Although motor manufacturers increasingly turned their facilities over to the war effort as time progressed I think it was only as the U-boat menace started to take it's toll on shipping in 1916 and 17 that things on the home front changed a great deal (I know London was on the receiving end of Zeppelin raids and east coast ports were shelled before that). The Model Ts seen in the picture are certainly the original brass radiator models, produced up to 1917 when the later, cheaper, black steel radiator was introduced on UK built cars as well as US produced ones.

Possibly the quarry at Criggion, which was connected the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway. They certainly used Sentinels (which were of course built locally).

Really? What a moron. visitors to Motorcycle Live get free parking in one of the halls anyway so what did they think they were going to achieve. I ride a motorcycle and you get it all the time from certain drivers when you're filtering. It achieves nothing other than endangering the riders's life. On the other hand, the majority of truck drivers are great, even moving over when filtering. Anyway, on a more positive note, had a great weekend operating PaulRhB's Sud Harz, meeting and chatting with lots of interesting people.

I used Halfords red primer on my model of No. 8 (seen next to the type 2 in your picture).

I've made loads of use of the UK Steam site and noticed earlier this year that it wasn't being updated. Try http://www.railtourinfo.co.uk/diesel.html as an alternative. Despite the web address it lists steam hauled railtours as well. it also links to real time trains for timings.

Checked through the stock boxes and packed last night. Layout ready to load first thing in the morning. Looking forward to tomorrow. I hear that there will bacon butties.

Yes, as the others have said, it's a bit of a generic term in 009 modelling. The actual Bemo couplings are getting pretty expensive these days and you'll find most of the other similar ones much cheaper. Like a lot of people I use the Greenwich type which are reasonably unobtrusive and much, much cheaper than Bemo. They are compatible with Bemo and Peco couplings and very easy to build for hands f free uncoupling. They do need folding up but once you've done a few it becomes quite a quick process.

Just a reminder that the Romsey Model Railway exhibition is this weekend. Usual venue, usual timings, usual high quality catering, usual mix of quality exhibits ... but all at a different time of year to usual.

Well done and thank you very much to Model Rail for commissioning an E1. Coming so soon after the news about the Terrier I'm still in a state of near shock. An E1 has been on my list of kits to build for a long time, fortunately I didn't actually get round to acquiring a kit three or four years ago as I knew it would be ages before I got round to actually making a start and the drawer full of unbuilt/unfinished kits is getting so heavy that there is a risk that it will achieve enough density to form a black hole. My interests are in rural backwaters, it's unlikely I'll buy one of the atlantics but I can certainly see more than one of these joining my fleet as I have both pre group LBSC and SR IOW itches that need scratching alongside esoteric light railways. A very impressive selection of liveries and identities for the first batch as well.

As it is now June it's time to bump this topic up. Just a reminder that the 39th Romsey Model Railway Exhibition is scheduled for the 23rd and 24th of June. Hopefully the mid summer date may protect us from the extremes of British weather that led to the late cancellation of the show in March. More information may be found at http://www.rdrms.com/exhibitions.html