davknigh

A tip of the hat to Chris and his team for their usual great service. Ordered a kit and a few other bits and bobs on 27 January and the package arrived at my door for signature yesterday afternoon. The new kit packaging works just fine for transport. Cheers, David

Any chance of raising the Ark Royal? She might be in better nick… Cheers, David

Truck mounted couplers are generally associated with lower quality equipment when found on freight stock. Cheers, David

I’ve been reading articles about the demise of the hobby of model railways/railroads since the late 1960s and in many respects things have only got better in terms of the availability and quality of products. The nature of the hobby is changing with a decline of brick and mortar shops but an increase of online retailers and people who work online and at shows. As long as goods and people travel on rails there will be people who want to model them IMHO. Cheers, David

The run around section seems a bit complex as most moves would involve coming back out to the front of the layout by a rather circuitous route. Is the track at the very front for display/programming purposes only or does it connect via fiddle yard/sticks to the rest of the layout? Cheers, David

Admirable sentiments but the trick is with enforcement. I can think of a number of incidents reported in our local press of people stopped for assorted offences only to find that they were driving without a licence and had been nicked on other occasions for the same offence. This is particularly the case with some who have been charged with drink driving. We had one local type who “borrowed” his mum’s car and promptly crashed it. There are far too many who view driving as an inalienable right. Cheers, David

Which is good to know and well done Rapido for including it. But I’m thinking of the chaps who have shelves full of stock with T/L couplers who could be converted if they saw that bigger isn’t always better as far as couplings go. Sort of a “Here kid, the first one’s on me” and gradually ease them into finer things, if you get my drift… Cheers, David

May I make a suggestion? The existing T/L couplers look ridiculously large on these engines, and other small 0-4-0Ts if we are honest. Why not come up with a compatible smaller version of the coupler that does not look like, as Tim Shackleton once put it, “like a grand piano hanging on the buffer beam”? It might just attract more customers put off by the appearance of the existing one. Cheers, David

There is an article in MRJ 297 on a Cement Plant Manning Wardle that uses an Impetus kit as a starting point. The mounting of the motor is more in the style of a High Level kit and uses a half boiler leaving the tank open to accept the motor rather than trying to use the firebox. I’m not certain it will work for the RT kit but might be worth a look. Cheers, David

Yep, standard Mashima 1015. More a reflection on how small the engine is. Cheers, David

It should be possible to gear the centre driver if you go to CSBs for suspension. I grant you it is a bit fussy but it should work. The catch is stuffing the motor in the firebox. I’ll try to post a pic later. As promised Cheers, David

In the spirit of the season, Frank Kelly and “Dear Nula” Cheers, David

Assuming you are doing this in HO, WP&Y is 3’ gauge, Newfoundland was 3’6” gauge what mechanism are you going to use? Cheers, David

The Great British Train Show will be on again in Brampton, Ontario, Canada ! Dates: April 27th 10AM - 4PM, April 28th 10AM- 3PM 2024 Location: Jim Archdekin Recreation Centre 292 Conestoga Drive, Brampton, Ontario L6Z 3M1 Featuring: 20 layouts, Static displays, demonstrations, Vendors of new, used and collectable items. Admission: Adults $10, Children $5, Family of 4 $20 Other: Free parking, refreshments available Organized by : The Platelayers Society Sponsored by; Rapido Trains Further information: http://www.theplatelayers.org

I have difficulty believing that there are enough lifeboats unless they are of huge capacity or there are a lot of inflatables tucked away somewhere. Or is she “unsinkable”? Cheers, David

Every time I see a vessel that size I think to myself, “what would it be like on board with a norovirus outbreak?” And shudder. Cheers, David

Not so much a dying skill but a desire not to have the bike nicked. Around far too many places a bike left standing like the one in the picture would be gone in under a minute. Even bikes double locked get stolen if they happen to have the right marque. Cheers, David

A small moment of pedantry if I may, Rapido is a Canadian company that produces models for the North American market. The company name is Rapido Trains, no USA, no Canada, just Rapido. FWIW the Rapido was a Canadian National passenger train that ran between Toronto and Montreal in the ‘60s before the advent of Via Rail. Cheers, David

One wonders if a reciprocal arrangement will be in place whereby more NA goods will come to Hatton’s and more UK stock to Klein’s? that could prove interesting. Cheers, David

FWIW I’ve built both compensated and sprung (CSBs) and both demand jointed rods but unless your track is really dodgy 0,5mm play up and down is all that should be needed in 4mm scale with crank pin bearings a running fit. As an added bonus all wheels will stay on the track for better electrical pickup. Cheers, David

Everything you wanted to know about suspension but were afraid to ask: http://www.clag.org.uk/41-0rev.html Yes, it is primarily about 4mm scale but should easily translate to 7mm. Actually I’d be surprised if there were not something similar in one of the 7mm sites. https://www.gaugeoguild.com/ https://www.scaleseven.org.uk/ Cheers, David

It's a plug door refrigerator car, Athearn Blue box kit. The identifier is the pair of boxes on the underside to the left of the door. Cheers, David

Given all the bells and whistles the beastie has I should imagine the only limitation would be the imagination of the programmer. Cheers, David

Indeed, it was inspired by the Wallop trio but is not restricted to them as there are other places that use the same nomenclature, generally in part. Besides, if you are going to build a fictional Light Railway rule one applies. Cheers, David

Pick a name from a map of a small place in the middle of nowhere, add “Nether, Upper, or Middle” to that name and hey, presto you have a location. Add a generic factory producing some arcane product such as candle wick or buggy whips on its last legs, cottages for the workers and away you go! Come to think of it, Midsomer Murders is a good source for variations on obscure place names too. Cheers, David