dasatcopthorne

Pete. Be careful. Placing a flash gun tube too close to something can burn it out very quickly. With extra bright LEDs these days being so small, why not fit two and face them at the viewer? Dave

Nick. Tony McDiarmid (spelling) can be found on the yahoo group Semg (Southern email group). He now live in Germany and has a layouts based on the LSWR section of the SR. He was a member of C&SMRC and is still a friend. (Well that's my version anyway). BTW. Did we meet in front of the DCKits stand yesterday? Dave Smith

Hi Guys. All this talk of Waddon etc. and the Carshalton & Sutton club is being monitored. Careful what you say. :-))). Nice to see my old friend Colin on here. FYI the club is going strong and can be found at www.csmrc.co.uk. There is also a current thread in 'Layouts' re the Falcon Road TMD and Oil Drum Lane layout. I'm enjoying all these reminiscences though. Yours. Dave Smith Hon. Secretary Carshalton and Sutton MRC. :-))))

The powers-to-be have ordered a clean up of the Depot and its surroundings! Eric is about to start on the Ladies toilets while others make a start on repairing bits and pieces including erecting a new length of fence and getting the old Forklift started. Dave

Colin. Draw each baseboard as a Shape (an oblong in my case 1200mm x 600mm) and name them and save. Then on each session, open the 'shapes' file to load them. Although Templot is for drawing individual track comonent templates, it's easy to join each one as you draw. Dave

Mmmmm! Templot. Wouldn't be without it. I think there are two secrets to Templot. A good pre-drawn plan on your boards so you can transfer the track position measurements into Templot. Draw your baseboards first as 'shapes' And most importantly. Play with it first! Bummer. That's three! Good luck Dave

Hi Colin. Hope you are improving. Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated, coming from someone with your modelling skills. I 'discovered' 00-SF 16.2mm when a friend bought Templot to assist if track design and building. We later designed two layouts with this now FREE software. I cannot remember now but the designer of Templot, Martin Wynne suggested through the Yahoo Group that an existing (but little known) gauge of EM - 2 might hold a solution to running RTR locos on better looking and better running track. With flangeways of 1mm, running through frogs is much improved, as you would guess. My use of it is/was because some of the much improved steam locos from both Bachmann and Hornby proved almost impossible to re-gauge their B2Bs to 14.5mm. The old stuff is much easier. As these were club layouts, members with lots of stock could not be asked to re-wheel all their locos, so 16.2 was settled on. As for the matt varnish (water based), this came about from an article from the States, in which someone used Matt Medium. So cheap over there but so expensive here. A few experiments made, I settled on the varnish. At the time I was also concerned about granite ballast turning green with PVA. Don't use that any long now, anyway. If you have a go at this, don't forget the IPA. Washing up liquid doesn't seem so good with the varnish. The varnish isn't quite so hard when set so where track crosses baseboard joints, I still use PVA for about the last 25mm up to the edge to resist chipping the ballast when moving the layouts. Best of luck Dave

Early on Saturday morning, 33 101 turned up to position a couple of wagons for the P Way Gang's use. Dave

Thanks, hammer73. Dave

Thanks for your comment, Bob Dave

I'm happy to report that the Falcon Road P. Way gang has recently been out laying a new pipe run opposite the Bagged Aggregate shed ready for increased throughput. This also requires that a new colour light position needs to be established for the run up to Oil Drum Lane sidings. Clearly a jack hammer is needed to prepare the ground. Dave

Guys. Finally got round to sending my 31 174 (weathered|) off to Hornby. I included a short letter explaining that I had retained the body as it was weathered and that I thought that thewy weren't doing weathered at the moment. New chassis received in 8 days and it's a weathered one. Great service. And a refund of postage to come. Wow! Dave

No pressure on me then!!! :-))) Best of luck Pete. Dave

Steve. Took these yesterday. They are of 1123. Lots of details are the same as on 6L/6S/6B. Sorry about the shite mobile phone quality. Can get them properly again if you want. Hope they help later. Dave

Pete. Firstly, everyone seems to get that driver's off-side door wrong. It's only 21" wide. Like other DEMUs Hope these help Dave

Got to go out for Anniversary dinner this evening but will post more later. Should be useful. Dave

Only just spotted this. Bloody hell mate! Take it easy and you'll get through it. All the best and keep us updated Colin. All the very best Dave

Hi Pete. Will this help. It's 1202 on 01/01/75. Got the other rooves when you need them. I also have a few measurements from a 6S D/M Dave

Hi Colin. Back again. At our Club (Carshalton & Sutton MRC - www.csmrc.co.uk) I build the track for our '00' layouts to 16.2mm 00-SF standards but also operate our P4 layout 'Harton Gill' and help with maintenance. My conclusions on P4 are thus: Not just the accuracy of gauge but near perfect track laying combined with good wheels with accurate B2B and are perfectly aligned both horizontally and vertically. You will know that exhibitions take their toll on layouts especially track and more so the moving point blades. Those delicate tiebars are all very well at home but I personally feel you need more for an exhibition layout. I use.75mm (or so) double sided glassfibre copperclad sheet turned on its side. Dave

Colin. Think about this from the other angle. The saloon 'compartments' are larger because the partitions are thinner! Dave

I mat be wrong on the 2EPBs, I was thinking of the 2HAPs, first all pipes, then just the tank filler, then no pipes and re-shaped driver's front windows. Dave

Having looked at lots of 'suburban style' units, changes seem to progress with build dates. Less and less items on the roofs as time goes by until you get to the last of the Haps where they have none at all. Hope the scans below help. The sketches were made on return home from forages to sidings and depots. Some measurements vary slightly due to measuring across the arc of the roof. Still, an inch is only .33mm. Reply here for explanations or PM me for full size scans to be sent to you by 'WeTransfer' Hope they help. Dave

Ian and all. I'm not sure if I have given this tip on here before and I have no wish to teach anyone to suck eggs so appologies if I am doing either here. On BR Standard Southern EMUs of the suburban variety, a lot of roof info can be 'calculated' from the roof panels. (Other than over the guard's doors) I have attached a shot I have enhanced to show the weld lines. You will see that there is one each side of the door. A narrow panel shall we call it. Then a large panel until the next doorway where you will find another narrow panel, etc., etc. So, looking at the 'paneling' you can often calculate the position of light tops, vents, conduit cleats etc. Cheers and sorry if you already know all this. Dave

Ian. PM me if you would like the full size scans. Easier to see the detail! Dave

Ian. Last shot is for comparison only. Have enhanced shots to bring out the detail. As per Bachmann Dave