darrel

Sadly not able to make it this year as I'm busy playing with real trains.... I mean working. Hope the show goes well for the organisers. And hope all the visitors have a great time. Hopefully make it next year as it's always an interesting show.

Remember the parcels depot was still open. Not sure if there would have been a class 08 for shunting. Before my time.

Hi I know nothing at all about 3D printers I've never owned one or used one. I've never done a cad drawing. I have seen a 3d printer in use and I have bought 3d printed models. I can see a lot of uses for the technology. I noticed yesterday that Humbrol are now making a 3d printer its a very reasonable price. Has anyone bought one and is it any good?

There is one cottage manufacturer who only takes cheques. I do not have a cheque book. I had to give my mum the money and get her to send them a cheque. Its a right pain.

Yeah the original brakes were some sort of cable brake and the cable stretched and the brakes became shall we say soft.

As you say they were used on occasional Carlisle Dumfries runs. They were also used on Edinburgh to Bathgate runs for a couple of weeks when the line opened. The class 140 was used on a few demonstration runs. There seems to have been little in the way to prevent them from being used. The class 141s were modified at Kilmarnock and ran under their own power. There were one or two class 141s that made it to Inverness depot for work to be done. (Much to my surprise when I saw one in the shed there in the early 90s.) And some of the class 142s had work done on them at Glasgow works where they ran under their own power. But Scotrail never got an allocation of them and use on passenger services beyond those mentioned above never happened. The reason behind this was ScotRail management didn't want them due to the pacers being such bad trains, it's as simple as that. There were some routes around Glasgow which may have been suitable but strathclyde PTE which heavily subsidised trains in the area didn't want the pacers either. You have to remember when the pacers were built they were built on the cheap. So much so they had to be modified soon after with new braking system. New doors. New engines. New gearboxes. It would be interesting to know if it would have been cheaper to have built a class 150 instead, by the time you take that lot into consideration. It may well have been that ScotRail realised that it would be about the same cost to buy a class 150 which would also have better riding and better seats. Don't get me wrong while the pacers once modified were still rough riding, they were known to drivers as bouncy castles and nodding donkeys. They were actually very reliable in my experience, I didn't have a single failure when driving one.

When Leeds Station was being remodeled there was a point where one platform was blocked to electric traction. (I can't remember the platform number now) There was a sign on the signal before the station "No electric trains platform xx". Anyway on the day in question two driver team managers (neither of whom were particularly well liked by drivers) brought a class 308 ECS from Neville Hill depot into the station. The signalman mistakingly routed the train into that platform and the two DTMs took the road and ended up stranded on that platform. A loco had to be hired in to drag it back out. This caused great amusement in the mess room.

I saw the email and thought I'm not going to buy one unless they do 60059 in Loadhaul livery. DOH! Take my money.

Some of the things I've seen in my time in the railway you simply wouldn't belive. But yes you do get the odd fantasist. We had one guard who told the story of how he and his brother had been flying to Cape Canaverel to fix the space shuttle because they had designed it 🙄. On the way there they were talking to the pilot, the pilot asked him where he worked, he told the pilot what depot it was. The pilot replied "oh yes I know it well when we see that depot we turn left for Glasgow Airport!" 🤔🙄 Same guard was according to himself, in a band with Eric Clapton, had a vidio recorder that could be set with a remote control from 20 miles away and had a gas power television. How this lunatic ever got a job in the railway is beyond me.

Not sure but if she could ask the driver to let her know when they are there.

If this is one of the first class 142s made with a motor in each coach, it is a good idea to wire the two coaches together. The first ones were poor runners due to each coach only having one pick up on one side. Once wired together they run much better.

Rainbow railways do them

My west highland set has just arrived. I'm blown away with the amount of detail on each coach absolutely stunning. We'll done

OK I will possibly be opening up a big can of worms with this, but hear me out. Over the last 25 years we have seen models become more and more detailed rtr models are now better than ever. However the extra detail comes at a price literally prices for a lot of new models are becoming perhaps too expensive. I'm not going to give specific examples, however there are one or two new models where I may have been tempted but was put off by the price. One area of modern image which has been overlooked by manufacturers is EMUs particularly 25kv EMUs. I have been told in the past that one reason is that a 3 or 4 car EMU would be too expensive. The same could be said for many DMU classes which have not been produced. would we as modelers be prepared to accept less detailed models? Looking at multiple units if a manufacturer was to produce a EMU or DMU to the detail standard of a Lima class 101 or a Hornby 110 but at a price range of £100 for a 2 car or £150 for a 3 car would we accept that. I'm talking about perhaps moulded handrails or having holes in the model for handrails and a separate sprue with handrails for you to fit yourself, like vi trains did with class 37s or lima class 66s. What I'm not talking about is having underframe detail like a Lima class 156. Given that a fully detailed 3 car EMU would be somewhere in the range of £400 a model costing £150 would be more friendly on the wallet. Most EMUs don't have a lot of handrails though first generation EMUs have separate brake pipes and MU cables again these could be fitted by the modeller. Multiple units wouldn't need to have powerful motors like a locomotive something similar to the motor in a Hornby railroad locomotive would be good enough. Working lights should be cheap given the small cost of LED lights. How would we feel about having a basic detail model at a reasonable price compared to a fully detailed model at a much higher price. Would we accept the compromise if it means we could have models of prototypes that would not otherwise be made? I would love to see a rtr class 303 and would be happy to have to add extra detail myself. At £150 I would buy lots of them. However at £400 I would buy less. I grew up with Lima models and accepted having to detail them to get what I wanted. Have we maybe become spoiled with the fantastic detail we see today?

Brilliant thank you so much Fran. I'm in the middle of converting a lima class 73 to a class 73/9 to run with my mk 5s this has just solved my problem of how to couple it to the coaches. My order went in when I got the email.

I don't understand this one from Hornby a one off prototype that only carried one livery. A model that has already been done by Bachmann and done extremely well. If you want a model of deltic chances are you have already bought the Bachmann one. Which is also much cheaper. Instead of wasting all the development costs they could have done something else Instead something with more livery variations that they could sell more of. If they wanted to do a prototype loco they could have done the prototype HST power car. If they wanted to duplicate a Bachmann model they could have done a class 47 there are enough livery variations to make that worthwhile. This seems a bizarre decision by Hornby.

I'm sure some of the trains leaving Bowling had class 40s at one point not sure how far they worked

As mentioned washing in soapy water helps with the painting later on. I've only built one model ship kit it was of the QE2 as a present for my mum and dad. Only difficult bit was the white line on the hull between the red and the black its very fine and trying to mask up around the bow and the stern was a right pain. Took a few attempts but it worked out well in the end. .Good luck to your wife.

Looking forward to it as always. Better check that date for Sunday you seem to have missed out the number 6 just to avoid any confusion

Mine was more of a daydream I have never had the space for it and it would have been rather big. Glasgow Queen Street with the low level and the subway included. One problem with that would be the lack of models of the subway trains What period though? 1980s in my youth with class 37s and 47/7s or in steam days but then you would need working trams as well. Like I say a day dream.

Thanks there are 3 locations on the North clyde line where this happens the one I was referring to was Helensburgh Central the other 2 are Milingavie and Dalmuir platform 5. All the locations see 2 and 6 car EMUs

Signal protecting a 3 platform terminus station. Platforms 1 and 2 hold 9 cars platform 3 holds 6 cars. If you are going into an unoccupied platform you get the main aspect. If you are going into an occupied platform you get the subsidiary signal. Platform 1 and 2 if you are going on top of a 3 car position light will come off about 40 yards from the signal. However if you are going into platform 3 on top of a 3 car or into platform 1 or 2 on top of a 6 car the position light won't come off until you are about 5 yards from the signal. It's a right pain in the bum. And drivers are told to stop 20 yards from a red signal. So why do you have to get so close to the signal before it clears. I get that it is to show there is less space in the platform but why so close?

Finally managed to free my class 92 from my local DHL collection point. Turns out you don't need a barcode, the guy I spoke to in the shop yesterday was just clueless. Any way. Now that I have it and have it out the box all I can say is wow. It's even more impressive in the flesh. The level of detail is amazing the finish is amazing. This is the first Accurascale model I've bought (I have plenty more on pre order.) Well done fran and your team on a great model.

Mine is sat in my local shop waiting collection. The shop say I need a barcode that I don't have to collect it. Phoned DHL they told me I have to ask on line for a barcode. Which I did they emailed me back saying I need to phone them to get a barcode. By that point all their phone lines are off and the call handellers are away home or off to the pub