sandra

I thought "chonker" referred to the original Urie H15.

I saw 61013 "Topi" running light through Chester General probably in the autumn of 1963. She was heading west, probably to turn on the triangle at the west end of the station. I even took a photograph but the quality is so bad I can not post on the site. A week later I saw 61022 "Sassaby" on Chester shed. These locomotives had probably arrived at Chester on the line from Warrington and Manchester. However members of the B1 class were very rare on the CLC at Chester, I only saw one once near Hartford and Greenbank running light engine westward. I have never heard of one working into Wales on the Wrexham, Mold and Connahs Quay. They did regularly work along the North Wales coast on excursions during the summer, particularly on summer Saturday's.

I agree with Tony in that the more input an individual has into a model railway the more that railway is personal to them and has their own particular character. However what surely matters is that an individual has the vision that inspires the project in the first place and has the stamina to maintain the project through to conclusion. This is surely why Roy Jackson's Retford is so inspiring. Not only has he had a magnificent vision but he has had the courage to maintain the project and to see it through. I know it is not yet complete but to have come so far is amazing. I find the biggest difficulty in building a model railway is maintaining the momentum and not getting distracted by other projects or ideas. To build a large model of a mainline railway requires a tremendous input of time and commitment particularly if it is being built alone, as mine is. Therefore perhaps it is wise to get other people involved as they may help to maintain the momentum of the project as well of course as shortening the time taken to build it. However what seems to be essential is for there to be the vision of one individual who has the drive and commitment to see the building of the railway through to a conclusion. Sandra

Before I started building my latest layout I experimented by building stock and track in P4 in the form of a shunting plank. I soon realised that converting diesels to P4 was much easier than converting steam locomotives. I also realised that whilst it was possible to get P4 to work, it took much longer than in other scales. This was, of course, entirely due to my own incompetence and lack of skill but I intended to build a reasonably large layout and I seriously worried that I would never get it finished if it was built in P4. I do believe that a large main line layout could be built in P4 but it would be difficult for only one individual to build it. However a team of experienced modellers should be able to succeed. Therefore I decided to build my layout in EM which seemed to be a reasonable compromise and which has proved only marginally more difficult than OO. The layout is a model of Andover Junction on the line from Waterloo to Salisbury in about 1957 so there have to be lots of Bullied pacifics, King Arthurs etc. However if I was building a contemporary model of Andover Junction or one set in the last, say, thirty years then I would seriously have considered P4 as the line would obviously feature only diesel locomotives or units and the track plan would be much simpler. So really it does depend on your skill level, whether you have any help and also the type and period of railway you wish to model. Sandra

I know it is always dangerous to rely on memory but my own recollection is that carmine and cream coaches were still around in 1961 but by that time they were becoming very rare with most sets being entirely maroon but with the odd set containing just one or two carmine and cream coaches. I don't recall seeing them very much after 1961 but no doubt there may have been some. However the carmine and cream livery was prone to fade which was why it was replaced and thus by 1961 those coaches left in that livery were in a very poor state. The carmine faded to an almost pink colour and looked very shabby. The condition of these coaches would be difficult to model accurately. Strangely my memory is that by this time the remaining carmine and cream coaches were mostly BR Mark 1's. I do remember seeing holiday excursions along the North Wales coast line which were made up of older LMS coaches and these seemed to be entirely maroon.

It was interesting to note in the video that the model APT-E model will be designed to allow for drop-in replacement wheels for EM and P4. The video does not say, but presumably these will have to be sourced separately but nevertheless this does seem to be an enormous step forward for those who model in these gauges as it is unusual for manufacturers to take them into account. I hope the project is successful and given the very high specification I may even be prepared to buy one even though I model the Southern Region in the fifties.

The movement of trains on the real railway were basically repetitive, that is the same locomotives performed the same movements every day. The locomotive ran round its train at the branch terminus or the pick up goods shunted the goods yard in the same way. Therefore DC control is entirely suitable for the operation of a model railway because the analogue wiring can be constructed so as to represent these predictable movements. This is particularly true on a layouts such as Little Bytham where the majority of the trains simply pass through or stop at the station. There may be some advantage with DCC in storing trains on the same line in the fiddle yard, however if only one train is stored on each line then there is little advantage. However DCC does allow constant locomotive and carriage lighting and of course it allows sound. Whilst these are undoubtedly gimmicks they are very attractive to the younger generation and I think I have noted an increase in the number of youngsters attending exhibitions in recent years and I wonder if this could be the result of the number of DCC layouts now to be seen at exhibitions. As far as I am concerned if DCC does help to maintain the model railway hobby the I am all in favour of it. I have recently started to build a model of Andover Junction in EM Gauge. After much thought I decided to use DCC. The locomotives are a mixture of converted Hornby or Bachmann and kit-built locomotives. So far there have been few problems with short circuits apart from those resulting from a failure to remember to change the points. Sandra