D9020 Nimbus

The choice of the J50 makes some sense when you think about it. There was demand for an 0-6-0T and this was the only one that could be produced quickly — the only other 0-6-0T they would have a CAD for would be the "Terrier", but fitting a Bluetooth decoder in one would be challenging to say the least. The class 37 seems to be being prioritised over the class 31, for which they will have an 00 CAD as a starting point. It was easier building a range in earlier times, when the aim was to have a loco capable of covering every type of duty — but when the HD "0-6-2T" was expected to cover all of the big 4 (it was never officially an N2). Triang certainly did have LMS leanings with the "Princess Elizabeth", Jinty and its tender engine equivalent — although the only "big" locos in their TT range were the "Merchant Navy" and "Castle". The first ex-LNER loco they did was the B12 in OO. Only Airfix had the goal of providing a balanced range — 14xx and auto-trailer, large Prairie and B-set, Castle and "Centenary" stock — bit of pro-GW bias there, although other railways were being worked on (some models of which were planned but never made, such as the ex -LSWR O2 and G6).

Power supplies certainly can give out substantially higher than rated voltages if they are faulty. I have used a Multimaus with the standard power supply etc as supplied in a starter set with N gauge locos without any problem. The Multimaus is Fleischmann branded but apart from the colour is identical to the Roco one you have. The locos don't get excessively hot.

If you prefer digital issues (I do, I just don't have enough room for magazines and trains) it can be purchased on ZINIO (as, for that matter, can LocoRevue). Just search for ViewLibre International.

A number of Hornby TT120 wagons are a little less than free-rolling in my experience. Though sometimes stock can be too free rolling. In my experience, I've only encountered one N gauge loco that can't haul a prototypical load — the old Minitrix Ivatt 2-6-0. These are, I believe, notorious for this issue. I'm not sure why—it's heavier than most locos, so perhaps it's the weight distribution that's wrong. I don't have enough room to test the haulage powers of the OO locos I have, which is why my main interests are OO9/HOe, N and TT120.

Not counting local shows (like Newcastle) it would be York — in 1987 I think, at any rate it was the one year it was held at Spring Bank Holiday instead of Easter (and the weather was colder than it had been at Easter). In the Guildhall, I believe.

At least in their N gauge range, Bachmann issued a number of triple packs of wagons — ventilated vans, cattle wagons and mineral wagons at least. I believe some/most were weathered. And the N gauge "Birdcage" coaches were made in 3-sets. It's quite a few years ago now, though. Rapido are also doing sets of their N gauge wagons (at least the SECR ones and I think the GW too). I'm primarily into N gauge so don't remember whether this happened in OO. But Dapol certainly did sets of 5 bulk grain wagons — again weathered — using the old HD SD6 body tooling.

This isn't the same type of wagon as the 35-ton tanks made by Revolution. And it does fit my time period, so I'm looking forward to their arrival.

Era III is post-war until the introduction of computer numbering in about 1968. Era II is pre-WW2.

That doesn't look like an N gauge NEM coupling box to me, though all recent Fleischmann locos and stock are fitted with them. I presume your shunter is an earlier model.

I'm not sure why the Jinty is regarded as the most likely. The J94, 57xx and Jinty all have in common the fact that they would all have to be designed from scratch — it is a long time since any of these were introduced to the range, and the "current" J94 was acquired from Dapol. The only recent 0-6-0Ts in OO from Hornby are the J50 and the "Terrier", and the Terrier is clearly the more marketable of the two. However, there are no Southern coaches even planned. I'd like to see the 57xx ahead of the J94 — it's a more versatile loco that could haul branch-line passenger and freight trains, shunt, and was also used by LT and the NCB. They were also about 16 times more numerous and longer lived in main line company service.

While the class 47 resembled "Lion" in several aspects, its arrival on the scene was a bit more haphazard. AFAIK, the first six were originally going to be class 46s (perhaps D194-9?) but Eastern Region intervention caused them to be built in the way they were. There was quite a close relationship between the ER and Brush — witness the attempts to uprate the type 2s to 1600 then 2000hp. I've seen this ascribed to the fact that Sir Ronald Matthews, the last LNER chairman, became chairman of Brush.

The 040TX is Tillig but it is an H0 model. Even in N gauge there has, AFAIK, only been one mass-produced (I.e. on-Fulgurex) non-German SNCF steam loco, and that only very recently — the Arnold 141R, and that of a class with more than 1000 examples that lasted till almost the end of steam. And despite having two domestic manufacturers, no steam locos of Austrian design have yet been produced in that scale. Apart from Germany, the only country with a reasonable coverage of steam loco models in Europe is the U.K. So it's unlikely that there will be any sch models produced in TT. There is however a reasonable and increasing range of "modern image" French models in N.

Ruritania has featured in a model at least once, as has Tolkien's The Shire.

I'd suggest perhaps having a look at a book of track plans before committing yourself. If you're using set track, I'd suggest having a look at the Peco Setrack OO gauge plan book. The plans were created by Paul Lunn, a well known designer who often works with set track. I'm struck by one thing in particular: you have an awful lot of "kick-back" sidings. These can be difficult to work and you are going to need a lot of power feeds. And like several other posters, this looks like a very complex plan for someone with relatively little experience.

I first read about European railways via John Christie's train formation articles in MRC during the late 1970s, later in the early issues of Continental Modeller and then via @steverabone's articles in Euromodel Rail Review — was it really 40 years ago? Thing is, I find that my interest in them is in the prototypes of that time — I don’t have any interest in the present day operations. When it comes to exhibitions, if a layout looks good and runs well then it will be worth looking at. Normally I'd look at every layout at least for a little while. The Doncaster show has always been UK only, AFAIK — the other shows have various "Continental" layouts on show (using CMs definition of "continental").

Well, in my universe 10001 was preserved when it was withdrawn in 1967. That's at least as plausible as the most plausible imaginary branch line, and possibly more plausible than it's real-life scrapping. My glass is definitely half-full this time round — the collector's club 47 indicates there will be more earlier 47s to come; the introduction of the "Twins" suggests we'll see more of the OO range in time — certainly the 25/3 and 117.

As for blue pre-TOPS models, the only instances of these that seem to be done are for those classes which didn't make it to TOPS numbers — hydraulics, Claytons etc. Although Heljan have done some OO class 27s — often in rather unusual variants of blue livery.

This is actually quadruplication, as there are Hornby and Hornby Railroad models as well as Accurascale on the way. I noticed only one livery sample shown, so these may be some way off. No Skinhead variants, so you will need to go elsewhere if you want one.

It's always been controversial to merge modelling and prototype content in the same magazine in the UK for some reason, but as @steverabone says, it's common on the European content, and there are relatively few "pure" model railway magazines (only two "all-scale" such magazines in Germany (a bigger market than the UK), AFAIK. I'm glad that Warners have kept the "spirit" of Traction intact, unlike (what is now Bauer) did with the then Rail Enthusiast by chasing advertising revenue at the cost of changing the magazine into something different altogether. I hope it's a success — as a reader of both magazines I have no complaints! I assume the back issues of Traction will remain available on WOR+?

The diesel I'd like to see retooled is the 04—especially now that Rapido have cancelled theirs. With a DCC sound version with stay alive… Not expecting any new N locos — they tend to be kept for the summer announcement just prior to TINGS — but perhaps they can put the new sound-fitted class 47 chassis under some other variants — plain blue for me…

Just to say that the Gaugemaster Combi has an output of 1 amp. It has no problems with old Hornby-Dublo locos, but obviously I don't know whether it can be obtained where you are. There is also a much more recent, and much more accurate, model of the BR70 from Fleischmann (now from Roco).

All the more recent Farish models have white (nylon) gears which are much less likely to be troublesome than the earlier black plastic kind — so your model is perhaps not as recent as you think — the white gears have been used since a year or two before COVID at least.

Perhaps, but I was thinking that the end of a need for developing and printing photographs that was the biggest factor. BITD, people didn't buy new cameras very often — there was no equivalent of the megapixel race then — but there was a need for D&P on a regular basis. Round about the turn of the millennium, every Monday lunchtime in summer there would be a queue out of the door at Jessops branch in Newcastle. That had disappeared and the branch closed when Jessops went into administration and never reopened. The Jacobs branch has closed only a couple of months earlier; the last remaining independent closed within days of Jessops. Funnily enough Jessops and Jacob’s were directly opposite one another and the independent was pretty close too.

The original bookstall on Newcastle Central Station in the early 1970s was like that. By the time the store in the city centre — near Grey's Monument in Eldon Square, not the current one on Northumberland Street — opened, grey and orange was the style.

And in the January 1986 issue of MRC there was a feature on Crichel Down (the layout)…