Captain Kernow

Then what I do is move the barrier a bit further from the layout and remember to keep a close watch on it throughout the day.

Surely crowd control barriers will solve a lot of these problems?

'Very interesting, but stupid!'...

But it must be very posh and, therefore, worth all that money, because it's called a Chronograph.

I do like a J72. I am currently working on my third one. All three represent locos that have been 'sold out of main line service' to either the NCB or an outrageously improbable light railway. The current J72 on the work bench is, I think, the 'guinea pig' that Iain Rice used to test build his chassis for the loco, as designed for Mainly Trains. Lots more work to do yet, including replacement buffers: Here is my first J72, weathered to represent a loco sold to the NCB and working in an unlikely Somerset colliery at the time it was photographed on 'Engine Wood'. The split chassis eventually gave out and a Perseverance chassis was substituted: The second one was originally a second-hand purchase and was repainted into a dark green to represent one sold to the aforementioned light railway. The split chassis also expired after a few years and I built a Perseverance chassis for it. Here is this unlikely loco, resting in between duties for it's improbable light railway in Mid-Wales:

Well done, you've passed Basic Locomotive Recognition, Part 1.

Are you in there somewhere, Robin? Where's Wally?

Well, yes I did want to know and then again, I would have preferred not knowing and assuming that the sniggering in front of my layout was due to something else...! Anyway, I've only got the one and am unlikely to get any of the Rapido ones. Oh, hang on, didn't someone say they were fairly common in the Bristol area in the blue era?....

Indeed, that is the question. Let's hope it's not like the Rapido 16XX pannier, beautiful body but the way the chassis and drive mechanism is fully integrated with the body is an abomination.

Maybe, but polished real copper would look better than that copper paint, the lamp irons look under-nourished and the chimneys not quite the right shape. But ModelU are to be commended for the figures. Is that smoke some kind of DCC thing? And I bet it's got a coreless motor...

I wonder if cost is a factor in deciding to paint a loco BR black instead of a colourful and possibly complicated pre-grouping livery?

Not at all, it is surely just good manners not to lean on or otherwise get too close to someone's personal property, even if it is at a public exhibition. I have hardly exhibited at all in the last ten years, but my tolerance of this kind of thing is going to be significantly less that it used to be, and I was pretty intolerant back then.

I thought Eric has half a bee?

But surely times were to get a lot darker before someone found a light switch... I think the BR steam era is just great. And that's the truth and no mistake, Guv'nor.

Nothing against you, Neil, but I would be grateful if someone could actually illustrate what this 'glaring error' actually looks like. My Hornby version looks like what I think it should look like... Does it have an angled, 'gabled-ended' roof? (like a salt wagon) - no it does not. Does it have a flat roof, like a cheap 1970s extension? - no it does not. Is it a wagon from the Renaissance period with a Mansard roof? - no it isn't. Ignorance used to be bliss, until the internet came along...

Don't you like the pasties, then?!

Apologies, I must be having a pedantic evening!!

I've just had a closer look at my pannier chassis and there are those bushes, so I must have done it! But I am still confused. Surely 4/32" equates to 1/8", so how can you get 1/8" axles into holes that are smaller (ie. 3/32") than that? Would the old Triang axle holes not have been something like 5/32"?

Oh, that's interesting, my memory is playing tricks with me. I could have sworn that I just fitted Romford 1/8" axles when I fettled my old Hornby pannier (although that is nearly 50 years ago now...)

Perhaps not the point, I know, but those old Triang chassis have 1/8" axles, so it should be possible to replace the old Triang wheels with modern equivalents, enabling it to run on more modern track.

Don't you mean 'winner eats the pasties?' (and gets free cake!!)

Punters leaning on my layout (or touching any part of it without a specific and supervised invitation to do so), is an absolute no-no. This is one reason why I am always more comfortable with barriers in front of the layout.

How can something as lovely as that be considered pollution!!!

I recently converted my Hornby one to P4 and it doesn't derail. It looks to my eye like what it is meant to portray, and thus passes the Captain's Black 5 test. I don't have any Parkside fish vans, so there is nothing to provide an adverse comparison!

What's the point of growing old disgracefully, if you can't occasionally complain about aspects of 'the modern world?' Anyway, the expression 'chill' is another linguistic abomination. If I want to 'chill', I'll go outside without my coat on a freezing winters night, thank you very much, or have a walk-in freezer room installed! Anyway, I blame British Telecom...