Captain Kernow

Hello Tony, Thank you for your comprehensive reply. There is much in there that I not only agree with completely, but which also mirrors my own experience and views. Although I have a number of RTR locos in my own collection, none are allowed out onto the layouts, unless they have been weathered and (if necessary) additional detail added. I was thinking about the question of RTR verses kit built locos the other day and I realised that I derive far, far more satisfaction from running something that I have made. After that, good quality kit built locos that I have acquired come second. Like many of us, I'm very fussy about good running and where I find an RTR loco that I'm not happy with (and which won't improve with running in), I often give them an etched chassis. That way if the loco still has problems, then it's no-one's fault but my own, but if it then runs nice and smoothly, then it's elevated into the category of a well made kit in my eyes and I derive the same level of satisfaction, because I've had a hand in the finished article.

If RTR were capable of pulling the length and weight of trains that you need to run on Little Bytham, Tony, do you think you'd have a greater proportion of such locos?

Lovely video, Callum, many thanks. Gives a great impression of what those of us who weren't there missed.

One of the benefits of going through the vets for something like that is that you should be prescribed a product that is effective and not something that doesn't really work properly and which is bought from a non-specialist source. That's certainly our experience with regard to flea treatment. And anyway, our vets are really good, professional and kind and have helped us and our cats so many times, so I don't begrudge them their profit.

I use cellulose thinners, applied with a cotton bud. Dirt runs away from that, screaming into the night...

Looking very nice, Al. This kit was one of my first, many, many years ago!

Purposeful and handsome in their mother's eyes.

Eye of the beholder and all that...!

And 1458 had a top feed in the late 1950s but it had lost it by the time it was working the Kington area lines and later the Chalford auto.

Top feeds can be very confusing. Some locos had them when photographed in (say) the late 1950s, but had lost it again a few years later, presumably due to receiving a replacement boiler.

At least we can be pretty certain that the Dapol one will run smoothly on DC straight out of the box. Very good news indeed, on both counts.

Yes, didn't it work the way I did it? Sorry, I blame incompetence.

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Thanks, old fruit, I knew that's why my ears were burning... And I spent part of the day with your jolly nice book about the Titfield Thunderbolt. I'm glad everyone seems to have had a good time.

Yes, I think that's correct, there may even be the odd set still in service down here, but most of the 2+4 HST sets (I don't like the name 'Castle') seem to have gone elsewhere.

They used to double head the Pines Express over the Mendips...

The 37s were almost ubiquitous in the South Wales valleys for a long time. Based only on the books I've perused over the last couple of years, I'd say that 08s doing trip workings on lines like that were comparatively rare.

Have a most excellent day, one and all.

What about thin, narrow brass strip, some fine pliers and some glue?

Looking good, Tony. How will you replicate the firebox below the footplate? I found that difficult when I did my 75023, due to using a Portescap driving the middle axle. I would do it differently now.

Perhaps it might have become part of the 'Avon Metro' that was much vaunted in the early 1980s, if only the local authorities of the time had been able to conceive of any kind of celebration in a brewery...

And no horrible big Continental HO flanges in sight! Lovely models.

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!'...