Captain Kernow

70003 was sat in the yard at Stoke Gifford yesterday afternoon.

I think the problem with that, Rich, is that you would still need to have fairly precise tolerances in the coupling rod bearings, otherwise they could slop about too much. Mind you, I've seen the all-axle drive thing done to excellent effect on some German P87 kettles.....

Blowed if I know, mate! Solar panels, perhaps?

Ooh, thanks for that, I'm on the lookout for a bit of archive footage showing the FoD in that era! :icon_cool:

You could try Branchlines and see whether (i) they do balance weights in their Airfix chassis/conversion kit and (ii) if he does, whether he'll let you have any seperately. Alternatively, it's not that difficult to knock some up from 10 or 15 thou plasticard and an Olfa circular cutter....

Actually matey, this technology has been around for a bit longer than you give them credit for - they're called coupling rods....

Well, I've never had any trouble spelling Hallyfacs....

Things are very quiet at the moment, there is no regular traffic from the national network up to Okehampton or Meldon at present.

Race it with your T9 and find out which one wins!!

Yes please matey, that would be most commodious of you!

But does Mrs Coach require a new coat every time you acquire a new loco, Coachman? And now I'm in a quandry - should I ask the Civil Engineer to rebuild all the platform clearances on the S&DJR, so that I can run one too?...

Interesting, I showed the Hattons photos to a mate at work today, and he thought the same. Then he showed me a photo of his scratchbuilt one, which was really rather good!

Well-said, Natalie! From a railwayman's view point, the question is less about appearance and more about functionality, although most of my colleagues agree that they are ugly brutes... We are interested to see how they perform in traffic, and hope that they won't sit down on the Lickey, in the event that FLHH decide to run unassisted trains that way... As regards nicknames, in my corner of the industry, nicknames for people are common, hardware does get called names, but not necessarily polite ones!

Oh, why indulge everyone in that level of luxury, surely the old K's tender drive unit would do?......

...Overhaul.... Regardless of what the Continental ones look like, I see these as a British 'Ludmilla'.....

Glad to hear you've recovered, Simon. Four weeks off sick sounds like quite a bout of 'flu, though....

Whilst one can kind of understand the disappointment that some folk are expressing about the livery, isn't the introduction of a new class of locomotive a very positive expression of confidence in the future of rail freight in this country?

Yep, I've got some of the MSE signal wire posts as well...

Interesting, I didn't see it at Stoke Gifford when I passed this morning going north, or on the way back this afternoon. You'll notice from the two return light loco schedules that the final one on Saturday morning is routed via Gloucester, due to a possession all weekend between Severn Tunnel Jct and Stoke Gifford for track renewals near Severn Tunnel Jct.

Just gorgeous Martin, fantastic....

Those who recall my layout and workbench threads on the old forum may remember the adaptation of a Hornby 'Thomas' range resin 'bookshop' to a chip shop to serve on 'Callow Lane'. I've now fitted part of the interior detail and a LED for interior illumination (the LED itself won't be visible from outside the building), plus some of the signs such as menus and a 'Closed' sign on the door. I've also done the main premises name board - 'Algy's Fish Bar'. This is the interior dividing wall prior to being glued into the main resin building: The wall is now glued in place: There a few more photos on my thread in the 'Buildings & Structures' section, but here are a couple, showing the building in position (temporarily) on the layout: I've now added some card 'ledges' to the base unit, on which the scenery surrounding the chip shop will be attached:

Very nice bit of footage! Glad to see that one of the results of leasing the yard to FLHH was such a grand-stand view of events!

I like the way the gearbox drives both the rear axle and the jackshaft axle. Good work UP, btw, sorry to hear about your snotty state...

The kettle one has just done the rounds at work - massive LOLs!!

Yes, each stool is drilled 0.5mm and a bit of 0.45mm brass rod glued in. This will then be located into a 1mm hole in the baseboard. The larger size of the hole is to ensure that you have a bit of leeway to move them in case the hole in the board is slightly out of kilter. Just glueing the stools down onto the bases on the board would, in my view, make the whole point rodding assembly too delicate and vulnerable to damage if it were accidentally knocked.