Mrkirtley800

Or better still, repaint them all red, the only proper colour for a steam loco. OK I'll get me coat before I go down into the nuclear shelter. Derek

You know, Jeff, fancy taking photos of mucky engines. I think you should give them all a good scrub and a polish. Then take some pics.with nice shiny engines. Derek

I worked with a very bright engineer in the late 50's and early 60's. He was the one who interpreted all the figures and results of surveys and efficiency testing. However, he had feet of clay. He wasn't married so lived in lodgings. One day his landlady went out on a trip and when she got back discovered he had dismantled his motor bike in her bath. He didn't stay in those lodgings very long. Derek

I fitted a flickering fire in a dolls house I built for my grand daughters. I got it from a dolls house shop, so they are pretty easy to obtain. Derek

That is very funny. I should know, I have a German son-in-law. A really nice bloke but lacking in my warped sense of humour. Derek

Got it right in one there Jeff Derek

Can't believe you have never used a guessing stick, Jeff. I used mine, bought cheaply second hand from a mate, all through my practical work in my degree. I still have it and keep it by the 'puter. I use it now and again for old time's sake. In my first job we had two 48 foot slide rules. They were in the form of a cylinder and rejoiced in the name of "Fullers calculator" Never used a slide rule? Well I'll go to the bottom of our stairs, by gum!!! Derek

Edit: Having just checked through my photos of the area (West Yorkshire) it appears that many of the roads in the 1950's and earlier had already been resurfaced with tarmac so I'm probably being misled by modellers stereotyping but the goods yard is a whole other kettle of fish..... Hello Mythocentric, some roads in Leeds remained surfaced with sets until quite late. Tong Road, one of the main roads to the west out of Leeds had these certainly until the late 50's. They were quite shiny and had a strange brownish-purple-ish sheen to them and were pretty awful when wet. I remember this very well after coming off my bike on numerous occasions trying to corner too fast. The other hazard was the tram lines but that as they say is another story. Derek

Despite my warped sense of humour, it looks very good Paul. Remember the 7mm Y7 I built for Chris. I have to admit, it looks the goods in plain black. Runs well too. Derek

Who's a silly billy then, Paul. Never mind it won't be seen under a coat of crimson lake. OK I've got me coat. Couldn't get to the club last Wed, so have a great Christmas. Derek

Reading Rob's postings reminds of the time when I worked on a job in Australia in the 1980's. In answer to being ribbed about England's performance in the test matches at the time, I would say how I thought the Australians were really funny folks. When asked why, I replied "well, fancy having Christmas in the summer. How odd is that". Now that the season of merriment is almost on us, thank you Jeff and all Lunesters for an entertaining and informative year. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Derek -- a not yet tipsy Lunester (hick)

You are making a very nice job of the building, very neat. I used double sided tape to stick paper slates on the roof of a large goods shed (4mm scale) back in 1985. It stood the perils of the exhibition circuit and was sold about 1995 and as far as I know it is still OK. So, worth a try. Derek

My mate was given one of these kits around 1979 - ish. He kept the motor, wheels and frames, but since he modelled NER he had no use for the body, so passed them on to me. I scratch built new mainframes (don't like the word chassis when referring to steam locos) used Romford wheels and initially a small K's motor. The wheels had to be 20mm to fit in the splashers. It ran reasonably well after a lot of tweeking. Within a few years I fitted Gibson wheels and used a DS10 motor and Branchlines 80/1 gearbox and it runs like a dream. I use wiper pickups on both engine and tender. If I was building it now, I would use a Mashima motor and High Level Gears. My layout is to EM gauge and I have tended to standardise on Mashima 2412 where possible for my kit/scratchbuild as being a powerful slow running motor (12000 revs/min) and choose the gearing to theoretically give the speed you require. Here is a poor piccie. Good luck with your build. Derek

Bakers fluid used to be known as killed spirits, and is hydrochloric acid "killed" with excess zinc. My dad and I used to make our own by adding zinc to a jar of the acid. Being a laboratory chemist, I had access to the raw materials. Trouble with it was the corrosive effect, so you had to wash any soldering jobs several times. My dad was a sheet metal worker and built me a 4mm loco in his lunchtimes at work, using a large iron and heavy tools. He was a wizard with metal and wood. He taught me to solder when I was a little lad, wasn't I lucky. Derek

The only instance when you would need that crossover is if some trains terminated at K-L. My own station has a similar track layout - based, in my case, on Lazonby but going under the name of Embsay Canal Road, - but I have installed a crossover in a similar spot. The idea being that further up the line, a branch diverges and so the branch passenger trains terminate/run round etc in Canal Road. I didn't want to use the loop in the yard to shunt passenger trains, it is usually full of wagons anyway. The arrangement allows a variation in stock, 6 wheeled carriages used alongside corridor coaches My railway is supposed to be pre group (1908)so there would still be a fair few 6-wheelers around. Using Canal Road as a terminus and a through station does cause some smart working at times, even though in reality there would have been a decent interval between trains (that is in a normal working day ). Derek

When I attended my first exhibition with a layout in Stafford, early 60's, I had fitted three links to my stock. It was a small branch line modelled loosely on Hollywell Town in EM gauge. After a weekend fiddling with those damned couplings, my back and legs were not my own. It took me a long time to recover. Needless to say my three links were replaced by Alex Jackson couplings and I have never looked back. They are also cheap and easy to fit, but must be kept properly adjusted, but they are the best and I say this after 20 shows with another more extensive layout, now long gone to a good home. Derek

Jeff, I have just caught up with this topic so sorry if I am going over old ground. Re the quarry. You could instead, model a transhipment shed. An example being Grassington station. The quarry was some way off, but a narrow gauge system connected it with the railway. The wagons were moved by a continuous cable. At the t-shed, which was a little way away from the station, the wagons loaded with limestone ran up a gradient into the shed. The cable was disengaged with a wooden wedge. The wagons ran forward and at a stop tipped their load into waiting railway wagons below. Be very difficult to do in it's entirety on a model but you don't need moving quarry wagons, just a suggestion of them. I camped up their when a lad, and we were shaken out of our beds at 6 a.m. by blasting in the quarry. We used to walk down a great hill to Threshfield but on the way back stole lifts in the empty wagons returning to the quarry. Incredibly dangerous, but when you are 14 years old ----well!! I had the arrangement of a transhipment shed on my old exhibition layout, and it gave me a lot of head scratching as well as pleasure shunting wagons loaded with stone in the very tight sidings, using a little 0-4-0T, before taking them into the station for the onward journey by main line goods, in my case a 2F 0-6-0. Derek

Or do as my wife did some years ago at a large show. We were looking closely at a showcase of rather nice scratch built S scale locos and stock, when suddenly my dearly beloved said in a loud voice "those chimneys aren't on straight". She has watched me over the years building locos and attaching chimneys and domes, only to take them off again because they weren't on straight. On this occasion I got her to sit in the café with a cup of coffee for a while. Another time, another show we were watching a beautifully built layout, with superb buildings and convincing scenic work when she passed a remark about very poor running and operation. She was right but I would rather she didn't say so. I might add, when I go to shows now, which is fairly rare, she does not go in with me. Derek

It was started in 1965 finished in about 1985 but using Romford wheels. The correct wheels didn't arrive until about 1996 when I also fitted a Mashima motor and compensation. Runs nicely now. One of 18 scratch built Midland locos, the rest are modified kit built. Derek

Hi Steve, Here are a few piccies to show the nuts/bolt heads produced in wagons PeterR and I described. I had meant to send them with my last reply but being a bit poor on 'putters couldn't get the things to load. Got it now. They are all 4mm scale and EM gauge. Derek

Hello Londontram. My very best wishes for a good recovery. I also wish you well in the building of wagons of the 1900 period. When our children were young we used to holiday in static caravans, usually in Scotland. When they were all in bed, out came my box of plasticard, scalpels, rulers etc plus drawings of the wagons I wanted. My interest is in the Midland Railway with a bit of the NER circa 1900. Out of something in excess of a hundred scratbuilt wagons a good proportion were built this way in less than ideal conditions. You have had some very good advice on this topic, which I could not add to. I agree with PeterR that bolt heads can be represented very well by small cubes of plasticard. But don't do what I did. I produced a pile of little cubes only to knock the bottle of solvent over them. I now keep the bottle on a wooden block. Re the operations, I have had to undergo three ops on my right knee after the first knee replacement went disastrously wrong. Once I got over the initial frustration of not being able to walk as I once did, railway modelling and RMWeb came to my rescue. My recovery, both physical and mental, was aided by building '0' gauge locos for my son. Good luck in your modelling. Derek

Jeff, your layout is looking superb. The pic of the ground above the tunnels is just as I remember it from my numerous camping outings in the Dales in my other life. Now, wouldn't it be nice to dispense with those dirty smelly diesels and instead have a beautiful Johnson slim boilered 4-4-0 on a train of clerestory coaches on the main line, with a Johnson 0-4-4T with six wheelers on the branch. All resplendent in crimson lake livery of course. Mouth watering. Derek

These figures look to be first class (in every way) and I will be keeping an eye on this modelmaker. I would hope to aquire a set of each when they become available. I hope footplate crews will feature at some time in the near future. Derek

Hey, not so much about credibility and the flat earth society. The only reason I have never been to the U.S. is because I am worried about going too far and falling off the edge. It would be disastrous to be floating about in a void without a model railway to work on. Derek

Jmie92208, re the bargeboards. They are dead easy. I took a photo at as nearly 90 degrees to one on the actual station as I could.. This was on film in the days before I had a digital camera. When I got the pic back, I photocopied it, adjusting the size to fit my station roof, and using cheap copy paper. All I did then was to stick the paper to thin (10 thou) plastikard with Pritt Stick (or similar) and cut round the differing shapes on the bargeboard with a sharp scalpel, or where there is a round hole use the correct size drill. When done, peel off the paper, clean up and paint. Takes no time at all. Simples! I added a small piece of 10 thou to the ridge. Handy as it covers the join. Derek