Pugsley

With my Land Rover pedant hat on, in the number 11 photo that's a Stage 1 V8 and an 88 SIII County, not a 90 and a 110. Also, number 13, that's one of the very last SIII 109's in the picture (I didn't realise any LWB ones were registered that late), not the 110 with the one piece doors. You'd have thought that something put together by Land Rover themselves would have been a little better than that (the pictures are the only things I spotted - James Taylor knows his stuff, so the text is almost certainly spot on).

Manta - every time!

Just do it!

Cool! I've got a GRS one, complete except for the gubbins to go inside it. I hadn't quite worked out what I was going to do with it yet, but was probably going to rig something up with a stepper motor, with an Arduino to control it.

My Dad has a 1.6 Twin Cam in his Traveller, which goes quite nicely. I saw a 2.0 Twin Cam Minor at a show over the weekend - I bet that goes like stink!

Consider a Mazda RX8 gearbox instead of the Type 9, they're readily available, cheap and an adaptor plate for them is for sale on ebay.

The bulb looks best, IMO, but the Miniatronics LED is a close second and has the advantage in terms of heat and power consumption.

I presume you were single at that point in time! My wife is very tolerant, but I don't think I'd get away with that kind of thing.

Oops!

The latest Polo is bigger than a Mk2 Golf. They're about the same length, but the Polo is some 300mm wider!

Hah, I bet you all thought that this project was dead and buried! Truth be told, I did as well, after being seduced by 7mm scale and shiny technology, oh, and cars. However, of late I've worked out why the layout wasn't really progressing - I find track building and wiring incredibly boring and, seeing as I don't have to do them, and there are many other interesting projects to spend time on, I haven't. I considered ripping up what I'd already done and building a small 7mm layout instead, but I couldn't quite bring myself to do that. So, with my wife insisting that she wanted our kitchen table back, I had to find a solution. The solution appeared to be to find someone to subcontract the track building and basic wiring to, allowing me to concentrate on the bits I enjoy, such as the scenery and the buildings, etc, to go on the layout once finished. The hardest part was going to be to find someone who was prepared to take on the project, who I felt would be able to complete it to my unfeasibly high standards. So, a chance conversation at the SWAG do last weekend resulted in the layout heading North after the show, to Darlington. Simon, of S H Model Making is going to do the honours as I know that I can trust him to finish the track to my standards (no pressure, if you're reading this, Simon!) Have I sold out? Probably, but at least this way I have got about 12 months to concentrate on building stock for the layout, so it's going to be a year of 4mm scale, with a bit of 7mm Cargowaggon thrown in for good measure. The first job is to finish the tamper, then the 455. I'm also looking forward to getting back to the tank wagons. The occasional progress report on the project will appear here, from time to time: https://www.facebook.com/SHModelMaking

It was good to see this in the flesh last weekend. It's so refreshing to see something totally different, executed to a really high standard.

I've always found the free ones to be relaxing enough

I don't know about the OAA, but the VAA is a typical Heljan model, IMO. Overall it's OK, but with some niggles once you start really looking at. The chassis is missing some strengthening ribs and there are a couple where there shouldn't be any. The springs are too shallow - the front of the spring mounts should be roughly level with the bottom of the solebar and the front links should project beyond them. The roof profile is wrong, it's too steeply curved, so they are a bit higher than they should be. There are also the bits that drop off, but they're quite easily glued back on. On the plus side, they're quite easy to rewheel to S7, if that's your kind of thing. So, I suppose, overall they're not too bad for the money, they just need a little tweaking, if you're a bit of a detail obsessive

Whilst that is true, objective two should never overrule objective one, otherwise it becomes an impression, not a model. Edit - I suppose, what I'm trying to say is that those two design goals are not mutually exclusive. The overall priority should be to make it look like a miniature version of the real thing, but it also needs to be cost effective to produce.

Blue diesels (or even later, if you like) for me please!

Now you're talking! More like this please

It may be worth searching for some of the documents listed in the pdf linked to above, as some documents are also on the RGS online site, such as this one: http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/Railway_Group_Standards/Control%20Command%20and%20Signalling/Other/BR1651%20Part%203.pdf

Have a look in the current group standards for signalling, it may give you some ideas, or refer to historical documents that you may be able to find on the web.

On the plus side, he kept two on the rails! I think that may have been caused by exceeding the speed limit, it seemed to be going a bit fast for that trackwork.

If it's only when warm, could either the master or slave cylinder be getting too hot? That can degrade the fluid and reduce the effectiveness of the clutch. It may also be worth checking that the replacement slave cylinder is exactly the same as the one removed - it will have an effect if the pitson size is different.

I didn't realise that - I was basing my observations on the vans and the opens.

That's the one thing I can't quite figure out about these wagons - they supply the locomotives with no numbers, but the wagons, which you're far more likely to buy in multiple, come with numbers applied! Perhaps Heljan is a Danish company with an Irish background

It was rail connected, if you look carefully you can see the connection at the far end of the depot: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Bremhill+Bridge,+Swindon,+Wiltshire At the other end there is another bit that suggests that a loop ran through the depot.

It certainly is - I can tell it's weird just by that 4 minutes! The Taylor Brothers part is interesting though.