Ian J.

9 hours ago, sulzer71 said:

The only difference I can see is 20115 has the Scottish buffer beam arrangement which if you were fussy would mean creating some plough brackets an repositioning the MW box and pipework

Short of researching and finding a directly suitable candidate, I'm willing to stick with 20115. I can always try and make the modifications to correct it at a later date if it's 'just' details and nothing structural.

I will have to do some photo research to try and find the most appropriate candidates. Initial searches suggest 20115 might be a reasonable choice, circa 1985...?

Silly question: which other 20s would it be acceptable to renumber the model of 35-355, '20 057' too?

Reminds me of Sheldon's Doppler costume from The Big Bang Theory...

Yep, plain blue, no special adornments of any kind is what I'm after. 31 402 almost fits the bill, except that it's got a headcode, tripcock, and wrong nose doors(?) for early to mid 1980s. 31 432 has the orange cantrail stripe, a pet hate of mine.

It strikes me that the manufacturing tolerances of RTR models, ostensibly in China, aren't good enough to guarantee that all instances of locomotives turned out will be capable of super smooth, very slow running for shunting layouts. Either that, or the cost of ensuring such capability is prohibitively expensive...?

I wonder if the back-to-back gauge of the wheels is close to, or slightly above, the 14.5mm normal maximum for conventional OO on some examples...?

Still waiting for plain old, nothing unusual banger blue 31/4. Just sayin... 😉

2 hours ago, keefer said:

I'd say it looks like a Mk2d BFK as the windows are overall slightly shallower than the adjacent Mk2b or 2c coaches (being essentially identical except for roof vents) and there's no sign of the frame across the windows (for the sliding vent sections)

It certainly looks like an aircon to me, though which mark I couldn't say. It's certainly an interesting find, though out of my time frame as I stop short of NSE era.

Hi all,

I don't have access to any carriage working notices, so I'm left wondering what the general formation of inter-regional / cross-country trains that came from and went to the Eastern Region of BR roughly around 1961. Thinking particularly of those trains that terminated at Bournemouth.

Any help much appreciated,

TIA

My friend who supports the Raiders and hates Brady will be glad if he has truly retired, as there was a lot of rumour going round of a reunion with Josh McDaniels at LV.

He did of course 'retire' last year, so we'll only know for sure in the fullness of time.

+1 for asking about this. It was something I wasn't aware of and would like some kind of answer for it.

Oh, that's given me an idea - plush soft toys of 08 shunters to hug in bed at night, maybe other classes too... 😆

Oh dear. I still use an old H&M Flyer for 16V output to a Gaugemaster Model W hand held unit for basic DC testing. I've just tested the 16V outputs with my multimeter and it's giving a consistent 16.5V. Not sure if this is good or bad. I've never had any issues with it.

What would be a good safe modern unit to power 16V to the Gaugemaster W?

For DCC I think I'm OK as I have a SPROG3 with a psu from @Crosland that is relatively recent (last 10 years or so).

I can't say I've ever liked the NSE liveries, whether on a Class 50 or not. I even stop one of my modelling periods short of that June 1986 day to avoid having anything in the livery (period being beginning 1985 to May 1986). That's why LL Blue with no orange cantrail stripe is the goto livery for class 50s for me.

WinAmp Pro used to use Gracenote, but being as old as it is the licence to Gracenote ran out years ago. Having said that, the 'new' owners have put out a newer version of the application, but I'm loathe to install it as I have no idea if they've put in changes that try to sell stuff, etc. The biggest issue I have with the version I have is that it can't handle higher definition sound files properly. I can't remember if that's a bit depth or sample rate problem though.

+1 for Mp3Tag. I use it in combination with an old WinAmp Pro version for ripping CDs in my Win7 virtual machine, running on a host Linux Mint install.

20 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Didn't Microsoft get in to a lot of trouble in the past for doing with Internet Explorer what they're now doing with Edge?

They did. However, the computer environment has changed since then, and there are now many competing devices using iOS and Android. Microsoft probably feels much less likely to be targeted for anti-trust now.

As I said many pages back, there is only one true livery for a 50 - Large Logo Blue. Anything else is heresy...

😉

There's almost always one person or thing that fits the average, but rarely more than one. A bit like stereotypes...

2 hours ago, Neil said:

 

I wonder if that's Covid related, getting the habit  of not meeting with others, perhaps the increasing cost of rental property making clubs less viable, is it a generational thing the upcoming middle aged modellers being less club minded, being less settled for work and with fewer family ties  or perhaps societal where it parallels the decline of the pub as a meeting place.

For me it's nothing to do with Covid, that was just a temporary thing. For me then it's to do with my subtle Aspergers/autism. I just don't fit well into club environments, as experience has shown me.

What I want to know, is that can all these assisted driving gizmos be turned off? I prefer to drive directly myself, the car I have currently has no assistance at all, but I miss basic cruise control to give my left right foot the occasional break when on longer motorway journeys. Anything else I'd like to have the option to turn off.

We do seem to be a bit of a 'going solo' bunch, don't we?

Nice. I think I will however wait until Dapol do 59 001 in original condition themselves, and keep my fingers crossed that they get it right.