Barry Ten

Just the "Class B" drugs for me please.

I went to Ally Pally a couple of weekends ago (I just happened to be in London) and spent three days at York as an exhibitor. York was by far the more interesting exhibition, in my view. Granted, one can't always see as much when showing off a layout as when one is just a normal visitor, but I felt I'd "done" Ally Pally after two hours whereas there was plenty at York I still hadn't seen properly by the time we had to leave. And, the trade support was far superior.

My Powercab was bought in the UK circa 2010 and didn't really work reliably until I swapped the power supply.

Was chatting to a mate recently - we'd both built one of these from the Dapol re-reissue, and both encountered the same problem of ending up with holes needing filling in the sides of the tanks, either due to an issue with the instructions leading us astray or something being not quite right with the mouldings (can't remember which). Other than that, we both agreed that they still made up into really nice models, as yours illustrate.

There's no oil involved in this either, it just uses ordinary water.

Only F1 and tennis for me, and not much of the latter since Federer retired (in fact it's my wife who was the main tennis fan, but I used to absorb a lot of it by osmosis while she was waching). I find Sky's F1 commentary team to be excellent across the board, with Martin Brundell's observations a particular highlight, combining technical insight with wit and passion. I'm not sure if it's a Brundellism but I particularly like "enthusiasm exceeded adhesion" whenever someone spins out.

That looks very nicely done, and I've always liked that regional livery.

After a busy couple of months I was able to get back to some modelling over the last couple of days, starting with this laser-cut kit for an LB&SCR signal box which I found to be a very enjoyable little project. Still a few things to be done on it, of course, as well as an interior. The kit is from railmodel.co.uk - worth looking at their range as they have some nice items in 4 and 7mm. Cheers, Al

Done that one as well, very challenging in places!

Like me you probably remember the Pregnant Guppy and Super Guppy aircraft which performed a similar role to the Beluga? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy I've seen the Beluga flying north over Aberdare a few years ago. Pretty hard to mistake for anything else, even at altitude.

I don't think Sergent couplers are being made any more.

I've finally got around to weathering the Nu-Cast 2021 I started a year or two back. Just a few small bits to add and then I can start another loco kit with a clear conscience. Here's a short clip of the 2021 on a test train of 19 wagons.

In the 80s, at least in Newcastle, it would have been a brave student who attempted to open an account with Barclays. I think there was a kind of picket-line you had to cross. I went with Lloyds, much easier.

Just my minor contribution to the chassis topic, but I don't (usually) bolt them on at each end. I fix one end tightly, but arrange the other to be retained, but allowed some slight give (both lengthways and sideways). Often that retention is achieved by just sliding the front frame spacer beneath the back of the screw-link coupling.

As long as we don't mind a bit of RTR here's a somewhat improved Bachmann 93XX mogul... reworked from a GWR example. The front frames have been cut and shut to get the drop in the right place, new Comet cylinders grafted over the old, loco-tender gap reduced, crew and DCC added, and then a mild re-livery job using T-cut to remove the GWR letters from the tender, followed by BR transfers from HMRS. Not sure exactly sure if any 93XX carried plain green (especially before renumbering into the 73XX series) but it's the bare minimum I felt like doing rather than a full repaint or relining job, so it'll stand until I dig out more reference material.

Most (all?) of the Comet chassis I've built do have the centre axle hole etched slightly higher than the outer ones - you can tell as soon as you put the wheels in as the middle ones will just "skate" along the rail tops. I can only speak from experience but the chassis do seem to work very well with this arrangement when built fully rigid.

I think it's a fair observation about the 15XX. There have been numerous reports of tight spots, waddling, pickup malfunction and paint/glue assembly issues. Even mine isn't perfect - there's a glue blemish on one cylinder, a minor waddle and a small but noticeable tight spot at low speed, tiny yes but more than I would have accepted if I were building a chassis. It is potentially a very nice model but it seems to have been afflicted by more than the usual number of issues. Looking at the thread on the new GWR railmotor, there seem to be quite a few snags with this model as well.

Cheers, Mikkel. Hopefully Brian from 247 Developments will be at the RMweb SWAG do in Taunton in a couple of months, (he normally attends) so I can pick up some suitable chimneys for my moguls.

Following on from my post of a month or so back about accepting yesterday's standards as being "good enough", here's the sort of finished 93XX, now with the Comet cylinders as promised. They make a big difference I reckon. I say "sort of" finished because the livery and tender transfers are just to get something into BR service without doing a full repaint from the original GWR green. I removed the latter's lettering with T-cut, then added HMRS transfers for the late crest. I opted for the larger of the two sizes as these seemed about right for a photo I had of a Collett goods tender in unlined green. Now I have to fess up and say I've not been working from a photo of a 93 in similar condition, but I've made the assumption some would have carried this scheme - however that could be an assumption too far! However as mentioned, it's the easiest route to getting it into BR condition without a repaint into black or fully lined green. Another consideration is that the model as it stands lacks the weight added behind the buffer beam that was eventually removed and the engines then renumbered into the 73XX series. However, for now... The model was already DCC fitted using a hardwired Digitrax decoder, but after extensive running I found the performance a bit sluggish and inconsistent in speed. I've found that the inexpensive Laisdcc decoders seem to work well straight out of the box, so the model was taken apart and rewired, this time incorporating an 8-pin socket in the tender. A Laisdcc decoder was tested and resulted in an immediate improvement in the running, having lots more power in reserve and not being prone to inconsistent speed in different parts of the layout. I'm no expert but my guess is that older decoders like the Digitrax one seem to be much more sensitive to varying current draw and voltage irregularities. In any case the cost of a Laisdcc decoder is low enough that I won't hesitate to try a swap if I suspect an older decoder isn't getting the best out of a loco.

See above.

Here are two more Lima conversions, a pair of 94XXs using Bachmann chassis. This one uses a split chassis unit. The main work to the body is filling in the steps on the starboard side of the cab. This one uses the more recent Pannier chassis, although both run on DCC. The black one has the later style of front frames without the plating between them. The black one is stuffed with lead and will pull anything. Al

From recollection it was the loco that was too narrow. There was an article in which the footplate was widened by adding plastic strips, and I think the cab widened as well. It looked OK because as you say, that was the only "easy" way to get a Crab. The theory was that the Lima designers had interpreted the difference in width between cab and tender as a mistake in the drawings, and "corrected" accordingly. The roughly contemporaneous Hornby Patriot had the opposite problem in that tender was too wide and long. There was another article showing how the tender body and cosmetic frames could be cut down to something more realistic, all without requiring any alteration to the mechanism. It was a bit of a mystery why Hornby had made the tender oversized to begin with as they needn't have.

Seen before, but my 6006 is a much-loved Lima King on a Comet chassis. The bogie is the original Lima one with (I think) Gibson wheels as Comet didn't offer a suitable part.

And here's that Wills station with the roof replaced: Some minor filling still to be done, but otherwise, job's a good 'un.

Hi RCP - I doubt I have the original pics but I can easily take some new ones. I'll have a look tomorrow.