Re6/6

Many thanks all. Much appreciated. Thanks Ian. I may be in touch.

I'm planning a P4 build of a Franco-Crosti 9F around a Comet or a Bradwell chassis, and would like some advice. Firstly, was the Comet chassis designed to fit the Hornby 9F body? Is it the case that it (the Hornby model) is slightly inaccurate? ....(longer wheelspacings?) Secondly, are the Bradwell chassis wheelspacings prototypical? Thirdly is the Dapol/Airfix/Kitmaster kit considered accurate? Many thanks John

You may indeed!

....Also described as 'kitbuilt'!.....what kit would that be then?.........

:lol: Are all the photos of the same thing? Nice bit of gas torch work there.

Amazingly there are bidders for it....albeit with an other odd pattern of bidding!

What is this supposed to be ? ...well I know that it's meant to be a pannier tank...but give me a break! This is even worse than the Gaiety die cast body that our friend the 'toy and collector' seller has been trying to off load for about three years +!

'Normal' Wessex (W&W) would do for me Charlie. I'll go with the flow!

This is our friend who has been trying to sell these loads of old rubbish for 3 years for £49 each or more along with complete ones, when the dustbin would be the only fit place for them! The alarming thing is that he probably means that price. :rolleyes:

Again a bidding battle between two people from £50. People do get carried away!

Bidding fever again I suppose. Two were locked in mortal combat from around the £40 mark! Moral...beware, don't get carried away! I wonder what picture he must have been looking at (if any) to do nothing about the spotless chassis area.

First test bolt up to try out assembly procedure. Still several things to check before the final assembly method is approved. This is the first time that we've got a 'feeling' for the project. When we add some ballustrading and refuges it really will seem like we're on our way!

...and he claims to be a professional? The 'undercarriage' is just as important as topsides!

Mmmm....perhaps I should offer my ones up! "Excellent"

Our Mr Gostude never seems to put anything up for auction. Afraid of a 'true' price being realized perhaps? If he did, perhaps 'collectors' would get a better deal as opposed to a sky-high 'fixed' prices that his section of the trade all seem to sell at. If you were to look back to the beginning of this thread some, time ago, his name would probably be very prominent. That said there must be a lot of 'collectors' of this sort of 'old hat rubbish' out there. I could understand it more if it was pre-war metal stuff. There's an another dealer on Ebay Mr Micmcn who's been trying to sell (for 2 years or more) quite the worst load of old rubbish in the shape of a lumpen horrible thing. Supposedly rare, well I've got one, given to me by a friend years ago. If anyone would like one (I don't think that even just the chimney is salvageable!) I'm going to put it up on Ebay with a starting price of probably 1p!

Barmy Terry, absolutely barmy. I'm building a Constructeon etched kit which got from Ebay for about £50 IIRC which is turning out quite nicely! Of course this was just before the Heljan one came out! That makes the seventh project that has been superseded by a proprietry model.

The first few plinth/pier combinations are assembled. The M4 rodding is used to adjust the positioning whilst the assembly is glued up. These will make up into the middle 9 arch section. The classic view. The holes will have to be tidied up prior to being clad with English bond plasticard/SE Finecast vacuum formed plastic.

Without question the first layout that inpired me big time was P.D.Hancock's "Craig and Mertonford"..(is he still garden railwaying?) It gave me the impetus to move away from Hornby Dublo and discover that there was a 'better' alternative. I still have the old small format RM from 1950/60 something somewhere that lit the spark. Of it's time, it was probably the best that there was. Secondly it would probably have been "Coombe Junction ..Castle Coombe with the Tyling Branch" A lovely spacious well modelled GW or BR(W) layout. EM I think by Ken Payne(?) And thirdly (a difficult one!) would be "Heckmondwyke" one of the first exhibited P4 layouts..even that one was a little basic in details compared to what has been achieved today. The bigest improvement today IMHO (apart from the quality of most RTR stuff) is the scenics with several superb practitioners around now.. (use of seafoam, natural stuff, Grasmaster etc..) ...........but then there's Martyn Welch's 7mm "Hursley" .............

All that we are ever hearing at the moment is NIMBYs, NIMBYs, NIMBYs. When is the industry ever going to get a grip and start putting forward its case with vigour? We hear and read absolutely nothing from the railway PR machine (TOCs, infrastructure etc). The way things are going the argument is at risk of being lost, judging by the 'political' constituency clout these opposition groups have got. Ironically, it is the Secretary of State for Transport Hammond is the only one who is being vocally positive about the scheme. How long might it be before he bows to pressure from his vocal supporters in his political heartland? Come on 'The Railway' get your a*ses into gear or this could be lost.

With very many thanks to Jim S-W of this parish for his designing the artwork and commissioning this first test etch which arrived yesterday. Lovely they are too. Here are a few snaps of the etches. Each brick arch is etched in two parts and tacked together to give the level change in the brickwork. Arches for the characteristic 'holes' in the piers Beginning to look like the effect that we're after.

Is there anybody out there still watching?B) Not much happening there yesterday. Snow has gone and come again and now slowly going!

This is the same 'dealer' that has had this load of old rubbish priced at £50, repeatedly up for maybe two years now! I would have thought that he'd have realized by now that no one could possibly want such a thing and chuck it in the bin! I've actually got one of these old 'Gaiety' pieces of junk. Perhaps I should put it up as BIN @0.99p!