finelines

Look at the Anycubic Photon. Roger

I am shocked, nay horrified. I find people glorifying the uglification of the most beautiful English Electric diesel loco. I suppose the railways saw sense and only bought 22. Had they looked like the original everybody would have been clamouring for some, even the Western. Roger

There was a fatal disaster in the mouth of the Ribble in the 1960 when the Druid capsized trying to enter the estuary. I saw the rescue helicopters land on Lytham green. Preston Corporation refloated or bought the puffer and refitted it to be the pilot barge off Lytham, where it stayed until Preston Dock. I seem to remember reading that an experienced Puffer Sailor said it was a voyage a puffer shouldn’t have taken. Something about getting across the bar. Roger

Alistair told me that many of the original masters were very good but Colin had a habit of taking second or third generation copies as masters which destroyed the filelity. Perhaps somebody can can confirm that he died as a result of removing asbestos from a preserved diesel as I have been told. A total different light? Roger

Thank you for all the nice things you’ve been saying about NGRM Online. It started because I wanted to say thank you to all my customers and was originally a pair of Yahoo groups about 20 years ago. After a similar question some time ago we took it up with our hosting service and received a reassurance that we were perfectly safe. Don’t ask me what they said because I didn't understand it. Roger Chivers

Thank you. I never borrow things I am renowned for losing things. Roger

The state of 014 reached the august pages of Roy’s mag. I recently decided the way to enable me to do what I want points me strongly towards 014. If you want to model Big 2ft you can get away with it in 016.5 but if you want to model Little 2ft it’s got to be 014. Until now you had to rely on KB Scale but there are new alternatives, possibly not as finescale as KB, but they are there. 7mm dia Markits, 8 & 9 mm Dundas, 10.5mm regular TT. When I visit my local line, The West Lancs, I always notice the WDLR ammunition wagons and they pop up in pictures of other preserved railways. I have spent a lot of time trying to design an 016.5 kit for one, even with the KB Scale 23mm axles you have to mutilate the proportions. If I forget about 16.5 and just do 014 I’m home and dry. Probably a very useful underframe. Roger PS I’m only short of some 14mm track gauges.

Does anybody have any 14mm roller track gauges for sale? Roger

I already have some 8mm on 19mm that I bought to use as drivers in 009. I suspect that project has already arrived on the back burner! Roger

You got the old brain cells working. Roger

I’d forgotten them. They’re on 19 mm axles, aren’t they? Roger

The problem is if you do a finescale model, unlike my freelance ones, you really need KB scale wheels. If you go to his website it says he’s developing a new a new site, so I’m hoping that it’s a sign of something to come. When it appeared that he was out of the market some years ago I wrote and offered to buy the wagons because I think they would run on my machine. This is my homage to Roy in 09. Roger

I have spent a lot of time looking at 014 with my manufacturer’s hat on. In my list of inspiration I include Roy’s Rugga skip. If I could make a kit as good I’d be a happy man. Problem is when I started doing plastic kits I was repeatedly asked to do a similar skip that runs on 16.5mm gauge. Sorry folks it doesn’t work! Apart from not wanting to go into competition with something I admire, I can’t see a way to do it without spoiling the proportions of the model. The kit I wanted to do was the Hudson Ammunition wagon which can be reduced to a stretched Rugga Chassis with a different body on top. But, it has a bigger problem, the body framing has to interface with the chassis. An 016.5 model would have to be an out of proportion caricature. I can hear you asking what about the conversion kit? I asked Roy some time back whether he had a picture of one and he thought he had, but it’s not my favourite bit of modelling. Roger

Were any reprinted in BR grey? My memory of them coming in to Holmethorpe sand sidings was rot and grot. Roger

We don't know what their next engine's going to be. I believe with the 50th anniversary of the end of steam approaching the choice of prototypes is increasingly going to influenced by what's preserved. I'm confident that somebody is going do a L&Y 0-6-0 fairly soon, southern wagons wouldn't be much use as support to that. PO wagons are "pretty", how often have I seen class 37s at exhibitions on layouts hauling strings of PO wagons on layouts? Do the owners know that they are out of period? Do the public care? Roger

I did consider both the LSWR and Southern opens but opted for the RCH because it seemed more in keeping with what oxford do in their vehicle range. It also doesn't tie it to the Southern. Roger

Decent 7 Plank RCH PO wagon in dozens of liveries. It would fit the clues. Although if you read the Wild Swan book about coal wagons they are less similar than you would think. Would love some in the disgusting mouldy green/grey/beige that I remember them on the 60s. Authentic colour pictures are rare. When it had only one plank I did wonder whether it was a wagon to carry their cars. Roger

That would have been 60s before the 09s started. Roger

It's quite possible you could. My old pal David Hammersly at Roxey does a single corridor birdcage brake and I quote his description from his website: Etched brass kit. SR Diag 425 Built in 1907 for through services to the Midland and other Railways. Later used as brake ends for longer sets through to BR days. Roger

Returning to an earlier part of this thread. There were a number of grounded coaches behind the 3 sets of semidetached opposite number 1 Holmethorpe Ave (Hatto & Gibson). I thought there were 2 but looking ar google earth there could have been 3. I was most familiar with the one closest to the incline which I believe was entirely in the garden of the first house. I think it was a Brighton Coach with what had been a first class lavatory in the middle. The end farthest away from the railway was home to Granny Martin's chickens. When we left in 1954 it was still there intact. When you moved down to the T junction you turned left into Holmethorpe Ave(?!). If you looked to the right of the house on the corner you could see the end of another coach but this one was much modified by the owner, for example the ends had been knocked out and replaced with garage doors. Next to the footbridge there was a level crossing right of way and periodically our neighbours, who owned Bucklands removals, did what was necessary to have the gates opened and brought one of their removal vans across. I was very excited as a child when we were moving because I thought they would have to open the gates for us, but our van passed under the bridge. The right might have lapsed by then. Roger

I believe the HD one was pretty good. The Murgatroyds ones were covered in Railway Archive 9 I think. It's a year or two since I read about them but I think there were more Murgatroyds than ICI and the differences were more than a coat of paint. Roger

Railway Archive 9 or 10. They ended up in South Wales as internal user flat wagons. The article(s) included the similar but different Murgatroyds ones. Roger

You could well be right, but I'm sure it was one of the local sheds. I was under the impression that it was a relatively small allocation but as soon as they failed they went for scrap and were sent replacements and so on. Roger

I read somewhere that a lot of the straight framed crabs ended their lives at Lostock Hall. The rtr model railway industry is in such dire straits because this is one of my last planned loco purchases! When Bachmann (the most likely) announce an Austin 7 and the L&Y 0-6-0, that'll be it apart from impulse buys! Roger

Who said Oxfordrail had to provide proof of anything? Roger