Fenman

If you look at the photos of the Hornby boxes (see post #87 above), all the horns are correctly horizontal. I imagine the samples may have been well played-with. Paul

Your neck is safe. According to volume 2 of David Brown's "Southern Electric" (2010, p.106, column 2): For the Reading line electrification a final batch of 36 2BILs, 2117-2152, were ordered ... detail differences included the provision of a stronger 62ft underframe, with end-loading increased from ninety to 120 tons, achieved by cross-bracing ... [and] large Spencer Moulton self-contained cab-end buffers were fitted, as on the express stock. Paul

I can't answer your specific question, but here's a sidelight on your assumption that projects "never allow for overruns". The Treasury got so fed up with public-sector capital projects over-running that, for most public sector bodies, you now have to include in the budget bid not only a massive contingency (20% is not unusual) but also a +/-30% "optimism bias". Effectively, most public-funded capital projects have to be pitched at double the anticipated cost. Unsurprisingly, this means many excellent projects end up looking like poor value-for-money, and the efficient project delivery bodies are penalised as a result of the incompetence, game-playing or plain bad luck of the delivery bodies with a poor track record. It also means the public doesn't get a raft of capital projects that, on a more reasonable basis, would be good value. Paul

I'm not sure of that date -- but your comment made me think of The Signalman (1976), starring Denholm Elliot, released by the BFI on DVD. Paul

Of course, like everyone else I've been transfixed (and a bit jealous!) of your wonderful layout, but those last images of the M&GN were quite extraordinary for me. An uncle worked on the M&GN, and I've spent lots of time walking along the route of line to catch a glimpse of an occasional surviving bridge or signal or piece of trackbed. As the first of the big line closures, for me there's something terribly sad about that loss, about what it foreshadowed. And the more I've read, the more I've come to think the M&GN itself was a pretty remarkable line. My fantasy layouts include South Lynn and, when I'm feeling megalomaniacal, Melton Constable (where the operating potential is positively frightening). Thanks for the marvellous shots of all your work, but particularly of Little Bytham. Paul

Someone's already mentioned Hitchcock's 39 Steps and the insanely glamorous North by Northwest, but the maestro loved trains so there are others including, of course, Strangers on a Train (the clue is in the title!) and, my favourite, 1938's The Lady Vanishes, his last English film before taking Hollywood by storm, almost the entire film set on board a train hurtling across Europe. Very saucy and witty, too (English censors at that particular time were either less po-faced than the US ones or were more stupid). Another English cinema genius (or, rather, pair of them) to use trains was Powell & Pressburger. There's a wonderful sequence at the start of 1945's I Know Where I'm Going in which the heroine boards a London sleeper bound for Scotland, and the Black 5 transforms itself into a Bassett-Lowke (I think) model that then swerves and flies her to another world. And for something different, what about 1959's North West Frontier: a glorious boy's own adventure set in the Raj, where the stiff upper lipped English have to escape from a native uprising by crossing India using a battered Victorian-era shunter and an ancient coach. Nerve-wrackingly brilliant, including a scene where our heroes have to cross a breathtakingly high trestle bridge on foot. Paul PS: If you want 1980s music videos, how about one of the biggest-selling singles ever, Bronski Beat's Small Town Boy, featuring the high-voiced singer leaving town on what appears to be some sort of Sprinter ("alone on a platform, the wind and the rain on a sad and lonely face..."). Presumably he was disappointed at the crapness of the rolling stock.

If something costs £100 and you add vat at 20%, it adds up to £120. If you then remove the £20 vat from that total to get back to £100, you're actually only taking off about 17% (since £20 is 17% of £120). If you took 20% off £120 you'd have £96 left (since 20% of £120 is £24) - -so that's clearly not right! You have not been cheated out of any cash -- it's just the way percentages work! Paul

On the basis of the two variants I've received so far, I immediately slapped in an order for a rake of teak suburbans even though I have no plans for anything for which they would be relevant. But these crimsons are superb, and a pre-order for an apple green B17 then had to follow. And for some more of these crimsons. I have to say, whenever glancing at the pages and pages of stuff about Hornby on the "cheap toys" and VEP thread, my mind won't stop thinking about these beautiful suburbans. When Hornby get it right, they get it completely right! Paul

The Q1s were all fitted with doors but they were extraordinarily fragile: I think less than half my Q1s still have all their cab doors. I think it's a really delightful model, and I'm pleased it's shortly coming back into the Hornby catalogue after a gap of a few years. Paul

You're quite right -- that'll teach me to try to do things by memory instead of looking them up! Paul

Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk was called Wells-by-Sea by both the LNER and BR (BR later changed it). Watlington, also in Norfolk, started life as Watlington before becoming Magdalen Road, the name I knew it by when I was growing up and that survived through the NSE era. It's now Watlington again. Paul

It does look good -- and Hattons have sent an email saying it will go up from £35 to £42 in the next day or so. Paul

According to that reliable source Wikipedia, the world speed record for 3rd rail is 108mph (174kph) held by a Class 442 Wessex Electric (set on 11 April 1988). OLE record of 500kph? How many miles of UK track are suitable for speeds even remotely approaching 500kph?! Paul

I had a dud Clayton from Hattons -- they've written to tell me the new chassis is in stock and attached a link to the Heljan "how-to" video. I replied that I don't even own a soldering iron, so what should we do? I mentioned again that the goods were clearly of unmerchantable quality, so should I simply get a refund from them. They have already replied telling me that of course they are happy to fit the replacement chassis for me, and I should post it 2nd class back to them, making sure I get a "proof of posting" slip. From that experience I figure they are on the case, but maybe have too many customers to deal with very quickly. I certainly wouldn't give up, though -- you have paid for a working model and you should either have that or a full refund. Good luck! Paul PS: I have also received one of the new batch of Claytons -- very smooth-running and very quiet (the original ones that didn't expire sound like a bag of spanners and take time to "warm up"). Delightful! If only the original batch had been like that. Still, it gives me confidence for the forthcoming BTH Cl.15.

Coincidentally, only this morning I placed a pre-order for the green Class 31 (R2042A, of D5511) that Hornby are producing (not listed in the catalogue), due out in "December". Paul

Three views of 37003 (D6703 as was) loitering outside the Locomotion museum at Shildon under very black clouds. I've just discovered its owners have commissioned Bachmann to produce a limited edition model of it. I lived by the Fen Line in the 1970s, and 37s hauled most of the InterCity traffic I saw. Happy memories! Paul