MarkSG

It's a composite. The setting - a small terminus in a deep cutting - was inspired by the Metropolitan station at Liverpool Street, but converted to a terminus instead of a through station. But the four-platform track plan is typical of many small urban stations, including Fenchurch Street and Maryleybone. Which is why it works as a design, because, apart from some necessary compression at the station throat, it is true to life.

There's nothing particularly special about Minories as a track plan. It's not a shunting puzzle or anything like that. Its key feature is that, as a reasonably realistic compact urban station, it allows for a much more intense service than a typical small town branch line terminus. If you're the sort of person who likes to have trains running all the time, but also likes to have a reasonably prototypical service without too much time compression, that's an important consideration. What made it noteworthy when it was first published was that it represented a departure from the typical tropes of the time. Models of terminus stations tended, at the time, to be either large and urban or small and rural. But a model of a large station takes up a lot of space, and a model of a small rural terminus often doesn't have a lot of operational interest due to the low traffic levels it would have had in real life. CJ Freezer's flash of inspiration was to come up with a design for a small urban station that could be built as a minimum space layout and yet still have significant operational interest without too many jarring compromises. Since then, of course, the small urban terminus has become a trope of its own - it's an incredibly popular exhibition layout design, because it combines two desirable features: it's easy to transport (and can easily be built by a single person rather than needing a club), and it allows for a lot of movement to keep the punters interested. But, at the time, it was genuinely new. And Freezer was an excellent designer; he knew how to come up with a track plan that worked from a modelling perspective while being sufficiently prototypical not to upset the purists. So it's not surprising that Minories, and derivations of it, has become a classic track plan.

Trevithick No. 1.

I was going to say that Oxford Diecast must surely have done a tail lift Luton bodied van by now. But, as it happens, they don't seem to have done one yet. So maybe this could be Rapido's first foray into vans 😀

Like any second hand product, they're worth what people will pay. Sold prices on eBay indicate a price range of around £300 to in excess of £800, depending on condition. If your friend is able to put together a decent listing for his, making sure to put in all the correct details (eg, spelling "Stirling" correctly and including the MPN, etc), then something in that range is easily achievable. Alternatively, it would be worth getting a valuation from Hattons using their "Hattons Model Money" service. They'll probably offer a bit less than you'd get selling direct on eBay, but the advantage is that their system will walk you through the process of submitting the details (including condition, which is really hard to get right on an ebay listing) and, if you need help, you can communicate with a real, live human rather than needing to wade through help pages.

How long did the 1907 wagons last? Were there significant numbers of them around in early BR days?

Actually, a bit of Googling suggests that the most common LNER open wagon was the 9' wheelbase 6-plank mineral. That's been done relatively recently by Oxford, so unless Rapido can find a common variant that's sufficiently different from Oxford's version then I doubt it's going to be on their to-do list. But I'm sure there's another reasonably common LNER open wagon that would fit the bill. Alternatively, as I've been saying for a while, it's about time a manufacturer did an RCH open wagon to current standards. And that really would be one that could run and run, because as well as company and BR liveries there's a massive number of potential PO liveries which could be applied to it. And given Rapido's comment in their latest newsletter that they like to offer locos to haul their stock and stock for their locos to haul, an obvious start would be PO liveries to match the Hunslets.

I've just realised you were spot on with this. Maybe the next release will be a common LNER wagon?

The rightsholders of the original movies publish the fictitious specifications of the various spaceships, partly in order to satisfy fan curiosity and partly to facilitate the production of licensed merchandise such as this. We're going massively off-topic here, but if you have an interest in sci-fi then there's a good video which compares the sizes of various fictional spacecraft here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Loc7qX7FI

I'd probably only buy one, to begin with. And then if they did a second production run with a different running number and a different state of grot, I'd buy another. I've only got a shunting plank, I don't really need a lengthy rake of them.

Yes, but that's precisely why I'd like a factory weathered version! I'm comfortable enough weathering wagons to give a generally dirty look. But, apart from picking out the odd plank in a different shade, that's generally just a wash of weathering on top of the existing livery. Completely replacing a painted finish with an unpainted finish would be a lot harder, and I've never attempted it. It ought to be doable, though. It can't be that much harder for the manufacturer than an LNER teak finish, and Rapido seem to have pretty much nailed that. Bachmann have done some nice heavily weathered ex-PO wagons with bare planks, and I bet Rapido's designers would welcome the challenge of beating that 😀

In which case, I retract my previous comment. Or, at least, part of it. I'd still like to see a factory weathered BR version.

I suspect the answer is upthread; Rapido have stated that they see this as a potential repeat production, given the very large number of different variants and their ubiquity meaning that people will make repeat purchases with different running numbers. So presumably MR livery is pencilled in for a later run. (I'd like to see a factory weathered one, too, with bare planks and an overall grotty look, suitable for their last years in BR service).

Well, we're back home after an enjoyable day. My daughter was pleased to discover plenty of cats on layouts! But there were loads of good things on show, and it really did feel nice to be back. I didn't take my DSLR with me this year so I've only got a few phone photos which don't really do justice to it. But this, on Llanfair Caereinion (I think - I forgot to make a note at the time) is an absolutely gorgeous example of how to accurately model a historic rural scene: And, of course, every layout should have one of these....

Just about to set off for the show. I'm really looking forward to it, having missed it for a couple of years for obvious reasons.

My daughter (who will be coming with me tomorrow) would like to know if there are any layouts with cats on! 😀

Is there anything noteworthy which pulled the dynamometer car that hasn't already been done fairly recently?

I find that I buy more from shows than shops, these days. I only have one model shop within reasonable distance of me, but even that is too far away to justify driving there just to drop in. So I only visit it when I'm in that town anyway for other shopping, which itself is getting rarer. At shows, on the other hand, rooting through the second-hand stalls in search of a bargain or browsing the specialist traders is all part of the fun. It's a rare show when I don't come home with any purchases at all, and I'll often leave the venue with a bag full. I generally give the box shifters a miss, as that is the stuff I can more easily get online and for things that get reviewed in the mags I can generally buy with confidence even if I haven't held it in my hand first. But the smaller traders selling more esoteric things are always worth spending some time with.

Good choice. I do like a nice 5-plank open wagon. I'll definitely be getting one of these. Possibly more than one. As has already been pointed out, their ubiquity makes them a no-brainer for practically any steam era layout set anywhere in the country.

OO is still far and away the most popular scale/gauge in the UK, and even more so when you extend that to 1/76 in general. So it's the display, rather than the retail, which is skewed - the show organisers deliberately aim for a spread of scales and guages rather than just concentrating on the most popular. If the show accurately reflected what most of us are building (and buying), then it would be mostly OO with just a scattering of other gauges. But it doesn't; there are a lot more layouts in other scales and gauges than a representative sample would give. That's not a criticism; even as an OO modeller I like seeing layouts in other scales and gauges and I think most people do, too. So an unrepresentative selection actually makes for a better and more interesting show from both an exhibitor and visitor perspective. But, of coures, the traders know full well that, whatever we're looking at when it comes to the layouts on display, the chances are we've got something in OO back home. So that's the market they're selling into.

Hmm. If smoke-fitted models become as popular as DCC sound, every model railway exhibition is going to end up a bit like an old-fashioned Working Men's Club where you can barely see through the haze 😀 Joking aside, this is, I think, the logical next step. We've probably reached the point where models can't, realistically, get any more detailed without making them simply too fragile, and sound is also now becoming common, so exploring other aspects of realism is the only way forward. And smoke effects is an obvious choice for that. Now, if only we can get realistic, moving models of humans and animals!

Have a good time, all those of you going today. Don't forget to report back later with your "must see" layouts for the benefit of those of us who will be there tomorrow 😀

My previous experience has been that the queues move relatively quickly. The move to card-only ticket sales will probably help, as contactless payment is generally quicker than cash. So I wouldn't be too concerned about it. I'll be buying on the day as well, as I wasn't in a position to commit to going until relatively late.

Did that chap get his dates wrong on the calendar and end up wondering why so much of the Camping and Caravan show consisted of trains?

Your understanding of the Peco track is broadly correct, yes. It appears to be code 55, but the actual metal part goes below the visible level of the sleeper. You can see how that works on the product image of the single sleeper - the bit underneath the rail is deeper than the sleeper itself. That's obviously unprototypical - in real life, the rail rests on top of a flat sleeper - but on the model you can't see under the rail so it gives the impression of a shallower (ie, code 55) rail. However, that doesn't mean you can just connect Peco's pseudo-55 track to Hornby's code 80 track with a normal joiner. If you look closely at the end of the rail on Peco's track, you can see that it isn't a genuine flat bottom rail profile. There's actually a kind of double lip at the bottom, the lower part being hidden by the sleeper and moulded chairs, so that it merely appears to be flat bottom above the sleeper level. What that means in practice is that Hornby's code 80 joiners probably won't connect to Peco's track, while Peco's code 55 joiners may not connect to Hornby track. And the profile is different anyway, as Hornby's track will be 80/1000 inch above the sleeper while Peco's will be 55/1000 inch. So you're probably going to need to fudge some kind of connector to join the two. I say "probably" because I can't find any images of Hornby's track that show as much detail as Peco's, and it's possible that you might be able to connect the two if the code 55 joiners will link to the code 80 track (which may be the case, as Peco's code 55 and code 80 N gauge track both use the same joiners). But we won't really know until someone tries it.