Flying Pig

I was once part of a very rapidly aborted scheme to build a layout in a cellar that had a floor with a profile like the Alps. That wasn't the reason we gave up, though: several sessions of scrubbing the walls that just generated more and more brick dust suggested it wasn't an ideal location for a layout.

I thought Sam's second review gave useful insight into the headlamps, particularly how easy they are to change. One of his blanking lamp irons wouldn't come out at all; one came out easily; the bottom centre lamp came out, but residual glue prevented it or a blanking piece being fitted (cleaning up by the buyer would no doubt fix this easily); the smokebox lamp came out but the blanking lamp iron does not fully block the light feed; one of the additional lamps supplied was incomplete and couldn't be attached. Not a fully developed system, I feel.

The recent Bachmann model shows what a 37 would typically look like in the later 1970s. The 'domino' headcode places it from 1976 onwards when headcode indicators went out of use. https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/82781/35-303-Bachmann-Class-37-0-Centre-Headcode-37305-BR-Blue And here is the brdatabase entry for it, which shows it may have based at Landore: https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=D&id=6605&loco=6605

I confidently expect that the motion on Eric Treacy will be the usual bright nickel silver plating. It doesn't represent steel that well, but it will be no worse on this model than on any of the previous ones.

Yes, of course. Just as mineral working on the steam age railway was shaped by outside factors. My point in this instance was that long trains and large locos are not per se impossible within the confines of Britain.

Model the fiddle yard as the inner end of a set of exchange sidings and you have the full branch, with the added bonus of shunting at both ends.

As others have pointed out, it's more nuanced than that. Block trains of high capacity wagons hauled by 3000+hp locos have become the norm in recent decades and Britain hasn't grown in the meantime. What has changed utterly is the traffic and the operations and infrastructure that support it.

Ah, sorry. If you look at the main Black Five thread there are recent photos which show it in this livery with polished smokebox hinges and motion, so I guess the answer is still yes - the model depicts the current condition.

The loco was named in preservation, so yes.

Seems to be correct according to @zr2498's photos above as this is of course a model of the loco in preserved condition. Rods and smokebox door will probably look like 5200 on the actual model.

The 'For Sale' video popped up on my Youtube feed this morning for some reason. I hadn't been paying attention to this thread and it's always a bit of an 'oh no' moment when a layout you like is put up for sale. Glad to hear it had a good outcome.

Compared to the Hornby system (below) that steam generator seems quite a bit more convincing. For a start, the exhaust emerges at a higher speed which results in a realistic transition from a laminar column to a turbulent cloud just above the chimney top (all to do with Reynolds numbers I think). Also the cloud stays aloft longer whereas the Hornby one looks like a portable rain shower - finer droplets from the TRS unit?

Quite a number of people have used the Electrotren chassis which as you day can look very good indeed. I'd completely forgotten about this item. The working signal impressed me at the time: I guess it was a very simple mechanical linkage, but it still looks like fun.

I get rather tired of the Waah! that Flying Scotsman attracts. It's the only A3 that made it into preservation and without it we'd have none of Gresley's original Pacifics (insert arguments about it's not an A1 here).

Fortunately this one was sold out or I might have been tempted.

You might be interested in this old thread:

I've read claims by Hunter pilots that they used that effect to fake supersonic overflight of US bases. The Hunter would go supersonic in a dive, but was firmly subsonic in level flight.

I'm not sure Hornby understand it either. This (below) looks ominously like they're looking at new rabbit holes to dart down. They really should have learned that lesson by now. From the reactions it has attracted, the Black Five is clearly a mess - if they'd just designed it like the Princess Royal it would have been fine and probably cheaper to develop and produce. I don't know why they feel they need to chase novelty.

Yes possibly, but designing a tender isn't rocket science and Hornby generally do it very well. It's not as if the Stanier type is particularly small either.

They used to pass just south of me in North Wilts and if conditions were right I could follow them westbound all the way to the turn onto a southwesterly heading down the Bristol Channel. It was particularly dramatic just after a late autumn sunset if a Concorde was leaving a sunlit contrail.

If you follow the Rock Family Trees histories of Napier and Paxman, by the mid 70s they almost were. It was all Poached Paxman Diesels in a White Wine Sauce at that point, before the inevitable split.

I'm not crazy about the tender underframe - diecasting certainly seems to be a rabbit hole in this case and I don't think the result is as good as on earlier all-plastic models, certainly not as crisp, which I think will show up in normal use. There also seems to be less daylight than there should be through the frame cutouts. They had a good Stanier 4000 gallon tender underframe with the Princess and all they needed were some 9 ton bodies to go on top.

Or indeed whether they are able to gain anything from the course. In this case I suspect it will be like sending a dachshund to a 100m hurdles workshop.

Two years, suspended, and a two year disqualification, amongst other stocking fillers, apparently. I like the requirement to complete an "accredited thinking skills programme" within 20 days. https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2024/april/15-04-2024/man-sentenced-for-dangerous-driving-and-child-neglect--m40/

But it should. In the future we will have holographic soundscapes from arrays of speakers attached to the layout that yield all the correct sounds for the listener's position and stop neatly just beyond viewing distance. At last it will be possible to correctly simulate the doppler effect of a Deltic passing at speed and the etched hens on Wansbeck Road will be able to cluck. Even better the same technology will be mandatory for all domestic and automotive sound systems, so we won't have to share the listening choices of people who think WOB WOB repeated endlessly at maximum volume over frantic shouting is music.