Flying Pig

This is much too extensive and detailed a post to be contained in a digression where it both distracts from the subject of the topic and is hidden from many of those who might be interested in responding. Some degree of self discipline is needed even on RMweb where "post first, think later" seems to be the maxim. Start a topic.

The SRS have a signal plan of Ramsgate Harbour dated 1914: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/sre/T1117.htm Note that there's no runround on the bay and it isn't connected to the turntable, copying which would simplify a bit and save you some length. The kickback carriage sidings would probably need to be omitted - they remind me of Bradfield Gloucester Square and the whole plan is practically a prototype piano line. Just a simple fan of goods sidings on the Up side.

Round the corners off and put a small dab of jam on the cracker.

I was thinking of proprietary cookies throughout, as otherwise the scheme might become dangerously recursive.

But could we not get forum members to eat a particular kind of cookie representing their level of skill or interest which the software could then detect and filter out threads which might not be to their taste? Perhaps starting with triple Belgian chocolate for the absolute finescalers and working down to something very plain? As skill levels increased, consumption of the next cookie up would reveal new content.

I've just glanced at the title of this thread again: Obvious RTR models missing from peoples collections/wish lists Surely there are no such models? Everything obvious has been wishlisted umpteen times by now and we're well into esoterica. Can anyone really think of something genuinely obvious that hasn't been suggested already, rather than yet another "I want"?

My uncle had one. Could just be age-addled memory, but I'm sure it had milled wheels. There was a more modern version on Leicester South, used to simulate capstan shunting.

Great news for us (apparently oddballs) who find the typical and commonplace inspiring.

Thank you - that's a great help. The following article expand on the history of the type (I hope it is available free for you as it was for me - I am not a subscriber) : https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/br-vanwide-and-vea-wagon-story I note that there are no general use vehicles in the later liveries: pack 05 (VMV) and 06 (VEV) are both coded for MOD use, whereas the standard code was VWV. VEV should have roller bearings (the middle sample shown in the OP does, but the underframe appears to be the mode extensively rebuilt VEA type). I have no idea how strictly vans were kept to designated traffic, or how widespread MOD traffic was, so this may not be a serious restriction to modellers of the TOPS era. As to mixed packs, Revolution did a mixed pack of United Molasses liveries for their 35t tankers.

The important question is of course: is this the most tedious ever thread on RMweb, even amongst the stiff competition of the Hornby section? I'm tempted to start one entitled "In which we drone on at excruciating length about Hornby's business practice, until our own major intestines, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leap straight up through our necks and throttle our brains" just to attract off-topic posts discussing details of the actual models.

Well, I seem to have been posting in invisible ink, so I'll repeat meself. Given that these vehicles were build rather late for traditional vehicles, it isn't obvious to me what liveries they would typically have carried at different periods. The modeller's notion of matching rakes as mentioned above is a fiction for many types of wagon over most of their working lives and possibly particularly so for ones built close to and possibly overlapping a change of livery style. So, can anyone say what combinations of liveries would have been seen on these wagons in say 1967, 1973 and 1979?

The big what-if of the Sulzer Type 4 story of course is: what if Sulzer had bothered to communicate the experience of SNCF with their 12LVA24 engine to BR? https://www.derbysulzers.com/1702.html

Looks very promising. Can someone untangle the dates during which the various BR brown liveries were being applied to Vanwides, please? I'm aware of course that wagon liveries overlapped due to long intervals between repainting. That being so, wouldn't some mixed sets to suit various eras be good idea?

You could possibly benefit from a wider range of reference material. There are numerous books about the Deltics and there might well be other drawings lurking somewhere.

I've only seen one photo of your layout (in the thread about an extra siding in the loco shed) and I think the Metcalfe station fits the ambience of that quite well. It has always looked to me like something that might have been built on one of the later lines that popped up in the Yorkshire coalfield and the proportions seem convincing (though it is possible that actual dimension of details like doorways hve been adjusted). Of course the surface texture and details like the fancy bargeboards could be much better. Have you considered cladding the roof and walls and replacing the details?

RHS shown here - no sign of external drive, just the eccentric crank working the lubricators. As mentioned above, the Caprotti gubbins was inside.

You could put a passenger platform on the stump of the running line bottom left of your plan. Not the original, but a post-truncation replacement avoiding the need to keep the level crossing operational (or return it to use if the passenger services had restarted). It would be a simple wood or concrete affair with shelter (style depending on when it was built) and the fact that it could only take a 2 car DMU would be quite ok. You need some interlocking as soon as passenger trains are introduced of course.

I don't think the cross-section is right. The roof is too domed - it should be a flatter elipse starting higher up, with a deeper flat panel above the side windows. You seem to have pulled the roof panels too far down as a result and the shape of the cab doors and side windows is also wrong. It will clearly affect the windscreen as well. Do the cabs and noses taper correctly in plan view? Without this you will not get the relationships of the cab and nose to look right. It is also what enables the bodyside turnunder to fade away to nothing by the nose end. The Deltic body is a collection of very subtle shapes and relationships - a brave choice of subject!

Hornby seem to have missed a design-clever trick here: put working lamps on your loco and apparently nobody will care what it looks like otherwise. They could have saved themselves a fortune in design and development. Anyone have an opinion on the rest of the model? I can't comment on the fine detail without digging out the books, but I'm not quite convinced by the double chimney of the Caprotti engine. Photos suggest it should be a bit curvier, with a larger radius to the lower flare, rather than the pipe and two washers shape it has. Chimneys seem to be a stumbling block for model designers (recall the Hornby Scot needed revisiting) which is a pity as they are a vital aspect of getting the character of the engine right (like the face of a diesel).

Customisation, of course, implies that the things are removable...

Just modulate the intensity of the light, showing the flare of open firedoors periodically, depending on some measure of how the loco is working. Should be easy to sync it with that shovelling sound they insist on including in DCC projects too. Maybe they already do this.

Class 455, or other Westcode-fitted type.

Were the 323s the first AC-motored EMUs in British service or did another class beat them to it?

You know you're getting old when someone describes Centro as "heritage".

For minimum space passenger operation, check out Westonmouth Central: