Talltim

Ian Rice's North Cornwall Mineral, a very beleivable freelanced railway company, uncommon in this country outside of narrow gauge models. I think his writing helped as much as the actual layout with the inspiration, he managed to weave the trials and tribulations of building and running the model locos into a story about the trials and tribulations of running the (imaginary) real thing. Flemming Örneholm's Eaglecreek & Northern (Model Railroader October 2006), Very good modelling, but it was the concept that I love. I like the US idea of a layout that actually goes from-to somewhere (as Buckingham and Jas Milham's layout do) but this fits into a reasonable UK sized room. The seperate diorama concept works very well to allow different sections of scenery without any unrealistic transitions. Chiltern Green and Luton Hoo, I think partly because it was somewhere I knew. Whilst walking along the trackbed fo the Hatfield Luton and Dunstable we came across a ditch across the track that we decided must have been a baseboard joint! I find it interesting that for some people, the inspiring layouts have to be in their sphere of modelling interest. Not a critism, just an observation. To me great layouts transcend subject.

There's some here http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=sx3ytggwk8hw&lvl=19.089336203431596&dir=3.8330430203744092&sty=o&eo=1&where1=Rotherham%2C%20Rotherham&q=rotherham not been in service for a while tho

Any sort of plough would have just created a tunnel in the 2 foot of snow in my garden!

I can't beleive it was 20 years ago. I went to the MRJ exhibition, but I don't remember seeing Hursley, I wonder if we decided not to queue for it

Duff gen is something different again! (are there actually more 60s active than 47s?)

The Swiss seem to cope

A 'what if' still electrified Milwaukee set in the present day would make an interesting model. Would they have turned to European manufacturers for their locos or would they have some hugely powerful US built monsters?

Make em both 'Open Access'

If you model the 19th century then the US idea of having your own company is a lot more plausible and can be taken a stage further. Pretty much every individual line was built by a (nominally) independant company and had their own designs of stock. So if you are building a made up line you pretty much need a made up company and to design your stock, whether from one of the commercial builders or your own works. Another possibily is that freight was handled by your company and passenger services provided by a bigger (real) company. If you take this idea forward in time, your company could have been absorbed and the locos rebuilt in the new owner's works, I'm thinking of the way many south Wales locos were Swindonised, but there are many other examples. I think most people shy away from this because it opens up the options too much. There's often too many real things we want to model to ever get them all in one lifetime, without broadening the scope.

I've never seen pics of 142s on the Woodhead before. Nice

Or perhaps with a class 33 nose? I suspect this and the clearance issues also mentioned were the case. The short underfame was also already available from the suburban Mk1s

I like the all blue one too A Mk3 one would be interesting too . I suspect it would have been shorter than a standard Mk3 in a similar manner to the shorter M3 based EMUs

I thought you were supposed to push the rail through while the chairs were still on the sprue?