34theletterbetweenB&D

That's completely correct. I believe there is a good compromise solution for the model however. In summary, make it possible for a functioning flanged wheelset to be substituted for the flangeless wheelset for better appearance as a display model; with the truck having the option of a functioning pivot by removal of one securing screw, even though very constrained in movement by the other hardware present. Leave it to the owner to make his or her own compromises on appearance, by cutting clearance for the truck and wheelset to swing as required, sufficient to get the model around the owner's layout curves. Having the truck with a functioning pivot option simplifies this possibility.

I would be most interested - if Rapido can find the time once the model is on sale - in a brief essay summarising the difficulties of getting a concealed and competent drive into such a tiny and awkward prototype which also has to go around set track curves. I was very pleased to order this model, not least with the thought of 'someone else can work out how to overcome the many obstacles!'. That's entirely decent. What you might consider, is asking if the preorder customer is willing to pay some or all of the now necessarily higher price as a donation. Let's just say that some are very keen on the continued health of our national railway museum.

Sounds like we have a good method for communicating politely to Hornby concerning these two points. Getting the tender right by deleting the 'shelf' or spurious valance under the footplate should be a no brainer. (If Hornby have scanned the prototype, it will be an element that had to be added, because it really isn't there!) As for the rear truck, it truly will need a flanged wheelset to look well in Ivatt form. Design cleverly to take a pin point axle wheelset and secured by two screws, the forward one in the pivot position, the aft screw holding the truck wheelset just clear of the rail when in place, but removeable to allow limited pivotting action. On the models as sold, truck fixed in place with a flangeless wheelset installed, with a flanged pinpoint wheelset included in the box for display purposes: leave the modeller to make the compromises required for operation with a flanged wheelset on their layout's minimum curve.

I would suggest not. My purchases of the most recent introductions that serve my interest from Bachmann, Heljan and Hornby - the well established OO RTR producers - are all bob on. As good or superior to the appearance of the Bachmann WD 2-8-0 of 1999; which started the party of OO RTR as good as a kit model that had been assembled and painted by a modeller with skills above the 95th percentile. Oxford Rail are new starters to this game. I would suggest a fairer comparison would be to Hornby's first newly tooled releases from China, which were not to the standard they would attain after half a dozen years experience with Sanda Kan. Use the first releases of the Hornby Gresley gangwayed coaches as a comparator: width, body side profile, beading position, simulated teak graining direction, all in error. The quite exquisite rendition of the varnished teak from a multi-layer printing process all gone to rat shit by inaccurate application to an inaccurate substrate.

Even considering Scotland alone there are many locations worse than Edinburgh. Perhaps 'It could not have happened at a more critical location'?

I have known such an 'uptight person', and also mnuch of the plentiful distress they caused. Two aspects. All sorts of people have their own significant problems, and some are even more serious than yours. Recognising that is important. If you want to be called Duncan/Dana* according to how you are today, and it isn't regularly coordinated with what you are currently wearing, and you get offended if people ask because 'you should be sensitive enough to realise': then all of us ordinary mortals really do need something - how about wearing a name badge?, no, that was a gratuitously offensive suggestion - to let us know. *Not their real name.

Didn't the GWR just standardise everything? Company servants on being photographed, shall assume flat cap, face camera, and stand legs apart and feet splayed out 120 degrees or greater.

I'd be outdoors now, having done it once before, but the wildlife (squirrels, badgers, corvids) damaged the track regularly over the two years I tried it in our present location. Peco streamline code 100, as earlier recommendations, the plastic is the crucial bit, their plain track base lasts, the salvaged lengths after a dozen years outside still in use now over thirty years old. The point bases not so good, so these were replaced after seven years, the new ones overpainted with a dense black paint, no degradation experienced. The railjoiners mostly got split and failed, by frost action in my opinion; fine through the warmer months, 20% ish failed every Nov-March period, which is the frost zone for this part of SE England. The thought of using a Relco, or more suitable yet a farm 'electric fence' supply to keep critters off the rails could be a winner. I would use DCC outdoors, it is ideally suited to this application. Being a bear of simple brain I would make it 'one or the other' by having a single plug socket to power either the electric fence supply or the DCC kit: no way to have both supplying the track at the same time.

Actually even more intense than that. They also hit us with the QoS Pullman cars, and this after the run of newly tooled introductions from 2012 which included B1, B17, L1, O1, P2, and the Gresley and Thompson non-gangwayed coaches, and long CCT. Not that I am in any way complaining Totally support the point about trying to 'spread it around' in terms of subject choice, so that you get maximum access to potential customer wallets; must be the soundest strategy.

My sole experience of modern UK tram systems is Nottingham's; and this incident brought very much to mind the abrupt contrast on that system between making good speed on the GCR railway section, and the abrupt transition to the 'right angle' bends of street running. We have to wait and see what the recommendations are, but my own feeling is that the street sections and their approaches need a speed limiter actuated on the tram. There's plenty of tech available to enable this, and it's a no brainer to prevent such incidents.

The used stock pricing and descriptions have improved over the past year is my perception. And the 'don't show pre-owned' option is working competently now. Worthwhile items turn up at reasonable prices, and you can search efficiently for only those things that are of real interest. It's a whole lot easier than raking through a pile of tat while bending over a table top in a poorly lit location, and finding nothing to justify tomorrow's backache.

May sound harsh, but make a decision to ditch one of Cornwall or Wales. I'd straightforwardly suggest going to South West Wales. Just like Cornwall was half a century ago, not hideously full to bursting in summer. Pick from Manorbier, Barafundle Bay, Marloes, Newgale, Solva, St Davids and have a relaxing time in a beautiful location.

If track is to be glued down/ballasted to secure it, then drawing pins (thumb tacks) between the sleepers to lightly clamp in place, means no holes in sleepers and a small amount of side to side adjustment available to fine tune alignment.The pins can be removed and reused once the track is secured.

The Stockton and Darlington model did work when first constructed; as already observed built specifically for the 150th anniversary of the system commencing steam operations. (We are not far off the 200th anniversary, and cheap miniature can motors are now very readily available.) Now, I think we might recognise Beamish as operating a proper working layout of the pre 1831 period. That it has been done 1:1 makes it no less a model.

Then again it is a big choice of one source for these types in OO RTR! They do straighten, and there's quite a lot else to rectify too while about it. You never know, maybe Dapol, Hattons or Oxford will fancy a go one day. There's no untrampled turf if a popular, pretty, multiple livery opportunities, named and variant rich pacific is to be added to a range. ...or even all six in final form with the Bugatti front end treatment. Much more attractive than 'first thoughts'. I imagine that Hornby will exploit this once they have drained CotN dry.

David Percival reckons the Charringtons mechanised depot opened in 1958, supplied by a fleet 21T hoppers carrying Charringtons branding, running between Mansfield and Palace Gates. In my teens in the 1960s, these Charringtons 21T hoppers were - much battered and filthy - still in evidence, and there were also red/bauxite (also very filthy) 21T hoppers branded 'HOUSE COAL CONCENTRATION' intermixed with them in my recollection. Any date for the 'HOUSE COAL CONCENTRATION' branding start? (I think this came in 62/63.)

If the layout is genuinely level, yes. A train that is heavy with respect to the available traction, but very free rolling, will reward realistic driving. If there are gradients then the weight starts to matter a lot, as it will limit train lengths. It's quite easy with free rolling stock to end up with a loco that cannot stop a train going down. (Failure to go up is usually not so much a problem in terms of potential accident.)

How long is the ideal piece of string? Long enough to do the required jobs, and I would suggest it is the same with model railway vehicle weights. Heavy enough to stay on the layout track in the most demanding proposed operation and to ensure autocoupler function, light enough to enable the maximum desired trainload to be moved. There's a whole bunch of characteristics to go into the mix to secure the desired performance, beyond vehicle weight. Minimum radii on the layout, track laying standard, gradients or not, free rolling wheels, consistent buffer and coupler alignment, control refinement, all of them matter. My rule of thumb for OO vehicle weight is in the range 150 - 200g per foot. That generally means that provided the wheels are free rolling OO RTR steam models can realistically move a representation of the full size train they worked in reality, on level track. If there are to be gradients, then weight will usually need to be installed on the locos to increase their traction. (Maximum speed is essentially a function of gearing only if traction is sufficient to get the train moving from rest, because the actual velocity at a scale maximum speed is very small.)

If you scan through the earlier entries you will see this is nothing unusual. Check the wheelsets. If you have happened on a couple with the original profile wheelsets, (flat tread, flange tapered on the inside faces of the wheels to a knife edge) change for alternative wheelsets or return for refund. These wheelsets are NBG. If the wheel profile is good, check for the wagons rocking on the centre axle - centre axle positioned lower than the plane of the outer axles - if that is present test the wagons with the centre wheelset removed. If they run reliably as four wheelers, alter the centre axle locations to provide a little upward movement to eliminate the rock and all should be well. Invert wagon, put a bare pin point axle in the centre position, use a soldering iron to slightly heat the axle and push it down a tad: very gently does it, only the slightest adjustment required. Conform that the rocking is eliminated, and all should be well.

Do keep us informed about the size those Buddleias want to grow to! Whatever the opinion of the supplying nursery, I don't think there has been much success in curtailing Buddleia's world domination tendencies. At least it takes no harm from brutal pruning to keep it in bounds. Meant to comment on this pic at time of first posting, as it hints at an effect that the Speckled Wood can occasionally produce, a vivid purple flash when caught at just the right angle in sunlight. This is just visible on the upper wing tips in the photo. I was really surprised the first time this otherwise fairly brown butterfly 'did it'.

Trains. That is the source of the great appeal of the traditional railway with discrete traction in my opinion. From whatever selection of vehicles is available, trains can be assembled suitable to be hauled by a large selection of traction. And I can add most vehicle types by my own efforts much faster than locos, so particularly like the opportunity to purchase the latter RTR. Pretty sure I am not alone in this approach.

The regular lined green scheme in the same style as was finaliised for those A4s that ran in lined green. The apparently simple truncation of an A4 body shell (by removing the wide firebox section and moving the cab end forward to fill the resulting gap, which comes out happily near bob on for length) to make the streamlined 4-6-0 is slightly complicated by the rear of the valanced footplate then finishing much too high up. It either requires some delicate surgery to separate the curving footplate from the boiler side for reshaping, or accepting some deviation from prototype to make this work reasonably well. That was their primary allocation. But for publicity purposes...

Hi Brian, ...to be available 2009, if my recollection is correct. Seven years no show is grounds for declaring a human being legally dead. Perhaps it is time to give this subject some exposure to see if a livelier business might take an interest? Does the poll have a policy for such situations, perhaps that could go into the 2017 discussion?

Might this relatively early loco (1870) provoke a desire for some of its contemporaries? A yellow ochre Gladstone and some blackberry black Creweness might appeal. I detect a noticeable absence, the NBL class 21/29 group. I carelessly failed to check whether it was listed in this years poll.

The burst of warmth on Tuesday flushed out a Peacock. But the chance of now picking out any butterfly against the blizzard of constantly falling leaves since really minimal. Ho for spring 2017.