34theletterbetweenB&D

No 'may' about it, the A3 firebox proportions are smaller reflecting the smaller grate area. Just right for an A1/1 of course. Probably on the original model the steps were provided as optional components for the user to fit and trial against the layout minimum radius. Most steps which are positioned rigidly adjacent a bogie or pony truck wheelset will foul on below scale curves: that's anything scaling under the four to six chains (40 to 60 inches radius in OO) that locomotives of the size to have carrying wheels were in reality restricted to.

Someone's had a bit of fun on the decoration of this one. I could read the 'Doncaster' on the builder's plate, so put a loupe on it: 'Comcon North Castern' the arc across the top edge reads.

Duly grabbed the last one in WHS - first I have bought for myself from this series - and it is excellent project fodder. Worth the cash for the tender mouldings alone. Since I have to go out again to collect FiL, I shall be scouring the local emporia for a couple more.

Busy bee today. Assisting both in-laws and another elderly non-ambulant friend to make best use of the NHS, in the form of the newly opened mini-hospital. It's well laid out and signed, with good access, wide doorways and level surfaces. You might almost think that some thought had gone into the design*. Already met three friends on volunteer duty there, two as guides/helpers, one staffing the WRVS coffee shop so very sociable. More to do this afternoon. *The very visible flaw. Clearly the designers were not briefed that the NHS' staff are the nation's leading smokers, and have made no provision at all for the disposal of their fag ends around the immediate perimeter of the no-smoking zones. Planted out beds with a carefully applied mulch of bark, already looking a bit sorry due to a litter of ciggy butts, some still emitting the noxious fume. Everyone from consultant to porter out there puffing away.

Contrariwise, from what retailers have told me the Duff Tractor genre is nothing like what it was for guaranteed sales. The much diminished activity of Vi in the UK market over the past three years rather confirms that view. Just how good would the newcomer have to be? Bach's D1500 really 'gets it' for the prototype I first saw burbling away in KX station throat (now over a half century past!) and the EE type 3 now looks right. The only current relatively newly tooled diesel model that offends my eye is Hornby's Brush 2, which has a very unsubtle error, yet very few notice it. (I realise that there are a couple of other diesels considered to be in the same category, but don't know enough about them.) And since Hornby could at short notice put an upgraded Lima body on their excellent running gear for the Brush 2, I can imagine that any savvy potential competitor for that one would think 'perhaps not'. That said, going after dated/poor models of popular subjects with a high grade competitor probably has some legs. The technique to deliver a very much better Terrier and Dean Goods is now proven, and I suspect those would sell. I would like someone to take a swing at the 125 and 225 as complete sets, matching what Bachmann have done on the Midland Pullman. But mostly it has to be subjects never previously available or only with very dated/nla models in RTR; which path all of Hornby, Bachmann, Heljan, Dapol and DJM are clearly treading. As above, tough business to break into.

This has been the surprise for me. Bachmann have had the lion's share of my RTR budget the past 14 years, with a stream of good 'staple fare'; the everyday subjects that could be seen in the final decade of BR steam operations in my area of interest. The well's 'gone dry', just some grain hoppers this year, and nothing of interest from their current list of announcements either. (The C1 counts as a 'special' in my reckoning, but even included it doesn't change things.) Hornby are going to sweep the board in range of items purchased and value of sales in 2015 and 2016, and Heljan are going to beat Bachmann too if the O2 appears before year end. Didn't see this coming a couple of years ago.

The choices of subjects with which to grow the range will be interesting. Any business can use a few 'milch cow' products in the range, and that has to be the thinking behind the RCH minerals: the colourful liveries reliably obtaining 'eye-candy' impulse purchases. I hope that is true for them, considering the volume of this subject already produced and in circulation. There's the problem, the competition are already 'in possession' of the known reliable earners. I imagine Bachmann have truly cleaned up on their BR mk1s and 16T minerals, among other items required in some quantity for BR steam and transition era modelling. Hornby have a dominant stake in glamorous steam express locos. The BR standard steam locos and major grouping era types are nearly all ticked off. Between four of the existing players, the UK diesel traction fleet is pretty much sewn up. The competitive ground now, appears to be finding genres that offer a potential range of new subjects, if that genre proves popular. Look at the speed of advance on pre-group tank engines and 0-6-0s. With a half dozen others all bidding for a piece of this action, there's likely to be a scramble to stake a claim on the remaining 'possibles' that have the potential for decent sales volumes..

"Throw me up in the air, Papa". Never did me any harm, and the plaster only had to be patched up and repainted a couple of times. So was that VTOL parenting? (Cf. today's 'helicopter parenting'.) It's a wondrous thing, how a few pounds of fragile life can just engage you - forever - like that. I have to remind myself pretty much every day, that every person I encounter started out that way. Sometimes very hard to imagine. I have worked hard my whole life to be within walking distance of my 'home' office. (Particularly when I had to travel overseas frequently, this was a breath of fresh air.) Now, my own purely anecdotal observation. Of those of my cohort who have spent their careers pounding the road, whether with lengthy journeys between home and office, or whizzing about from client to client; they have all ended up looking alike to another subset of the cohort, those who regularly inhaled for a decade or more. I will not be in the least surprised if the epidemiology eventually suggests an equivalence: of say 10 a day, to an annual 10,000 miles of the UK's road conditions of the past 45 years.

Any hints whether Heljan might consider the mouldings - especially for the GN pattern tender - as a separately available item? That's spectacular pessimism. Quite apart from those directly employed in engineering in all its forms, there is an army of hobbyists who learn as they go by 'doing stuff'. Among my direct acquaintance a classicist building an airframe (he's planning an extension to Vitruvius' seminal tome as an academic in-joke), a reverend gentleman restoring an early Riley, and a young woman who is building (from discrete components) the electronics for a sound system. All well under 40, and none of them 'trained' in formal education beyond the CDT or whatever they abandoned at about age 14 in the UK school system.

Lovely day, and saw a mystery bird while with friends. Large thrush size and shape, generally a pale creamy brown colour, black and quite hefty bill, slight black stripe behind the eye, very distinctive wing feathers in chesnut and black with white edging (very smart indeed) a few white spots on the breast just under the wing, pink legs. The behaviour said juvenile, as it sat still for a while in an exposed position while we studied it, then dived into thick cover, never to re-emerge. Unfortunately no camera to hand, and our hosts who are keen on birdlife observation like myself couldn't place it at all. My bush hat was deployed throughout the afternoon. I can thoroughly recommend the product of Pith Helmet Industries of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Of the same rugged integrity as such products as the Tilley Hat, it is as good now as it was when purchased 25 years ago. It doesn't have the lifetime guarantee of such items as the Tilley, but then again at a cost of 13p at the then prevailing street exchange rate that cannot be expected. Now why didn't I purchase half a dozen?

Keep taking the medication guys! On the hot water subject, I have opted for the power shower approach, which does the temperature management. So provided there is hot water available it is constant temperature whatever else is operated around the house. If you get a bath set - switchable between shower and tap - there's the 'no scald' solution; that's been installed for my mother, with the temperature limited to be safe on the system controller. If they are in safe useable condition, offer them on Froogle, Freecycle, or to a charity shop or group. In my experience there is pretty much non-stop demand from folk who have just got out of the temporary housing trap into somewhere permanent, and literally need to furnish it from scratch as all their household goods had to be hand carried.

Greetings from my lunch table in the sunshine. I have just watched a wren fledgling do a wonderful thing. It flew to the underside of the table, which is an open pattern in cast metal, and then walked about inverted underneath completely ignoring me, obviously going after the small invertebrates beneath. It even declined to make me lucky while doing so, which was considerate as I had just changed into my best shorts. The English master was startled, smoking, electrified. "I say, Head of Physics and sometime Rutherford medal Fellow" he hissed, "Can you account for this phenomenon which has so rudely assaulted my senses?".

It requires a very special decoder built inside the mouldings of the staff to go on the trolley, with a custom piezo-actuated speaker completely replacing the roof. Somewhat expensive. I was rather taken with the very fine flanges. Perhaps Bachmann could be encouraged to nmake this flange size geenral in their OO range?

How is everybody? Been a bit underwater with voluntary typactivity and several health problems among friends and family. My mother's declining memory has made it necessary for me to lose the beard temporarily. See, I didn't have a beard as a boy, and that's who she remembers as her son. That is good to read. Something I have heard from friends and relatives who have been on chemo, including a couple on continuous medication for leukemia, is how important it is to find out how to condition yourself optimally for when the medication is administered. While the medics and help groups can advise on known frequently significant factors, we are all subtly different and for some finding what is key takes patience. Keeping notes of the events surrounding both the good and the ill, to see if you can help identify what the factors might be is worthwhile.

Plodark in the latest incarnation is resolutely targeted at the Mills and Boon bodice ripper market, according to my better half. She watched about one and a half episodes when it was on earlier this year and announced that she was now sufficiently topped up on handsome boys with their shirts off for 2015. Ooh, look at that, a patch of blue sky and the big yellow hot thing has appeared in it. So it isn't November yet after all then. Have a good day one and all, practical tasks and visit or two to elderly friends beckon.

Careless re-use of 'boiler plate' text cut and pasted from a previous advert is a possible explanation. So easy to do with a computer. If the dealer is on the level and it was a simple slip-up, then the personal low key approach of 'Would you care to discuss this shortfall to arrive at a mutually satisfactory outcome with no fuss or anyone else involved?' is often a winner. Going prepared with the breach of contract route as the next option if this is not amicably received.

The last lot I purchased in Hobbycraft in 2009, no information on manufacturer, 6mm thick. This could have the paper peeled off dry, but it wasn't wholly reliable, sometimes taking great chunks out of the foam. I resorted instead to scoring through the paper layer then cutting it away with a razor blade in a holder following the inside surface with the whole piece laid down on a board; somewhat akin to filleting flatfish! This only allowed me to remove the paper from a piece about 2.5" wide cutting from each long edge in turn, and was rather time consuming. (Thankfully I only needed small pieces to show some possible surface finishes on a building model otherwise constructed from the plain foam board.) One caution. With only a single layer of paper, anything glued to part of this paper - I used PVA - did sometimes cause a minor, just visible, deformation of the material. Didn't matter in the context in which I used it. Cannot comment on longevity as following its intended use, some children played with it to destruction.

Nicely, thank you.

Rules is rules

Something of a busy week for me, and not over yet, so no time to fully read all the many contributions. The usual encouragement and commiserations to those in difficulties, am dealing with much of this myself among both family and friends - all elderly - at present. I am making notes of 'behaviours to avoid' for my own later life, should I be spared. Things like 'Don't expect people to be able to turn up bang on time if they are having to travel through heavy traffic' and 'Be direct in asking for help, instead of only asking when face to face "If it isn't any trouble please could you...?" style'. Sad to say it is getting a little wearing with a couple of folk who have apparently passed beyond comprehending that there are other obstacles in the world, beyond their own infirmities. Regarding tomatoes, and the relationship to railway modelling. Having married a green fingered lady, when we finally settled in a place intended to be a long-term home, possibly the best thing I did was install a modest unheated greenhouse as a wedding anniversary gift. Result! For so relatively small an effort the yield is fantastic: it's her woman cave and she spends hours pottering around it, all sorts of stuff including excellent tomatoes that taste like tomatoes are grown, minor tasks like continuing the watering when she is away from home at conferences and the like earn maximum brownie points; a little additional work in the way of new equipment, occasional modifications and repairs cause the sun to majorly come out and questions such as 'And what would you like for the railway?' to be asked.

I'm on kitchen fitter's mate duty this week. How to get a complete kitchen with all mod cons into an eight feet on a side room. (Happily a room with both door and window well positioned in the centre of facing walls, so an efficient U shape plan is feasible) Base units aligned yesterday, electrician should be in right now to complete some work he ran out of time on last week, a small plumbing job, and all base units and wall mounts installed by the day's end is today's plan. The friend whose project this is will one day construct the most efficiently planned model railway ever seen. Just has to escape hordes of folk asking for his help with the many practical tasks at which he has regularly demonstrated great proficiency.

Mine's been up and running for three years now, since concluding that Dapol had not made any progress since the 2008 announcement, to be available 2009 . An easy meld of the Hornby exterior body parts onto the drive from a s/h Bach 24. Very small mods required to get the body parts to fit, and it cost a net £30 once the resulting surplus spares were sold on.

If it's a woodmouse, (orange-brown coloured sides, big ears) they are very short/poorly sighted in my experience. Moving slowly you can get up very close indeed, especially if you screen your binocular vision eyes which are very obviously a major clue to them that a predator is closing in. When they do see you they jump, and boy can they jump, often doing a wizz as they go. (They really shriek when a tawny owl picks them up to, happens quite a lot in our garden at a location under the tree with the birdfeeders hanging in it.)

Officially steam had gone from June 16th 1963, so only a slim possibility of the next train being steam hauled - and a declining one at that - over the following eighteen months. WGC station surrounds look very different now, with the derelict Wedded Shreet factory site and more still in the hands of Spenhill (Tesco's property arm) and no decisions on future development settled. Your spotting location is Lyle's Bridge, an accomodation bridge for the old lane between farms before the town was ever built; now cyclist and pedestrian only, the nearby Knightsfield bridge carrying the road traffic.

No photographic image can be treated as an absolute reference, but when there is a consistent difference in colour values between the two vehicle types in the same shot, (and there are a goodly quantity of such pictures) then the range of possibilities go from: The paint shades of the two vehicle types could be identical in shade to human vision, but between ambient lighting, paint and the photographic emulsion they are rendered differently in the photograph: The paint shades of the two vehicle types differ to human vision, and the photographic image represents this. There were comments at the time the Met-Camm cars came into service that the colour of the new Pullmans didn't match the earlier cars. The earlier cars were a warmer tone, both the umber and the cream. On this basis my opinion is that the many photos which show this effect are a decent representation of what was perceived. Irony time: Hornby's representation on the earlier cars, and Bachmann's on the Met-Camm cars, appears to reverse the actual situation, in that the Hornby are colder in tone than the Bachmann. ( I'll live with it, couldn't get anywhere close myself in achieving the finish of these vehicles from both makers.)