Steadfast

No idea, I've asked several people over the years. I know a man who may know, I'll try to remember to ask next time I see him. Jo

Yeah M50 / V46 was used to trip a few 59s to and from Crewe and Toton, including the Mendip ones. GSM-R was fitted to them all at Crewe from memory. Jo

I can't believe these are going for scrapping, a real change on the Mendip services is occurring. The AI ex Yeoman O&K hoppers are a few years older, so I'm surprised the LTFs are going first, but the O&Ks can't be far behind I fear? Jo

Different driving technique apparently 😉 I know drivers that would take a 59 over a 60 any day, and equally drivers that love a 60. On a 60 the creep control is in from a standing start, with a 59 it comes in from (I think from memory) 4 mph. Jo

Red 59/2s often ran on the engineers trippers, so any mix of engineers wagons easily be seen. They also worked ballasts to site too. There was also trials of them on coal ex Liverpool coal terminal, per this Flickr link, so they weren't just constrained to Mendip centric work. They also did some work on Margam based trains such as steel and the Murco tanks. Jo

I quite agree, while the Farish 37 scrubs up well with work it is that step behind the 31. Not had a 40 to compare it to. Producing variants not covered by the Farish tooling may offer a gentle step into the water. One thing with "classic" locos with the circular fan grill (and I'm fully aware this may just be me...) but etches in N are seldom fine enough to carry this put convincingly. Brian at Shawplan has done some lovely aftermarket ones, but those on RTR models in N have never looked fine enough to be convincing. We seemed to go through a period where "etched grills" were a feature fitted whether the etch looked more realistic or less, rather than choosing to use the best tool for the job to replicated that particular feature. When Farish released the 31, it had an etched roof grill, but once they did the refurbished body style, this was changed to a moulded grill, that once given a black wash looks sublime. The Rapido Co-Bo has quite a chunky mesh too. Now if a chunky mesh is fitted, at least the hole makes it easier to fit one from Shawplan, but I'd rather have one less step to getting the loco layout ready. Like i said, it may be just me, but in my opinion in N scale there's a lot to be said for well tooled moulded roof fan grills that will take a wash. Jo

Hi Jim, Just dug the packet out, set PA-21, "modelling mesh 21" 0.54 x 0.32 is the size I used. I used multiple passes of a scalpel with a new blade and steel rule to cut, then tidied the edge and fettled the size with a file, cutting onto a firm self healing cutting mat the metal didn't seem to deform at the cut much. It's funny, I had one of the ex Freightliner flat Super Tench in mind too when I bought the mesh, it sat in a box and then Revolution announced the Mullet based Super Tench. The wagons will probably become an FDA Salmon twin set now. Jo

All these MGR suggestions...Coalfish with them please. Pretty please. Jo

Thanks Ben. There are three Super Salmon sets used for delivering bits of pointwork and other speciality rails. These always run RRA + FZA + RRA and are pretty much fixed sets. There is also the as required use of runners with Salmon and Mullet, if an overhanging load is needed on one of those. I'd estimate there's probably 10 - 15 RRAs in use. These are a mix of the ex OBA type being modelled, ex VDA and a couple of ex SAA steel wagons, still retaining wooden floor and movable stanchions. Cheers Dave, very kind! I'm evenings this week so hoping I might have the time and energy to fire up the Silhouette one day before work. The Hasegawa meshes aren't huge as the picture previously shows, but exchange rate depending are only about 4 quid each from Japan. They're not on general sale in Europe, but I did see an eBay seller doing them for 15 quid a pop. Other than Shawplan loco specific grills, they're finer than pretty much any etched mesh I've seen elsewhere. Jo

A different angle on a 66. The headlights of 66047 and the red signals cast beams of light into the night. There can be lots of waiting on possessions, and 6W07 whcih has just arrived at SW1108 from Westbury is now in the T3 possession for relaying work around Denchworth, waiting further instructions. Fellow DB maritime blue machine 66005 was on the rear of the train, formed of 4 loaded Salmon of new sleepers and 12 loaded Falcon of new ballast. Taken on a Samsung S10 with Night Mode switched on. Jo

I'm condensing all my workbench threads into one new thread, please take a look at the link below for the new content. Jo

I'm condensing all my workbench threads into one new thread, please take a look at the link below for the new content. Jo

Hello All, I've decided to combine previous workbench threads into one and start afresh. After the image loss in the great RMweb storm of 2022 and with some of the threads not being touched for a fair while, I've posted links below to the previous threads. Some of the pictures appear to have come back, but there's a lot missing and I've not got the originals any more as they've gone walkies on old laptops and phones. The oldest thread dates from 2011, and that was a scarily long time ago! Right then, back to the present day, amongst the pile of chaos that is the desk I've been working on this. It is, or will be, an RRA runner wagon. There are several styles, converted from different 1970s 4 wheel air braked wagons. This is an ex OBA 'Bass' type, fitted with a mesh deck. The starting point is a Chivers OCA kit, of which actually only the chassis sides and wheels have been used. With the mesh deck being fitted, the framework of the chassis is very visible so I had a play in Illustrator and drew up something to be cut on the Silhouette Portrait cutter. Other than an hour wasted drawing and some plastic sheet, if it didn't work I'd lost nothing and could still build the OCA as intended. Anyway, it worked! Two layers of 0.25mm / 10 thou plastic cut and laminated. This gives finer results than a single layer of 0.5mm and also allows half relief to be included. Evergreen section was added to add strength and visual depth to the chassis members, with some 0.3mm Plastruct to represent the beams the brake rigging hangs from. The mesh deck is a Hasegawa Trypart product, bought online from Japan a few years ago. Typically, the mesh on the sheet runs 90 degrees to that required for the wagon, so two strips had to be cut to get the pattern in the correct orientation. Next up, I've got to design and cut the side raves and headstocks of the wagon, as well as work out where I can drop some lead shot or tungsten putty into the underframe. That's all for now, jo

Hi Simon, I've not got any broken couplers on my 5, but felt lucky when I checked them over after reports from a few others at the time. If you get round to offloading the one with no couplings, drop me a message with what you're after for it. I'm sure I could do something with it rather than feeding the bin monster. All the best Jo

Smith and Sniff will have a field day. If you've never heard of a Fooowwds Traaaaansit, 17 mins 50 into their excellent podcast will provide education on Dagenham pronunciation (starts about 15 mins if you want the full Sport, and Transit experience before Ford) Jo

Nah just bright yellow cars with a sense of fun and a standout livery. You can decorate your car like a hornet without fag money if you wanted to paint it that way Jo

Yup, from a brief Googling it was a known glitch, fixed on PC in the autumn by the sounds of it. Disc copy, given to me for Christmas as a present. Playing offline as my Gold membership has lapsed, but think its still a cloud save. Of course, my new game will have overwritten the previous save if it was still there and the game had a brain fart... Looks like xbox there's no means of recovery https://support.saber.games/hc/en-us/articles/9780049484689-Dakar-Desert-Rally-Lost-Save-Files#:~:text=Depending on the settings%2C data,Storage > Download to System Storage Might have to put San Andreas back in and finish that bad boy. For the third or fourth time. Jo

Not been in the Gamer's Lounge for a while, which is a sign of how little I've played this last 12 months, what with being away a lot for work. Anyway, for Christmas I got Dakar Desert Rally (which uses Unreal like TSW but looks much nicer!) and have been keeping the Xbox One warm playing that in the month since. Fired it up 10 mins ago, oh that's weird asking for the License agreement etc, maybe it's done the 2023 update with promised new features. Oh no wait. Since I played it last 3 days ago, it's wiped the save so I'm back to square one. FFS. Right, Dirt Rally 2.0, where are you in the stack of games. It's time to fire up the Scooby... Jo

Bring back Eddie Jordan and the Buzzin' Hornets...or Bitten Heroes. But remember, Be On Edge if it's Bitten & Hisses... Jo

Another reason to be reading or on the laptop with the grand prix playing in the background then. I can't stand the helmet cam view, makes me feel dizzy. Jo

Difficult to see anything beyond the platforms in the dark, but Portway Park & Ride looked ready and raring to go when we rattled through with the bins from Severnside on Wednesday night. Interesting to see the lack of a car park as yet. Jo

A good shout. If possible, it'd be nice if the EWS and Mendip Pool branding boards could be user added, as some wagons lost them or never had them. Jo

Try looking up HR Hobbies. Should be the same stuff, but with a different label. The license to use the Alclad name expired in 2022 and wasn't renewed Jo

Thanks all for the suggestions, I'll do some investigating. As for what wagons, all of the above! Thats really useful having the sizes, 3 inches scaled down to N is 0.51 mm so looks like my estimatiation wasn't far off. I've got a mix of kit built and RTR, and the RTR stuff has plastic stanchions that snap over time. Jo

Hi everyone, I've hunted high and low online, so I'm guessing the answer is no, but you never know, someone may have better Google-fu skills or know an alternative! I'm after brass or nickel silver rod, in a square profile of around 0.5mm size. I want it to make stanchions for my steel wagons. There's plenty of plastic, metal tube and rod out there in similar sizes, but I haven't seen a single product of 0.5mm square profile. I've tried listings for Albion Alloys and K&S metals in particular. If I'm after a product that doesn't exist, are there any alternatives people have used? Perhaps sewing pins with a square shank or something similar may exist? Many thanks Jo