John M Upton

I have bought hardly any UK prototype or modelling mags for a few years now. MLI moving away from the individual subjects to a more mixed bag with each issue has seen me buy just one issue, read it and then never look at it again. The only other prototype magazine of any real worth was Traction and that is now merged with BRM, I am not interested in paying out for a modelling magazine I have no interest in to view the Traction content I was interested in. All in all, the UK magazine market has become dull, stale and expensive with patchy availability in the likes of WHSmiths which once carried a decent range and are now hopeless. I have no interest in going digital either, I prefer to look at a paper mag before I decide if I wish to buy or not.

Pretty much all postage larger than a standard letter into/out of the UK is now extortionate, mainly thanks to things like ebay's global shipping program and in general international postal charges being hiked up to cover the costs of all those cheap Chinese imports who manage to get local postal services to deliver it without contributing anything to the actual cost of the service. Try getting stuff from the US!! Postage is often more than the item now. This is the reason (other than the infamous B word) that a huge amount of overseas model rail sales and trading has all but ceased with many sellers simply deciding that the extra hassle, cost and red tape means it simply isn't worth it.

Because the DfT's crack team of Accountants are not prepared to pay for it? Yes....

Hello I have had to hard wire a modern tooling Graham Farish Class 37, two wires, one from each terminal on the motor lead to the PCB screw holes in the top of the chassis block and it works, except when I try and solder the wire ends to the chassis block, the solder will not adhere even after the paint coating is scraped away. What am I doing wrong?

Going to have to go on the Sunday this year, hopefully it will be quieter. Downside is that most if not all the bargains will have been mopped up by Saturday lunchtime and will probably already be on ebay at two to three times what they paid for it by Sunday morning!

The Scottish one is the one I want to do as well. I have scoured every single Scottish book I have trying to find another picture of it, I only found one which showed just the very edge of it, in exactly the same place next to exactly the same BR brake van and I suspect taken on the same day too, It must have got up there somehow...

Lovely, thanks! Looks like walling in the end and inserting the extra windows should be pretty straightforward.

Anyone got an engineers olive one yet? Would like to see some pictures of the actual model please rather than the duff catalogue image the retailers all seem to be using.

Another day, another shambles...

That is pretty hideous to be honest. Any reason why Large Logo could not have been retained?

I have been considering seeking out a couple of BR blue Mk1 Surburbans but am unfamiliar with the model. Are they to the modern Blue Ribband Mk 1 tooling standard or the older Poole style printed clear bodyshell design?

...except they are not working at the moment!

...or to use the correct railway terminology, there was an all mighty cock up.

...and then in the late afternoon, just as it was all getting back to normal, the points at West Worthing were run through and badly damaged which saw the Coastway West pretty much grind to a halt at the height of the evening peak and the rest of the night was a bit of a mess as a result. Got stranded in Littlehampton for the thick end of four hours!!!

It's the face, mainly the upper part with the head code box and windscreens. It has tripped up RTR manufacturers in the past, the 50 seems to be jinxed!

Yes, there is too much clamoring from certain overly vocal sections of the hobby (usually via social media) for retooling anything that hasn't had a newly tooled version in the last half an hour which quite frankly pees me off somewhat!! I roll my eyes upwards every time Bachmann announce yet another retool of their OO Class 37 for example. The only recent model that does need a retool is the N scale Class 50, the thing Dapol put out just looks wrong (all be it miles better than the old Farish thing) but still a no sale from me until they try again and get it right this time.

Already don by Farish in N and Bachmann in OO so would be totally unnecessary duplication. An 06 on the other hand is only represented by that toy like thing Hornby have been churning out for decades in OO an nothing in N at all.

This is the same shop that was charging forty quid and more for static models from the Great Bulbous Lumps range a year or two ago so I would be cautious. Without close examination of the entire plate and knowing what to look for, there is no way of telling if this is the real deal or a good replica.

Spotted in an antique shop front window in Barnham this morning, directly opposite the railway station. I doubt it is original at a shade under three hundred sheets but you never know... If anyone is interested, the shop doesn't reopen until Tuesday.

Oooooh. I have put down for some of those!

Not a heritage livery, this is the corporate colours of Freightliner's owners and can be found on many of their US shortlines. Eventually the entire Freightliner fleet should be in these colours although repainting seems to be going extremely slowly it seems.

I am running low on my bottle of Glue n Glaze and locally, it is out of stock. Now call me skeptical but would I be right in thinking that actually this is just bog standard PVA Glue watered down and served up in a fancy little bottle with a hefty mark up? If so, what are the likely water to glue ratio? Bog standard PVA Glue I can get for as little as 99p for a big bottle and the proper Glue n Glaze is ruddy expensive for what it is I think.

The four trains an hour between Worthing and Brighton is exactly what it was pre Covid, Southampton loses all direct trains to/from Gatwick and Victoria, no Bognor - Littlehampton direct any more (and only one an hour direct from Brighton/Chichester to Littlehampton) and one of the Victoria/Portsmouth Harbour's is ALL stops between Barnham and Portsmouth, except Bedhampton which is being effectively abandoned to SWR only.

Sadly not, the Horsham/Vic via Dorking is still an hourly stops everywhere except Battersea Park service, they have even put the Ewell East stop back in recently and no service south of Dorking after about ten o'clock on a Saturday night and nothing on a Sunday, a criminal waste of a good alternative route between the Sussex Coast and London rather than all that pratting about through Gatwick Airport!!!