SRman

I wonder if the shoe beam (or is that 'height limiting bar'?) is a separate moulding, in which case it may be possible to remove it and file it to a more correct profile.

Like you, Bill, I always remember the lovely varnished wood inside the BILs. As a youngster I'd stand in the corridor and watch the passing scenery from those huge windows. p.s. I have just been on Hattons site and pre-ordered a BR one!

Only four more to go, Clive, and you'll have the whole fleet! I can *sort of* justify one for my layout for inter-regional transfer freights around the London area - same reason I have a class 15!

Lovely atmosphere in those shots, Rick. One thing I have done with my earlier EFE buses such as that Bristol LS is to get a silver gel marker or paint pen with a fine tip and pick out the windscreen surrounds and side window vents. It's worth doing when you can find the time between all your other modelling projects, even if you only pick out the windscreen edges. Later models come with these already done. Keep up the brilliant work.

I hope nobody took my comment the wrong way: I was referring to the dull livery applications on the prototypes. The models and their livery applications look to be very good. It certainly wasn't Heljan's fault that BR chose fairly unimaginative liveries for these locomotives. Thanks for posting those photos, too.

I like the green 'Crompton' - like your blue 50 it is rather nicely weathered. I was going to suggest that Clayton needed a companion, if only to make sure the train got to its destination! It looks like you read my mind, Rick!

It's good to see and hear some new material here. Thanks for posting those, Mal and John.

Not sure about class 33s but the 'Jaffa Cake' livery would have looked quite good on a 73, I think.

I have to agree with you there; the Clayton looks 'right' on the hoods.

It's still a little way off, yet, but I am getting there slowly! Slight diversion at the moment while I make a diorama for the modelling competition on Sunday at the Model Bus Association's AGM.

There is a learning curve with DCC (as with anything new that we try) but I'm sure it is the right move for Peter. It will make releasing trains and locomotives from the platforms much easier and slicker. It will also allow for the loco storage sidings to be 'stacked' more efficiently without regard to isolating section lengths. The Power Cab is pretty intuitive to use too.

I rather liked the shape - squarer and more modern looking than the BTH class 15s. It's a pity the dull livery application did nothing to enhance the looks.

That That is illustrated if you look closely at te line up in Baby Deltic's post #183. The first loco has the deeper window whereas the second in line appears to have the shallower window that lines up with the others. The third loco is facing the wrong way for comparison!

Yeah! Shame on you for being a Queenslander!!! If you are ever down this way you should contact us. We are a pretty hospitable crowd.

Thanks also from me for the very enjoyable running session, great company and also the nice refreshments. Sorry I had to leave before everyone else - obviously the running session continued after that as there are a few models there that I didn't see earlier. It was good to meet Jim and Steve (first timers) and,of course, PCM once again. The layout never fails to impress.

The Heljan ones are better - brilliantly smooth and quiet running with excellent haulage power as well. More accurate detailing than Hornby's one (which actually was prepared before the real ones were launched so had a few errors from the get-go). That's not to say the Hejan ones are perfect; they have made a few livery errors and even complete bloopers (just check out the second grey mainiine version - yes, that's right, it' not a typo on my part; three 'i's and no 'L')!

Yes, it's a 58.

That's good news, Dave ... but not for my wallet / credit card!!

Must be a very powerful vacuum if it'll suck up dead bodies as well as ants!!! Welcome back Pete. Note that the November BRMA meeting has now been cancelled due to the host's ill-health, so we may not catch up with you for a little while. I'll contact Rick about his layout visit too but the weekends are rapidly filling up with other commitments now.

Glad the M7 was an easy fix, Rick. It wasn't intended as any sort of criticism - in fact, it's probably a compliment to the high quality of your photography that i was able to spot that!! It certainly didn;t detract from the superb modelling on show. I must do some more weathering myself. The inspration is there in your photos, so no excuses here!

Looking good, as ever, Rick. :-) I did notice that something seems to have happened to the rear buffer on the M7, though - it looks like the shank may have been pushed in through the buffer beam ... or is that just an optical illusion from the camera angles?

I cannot speak for the 57 sounds but previous experience with SWD sounds says the actual sound quality is very good but with the proviso that they suffer from lag. Howes sounds respond promptly to throttle changes where the SWD ones force you to drive to the sounds. I have owned SWD (or Bachmann's own variations on SWD ones) in classes 20, 24, 37, 47, 52 and 66 and driven friends' classes 25 and 45 and this applied to most of them, with the 25 and 66 being the most responsive and the 24 and 52 probably the slowest for the sounds to respond to throttle changes. I had the 20, 24 and 52 reblown by Howes! I also had the 66 reblown although the Bachmann/SWD package was not bad. Here is the video I took farly recently of the Howes 57 - sorry about the shaky camera work though. MP4 format:

There used to be some drawings of the 4D on the VicSig website - probably still there in the archives somewhere.

Nahh! He's just trying to make us all look bad. Don't pay any mind to him! Great work as usual, Rick. Real atmosphere ... I think Ian summed it up rather nicely, actually.

Definitely. That sounds like a very smart approach. Don't forget that some units had AEC engines too, mostly replaced by Leylands as parts became scarce. Then there were some later builds that had the more powerful Albion engines (Chiltern lines 115s come to mind). It may not be possible to get all of these sounds as authentic ones simply because some of these units don't exist any more. Whatever you choose to do, I'm positive the results will be excellent.