Gareth Collier

I feel giddy! The Albion top of the Championship and still in the Capital One cup. Gareth

No one said anything about speeding, you can't when delivering around towns with stops every 3 or 4 hundred yards. It's more the pulling out into small gaps, amber traffic lights and abandoning your van blocking roads as there is nowhere to park etc. In the run up to Xmas I'd around 100 parcels on board and 4 hours to deliver them. I pointed out this was impossible, 3 minutes to drive to the next address, park, locate parcel, knock on door, knock on neighbours door etc, so 20 an hour if you're lucky. I was told 3 minutes was longer than allowed and to get on with it. You just end up working for free to finish when your 4 hours is up. An acquaintance working for another courier company has guaranteed time slots in which he has to deliver, drop below 90% you get a warning, again and your out. Employers know it is you taking the risk but don't give a hoot as there are plenty of others eager replacements. I don't know what the employment situation is like in Oz but it is cut throat here nowadays! Not just delivering but all jobs. Gareth

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but in many occupations now if 'it takes you as long as it takes to do the job' you won't have a job for long as people are queuing up to replace you. Maybe it's 'more fool him' but 'him' will be unemployed. In an ideal world you stand up to the management and say no but the world is far from ideal. Gareth

Didn't you know it is the Queens mail and you have to get out of the way I know my driving is worse when I'm driving my 'Red Menace' van due to the ridiculous amounts you are expected to get delivered. I guess all couriers are the same. Your workload is based on no other cars on the road and a free parking space outside every call. If you complain you always get told 'I'm sure plenty of others would be happy to have your job'. When I joined RM to drive their vans you had to take a 3 hour driving test with the AA in 3 different size vans. Now a licence is good enough. Gareth

I seem to recall reading that the owner doesn't want promotion due to the high cost of travel in Division 2 which covers the whole country. Gareth

How are Chelsea 3rd? They're still playing with 15 minutes to go and it's 2-2 or is the league run on the same basis as the Serbian lottery? Gareth

It won't last as the rest of the games are about to kick off but Brighton are 3 points clear at the top of the Championship! It's in our own hands Gareth

Many many things annoy me about peoples lack of driving skills but they probably all come down to social skills rather than driving. I holidayed in Cornwall last week and one thing was a common factor on the journey. You are on a motorway or dual carriage way and signs start telling you that in a mile the outside lane will go and you will have to merge with the inner lane so people start moving over and everything continues to move smoothly until (sorry to point the finger at the same people) BMW/Merc/Audi man decides to wait until they reach the chevrons as the lane ends to push in, usually still travelling way over the speed limit. Everyone has to stand on their brakes to let the selfish idiot in and the knock on effect is everything coming to a stand still. It is a lack of manners. Gareth

Like this? I've used a hair from a paint brush. It's only 1.5mm long. The paint finish looks perfectly smooth in real life unlike the cruelly enlarged photo. Gareth

Greetings, I went for red. For some reason I've been unable to track down suitable sized 'Chopper' transfers! Gareth

Greetings, At our local Wealden Area Group Richard Benn needed something from the 70's for his new layout. Being a dab hand at designing etches he came up with this little gem of a 70's icon. Despite being horrific to ride Choppers were everywhere so we've been having a go at building them. He designed 2 versions, a simplified one in 2 pieces, and a 3 piece fiendish one being the one below. Fiendish as you need to bend the hoop, twist the pedals, handle bars and gear change to the correct angle without snapping them off. Sorry, no spokes or chain! Now it just needs a dab of orange or purple paint. Gareth

IIRC Wickham wheels are 18 inch diameter so 6mm in 'OO'. The 'N' chassis has 4mm ones rather than 3mm so still 2/3rds of the size. Whatever you may think of one in 'N' there is still plenty of room to have fitted the motor in the 'OO' one rather than the trailer but as I don't model in 'OO' I won't lose any sleep over it Gareth

'Massively oversize' is a bit of an exaggeration but you can't really get the wheels any smaller in 'N' and fit a gear to the axle. There is still plenty of room under it as the non driven wheelset doesn't have a whole axle, rather each wheel has a stub axle. You could easily fit a motor under an 'OO' one as it is 4 times larger! Gareth

Far more realistic Gareth

I can't see why they've decided to hide the motor in the trailer when there are such small motors available. I built one in 'N' and used a RTR Japanese chassis. Now it's run in it is quite a bit slower than in the video https://youtu.be/uOyKHXJxTyQ Sorry, don't seem to be able to imbed the video in the post anymore, just a link. I don't think I've done anything different? Gareth Sussed how to add the video!

I never turn it on either unless to clear a foggy windscreen. I've contact lenses and the first thing it does is dry them out so I can't see where I'm going! Gareth

Hi N Brass do a G2 smokebox door number 2063: http://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/fitlms1.html HTH Gareth

I've a model of Waldron and Horeham Road station on the Cuckoo line set in the 1890's. Although LBSCR I also run SECR on it. I also have a bit of LSWR and a fair bit of GER. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98916-scratchbuilding-a-secr-aeolus-2-4-0t-in-n/ Gareth

Back from my week off I remembered to take the camera to work to take some photos of the pride of our fleet and couldn't believe my eyes. We've only gone and had a load of new vans delivered! I say new, they're '14' plate Peugeots. London always seem to get the new ones, thrash then to within an inch of their life then a year later they are cascaded down to us. All of our old Transits have gone as well as their lookalike LDV Maxus's. We've only got a couple of slightly larger Maxus left so I've taken photos of them. The first one is my weapon of choice this week as I'm still on rehab. It is actually new to the office as I've never seen it before and it's numbered CR59 so a visitor. You don't have to model the gear box which is lucky. Here are the nearside dents: And the offside: And the rear. This angle nicely shows off how pink it now is. They never see polish so at this age are always pink. For some reason the RM logo has been removed but it's still nice and red where it was. Below the old logo is the standard darker red rectangle where the Banardo's sticker has been chiselled off. Even better are the gaffer tape marks all over the nearside door where it appears the Maxus logo once fell off and was repaired with said gaffer tape and the hinges seem to have also needed help at some point ! Oh, and for some reason it has white hinges on the offside door! Here is our other survivor. It lost a rear door in the wind once which was replaced. Now replacement doors come in black and it seems our workshop started to paint it. It received one thin coat of grey primer then they gave up. It's been like that for a couple of years and you can tell they've finished 'blending' it in as the 7 digit national fleet number has been added to the top of the door! The top of the new door has been bent over as their locks have a habit of breaking so you have to crowbar your way in hence the yellow/black warning tape on the offside door covering the damaged metal work. It also has the standard misaligned local fleet number. It's a shame I couldn't get photos of the Transits as believe it or not we've been left with the better examples so feel free to trash your models as much as you'd like. Gareth

As far as I am aware there is no hard and fast rule. In the main Eastbourne delivery office they are all a 3 digit number starting with a 3. The other office in the town which covers the east side and local villages only has a 2 digit number. Spare vans which offices share usually start with an 'S' before the number. You'll probably have to d a bit of RM van spotting to suss out their system. You'll normally find them congregating near cafes where the management don't look. The livery also depends on the year you are modelling. Each year RM has a chosen charity and the vans usually have the appropriate vinyl on them. Last year was Banardos and many vans still have the stickers as they won't come off. Gareth

I'm off for a week now (finishing projects before the NGS AGM) so will have a go when back but I may get funny looks. I know you've varnished them now but you really need to change the 'L44' on each bonnet (and rear door). It's the local fleet number and is different on every van. Cheers Gareth

Hi, Being a driver of those red vans just a few tips to make them realistic. They need to have a dent or scrape in every body panel and if a door has had to be replaced it will have been hand painted a slightly different red. Make sure you use a chunky brush as that's what our repair department uses. We have a couple in our fleet both with doors where you can clearly see the brush marks. On the high top they couldn't reach the top 6 inches so it's very thin/sparse. After a coupe of months it starts peeling off so you need some white primer showing through. Also if the van has moved offices the fleet number, L44 on the model, doesn't get removed. Black/yellow tape is put over it and a replacement number stuck on nearby usually using various size numerals. To finish none of ours have ever been washed! Got to make them prototypical. Gareth

Cheers Guy although a compliment from you is a little unsettling . As for the competition I doubt it, it's a 700 mile round trip this year. Gareth

I think the wobble has gone; the only wobble now is my dodgy camera work! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnIhp_E04po You Tubes changes on the 20/4 seem to have stopped me embedding the video so a link will have to do. I've tried all the suggestions on the help page to sort it but nothing seems to work. Gareth Finally sussed how to imbed the video:

That's better! Nearer to its actual size. Gareth