Mike at C&M

Flood, Thank you for posting the link to the previous thread about the 'CO'. Ben A, A good point about the livery matching between the Dapol and Farish items. With the Bachmann ScotRail 47.710 already being available, would you think it reasonable that they would stick with the that colour of blue for the 'N' Gauge model? If so, then we already have a colour match.

Westie7 has sent me a 'PM' which states that I should get my hands on a copy of Rail Express for June 2007. Could anyone please let me have a copy or scan of the relevant article, please. Thanks to 'mjkerr' for the additional info. As for a bulk discount..... maybe!

Flood and Arrachogaidh, Many thanks for all the information. It is gratefully received. In all the years spent on Carlisle station, I never realised that the multitude of coaches passing in front of me were designated Mark 3A. Mike

Following the announcement by Graham Farish that they are to produce a Scotrail liveried Class 47/7 (372-245) and the Scotrail DBSO (374-651), C&M Models of Carlisle are delighted to announce that they have commissioned Dapol to produce the Scotrail liveried Mark 3 coaches which will therefore allow the complete train to be modelled. The Mark 3 coaches are likely to be released in the first few weeks of 2014, which is estimated to be close to the time that the Farish 47/7 and DBSO will appear. Therefore, the whole train can be purchased at around the same time. As yet, there are many details of the project still to be finalised, such as whether we do the First Open or the Composite Open, and we have a number of questions to ask which will assist us with the project, and these will follow on from this initial post. Any contribution, great or small will be much appreciated. The coaches are going to come as a boxed set of 4. The price has yet to be fixed, but we will also be offering the option to purchase the 47/7 and DBSO from ourselves, plus light bars for the Mark 3 coaches. Once we have prices for the coaches, then we shall start to accept firm orders. If you would like to be kept up to date with the project, including notification that we are accepting orders, then you can either e-mail us at sales@candmmodels.co.uk or you can PM me via the forum, giving your e-mail address. We shall then set up an e-mail group to enable us to pass the information on to you. We look forward to hearing from you. As mentioned above, we have a number of questions regarding the Scotrail liveried push-pull sets for which we would be grateful for further information When did the de-classification of the 1st (FO) to the 1st/2nd (CO) take place? Earlier rakes seem to show a 6-coach set, whilst later ones seem to be more likely to be 5-coach sets. Is there is a reason for this, and was it official policy? Did the de-classification and the reduction in the number of coaches within the set happen at the same time. Also were the ‘FO’ coaches renumbered upon their partial declassification to the ‘CO’s? In the Scotrail livery, what was the size of the coach numbers We believe that there was branding within the end of coach windows. Does anyone have a good photograph of this? Was there any modification of the Mark 3s when they were fitted for push-pull working. What are the exact colours of the Scotrail livery. Are they the same as the InterCity executive livery, and if not what are they (RAL numbers). Also, what was the colour of the light blue stripe, RAL number would be useful here, too. We believe that the coaches were Mark 3, rather than Mark 3A. Can someone please confirm this. I know that they were taken from the earlier batches of Mark 3s that were run on the WCML. If anyone has any photographs which can be used as reference material, then we would be grateful if you could share this with us. Thank you for your help, in advance.

Having spent 50 years of my life in the area, and therefore thousands of hours on Citadel station, this is definitely one to watch. Very impressed with Victoria viaduct, its' details and attention to the contours around the area. A job well done!

As a European modeller, I am going to go back to the 1980s and Barry Kelsall's superb model of Filisur, on the Rhaetian Bahn.

Carlisle is home to an electrician called Phil Short !

There are problems with all the cameras on the webcam.deg.net site. As yet, there are no postings from the website host on the feedback page, just fellow watchers of all the webcams wondering what has happened to their favourite viewing.

Daughter No.1 standing outside a restaurant in Brockenhurst

Ah Dougal! You'll have had your air-conditioned tea.

I doubt that I will hear of any decision directly on including the pantograph as a spare part. Any news will come through as an entry in a future catalogue.

As a trader, I have contacted Barwell, via my Bachmann rep., about the usefulness of having the pantograph as a stand alone spare part almost immediately after the release of the model. so the seed has already been planted on this one.

It might seem criminal to say this, but the obvious 'wobbles' in the track do not really bother me, as long as the trains all stay coupled. Things are rather dormant in the attic at present, with no likely progress in the coming weeks. When work resumes, then I shall post it here.

Must be summer in Finse! The snow from last week has all but melted

Knowing of this topic, when this scenario unfolded in front of me, then I just had to take the picture! Two of the Bournemouth beach land trains pass each other close to the bottom of the West Cliff cliff lift on August 5th.

It is a preserved Class E18 or E19 (more likely to be the former) of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which went on to become the Class 118 or 119 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. I believe there may be a couple of examples in active 'Museumsbahn' status with running rights on the main line.

For those who like their weather, a big thunderstorm is now approaching the Plattling area

31-677 (E3056 with a single pantograph) arrived at C&M in Carlisle this afternoon.

As a City fan for many years, this afternoon has seen my nerves shredded to pieces. Jeff Stelling and Co. were a great way to keep up with developments, but I wonder just how long it will take Paul Merson's pulse to settle back to something near normal!

An unforeseen incident in January resulted in the decision to dismantle the platforms and re-align the track, before re-constructing the platforms. A newly acquired wagon had steps which fouled some of the platforms, so I decided to sort this out. I am currently at the stage of re-constructing the platforms, but using a different technique to that used originally. Firstly, the platform edges (Peco) are pinned into place whilst clearences are checked. A foundation layer of balsa wood is pinned to the baseboard between the platform edges. The balsa wood is added in layers until it reaches the required height. The black markings are simply an 'aide memoire' to show me that this height has been reached. Next step is to lay 1/16th cork on the top and paint it asphalt colour. The station canopies are already built, but require painting. Then I can start to detail the platforms.

"Cooking Fat" is the palindrome that springs to mind at present. The alarm cat has gone off about an hour too early this morning! Update: Having now woken up properly, we aren't talking palindromes at all. Good Grief, the Reverend Spooner will have me executed with Shape Grot!

Some emergency work on the chimney in November was accompanied by the request that if there is anything of value immediately next to the chimney, it is recommended that you move it away.... and so the span gantries on the station approach were all dismantled. After the madness of Christmas, I have started to re-construct the catenary, but with the benefit of some detailed study of the Viessmann manual which reveals several aspects I can take advantage of to simplify construction. Further updates as things happen.

31-030 (Silverlink - unbranded) now despatching from Bachmann to your local model shop!

At the fiddle yard end of the countryside section, I have built a structure out of Meccano which fulfils 2 main functions. It lifts the overhead wires up in height so that the pantographs can run on and off the wires. It is also rigidly built so that it provides tension for the overhead wires, so the wires do not bend as the pantograph runs along them. It certainly isn't pretty, but it is very effective. However, this effectiveness is not repeated at the station end of countryside section. I am having major problems putting in the overhead wires over the points, and a major rethink is required, which may involve moving some of the span gantries, and the subsequent re-wiring that this would need.

The overhead system is by Viessmann, and is the DRG 1928 style.