giz

The gas works in Hadleigh (a few miles away) was also a long way from the railway, on the opposite side of town in fact, so presumably it wasn't seen as important for a gas works to be directly rail connected. It was also close to the river so was a good supply of water seen as more important? They must have carted the incoming coal across town and as Adam said the resulting coke was probably sold locally.

It was recently for sale at around £1million.

Sorry, can't help with the buildings but I have been thinking Lavenham would make a good model as well. I worked out that the area between the two bridges would scale out at about 9ft in 4mm scale. There has been a thread on LNER Encyclopedia, don't know if you've seen it? http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8019&hilit=lavenham May be worth asking there.

Michael, the wagon in your first photo is a diagram 1/275 as they were vacuum fitted. Wagons with a similar body but shorter wheelbase and unfitted or piped are 1/271. The earlier style ones with the ribs extending onto the roof are 1/270 (similar to late LMS) but those in some of the photos with a different shape roof look like the early LMS ones. They do seem to have been 20t but some of the photos on Paul Bartlett's site show them as 20.5t, I think that may be the metric version (tonnes as opposed to tons).

The Lilliput 81 was very good for an early 60s model and certainly is fairly dimensionally accurate. Jim SW has a couple on P4 New Street: http://www.p4newstreet.com/class81

I'm sure they do and it would run much better too but the Bachmann 85 wasn't even thought of when I built it. In fact I don't think they had even progressed beyond the ex-Mainline stuff then.

They did but the Class 81 is actually 4mm to the foot, it has a complicated history but was sold as Lilliput before being absorbed into the Trix range. Eventually produced again as Lilliput, these body shells date from that era. I have one of these shells, fitted to a Hornby 86 chassis, that I bought in the 90s when there were a lot of them being sold off.

I think the window layout of the TRSB matches the Hornby RFM on the corridor side but differs on the kitchen side in that the narrow high level windows are nearer the coach end on the TRSB, there is an additional small half height window and the short full depth one is slightly nearer the passenger area. Compare: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tutenkhamunsleeping/5457584681/ with: http://www.ehattons.com/32201/Hornby_R4399_Mk3_Wrexham_Shropshire_Cargo_D_Coach_Pack_with_3x_Mk3_coaches_in_BR_Blue_with_W/StockDetail.aspx and an actual RFM: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tutenkhamunsleeping/5476998399/in/set-72157625197320866/

The Hornby RFM has been available in W&S blue/grey and Virgin Pretendolino liveries (http://www.railexpress.co.uk/news/rfm-joins-Hornby-range-but-lima-origins-are-obvious). I've a feeling that they also announced it in W&S silver but it never appeared. The W&S ones were extensively modified by that time anyway. It was also due out in de-branded Virgin livery but has been delayed. http://www.ehattons.com/51166/Hornby_R4545_Mk3_Ex_Virgin_Buffet_Weathered_Withdrawn_from_2012_range/StockDetail.aspx

There was one batch built early on, 1946 ISTR. The one in the photo here may be one, I'm not sure without checking Harris' book (could also be one of the restaurant cars). http://www.ehattons.com/60758/Bachmann_UK_34_385_Thompson_2nd_class_corridor_in_LNER_teak_new_tooling/StockDetail.aspx

There are quite a few views of Regional Railways rakes on the Changing Trains site, particularly on the class 37 1993-2001 pages: http://www.penmorfa.com/Archive/four.htm takes you to page 1

They also made up most of the SPV conversions, only a handful of diagram 800s seem to have made it into Rail Blue.

Hi serron and welcome. Yes, the prototype photo Hornby used to announce the 2013 program showed a diagram 801 van, however the photo of an engineering prototype of the model they have since shown is of a diagram 800 van which is already available as a kit and from Dapol.

Yes, I thought it was still available but wasn't sure when I saw the bidding. All those retractions sound rather fishy.

Bachmann Collectors Club 47 522. Eight days to go and it's at £205 already! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140898366717;jsessionid=90C5BCB8F0545D66E00F5BE123DAD1A7?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D140898366717%26_rdc%3D1

It does look like it. It was fairly common for the early East Anglian units (both Derby and Met Camm) to have a mix of liveries in their final years.

Our friend again: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R2252-R3038-WREXHAM-SHROPSHIRE-CLASS-67-TRAIN-SET-KIT-BUILT-MINT-DCC-mv-/370681015074?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item564e4f6b22 Why pay nearly £300 for a repainted original type (ex Lima) Class 67 and coaches when you can buy the latest super detail loco and matching coaches in the same livery new for less than £200?

There's a boxed one here for £15 buy-it-now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CORGI-44102-OPTARE-SOLO-GO-WEAR-BUSES-GO-AHEAD-GROUP-/221089230608?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item3379f1ef10

Last 'real' boat train ran in December 2004 according to this: http://www.theflob.co.uk/railway/2004/lharwich/last_real_boat_trains.htm There are still direct Liverpool St/Harwich services but I presume they are all emus.

ISTR that the second batch came with the bufferbeams loose after the problems when swapping the two types (breaking locating pins) supplied with the first batch.

As, I think, the poster who was supposed to have been quoted, here is a link to the history of Trix on MREMag: http://www.mremag.demon.co.uk/hpsite/articles/col-18.12.99/trixhistory.htm Quoting from the above: 'In 1958 Ernst Rozsa had established a company to import Liliput models from Austria. His company was called Miniature Constructions and assembled some of the Austrian models in the UK. He persuaded Liliput to make an 00 model of the Class AL1 E3000 for them. Rozsa joined Trix in 1961 and took with him the E3000 model.'

Went for £740 in the end!

The 81 originated with Lilliput before being incorporated into the Trix range and is a true 4mm to the ft model., not 3.8.

I've just found a couple of my shots of 85s at Euston near the end of their days. 85003 85031

What is it about class 37 nose ends? I posted this link on here back in March: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300679696886?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp5197.m570.l1313%26_nkw%3D300679696886%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1 Only two for £34.50 that time!