'CHARD

This week I'm taking the bull by the horns (in the shape of four Claytons by the straps of a holdall) and visiting a Mr Rails of Sheffield, to mention one purveyor of model railway T&RS*, to physically present the scale of my 'issues' which I had hoped would be sorted by Xhristmas. I've personally no problem carrying out the work, the problem I have is radio silence. *other shopkeepers are available

I wonder..... Given the somewhat more visionary outlook that Lord Adonis is wont to stress to the industry, maybe he would take a different view if complaint is vociferous enough. Just maybe...

Unless by some wave of a magic wand there's a complaint from would-be purchasers upheld by the OFT, then I expect to see 60s in DRS and other liveries some time after hell has frozen over.

Not sure whether there's anything inherent from the driver's perspective, but I always avoid the leading vehicle in either diection, now the WCML p-way has had some serious hammer since the VHF TT was introduced a year ago, you get some serious lateral hunting at line speed, especially at tilt actuations.

...instantly and in one move justifying my retention of said monastral blue & pearl grey 9135 on my '68-set roundy from the previous '76 effort. Awesome! Although with my 'rolling stock austerity' disclaimer in play, she'll only make eceptional appearances when the East Coast diversions over the Waverley Route rule applies.

Very true. In many ways, there's little more than a family likeness lent by the cab windows, cross sectional body profile (stopping short at the solebar) and the shape of the cab flat face, but not its details. Bogies are completely different. Some individually added components/ etches could probably be shared with the 21 and the D600.

Awesome - the power of RMWeb - between us we definitively nailed-it! (Ahem!) Anyway, as we know from earlier in the thread, mine's gonna be a '68 ScR example, so that means all sorts of deviations from the livery norm

I just looked. You're right, but I'm not sure that I know the full answer... I seem to recall that the typeface I've seen on prototype photos bore more resemblance to - for want of a better comparator - the Westerns' numbers. The D was spaced more than on contemporary serif numbered traction, but what I'm seeing here is almost a sans-serif typeface dimensioned as though it were serif. It's definitely not quite there.

That last B&W shot of the BR/Sulzer with a single MkI is absolutely essence. I love it. Now to look at i-Tunes having read those comments....

Hi Stuart, I too was watching your layout on RMW3, and was/am mightily impressed with progress. I love the kind of realisation-of-boyhood-dream approach you have taken, if you don't mind me saying. Looped stacked figure of eight maximises the fun value and for me that's what it's all about (although you wouldn't believe it to look at my roundy!). The red ballast is pretty much as I remember Polmadie, during my intimacy with it between 1998 and 2002. As you say, weathered-in and toned-down it will improve even further. I think you're right about using N ballast too, the OO is just too coarse. Anyway, that is all good, thanks for keeping us entertained and inspired, and for bringing BWYF to the masses again on RMW4. Cheers!

Sorry mate! I thought my reference to 'seasonal asparagus traffic' in 1968 would've really given the game away Now just watch someone prove me wrong - like there was some thriving trade in the stuff in Selkirk or somewhere, and all the stuff about Pringle and the like being shipped out by rail was nonsense....

Of course! Knew I'd seen that somewhere. And as my branch is officially now freight only (seasonal asparagus traffic, pigeons and the thrice weekly coal merchants trip) this is the perfect solution. Excellent!

I'm pretty sure these were frequent performers on the Waverley Route, banking and station pilot duties typically. Yep, that's right, time to wave the Visa about again....

That's very useful - thanks Kiwi, I have some days free next week so my foursome and I will hop on the real thing (well, not exactly, I doubt a Clayton will be on the 1003 B'ham - Edinburgh, no matter what Haymarket kicks out) and confront the Rails supremos. If needs be, I'll bring four new chassis back and do them myself.

Apologies if I have missed it, but does anyone know what Rails of Sheffield's policy is regarding re-chassising ( ? ) of the first batch? Talking to Heljan at the Warley show they advised that all retailers were expected to carry out (or arange) the chassis swap, and sufficient quantities of replacement chassis have been/ are being made available. My early quartet are runners, but barely when compared with new arrivals 8507 and 8606. Heljan's view was explicit - these should and will be changed, but I haven't seen Rails' commitment yet. There doesn't appear to be anything on their website either. The last conversation was, to be polite, inconclusive. I'm about ready to hop on a train with a large box of Type 1s to plonk on their counter....

What he said, 64B-Boy! This layout's one of my inspirations, not in its specifics (I'm as landlocked as you can get over there in Roxburghshire) but in the effortless way Caolisport just captures the essence of ScR byways. If I can achieve 45% of this I'll feel I'm doing well. Not wanting to do a 'me too' post, but I really do want to add positive noise where it's due. Great stuff, and the arrival of the ferry will cause me much soul-searching to NOT contemplate a revisit of Fishguard & Goodwick circa '76.

Without hi-jacking this thread, I went away for a bit and had a modelling mojo wobble, which remedied itself, unaccountably some will say I'm sure, when TeBay threw-up some very pleasing Hornby Met-Cam triples. There - I've confessed: *wink*. Further news will form my next blog entry on the layout. Back to the OP, after Monday's much anticipated arrival (ahem) I expect my eBay worktop to become a Clayton-infested workbench, and the existing (stored) quartet to be putting-in serious running-in mileage on the roundy. That's if I can prise Birmingham's finest DMUs from it... Apologies for the hijack...

Hear! Hear! Dave. Signature traction for me too. Seems that some depots on here have been allocated new chassis even though the locos were not returned at the time of purchase in April..? When I called Rails today they seemed non-plussed about their strategy WRT the chassis replacements. When pressed on what I am to expect with my existing quartet - inadequate vulnerable performers all - I was told that replacement chassis are not being supplied for all early locos. AND that they would be undertaking the work themselves because 're-soldering cannot be left to the customers.' Oh, they did advise that another pair was on its way (another pre-order I selectively forgot, obviously). I will be interested to compare these, hopefully on Monday, and if they are cheese to 8545 & co's chalk, then I will be back onto Rails to see what's to be done about the thick end of 300-quid's worth of Danish potentially smokey bacon I already have.... There, a complete anti-climax of a first post on the new RM of Web.

Michael, a little OT if nobody minds, but does that date for 9009 make ALYCIDON the only pre-TOPS loco with a domino? If that's so, I am feeling an awesome alt-reality for a surviving Waverley in 1973.... 'CHARD

My hunch regarding ECML dominos was correct, Napier Chronicles' site, for its year 1975 page, has a photo of 55015 with its domino in July of that year. The rationale for yellow buffer shrouds is that the ER painted Kestrel as similar as possible to its Deltics. 'CHARD

Hehehehe, amazing what happens when you pop out forra while, eh! Thanks for the kind comments. In my alt.reality - and bearing in mind she is undecorated on the other side - I fancied making her 54001, after the Falcon logic, although I take the point on power outputs... If I'm not mistaken the ER had their earliest domino Deltic in 1975.... hmmmmm. In this guise she's joined the Deltic pool anyway and when we get really deviant at Teviotbank she appears as a Haymarket kick-out on a fill-in local turn B) The rationale behind my totally corporate blanding-out Brush's elegant design was to take the early 70s livery dogma to its ultimate - hence while I picked out the kickplates in silver, all the windscreen surrounds have gone drab yellow. I started off with the short wrap-rounds that stop at the cab door, a la Class 50, but she definitely looks better (dare I say it) with the Class 47 style treatment. Staff at Finsbury Park retained the logotype name central bodyside, but I have toyed with a black-backed WR Class 47-style KESTREL plate, that would be lovely.

Well, they're discussing it on another thread, so what better more tongue-in-cheek way to launch my Workbench blog than a look at a W/B job from last season; none other than a Silver Fox KESTREL in BFYE, painted according or at least as close as I believe possible, to the corporate blue livery guidelines, which principally applies to the extent to which the yellow wraps round the radiused cab ends. Visitors to my layout thread on ye olde RMWebbe may have seen her lurking in the background of general shots. She has survived, like sister Falcon, to 1975, on ECML front-line services, received a domino but kept her 4000 number, as the shunter of the same number is now 08xxx.

Greetings B-G-Anorak, and welcome back to the fold - even if you never properly went away! Looks like a good space you've got there, I expect thermally it's all sorted, so away you go with baseboards... I wouldn't worry about pace of progress, part of the value (I'm guessing, I don't know for sure) of layout blogs is that they mutually encourage and inspire. Good luck and keep the diesel boys posted

About time: first half of the Bush Type 4 fleet arrives on workbench (worktop?) - numbers and headcodes have gone, cruel photography highlights the blooming of paintwork where this has received the attentions of a pencil eraser. Thanks for the kind comments gang. Picking up on one of them on this blog entry, here is the planned locomotive fleet, the vast majority of which is to hand and awaiting workbench. I intend multiple edits on this, particularly with supporting text and background data. I had intended to summarise Lessismore's fabled Laws by now, but embarrassingly I need the old site to jog my memory. I have since captured an edit and it forms the next blog post on here. So, here goes, the planned fleet with the notable exception of Peaks, which are a work-in-progress. 4MT 43106 12A Lessismore branch loco pre-December '67 only 0-4-0 DM D2413 64H Green Occasional loan loco from Leith for Teviotbank 0-6-0 DE D3560 64G Blue Standby Teviotbank shunter D3889 64G Blue Rostered Teviotbank shunter reallocated Type 1 D8164* awaiting allocation of number, may body-swap for disc headcode loco D8507 awaiting allocation of number, will become a 64B machine D8529* awaiting allocation of number, will become a 64B machine D8545* awaiting allocation of number, will become a 64B machine D8562 64B D8591 64B D8606 64B Type 2 D5068 64B Blue full yellow ends (BFYE) D5072 64B Two-tone green, small yellow panel (TTGSYP) D5116 60A loco will be W/B conversion BFYE D5128 60A loco will be W/B conversion, thinking about early collision victim 5122 as alternative i.d GSYP D5211 oops - awaiting i.d. couldn't resist at less than ??30 new on eBay D5233 LMML branch freight loco, but was used as crew trainer over parts of the route GSYP D7603 64B GSYP D7606 64B GSYP D5320 60A BFYE D5325 60A BFYE D5331 60A BFYE D5340 60A BFYE Type 3 - in abeyance for reasons that will be explored in due course on W/B D6844 64B BFYE D6857 64B GFYE D6903 64B GSYP Type 4 - precise details of class 40 fleet not worked out until they reach the W/B in quantity, probably over the Christmas hols D2xx since acquired D214 "ANDANIA" GSYP D260 64B D262 64B D271 D285 D286 BFYE D303 D342 since sold D343 D359 64B BFYE D368 64B BFYE Class 45 and 46: currently looking at Bachmann release schedule alongside period livery details and body differences for the locos known to have worked across the Waverley. Expected final fleet size of between 10 and 12. D17 55B BFYE D60 55B BFYE D95 55B GSYP D188 GSYP D1536 55B Early BFYE now on W/B D1547 5A Early BFYE TBC D1725 D02 Early BFYE D1968 64B TTGFYE now on W/B D1970 64B TTGFYE now on W/B D1971 64B TTGFYE D1974 64B TTGFYE now on W/B D1976 64B TTGFYE

Danny, great to see RMWeb's 'Youth Team' showing us how it's done. Not sure if you're the first of the teenage gang to launch their blog but I for one am delighted to see Dearnford on RMWeb MkIV. You chaps' enthusiasm and knack for making progress gives us lot (your dad's generation!) a kick up the butt to get on with stuff. Great!