BG John

I told you you'd enjoy it

I'm hoping it will delay the need to spend a few hundred quid on airbrush equipment for some time, so will be a good investment!

I wouldn't like to trust my new packing to a courier. I did it for storage, and for carrying around with me if I take them to a meeting, exhibition or a visit to someone's layout.

It can be (and has been) ordered right now, even though it's currently out of stock! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1519189672?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00

I think it's the see through plastic that's the main problem. It's a bit annoying that the total weight comes to just over a kilo, so pushes it up into the next price band. I had the same thing with my Ixion Hudswell Clarke too. It was delivered by one courier who accepted it as under 1kg, but when I had to return it, a different courier sent me a penalty charge because I'd assumed it actually was under a kilo, but it wasn't! Good point. I'll have a look at that.

I think the big box is a cunning plan to make sure you buy them in pairs!

Even easier than I thought. A couple of bits of fairly hard foam in the end, some soft foam that slides between the tanks and rests on the footplate, another bit of soft foam on top, then the Dapol foam goes on top of that. I've just used one bit of foam from the other box, although if I'd had a bit more soft foam I could have used that instead. I'll probably put one bit of hard foam at each end, but didn't think of that until I'd taken the photo! It holds it all nicely in place. To put them in, I compressed the buffers against the foam at one end, and slid them down, so the buffers are slightly compressed. They don't move, but are held gently.

I think there's enough foam in the two boxes to pack them safely into one box. It just needs a bit of cutting down, with no fancy shaping: Room for four vans or eight open wagons in the other box, with some foam packing:

Lucky you. It's one of the things I miss now I live in a pile of stones. But at least I've got space to build something to run my new Dapol Terriers on! When I was travelling I had absolutely no intention of ever going above 4mm scale!

The box is huuggee! It's big enough for two Terriers without the plastic bits. It would be fine for storing both of them with a bit of extra foam. I think the best way is to stand them upright, and lift them in and out by the chimney and roof. I think the other box could be used to hold several wagons.

You need to remove the Westinghouse pump, as 734 was converted to vacuum brakes before entering service, and those coal rails look a bit too solid! At least it's got the right brake pipes, unlike my Dapol Bodiams!

When I was travelling, I used to drive onto a caravan site, park on my pitch, turn on the gas and put the kettle on. Tuggers used to turn up, spend ages manoeuvring their van into position, ages organising stuff, and then ages building a canvas extension that doubled the size of the thing. When it was time to leave, I turned the gas off, and drove away, while they were still unzipping the huge extension! You need to get away from the caravanner's mentality of trying to turn your tiny home into a mansion! The sky-light was just a one-off. You won't leave it unsecured again!

Wimp! When I was living in my van I quite enjoyed the rocking in high wind, once I knew it wasn't going to blow over! Of course having an engine, transmission and all that stuff, it's probably a bit heavier than a caravan!

I think the real thing could look black in some lights. Dapol originally got the colour too bright, and it was changed at the last minute, which is why there were no photos of the final version available until a few days ago. The blue takes a bit of getting used to, as it's unusual for someone used to locos being green or black. It's nowhere near as striking as IEG must be, although I haven't seen one (might get too tempted if I did!). Whether the colour is right or not, I think it looks about right, but from the photos I've taken, it's challenging to get the colour accurate. I'm certainly happy with the colour, and think my two should look pretty good on the layout I'm planning for them, set in around 1905/06. I think the world at the time was a far more colourful place than black and white photos lead us to believe, but possibly rather odd to modern eyes, and they'll fit in well. I think I read on Tower Models web site that they were expecting them last Friday, and sending them out this week. I bought mine from Hattons, and when I phoned them last Tuesday to double my order, they hadn't heard anything about them having arrived at Dapol, so it was pretty impressive that they delivered mine on Friday! I'm guessing that Tower Models may not have such a fast and efficient warehouse as Hattons, so will take longer to deliver them.

First I've seen of this, as I find the blogs area really irritating, so don't go there. That's why mine only has a few entries! Post lots of stuff here, so I don't miss it.

Oh dear. Is buying extra Terriers addictive? The entire fleet for the railway I'm planning to model arrived on Friday (all two of them), but as the Robertsbridge & Pevensey Railway would have taken the Kent & East Sussex into Brighton territory, the temptation for a Brighton one to appear, on hire or some sort of through working, may rear its ugly head if you keep posting pictures of yours!

All my 4mm locos are from the 1970s/80s, so not all of it even has dangly bits like brakes, let along the delicate stuff that's fitted now! I get nervous just thinking about touching my O gauge locos!

The other thing about the packaging is that it's no use for storing the loco in. The box and foam bits are fine, but messing about putting it in the folding plastic bit, then sliding the plastic sleeve over it, is pretty irritating and time consuming. It would be quicker without the sleeve, but then it catches on the foam lining the box, and is difficult to get in. I think the Ixion Hudswell Clarke, which is all foam, is much better. The plastic parts are a bit worrying, as the locos need to be handled very carefully on a working layout. I think I need something like the Peco Loco Lift, but I'm not sure it work work with my Hudswell Clarke, as I think it could damage the plastic handrails.

No, but it didn't stop me converting one to broad gauge! I really must finish it one of these days!!!

I looked through the rest of the Classic Fords on eBay, and decided the only reasonably affordable ones that appeal to me are XR3is. No doubt if I ever get round to considering buying my third one, they'll be going for silly money too by then!

As Escorts are so expensive, that's rather tempting, as I had two GLs, but never had a Ghia. An estate would be more useful though.

I've posted a few quick photos of Bodiam here. They're not brilliant, but might be useful.

Both of mine ran very nicely straight out of the box. One has just had 30 minutes in each direction on the rolling road, as recommended, and I'll do the other one later. Hanging about watching out for it, in case something happens, is similar to watching paint dry, and I can see the benefit of a continuous run!

According to my dodgy kitchen scales, the loco is 448g and the packaging 624g, total 1.072kg, but allow a bit extra in case of wild inaccuracy! That's just the Dapol packaging, and not any additional protection and packaging that needs to be added.

Further exploration of the packaging (after I took the photo) showed that the coupling had fallen apart rather than being broken. I'm planning to replace them with Dinghams anyway. The brake pipes appear to be the wrong type, as all the relevant photos I've seen show upright pipes on the opposite side of the coupling. So they'll have to go too. So the main annoying fault is the broken tank vents. Have other people with this problem fixed them themselves, or got new parts? I think I can fix the missing lamp bracket myself, although I wonder if it existed. The photos I've seen so far show there should be brackets on the footplate behind each rear buffer, that have been omitted from the model. So maybe the bad packaging has helped to remove things I'll want off anyway (apart from the tank vents)!