5944

My current diesel Ford Focus usually averages about 65mpg, not too bad for a car with well over 100,000 miles on the clock. One of my earlier cars, a petrol Focus, managed to do the 600 miles from southern Switzerland to Dunkirk on one tank of fuel. Usually 400 miles was about the max I could manage from a tank. Mind numbingly dull driving through France at 60mph on the motorways though! Oh, and the nominal capacity of the tank was 55 litres. I filled up with nearly 60 litres at Dunkirk. Running on fumes doesn't begin to cover it!

I'm not sure passion is the right way to put it. I believe he was the largest sheep farmer in Europe at one point!

A few from me. Vulcan at Rhyl and Little Gransden, a proliferation of Merlins at Coningsby, Sea Hurricane and Blenheim at Shuttleworth.

Sorry to hear about your wife, glad she's on the mend. There are a few photos online if you look for FS Carro F, but nothing I could see that showed the underframe in any great detail. I've built a couple of these, along with most of the others that Tutto Treni/Italeri have produced. They go together pretty well, though I need to buy new wheels for them, as the plastic ones are awful. I also need to buy a few of the ballast hoppers, about a dozen will do nicely for a decent sized formation with a FS GR 940 2-8-2T on the front. The problem is trying to get a parcel delivered from Italy without my girlfriend spotting it!

A few years ago, my dad was commuting between Stevenage and York for work. One evening, the week after the Heck crash, he got on a rail replacement bus at York to go to Doncaster. After passing Selby for the second time in the same direction, the driver asked if anyone knew the way to Doncaster! A mate from school used to do rail replacement bus duties at weekends occasionally, and they were lucky if they were given maps or any form of directions. He said they were giving the times for the stations, and that was it - they had to decide for themselves what the best/easiest route was. He was lucky, living in Stevenage and knowing the local area, so could manage the Hertford loop without too many problems, but a lot of the other drivers had been brought in from elsewhere and didn't have a clue where to go.

If you want to be really confused, 01 1066 was running as 012 066-7 for a while recently. 01 066 was running as 01 2066-7 at the same time! I believe both worked on the same railtour round Germany a couple of years ago, but on different days.

No, it's the current one! It would probably have made it to Halford's if I hadn't managed to stall it and completely killed the battery....!

I'm guessing that's the same as the Ford trip computer button trick? Press and hold it while switching on the ignition (without turning on the engine) and it'll cycle through various outputs on the dash. Great when you think your battery is on its way out and you don't have a multimeter with you. Unfortunately, last time I needed to check mine, the battery was pretty much knackered and was unable to start the car afterwards!

Try something like this then Ben, you won't need to worry about the mechanism. http://www.lineamodel.it/d207n/d2'07n2.jpg Though I do have a cunning plan to motorise one using a mini motor, belts and pulleys.....

I'm one of a group at my local club, East Beds MRS, building Aylesbury Met/GC station in N gauge. We wouldn't have contemplated building an N gauge layout without Finetrax. Peco track just doesn't compare! I was tempted by the idea of 2mm, but the thought of converting all my stock put me off. A lot of the track for Aylesbury will have to be handbuilt, using Finetrax components and point bases milled by one of our members, but the result should be worth it. That reminds me, I really must start a thread about the layout, especially as the boards have now been completed.

£117.99 for Gordon from the Hornby website, £84.99 for a Railroad Flying Scotsman. Admittedly the former is tender drive, while the latter is loco drive, but that's quite a mark up for similar models.

I hope foreign countries are acceptable :-) Lucky Timing by 5944 Another day, another sunrise above the clouds by 5944 IMG_6803 by 5944 IMG_6712edit by 5944

The Ae 4/7 is 10987. 50 3673 has a couple of tours based in Switzerland this spring, hence why it went on the front later on, and it should've worked to Lyss with 01 202. Tour at the end of June with 01 202, 012 066, 50 3673 and 141 R 1244. http://www.ige-erlebnisreisen.de/schweiz/eisenbahntouristik-sonderzugreisen/Dampflok-Spektakel+am+Gotthard/35001 A few of my shots from the weekend, well worth chasing it. The 01s on the empty stock move to Locarno on Friday morning Riazzino by 5944, on Flickr 50 3673 at Giornico, about to climb the double spiral Giornico by 5944, on Flickr And four minutes later, from the same spot! Up High by 5944, on Flickr An hour later, the 01s thundered past Gotthard by 5944, on Flickr On the climb up to Airolo at Quinto, the 01s on the nearest line, with 50 3673 on the opposite line in the distance Wrong Line Running by 5944, on Flickr

I've had that too, but luckily not on bin day. However, searching through a big wheelie bin full of cardboard boxes for a cardboard box wasn't much fun! Parcel delivered today was left in the gas meter box round the side of the house - that's a new one. The note the RM postie put through the door looked like it had been in his pocket for months. Hermes do have a habit of knocking and running. My sofa is barely 8 feet from the front door, but they've knocked before and been back in the car/van by the time I've got the door open! However, the worst was a couple of months ago, I'd ordered a book online, and it got delivered while I was at work. No note through the door though, so I didn't know it had been delivered. I only discovered it the following morning when I left for work again - they'd buried it under a pile of leaves near the front door! As it had been dark when I got home from work, I hadn't seen it. Yeah, thanks for that!

There's a couple of reasons for not going over fully to 2mm at present. One is the club layout I'm involved in is in N gauge using Finetrax, and the other is the amount of stock I have which will be running on said club layout. I'd love to go down the finescale route, but can't afford to rewheel or rechassis 200 items of rolling stock! Thanks for all the comments. I'm tempted to buy a simple chassis and see if it works, before going any further.

I've had a look through various threads, but can't find a definitive answer. Is it possible to adjust the back to backs on 2mm scale wheels to allow them to run on N gauge track, specifically through Finetrax points? I'm happy with a lot of the newer N gauge stuff, but the wheels and/or motion on certain locos look a bit chunky. I don't really want to go down the 2mm finescale route, but I would like certain locos to look better. There a few 2mm conversion kits available that appeal that use the RTR chassis and include finer valve gear, cos the thought of scratchbuilding Walschaerts valve gear terrifies me! . There's a few answers about people using N gauge wheels on 2mm track, but not the other way round.

The new, old tender has been fitted for a few months now. Not many photos of it though - a search on Flickr brings up 3 or 4 poor images, but dozens of her in steam at the Great Central 30+ years ago! The rivetting looks good. I'd never heard of a pounce tool before, but it looks very useful. I've got a Springside Peckett kit in O gauge that has poorly cast rivet detail on the tank, but an overlay of thin plasticard with embossed rivets would be perfect.

Hopefully the map link will work. I've just emailed it to my dad, and it doesn't seem to be working for him, but hey ho. https://www.google.it/maps/@41.1120948,16.550702,103m/data=!3m1!1e3 http://www.ferramentapugliese.it/materialiferrosi/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/azienda-ferramenta-pugliese.jpg South of Terlizzi, a few miles west of Bari, Italy, alongside the SP231 main road. From a discussion on the Industrial Railway Society's Yahoo group, looks like it could be either 03157 or 03164. Streetview of the above map shows the loco in situ in 2008, so may not be there any more.

Cut the front steps off the bogie, fit new steps, remove the extra handrail, plus possible renumber. That's not a lot of work to improve it!

That picture shows the loco to be about 2 inches long. That's N gauge sized. Hint hint

Within the first year or two of operation I believe.

There's the shed shop at Grosmont, but that's it now. The one opposite the station has closed down as well.

Some shots from yesterday. Good fun chasing it round London, but very frustrating not getting Met 1 in sun! I travelled on the first two trips last weekend, and had planned to stay around and photograph it, but managed to leave my camera at home! So I was glad it was running again this weekend. Dropping Down by 5944, on Flickr Workshops by 5944, on Flickr Great Portland St by 5944, on Flickr Rest at https://www.flickr.com/photos/5944/sets/72157646260976466/

Posted by Geoff Brockett on RTN Yahoo group earlier... MONDAY, 28th JULY 2014 On the above date, Train 746 composed of Metropolitan Steam locomotives (No. 1 and LU 150), 4 Ashbury Coaches and Electric Locomotive No. 12 “Sarah Siddons” (maximum length 83.5 metres), will run from Ruislip Depot to Ealing Common Depot, couple to Metropolitan Railway Jubilee Coach 353 and ex Metropolitan Railway Milk Van No. 4 (maximum length now 110 metres), then from Ealing Common Depot to Northfields Depot as follows:- Ruislip Depot10 55 Ruislip Siding arr 11 06½ dep 11 07 Ruislip IMR 11/08½ Ruislip 11/12 Rayners Lane 11/21½ South Harrow 11/24½ Alperton 11/32 North Ealing 11/36½ Ealing Common 11/38½ Ealing Common arr 11 41 Depot (W) dep 13 41 Ealing Common arr 13 44 (EB pfm.) dep 13 44½ Acton Town (pfm. 4) 13a48 Acton Town No. 21 Sdg arr 13 50 dep 13 53½ Acton Town (pfm. 1) 13/55½ LL Northfields (pfm. 1) 14 00 Northfields Depot 14 05

Wrong scale, wrong era, nowhere to run it... Order being placed on Friday!