The Evil Bus Driver

Like it! This is something I refer to as Scratch-Bashing, ie not exactly scratchbuilding, kit building or kitbashing but still obtaining a complete loco by putting stuff together.

It was great to chat with you guys at GETS and nice to get timescales on things. Hopefully I'll see you all at Warley too.

It appears that the use of the files on that site are subject to a cease and desist so they've been taken off. You might be able to use Text to Speech which has come on a fair amount but you do have to write it phonetically so you're spelling it how you want it to sound. Add a bit of reverb and you've got a space like a station concourse for it to sound like it's bouncing around. Just stick a Bluetooth speaker under the board and you've got something that'll sound great.

That's pretty worrying tbh

Yes it seems so. I remember the red labels above the window on Slam door mk1 and 2 stock that said don't lean out, don't open the door and if the door isn't properly closed, to pull the chain. It was originally a rectangular one but grew to around 6x4" in size

Or maybe people using common sense. Something that's definitely lacking these days.

Yes that's been a talking point in Bluebell News for quite a few decades.

Does that mean they will arrive at our addresses while I'm saying hi to you all at GETS? Sounds good to me.

That's fantastic news. I do remember seeing the Adams Radial in steam once (just once) back in the 1980s. It'll be amazing to see it running once again.

Mine's just arrived direct from Accurascale and I'm really pleased with it! Just need to get some coaches for it to haul now. Collects and Hawksworths, anyone? Plus a Siphon G.

Nah its just pining for the Fjords....

Or maybe it's because she's a Faceless Woman.... something that's also said to be lurking around Becontree (if you believe in that stuff anyway)

Apparently it's a case of sifting through loads of boxes at Accurascale Towers. And the next batch is due imminently. I wonder if it resembles a maze of delights (rather than maze of horrors) round there at the moment.

But does it come with an actual cake? I can make a pretty decent Raspberry Victoria Sponge with white chocolate whipped cream if needed 😋

It'd be interesting to see a rundown of what is and isn't available RTR as there are one or two types I'm after. Most notably the Boat Second or Boat 1st (Diagram 72 SO or Diagram 90 RFO) which had a central door into a seating bay. Plus there's the TSO without the centre door.

Sounds fantastic, isolation does seem a very attractive prospect at the moment. There are a couple of stations not too far from me where two separate owners have put in bits of track too.

Doesn't the guest house at one of the the next stations have a fairly substantial length of track and a diesel shunter with a few items of rolling stock? Not on the Waverley route itself but on one of the former branches.

Looking good Phil!

They're a good bunch in there. Absolute artists when it comes to restoration.

Ooh! That means mine should come soon. I'm on holiday at the moment though.

Part One of an occasional series I had hoped to have my modelling desk in place before starting this. So in another thread following the now happily retrieved Coopercraft range (I do acknowledge the ongoing issues with unhappy customers of Mr. Dunn and wish them every success in retrieving their money) I dug out the kit I've had lying around with a view to restoring it as a Yard Denizen on a future layout. It's not clearly in any condition to run in a rontlinecrake but I'm happy with the progress I've made over thd last couple of hours. The chassis is pretty shabby glue-wise and it may possibly need new bogies however I'll stick with what I have for the moment and go from there. So far the roof, body and ends have been stripped down in IPA and once dried have been filed of any residual glue (this really wasn't in a good way when I got it. This is why I dislike buying started or part built kits) soon I'll be cleaning up what I can and seeing about starting to paint the body. It'll be going into BR Blue and Grey once I come back from my holiday and buy some paint.

It looks like they're selling off things that aren't likely to be restored by the Bluebell any time soon so maybe they're going to groups who might be able to restore them sooner. So in a practical way it makes sense. You never know, things might be offered on long term loan.

I've put this in here as it involves electronics stuff. Mods please move it if there's somewhere better Looking back through an old Hornby catalogue they used to do a station announcement recorder, basically consisting of a tape recorder you could record onto and put inside their booking hall kit. It was pretty crude and with a bit of knowhow and an Iphonecdpeaker or even Bluetooth you could probably achieve better results. Like using the full ATOS Anne files used on the National network. Now I know she sounds like a bit of a moody madam, but I do understand she's automated. There's even somewhere you can make up your own, great for if you model somewhere on the actual network. Text Speak also produces a pretty good sounding vocalisation for those of us who model fictitious locations and with a bit of reverb and maybe a couple of other modifications it could sound like someone with a microphone. (Like the bloke who sounded like Boycie at Milton Keynes a fair while ago. All together now: The-ah next-ah train-ah... seriously!) I might make a soundboard for mine Here's a link, it's strangely fascinating Make your own announcements

Ah OK I didn't realise that. I know the moulds are pretty worn out from age but didn't realise the plastic was spongy. I have a couple of Airfix wagons which will never be assembled due to the plastic becoming brittle. Besides one is wrapped in cellophane so I'll leave it as it is.

I'm playing around with Keen Systems stuff at the moment, got two coaches fitted with their Floating end plates and they look seriously good, close coupling and no gap. Perfect for within rakes if you run coaches in permanent sets. There's a variety on their website but some do necessitate pretty drastic surgery to the stock you're fitting them to. My advice there would be to do some research, and if necessary practice on a scrap coach body. Bachmann pipe couplers give a reasonably close couple with the gangways virtually touching and the cam arrangement allows them to move apart around curves. I'm looking to use these There is one company that does etched brass 'working' gangways which contract when coupling. I'll be obtaining some of these soon and fitting them to my 'Experimentals' to see how they work. I missed out on a coach fitted with these on Ebay.