The Evil Bus Driver

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.

Looks like they'll be at Warley but not GETS. I'll go and have a peruse there.

Ah so it was YOU that outbid me a few months ago 😃😄😁😆😅 Not to worry it can be a pain tracking them down. I found one then another a week later which turned out to be a Mainline one from the same tooling.

Not to mention a smattering of 33s

I really like this build. It shows what's possible with what start out as static kits. Maybe I'll have a go too. I'd like to do a railbus at some stage soon but I'll avoid the airfix made ones due to their age as I've heard the plastic goes brittle over time.

Decent comfortable seats that aren't like ironing boards and line up properly with the windows. We've been building railway coaches for how many years? And they still can't seem to manage it. Reliable trains Trains that don't have random stops at odd intermediate stations (I'm looking at you, Southern) a stopper should stop at all of them and a fast should stop at the main ones. Proper connections between services. 1 minute to cross a busy terminus is not amusing (again, Southern, my gaze falls upon you.) Return of yellowcends and paint everything blue and grey More locomotive hauled workings. More universal compatibility with stock.

Midland Railway Centre at Butterley has a 141. These were the first ones I encountered and they look really odd compared to a 142 or 143. As to the 142s and 143s there's been a good number going to various preserved lines so I've no doubt you'll get a chance. Still not quite the same as squealing from York to Scarborough non stop in one though.

I got 3 for £120 from Tony's Trains of Rugby a while ago. He only had one CK so I had to check to make sure I got the right brake coaches and was able to make up a properly numbered set. I got the ex-Kirk 3 set kit quite cheaply at Warley as well so they'll be in my Rainy Day box. I'm now on the lookout for the Southern Suburban 1938 additional coaches but that's going off topic...

In modelling terms I tend to ignore the privatisation era, it holds zero interest to me. I was against it then and remain against it now, and in my own opinion it has led to travelling by train being a dull astronomicallly expensive experience rather than the fun it once was. Following that I've only used a train twice in the last four years* *Admittedly the pandemic had a lot to do with that

That must have taken a lot of spinach...