Poggy1165

Yes, our native car industry had much the same attitude. And our native motor-cycle industry.

PECO's conservatism surprises me. As I wandered around Telford, I realised how high a proportion even of exhibition layouts use their points, albeit sometimes with subtle modification. I should have thought there was an ample market for (at least) a tandem three way and probably a single slip. Of course it's the easiest thing in the world to say 'there's no call for it.' There was 'no call' for colour TVs or home computers before someone got stuck in and provided them at an affordable price. You see, once you send people off to make their own track, a fair few will figure out that if they're going to make a 4' 6" radius point (or whatever) they might as well make the whole bally shooting match and have it to a common standard. And they won't necessarily buy the requisite bits from PECO.

By the way, superglue does the job perfectly well. I have some white metal 7mm scale wagons built circa 1991 with this method and up to now only one has failed in service. Solder is better, but not essential.

The easy way to solve a problem like this is to buy a set of brass compensated W irons (assuming such things are still available in 4mm) and set them up using a simple jig - which can either be bought in or made. I find that if a wagon is not square, and cannot be made so, it can at least be made to run properly by following this method. This is not my idea originally - it was Iain Rice who pointed me in this direction. It is often simpler to do this than assemble the wagon as designed - white metal often distorts and even plastic kits are not always perfect.

Very nice work indeed. I find Slater's buffers a pain to install when the vehicle is finished, so I chemically blacken them (and the couplings) before I start and fit them in the ends as the first task of assembly. If I am spray painting, I then mask the blackened bits at that stage. Isn't it interesting how we all tackle the same job in differing ways?

People vary in height and always have. However, during the Victorian period nutrition was notoriously poor, and this led to quite a lot of the population being particularly tiny. (It was the difficulty of getting suitable recruits for the Boer War that led (eventually) to the establishment of the welfare state.) So for the era we are talking about some small people are quite appropriate - in World War I there were actually 'Bantam Divisions' formed of short men. As to Andrew Stadden - his 7mm figures are top notch. Certainly among the best on the market. (EDIT) Just checked and the minimum height for normal soldiers was 5ft, reduced for the purposes of the war from the normal 5' 3". The Bantam Divisions reduced this to 4' 10" with a maximum height of 5' 3".. Two whole divisions were recruited, so there were quite a lot of these small guys around. Sadly, they took very heavy casualties. We can probably assume an equal number of women would be around 4' 8" or so.

Excellent work.

Gladiator did a limited edition of those Caly vans. Whether he has any left I don't know. They are a resin body with whitemetal parts to add. Not got around to building mine yet, so can't say if it is an easy build. The instructions are terse, but there are good drawings that do help a bit.

But the GC and GW had actual joint lines! The GC also had joint lines with the MR and LNWR. The problem is it didn't have a joint line with all of them together in one place. I suppose the Chester area might be a possibility, but the Midland's presence there, courtesy of the CLC, was pretty tenuous.

My 'thought' is that this disease is spreading even into 7mm scale and is unstoppable. There are basically two reasons to building kits: 1. Because you enjoy it and 2) Because there is no option as the RTR version doesn't exist. The second is the one that (historically) sold most kits. Modern RTR is really rather good. If you can build better, you are a very fine modeller indeed. In 4mm scale it also covers most of the locos needed for the era that the majority of modellers choose to model. Therefore there's nothing like the same incentive to build kits as there was, say, in 1975, when the RTR was almost without exception utterly dire. There will always be a niche kit market - I think mainly for long-lived pre-group types that have an application in the 'modern' world, and for the occasional 'unloved' class that the RTR market ignores. There may also be a market for ultra high-quality kits of mainstream locos, for people who want to go the extra mile. But I think kit-building for the great mass of folk is a dying art. Which is sad - but there you go.

Lovely engines those little NSR jobs. I wish I'd bought a kit when they were available. Ah well. Fantastic piece of work anyway, Ken. Not that I would ever expect less from you. You do realise, don't you, that you turn out engines quicker than I can turn out wagons?

Just a couple of wagons so far:- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73730-just-to-show-that-i-do-occasionally-build-something/

If you are a member of the Gauge O Guild there is a rather good database of 7mm products on their site. Unfortunately you need a membership number to access it though. One excellent source of castings is Laurie Griffin, though he does tend to focus on particular companies. His products, while not cheap, are of the first quality. I mention him because he springs to mind - I recently sent him a rather large cheque - but there are other sources (depending on what exactly you want) including Slaters Plastikard, Alan Gibson and Hobbyhorse. Oh, and Ragstone Models do some nice stuff too, especially for the GER.

My main modelling interest is the Great Central in 7mm scale. However I have a lot of (too many?) 'foreign' wagons as I find them irresistible. Also irresistible was the LSWR G6 kit that I bought recently and intend to finish in LSWR condition. What place this will have on an obscure GC branch well to the north of Annesley I really can't imagine, but a lot of odd things went on during WW1.

I'm fairly sure it appeared in Railway Modeller and had a commentary. My old RMs have nearly all gone to Ingrow, but a search through an old RM Index might be the way forward.

Reminds me of ill-spent days crawling round steam sheds hoping no one would tell me to **** off. However, in the Manchester area, the engines were invariably covered with a thick coat of grime and rust, unless just ex works.

I can't help but think that laying an actual branch to Portmerion would be a good idea. All else apart, it would give the little engines something to do.

I think it's an F1, though it's hard to tell from the photo. The F2s have a slightly dumpy look to my eyes. The drivers are certainly way too small. When numbering, be careful, as there were several versions of the bunker, including an extended version. The coal rails may also need attention - I strongly suggest checking with a photo of a particular prototype if you can. Good luck with it!

It looks great! You have sent me off to find a tape measure to see if I can fit in something similar as a high-level addition to my (planned) layout. I have rarely, if ever, seen such an impressive use of 6' x 2'. My only negative comment is that the beer bottles in the background of some of the shots appear a tad overscale.