Hal Nail

At my last place, I was sent in to try and establish some sort of basic cost control in the tech team. This wasnt particularly successful. One thing they were very good at was finding innovative ways to spend money on technology solutions to problems you weren't aware existed. They were next to useless when it came to resolving the inevitable chaos they created. I think its fair to say no one I've met ever has any time for their tech teams, and that includes half the guys actually working in them! And yet we allow our world to be increasingly reliant on those same teams we all deride. One of my favourite rants, (along with social media giving validation to our misguided personal opinions)

There are relatively few big boys though, there just isnt the money in rugby relative to its standing? For a sport in which England are clearly one of the best in the world and therefore have a huge number of professional standard players, there is a relatively small number that actually get paid (Richmond, for example, stayed part time when in tier 2: Contrast with football where some 5th tier sides are full time). I live next to Ealings ground so have been watching for 4 or 5 years. The player turnover is staggering. A player gets signed, breaks into the starting line up half way into the 1st season, halfway through second loses place to the next bright thing and moves on again. Producing players doesnt seem to be the issue in this country (albeit I totally agree that can't be taken for granted), at the moment we cant even pay enough of them to make a decent living.

Must admit , when you mentioned china clay, I thought that box was going to be 50 049... I still have idle thoughts about St Blazeys round house for a photo plank storage area!

Straying even further away from unknown places, Gepe Mounts is a great name for a lead guitarist.

Yes having thought about the timings, I think it's highly unlikely any loco (5376 specifically) would have reverted to unlined black with early crest after receiving lined green. Means you really cant be sure what you are seeing from a black and white photo - several 45xx I had thought stayed in black, I've then later found one photo showing lining. Lined green early crest was particularly common in St Blazey locos which is why I started to wonder whether it was fairly widespread. I've since found various lists of those that got that livery and for whatever reason, a relatively high proportion were from down there.

In the earlier photo it is definitely lined green early crest. Really clear photo at Exeter. in the later (black and white) photo it is still an early crest but you would swear blind it is unlined black but, on reflection, I suspect it's just so grimy you cant see the lining anywhere. I had just wondered initially if they sometimes reverted to black but was clutching at straws as I can't find an example in the format I wanted to model.

I have edited my question to be clearer. I was only talking about those types initially painted black.

Edit - question referring to mixed traffic locos I was under the impression that lined green early crest was pretty rare as it was short-lived and therefore a fair number of locos skipped this and went straight from black to lined green late crest. A disproportionate number of the locos I've been looking at for my St Blazey (and nearby) area seem to have popped up in it though (predominantly looking at 14xx, 45xx, 43xx). Is that just unlucky (given I don't like it) or was it actually quite common and just not as often photographed due to the relatively short window? On a related note, 5376 definitely had the lined green early livery as there is a very clear photo at Exeter on the Rail Online website but in a 1961 photo from RCTS, it still has the small early crest but absolutely no hint of lining anywhere. It could well be totally obscured by grime but I wondered if locos ever reverted to black?

Given there were only 6 coaches of this type in the first place, a bit of rule 1 is probably in order anyway!

if that is the case, and it may be, how would your proposed switch help? Analogue would seem to be fine either way, and you wouldn't expect DCC functions to work on analogue track?

One thing I find helps to keep all those plans in the head is being very tight Edit: Blimey, I'm a page behind again: Seven Mills has nine lives?!

I'm far too tight for that!

Is it worth asking Hattons if they could swap a tender top with a returned one?

Rails of Sheffield have some of these at £450 and free postage now.

Re glue, two part epoxy is a bit messy and a faff but is very strong and durable. It is especially suitable where the two surfaces arent completely smooth and perfectly aligned, eg for fixing two cut parts together.

Indeed - it's the wrapper that is unknown! Would need to be 150mm x 100mm roughly which seems quite big from my memory of the bars!

Are those overhead warning flashes on the loco? If so that would put it 1959 at the earliest I think.

What are the dimensions roughly please? Want to know if they are large enough for 7mm.

Not a good buy as such but a just as nice a feeling is when you forget the end of an auction for something that was still at a very attractive level with a few hours to go, check and it ended up rocketing way over what you can still buy the item for new. Saved some cash and Ive missed the annoyance that would have caused had i been waiting to bid!

I meant 1 and 2 - not sure where A and B came from!

I might be wrong but given the speed you build layouts, moving them on is probably not the wrench it would be for those of us that take a lifetime. If you miss it, you could probably do it again from scratch in a weekend by skipping the 37 variations If I may be so bold as to offer advice tho, keep some of your favourite stock (a dirty rat etc) at least for a few months. If you decide to build another 7mm layout at some point, getting the track and scenery isnt anything like the drain buying locos back will be. Plus with the sound on, they'd make quite nice ornaments! Actually thats a point - just found a use for my 33 until I can replace the split gears...

Got me wondering now did class 20s have an A and a B end? I've always thought of the nose as the front even though they lead with the other end in pairs!

A little attention with a file or the edge of a blade dragged vertically will make a difference: removing the mould lines on the top of the smoke box but also thinning the inside top of those moulded cab doors so they appear more like sheets. Same with the coal rails and possibly the rainstrips on the cab roof - thinning any visible edges in plastic or white metal can really improve a body.

Thanks, like that. There were indeed 50 shades of grey!

J&M Hughes do resin kits as well. Both do LMS van types not covered by Parkside or Slaters and the Parkside SR van is a 9ft wheelbase type whereas MM1 is a later type I think. I bought a JLTRT (mm1) LMS van which had a crisp body but sold it on un-started when I got hold of a Freightman version. Whilst I dont really like mixing metal and plastic (largely as it's a pain to mix epoxy) the Slaters BR range are very nice and I'd go for them over MM1 personally although MM1 do a few variants not covered by Slaters.