Hal Nail

Excellent thanks! Yes now you say that I should have realised the body side radiators would be smack in the way of a side corridor.

Hi, hoping for some class 33 help please! The back of the cab is different at each end - one has a door in the middle and one on the left. I cant remember which goes at which end? Thanks

Absolutely lashing down in West London. I had my heart set on a farmer's market pie but even I'm not that keen!

Why don't you just ring Jim up?

Speak for yourself- I'm just getting going! What I cant decide is whether the world is genuinely getting worse or if us old farts just instinctively think that. The former seems entirely plausible but history suggests society does naturally evolve.

One for the OP to ponder. A wagon in O is around 40 quid, and a brake van more. So the loco might be reasonably priced comparatively but other things will generally be more expensive.

Some low flying aircraft in west london would be nice. Might drown out the constant noise from peoples bloody builders!

It will barely open on my phone. Is everyone else having trouble or just me?

Ahh. I knew there was something stopping me sleeping... That new plan has resurrected a vague idea to do Birmingham New Street as a 7mm micro layout. A lot of trains terminated or reversed so a loco and half a coach* could appear, the loco detach, the coach eventually disappear etc. Maybe a single unit leave the other way occassionally. *If I make a mk1 BG out of two Dapol brakes cut in half, I could literally make a couple of 1 bogie dummy coach ends with the leftovers and keep the hidden section really short. Carlsberg dont make photo planks, but if they did.....

I'm pretty comfortable pretending they were sent down to Bodmin/Wadebridge area. I'm loose on some things, not on others. I like each model to be individually accurate and when I finally do a layout it will be c1959 but I have no issue at all having a few locos in early 50s and a couple of diesels in blue. I decided my stock would all be 1959 tho as I couldnt justify duplicate rakes just to have a white box round the wagon numbers when behind the diesels. I might make an exception and have a rake of china clay wagons with early flat covers and one with hoods but ideally I'm hoping I can have them share one underframe. More on this shortly!

An 08 will go round tight curves admittedly but a 90 degree curve in O isnt to be underestimated.

Ha. I didnt know that - might get some cheap ones for the rough work and just chuck them afterwards!

Sorry but I'm back and with no hint of irony... Is the join now one full brick width in - theres an odd line running for 3 bricks, every other 3 rows. What was wrong with the old method - I thought your corners were always thought to be pretty good?

I still think their 47 is the best of the various efforts including JLTRT and that 31 captures the look well for me as well. Were they behind the Tower warship? I've got one in my stash to do one day.

I went on a dolphin trip in New Zealand where you got a free tip if you didnt see anything. Needless to say it was grey and cold and after an hour of nothing, one fin appeared briefly as we re entered the harbour. Is there a radiocontrolledfishweb?! I should check...

You can actually speak to people at ebay. I'd keep it fairly brief: Ie seller has acknowledged a problem but I'm not getting satisfactory resolution. Is a partial refund allowable given these are repairable and if so would Ebay arbitrate or is a return for full refund the only recourse?

Are you suggesting the way to avoid panic stockpiling is for everyone to have a 6 month supply sat at home already?

Good job or he'd be mortarfied. I'll get my coat.

I asked this on one of the threads (or might have been an e mail chain) - i think we concluded they are retaining "nobs" for tying down the covers. I'd never noticed them before seeing the model and going and checking again.

ignore the fuss - not that we know what it was! This is as good as anywhere. Dapol are relatively new to the market in O gauge and have been producing some well detailed and accurate models much cheaper than, for example, Heljan. They have always had a lot of flak for taking a long time to produce models, which is utterly irrelevant and a suggestion that their quality control isnt brilliant, which is more concerning. My locos have all been fine but more than a few have have reported problems. Do test thoroughly and if any problems send it straight back - by and large I think things have been replaced. I always use Tower personally and have had good service from them. Whether O gauge is suitable or not is a different matter. I would say the vast majority totally underestimate the cost and space involved and the amount of stuff being resold on eBay from an "abandoned project" is testament to that. On the flip side someone will almost certainly tell you to go for it as "you wont regret it" (thought presumably all those ebay people would disagree). I'm sure others will chip in if i've missed anything! edit. of course if your son changes his mind he can put it on ebay for slightly more than it costs in the shops and someone will buy it!

Just occured to me that whilst I was quite pleased with my ketchup find when raiding the kitchen looking for some very thin red material, it was also meant to be translucent! Will keep an eye out next time I'm at the supermarket.

Hi. Are these spares off the vacuum pipe sprue or do they sell them separately?

You might not agree with his decision but Isn't that his job?

Bit of a while since I posted: have been doing bits and pieces but little of particular interest. Some progress on the 33 headcodes this week. The other end will be C2 or 2C. The main jobs left are to replace all the broken pipes and number it - two things I keep putting off then its pretty much done. I haven't decided whether to keep it yet - it's totally out of place for my WR Cornish branch and I'm trying to make modelling pay for itself but then again growing up in Southampton I have always liked these and rule 1 can stretch to them being sent down to the withered arm.

My modelling generally comprises around 8 hours of contemplation/procrastination, much of which is spent on here seeing if anything has changed since i last looked. Then late afternoon (around now in fact) i start, get into it and then have to stop just as i was getting going. I've noticed this is appreciably worse when I have work the next day.