Hal Nail

To give an idea, Arun Quay uses boards smaller than those and is built from a lightweight polstyrene and ply construction in order to make it portable.

What do you scribe with and how do you keep it all even? I had a go at turning a SR even plank into an uneven one but found it hard to scribe exactly in the middle of planks and it looked a mess

1956 onwards. Do you have a specific location? I look up the locos allocated to my area then do a Google images search of "gwr + number" to find photos which will generally be from the BR era, unless it's a preserved one. Other sources, transport library, colour rail, rail online.

Another LMS van having strapping and bolt heads added. This one will be an unfitted version: I hadn't really appreciated until I got a book recently detailing when things were retro fitted how much unfitted stock there was c1956/1957 I was seeing double whilst staring at this which made this something of a challenge - even more so before I stopped and painted the straps black!

I think if I got to market first but my releases were still being discounted, I'd be worrying. The counter argument for some time has been that since Heljan's stuff sells well, the criticism is (perhaps) irrelevant. With more competition around focusing on detail and accurancy, that might not hold true forever.

Ironically, people are obviously recycling what you cull.

my kitten was playing with a dead rat in the neighbours garden yesterday. when I went round to collect it the neighbours were horrified. "i didn't know we have rats!". "You don't anymore", I said. Edit: its surprisingly difficult to flip a dead rat into a bin liner.

You are right, it is a theory. But it's a better one than the idea someone has gone to the expense of tooling a copy of something thats already sold through 2 batches, to flog at a price that won't remotely cover the costs incurred. Everyone makes it up as they go along - all that varies is the output!

Some stuff here. https://igg.org.uk/rail/6-livy/br/9-br-4864.htm

I'd ask on the thread for the loco where people who own it are active.

I've always thought it was a polite way of saying some people are staggeringly unobservant! :)

interesting looking at this again, has the whole thing been repainted leaving the lettered planks alone, or have the lettered areas been redone (in early style) at some point? I think the latter, as the light coloured bits of the end doors look in better nick. Perhaps in an attempt to mix paint they've come up with something lighter.

Funnily enough despite knowing nothing about cars, after numerous breakdowns I fixed it myself in the end by splicing in a fuel filter. I think the coating on the fuel tank was flaking off and blocking the carbs. Having got it working I then blew the head gasket. Bought an old Hillman Hunter for the engine which I had put in the Humber but it was hopelessly prone to overheating and in the end I gave up and gave it back to a garage. I did see it on the road once later on. When it worked it was very smooth. Sort of glided along!

See the thread on this page, "Dan's quality used motors", bottom of page 2 Also usually various old Dinky toy type replacement transfers on ebay

Spent far longer than intended trawling through photos to gauge the relative size of various lorries! Wheels can vary a lot so not so much the overall height but the actual cab size. Struggled to find an ergomatic next to anything else but this one suggests it is a fair bit bigger than a Bedford. Also included an older AEC as Dinky did one albeit not exactly that model.

Thinking about it, Bentley (Hants) is like this. The station building and car park are on the up side, the down is just a passing loop and footpath access only. Down trains regularly use either platform but I've never seen an up train cross over on to the down side. Apart from a breakdown in the up platform there wouldn't be much point but I don't know if it is technically possible under the current signalling.

As others have said it depends on the individual signalling set up. Until recently Medstead, which is a passing loop on a single line, was only signalled for down trains to use the left hand loop platform. Whether that was the case pre preservation I don't know but all the photos I can recall show diverted expresses going towards Winchester, using the down loop platform rather than running straight through. Although the East end shown involves a bit of curve either way, at the West end a down train needs to cross over two points whereas the up trains have a straight run.

In fairness worth pointing out the advantage of eBay is it gives you access to things you might not otherwise come across. I don't think anyone has ever suggested you'd chose it over a decent second hand stall or shop.

Wye - The Tickled Trout, Shawford - The Bridge St Denys - The Junction Hungerford - The Railway Tavern

my first car was a 25 year old humber sceptre. Walnut dash and overdrve but kept cutting out. The AA man said to me, whilst peering under the bonnet, one advantage is it only has 5 moving parts :)

I suspect Dapol didn't want to simply label them unauthorised as that would be less likely to deter buyers than "fake" which plants the idea they might be poor quality rip offs.

I think that's partly as a lot of the effect on the real thing is light reflecting off the various undulations and we tend to avoid gloss or sheens! Then like many rust effects and the like, you can't just do it randomly, there is often a pattern to the real thing which is tricky to copy. I've seen a few attempts at dents but in order to really show up it has over been over exaggerated to my eyes and as you say, can look awful!

On the theme of buying discounted and the wider impact, as far as I can tell, Modellbahnunion in Germany are an authorised Dapol dealer and often have significant discounts and, if you are below the duty threshold, it works out at a significant saving. c£130 for a 14xx for example. I assume Dapol aren't losing out, any discount offered is the retailer's choice so if anyone it missing out its the UK tax authorities but they set the threshold. So other than not giving a margin to a British retailer, what do people think of the morality here?

I sent a polite offer to Gostude for a coach he's failed to sell in 6 months and got a rude reply, which quoted how much the paint job cost. Supports the idea floated earlier that he pays way over the odds for some of his more ridiculously priced stuff!