Hal Nail

Based on my career alone, she could easily have another 25 years left then.

Resurrecting this in the hope someone may have some better info on the two pairs of E135 brake composites that ran on the Looe branch. I know these were 57' bow ended, with curly grab handles and recessed glazing so I was thinking they are probably basically a composite version of the similar looking D98 brake thirds from around the same time (albeit the E135s were slightly narrower so that may not be the case). I am building a pair using an Ian Kirk kit for a D98 with a first compartment inserted but I am guessing the spacing is broadly the same and somewhere I need to lose the extra I've inserted, so would be good to confirm where. Does anyone know of a diagram or the whereabouts of a good side on photo to be able to gauge the length of the luggage portion overall and between sets of doors?

Can you tell what it is yet? A mock up of a coach using Ian Kirk coach parts including some he kindly offered to throw in. Its a 57' brake composite E135 B set which ran on the Looe branch. The sides dont taper in above the waist so I will mount them leaning in slightly but that aside, I love the design and there is huge potential. I'm even thinking I could do a C54 bow ended corridor 3rd out of these (bottom pic mock up). I've got a Dapol E140 from a B set that I wanted to turn into a full brake. I'd been toying with trying resin casting and I might well start by making a door master.

You are probably right but it highlights an approach many modellers follow, which I've always found slightly odd, that they wont do something that didnt happen, but if they can find one one tiny outlier, anywhere, then that is the excuse they need to happen every single minute on their layout! I just try to make each individual model accurate for some point in its life but sticking to just one date would rule out so much of the variety you see in books straddling as little as 5 years, Ive ended up with stuff representative of the era but not necessarily all the same precise year.

Just out of interest, for high profile trains such as this and royal movements etc, what precautions, if any, were taken to reduce the chance of a loco failure?

Can soldering really be classed as a skill? Since all you do is clean things and then poke something hot in the rough vicinity of the bits, I would argue the only part requiring any technical precision is getting the plug in the socket. Of course it may well be that some are naturally more suited to manual labour and it is for this reason i chose to have servants put my models together

Exactly! However we have all got so used to being careful it's kind if counter-intuitive to now expect to get it sooner or later.

Patience pays off as a buyer. If I want something I track a few and eventually one sneaks through, maybe after a glut, badly titled or ending at a bad time, that has attracted less interest. Contrary to the widespread view that Sunday is the best time to sell, nearly all my bargains are bought then, when there is generally far less late bidding than I see on the equivalent items at other times.

They are offering 10 grand tho. I'd be tempted to accept.

Are we to infer from this that one would only ever have bombed West Kirby by accident?

The timing of those photos is exquisite as I was going to ask you how the 101 wipers compare to Derby style. I asked Easybuild if I could buy some of theirs hoping to improve a Dapol 121 but the only ones not part of a main fret are from the 101. They do look smaller in those photos but still better than the Dapol mouldings, even if just an interim fix until I can source others. edit: though i should add they arrived a couple of days after our chat, are the sane size but much finer than Dapols and Shawn gave me them for free. I shall probably buy a coach kit now so a good result for all!

A touch of this about it too. http://www.archive-images.co.uk/gallery/Archive-Colour-Images-of-the-Railways-of-Devon/image/36/Mary_Tavy__Blackdown_Railway_Station_1962

I fear you might be swimming against the tide. A notable feature of this forum is that when someone asks a question, a load of people guess. Hence it usually helps if you already know the answer, so you can more easily ignore all the incorrect ones.

i had a seller contact me the other day to say hed sent something to the address eBay gave then noticed my order address was different. Id carefully removed my old address from the default delivery addresses and paypal as well but realised later that eBay also have an address saved in your personal details and were dishing that out.

21 and 24T mineral wagons in 7mm scale. Shared chassis tool, popular appeal with some steam/diesel overlap.

Possibly although if they had been defective from the start, presumably the original purchaser would (or perhaps more accurately, might have been extected to) have returned them? Given eBay has traditionally favoured the buyer in disputes, I've often throught it's arguably less risky than taking your chances on an untested new one from a box shifter!

i dint think it was ever a particularly serious model and they were just generating a few extra novelty sales.

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=52931

I know several people who have had a negative in between positives. I guess it only tests what you put in the tube and if the pesky blighters see* the cotton bud coming, you might not get one. *this is not a medically accurate comment!

Agreed - a simple like doesn't seem enough when someone's gone to that much trouble to reply! Normally searching Google but adding "rmweb" in your query is the quickest way to find threads on here but it doesn't work since the problems - you can still find relevant threads so at least know they exist but the links to them don't work and it doesn't say where abouts in the forum they are unfortunately.

It's a bit unfortunate but I can understand the store being wary. I'd try phoning the store as the seller and confirm they are valid - although how you prove you aren't just a mate of the person collecting might be a problem.

Had a go at mine today and having taken the cabs out, I found out the roof is actually a separate unit screwed to the body. Once that comes off you can pop the main headcode glazing out by pushing it in from the front easily without risking damage trying to prise it out from the front. Its actually a front and back panel in clear plastic and easier to align transfers on the back panel on the flat rather than trying to fit digits in through the hole. Cleaning up any residue sprue on the front one massively improves the appearance. Next job will be to pop the body glazing out and open up some of the door windows - it is, after all, permanently Summer in my little world.

I dont know whether it really needs sealing or not - I merely thought worth mentioning those paints might not actually protect it from moisture in the long run (I'm not suggesting you will get instant problems using them). I think part of the reason I sealed my shelves was to give a hard surface on the exposed edges so I could sand them really smooth, which wouldn't be relevant here.

Worth Googling how to seal mdf. I'm pretty sure from when I was using it for shelving, I read somewhere that using the wrong type of paint merely adds moisture to it.

Is this so DCC modellers can have the true DC experience?!