Waveydavey

Excellent photos. I've always wondered whether departmental wagons got 'E Sc' painted on them and you've proved that they did. Lots of interesting wagons to there to replicate for the replacement for Longcarse West. Cheers David

Always willing to help out with stock shortages James. And getting to play with a properly thought out and extremely well built layout is a joy too. Quite unlike the few times I've had to operate Longcarse West due to having to let the operating crew have meal and toilet breaks. The Starfish does seem to be a bit camera shy but I've managed to find a picture from Wakefield last year. Sadly it's the side where the decals got a bit out of shape when I did the weathering. It's supposed to be in Gulf Red, based on a picture of one at Kyle that I found on t'internet, but it looks more or less the same colour as my other bauxite stock. Enjoy.

Really enjoyed seeing the layout at Nottingham today, by far my favourite layout of the show. Cheers David

A couple of suggested corrections to the captions you have put. Picture 4 - the train is most likely steel sections from Etruria departing toward Middlesbrough Goods or Tees Dock for export. Skinningrove rolled special sections from steel blooms and so would not be receiving them inwards. Picture 10 - this train is two potash wagons and ten(?) salt boxes coming out empty from Middlesbrough Goods. Potash trains from Tees Dock generally didn't run round in Tees as they would run round at Grangetown and salt only ran to M'bro Goods Pictures 13 & 14 - Difficult to tell if the wagon loads are slab or bloom but they'll have come from Scunthorpe. My guess is that this train is 6N30 Scunthorpe to Tees and then forward to Lackenby. Nice to see my mate Andy waiting to uncouple the BDAs and SPAs from the rear. Slabs could go forward to Lackenby and Dalzell but blooms would be for either Lackenby or Skinningrove. Nice to see some pictures of my old workplace, I really miss the place. Cheers David

I'll look forward to catching up with you there James.

Those Dapol grain hoppers look nice. I wish they'd do them in 4mm instead of the old shorty ex Hornby Dublo one. Cheers David

If the driver sign the route he wouldn't be driving the train anyway. It's a DoT legal requirement that drivers must only work trains over routes they are familiar. Cheers David

I'm also keen to buy a pair of 4mm 25/3 cabs but would prefer a set for a 24/1 and 25/0. Cheers David

Hi Phil, I had a good look at four sharks in Toton the other night and all of the 'plating' is in ply. Cheers David

They did actually Craig although I was too busy getting excited by the Trout and forgot to give the brake van a good looking at. Cheers David

When I did my Siphon I bought both the body and chassis etches, they are seperate packs. The body etches were fine if a little old skool and hand drawn. I found very little of the chassis etch kit to be of any use for the BR build that I was doing and ended up only using the battery boxes. It seemed to me that the chassis etches were intended for the Airfix G & H and weren't a good fit on the Lima underframe. I made up the truss rods from Plastic L section and used ABS BR brake and dynamo gear with an adapted Parkside brake lever. Currently my G runs on MJT bogies which don't have any step boards. Ideally I'd like to fit the Bill Bedford sprung bogies I have but I'm struggling to find the correct 9' pressed steel sideframes with the correct length springs and steps. Anybody got any ideas? Cheers David

No problem James, pleased I could help out even if I did spend most of my time grumbling about running air braked trains with vac brake only locos. Maybe we can arrange a brake compatability teach in at Scaleforum. Although I only briefly operated the layout I found it to be interesting to play with and very well thought out and built, far better than the slap dash approach to planning and construction I took with Longcarse West. Very impressed with the operation of the servo point motors and I've come away with a fair few ideas for the soon to be planned LW2. Don't be too surprised if LW2 looks like an expanded version of Waterloo Street in the same way that LW1 looks quite like an expanded version of Jeff Taylors Alloa Goods . Cheers David

Looking good Mark. Always good to see updates on your layout and stock building

I'll be watching the 27 build closely. I'd been thinking that this kit could be the one that finally made me dip a toe into O gauge but I've been dissapointed with the look of the slide windows on the cab side. My chosen loco would be ex Thornaby non boilered 27024 with drop windows so I'll be keen to see how they look on the kit. Off topic but still 7mm related, have you any experience of ABS 7mm wagon kits? If I go 7mm I'll be needing some highfits and ABS do the only kit. Is it a decent kit and is it easy enough to fit Bill Bedfords suspension to? I've used a fair amount of ABS bits and pieces in 4mm and found them to be very good quality so I have no reason to think the big stuff would be any different but I do wonder how heavy a whitemetal kit in 7mm is going to end up. Cheers David

Practical Model Railways in July 1986 had an article on modelling the 82 & 83s. The 83 involved shortening a Triang AL1 body and mounting it on a modified Roco DB110 chassis. Cheers David

Hi Simon, Is it the photos or are the castings a bit on the rough side? I like the idea of decent cabs for Bachmann 25s as it seems to me to be the best way to get a decent 25. To my mind it's what Brassmasters should have done instead of just the cab roofs as the Bachmann cabs are the wrong shape. If you can get a decent quality product I'm sure you'll have lots of people wanting some. Personally I'd like 25/0 cabs most of all but the other types would be handy too. Cheers David

Hi Richard, Can't you sleep after all the haggis? You'll be wanting to look at Historex Agents here Cheers David

There are still plenty of the 1971 built rivetted version around (most have the vacuum brake gear removed now though) so don't worry about putting a few Bachmann rivetted hoppers into your rake. Cheers David

Nice to see somebody else interested in full length grain hoppers. I built one for Longcarse West and have another three or four to do but it's such an involved job adding adding the side bracing in the correct position and building a new chassis that I can't get excited about doing them. Aren't Bachmann rumoured to be looking at doing these wagons - another reason for me to hold back and wait. Cheers David