2mmMark

If Ryanair ran a model shop...

It's been a while since I've sold anything on eBay as I only sell occasionally. Are people in my position being moved to managed payments? I've not received any notification about it. My wife is giving up eBay selling as she's very reluctant to grant eBay access to her bank account. Mark

They've sold their soles to the devil.

I think it's remarkably careless of Derby and Beyer-Peacock to leave off what must be an essential structural item. Still looks enough like a class 25 to pass muster with me though.

Right - 3D printer question. I know there's an RMWeb section specifically for this subject but I'm asking in a 2mm context. What is the popular printer for our particular scale? Looking at the prices, they're now looking pretty affordable with quite excellent results, so now seems like a good time to get to grips with the technology. Mark

Would a medium be able to help with that?

That's the beauty of kits, the huge time saving... :-) Looking very good indeed, Julia.

Tamiya do some photo-etch scissors which make cutting delicate items off the fret an absolute doddle. As do Xuron. What they both fail to offer is a tool to find them in the carpet afterwards. Mark

The wheel cleaning technique I mentioned above seems to be working well on locos and I see no reason why it shouldn't work on metal rolling stock wheels. As for plastic wheels, the type of plastic seems to be the critical factor. Some years back, Denys Brownlee moulded some wagon wheels in white Acetal (a.k.a Delrin) which was fitted to a wagon in a train on Copenhagen Fields. It ran for the entire duration of Imrex - 6 days - and at the end of the show there was signs of use on the tread but no crud buildup.

Just giving this a bit of a bump as there's now dedicated pages about the series on Brooklands museum's web site, including details of each of the ten episodes https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/secrets-of-the-transport-museum

Having watched the video in question, I tried some WD40 Contact Cleaner on my 6.5mm narrrow gauge test track which uses Marklin setrack and the results are very acceptable. Some cleaner was applied to loco wheels by dropping some on with a small brush and letting capillary action take it round the rim. The cleaner was applied to the rails using a cotton bud. No other rail cleaning was done. While it's not conclusive, it does indicate there's gains to be made over simple physical cleaning. The proof of the pudding will be under exhibition conditions so that'll be some while yet. Mark

Wetherspoons seem able to attract enough of a certain type of clientele to keep themselves in business. The classic case of demolition just days prior to being listed is the Firestone factory debacle. http://www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/blog/the-life-and-death-of-the-firestone-factory

Quite a few live in a vacuum, apparently. Should help prevent tarnishing.

My subscription copy arrived this morning with troubling advice for anyone with younger offspring.

Notwithstanding that the Brooklands stuff is on the Yesterday Channel, Channel 5 do seem quite intent on disproving Adam Faith's last words. It's now quite watchable. The "competitions" (win a luxury break for two blah blah blah) at each ad break are a laughable way to harvest phone numbers https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/13/guardianleaders

Coming soon - Secrets Of The Transport Museum. This 10 part series covers the work of the volunteers at Brooklands and features car, motorcycle and aeroplane restoration. Having seen what was filmed, I think it'll be an interesting watch. In line with the current "unlockdown" schedule, Brooklands is hoping to reopen on Wednesday 19th May. There will still be some social distancing requirements but the intention is to resume the daily car & motorcycle demonstrations as an added attraction, as it's not possible to open up the aircraft exhibits until restrictions are completely removed. There will be carefully controlled access to Concorde. The branding is interesting as it implies there could be future series on other museums. Let's hope so. https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/yesterday-uncovers-secrets-transport-museum/ Freeview 26 | Sky 155 | Virgin 129 | Freesat 159 | YouView 26 On demand on UKTV Play

Looks at various Nn3 & N metre gauge models under construction and thinks "RTR N is niche?!"

It would appear so. I'm running Linux Mint 19.3 32 bit as that suits the two older desktop PCs I have. There's no shortage of good applications and the base install comes with a decent suite of them. I can also run quite a few Windows applications using WINE by simply running the exe file from the installed location. BBC iplayer and Youtube both work OK via Firefox. My former employer had a serious look at Linux as a possible desktop replacement for Windows XP but in the end, opted for Windows 7 and Office 365, aided I suspect by a good deal from Microsoft. (Refreshing an estate of over 35,000 PCs isn't like turning a supertanker, it's much more difficult!). I left in 2015 so I don't know what they're on now, possibly Windows 10 but I wouldn't be surprised to find they're still running 7 Mark

Yep, still there and free for personal use! https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor Mark

I've just remembered Belarc Adviser, which is a program that examines your PC and reports on its configuration. In the report will be a list of installed programmes and their serial numbers. Mark

Fortunately there are readily available free tools which can read and retrieve registration keys. Worth doing even if you're not going to refresh Windows 10. I need to do a refresh on my ACER Spin 1 which came with all sorts of useless extra software installed but at the moment it's working reliably, so adopting the old IT adage "if it's not broken, don't fix it", I'm letting well alone for now. WIndows 10 is a reasonably OK operating system but it's still potentially the traditional Microsoft house of cards. Perhaps now with some additional blutac holding things together. An alternative way to speed up a PC is to use Linux. Both my older desktop PCs are now dual boot, Windows and Linux Mint. Mint is so much quicker and seemingly more efficient as the cooling fans rarely come on wheras they frequently do in Windows. It's fairly easy to make a bootable Linux USB stick which will enable the system to be tried out without having to install it. There are enough similarities with Windows to make usage straightforward. Installing it was impressive. Both Linux installs found every bit of hardware connected (scanner, printer, all the internal cards etc.) and made it work, including connecting to the home network and network printer. In about 20 to 30 minutes maximum. Windows installation by comparison can easily take a couple of hours or more. I've been a confirmed Windows user since version 1 but I'm very much warming to Linux, especially now the Windows software market is moving towards an annual rental model. Mark

Crowsnest Tramway eh? If anyone's interested in this layout and it's gestation over the years, here's a good way to spend a tenner. https://narrowgaugeandindustrial.co.uk/products/crowsnest-chronicles Mark

They do need a bit of working up. Leaving the wheel centres empty is rather clever. What's needed is some suggestion of an axle and brake drum. The address on the packet is 101 Enville Road, Kinver, South Staffs DY7 6BU. I got mine on ebay but they don't seem to available there now. Here's a couple I've done. The Reliant is OK but the Austin van (and also the saloon) need to be a bit busier around the front axle, I feel.

I like this a lot. It reminds me of Allan Sibley & Brian Dorman's Allied Marine layout from the 1970s. Mark

And just underneath them were the Loftwuffe.