Trevellan

You might need a few more locos to fill up a large depot space Dave .

Nice work Dave. I have family in March so I know the two boxes there quite well. However, I'm not sure about Saxmundham and that lean-to extension...

No, for me it's the look of the aircraft. The B17's fuselage, wing form and tailplane still look relatively modern to my eyes, the giveaway being the piston radials. The Lanc's fuselage and tailplane just look more dated to me, but they did their job and that's what counts.

Well I never Pete. I've learned something today. I assumed all Lancs had the Rolls Royce engines, but according to Wikipedia (usual disclaimers) 300 were built with Bristol Hercules engines due to a shortage of Merlins. Mind you, I doubt that they would have sounded as good as four Merlins at take-off power! Edit: Damn I got beat due to treacle in the wires...

Terrific stuff. The B17 air-to-air stuff is excellent. I've always found it hard to believe that these were contemporaries of the Lancaster as the latter looked very dated in comparison. Makes me wonder what a B17 would have been like with four Merlins.

I disagree Gary. On that score I believe Hornby got it absolutely right. The sheer ubiquity of the VEPs make them suitable for almost any SR layout from 1967 to 2004. In terms of liveries I think of at least five and there are opportunities to issue different number variations and weathered options. It could have become a solid core product for Hornby for many years. I only hope that it's Bachmann who will eventually produce HAPs, CIGs and TCs to the standard of their CEPs and EPBs. As to the real-life customer dimension, I found the VEPs, CEPs and CIGs to be as comfortable as their Mk3-based counterparts and in their final years I actively sought them out if there was a choice. Still, each to their own!

The Mk3s look really nice Dave. You must be a real whizz now with this laser-cut glazing! In terms of couplings, I have an article by Nigel Burkin on replacing the large and ugly tension locks on Mk3s with Kadees. Even if you don't like them for "fleet" use, they might be a good solution for you as an inter-vehicle coupling and you can always cut the "tail" off.

Having been procrastinating on this ever since the first ones appeared I have finally decided to cancel my orders. Yes, the model captures the essence of the prototype but there is simply too much remedial work to do on a model of that price. Sorry Hornby, I'd love to support you on this one but you're asking too much of me.

Sacrilege! Heresy! As others will no doubt point out, the VEPs had high density seating and doors to virtually every bay, whereas the lovely CIGs were effectively Mk1 SOs etc in an EMU. In terms of the debate around price and quality of the Hornby model, I don't recall seeing any comparisons with products such as those produced by Bratchell Models. Having seen the latter in the flesh at Ally Pally last year I was quite impressed with the finished products on display, but they carry a hefty price tag (obviously due to numbers produced) and, as pretty as they were, there seemed to be something not quite right about them either. Or is it just me?

And make fare dodgers walk the plank? Or better still keel-haul them...

Thanks chaps. Decisions, decisions...

That's food for thought James, as I happen to have an old Lima 31 lurking in a cupboard somewhere. Frankly, returning my defective 31 to Hornby will be a lot of hassle and they won't be able to do anything with it other than bin it. Supporting other views on ths thread, before it began to self-destruct my 31 was a superb runner and even more so after conversion to DCC. Reading the notes of your conversion makes it look reasonably straightforward, but I'm not sure I'm that courageous!

Looks good Gareth. The weathering certainly helps to tone down the yellow front.

The amount of constructive communication and feedback on the subject of the new Dapol Western convinces me that even the big boys (Bachmann/Hornby) ought to think more about consultation with their customers. Having waited so long for this ubiquitous, workaday EMU it is disappointing that there appear to be so many avoidable errors, especially after the justifiably lauded Maunsells and Hawksworths. Emulating Gareth's micro-surgery with a chainsaw will, I fear, be a step too far for me, at least for the moment.

Surely everyone's seen/heard the Monty Python sketch with (ISTR) 4 Yorkshiremen, increasingly claiming greater deprivation/ hardship as the conversation went on. Classic. I was going to mention it earlier, but succombed to PC.

As another product from 1954 much of that list is disturbingly familiar. However, no frogs were (deliberately) harmed in the making of my childhood...

Wonderful!

Comperes who use "give it up for" instead of "please welcome". Give what up? Chocolate for Lent? The train station vs rail station debate is set to run and run. Use of train station really grates on me. Increasing use in the UK is probably down to lots of American TV on our screens.

"Treat others as you wish to be treated" has long been ingrained in my psyche. It says a lot about contemporary society that people have to be asked to think this way. Happy cruising!

The last "quiet" coach I travelled in (a class 444 from Waterloo to Portsmouth) in June was a complete waste of time. Two minutes after boarding I was joined by two middle-aged men with six-packs of lager which they quaffed noisily in between loud chat. And don't get me started on the two young women further down the coach who managed to chat on mobiles for most of the journey. Have these people never heard of enjoying the passing view or even reading? Oh, I see...

Here is the image I couldn't embed into that last post:

This thread reminded me that I have one of the affected models (R2413) and dug it out. After chipping it ran a few times, but it hasn't been used for around two years. Sure enough, it has the same problem. This is the worst corner. As with others, when I tried to dismantle the model to recover its decoder one end broke away and it's virtually impossible to get it all back together again. However helpful Hornby are, this one is beyond repair and will need to be written off. One phone call to Kent coming up methinks. By the way, I also have the R2649 variant (31 165) and this is fine.

I think that was Carling Black Label. I was once given a bar towel with Mabel - Black Label on it. There are not many ads now that I feel are genuinely clever, entertaining or amusing. Apart from humour in advertising, music can play a big part. I recall an Ever Ready ad in the late 70s or maybe early 80s (power to the people) that had a very catchy jingle. Hope that reminiscence isn't OT.

You've reminded me of an article I read recently about the roles of primary and secondary suspension on rail vehicles...

Wow. I first encountered Parisian taxi drivers during a visit in 1997 and the two I "travelled" with were only marginally slower than the driver in the film. At least that's what it felt like at the time!