mike morley

Full bells and whistles upgrade of a Hornby body. I'll dig her out and take a picture of her undressed later.

I've got one built with a second to be done. An RT Austerity chassis is well within the capabilities of a novice. The only area you might find tricky is the buffer beam gussets, where holding them in position while soldering them in place without scorching your fingertips in the process can be . . . interesting. At one point I managed to solder a pair of tweezers to the chassis! For that reason I'd advise building the single-gusset version (not sure if the J94s had double-gussets, anyway). Apart from that, its all very straightforward. Confidence is everything, so I'd suggest a bit of practice on odd scraps of metal to get into the swing of things before starting the actual chassis. Mine has a big 1628 Mashima and a High Level Road-Runner Plus powering it. That vast saddle tank is more than capable of accommodating pretty much any motor intended for 4mm use so I'd suggest asking Chris at High Level what he recommends when you order the gearbox. Edited to add that Markits do indeed do appropriate wheels. The one I've built has got Markits wheels, the one waiting to be built will have Gibson wheels. Markits wheels are more expensive but much, much more novice-friendly.

I cannot recall ever seeing an oil pipe that didnt have evidence of spillage below it, too.

Early part of the same walk. I think this is part of a sawmill a mile or so outside Welshpool. The mixture of stone, slate, timber, new and old brickwork and vegetation would be a real challenge to model without it looking contrived.

Jonathan's picture of the burnt-out hut made me dig out my own Montgomery Canal pictures. I hoped to have a "before" picture, but evidently haven't. Instead I realised I'd obviously been in Bridge Mode. Self-captioning! I'd be willing to tackle those railings, but to do those main girders justice would require skills and facilities I lack. This is the canal version of an occupation bridge and is fairly typical of the type found throughout the canal system. They're stronger than they look. There's on one the Grand Union Canal just north of Leighton Buzzard that serves The Globe pub, so has to withstand the weight of brewers drays. Another autographed bridge to challenge those with the skill to do their own custom artwork and etching! This one is at Abermule. Finally, the younger brother of a much more famous bridge that can be found further down the Hafren, in another country. And if you fancy having a go, here's the Master's version

I've never got on too well with Limolene, but a few months ago posting a request for alternatives prompted some interesting responses - particularly the one from Tony Gee, towards the bottom of the page.

I was once told that mushrooms had brown gills while toadstools had pink gills. Trouble is, on the few times I've thought to look since the gills could always be described as either pinky-brown or browny-pink with equal accuracy.

Gauging weirs are usually kept in immaculate condition with much evidence of solar panels and radio ariels. That one looks a bit down-at-heel with no obvious means of keeping things monitored remotely, which I would have thought would have been a high priority in somewhere as isolated as the Hafren Forest. Puzzled

If you are still unhappy with the window frames, you might find some replacements of the right size at https://yorkmodelrail.com/product-category/00-scale-ho-scale/windows-louvers-00-scale-ho-scale/page/2/ With the possible exception of the semi-circular arch above the windows, I reckon the tower is supposed to be stonework rather than brickwork, so whatever colour you paint it would depend entirely upon the nature of the stone wherever your layout is set. Assuming that is somewhere around Bedminster, I would suggest a pale creamy-grey. With regard to the brick window arches (and I'm not 100% convinced they really are supposed to be brick. They look a bit too big for bricks, to my eye) I would think engineers blue bricks are more likely than red. Engineers blue are a very dark, almost black purplish-blue with a vaguely metallic sheen.

With kit-built chassis, a crankpin that keeps on undoing itself is regarded as a symptom rather than the cause of the problem. Less-than-perfect quartering is the usual cause in such situations. I can't remember the last time I looked at an RTR chassis so I've no idea if it's even possible for the quartering to slip but I would certainly suggest you investigate that possibility very closely.

This was originally intended to be a quick and easy scenic backdrop for a lorry kit I was building. Several months later, the shell has been rebuilt three times (first time because the original version still looked more like an Airfix church than an up upland longhouse, second time because I caught it on one corner as I picked it up and ripped it apart) and it's on it's fifth roof. The lorry kit never did get finished.

Do we have the word of anyone more reliable than the notorious Mr Dunn himself that the company is actually for sale? I've just spent a while on Google, searching every combination of wording I can think of, hoping to learn more but have found precisely nothing.

Definitely! I have hefty, powerful, well-balanced 0-4-0's that can be easily out-hauled by comparatively light, moderately-powered 0-6-0's.

Par for the course with most Cambrian kits, I'm afraid. Unco-operative corners and bump-stops that don't line up with axleboxes are also regular problems.

Almost forgot. Opposite Llandogo

Former village tap. St Briavels. Moat and castle behind. Village well. Still in water. Lots of Hart's Fern inside. Unfortunately the picture I took looking in was way out of focus. That grid is about five feet tall. Not sure what the tuft of wheat(?) hanging from it signifies. Also St Briavels. Remnants of a chicken coop. St Briavels common. Semi derelict milking shed for cattle. About 15 yards from the chicken coop. I doubt if either will be there for much longer because there was a JCB hard at work at the other end of the field they were in and much newly-delivered building materials stacked around. Intriguing one, this. You often see old rail turned into fence posts and sometimes it is of quite lightweight nature, probably of narrow-gauge origins, but this bulb-head rail is is so dainty it's difficult to imagine what it was originally used for, The entrance to someone's property on the lane down to Brockweir. Finally, a warning and a plea. Countless times yesterday we found footpaths so badly overgrown through lack of use that they we had to fight our way through and a few times things got so bad changes of route were forced upon us. On the return leg (our intended route was St Briavels/Brockweir/along the Wye to opposite Llandogo then angle up through the woods back to St Briavels) nature had reclaimed the path completely - and I don't mean the path had become so overgrown it was impassable: I mean that nature had completely reclaimed the path to the extent that it was impossible to tell a footpath had ever existed. Four or five times in little more than a mile we found ourselves struggling to fight our way through, looking for paths that had ceased to exist, and we came dangerously close to running out of daylight. So, everybody, use the country's footpaths while they still exist and by using them help them remain in existence. Take a pair of secateurs as well as your camera with you, plan plenty of alternative routes in advance and allow far, far more time than you think/hope your walk will actually need.

Severely cramped bridges were usually low rather than narrow. A major problem with what you are proposing is what might happen if there was an accident or breakdown while the loco was under the bridge. How would the crew get out? If there was a real bridge that narrow it would probably be worked by horses.

You might find these help. On special offer, too! https://www.booklaw.co.uk/booklaw-publications/modelling-aspects-of-the-coal-industry.html https://www.booklaw.co.uk/booklaw-publications/modelling-furthur-aspects-of-the-coal-industrty-vol-2.html

In the old 'Ericplans' book, published by Peco, there was a drawing of Dunster level crossing. It's a bit basic, but there should be enough there to make an acceptable model.

Inspired by Jonathan's picture, here is the view from my bedroom window. I think the word we're looking for here is 'festooned'.

I find it's stupid little things that set me back. I started to convert a couple of old Airfix churches into an upland longhouse farm and used a few of the leftovers to make an agricultural shed of undefined purpose. I must have made and rejected five roofs for the longhouse and every failure has simply inspired me to try again. Over the weekend I had my first attempt weathering the corrugated iron roof of the shed. It wasnt a success but was nothing like as big a disaster as some of the longhouse roofs. Even so, I now find myself seriously considering giving up railway modelling (I've only been doing it for 50+ years, after all) and finding a hobby I'm good at.

Would a station that small and simple have a signal box? I think a ground frame is more likely.

Not long after the Verney Junction to Bletchley line was first abandoned I took a walk along the stretch between Swanbourne and Salden Woods. Every few dozen yards there was a scatter of insulators cast aside by whoever had stripped the cables and metalwork from the telegraph poles. I was surprised how big they were and astonished to find how heavy they were. I kept one that for many years acted as a very effective doorstop. I'd love to know what happened to it.

I've been on that website before and feel it only fair to warn people that they need to set aside a couple of hours at the very least, preferably an entire afternoon, before venturing into its depths!