Markeg

The photos are excellent and give a good indication of differences. Both look excellent. I will wait till I read what Tony Wright has to say, and also have too many things coming this Christmas-New Year period, so I will budget for one in the new year sometime. No hurry mind you. May flog the old Bachmann LNER Roedeer off too. Mark

Gilbert, Thanks for adding the photos of Tony Wright's Little Bytham. Excellent work. It was a little disappointing not to see it, but that could not be helped. Maybe next time. Mark

I'd buy one if I were you. I just bought one and have the early crest on order, so will have 2, but will likely sell one. The late crest ones are selling very well I see, shops are selling out of them, so hopefully will restock for those um'ing and ah'ing. I hope we see a LNER/ER 0-6-0 announced from the same maker as these 3F's. If Model Rail tested them and they pulled 13 coaches and look as good as this, bring it on. Hi Gilbert, fantastic shots, I will have to practice with the wife's SLR when I get a chance. Mark

Hi Doug, Back from the land of the ... whatever they call the UK. I succumbed and ordered a Beattie tank. Delightful little loco. Will not fit the LNER period though. But since I now have over 30 BR locos it may 'well' fit that period. See you at next months meet. Mark

Hi Rick, Excellent photos and the scenic work is too. Bring on the sun and surf. My Beattie arrived and is an excellent runner, tested it with 6 4 wheel wagons behind it today on the club layout. plan to attend the next BRMA meeting. MArk

I just noticed that my post was in November last year. So that means I visited Hereford in May this year and yes I did manage to visit the shop. As I was with my cousins, I could not spend too much time there as we were to be somewhere for lunch. It seemed a very nice shop. I came out with nothing because I spent a bit at the Bristol ModelRly Exhibition a few days before. As I said earlier excellent service. Well worth the visit. Mark in OZ

Hi Gilbert, I was just reading August 2010 BRM with your prvious incarnation of Peterborough in it. A farmer friend usually buys the BRM, RlyModeller and Model Rail and I subscribe to the Hornby Mag and ocassionally buy the others when they interest me. So we do a swap. This is one of his mags and will be going back to him with about 40 others this weekend. Are you going to be reusing the Engine Shed? I can not recall seeing in these photos yet. I ask because I am building a 4 road Saw tooth roof engine shed and was wondering if you have photos of it. I haven't decided whether to use photcopied card such as Metcalfe or use slaters plasticard. Plasticard is a little more difficult and time consuming, but looks a lot better I think. Glad the camera is working out. I have some good photos of Gresley Beat and other layouts when I visited in April - May. We have a Sony SLR. It works a treat and takes some excellent photos. Its actually my wifes camera, whereas I was in charge of the video camera on our visit to the UK and France. We both had SLR with film in the good old days. Keep it coming. It inspires me to get on with my layout. Mark in OZ

Hi Gwiwer, You have done an excellent job there on those Beatties. Mine has left the UK and should be here sometime next week. Will have to dig out the spares, figures etc to add detail to it. The models certainly do travel a long way from home. My layout is more North East UK than south west, but what the heck, a nice model to run on the line. Mark

Gordon, that is some change. If you can still have full length trains without gradients and lots of over and under passes, go for it. When I was intially in the planning stages i was planning an inverted 8, but decided to keep it simple and flat with a shallow viaduct to come. Look forward to seeing how it all comes together. good luck Mark

Hi Gwiwer, Looking good. Hi Doug, you are obviously enjoying the UK weather. We were there in April - May and had fantastic weather too. Are you getting to see all those Railways, both large and small and buying lots. See you sometime when you return. Mark

I remember reading somewhere that Bachmann have said they will not be making the chassis available as a seperate item. So that means sell off old and replace with new or buy the new one and attempt to fix to old bodies. Mark in Oz

The last pairof new gresley bogies I got was from Hornby Spares/Abbigails, but that was some time ago. With regard to the B1, I will wait and see when and if the price war starts. I will flog the old Bachmann LNER B1 Roedeer off, though I only paid about GBP40 or just under, A$60 for it. The new Hornby one looks good. Mark in OZ

Hi SRman, Good progress on the layout. Painting rails takes a while if you paint them by brush, but is worth the effort. Doug is in the UK/Europe, how nice for him. We had fantastic weather in April-May when I & my wife were there. Got to got to the Bristol show and see an O gauge southern rly layout, but only one LNER layout. I had orgainsed to see The Gresley Beat and The Gainsborough MRC and Chester MRC. Our time was too short and I would like to go again, but will have to save for that. I will add a photo below of my layout. It is a bit messy at the time of the photo, but have tidied it up since, so it is easier to work on. I have ballasted most of it and painted most of the rails. I have laid out the buildings so I can see where they go and see how the landscape forms. I have just bought my first DCC sound loco, the Hornby A4 Sparrow Hawk in BR Blue which you can see. I don't have a DCC controller yet, but will get one one day. If you know of a cheap Hornby/Bachmann unit going somewhere could you let me know? hoping to get down in October sometime, but otherwise will be at Frank's in December. also added a photo taken at the Kent and east Sussex Rly of Maunsell for you. regards Mark

So, has anyone heard anything about the Hornby B17? I haven't seen anything regarding release of any of the B17's, other than the first one was due late September, early October. I think there will be stiff competition to get the B1's out asap and this may force the price down. Which is good for the consumer of Model Trains. Mark

These look good. I have ordered a set of LNER teaks. The BR version looks good too. mmmmm! I hope they are delayed till after Christmas as the CC will get a bashing with 2x B17's, D49, coaches, and a few other items. Dinkyme, I think Mike was referring to the 61' 6" gresley full brake (BG) of the main line stock. thanks for the photos. Mark

very appertising. I wasn't planning to buy one at this stage, but this looks good, no more than good, excellent, so may succumb. Oh the bank balance will take a battering if this comes out with the B17 due shortly?. I would think that this is a prototype so may be 3 months away possibly. only a guess though. Mark

Yes Tom, that is certainly the pic I was referring to. All the stock looks good too me. Will have to wait for them. Doug, what a scenario you raise with the interest for next year. You might start a wish list thread with this thinking. Well I am going to add my bit. I think we will see a LNER 0-6-0 with tender of some sort from Bachmann announced, any would do, but preference would be a J21 to J27 (exNER), but J6 and J15 polled very highly this year. What about a Director D10 & D11 4-4-0, I'm hoping for a D10 as I will buy several especially with Walter Burgh Gair 5433/62654 emblazened on the sides. we might see a J50 0-6-0T, a Q6/Q7 0-8-0 and maybe a G5 0-4-4T as they are building one in the north of England. Mark

Hi David, I know that Precision Models does head and coach board sets for a few trains including The Elizabethan, Pullmans and The Silver Jubilee, etc. They are available thru Frizinghall Models. Just google Precision Models and I think you will find them. regards Mark

Hi Tom, Good to see you are still around. Is it correct that you are pulling your layout apart to build a new one? Anyway the Hornby B1 was in a photograph that was sent via email newsletter from Hornby, september I think. There was also a LNER B17 heading the other way, both locos were pulling the new gresley suburban coaches. Unfortunately I cannot find the email, so cannot show the photo. I would head to the website and check, but there was no news. regards Mark

I am planning to add a branchline to my current oval layout which is currently 15'x8'. The current layout will be expanded to 21'. The branchline to Ponteland (NE region) will come of the end of the board and swing around/behind the control panel. It will be also made for exhibition (end to end). Size will be 12' x 2', 2x 6' x 2' boards. I also plan to build a viaduct in between the fiddle yard board and the permanant layout. Though this is not prototypical, just modeller's license. I have the track plan, photos and timetable. Though this will have to be added to because not much ran on the line. I even took a couple of photos of Ponteland and approaching embankment while I was in the UK in April - May this year. Thats the plan. I also visited the Blandford forum museum as put my 2 bob in to make the model rly work. very nice layout. I also saw Gresley Beat, Gainsborough, and a few others. Mark

Hi Poms, Do we Aussies have to watch out for more good English cricketers? Its bad enough that we are down, but to see that score. I will check the match stats later. Mark

Hi Peter C, My LNER and BR versions arrived on Friday and run very well. I had the LNER version pulling 40 Bachmann Private Owner 4 wheel wagons on the club layout here in Bendigo Victoria on Saturday. I agree with your sentiments too. It got a lot of interested onlookers too. I also added a driver and fireman, well at least the top half. Mark

All looks good Jeff, Must come and visit some day. I have a M7 but in BR black, which I picked up for $68 from UK (including Postage), but the LSWR livery looks very nice. I remember seeing a SR Pill box brake on the Bluebell rly in April. If I have a photo I will send you a copy, but you probably have all the details since you built one. I have about 6 or 7 wagon kits to build when I have the time. All LNER of course. The light signals look like the Model Dockyard VR signals I have. Since its a UK layout and southern region, would you go for Eckon or other UK signals. Mine will be ratio LNER signals, possibly working, not sure yet. regards MArk

Nice. The coaches in the bottom photo, what are they? D&S? Mark in OZ

Inspired by the dvd on Loco building and Little Bytham, not to mention the other BRM dvds and articles and now 2 of his books. Get well soon, mate. Mark in OZ Inspired by the dvd on Loco building and Little Bytham, not to mention the other BRM dvds and articles and now 2 of his books. Get well soon, mate. Mark in OZ