bike2steam

Ah, 'well spotted Wilson', a senile mistake, now altered.

'Jinty' was the MR class 1322 0-4-0ST, the LMS 3F was 'Jocko' at many sheds but at Watford, and some crews at Willesden were known as 'Dobbins', and, as someone's already mentioned, 'Bagnalls' on the old S&DJR ( well the one that ran from Bath/Burnham on Sea to Bournemouth).

Some I've seen are pretty dire, some laughable(Sam's Trains), are some people on an ego trip or what???????????????????????

Thanks Robin for putting me right. I like it, yes that drawing of Swanage station was good, I had many customers in my old shop asking about it. Like the tongue in cheek last comment, wasn't Mike an architect for London Underground??? I haven't seen him for years, is he still around? Paul

For the layouts - G-Tech handheld.

Robin, was it you or Mike Stollery that ran a series of drawings of buildings on the Swanage branch published in the Railway Modeller some time in the 1970's??

I've only seen them banking up both Parkstone, and Bincombe banks.

A glutton for punishment, I've done 12 now, liked the first one so much, just kept going on - but for 2 layouts! But all with rigid chassis, yes I'm lazy, take the easy way out, but make sure my track is as near perfectly flat as possible. Gone from Comet gearbox to High Level.

Sorry, should've said. It's Bursnip Road crossing, Essington, near Bloxwich, on the colliery branch from the South Staffs, Cannock to Walsall mainline to Hilton Main colliery, Wolverhampton. The signal box was a combined building of signal box, and offices of the, long gone, Holly Bank colliery which was just across the road from the 'signal box'. I built a model of the Essington branch junction signal box for my last layout, which was only about half a mile from Bursnip Road 'box, for traffic onto the main-line. My step-dad was, at one time, a colliery engineer at Hilton Main.

I'm making a slightly modified version of this 'box for my new layout;-

Well, now Geoff Taylor has retired, where do I get model building detail parts from, such as brass window frames, platform canopy brackets etc????

That's funny, at one time I used thin clock makers oil - until I found it worked it's way past the motor bearings, and worked it's way to the brushes, it happened a couple of times, so I ditched it, and have used grease also used by helicopter modelers, using just a thin smear at a time. As I said, used it for over 30 years with no problem, and being a loco kit-builder to me loco maintenance is all important.

Good question, for the last 30/40 years I've been using a 50g tub of 'Tri-flow' grease which has served me well, and is now running out, so I will be looking for a replacement soon!!??

There no need to go 'political', the whole idea is dead in the water which ever way ya look at it, I don't think any politician would think it's worth worrying about, as we've seen with the opposition to HS2 it's a pure vote loser.

Most existing main routes are running to capacity - hence HS2. Strategically many of the useful cross-country routes no longer exist, a good example being the old S&DJR route, many romantics are calling out for the re-instatement of the line, but forget it needs the old MR link northwards. As 'LNER4479' sez, the country ain't big enough to make it economically feasible in this day, and age.

Perhaps I've been lucky, but I've never had a bad loco from Bachmann since they dumped the split-chassis rubbish. But they do need coaxing gently when running-in, with plenty of patience it works out perfectly. As an exLMS/BR steam modeler about a third of my collection of 120 locos are Bachmann, and I can't choose a favourite, but if I have to it has to be either the WD, or 'Duck 8', but as I say all are perfect runners with maybe the exception of the 5 x standard 5's as they have been re-motored with Mashima 1426 motors, to up their haulage from 8 to 11 coaches.

OK I concede about the running-in, to be honest I 'rushed' thro' the video as I found some of it irritating, but running on carpets doesn't give track a perfectly flat running surface, it has a tendency to undulate. But some of his track looked like 'radius 1', which Bachmann advice against for larger locos, and a 10-coupled chassis will struggle as it obviously did. Still not convinced, to me it was directed at the 'toy-train' brigade.

I like the Bachmann 9F but have resisted the massive temptation to buy one (or more) as I have 5 older Hornby versions already that are good enough for me. Three older China made converted to loco drive, and two re-chassised(?) with the later Railroad chassis, all look, and operate good enough for me ( the converted loco drive can easily pull 70 empty Bachmann 16 tonner minerals). I found the 'Sam's' video both annoying, and laughable - not run-in, and on a carpet with toy-train curves, and expecting top class performance - what a dick.

I know your comment is 'tongue in cheek', but just for information Google search;- St Edmund, original Patron Saint of England (historic-uk.com)

Good to see someone else with the right way of thinking. And not that plain Norman red cross.

Some of us would prefer an English patron saint, and not a Turk that never set foot outside his country, I for one would prefer reinstatement of St Edmund.

You'd think that membership of the 'Super-League' will mean no longer playing in the FA-Cup would cause a rethink perhaps?? And continually playing each other would be somewhat monotonous. But there again, the football league might be better off without the so called 'top-six', although with the exception of Arsenal, and Spurs, making it less predictable.

Or what some call 'plastic fans'.

I had a Gaugemaster HF1 wired into my old Bembridge layout from when built in 1993, right up to when I sold it on in 2008. I had very little problem of mucky track in all that time, more often from being left unused for a couple of months at a time between a few of the 70 - 80 exhibitions it was shown at over that period .

Yep, I'd go along with that, but remember full size trains make noise, the faster ya go over scale speed the worse it gets!!!