Jon Gwinnett

I needn't have worried, Andreas replied in perfect English (unlike my fractured German) and offered a paypal option for a small additional charge. Very good customer service. Distractions over, I look forward to seeing how your MaK turns out.

Cheers, Bit confused by trying to order the decals from Andreas TBH, did I miss the payment options or is bank transfer the only choice. Ho hum. Separately, how do we source the tiny international numbers, as shown on the cab side of 6455 above? Not a problem if you model a slightly earlier period.

Jon, Apologies for the hijack, if you'd rather I moved the last two posts to my own thread, just let me know. Cheers Jon

And it looks like I'll need to source a pair of DBAG logos too, since one of my two has had a partial repaint it seems: NS, 6455 by Chris GBNL, on Flickr

That's useful to know. If you fancy a change from red, I remembered that AngusDe put this great looking loco in my Dutch thread. What's more, it looks like a pretty close match to the Liliput model: 2013-10-12 10.52.46 by gus200angus1959, on Flickr As a leaser it could be justified most places - the pic was taken in Gutersloh

Hadn't realised you were coming to Newcastle Ian. Will have to try and get down to it now, can't miss the chance to see this, and shoot the breeze about So-Cal modelling, European distractions and UK modern N! The only difference is that you produce superb layouts for all your different interests, whilst I just procrastinate

One possible treatment showing what I have in mind - coal loader on dockside as view block for fiddle yard: VR-203-1+TXL-kolen_Awhv_27052013-2 by Dennis Koster, on Flickr The loader itself could be a simpler design, like this: DBS 6520 at Amsterdam Westhavens, March 6, 2011 by cklx, on Flickr

Al (Barry Ten) may have inadvertently kick started my mojo. He mentioned in another thread doing a Dutch version of Cogirep, and the little lightbulb in my head went on. A mirror image of Cogirep transposed to my Dutch dockside would work well. The 4ft by 18" approximate dimensions would fit across the back seat of the car (just, I've tried a four foot long board tonight to be sure). I think Al extended the Fiddle yard on Cogirep, and the boot of the car would allow for another three feet of Fiddle yard. At present I'm thinking of making the front of that board a scenic continuation of the quayside, backed by a pair of Walthers Bud's trucking kits bashed into one long building, with a single line (the equivalent of the front left line on Cogirep) running between it and the dockside. Alternatively, it could a coal loader, although I'm undecided whether to have that along the back road instead.

I love the idea of a Dutch branch of Cogirep! i do so love that layout, especially (and I know I'm repeating myself) the backscene.

I was dreading that question! No, this has sat without progress, partly through my failure to pick a final design I like, and partly because I have been distracted by other ideas, (North & west route in 4mm, East Anglian blue diesels in EM, Zillertalbahn in HOe etc!) it may well get resurrected but I need a spark of inspiration for a final design which is currently lacking.

I've not seen any advertised but Dutch_Master might know of a source?

Hi Jon, The liliput ones are of a shorter prototype, really one of the industrial series. I'm not sure if they represent any precise prototype - unlike the Rocky Rails and Piko examples (the Piko one appears in inappropriate liveries, but is a real loco.) My best guess for the Liliput is a German industrial.

If ever an excuse was needed for some colourful interwar petrol cans, or military surplus "flimsies" (not jerry cans please, they were a WW2 invention in Allied service), then this sounds like it. If there is insufficient space to stack some on board, how about a dedicated open wagon/tender rather like a Scottish pug? After all, the steamers must have paused for water along the line, why not allow the Baldwin a moment for refreshment as well? Cheers Jon

That's roughly what I did on the 8750 - a strip of etch waste either side which clipped under the shoulders.

That's what I suspected. The CFL Nohabs look rather smart! However thanks for the suggested locations, I'll go search. I think the peco code 83 us points have shallow flangeways which allow RP25 wheels to run on the edge of the flange, thus avoiding drop in with RP25-88 wheels, but it means the marginally deeper flanges on NEM stock climb up. This isn't a problem with regular streamline, either code 75 or 100, where it seems the flangeways are deeper. B2B and flange widths don't seem to be a problem. I guess Tillig would be a solution, but I think I'll probably stick to code 75. Coming along nicely. (Edited for stupid autoincorrect)

Needs more than just a rating, lovely work, and lovely to see this old station brought back to life.

Did some experimenting, haven't got hold of any wagon wheels yet, but whereas Roco older wheels ride up in the shallow flange ways of Peco code 83, the wheels on my Rocky Rail MaK don't appear to. Code 75 avoids the problem, but I quite like the heavy look of code 83 for main lines. As mentioned elsewhere I seem to have acquired a Lint 41, in the Danish Arriva livery. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm toying with the thought that I might build a generic Nord See facing layout, that might suit my Dutch, German and Any future Danish stock. Is there any wagonload freight left in Denmark now, or is it all DBS through haul? Ponder, ponder...

Chapeau! Looks good, hopefully I can get down to North Shields (some hours south of here!) in a couple of weeks and see it for real.

Please forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but C&L chairs are only designed for bullhead rail. The different profile of flatbottom, means they will not fit, and will be severely weakend if the wider flat bottom rail base is forced through the chair. For flat bottom rail, an easy, (if slightly over scale) solution is to use Peco's individulay pandrol clips. These are plastic and are threaded onto the rail in the same way as the chairs, but are designed for flatbottom rail (code 82 iirc). For a more true scale appearance Colin Craig is the man to search for, making scale parts in brass. Sorry for going off topic, and I hope I don't cause offence, but it struck me that perhaps you were unaware of the mismatch.

It certainly looks darker in today's shots. The Kleer has done a good job on the carriage sides, are you using the original or one of the pledge replacements?

Iain, the buffet looks good. I would suggest the 42ft van looks a little muddy, whereas steam age stock IMHO tended to have a darker hue than today, probably a result of all the soot. Try adding some gunmetal or german grey to your mix and applying from the top downwards? But please don't be offended, I think these are excellent and will only go to enhance the overall view.

And it does have the advantage of giving neat round numbers for single/double track endplate widths, eg 450/500mm in £freemo. If we all end up modelling the great way round the wider spacing won't look out of place anyway (removes tongue from cheek).

Although I agree with Dutch_Master that Felix's proposal will probably get up the nose of many of us little Britishers, actually there is some merit to much of what he writes. Nonetheless, I would suggest that if the €fremo group want to be taken seriously they stop telling Andy what to do, and instead trust to his (and the wider Rmweb world's) judgement. (You'll note that although the £freemo group have a significant interest their posts have been largely reactive and not promoting a particular standard.) I would suggest personally using a narrower end plate than Felix's proposal for single track. 18"/45cm would work perfectly well. Also, once any interested parties start building, issues may arise and will be dealt with, I accept €fremo may have come across these themselves but grant us the leisure to make and fix our own mistakes. Any standard needs to be a living article, maintained and modified as conditions and experience dictates. I agree with all the various voices that caution against insistence on one commercial end plate, make the standard simple enough to build oneself. Having said that, I think there is a strong market for commercial endplates, and have contemplated something in that line for the £freemo standard. However, I think an open source standard is important, it's the up to commercial suppliers to produce something which matches the standard - if it's good value it will sell.

To my mind it matches similar views taken looking "offshore" from the quay towards the Nothe, with the tanker being one of the bunkering workings for the ferries.

I actually think this is one of the easier things to sort out for a UK set up, since the traditional wagon label seems to me to be an obvious shoe-in to operate on a car-card routing system. One could even attempt a timetable overlay for passenger once the modules for a particular meet were known.