37114

I too mourn the loss of the large estate, I believe Skoda Superbs are still available as well. I luckily managed to buy one of the last Mondeo 2.0 diesels which was new in Jan 2021 and will be kept for a long time...

Great job by the guys on this one, nice to see the proper silver headcode glass retainer as well.

I look forward to seeing that, I had 37010 and 042 on a railtour from. Bristol to Crewe in 1995, was a great day and had a soft spot for the pair afterwards. On the way back they got an absolute trashing down the Lickey Bank, my old man who was with me opened up some years later it was the only time he had been on a train and genuinely thought it was going to derail.

I think the latest incident is an ex Lothian bus operated by another operator rather than still owned by Lothian?

I think they already had cut down some 08's by then to replace the 03's? I understand a loco had failed and 08898 was sent down the branch in error to rescue it with none of the staff involved realising that a non cut down loco had been allocated..

Good effort with these, the adverts do a good job of hiding g a lot of the join

Agree, apparently he has/had 5 x FP1 sessions lined up for Haas this season anyway which is in excess of the normal mandatory 2 sessions for new drivers so there is definitely a desire by Ferrari to get him a seat for 2025 in the Haas. That gives him 2 years to get some experience before Hamilton potentially retires at the end of 2027

The end is near on the project now; I unmasked the trailer this morning having painted the roof and the rubber strip that seals the top of the curtains. The curtain buckles were hand painted which wasn't easy but they are not easily masked. Then it was onto applying the transfers: I only had a 3/4 nearside view of the trailer so the position of the transfers on the rear and offside are pure guesswork. The big transfers are some of the biggest I have ever applied but they went on fine. For the offside I applied the transfer in broadly the same place. I had wondered if the logo might be at the rear of the curtain but all pictures of other EVC lorries I could find had the logos at the same place I.e. both sides at the front or both sides at the rear. For the rear I used the same transfer as the trailer front but cut between the "m" and "p" to miss the door rubber. So the last jobs left are to fit the airlines, 5th wheel release handle, Varnish the trailer and some light weathering. Oh and build a layout for it to go on...

Good point, how could I forget??! will add!

Christian Horner will be relieved that the journos now have something else to talk about even though he would wish no ill on Sainz..

Blimey! Talk about pressure. Good luck to the lad, great to see another brit on the grid.

Nice story/momento I think there were still plenty of politics then, I just didn't get the air time as social media and the Internet didn't exist/wasn't widely used so the limited air time was invested in racing.

Agree with you Jim, that looks well dodgy..

The body roll was bad on those in the standard poverty British Telecom spec, hate to think what that one must be like!

Milestone day today; The tractor unit is back in one piece(ish)! I painted the inside of the cab before I put the transfers on so it was a straightforward job to put it all back together. First job was to glue the wing mirrors on and the air filter. The airfilter is mostly scratchbuilt and was unique to firescreen fitted vehicles. The glazing (including windscreen with its tax disc and o Licence transfer) was refitted quite easily. The wipers were refitted but were swapped from left hand Drive to right hand Drive; in essence this was achieved by fitting them back to front. The bumper and headlights were then refitted. From the otherside The last bits to do is fitting of the airlines (I need to check which ones go where as it ages since I coupled a unit and trailer) and some weathering With the tractor unit done I will crack on with the last bits on the trailer.

Hi, welcome to O gauge. Short answer - Generally ok. They have a high current draw so you need an o gauge controller (Gaugemaster do one) to provide enough Amps for some of the bigger locos, likewise DCC you will need O gauge suitable chips. If you are only pulling short trains or have a shed layout you can remove a motor which tends to bring the current draw below 1 amp so can still use a wider range of controllers/chips; I did this so I can use a Gaugemaster feedback controller which gives amazing slow speed control for shunting and I am really pleased with how my Heljan locos now run. Historically some of the locos suffered split gears but replacements are available and later locos had this fixed(circa 2017 onwards I recall). Gaugemaster stock spares and have been great in my experience when I have needed bits for a Hymek and a class 60.

Motorsport.com have this article which has an interesting slant on the situation at RedBull https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/could-red-bull-civil-war-really-trigger-shock-verstappen-f1-switch-to-mercedes/10582738/

Thanks Jo, Good shout re the coats. At the moment the workbench in the garage has some house bits being painted but as soon as they are out the way I will Varnish it.

Thanks Al. I was thinking of going for 37032 which is a straightforward renumber of 008.

Hi Al, looks good, what do you use to remove the crud please? I am tempted by Heljans model of 37008 but the images I have seen show the weathering is awful and needs to come off and don't really want to get into full respray territory. Ta

I had to abort my planned early morning cycle ride as the roads were too icy and the bike shed padlock was frozen so used the time to crack on with the transfers for the unit. I am really pleased how they have turned out and the grille is a great representation. Jo gave me 3 different versions as the plastic on the grilles lightened over time, I went for the lightest one which showed the detail the most strongly. As an aside while fitting the transfers I noticed that the prototype unit only had the Strato badge on the offside (drivers) door so followed suit. Next job is to Varnish it and get the unit back in one piece. The trailer is still being painted but hopefully will be not far behind.

Thanks that is handy to know!

Wow, that is an impressive fleet!

That is what I thought as well when I looked at Google maps

Just out of curiosity, how has it been removed? Presume dismantled on site via gas axe etc but presume it needed some sort of access to do so/remove the scrap?