Buhar

Can anyone suggest an aftermarket dome? I have MSC but need to fit a H&P/Dodo type. The Gibson Midland dome and Salters would have too sharp a curvature (and the balance arms sit too high). Alternatively, if someone has got a spare dome after altering their Peckett, I'm sure I could see you right for it.

or big and far away.

I have a pre-order with C&M for the LNWR version, but I think I might see if I can swap for LMS, authentic or not, I don't like that bright-work at all. Has the LMS one got Ross-pop or Tupsarse I wonder.

Andrew at Wizard/Comet sell it at exhibitions, but I don't think it's on their website. Might be worth dropping him an e-mail.

My MSC Peckett is due to become LMS 16043. It looks like the cab will need re-doing, slightly different cut out shape and a more substantial rear that extends over the buffer beam. I think the G&SWR version actually rides slightly higher. Over-laying photos, I think more of the wheel is visible under the running plate. That might solve the raised buffer beam issue but then create some problems around the cyclinders and motion bracket. I will then need to source the same sort of dome found on the other Pecketts (I chose MSC because the other two have an extra box on the running plate). I haven't got any work-space and only minimal tools to hand at the moment (a total house refurbishment is the main priority at the moment) but I think I have enough for this.

And bowlers at that time were as close as you got to PPE headgear.

That thar's a GW Wheel puller. You might shift a worm with it if you were lucky and it wasn't a tight fit. I don't know of a commercial gear puller, but something could be cobbled up on the same principle with steel U-angle, a tapped hole (or a fixed nut, maybe) and an opposing slot just over 2mm wide (or about 3.5mm if you wanted to remove gears from axles).

Have you been steaming open your Christmas crackers, Peanuts. The owl one is awful!

D-Limonene is a less aggressive, slower acting solvent that means you can get away without fume release holes. See Mike Trice's stuff on coach building. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104851-the-coronation-the-silhouette-mr-jenkinson-and-me

I well remember one of your early posts about the shelf Hornby provide at the top of their LMS tender frames, an issue that I am aware troubles you to this day. I was PM-ing someone about the topic and our exchange following your entry was on the lines of "who's this b*****r then?" followed by "he seems to know his stuff" followed by "he's actually spot-on!".

I do hope that Mr Mashima is aware of the debt of gratitude owed to him by thousands of railway modellers.

I have a question too, John, about the Dapol Stove R. Is the body, solebars and above, accurate or is it distorted to cope with the smaller wheels that were fitted?

For those without a job that provides such useful items, C&L supply Hot Tape - looks like the same stuff.

Hi Jason and others, I've just got my big toenail into Blender, but I thought, even with that minimal knowledge, a couple of observations may be useful. In File|User Preferences you can select the left mouse to click with, rather than the non-standard right. Blender is designed to be used with one hand on the mouse the other working the keyboard, so the keyboard short-cuts are a bit more fundamental to easy use of Blender than is the case with other programs. You can delete the camera and light if you're not heading towards animation which de-clutters the screen. You could even delete the initial cube and save as your startup file to get a blank slate each time. Work in large increments (few vertices) in the objects until you're closer to finishing and then smooth them with a modifier. Save and rename frequently. Ctl-Z is undo. Print a list of keyboard shortcuts. I edited one from the web so I created my own list as I learned/used them, the newest at the top, keeping the full list at the bottom of the document. The annoying thing is continually finding better ways of doing things but still having dead-ends stuck in my head. I've hardly used the toolbar so clicking t will hide it.

I must take issue with this. Tony, to pick a suitable example, is certainly a modeller and he makes a choice about the level of detail in line with his view of what is required on a layout model. If the objective is to get pleasure from a fully detailed build, then your approach is fine. It may take 200 hours rather than perhaps 20, but that's your choice about what matters to you. If you want to populate a large layout with stock (I a way that goes beyond opening a box) then time per item becomes an issue due to things like death and shopping that might be constraints. Additionally, there is the question of visual balance, trying to get your creations to look as if they fit together. An old Wills kit, even with added super-detail (in the 80s this meant staples for lamp irons) will look incongruous next to a Bill B etched wagon. I like the compare to a photo approach, acknowledging that we don't have the benefit of deep shadows to hide deficiencies in our detailing below the running plate and other recessed areas.

6220 was blue originally, however it swapped identities with 6229 Hamilton between 1939-42 and for that period appeared as 6229, a crimson streamlined loco. There is a chance you may have seen 6229 masquerading as 6220 in crimson during pre-USA tour test runs. Coronation could again have been seen in blue between 1942-4 when it got the wartime all black livery.

Thanks Derek and Lez, I was hoping a new chassis, motor, gears, a lot of lead and a weighted tender would be the answer, but it would appear not. Hey-ho.

What did you do to the Ratio 4-4-0 to liven it up, Derek?

Heck of a gradient there, Les. Magnahesion fitted?

An SDS core drill is the answer for round holes in walls. Punches out really neatly.

Hi Derek, I'm really enjoying these sequences and the period evoked by them. Sometimes when you look at the turn for a crew, it seems quite easy, off shed, passenger to Kirkby Malham, wait 20 minutes, passenger to Leeds, etc for eight hours (or longer in 1908). It doesn't indicate the hard graft these men put in, trimming coal, wrestling with brake pipes and couplings, shovelling several tuns of coal, running around with lights, changing gear, topping up the water handling the big leather bags, pinning down brakes on a goods, and often in the pouring rain with one of Mr Johnson's awnings being the only protection. It would help, perhaps, if you could insert the pictures so the notes are captions to save me scrolling up and down as I read through.

Is the wine in a tanker or in barrels in an open?

The differences I was thinking of were actually at the sharp end. Particularly the cover between the frames below the smokebox and I think the saddles may be be different. For the sloping throatplate firebox ones the cab is fractionally bigger with the plating in front of the cabside window being larger. Jason has noted the changes to the cab door. If it's a domed boiler the regulator gubbins under a cover at the rear of the smokebox on the near side is not required. Also if your's is detailed as a Tilbury loco, it will probably have brackets for the destination boards. The Tilbury ones did get about a bit, including Saltley for a couple of them, but this was mostly in the war years.

This is a matter of the adoption by Stainer of the sloping throatplate firebox as opposed to the straight. On other locos such as the Jubilee this brought the boiler/firebox join forward on the loco, but with the 2-6-4Ts the firebox was lengthened in the cab are so the external profile was the same. These two types of boiler were not interchangeable because of differences in the frame. However domed boilers with a straight throatplate could replace boilers those with a topfeed only.If I recall correctly, there are differences at the blunt end between the Tilbury 2-6-4s and the 2 cylinder ones. My books are unfortunately not to hand.

The ROD can pop up in the LYR, LNWR and Caley lists with minor adjustments. Should OO works offerings be included, they are RTR although not widely available?