Anglian

I'm sure you're right.

And this is part of the problem with TT where 12mm or 14.2mm are the current popular options but the happy medium (EM equivalent) of 13.5mm is very rare and such a choice might preclude existing 3mm modellers from fully supporting the range. RTR TT is fraught with difficult choices. I think they'd more likely adopt 12mm even though it's even more of an anachronism than OO.

Great images – all look perfectly exposed/captured. I particularly like the last image.

I suppose one of the selling points would be that for the first time it would be possible to buy British outline R-T-R with a true scale to gauge relationship, if they went for 14.2mm. I'd absolutely be all over it but sadly can't see it ever happening.

I think Dunsignalling hits the nail squarely on the head – what is TT? This has been discussed elsewhere before but it remains a difficult decision. I would favour following the established UK scale but using the 3mm equivalent of EM so a track gauge of 13.5mm but this is probably the least compatible of all options for the vast majority of existing TT modellers of British layouts. The other big issue would be should they start with a steam or diesel locomotive? Currently I don't have any layout but if they offered a steam loco I'd probably buy it whatever era or company and design a small layout around it as I like the scale so much. I think they could launch a range with one loco, a couple of coaches and four or five wagons but only if they committed to expanding rapidly. I imagine they could scale down 4mm CAD so much of the design work would have already been done.

Vector artwork is created in design software such as Adobe Illustrator. It is not pixel based so can be scaled to any size whilst remaining pin sharp. Reproducing the logo without permission is a breech of copyright, even on a model, so that's your call. Presumably you have all the necessary reference materials to create the vector artwork from. If not, that's the first thing you need to do. Depending on who you choose to finally print the decals and the system they use will have a bearing on exactly how they want the artwork set up. No two suppliers that I've used have the same technical requirements.

I buy the occasional issue of MRJ if there's an article I particularly want.

Buy another, that will almost certainly reveal the hiding place of the lost one.

Ah that's a shame I was going to buy the LSWR one but how did they ever get this wrong?

I use Photoshop professionally and always avoid saving using the Jpeg format. I always work with tiffs or psd files to maintain quality. Due to the nature of the work I do I might be working on an image file all day saving it every few minutes. Repeated saving using the Jpeg format does slowly degrade the image. You probably won't notice with a couple of 'saves' but over a long retouching session, the results of which are then printed, this can be a problem. I first became aware of this when viewing a 'wet proof' of various tweaked versions of the same image. A bit of research and a chat with the printer saw me ditch Jpeg format. The only benefit of Jpeg files is the relatively small file size, when transferring files electronically.

Beside cost you might want to consider quality. I've painted Monty's, Modelu and many converted Airfix figures and enjoy painting them in that order. However, I think the Modelu figures possibly give the very best result with Monty's coming a very, very close second. Monty's are a bit easier to paint than Modelu as the detail is a bit sharper. Of course it depends what style you want to paint them in as to what is most appropriate. In an open cab it's worth using the best figures available.

The Gresley A4 – if the magazine article published around the time of the Great Gathering at York is truthful. The article commented on a presentation at York when crews of the A4s spoke of their experiences of running fast to catch up lost time. The official BR documents were produced that showed the timings between signal boxes and the records of the reprimands dished out the the crews responsible. The speeds quoted were quite incredible if the facts presented are true. Can anybody confirm?

Just an idle comment – in car terms a chassis is just that. Add suspension and wheels and it becomes a rolling chassis. The engine and gearbox can be aded to the chassis but they're not an integral part of it. I do laugh when reviewers of modern cars make statements like 'the chassis could take more power.' These modern cars don't have a chassis at all but are typically built with sub-frames bolted to the floor-pan.

Tony, Do you have a duplicate of this external drive as a back-up? If not you must. That's the strongest language I'm ever going to use here (!) but hard-drives can and do fail so it's vital this isn't your only copy. Now drives are going over to solid state designs this is less likely to happen but the older spinning disc type drive they can wear out. I lost one such drive that stopped working but had a close duplicate and lost very little. If you buy a second drive you don't need to worry as it can be set-up to automatically back-up for you. This process can be automated on the Mac using TimeMachine. I imagine there is a similar system on the PC so you don't have to use a remote server (Cloud) for back-up.

I grew up in an Elizabethan cottage with no central heating. If I lay in bed at the right angle I could see the night sky where the lathe and plaster had slightly shrunk back from the beams. I used to get dressed under a blanket and yes there was often ice on the inside of the windows. It must have been brutally cold when there was no glass and only wooden shutters, sliding in channels to keep the weather out. To this day I hate stuffy rooms and generally have reasonably good resistance to feeling the cold. Mind you one year at the St Albans exhibition I think it was about -7 or something in the afternoon and that was really bitter.

I use a digital back-up similar to that which Bucoop details but in my case using TimeMachine on the Mac. I don't quite have the same degree of protection built in against hard-drive failure but I have three versions of everything and one of those versions is on my person all the time I'm out. I did have a hard drive fail, which has now be replaced with a faster solid state version. My back-up runs every hour so I didn't loose much work. My applications are via the Adobe Cloud so the rebuild was relatively quick. To pick up on a point made by t-b-g – my first really meaningful exposure to steam was at the Bluebell railway and it was the pre-group liveries of locos, stock and one station that most appealed. (The diesel powered BR Blue of my youth had no appeal at all to me.) For many years I wanted to model the Midland through the peaks as I had walked some of the old track bed aged eight. However, in the end it those elegant and colourful Bluebell locomotives that really caught my imagination.

If there is a concern about losing digitally captured images perhaps it would be worth having prints made, having first checked the expected lifespan. Invest in some acid-free archival boxes and store them for posterity. (I'm having some slides my father took in the 1950's scanned and thus converted to digital. I'll have prints made and also store them digitally.)

I'm patiently waiting for the Radial to appear in the late LSWR livery.

Harlequin's design looks very good to me but I'd be tempted to put it all on a curve, if possible. It'll make it look longer and possibly marginally more interesting. I think it would be worth at least having a look at Helston – it might inspire you.

Every year I suggest the same thing. One day I'll be right – one of the big Southern tanks like the G16, H16 or the Z class although I'd love to see the LBSC L Class – Remembrance. The Z class would make sense as it introduces a new wheel arrangement to their range.

As noted above the Class 68 names have been used as warship names, even though they lack the defining HMS prefix.

The figure I had been told was about £10,000 for a set of tools about 18" square. What I'm suggesting is that a small detail be added to a space on an existing tool, since we know that they can altered. One of my other modelling hobbies uses the same production technique and manufacturers have become expert in including all sorts of small extra details to their tooling. With planning this makes for the very best use of the space available to them whilst enabling a significant range of options to be covered. I've never tried but how easy is it to remove a large dome from an existing 4mm R-T-R product? I'd rather like to replace the pseudo-brass painted dome on a Bachmann C Class with a better item that actually looks like polished metal rather than matt finished painted plastic.

Clive, Many thanks. I've found the relevant thread and am kind of relieved to discover it's out of period for me. I still think it's a fabulous piece, of course at a price. I very much like your version.

Tony, Excuse my lack of knowledge – I'm presuming all the railway companies had their own designs or did they buy the same design from one builder? If the former – which company is this Bachmann crane correct for or is this purely a BR design? With regarded to the dome on the 1P could they not add a flat top dome to one of the existing tools? I'm presuming these are stainless steel tools and that there would be space to add a small detail like this so they have it available in their 'kit of parts'.

The mention of street names brings one local to me, to mind. A new development build on a wartime airfield features RAF aircraft related street names – Lancaster, Mosquito, Lysander and so on. One road is called Sterling Way which always makes me laugh.