Anglian

I get confused when you have a person's name ending in an s. So if you wanted to write Giles' train is it correct to have the apostrophe where I've put it? What happens if two friends both called Giles each had a part share of a locomotive?

Somebody could always do Billy Smart's Circus wagons. My Father can remember them loading at Ascot station.

I have a total fascination for railways photographed in the snow. Thanks for posting these images and video links.

First I'd have a look in your local art shop. I'd recommend Rocket card and paper glue, the stuff is amazing. It's like super glue for card and grabs very quickly. Being a very thin glue it's perfect for bonding sheets of card to make thicker pieces. I use quite a lot of thin corrugated card from food packaging. I like the varieties that have a glossy outer surface. The material is very stable, strong and resistant to warping when glued. I often cut the corrugated back away from the very edge of one piece when making a corner join. I leave the glossy side facing outwards. I can get totally perfect corner joins this way. I then add Daz clay, glued on with PVA, and scribe stonework into this. Where there are window and door opening I push the Daz into the corrugation to hide it at the raw cut edges.

That's both a work of art and fascinating.

Yes very much so. There is also another system where the taller levers have locking catches and subsequently look like the real thing. I believe they come in kit form. Having a model signal box with all the correct point locks that have to be pulled off before the points can be changed would be great stuff.

Lever frames with full mechanical interlocking is one of my model railway holy grails and it's the point to me where operating the model comes closest to mimicking the real thing. In Denny's Buckingham Branch Lines part 2 there is a passage in which he explains how he can operate the layout solo using the Automatic Crispin. He describes running the next few trains on the timetable before bed, such is his evocation of the experience that I felt as if I was quietly watching. Wonderful stuff.

With the owner's permission, of course, might it be possible for you to share these images. I for one would love to see them.

Seeing Tony's newly built B16 and its train has prompted a question: I'm too young to remember main line steam but I seem to recall reading in a David Jenkinson piece that special loads would usually be placed behind the tender or in front of the brake van so they could be monitored. So in this instance should the sheeted load on the flat wagon be at one or other end of the train? What rules tended to apply to this type of situation?

How does tyre temperature effect the reading of the speedometer or is there no change in the rolling radius as the tyre pressure increases as they warm up?

I don't have a smart phone. I can't even find my clockwork mobile at the moment.

Your black and white images look absolutely stunning. Like Harlequin I like the sunset! As I first scrolled down I thought I was about to reveal a Turneresque backscene.

Many thanks for creating this list, it must have taken days and days. However many days it's appreciated. I've placed my votes (about a dozen) and have only voted for items that I would definitely pre-order today, were that possible.

These latest images look perfectly exposed.

Well Done!

Excellent news. I shall be ordering the SECR (as built) version.

Can you tell me a bit more about Manchester EM – it sounds interesting.

Thanks for your advice. I follow a rigorous cleaning and importantly degreasing procedure. The problem I've had spraying in cold weather is not due to the lack of prep work but that the paint doesn't go on fine enough and can pool in recesses. In warm weather it seems to atomise more effectively and thus goes down as a thinner layer. Have I got to warm up the paint and the model?

Whilst I agree with most of what you've written Bachmann have already given us what are presumably reasonably accurate coaching stock for the SECR. These models have clearly been successful for Bachmann as they about to release them in another SECR livery. I believe they also offer them in N gauge. I understand that Dapol are working on 7mm LBSC coaches that are expected to be also made available in 4mm, in the future. My view is that the Hatton's coaches will satisfy one part of the market whilst others will always want to built the most accurate models possible. However, that fact that this pre-group stock is being made at all surely suggests that more will follow. For those of us interested in the pre-group era that has to be an interesting development as it gives us a useful leg-up without having to built everything, as was the case not that many years ago. The Hatton's coaches may therefore serve as 'placeholders' for many. Surely that is the case with many RTR models as standards generally improve and older models are replaced in the RTR makers' ranges and on layouts.

May I ask a simple question for those who make and paint metal kits, be they brass or white metal. Do you prime completed models and how do you go about doing it during the winter months. The spray primers I use in the summer need at least 16 C and less than 60% humidity to work. Right now the only solution I can find is to clear my porch and set up a temporary bench in there, then heat the space and dehumidify it before spray priming and opening the door to vent it. However, it's not an ideal situation. Are there etch primers that I can apply by brush? I guess I could use enamel but it's not really a primer more an undercoat and thus won't make really good bold. What do you do in the winter months?

I've just noticed that the signal spectacle plates are lamp lit – lovely detail.

A very Happy Birthday!

Greig has modelled some of the best water that I've seen.

I agree. On my screen the second shot looks excellent. The locomotive particularly looks bathed in natural light.

Weren't most British WW2 warships painted in Camouflage as depicted by HMS Belfast in preservation? As for the new carrier, they should have called it Ark Royal and fitted it with catapults so they could have bought the more useful version of the F35 that can carry a decent weapon load. It'll be reliant on the US Navy for protection if it ever sees combat. Sorry back to trains. (My excuse, son of naval officer FAA who served in Ark Royal.)