Karhedron

I will second that. Some N gauge stuff would be very nice, particularly those chimney pots for improving the Metcalf kits.

Hi Ben, I like the look of this idea and would be interested in trying them out. I quite like the look with a bit of black drawn on top. If it is possible, could you do a photo showing the couplings with this done on a scenic layout please? Ideally close up and how a rake looks from normal viewing distance.

Just been having a look at some other prototype examples and the slope could be pretty severe as in the example at Redhill. http://www.davidheyscollection.com/userimages/00001-A-McClymont-31622-redhill.jpg If you want a functional incline, find you best shunter and experiment to find out the steepest it can propel 2-3 wagons up without slipping. If it is cosmetic then you can go steeper if necessary.

Beautifully filthy Warships, did you weather them yourself?

Carl's Vale of Oxbury has a curved-straight-curved backscene and it looks pretty good. http://www.flickr.com/photos/simage61/9702160961/

Quite impressed by the loft conversion. We have a 1930s semi and the loft looks very similar to yours. Maybe I should consider the benefits of movng the railway upstairs.

Hi Dave, When making suggestions, do models that can be produced in more than one scale have an advantage from your point of view? I am thinking of models like the GWR 4200s which Hornby do in 00 but which are unlikely in N gauge.

The locomotech motorising kit looks a lot better than the kits with flimsy plastic gears that crop up on eBay. The description implies that needs around 5" of space under baseboard for mounting which is a significant depth. Has OEC been designed with this mind?

Is there any chance of this appearing in N gauge as well? I would quite like to get my hands on one.

Might have been a 6400 there as well. About a dozen 4575 small prairies were also fitted with auto-gear for working the valleys trains in the early 50s so that would be the other possibility.

The term B-set normally refers to the 2 coach train of 2 brake compos. The 4-coach trains were sometimes known as D-sets in some divisions but not all. Sadly the coaches needed for other GWR suburban rakes are not available RTR in N gauge. Bernie Taylor at TPM was planning some overlays to convert the Dapol B-sets into the other suburban diagrams but I do not know if or when they are likely to be released. Yes, that is an easier option if you prefer to stick to RTR. Farish are planning to release both the 6400 class of auto-fitted pannier tanks. They are also releasing the Hawksworth pattern auto-coaches but these are BR-era vehicles. For the 1930s you would probably need to pair this with the Dapol auto-coaches which are the earlier Collett pattern vehicles. The auto-coaches would normally be marshalled with the cabs pointing away from the loco. Dapol have produced both the 1400 class auto-tank but it is oen of their older models and was normally used on branchline workings rather than the multiple autocoach suburban workings you seem to be interested in.

Fair enough, I understand now. I have just read through Great Western Way and it states in there that locos painted in wartime black had GWR on the tenders while G(crest)W was reserved for locos painted green. This suggests that the photo from the Journal was of a green loco (albeit unlined). The GWR has started repainting locos in full green livery in 1945 so the photo could have been of a fairly newly painted loco. I would have expected the post-war livery to be plain green with GWR on the tender (ala Granges and Manors) but I have not seen any photos of this. Perhaps they had plain green with G(crest)W? 4705 seems to have carried this.

Which photo are you looking at and what do you mean by express passenger livery? There is one shot of a 4700 with G(crest)W on the tender but there is no sign of lining that I can see and the loco could be green or wartime black. I don't think that any of the 4700s received lining until the 1950s.

Great news for both RMWeb and DJModels. Might hold out for an N gauge version though.

Was it a money saving exercise or the translation from metric to imperial that caused the problems? I have also read that the D600s/6300s were not as unreliable as popularly believed and no worse than many of the other early classes of diesel. As Baby Deltic points out, lack of availability of spare parts was a big problem. Another anecdote I have heard was that over-optimism on the part of the WR led them roster many of the diesel-hydraulics on more intensive diagrams than diesel-electrics on other regions which exacerbated the problems. I think that decision to kill-off the hydraulics as non-standard was fait-accompli and the NBL locos were simply first in the firing line. I suspect their reputations for reliability were tarnished wherever possible to help justify the decision.

Polls can be very useful but also prescriptive. Dave is starting a new venture which means he is relatively free to chart his own course. A little blue-sky thinking might yield one or two unexpected ideas. Besides, I am sure Dave has been a member of this Forum long enough to know what happens on wishlist threads. This one serves the dual purpose of collecting ideas and also avoiding his product-specific threads from getting blown off-topic by related wishlisting.

Perhaps. But if Farish can squeeze a DCC socket into an Ivatt 2MT then I think that still leaves plenty of scope for small-medium locos. A Dean Goods might be a challenge but even that is not a lot smaller than a 2MT.

Going in the opposite direction, an N gauge O2 would be very nice too.

Given the current yen for pioneer diesels, I would like to see an N gauge version of Falcon. Interesting liveries, reasonably long life and it got around a bit during test runs. The WR Gas Turbines would be great to see as well. These could be done in bot 00 gauge and N gauge as they have not been "bagged" yet.

Nothing like a blank wishlist to get fans going. I would love an N gauge D600 Warship. Hydraulic modellers have been spoiled slighlty in the last couple of years but getting the full set would be very nice. On the steam front, the big GWR 4700s were a handsome and unusual class. While not very numerous, interest is likely to rise in the next few years as the new build 4709 takes shape.

Not accurately. The grab rails above the headcode boxes are horizontal on the Dapol model. D6334 had the mounted vertically. See the image below. http://www.railblue.com/Pictures/In%20Depth/Copy_of_ChardMilk-D6334PD.jpg

That would be the simplest explanation. It looks like the late 20s-early 30s livery. Hard to believe that would still be in place on a top-link loco 15 years later.

Not sure about wartime black. I think they probably did but finding evidence from the war years is always going to be tricky. The only example of a Hall with GWR on the tender I can recall was one of the oil burning examples. There may have been others but I think G(crest)W was the norm. Interesting. I wonder if this could have been the Shirtbutton tender that ended up behind 8708 Cookham Manor. Pure speculation on my part but I doubt there were many shirtbutton tenders around at the end of WR steam.

I have had a look in "Power of the Granges" and sadly there are no pictures showing an identifiable shirtbutton Grange after WW2. Of course that is not to say there weren't any. As others have said, any Granges overhauled prior to 1942 would still have been green with shirtbuttons (and the final batch of Granges were only completed in 1939). It is likely that at least some survived with a Shirtbutton into the late 40s but the challenge will be finding photographic proof if you want to accurately model a particular loco.

It is a conversion kit made by TPM for converting a Dapol B-set coach into a K40 full-brake. TPM is is still on hold I think as some of Bernard's masters got damaged in a house move. It might be worth dropping him a line though in case he has one he can sell you.