Karhedron

Just came back to this. Can you share a little more about your scenic work please? How you did the ground cover and the greenery? You have managed to capture the feeling of landscape in a very small space and I am eager to learn some tips.

I can see the mistake I have made now. Because the old maps showed a GWR station at South, I assumed that South station was before the GWR and SR lines parted company. A quick look at a modern map has cleared everything up for me. Shame really as the station itself has some potential I think. OK, I am open to suggestions from the floor. Can anyone suggest a compact prototype where GWR and SR rubbed shoulders. Ideally I would like to be able to run a Bulleid pacific + 3 coaches on the SR front and a Hall + 5 coaches from the GWR. Any ideas welcome.

I am struggling to reconcile these 2 statements. Does this mean that most GWR/WR services ran through South station without stopping?

It certainly would. Sadly I suspect I do not have the space for anything so ambitous, even in N gauge. Looking for a compact station that handled both WR and SR trains and had a bit of operational interest seems to be a tricky job. There are plenty of stations where the 2 met but most are places like Basingstoke and Exeter which are more suited to club layouts than a solo operation. The other options down in the deep south-west tend to be places that were too small to see "mainline" trains. I don't expect to run crack-expresses but I would like to be able to at least run a Hall+5 (or similar). The Southern is a bit more forgiving in this regard as the ACE could easily consist of a Bulleid Pacific + 3 once it had started shedding coaches. I have been suggested Launceston but I am not sure if the GWR ever ran anything bigger than a Mogul there. Also the 2 stations were separate (although I think a link was added during WW2). This means more space without adding much extra operational interest. More brainstorming required I think.

Thanks a lot. I had seen a similar map from pre-grouping era so it is nice to see how it looked just after nationalisation (the period I am considering). Thanks for the recommendation, I will see if I can track down a copy. One reason I still favouring south rather than west is the ability to run SR trains as well as GWR ones. I am a GWR man at heart but I have a soft spot for the southern and with both Dapol and Farish promising a range of new models to come, I would rather like somewhere that can support both.

I think that the Brewery is still there (the buildings at least). I think it is being turned into luxury flats or something like that. Hmm, on a curve, convenient scenic break just beyond the end of the platform. I can't find many pictures from the steam era though. Was there much source of operational interest or was it just for watching trains go by?

Please can anyone recommend good books/sites for photos and track plans of Dorchester South station from around Nationalisation until the end of Steam? It seems like an interesting station with both GWR and SR trains. There was a curved through portion of the station and a straight terminus section plus a big brewery for freight. Strikes me as a promising prototype.

Hi Dave, Just one thought, the top of the nose (under the cab windows) looks a bit squared off rather than a smooth curve. Is this just an artifact of the CAD? The first batch had a smooth curve in this area. I have tried to draw (badly) to show what I mean. If I have misunderstood the CAD then that is fine.

The 1st of April might be an apt date. Then you could string us along for a bit longer as to whether it is the real catalogue or not.

The one I have been hoping for desparately since you first announced the class 22. Pretty please?

Ooooo, heacode discs! Which style do you plan to put on the N gauge version?

Good question. For milk trains this was almost always a passenger brake van as these trains needed to un fast in order to get the milk to the bottling plants before it curdled.

Brilliant shot. Milk on the rails seems to have been an under-covered subject so more material is always welcome. I have one of Mr Robinson's books but I did not realise he was so polific online.

No shooting from here. Railway modelling inevitably involves a certain amount of compromise and compression. Nothing wrong with adding idealism to that. Plenty of steam-era layouts feature shiny "chocolate box" locos so why not diesels? If you like your stock fresh from the paint shops then run them that way. It's your layout after all.

True but I feel that modifying a RTR loco should be an option for those who want to model a different loco or variant. It should not be a requirement to correct any errors that should have been caught in the design phase. Dapol are working really hard to make this the most accurate model of the class possible and support their efforts both with my posts and with my custom. If a little extra effort at this stage can weed out members of the class that had unusual combinations of features then that is a good thing. I would never ask any manufacturer to spoon-feed us every model we might ever want. But I am gratified to see that such effort is being made to get the models that are being produced right. As for the underscale track, that is a historical quirk of british modelling but I don't feel it is a good idea to use it as an excuse to accept mistakes. Personally I bypass the problem by modelling in N gauge which at least has a scale/gauge combination that is close enough to the prototype for the discrepancy to be less obvious.

Normally Dapol decide based on photographs. However as has been shown on the class 22 thread, they are usually willing to listen to input on the subject. IIRC the running numbers were changed quite late in the day when extra information was provided about the liveries and details of certain class members. I suggest putting the information together into a an email or PM for DapolDave. Explain what the issues are with the proposed loco. If possible, suggest another member of the class which would be a better choice and provide photos if possible. Dave is very good at combing this thread for information but considering how large it is now, putting all the pertinent point together in a single message that he can easily refer to will probably make his life easier.

Well I have gone ahead and ordered Western Legionaire to keep Western Enterprise company. The effort that has gone into this looks truly remarkable. Time to put my money where my mouth is.

Nor I, although a certain Scouse establishment has them for £83 on pre-order.

Osbornes are doing it in N gauge for a more modest £112 http://www.osbornsmodels.com/nd-osb3-osborns-exclusive-Dapol-western-enterprise-d1000-desert-sand-livery-12625-p.asp As for Champion, I am a bit suprised that no one has snapped up that opportunity yet but I am sure it is only a matter of time.

I had already decided to switch to these as soon as the conversions became available. Looks like I will try some of the short-arm couplers too. I have an end-to-end layout so the tightest radius is 18". Hopefully a pair of shorts should bring the vehicles nice and close without buffers touching.

Fantastic news. You and Dapol deserve a big thanks from everyone on RMWeb for the way you have involved us (well, the experts among us) in the R&D. I am looking forward to the N gauge version being not far behind.

I used spray mount but I am not entirely satisfied with it. It sets fast meaning you have to position it right first time or your run a big risk of tearing it as you try to reposition it. I am sure anyone who has done this knows how hard it is to get large sheets of paper exactly level and lined up. Thanks for the view glue tip, I will try to remember that next time. (There's always a "next time" isn't there )

Hi Dave, Do you know if the NEM conversion kit will be suitable for non-bogie stock (wagons, milk tankers etc)? The reason I ask is that NGS has recently produced their NEM coupling pockets but apparently these are only suitable for bogie stock because they do not have any means of pivoting built into them. I do not quite understand the technicalities but I thought it worth asking about the forthcoming kit.

We have solar hot water and with a family of 4 we get good mileage out of it. We used no gas at all between may and september last year. It has knocked at least a third off our gas bills. At the price of gas when we installed them, that would give a 10-15 year payback time. Gas prices have gone up since then so you could argue that the payback time has come down but I have not done the maths. My parents have a 2.4 KW PV system which was installed under the old FIT. The system is working very well for them and they recon that with the latest increase in electricity prices the payback time is now under 10 years. Admittedly this is not likely to apply to anyone applying after the FIT change. When thinking about installing, you need to consider what you expect energy prices to do in the next 10-15 years. Personally I do not expect to see significant falls within that timeframe. The emerging economies are going to increase consumption of most types of fuel so prices will increase there. Nationwide investment in renewables is not yet sufficient to generate a significant percentage of our electricity at a stable cost. A new generation of nuclear reactors will require money which will ultimately come from us as customers. Research at ITER is not likely to yield profitable fusion reactors before the middle-part of the 21st century. In short, unless someone unexpectedly cracks zero-point energy or there is a near total-collapse in the world economy, energy prices are likely to continue to rise for the duration of the payback time of current solar technology. If someone cracks clean cheap energy within that time, fantastic as we no longer need to worry about energy prices, pollution or global warming. If the world economy collapses to the point that energy costs fall in real terms then the payback on roof panels is likely to be the least of our concerns.

The collective knowledge on this forum is impressive and I think you deserve kudos too for the open and constructive way you have engaged with us over the Western and class 22. How often in the past have we moaned about errors on models and wondered why manufacturers do not ask enthusiasts to help get the details right. It has been exciting to watch this crowd-sourcing operation in action and I hope Dapol benefits with improved sales as they well deserve. I wonder if other manufacturers are taking notes?