Adrian

If you want to avoid the ebay hassle and fees then a popular site for listing engineering kit is www.homeworkshop.org.uk .

Rather than a pragmatic view I would suggest it was a rather optimistic view. In a similar way it happens in the housing market there is often a marked difference in the sellers valuation of their property value and a prospective purchaser's idea of the value. Maybe you can strike lucky with finding the one person for whom the property fits and is willing to pay the price for it, but more often than not the seller has to reduce their expectation to secure a sale.

Unfortunately IMHO the value of the unsold kits is entirely dependant on which kits are still in stock, I suspect they are the ones he can't sell so £250 is optimistic if he can't sell them then they are worthless. As for the built models on the stand, I'm sorry but £500 each is having a joke. The last time I saw the models on the stand at York then half of them weren't even finished or needed some serious work on them. Unfortunately show costs are very expensive and if you are not making a return on them then yes he has to look at the return on the investment. Again IMHO the artwork and masters for the Pete Stamper designed kits may be worth sensible investment, but the rest I wouldn't lose any sleep over.

There was a good article in the British Railway Journal about the branch, Issue 42, summer 92. The author was the aforementioned John Farline. http://www.steamindex.com/brj/brj5.htm

It's looking good. Unfortunately many of the milled ones on sale are done with an end mill so there is no fluting at the ends. Also unfortunately the best way for fluted rods is to machine them on a horizontal mill, or a lathe with a vertical slide. I've machined fluted rods by putting a small woodruff cutter in a lathe chuck, clamped the rods to the vertical slide and machined in the flutes. The other good thing with this method is that you can use steel so the rods are the correct colour as well!

Yes the steel production is interesting. According to shapeways Steel is printed by depositing a liquid binder onto a bed of steel powder one layer at a time. The product is then removed from the printer and infused with bronze. While the product is being transferred from the printer to the infusion chamber, it exists in a delicate "green state" So you end up with approx 70% steel powder "glued" together with 30% bronze.

That is an option Shapeways is currently testing. http://www.shapeways.com/materials/wax

Could you use a grey card in front of the camera to set the focus point whilst partially depressing the shutter, then remove the grey card before taking the shot? So you could move the focussing point without moving the camera between shots. I presume the exposure is set on the partial depress hence the suggestion of grey card rather than white.

Very neat work - one suggestion if I may. What about cutting a couple of holes in the end plates to act as carrying handles.

A depiction of the ECML from King Cross to Leeds Central in 7mm which occupies a whole school building redefines large to me.

Looks like Farleton Fell to me.

I'd be reluctant to use creosote being a potential fire risk, especially if you're putting it under layout lighting. Like the other suggestions I'd use wood dye, I've used Rustins rather the Colron but the same thing really. Also I'd suggest the ebony colour for a nice dark sleeper colour, £2.50 from my local timber merchant.

I'd have "guessed" at them being on the inside just because they'll be easier to hit when you are swinging the hammer and also easier to spot when one has fallen out.

John S Gibb is one of my favourites, a pencil artist but the tones and textures he creates are superb. Some of the little cameos of passengers at stations are brilliantly observed. I've a couple of his non-railway paintings because I loved the way he drew the figures.

Blimey if a quarter of a thou is in the same ball park I shudder to think what a gnats whisker would be for you.

25.47mm or thereabouts!

Plenty of prototype examples - quite a few of them steam locos. A lap joint requiring a double row of rivets will often be laid out like this, http://www.flickr.com/photos/faversham-gallery/8478655478/ The Tony Reynalds rivet design, developed from Beesons, was being produced and updated by Lee Marsh - this was from his website a couple of years ago. From http://www.modelmaker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ I had enquired about getting one but never heard anything since - unfortunately he seems to have got side tracked on to small batch building of locos.

Of course it was written in invisible ink that's why I chose to respond! However my issue wasn't with that single word but the fact that you said and I quote "allegedly the fire department failed". The comment that they failed to do something is implying a dereliction of duty. Given the tragic loss of life in this accident I don't think it is appropriate to be casting such aspertions, especially when there were reports to the contrary. Hence my suggestion about restraint. Neither am I going to be vexed by petty insinuations as this is not the time nor the place for it.

Although other reports say So casting aspersions about who did or didn't act correctly are probably best avoided at this time until the TSB investigation has been completed.

Hi, impressive stuff as usual however like Ozzy has mentioned the positioning of the pillars do look a little odd. This was the best square on photo I could find of the right hand side. Although you can't see the track openings the support pillar here does appear to be directly under the windows. Which appears to be different to your version, if the pillar on the model was moved to under the windows then the remaining ones would fit in what I see as their more natural position.

According to the website it was more for defence planning - but the origins as you say are from the Board of Ordnance (Ministry of Defence)

No problem glad to help - have a look at the website I linked to, which has a few more interesting photos, with photographs of the old and new greyhound bridge. It also has a link to a booklet about the conversion of the greyhound bridge from rail to road - with a before and after photo and cross sectional drawing. http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/historichighways/allpurpose/greyhoundbridge.pdf

As you say it is coming along nicely, I can see how the bridge is blending into the back scene so you should see one bridge from either side. In having a quick look to see how the prototype looked I came across this curious photo, unfortunately it seems to be the other side of the river otherwise it would have made an interesting cameo. Without further adieu - from http://fortonservices.webs.com/localinterest.htm

That back scene seems to be a work of art by itself. Very impressive.

My better half just found this bargain in WHS