AMJ

I wish tocommend Dave upon his bravery to open up a wish list on here! Following on from the Ixion success I'd suggest a few more industrial locos. Manning Wardle L class - some were used on light railways such as Col Stephens - could be easy loco to do variations of cabs and wheels. Hudswell Clarke Canal class or even PLA The big Kitson 0-6-0ST as used at Corby all have welsh names - plenty survive Hunslet 0-6-0DH about 288HP classic industrial shunter. Fowler 0-4-0DH 120HP Many of these would be nice in 1:76 and 1:43 scales.

Yet some public don't even notice the difference between steam and diesel. Some Industrial diesels look similar to steam with big chimney and have known the public to think it's a steamer.

Looking good but I can't help thinking that one of the majors might do one RTR - or more correctly ready to roll. A motor less 4TC with DCC chip to control lighting and through wired could be quite an easy item for them to do. I remember a trip in a set from Cardiff with a 33 pushing us to the English south coast in 1988. So a 4TC could get to various parts and not just Southern region. A limited edition version for LT museum?

Yet they went the full function route with the BP! I bet there is a simple solution similar to the tweaks to tail lights on diesel locos. Will have a look when I have a chance.

Dad has had his L&Y Railway Society magazine arrive the other day saying they are going to be selling a batch of these in L&Y llined black as per 1008 @ NRM plus they are also doing some with an alternative number for the etched plate.

Some of the PKP electric locos had similar bodies as the 81's Many Austerity 0-6-0ST's ran in Europe with quite a few serving with NSB, SNCB, SNCF and various industrial concerns. How about the EE class 50 copies sent to Portugal with Iberian gauge. Sentinel exported many of it's shunters to different corners of the world. A fair number of standard designed locos from the various Leeds locomotive works were exported into every country with rail lines.

Many of you will have read about the closureof Wakefield Model & Craft Centre http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66111-wakefield-model-and-craft-centre/ A few years ago when I was a kid there used to be the Model Railway Supermarket in Bradford, think it might have been on the salubrious Lumb Lane. We could list the likes of Beatties shops but all of them were either taken over by others or closed.

This is another great Leeds loco, well done HJ. With the speculation about what else could be done there were quite a lot of 2-6-2T HE built locos supplied to Sierra Leone Government Rly. 85 is W&LLR 14 (HE 3815/1962). This is in black at present but has carried various other liveries.

For garden operation you will probably be able to pick up an ex trainset unit for a few pounds on an auction site. These are usually fed from a 16v AC supply but if you convert the electrics by by-passing the bridge rectifier and smoothing circuits you can then run it on a pure 12v DC. One friend uses a cheap ex Thomas The Tank Engine controller for his layouts so don't dismiss anything. This is a wireless controller with a base station so it might be ideal for conversion for use in the garden.

There are quite a few photographs in the usual History of Sentinel (part 2). William of this design ran for a few months at Middleton Railway many years ago and it is now at Elsecar. If you go to Elsecar and talk nicely to the chaps there they can show you the loco close up. You can then get an idea of the general layout. IIRC William has an internal bunker http://sentinel7109.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-sentinel-7109.html http://www.elsecarrailway.co.uk/william.htm

In the 1980's when I was at school I used to quite frequently get a call from a friend and we would then catch the Sheffield - Leeds stopper. This would happen when the classic DMU had a failure and they would drag it behind a Tinsley freight loco to Leeds in service. Had 20, 25, and other none heat locos on this type of train. Not 1 coach but usually a 2 car DMU + loco. The only sngle coach workings I have seen tended to be loco plus inspection saloon/route learning coach.

What a bad week. A Bachy 3F has just given me smoke from the decoder in the tender Found I have another cheapo 21 pin in a different loco only for same loco to give out more magic blue smoke. Took out chip put in blanking plate had to wander out to the garage to test on dad's DC layout. Hey presto blue smoke from the loco. Looks like loco on a trip to service centre! Glad I didn't put an expensive chip in to blow it up

Up and over doors are OK but best kept closed in the winter so as to keep in some resemblence of warmth in the garage. You might want to skin the brick walls with an insulation board if the walls are single thickness bricks. The coldest apperture is the door opening. An alternative that some have done is to get planning permission to remove the door and replace with a wall, window and a normal door. This tends to be classed as a "granny flat" type of conversion. If you build the layout in the garage ensure you have shelves above and below that are accessible and fit the requirements for your storage. You don't want to have to move something like the mowere each time you go to the finger poken yard. With adequate insulationyou will probably get away with a small heater to keep the chill off during the winter.

I think you'll find that MSC had 2 of these beasts. Both survive. 4001 & 4002. w/n D1075 & D1076 3 photos of 4002 exists when we borrowed it for the MSC gala the other year see Leeds Engine site below. 4001 exists at a garden centre.

There are a few drawings and photosof the locos on the Leeds Engine site (link below). See Hunslet History page and the Hunslet steam NG gallery. I have been to the replica twice and have a comment that it's a must visit for anyone in the area. Most of the NG books for Ireland have photos of various locations that could be interesting including bridges and level crossings!

Possible tweaks I suppose the addition of classic oil lamps for the tail light might be one to add (easily available to wire in) Silver on the handrails on the seats.

Logic would be that the GWML and MML both use the same design of new rolling stock. Perhaps these routes would be used as testbed for essentially a development of stock to replace the 91's which will be life expired at nearly 30 years of age by then.

Unless the local councils (South & West Yorkshire) electrify sections that are heavily used for commuter services between Sheffield, Doncaster and Leeds.

As MML have many of the trains serviced at Nevill Hill in Leeds it might be interesting to see if the plans include wires from Sheffield to say either Doncaster or up the Dearve Valley towards Wakefield. If they were to go for the electric power car as discussed above in the 222's then the wires north of Sheffield would not be needed. However we need to work out how old the stock will be when the wires are up. To suggest 91's cascaded would be impossible as they will probably be life expired then.

Many years ago the loft layout had a removable section above the access hatch. Power was via brass strips. The board was about 1" thick. For the distance perhaps a solid thick board is better than a thin one with framing. If I did it now as I'm DCC the locating bolts would be used to carry power feed to the moveable board. For DC use a multiway plug and socket - have plug on moveable section so that there are minimal loose cables on it.

Many years ago I converted a HST power car into a DVT (similar to as used on ECML) before Mk IV days. It was had the Scotrail version of Intercity grey livery (red strip replaced by blue). I might still have it unless I scrapped it along with the rest of the HST's.

For those that are off to Railfest at York this weekend I'll be on the Middleton Railway stand on Saturday & Sunday 2nd & 3rd June. We have the oo Dapol Middleton wagon on sale, DVD's and other items. It has been confirmed you can buy tickets for our Steam 200 Gala from the stand for £10 compared to the on the day price of £12. Just think that £2 is well on the way to buying you a pint of Leeds Brewery ale at the Gala. See Middleton Railway website for details of visiting engines.

Had an interesting few days advising dad on buying points for his layout. Peco electrofrogs. This also resulted in me drawing up the rail breaks and feed locations. This was done on his plan with a different colour for the breaks and red & black triangles for the feeds. His layout is based on Rothwell E&WYUR with the attached pit. OMWB Just a few cosmetic items - too warm to go into the loft at present. A trio of Ratio coaches are in the process of being cut & shut to produce a brace of semi freelance six wheelers. Research Have been busy adding yet more entries into the Leeds Engine database. It is nearly at 13000 recorded items......

I have been on the Tram-Train that runs on part of the Harz MG system in Germany. There they have low floor trams with a diesel electric generator for operations off wires. The engine is in a locked box in a central section thus reducing some of the seating capacity. Having trams going onto heavy rail will be similar to the operation from Newcastle through Sunderland on the Metro. If the expension to Rotherham works I bet that Donny might be a future extension - but let's not speculate!

Perhaps for the quieter branches the talked of conversion of 220's by the addition of a new EMU trailer might be the ideal solution. It would be more logical than having different train types for the traffic flows such as Ringway - Boro as that would come of the wires to go through Yarm.