CWJ

I can't be certain, but I imagine controllers of this vintage would be modern enough to be earthed (hopefully!), thus reducing the likelihood of injury in the event of internal damage.

Me too (except mine was £62 and in Loadhaul livery) - superb value for such a good model. Despite the 'HOW MUCH???' brigade, there are still some bargains to be had on ebay if you stick to your principles and accept that you win some, you lose some. No, it's not just you, at least one national of the United Kingdom also thinks its a badly-presented heap of rubbish! I wouldn't have the cheek to ask over £200 for anything without making the effort to stand it up in a straight line for the photo. Cheers, Will

Just think, in those five years, he could have bought a new Bachmann pannier tank (ironically for the same price as his over-priced, poorly-detailed whitemetal body casting) and sold it for a huge profit on ebay

Especially for this topic, I think we need to replace the 'Like This' button with one which says 'HOW MUCH???', as I would repeatedly use such a feature.

I just burst out laughing in the office (very embarrassing); this seller must win the competition for 'Most Stereotypical Ebay Spelling'. You really couldn't make that description up!

Much more appropriate Ste! I can just see it trundling through Moor Street, but you really need to split the set and attach each half to a 150/2 Cheers, Will

Having not known what this stuff is, he'll be laughing all the way to the bank when he gets his final bid. Just think how much he could have made if he'd have made even the slightest attempt to display the items properly*. If you saw this pile of bits at, say, a car boot sale with a £60 price tag you'd laugh in the seller's face and maybe offer them a fiver for something that looked like it could be made to work. Ebay is definitely a seller's market! That's just given me an idea, maybe I could sell my house on ebay... ("very rare, mint condition, buy it now for £1.5m...") Cheers, Will * A bit of punctuation and grammar wouldn't do any harm either, but maybe that's just me being old-fashioned.

Kenton, I agree completely but in this case I don't think the model does have sound, so it seems OTT Cheers, Will

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KMRC-LTD-EDT-Bachmann-32-726Z-FREIGHTLINER-SHANKS-CLASS-66-LOCO-66522-BOXED-/160713906301?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item256b4b987d How much??? Have I missed something? Is this actually 'O' gauge with DCC sound fitted? Cheers, Will

Brian, Beautiful trackwork as always. I believe this photo shows the effect you have replicated so well, albeit in a scruffy engineer's siding rather than a properly paved tramway: Cheers, Will

That's unbelievable! OK, so the seller might have bumped up the bidding somehow, but the buyer must have put in a maximum bid of at least the final price... do these people actually have a recognised mental illness? I'm trying to buy an old Hornby Pullman on ebay, the old sort based on 1928 stock, for a conversion project. As these have been superseded by the nice new models with working table lights, I was expecting to get one of the old ones for less than £10, maybe even £5 if in poor condition, which would be good enough for me. Believe it or not, these things are selling for £15 to £20 by the time you include postage! The phrase 'has the world gone mad' is over-used, but... Cheers, Will

Thanks very much for the explanation Jon, that's exactly what I wanted to know. The glazing looks superb but it could get expensive for a long train! I've got a 4-coach rake to do (the Arriva Trains Northern loco-hauled set) so I might try it with the Shawplan frames and my own glazing. You can be sure that as soon as my set is 95% finished, Bachmann/Hornby will bring out some lovely new RTR models! Cheers, Will

Jon, The windows on that MkII look lovely! Hope you don't mind me asking a couple of questions about this coach rather than the barrier vehicles... Firstly, did you use the Shawplan 'laser-glaze' products or improvise your own glazing? Secondly, do the Shawplan window frames match the existing Hornby/Dapol/Airfix window openings, or are they slightly smaller to conceal the edge of the glazing? Many thanks in anticipation, Will

Ian, As you know, I'm facing a similar task myself so you have my sympathy with your 12-car set! I'm sure you'll get quicker at it, particularly with a 'production line' approach - i.e. glue all the windows in, then slap all the filler on, then do all the sanding (yawn!). Just a thought on your cab: if you're planning to make clear resin castings (similar to injection mouldings supplied by Bratchell), you could just fill in the windscreen and light clusters, with perhaps a fine line around the edges. That way you could mask them off when painting the cab fronts, leaving them transparent. Personally, I'll just use the Hornby windscreens & lights because it's easier, but there may be benefits to casting your own cabs if you need 6 in total. Cheers, Will

A lovely piece of engineering, and it appears to be very intuitive from the operator's perspective too. No dialling of codes or clicking of mice. Why is there a delay between the route being set and the signals being pulled off? Is this to give the signalman the opportunity to cancel the route (e.g. if he made a mistake) without the signals being put back on in front of a train? Fantastic stuff; would love to see a photo of the control desk with a route illumintated. Cheers, Will

No, it means you can invade a model shop but not find any.

Looking forward to seeing this Mick, bring on the photos

Ian, Regarding the roof pods, look closely at some photos before fitting, as they appear to be mounted at a slight angle (to avoid the roof ridges). Difficult to explain in words, but you'll see what I mean! Cheers, Will

Cabs - good progress photos there, I like the idea of using the plastic strip to help with the filling. On my unit I've just glued the cab to the MkIII body and shoved a load of filler around the cab... time will tell whether or not my method will work! Hornby Details - these are very expensive from certain eBay sellers (e.g. £2.99 for a single small component plus £2.50 postage) so you could end up spengni a lot on the bits you need for all your cabs. I'm waiting (a useful eBay technique!) to see if something comes up at a more sensible price, e.g. a full set of Networker parts in one lot. Wheels - Remember 11mm wheels when new could easily be 10.5mm when worn, an inch and a half of tyre wear is perfectly possible Someone also mentioned that the power bogies have slightly larger wheels, so look out for that. Cheers, Will

Oh I don't know, I for one would pay good money to see a scale model of York station! Sorry to go off on a tangent, Ron. You must have to be incredibly well-organised to plan your deliveries of materials, and your daughters must get some funny looks going through customs! Cheers, Will

You must have but a huge amount of work into this, both before and during construction, not to mention a fair amount of investment... but the results are stunning. If I were you, I'd take the rest of 2012 off! I'm sure this has been said before, but it will be a shame to paint and weather that roof; it is a lovely piece of engineering in itself. Well done to all involved, and thanks for sharing the photos. Cheers, Will Jamie - there's a track plan on the first page.

Just for information, there is a photograph of a painted railbus on Heljan's advertisement in the latest edition of 'Model Rail' magazine, but a (better) photo of an unpainted sample in their 'News' section. These are no better than the photos we have already seen on the Howes Models website (see earlier post) but it's nice to know the model is still ticking along and expected in "early 2012". Cheers, Will

I made up some gates from styrene and added mesh before spray-painting the whole thing white. It looks nice and fine, but the mesh shouldn't be painted as in reality it would probably be galvanised steel. Viewed from normal distances, your gates will look better as they are than with mesh added Cheers, Will

To add to PLD's post, any 'departmental' vehicles, on-track machines or plant will come in right at the bottom of the list! A couple of us have commented to this effect on the topic on Model Rail's new Network Rail MkI coach. To be fair on the manufacturers, many recent models are excellent, the Bachmann Autoballaster being a good example. Returning to freight wagons, perhaps the reason for the 'relaxed' standards is the fact that when watching a passing train, most modellers and enthusiasts devote the majority of their attention to the locomotive. Also, the wagons will typically be viewed as a whole train, where the detail of each individual vehicle isn't really scrutinised. Obviously this doesn't apply on a smaller layout where odd wagons may be dotted around on full view. Cheers, Will

You missed a bit. Only joking, what a superb piece of modelling. The combination of fine detail with massive scale is very impressive and something we don't see very often. You may be able to save a few quid by buying or hiring a spray gun for the remaining painting; those Halfords aerosols will no doubt add up to quite an investment! Thanks for sharing the photos, please keep them coming Cheers, Will