Golden Fleece 30

Here you are Ray, found some. These are of different thickness's for Tenders, bogies etc. I think the problem with Dublo couplings in NEM pockets will not be the fit, but to allow the slight lateral movement for coupling/uncoupling as the NEM pockets are fixed to prevent lateral movement happening. Garry

Hi David, it was the mounting blocks I threw away not the actual couplings. I have a small stock of them to give away with anyone who buys my stock if it has Kadees fitted with the proviso they refit the couplings them selves. I liked the original number 5's which are still available, not reduced up this way though. My friend got some on Saturday at the Wakefield show. Garry

Yes Ray, before I started using Kaydee couplings I used to put Dublo couplings on the rake ends or on tenders. I used a brass block with 3 tapped holes at the centres of the coupling and the two limiting pins. The coupling centre the distance from the buffer beam. The floor was drilled with clearance holes for the two limiter pins and screws used to hold the block protruded to make the pins. I only threw a load out about 2 weeks ago clearing out for the new TT layout to be set up and don't know if I have any more anywhere. Garry

I used to like and use the Faller embossed card but it is quite expensive now, that is when you can find it. I do still have a few sheets but not enough for what I want. The card itself was not that big but now I use Country scenes embossed paper which is about twice the Fallers size. I used the Country scenes paper on the earlier layout and yesterday bought more sheets for the new layout. Garry

It certainly was Mike. I also got RM for June 66 and recognised the cover immediately with the layout inside being of Sheffield Midland which again I had seen a couple of times earlier, and all this before England won the world cup. Funny how we can remember so many past things and forget so many recent ones. Garry

Hi Mike, Strange as it seems but today I was at a local exhibition and looked through a lot of magazines for loco and signal drawings and the copy of RM June 1964 was there with Marthwaite inside as the feature layout just as I had seen it at York show just before. Here is a scan of one page showing his unballasted track. His statement on track building was " My track is not ballasted except for the cork underlay since loose bits can clog the works of locos however well the ballasting is done but when both underlay and track have been painted the cork looks surprisingly effective on its own". I will do the same now for mine. Garry ps I did not but the magazine just for this I wanted the 3F tender loco drawing to make a model of one day.

I could not get on with anything until I had seen one of the A4's running on the layout. The King in the last couple of shots is a beautiful runner so will be a good addition after its re-paint, new chimney and safety valve cover. Garry

Finally got the last board in place and now have up and down running. The fiddle yard still needs a little work on it to use all the lines so must refrain from putting more stock on. Even my wife likes it. ps, we never noticed the cattle wagon off in the last clip until watching the video.

BR in their wisdom have decided that the signalmen in the station area need a better view so have come up with a gantry style signal box. They have run out of materials and need to go to Wakefield this weekend to see if they can get some lattice girder work and steps. The model is a Hornby resin platform signal box which does not look too much out of place in this situation. Garry

Well spotted, I would have thought yes but no idea if there is one on the opposite side. If not then the worm is a tight fit and revolves as otherwise the wheel would not turn. Garry

No idea who's motor bogie it was but this is it. Garry

It's okay David thanks but I don't think I am up to painting small people these days mainly due to eyesight :-(. Garry

One thing I don't like on the 3smr site is using 00 locos to advertise TT ones but I don't think that includes the 94xx. Garry

TT? Paint them David then I can buy them :-), :-), :-) Garry

Hi Dave, My own thoughts on this is to see if you can make up another floor/chassis base to use a more modern motor and therefore keep the Exley one intact. Mine was a 3-rail set with extended arms to pick -up from an outside rail, all I did was put a centre collector on. Here is mine. Garry

It has been mentioned many times The show was not about how to do this, that, and the other., just as it was not meant for the rivet counters etc It was reality TV show competition/challenge for family entertainment. There are plenty of specialist clips on YouTube for all of that. Lets just leave the show as it was and the contestants (who know what it is all about) and programme makers can decide if there needs to be any change. We are all individuals and you will not please everyone. Regarding your comment about static grass, I personally would not want the show wasting time describing it. Here is a link if you would like to know about it, it is as easy as that - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=static+grass Garry

That is the beauty of them as sometimes I can get away with using them for TT. Garry

Here is an RM advert from 1959 showing an Eames TT 94xx Pannier. I left school and started work in 1968 on £3-10s (£3.50 for the younger generation) so to see it at £9-19s-6d in 1959 made it very expensive. I guess Bec either bought the moulds or did a similar copy for their version later in the 60's. There are not many Eames TT locos around although not having a 94xx to compare it to the Bec one I cannot definitely say, when people advertise them they may inadvertently say its Bec as that was the one still on the go for a while. There is a noticeable difference with their 57xx to the Gem kit though and I do have both, the main difference being the "skirts". Garry

Our little one painting the lineside fencing for later. These are Hornby 00 with the bottom rail removed. Most fencing appears to be grey and not brown so she is applying the grey (hopefully a little brown may show through) then later a dry brush over with black to "weather" it and show rotted wood. Garry

Here is a clip of The Bournemouth Belle pulled by a rebuilt W/C on my layout along with a twin motored Bec Brush type 4 on freight. I have done a couple of bits of work on the layout but mainly checking some stock running. Hopefully next week I will get the last board in place and connect the fiddle yard up for continuous running. Garry

I saw Everingham and spoke to Alan Smith about Lydney last year at the Leeds show. He is a nice chap and showed me the difference between a scale Jinty and a Tri-ang one but it did not persuade me to change, I will stick with the Tri-ang style/size :-) Garry

Problem there Nigel is you cannot solder them to a die-cast body (I wont glue handrail knobs in), and the holes were usually quite large so a scale handrail knob could fall through. I know some people used to fill the holes with Araldite or Plastic Padding (anyone else remember that?) then drill small holes but for me too time consuming. At the end of the day I am not a true scale modeller as such but much prefer the easy option. Garry

All I am saying is that a DBS certificate DOES NOT GUARANTEE a childs safety, which has been proved a few times, that's all no matter where it is or what you do. Garry

Unfortunately a DBS check does nothing really, all it means is that the time of issue you did not have a recorded criminal record but it does not stop anything happening in the future, who can predict that anyway? I am a foster carer and have a check every 3 years as do all carers, yet, a few years ago one foster carer with a DBS clearance murdered the girl in his care. Another one recently within the last year with a DBS clearance record was jailed for raping his foster child. While I was teaching at college a few years ago one of the staff in our department who was DBS cleared was charged with attempted rape of one of our students, I was the one she came to tell what happened. In the initial stages at college we only needed them if a student was of school age as we had 14 - 16 year olds come to college twice a week, after a few years all staff were required by our management to have one. For some strange reason if we had a child minder for one or two sittings they do not need DBS clearance, but, if they do it regularly for us then they do. Those are social services regulations. As a production company I guess it is up to their management to say if they need one or not but on social services ideas I would say no as it was not a regular thing. Garry

I have the RM November 1971 copy which shows only a single track track layout still, but, I do have a scan of it doubled. I still don't remember seeing it in this form but could easily have done so and just forgotten it. Garry