John Isherwood

Not green to my eyes. CJI.

How different things might have been had the builders had a free hand in design! Beyer-Garratts proved their worth virtually everywhere they went - apart from their home country! Having spent a day on the footplate of a WHR B-G, I can vouch for their competence, stability and free-running. CJI.

NOT ME!! The Full Cornish, please - with hogs pudding and black pudding. CJI.

Thanks - it has a certain 'no nonsense' ruggedness, I think. (It deliberately doesn't specify WHICH minerals, so that the locos are at home on a variety of mineral and heavy industrial rakes)! John Isherwood.

United Minerals (Mines and Quarries) "VULCAN" - newly returned from overhaul - and its stablemate "HERCULES". John Isherwood.

Not in the very early days of BR (crimson livery); suffixes came in with Mk.1 coaches, in order to avoid number duplication. CJI.

PLEASE - stop defending him!! If there was no need to repeatedly warn people against this totally disfunctional 'trader', we wouldn't keep getting posts from aggrieved customers whose hard-earned cash has disappeared into a black hole. Unfortunately, it is evident that knowledge of the clear and present dangers that Modelmasters represents are NOT widely known, even amongst members here - let alone the wider railway modelling community. If you really want to put an end to the complaints here, find a way to contact the proprietor in person, and persuade him to shut up shop permanently. Best of luck with that - others have tried and failed! In the meantime, the rest of us will do all in our power to prevent other victims falling into Modelmasters' trap - DEAL WITH IT. CJI. (A singleton, cottage style business that does NOT have 'issues).

In your position, I would glue the broken piece back in place with superglue - if you are accurate in relocating it, the thread should still function. If you feel that the refixed part needs extra support, carefully place a fillet of baking powder (yes!) where the extra strength is needed, and drip superglue into it. It'll set rock hard. CJI.

'Scuse me - California in the North-east; not to be confused with those upstarts in East Anglia! CJI.

Red Panda do a plywood SHOCVAN with corrugated ends. John Isherwood.

I sent an e-mail enquiry to Peco regarding a sprue that I needed - no response, I'm afraid. CJI.

It occurs to me - could the AFP designation originate from 'A-size container - Frozen Peas'?!? 😉 John Isherwood.

I have listed my BR CONFLAT B and Birds Eye / BR AFP container transfers for a nearly two decades now; (see Sheets BL52 & BL53 at https://www.cctrans.org.uk/products.htm); but sales have never been brisk due to the absence of suitable 4mm. scale models on which to apply them! This situation has recently been remedied by Jonathan Duffett, who has designed models for 3D printing; the appropriate files can be found on 'Thingverse', I gather. Jonathan kindly supplied me with some samples, and the results can be seen below; my transfers fit perfectly! The white liveried AFP containers sit on a scratchbuilt CONFLAT B, as converted by BR from a FLAT ED; the normal CONFLAT Bs and the containers are from Jonathan's designs. John Isherwood.

I have now pretty well finished this project, apart from weathering. The crane itself is the old Hornby Dublo model, somewhat modified to closer resemble the pre-war Cowans Sheldon 36T crane supplied to the LNER. The weight-relieving bogies are the original H-D ones; shortened to scale length and detailed. The jib wagon is the Bachmann version from their recent RTR crane, which is available as a spare. The pulleys and hook are custom etchings supplied by Jonathan Hall, an RMweb member. Allocation to Derby is purely fictional, as the real crane was allocated to Colwick, before being transferred to Bescot. In my world, it had a sojourn at Derby in the late 50s / early 60s; as the crane jib is too short, and the jib wagon is incorrect, I can live with this! Rigging the scale pulleys with 0.5mm. model boat rigging cord was a nightmare. The only way to keep everything in its place, when not in use, is to keep the jib rigging in tight tension, using an elastic band connecting the ramshorn hook to the bufferbeam! An interesting project, but not one that I am likely to repeat any time soon! John Isherwood.

Years ago, Dapol were selling off Trix AL1 loco bodies cheap; as well as bodies for their various Gresley Pacifics. I bought one of each of the steam loco bodies, plus a couple of AL1s. All bar one AL1 were sold on in due course, but I came across the remaining AL1 only recently. It still has with it a Triang-Hornby AL6 chassis, which I recall required only minimal modification in order to fit the Trix body. I also obtained some MTK moulded nylon Oleo buffers for it. I really must finish that project, which has been dormant for several decades! Michael Edge's BR AC pantographs would be ideal. John Isherwood.

Now THAT is what I was hoping to see from KRM; (and it could have been, by all accounts). No way round it - I will have to bite the bullet and get the kit out! John Isherwood.

Indeed - and I have a livery-matched Janus ready to be its stable-mate. For anyone else wishing to follow suit, Planet Industrials advised me as follows :- PI-001-C Body colour - RAL 6010 Lining - RAL 1001 John Isherwood.

I would, but I'd have to create a Flickr account first. CJI.

That's not a breakdown crane; it's a much smaller Civil Engineer's crane. CJI.

If bicycle spokes can pass for catenery posts, surely Mk.1s with driver's windows cut in the ends will pass for EMUs? CJI.

Catenary! Not much available RTR; difficult to scratchbuild; and a right pain-in-the-@rse when it comes to track cleaning! (Well, you did ask)! As to AC locos - I'll bet that they don't fly off the shelves in the way that diesel locos do; for the same reason as the dearth of EMUs. CJI.

It seems to be a recent phenomenon, but there is now an expectation that, when a new tooling is announced, it MUST incorporate slides that permit EVERY possible variant of the prototype to be produced. WHY??? Not very long ago, we would look at what was being offered and, probably, think - "Right, I'd have preferred the *** version. Whatever - change the chimney and remove the LH lubricator and we're there; much easier than building a kit"! Nowadays, it's " What??? - the copy of the 'Daily Slander' in front of the second man has the wrong date on it for my timescale"!!! What does the 'M' in RMweb stand for? Certainly not 'Modelling', apparently! CJI.

It's called fading - and it still happens today, despite advances in paint technology. Nowadays, viewers make knee-jerk reactions to historic photos, without giving due consideration to what they are looking at. At the relevant time in history, being around at the time, I do not recall discussion concerning a change in livery or colour used on BR(SR) coaching stock. Sometimes we overthink these matters; it's not always as complex as is sometimes suggested. CJI.

Sandpaper is not ideal for wheel cleaning. I use a fibreglass abrasive pen, followed by a cotton bud or piece of kitchen paper soaked in lighter fuel. (Make sure there is good ventilation, and no naked lights). CJI.

Mostly old Stanier corridor stock, I'd think. GT3 never ran in passenger service, so the test trains would have been made up of whatever old stock that was serviceable. CJI.