John Isherwood

steameramodels.com CJI.

Once again this misinformation. Black Beetles ARE still available from the manufacturer in Australia, and he will send to the UK. John Isherwood.

I am a firm believer in dust exclusion for avoiding the need for track cleaning. I am fortunate to have a dedicated railway room with no dust sources but, in the absence of such a facility, I would cover the tracks when not in use with lightweight garden 'fleece'. I cover my computer printers with 'fleece', and it is very good at excluding dust. After some six months of operating in a dust-free environment, I have not found the need for track cleaning. CJI.

Looks like a home made job to me. A vibrating cleaning stone sounds a bit hard on the rails - I find a splash of isopropyl alcohol on a piece of kitchen paper quite adequate! CJI.

Class B - many products; not usually crude oil; it is the flash-point temperature that defines the class. Both classes would be equally likely to be present in a pick-up goods. Class A - no bottom discharge pipe; top siphon attachment. Class B - bottom discharge pipe. CJI.

The (re-)development of the East West rail route is one option for East West transport. Whatever one's views on the respective merits of the various options, it would seem to be reasonable to discuss these in the context of a thread in which the possible curtailment of the rail route is under active consideration. CJI.

Removeable roof - secured via three long screws as per the old Tri-ang Hornby Mk.1 coaches. Where the roof is securely glued, you may have to resort to a razor saw. Sounds drastic, but microstrip, solvent and Milliput can cover a multitude of butchery! Removeable rooves are a prerequisite of interior detailing. Glue a false ceiling below the roof to stop the sides from bowing, and drill/tap the false ceiling for the roof securing screws. CJI.

Looks good - would you say the links are sufficiently strong to rig a detailed Hornby Dublo breakdown crane? John Isherwood.

In my case, the Ebay seller was innocent; he had acquired what appeared to be a factory-sealed kit. In fact, the original owner had resealed the packing after placing the sprues and excess components inside. Not, I think, an 'accident'; when the item in question was subsequently sold-on to my Ebay seller! CJI.

Definitely fraud! CJI.

Just as a counterpoint to the (usually) good news here; I have today received an item that has clearly been the subject of deliberate fraud. I purchased, via Ebay auction, a Ratio 519 large grounded coach body, described as new. It arrived today, but the contents of the (apparently) sealed box comprised a stapled polybag that had been roughly cut open, which (sort of) contained a number of sprues and spare components from at least six separate kits, most not associated with the proper contents of the kit. I have, of course, contacted the Ebay seller - who has said that a full refund will be made and offered an apology. Evidently, he / she has sold-on an item which was not what it purported to be when he / she purchased it! So - we should all be aware that there are those in the buying / selling community who have no scruples about 'selling a pup'. John Isherwood.

Try Googling Steam Era Models - it is my understanding that they hold stock of Mashima motors against their own future requirements. CJI.

To make a pr*t of oneself on a subject is perhaps forgiveable - though research would avoid doing so. To repeat one's foolishness, having been corrected with evidence, points to a p*g-headed disregard for the evidence of one's eyes! I do hope that we are made party to the response from the esteemed CME of the GWR! CJI. PS. ..... he's a very silly boy!

Oh no - the "stewardship" refrain, so beloved by museum curators! Locomotives were built to work, and that involved refurbishing / replacing life-expired components throughout their working life. Why do we preserve things? So that we can have a taste of the past - and that past was a noisy, working experience; not a silent, dusty, stuffed relic that tells us nothing. The same curators will tell us that preserving original components shows us how these locos were built - why would we need to know this? So that we can build steam locos in the post-apocolyptic future? The only point in not scrapping outdated technology is if we use it to recreate, to a very limited extent, the experience of being close to, and travelling behind the wonderful machines that we retain. CJI.

Having been involved in the excavation of fuel tanks from a filling station forecourt; (an operation bogged down in H&S regulations); I'd guess that they are petrol / diesel tanks. The number of filler / breather pipes on the top bears this out. CJI.

I should address your letter of complaint to "The Chief Mechanical Engineer, Great Western Railway, Swindon". 🤣 CJI.

Nothing - other than perhaps zinc mesh. However, real louvres are actually sloping slats that overlap each other; etched 'louvres' are simply two-dimensional slots. CJI.

Same principle - different tools. CJI.

I can only speak from personal experience but, having recently built a 5.0 x 2.4 m. layout using exclusively Peco Unifrog components; (appropriately modified to eliminate the need for rail-to-rail electrical contact); I have experienced zero problems with wheel shorting or derailments. That, on a layout with no less than ten inter-baseboard joints, each crossed by multiple tracks, and no physical cross-joint connection whatsoever. I have a fairly even mixture of kit-built and RTR locos numbering in excess of a hundred - including a Hornby 31- and none of them causes shorting on points. On that basis, Peco are doing something right, IMHO. (Though they could have introduced the bullhead range a couple of years earlier, so that I didn't have to us flat-bottomed)!😉 CJI.

Pull the plate over a round pencil or similar implement whilst exerting GENTLE PRESSURE with a finger. If you overdo it, simply turn the plate over and repeat in order to remove the excess curvature. Simples! CJI.

At a rate that allows them to eat! The chances of a kit-built commission being cheaper than RTR are zero. CJI.

My understanding is that the 'copper cap' was, in fact, thin copper sheet formed around the cast iron inner - but I may be totally wrong. If it was solid copper, it would have been an expensive embellishment. CJI

Since I don't 'do' Facebook, I wouldn't have seen it. I DID see a Hattons junk email for the self- same piece of time-expired junk, and my point was that Hattons interminable deluge of advertising is counter-productive. CJI.

If it's the same Hattons advert that I've just received, it is the straw that broke the camel' s back - I've unsubscribed from Hattons newsletters. I subscribed to a weekly newsletter - not daily (or more frequent) adverts for slow-selling stock. Their loss, not mine! CJI.

I've not seen any evidence that the lining of crimson / cream coaches was ever changed in colour. (Though the early plum / spilt milk etc. experimental liveries may have used gold lining). Straw cream / yellow, sometimes referred to in other applications as Old Gold, is what I recall and what I produce. CJI.