John Isherwood

A scarf, or angled overlap, joint would allow one section of rodding to slide against the next one, thus absorbing the expansion / contraction. The actual expansion will only need to be tiny to create the bowing that you have experienced, The scarf joint need not be at the actual joint - this could still be a glued butt joint. If the sliding joint were to be within a length of rodding; perhaps even disguised within a pedestal; it would be nigh-on invisible. A bit late now, I know, but it may help others. In your case, some cuts in the rodding, adjacent to pedestals, should provide enough expansion gaps to permit you to remake the butt joints. Regards, John Isherwood.

Reporting for detention, (or worse!), Sir. Regards, John Isherwood.

Nah - not me ! The world ended when the last BR steam loco dropped it's fire. Regards, John Isherwood.

..... it's just that they stand out like a sore thumbs in Tony's writings; I don't know why! Regards, John Isherwood.

Please Sir - is that a detention offence? Regards, John Isherwood.

I'm afraid that I can't agree - the essential character of the exposed Western wheels is the profiled front face; a transfer set deep within the recess of a Lima-type wheel would never achieve this. Regards, John isherwood.

In your position, I would at least start with https://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/products/precisionrailway/nationalised ; BR Steam Locomotive Dark Blue (1949 Experimental) - Post 1948 Colours - £3.85 . Regards, John Isherwood.

Some thoughts on 'building it yourself', and the progress made during the last half century or so ...... I think that I mentioned here that I have been rechassising a Bulleid Light Pacific, that I built in the late 1970s from an Airfix kit on a Tri-ang 'Princess' chassis, fitted with Tri-ang Bulleid wheels. The 'new' chassis comprised a 1970s Kemilway etched kit, fitted with late 20th century Markits Bulleid wheels, an Ultrascale 40:1 gearset and, in keeping with the late 1970s design of the chassis, a brand new Romford Bulldog motor. All this went together as originally intended, and the Kemilway chassis lived up to its reputation as being well in advance of its time. Whilst mechanically it ran very well, it sounded like a steam road-roller; (that'll sort out the modellers 'of a certain age' amongst you)! As I also have the Hornby 'Wilton', which runs like a dream, I could not tolerate another WC that looked as good, but sounded appalling. So - I decided to replace the Bulldog motor with a High Level Hi-Flier gearbox combined with a Mitsumi motor. This took yesterday afternoon to acheive and - lo and behold - an almost silent loco that, if anything, runs better than Hornby's 'Wilton'. The other project that I've mentioned here is my ancient Cotswold kit 'Jinty'; formerly fitted with a prehistoric Tri-ang 'sandwich' chassis and early Romford wheels. Today I assembled a Comet 'Jinty' chassis, fitted with latest-release Markits wheels; a High Level Roadrunner+ gearbox and another Mitsumi motor. Everything was built exactly as per instructions, with all the recommended hole sizes for bearings, etc.; the result - a chassis that ran like a sewing machine from the first application of volts to the motor; not even the tiniest tweek to a coupling rod bearing was required! What these two recent projects have demonstrated to me - very forcibly - are the improvements in mechanism quality that we 'self-builders' have been able to achieve, over the past forty or fifty years, as a result of small but incremental improvements in the quality of the components that are available to us. Until I had once again built a wholly 1970s-era chassis, I had forgotten how far we've come in the sophistication of our mechanisms. ..... and what has changed? Precision, multi-stage gearboxes in place of simple worm / pinion drives, and instrument quality motors instead of rattly, slack-bearinged X04s (or similar). Despite the n'er sayers, it is certainly possible to home-build chassis to the same, or better standard as today's RTR offerings; and the satisfaction gained by doing so will never be known by those who confine themselves to box-opening. Sorry for the ramble! Regards, John Isherwood.

'Fraid not - what is needed is a 3D insert to fill the recess in the Peter's Spares replacement wheels. A close look at Warship / Western wheels will show what is needed; I believe that something similar has been produced for disc-braked wheels. Regards, John Isherwood.

I was suggesting 3d printing the distinctive centres, to fit into the recesses of Peter's Spares new wheels for Lima models. Regards, John Isherwood.

An ideal opening for someone with a 3D printer. Regards, John Isherwood.

Do you not think that you may have taken the description 'purple' a little too literally? My impression, from contemporary illustrations, is of ultramarine with a hint of purple (in certain lights); perhaps https://www.markspaint.com/marks-paint-ultramarine-blue-semi-gloss-studio-color-gallon/ ? Regards, John Isherwood.

Yes, I understand that, but both those illustrated in your photo and on the Brassmasters website look somewhat tubby, and the degree of flaring to the chimney seating is definitely overstated; this detracts from the apparent height of the chimney. The Jinty's were noted for their rather tall, slim chimneys, and I cannot find any in my collection of 481 Jinty photos that match the Brassmasters renditions. Regards, John Isherwood.

Do they all have that particular funnel - I have to say that it looks a little 'stout' to me; (I am working on a Jinty at present). Regards, John Isherwood.

I use Klear lacquer - which is acrylic - over Phoenix enamels, with no ill effects. Regards, John Isherwood.

Did it come with a complimentary tin of black paint and a set of transfers? Regards, John Isherwood.

Errrr? Perhaps you could be more specific? The only 'problem' that I've seen mentioned here is avoiding contact with electrically conducting surfaces - which is common sense and hardly a problem. As I usually hand brush Klear, I am aware that it is perfectly possible to create runs if the brush is inadvertently slightly overloaded. Airbrushing Klear is no problem whatsoever. Regards, John Isherwood.

According to the BR Headcode font that I have, the vertical stroke should continue up to the full height of the character, and the angled stroke should be less inclined and connect with the vertical stroke. Regards, John Isherwood.

No, viscous means the opposite of runny - think treacle ! Klear is eminently airbrushable. Regards, John Isherwood.

I think that I am right in saying that the Hornby 2P is significantly different from the original Airfix version. Does it not now have a driven loco chassis, rather than the original tender drive? If price was a major consideration, I would not have thought that Airfix 2Ps were in short supply on Ebay. Regards, John Isherwood.

I simply use that white 'fleece', sold to protect tender plants during the winter. It comes in wide rolls and is extremely lightweight, yet it has a tight weave that catches the finest dust; no danger of it damaging the layout, either. Regards, John Isherwood.

..... and the Good Lord help you if you mistake one for the other !! Regards, John Isherwood.

Then I can only assume that the judiciary nowadays lack the same concept of justice as their predecessors. If there is an increased tendency to sue, even after an incident which was patently the consequence of idiotic behaviour, one can only assume a fair number of claims have been settled by the innocent party. I'm afraid that the current culture of 'sue irrespective of culpability', one can only blame those bodies who have prioritised adverse publicity over the justice of their position as the innocent party. Business has no b*lls any more, and so the general public adopts the attitude that idiotic behaviour often results in lucrative 'compo'. Regards, John Isherwood.

...... but by what rationale do we presume the public to be more prone to act in such a way than they were, say, seventy-five years ago? Trains may travel faster and without as much noise nowadays, but the likely consequences were equally gruesome. Regards, John Isherwood.

Someone's going to have to 'have a word' with the porter about overloading platform trollies! Regards, John Isherwood.