John Isherwood

The latter - vac. pipes : hole below bufferbeam; safety chains : holes adjacent to buffers; coupling hook : hole in centre of bufferbeam. Mine runs through Peco medium radius points with the safety chains fitted. Regards, John Isherwood.

I'd have thought that the tinplate base of HD 3-rail track will act quite adequately to complete the magnetic circuit - it doesn't have to be in direct contact, surely. Regards, John Isherwood.

.... and acquire a cheap ultrasonic cleaner - 180 secs. in a very dilute bath of hot-ish water / washing soda / washing-up liquid, will get rid of any 'grot' and acidic residues - use after every construction session. Regards, John Isherwood.

Water was supplied, particularly to remote crossing-keepers' houses, where there was no mains supply. Quite often, this would be carried in milk churns or other similar containers on the locomotive running plates. I would imagine the water tank vehicles, of which there were also cylindrical tank versions derived from milk tank wagons, were used to supply larger premises which had storage tanks. It is signiicant that some / all of the milk tank wagons had glass linings; perhaps the drinking water tank wagons were similarly equipped? Regards, John Isherwood.

John, After white was used on Gulf Red and, later, Olive Drab liveries - Gulf Red from 03/60; Olive Drab from 01/63; (according to Bartlett, Paul W. (1992) Gulf red - a nearly forgotten BR livery. Modellers' Backtrack vol. 2 (part 4) pp 184 - 188). Often, a wagon would not be fully repainted after minor overhaul; the lettering would just be redone with whatever lettering paint was current - ie. white. Regards, John.

John, There really isn't any mystery about the first BR steam era departmental wagon livery - it was black bodywork with straw (lining) yellow lettering. Whether it looked 'right' or not, white lettering was only used to refresh or replace the lettering on a black wagon at a much later date. Gulf red painted wagons had white lettering, as did departmental olive green ones; yellow lettering might have looked 'right' on the latter, but it wasn't used. Regards, John Isherwood.

Merely an optical illusion caused by the reflection on the firebox side - look at it in close-up, and all becames clear. Regards, John Isherwood.

Andrew, But what's the alternative - crew frozen in time? For my money, the perpetually bending fireman looks worse than nothing. I know that it's possible to find figures in more static poses, but non-moving humans, be they on the platform, in the coaches or in the streets, will always require us to imagine the movement. Imagining the presence of moving figures is only a tiny step removed from that scenario - and one many of us believe is more realistic than a host of humans, frozen in time. Each to their own !! Regards, John isherwood.

Ahh - but others tell me that it's a Warship !! .... and HSTs were originally loco-hauled stock with a loco at each end - hence the loco class designation of the power cars. Is TOPS *really* as good as it's sometimes cracked up to be? On the other hand - a Warship is a Warship, and an HST is an HST. Regards, John Isherwood.

I'm guessing, but I would think that the Type X designations were a reference to the specifications issued by BR prior to the pilot scheme diesels being constructed; manufacturers were invited to submit designs for the specified 'Types' of locomotives. Whatever - a Brush Type 4 will never be a Class 47 to me, and the application of Class designations to prototypes that didn't survive long enough to receive TOPS numbers is, frankly, nonsense. When someone refers to a Class 43, what are they actually talking about? Regards, John Isherwood,

I'd be *very* surprised if the BR livery as applied was dark green - possibly black with green algae growing on it after it had been in service for a while - but Swindon would have painted it black, with yellow lettering as per Paul's posting. Regards, John Isherwood.

Nothing is fixed, to the best of my knowledge. The return crank is attached to the crankpin, pointing back towards the wheel centre, in order to reduce the crank-throw. The long rod is articulated to the return crank, which is articulated to the short rod, which is pivotted within / behind the lubricator box. All of this results in the short rod rocking backwards and forwards; (thus driving the lubricator in the prototype). Regards, John Isherwood.

Time for a little bit of magic with a battery, copper sulphate crystals and a chunk of copper? Regards, John Isherwood.

I think that you'll find that RMweb buy and sell no longer operates. Regards, John Isherwood.

John, It might - but it'd also be useful to anyone wanting to clone my products. However, genuine enquiries via e-mail will be responded to with a low res. image of the contents sheet. Regards, John.

Sheet S1 is primarily for the Parkside range of 4mm. scale kits, which don't include transfers. I offer it for other scales - including 7mm. scale - because the Parkside 4mm. scale range is so comprehensive, and 7mm. scale modellers find the sheet covers much of their wagon and NPCCS transfer needs. If you want to see what it covers, just go to http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_PARKSIDE_DUNDAS_ROLLING_STOCK_KITS.html . Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers. https://www.cctrans.org.uk/

I have many Heljan locos - steam and diesel - all of which are fine. I will concede that a significant number of owners seem to have had problems with the Garratt, though I suspect that many of these have been due to mishandling the loco - in particular the delicate valvegear. If the valvegear is distorted in handling and a jam occurs, the two motors will try to continue running and be overloaded. Alternatively, some motors may have been duds - which is why I took the opportunity to purchase a couple of cheap spares when they were linked here. Regards, John Isherwood.

So do Slaters - they're what I fitted to my Heljan 1366. Regards, John Isherwood.

My transfer sheets are all designed at 4mm. scale - that's where the vast majority of sales are made. Modellers in the minority scales - and that does include 7mm. scale - persuaded me to sell my range, resized for their scales. This only makes any kind of financial sense if those sheets are straight rescales - any sheet redesign work cannot be justified. 7mm. scale versions of 4mm. scale A6 size sheets occupy an A4 sheet - ie. four times the area of paper. Postage of an A4 sheet is also at the LARGE LETTER rate. Recognising that four times the price would be rather high, I actually only charge three times the price - that being roughly the scale ratio by printed area of 7mm. versus 4mm. scale. I realise that the price for 7mm. scale sheets is not inconsiderable, but that is the only way that I can supply the rescaled versions of my transfer range. Sorry, John Isherwood.

See Sheet BL97 at https://www.cctrans.org.uk/products.htm . Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

In the 1960s, you were regarded as seriously deprived if you turned up for a day's trainspotting without one of those. Regards, John Isherwood.

I believe that I can lay claim to this dodge - pinned joints are always best wherever possible. Regards, John Isherwood.

Quite so - sorry. Regards, John Isherwood.

My understanding is that PMV is the BR(S) designation, and that it stands for Parcels (&) Miscellaneous Van. CCTs (Covered Carriage Trucks) had end doors, PMVs didn't. Regards, John Isherwood.

Just a small point - perhaps a little pedantic? - but SR four-wheeled vans are usually designated as CCTs or PMVs; unless they are VAN Bs - in which case they have a guards' compartment. I know - it's just me being picky! Sorry, John Isherwood.