John Isherwood

That arrangement is, I'm sure, to enable the centre section, including the anchor mounting, to be used with different ends in a variety of future models. Regards, John Isherwood.

Quite right !! Music to the ears of a civil engineer. Living here surrounded by Cornish granite, I find it crazy that the granite setts used nowadays are imported from China; (cost) !! Regards, John Isherwood. Regards, John Isherwood.

Fair enough. Regards, John Isherwood.

Dave, As you appear to be the RMweb mouthpiece for SLW, (and assuming that I haven't missed a post on this subject), can you comment on the alleged deficiency of slats in the main grille ? Regards, John Isherwood.

There have been a number of postings to the BG thread, including a fairly recent on from me, indicating sources for replacement motors. Regards, John Isherwood.

The CONTACT link doesn't work. Regards, John Isherwood.

Try not to be so sensitive about the reaction to your output - after all, we are our own most stringent critics. I know that the models that I post are not up to the standard of many of those here - but then I know that many more members,( including one very close to this thread), adopt my own view that life is short and there's no point in modelling every last split-pin if you will never have time to produce a viable stock-list. Declare yourself, take the knocks and learn from them; 'twas ever the best way to improve ! Regards, John Isherwood.

Seems not - from what I can make out, in several photos, there were curved flush cover plates that spanned the tank / boiler interface. Regards, John Isherwood.

I was referring to the large, long sheet of waterslide transfers that was, I think, produced by Mopok; MTK later produced something similar. Those of us who are at or beyond their mid-sixties will no doubt correct me if my memory is failing me !! I have checked my folder of transfer sheets and, whilst I found plenty of partly-used MTK sheets, there was no sign of the larger Mopok sheet. I am convinced, nonetheless, that the latter included lettering for the DBT. I did find a Woodhead Models sheet for BR wagons that included "COUPLING OF ATTACHING VEHICLE TO BE USED" and "EMERGENCY SCREW COUPLING", which I think are applicable to the DBT. Regards, John Isherwood.

Is the lettering on your model from the old Mopok transfer sheet ? Regards, John Isherwood.

For those interested, a certain A----- B S---- has now seen the actual model, and has given it a decided 'thumbs down'. Regards, John Isherwood.

Stewart, See my post earlier in the thread - the on-line maintenance sheet shows that the block is part of the motor or it's mount. Regards, John Isherwood.

If you click on 'Maintenance Sheet' at http://www.oxfordrail.com/76/OR76AR.htm, it is abundantly clear that the end of the motor projects into the space where the 'skirt' appears in the photos. So - no hope of daylight below the border, unfortunately. Regards, John Isherwood.

Staffordshire - in the 1950s. Regards, John Isherwood.

What I can say is that, probably ten years ago, I was told by someone who was in a position to know, of quite a list of forthcoming Hornby subjects. All of the projects in the list have come to pass, the last being the Radial. Regards, John isherwood.

I do have to question, when errors like these seem to be commonplace from certain manufacturers / commissioners, whether they either don't know or don't care. In either case, the answer is hardly an ideal qualification for a producer of scale models. Regards, John Isherwood.

The decision whether to read a post rests with the reader (or non-reader). Just because you are bored with the discussion does not mean that everyone else is similarly afflicted. The first few words will indicate that a post is potentially boring for you - simply cease reading and move on !! Regards, John Isherwood.

A lesson that I learned some years ago ! When I first started producing transfers, before the Millenium, I got quite a lot of this kind of e-mail :- Will you print me a couple of sheets of transfers? You just need to print them - I've done all the research and design work. It'll take you not time at all ! When the files came through, they wouldn't even open. A week later when I'd got them to open, it transpired that the desired design was incorrectly laid out; in the wrong font; and to no particular scale. Result - some very considerable time later and after I'd done all the research and design myself - I successfully printed a sheet of the most obscure vehicle markings you can imagine, with zero resale potential, at a price that would not have kept me in humbugs for the time that I'd spent. Lesson learned? There's a good reason why people want to hand over "almost completed" projects for "the easiest part of the job" to be finalised. Regards, John Isherwood.

It's been a couple of days since my last update, but there's been plenty of progress. This afternoon I finished the last of the seven basic body cut-&-shuts. In the photo, the sanding of the roof to remove the rainstrips makes it appear that some joints don't line up too well; in fact they do, and in each case the overall length is correct !! (Lesson learned). From the back; 4-wheeled ex-LMS Dia. 1958 sausage van; 6-wheeled ex-LMS Dia. 1955 sausage van; 6-wheeled ex-LMS Dia. 1936 milk van; 6-wheeled ex-GWR Dia. O46 sausage van; bogie corridor ex-LMS Dia. 2001 sausage van; bogie ex-LMS Dia. 1957 sausage van & bogie corridor ex-LMS Dia. 2002 cream van. The latter will have both sides filed smooth, and then it will swap a smooth side for a door side with the bogie corridor sausage van. The smooth sides will each have two pairs of guard's double doors and four standard sliding vent windows inserted; these components being donated by Airfix / Dapol RTR Stanier coaches. That should complete the body construction other than filling and sanding the joints, and fitting ice hatches, roof vents and corridor connections as appropriate. That will all have to wait until next week; we're taking a break from the Royal Duchy to visit family in the Principality ! Regards, John Isherwood.

The corrected 6-wheeled ex-LMS Dia.1955 sausage van, now exactly 124mm. long. Some dodgy joints - which will disappear after an application of Milliput; (the kit-basher's cure-all) !! Also, the centre sections are trying to bow inwards at their bottom edge - but the floor of the chassis kit will keep them at the correct distance apart. This afternoon I stretched another 6-wheeler; this time for the ex-GWR Dia.O46 sausage van. Tomorrow will be the last of the six-wheelers; the ex-LMS Dia.1936 milk van. Regards, John isherwood.

As promised, a couple of photos showing yesterday's progress. This is the basic shortened body for the ex-LMS Diagram 1958 4-wheeled sausage van. At a later stage the joints and gaps will be filled with Milliput; ice hatches, (which are cut from the body mouldings prior to the shortening / lengthening process), will be refitted in the correct locations; missing strapping and rainstrips will added using plastic strip; and then a coat of Halfords primer will be applied to reveal any blemishes. Today, I lengthened an ex-LMS Diagram 1955 6-wheeled sausage van, by combining components cut from two body mouldings; (colour codes green and turquoise). Whilst the lengthened body is straight and square, it's ended up just 1mm. too long ! Tomorrow, when the joints have hardened, I'll have to recut the centre splice and remove a little from both halves before rejoining - hopefully producing a body measuring 124mm. long ! That's it for today. Regards, John Isherwood.

Well - an hour or so's work and the principle is proved to be viable. The first body (colour code BLUE) has been carefully cut into four sections, and three of them have been reassembled into a body for the 4-wheeled ex-LMS Diagram 1958 sausage van. I used some slabs of 2mm. thick styrene sheet to overlap the joints and form a rebate into which the floor of the cut-down Chivers chassis kit will fit. Whilst the joints dry, the sides are braced apart at the correct overall width to ensure that there are no 'steps' between the components. Photos tomorrow, when the body has dried and been tidied up a little. I'm really enjoying this so far; whether I'll feel the same after all seven vans have been completed remains to be seen !! Regards, John Isherwood.

I think that I'm getting a bit of a reputation for kit-bashing and cut-&-shuts - so I thought that I'd go the whole hog and cover ALL of the ex-GWR and LMS sausage, milk and cream vans that were based on the six-wheeled PALETHORPES van, produced years ago by Tri-ang Hornby. I've had a few van bodies and a collection of 'bits' in bags for years, earmarked for some of these prototypes, but I set to researching the following vans to see what would be involved in modelling them. Ex-GWR Diagram O46 sausage van Ex-LMS Diagram 1936 6-wheeled milk van Ex-LMS Diagram 1955 6-wheeled sausage van Ex-LMS Diagram 1957 bogie sausage van Ex-LMS Diagram 1958 4-wheeled sausage van Ex-LMS Diagram 2001 bogie corridor sausage van Ex-LMS Diagram 2002 bogie corridor cream van Having produced a side elevation of the Tri-ang Hornby body moulding, and scanned and rescaled to 4mm. scale side elevations of all of the above vehicles, I was able to set to digitally cutting-&-shutting sections from the body moulding and fitting them together to produce the various vans. Each representation of the moulding was colour coded, so that I could keep track of which bit from which body went where in each model. It transpired that ten body mouldings would be required to produce the seven models, and that even the six-wheeled vans would have to be cut-&-shuts as the moulding is somewhat short in length. I also realised that I'd need chassis components, and that the collection of etchings and castings accumulated over the years would need substantially augmenting. 4-wheeled and 6-wheeled chassis were easily sourced - Roger Chivers 6-wheeled LMS fish van chassis being ideal; (shortened in the case of the 4-wheeled van). The bogie vans required LMS 50' chassis - sourced from Comet / Wizard and fitted with Dapol LMS bogies. The two bogie corridor vans would need standard LMS Stanier coach windows and double doors on one side - these would be sourced from Airfix / Dapol Stanier BSK and CK coaches; (the remainder of which would be fitted with Comet coach sides and end up as something completely different) ! I would only be able to use the upper coach sides as the corridor vans were flat-sided; the tumblehome would need to be cut off and replaced with scribed plastic card. So, a few sessions on Ebay and some on-line purchases resulted in delivery of the necessary donor bodies, etc., and I am at the point of taking razor saw to plastic. More in due course ......... Regards, John Isherwood.

Not in the images of the Hornby Castle Class that Google throws up, they're not !! Handrail knobs should be radial to the boiler - that's how they were fitted on the prototype. Anything else looks ridiculous. Regards, John Isherwood.