John Isherwood

My usual solution to this situation is to mount the Highlevel Roadrunner+ drive extender on the rear axle, facing 45 degrees downward / rearward. That usually places the motor in the firebox / rear of the boiler, and on the boiler centreline - for ease of inserting into the boiler if necessary. I'm in the process of rechassising several Airfix Standard 4MT 2-6-0s using this configuration in Kemilway chassis kits. Running is very smooth - though I think that I should have selected a lower reduction ratio for the Mitsumi motors that I use - the top speed is lower than I would wish. John Isherwood.

Agreed - but since when did model producers sell items that only look acceptable IF the customer weathers them? It should have been blindingly obvious to KRM that Paul Bartlett's image showed a decrepit wagon that had acquired its final patina during years of use and misuse. It should also have been apparent that it would be impossible to reproduce this complex appearance of neglect under commercial factory conditions. ...... and that the wheels most certainly were NOT pink! CJI.

Those of us of a certain age will recall these - a (usually white) plastic disc with raised and lipped edges, which retained moulded plastic 'reflectors' that resembled giant Rowntree's Fruit Gums! They came in various sizes from small - as fixed to your rear bike mudguard - to large - as used on road trailers. Trailers often carried red rear triangles, into which were embedded red 'fruit gums', and many of the old style road signs had even larger red triangles above them, which also contained red 'fruit gums'. Naughty boys were even known to try and 'pinch' these 'fruit gums' by prising them out with their ubiquitous penknife - you know, the one with a thing-for-getting-stones-out-of-horses'-hooves! CJI.

...... only in the best possible taste - and with a heavy dose of humour! I 😄 John.

I understand that this tractor was developed primarily for the military, for use with missile launching trailers. Most Roadrailer photos show far more mundane BRS tractors in use. CJI.

The 'BRS roadrailer' placards - are the colours guesswork, or do you have evidence of the actual colours? I have never been able to find a colour photo. John Isherwood.

You don't need to - the whole point of the exercise was that the individual vans converted to road mode, and headed off to their road destination. On returning, they were marshalled into a train in road mode, and then switched over to rail mode. Rail mode shunting was thus zero. The adapter wagon 'body' could be rotated on the bogie, in order to allow it to be used outward and return - the model reproduces this. CJI.

Tony, My mistake - I thought that I was reading one of your posts - that'll teach me to pay attention! John Isherwood.

...... except that the livery is way-off! No wonder that my PALBRICK transfers are popular at present - I'm not complaining! CJI.

Am I missing something here? Has anyone worked out what KRM were trying to represent here? The model looks as if it was painted by someone on a mind-altering substance! CJI.

We have always previously used Singapore Airlines when travelling to Australasia. This time, the timings would have dictated an extended transfer at Singapore outbound to Brisbane, and Qantas offered a direct flight from Perth to Heathrow inbound to the UK - Qantas duly booked via Trailfinders. On checking-in online for the internal flight from Adelaide (end of Brisbane - Adelaide road-trip) to Perth, we discovered that we had been switched to a Adelaide - Sydney - Singapore - Heathrow route. No prior warning - not even Trailfinders were aware. Presumably, this was a consequence of the direct Dreamliner headwind / fuel issue? Anyway, no response to subsequent complaints and, combined with the atrocious food / in-flight service on all the Qantas flights that we used, we have vowed never to use Qantas again, no matter what the circumstances! John Isherwood.

If you use a brush wetted with Klear to 'tamp' the transfer into the ribs, you should be OK. Just have everything that you need to handso that, when you commence, there are no delays. The transfer can be kept mobile by adding a little more Klear - fortunately, Klear has negligible thickness when dried. That said - I haven't tried it with large transfers; I'd imagine that it may be more difficult to keep larger areas mobile. Good luck, John Isherwood.

It may well be that the pivot locations are not suitable for the correct bogies. CJI.

It requires confidence above all - so that you can work quickly. Adhesion is not instantaneous by any means - some manipulation is possible. Practice with some unwanted transfers is strongly recommended. John Isherwood.

Klear has also been suggested as a fixing medium for ballasting - any experience/ comments, anybody? CJI.

This could only be achieved by a commitment, at the highest (political) level, to abandoning 'convenient' shortcut / cheap working practices in favour of engineeringly-sound, long-term solutions to genuine strategic network development. ..... which I do not remotely expect to happen in mine, or my offspring's lifetimes. CJI.

Not really - our former home, now owned by another member here and part of a large estate, still has thermoplastic tiling on the ground floor. CJI.

Fine - but surely he (and she) knew what to expect? Barry Humphries was not exactly renown for his polite parlour repartee! Did they ever attend a Jethro performance? (Probably not)! CJI.

We should not judge the past by today's standards - it was a very different world then, and probably not one to which we would wish to return. All this apologising for the 'misdeeds' of our forefathers is totally out of control - then was then, now is now! We are making quite enough mistakes as it is, without getting worked-up about what our forebears did - we can't change it, after all! CJI.

Ohh yes - we have had to resort to good old galvanised dustbins for storing bird food - field-mice got through substantial polypropylene storage boxes in a matter of a few days! Best of luck, E-W Rail! CJI.

When common-sense was trumped by precedent, and conveniently perceived (legal) technicalities, the industry was already a long way down a dark and dangerous blind alley! This is not in any way the sole preserve of the railway industry; in local government, the 'hiving-off' of any department that was in danger of 'doing' anything - as opposed to commissioning it - was implemented at the earliest possible opportunity. G*d forbid that the 'buck' landed on my desk! CJI.

Not on Cambridge Custom Transfers !! As per my instructions, oil-based varnishes will adversely affect them. CJI.

I understand that, under current operational rules, it may be easier from an administrative perspective to bury infrastructure, rather than to remove it as redundant; the question is whether this should be the case. Are you really trying to tell us that track and signalling 'assets', buried for several (many?) years, are going to be 'relatively straightforward' to safely re-activate? (Please bear in mind that you are communicating with a career civil engineer (retired)). A lot of weasel words are nowadays used to justify using the convenient solution, rather than the correct engineering process. If the rules / procedures / regulations dictate this approach, there is something very wrong with said rules / procedures / regs. CJI.

I stockpiled Klear when it was indicated that it might be withdrawn, and I have followed subsequent developments as a matter of interest. My understanding is that the current Johnsons product may be cloudy as supplied, under whatever brand name may be current, does perform as per the original product and dries clear. The critical item in the product description seems to be that it is intended for the treatment of thermoplastic floor tiles - which I suspect are rather rare, nowadays. At one time - possibly still current - Humbrol offered a product labelled Klear (Clear?), which was stated here to be the original Johnson Klear formulation. CJI.

So you are saying that burying track under structures does not constitute a "Network Change", whereas removing it does? If that is the case, bureaucracy has gone mad! Yet another example where the H&S culture is resulting in a situation that has potential adverse safety implications for the future. You couldn't make it up !! 😂 CJI.