Martin S-C

That information is very useful James, thank you.

M&SWJ 2-6-0 No.16. Though I thought she was known as Galloping Gertie. I almost built the M&SWJ in MSTS many years ago. I love their collection of locos, especially the early small tank engines and their glorious but ill-fated 4-4-4s. Plus of course my second favourite engine of all time, the Dubs 2-4-0s which looked superb with round topped fireboxes before Swindon abused them. I support all things GWR but in my view putting Belpaire fireboxes on those locos ruined their appearance. The early M&SWJ coaching stock is fascinating too. Along with military camp traffic in the Great War there is a lot of interesting traffic on the line. Time and interests moved on however and it never got built although No.16 was built by a friend. I'd still like to model part of it in 4mm one day.

I received one of these from Tom yesterday and a very nice print it is too! I grabbed one off him because its simply a lovely looking engine but I know nothing of the prototype - can anyone give me some information please?

Hang onto your coal, that young gentleman on the left looks full of mischief.

They're exquisite. I need to order some.

But its really nice filth, all artfully slathered on. No mucky stuff I promise.

You are invisible. Looks like an empty chair to me!

Yes, it does look like a D311. Not a UK prototype then so admins can close or remove the thread!

I have never seen anything like this in BR colours and suspect its a work of fiction but can anyone throw any light on it? Thanks.

Before I read your text I thought what a lovely garden bench model that is. Brass I assume. Do you recall where you got it or who makes it?

That last monochrome pic is absolutely bluddy marvellous.

Oooh, those bright white coach roofs make me itch to get my weathing brushes out and smother them in delicious filth!

Looks like more snow on the way. That last loco is very nice, lovely proportions to it.

It looks very sorry for itself in that photo. Probably waiting on the scrap line?

I don't have any cats at the moment but would like to own a couple in time. I have a plan to call them Chalfont and Latimer, after the sub-surface station in NW London where an ex-gf of mine lived. Fond memories of visiting there. Corbs - no, I haven't posted details of the loco fleet, mainly because I have an embarrassingly large collection of engines and I realise not all can be justified. I've confessed before to my terrible weakness for "magpie modelling" where I tend to buy anything pretty and shiny that catches my eye. I recently sold off a number of wagons because I collected them early on due to having nice liveries and names but before I'd fixed my location as N Gloucestershire so all the Scottish, Lincolnshire, Cumberland, Lancs & Yorks, Kent and other far flung PO wagons had to go! I'll try to list them all here however in a day or so, but the fleet is a bit fluid at the moment and much of it is still in its compnent parts in various crates scattered around the works (aka in the kits box)! Zomboid - you can buy small rabbit models now so Kiki could be in a hutch in a back yard or in a field...

Ooh, do I spy a couple of MVR wagons there? Have you been replacing some trees too? These look so much better.

Do you cut slots into your lamps so they push fit onto the (what I assume are etched brass) lamp irons?

Yes, it was a recent purchase but it's pushed aside a few other locos in the build queue!

Thanks Annie, I'm rather fond of him too. I think he may well develop a bit of a personality. With his ultra-short wheelbase I plan to use him as test engine during track construction because he's most likely to find dead spots and uneven bits, so really he's the contractors engine and I'll have to pose him with a few opens full of spoil as the engineers get to work. I have two of the C53s on order, the second one is one of those that's still on a container ship somewhere and is one of the options without side skirts. The pair will work the branch which, with roaside tramway sections I am sure they'll be very much at home on. I will also use them to shunt the canalside wharves at Green Soudley which seems appropriate. Some years ago we had two very characterful cats, a mother and her son. We called the mother Tosca and her son was Pontefract. I've had these nameplates made up to name the two trams after the pair. So not Toby the tram but Tosca the tram on my railway. Tosca, being a girl of course, will wear her skirts. Pontefract will go bare-legged.

I agree. I haven't taken a pair of calipers to it and have no intention to, some may do so and in time there might be seen to be some dimensional errors, but the quality of finish, crispness of design, smoothness of motor (it runs like a watch), wealth of optional details and the presentation of the instruction booklet are probably being studied right now in the offices of Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol, Heljan and Oxford and I hope some fruitful discussions will follow as a result. Its early to judge after just a day, but for me this is how model railway RTR should be. I will absolutely have no reservations buying further products made by Rapido.

Hi Markus, we have now more or less decided on a traditional hinged flap. Its simple, robust and allows emergency access without specialist knowledge. I've seen all kinds of very clever designs for access and so on but I have to say that for me, for a simple entry through a door and into a room is concerned, many are just over complex. I am not saying that the above design is not fantastic, but its just more awesome than I need.

I have the Bachmann C Class in SECR livery... I know its worth silly money to a collector but; 1) I like to run my trains, not only enjoy them standing on a shelf (though I like doing that too). 2) If they go on my layout they must look as realistic as I can make them, therefore weathering! I am sure many owners of such models would think I'm bonkers to take a jar of mucky paint to such a lovely object but in my mind if a loco shows an appropriate patina of dirt it only makes it lovlier. Appropriate is the key word of course. I wouldn't want this looking like this Wilf is depicted in 1919 after a long heavy stint shifting coal wagons about for the war effort so he's pretty grimy but even so he's been tended to by enough cheap labour to keep him moderately clean. My goods engines will not be as bad as that and my passenger locos will be fairly clean. Here's what I'd call pretty dirty for my layout and this condition might reflect much of my freight motive power: And something well cared for that the public see close up:

Seeing the virtual Northiam reminded me I have this.

That looks great. Yes, we did push the boundaries a bit. We invented another invisible wagon of almost zero length with a mass of 100,000 tons and no couplings and parked it right at the ends of our sidings. This made it look like wagons would hit and stop at the virtual buffer stops, it also meant you could loose and fly shunt which was a real art but was terifically satisfying to do when you got it right. You had to adjust the physics files of your wagons so they'd have less tendency to derail but letting go of a couple of coal wagons and seeing them creep down a siding until they gently bumped against the stop block was great fun.

Yes, James, it would be lovely to see a GER blue version eventually. Chris Leigh - Yes, the extra bits in the little baggies really surpised me. You get: Two sets of front and rear wooden access doors in the closed and open positions. A pair of cosmetic screw couplings. A pair of front and rear safety grills of prototypical shape to swap out the ones fitted on the model which have the cut-outs necessary for the NEM couplers. Four safety chains and hooks. Eight window frames so you can swap out the glazed ones (all of them if you like!) for slid-open windows. The instructions advise you need to source some 5 thou glazing sheet. None is supplied with the model. Six different GER makers/number plates (in this version of the model they are 7126, 7128, 7129, 7131, 7137, 7139). Four BR 32F shed plates. Six "5" number plates. Five 3-bolt iron straps. Five 2-bolt iron straps (2- and 3-bolt plates are for the different external fixings of the internal cab seats where they were fixed to the body front and rear). The brass etch is a bold move in an RTR model. Pretty sure I've never seen a manufacturer ever make this much effort to cater for the modeller who seeks a greater level of accuracy than the average customer. The out of the box owner can run the model as it is, but the more serious modeller can fit all the extra details in accordance with a photo of their particular prototype. You get a 17-page manual with very clear photos and instructions of how and where to fit all the brass plates and other parts. Rapido even suggest makes of ESU loksound decoders of European tram engines with bells that could be used as a basis of a sound set for the engine (no J70 sound set exists of course). And all this for a price not significantly different to many other RTR loco models from some competitors. We are lucky to enjoy our hobby in such enlightened times!