SRman

I also have memories of them through Petts Wood: my grandparents' house was in Queensway, backing onto the railway embankment up to the southern end of the station. Petts Wood's iron footbridge was responsible for removing the pantograph from at least one class 71; apparently, the panto decided to pop up of its own accord just before the locomotive passed under said footbridge!

While maybe taking us a little off-topic, there are a good many movies that misrepresent distances or even the juxtaposition of places, purely for the entertainment value they get by including famous landmarks. Some even use completely different places to represent the places in the movie: I have been witness to at least three such cases. 1. Mission Impossible from the 1980s, filmed in and a round Brisbane but purporting to be in London. They closed off the street just up the road from my office at the time. 2. Ghost Rider (Nicholas Cage), filmed in and around Melbourne. I was working in a building in Lonsdale Street, backing onto Little Lonsdale Street. the latter was closed off at night for filming and the building of movie sets on two car parks. These represented American locations, and had left-hand drive cars and a garage, plus some shops. 3. The school I work in now became an Elementary School in Boston for two weeks while another Nicholas Cage movie was made - Knowing. I almost walked into a 1958 scene at one stage carrying a computer! We had the American flag flying over the school for those two weeks. In each case, I can point out locations in the movies that I know very well are not where the movies say they are. Is that a reason to criticise the movies? Well, IMHO, the Nicholas Cage movies were a bit B grade, but the wrong locations really don't affect the narrative flow of the movies - they are there for a part in the entertainment. I think that TGT and Top Gear exaggerated or distorted a good many 'facts'. I still enjoyed the shows for their entertainment value. Let's face it, nobody could become as rich and popular as the three leads have done by being as stupid in real life as they are in the shows. They are paid to be silly, dogmatic, stupid, ... and funny.

Currently, series 1 is being played on our channel 7 / 70 / 71 free to air in Australia.

I think James O'Malley has missed the point that The Grand Tour, and Top Gear, for that matter, are classed as "entertainment" shows, not "factual" shows. Very little in the shows can be taken seriously, with the presenters deliberately doing stupid things and making stupid choices, purely to create entertaining situations. I agree that The Grand Tour has taken a little while to find its feet, but that was at least partly due to it deliberately not being a carbon copy of Top Gear. The first few episodes were a bit hit and miss, but it gradually got better (mostly, IMHO) as series 1 progressed. It may be a while before I get to watch series 2 on free to air TV, so I cannot add any useful comments on that series.

The old Triang/Hornby Hymek can brush up well with a few details: separate handrails, etched roof grille, and separate brass horns (e.g. Markits). The latter are better than the moulded lumps on earlier models; later production models did have separate plastic horns fitted. I double-motored mine, with eight wheel drive and eight wheel pickup, it is almost as smooth and powerful as the Heljan models, but somewhat noisier! On another forum, someone suggested not having the horns at all, as the first three prototypes had the horns mounted below the buffer beam. they were moved after a few years to match the rest of the production run (i.e. the other 98 locomotives). I had a little more fun with my Triang Hymek and painted it in a fictional, 'might-have-been' maroon livery. The other two in the photo are Heljan versions.

If the lights are already working, turning the decoder 180 degrees will probably not work - it will probably show no lights after that. The decoder in the trailing car needs to have CV 29 value read then altered: if it is an even number, add 1; if it is an odd number, subtract 1.

I'll save that video when I get home.

Now that rings a bell, Chris. I do recall reading about the additional bulkheads somewhere a while ago; possibly in Mike King's book?

Sounds good to me. I do have to clear my "temporary" workbench off the existing board area! After that, it will be relatively easy for two of us to manoeuvre the woodwork into place. I like the name "Thistle Beck". Will that be based on anywhere in particular? P.s. Do you have to deal with carols by candlelight with the younger DougNs on the coming weekends?

The firsts had evenly spaced compartments with the same dimensions throughout, whereas the composites did have larger firsts and smaller thirds (or seconds as per later in their lives). I would have to check the drawings for whether the middle compartment on the later ones with three firsts and four thirds kept the first class dimensions. that would be another example of what i said in my earlier post, where a first class compartment is simply downgraded.

That moulding line was picked up in some reviews even of the first release models, although it does seem to vary considerably between individual models from all of the production batches I have representatives from (I have seven of the rebuilt MNs!). The later mouldings seem to have a small extra riveted plate moulded on top of the smokebox, where it joins the main boiler. I'm not sure if this was in respect of specific models or if it was a slight upgrade to the moulds for all of the models produced from a certain date onwards. One other major change over the life of the model was the elimination of the sprung rear driving axle, with later models having a rigid driven wheelbase.

Besides Rule 1, there have been precedents in the real world where first class compartments have been downgraded, so those in the know could ride second class but with a heap of extra legroom. I'm not saying this happened with any of the Maunsell hauled stock, but ti certainly happened with some Maunsell and Bulleid EMU coaches at different times.

You may get a call for assistance in the very near future, Doug!

Recapping on some of the newer arrivals at Newton Broadway, I have taken a few more photos. The DJM J94 has now received nameplates from Narrow Planet, and is called Annabelle, continuing with the theme of girls names starting with 'A'. I think the only thing I don't like about the DJM model is the over-thick injector pipes under the cab. I may attack them with some files in the near future. The Gate Stock has now had some running, with the Kernow O2 both pulling and pushing. I settled on using Hornby close couplings between the two coaches but Kadees between the locomotive and leading coach - #18 on the loco and #19 on the Gate Set coach. And some NPCCS that I'm not sure I have photographed before: four BR mark 1 horse boxes from TMC. Two in BR(S) green, two in maroon, with one each of the latter from the LMR and the WR. Between them they have all the variations on original condition through various bits of reinforcement added in later lives.

I had a running session last night with the gate stock being pushed and pulled for long periods by the O2, with no problems at all. I have Hornby close couplings (originally supplied with their Maunsell coaches) between the two coaches but found that these were responsible for the locomotive problems when used between the loco and the first coach. I now have a Kadee #18 fitted to the locomotive and #19 to the first coach and the running is faultless. I think the close couplings were too rigid for the O2 and were forcing the rear bogie to one side, thus affecting the pickup and running on curves.

I agree with Phil, above, but would add that for those of us living and ordering from overseas, Hattons often have rather cheaper postal rates than the others. I also shop with Rails, as a satisfied customer of theirs too, and find that frequently the prices from Rails are very slightly cheaper than Hattons' but then Hattons more than makes up the difference with the lower postage costs, or at least those to Australia.

I have generally had very positive experiences from Hattons as well as other rival retailers. Hattons always used to be a little cheaper than others but that seems to have gone by the board since the manufacturers started imposing their own conditions on the retailers. Like any operation run by human beings, they can, and do, make mistakes, but they also rectify those mistakes with the minimum of fuss and cost to the customer. My latest experience with them means they deserve praise for their positive response. I made a large order recently (some new and some pre-owned) for a number of Oxford diecast cars and vans, plus a bus, a Pocketbond car, two DCC Concepts decoders, some Fox Transfers, some Kean Maygib wheels and bearings, a Westward bogie kit, and a DJM J94. The whole package arrived in a sodden state (probably from our recent extremely wet weather), with the outer cardboard box disintegrating and placed into a plastic bag with absolutely no explanation from the Post Office. All of the paperwork and cardboard packaging for the individual items was wet and falling apart. The water had reached some of the contents but with minimal damage to any of them. The J94 had a some moisture on it but none in it, and the decoders also survived (I tested then after making sure they were dried out). Now, none of this was in any way Hatton's fault. I contacted them to let them know all of this (for the record) in case anything was damaged or not working (before I had a chance to test things), and received a prompt response apologising to me and offering refunds or replacement of anything that was damaged. I subsequently informed them that all seemed to be working, although most of the boxes were useless (I don't keep those anyway, except for locomotive boxes). Again their representative apologised, even though I had assured him that I wasn't blaming Hattons, and reiterated that if I did find any problems later, to let them know and they would replace said items. I think that that is wonderful service, above and beyond their duty to the customer.

Fitting the decoder into the DJM J94 is a doddle: remove magnetic smokebox front, pull out decoder socket, remove blanking plug, fit Bachmann 36-568 decoder (I wish Bachmann would clearly mark pin 1, though), and replace magnetic smokebox front. That took longer to describe than to actually carry out!

A few more new arrivals on Newton Broadway, from a couple of different sources. I bought three Slaters wagon kits off eBay. They all have pre-painted and decorated sides and ends (POWsides?), but require some detail painting of the solebars and insides. Two of the kits were of an 1887 Gloucester RCW design, and the third was a 1907 RCH design. I have built one each of the two designs so far: a Crook & Greenaway 1887 type in a rather fetching blue livery, closely matched with a Revell blue (Oxford blue?); and an Allan Feaver wagon to the 1907 design - the packaging very kindly listed Humbrol #100 as being a match for the side colour. The builds were straightforward, although I added brass bearings and replaced the plastic wheels with metal ones from Hornby and Kean Maygib. I also received a sodden package from Hatton's - it seems to have suffered from our recent flooding rain. Any way, much of the cardboard packaging was wet and falling apart, but all of the actual contents seem to have survived unscathed. The one that could possibly have suffered the most was a DJM J94, but, luckily it only had a few drops of water on its upper surfaces, and the rest was bone dry. A test on DC on the rolling road showed it was fine. I then lubricated the gears and axles as a precaution, then ran it in on the rolling road for a while. It was then 'chipped' with a Bachmann 36-568 6-pin decoder and tested again. It runs very sweetly with this decoder. It is a nice looking model, enhanced by the blue livery and light weathering. It also makes an interesting comparison to the Hornby J94 behind it in the photos.

The first running session with my set 373 was not entirely successful, but that was down to the O2 stalling rather than any faults in the gate stock! I had to send a class 33, complete with two 4TC units into the tunnels to rescue the O2 and gate stock. I'll clean the wheels on the O2 and give it a bit of a run on the rolling road before I have another go with the gate stock.

If you run 10203 and a class 40 together, there may not be much room left in your platforms for the rest of the train!

I saw a cartoon a while ago, depicting a bikie tatoo parlour: a sign on the wall said, "Please don't ask for credit as a punch in the mouf may offend".

I'm not happy with the tenshodo motors at all, so have just ordered two Black Beetle motor bogies: 30mm wheelbase with 12mm wheels. I'm not too worried about whether the wheels are spoked or solid.

Hi Ian. Sorry for the delay in replying - the blogs don't report comments in the same way the main forums do. I am still awaiting the vinyls from Electra. I haven't heard any progress from Adam at this stage. The red I used was Ford Flame Red in the car spray paint ranges here in Oz. If you are anywhere other than Australia, the colour ranges may not match or could have different names for the same shades. The blue is a Revell colour in their model paint range, just brushed on, and the orange is in the standard Humbrol range, again brushed on.

Some details of the build so far in my blog. It is a Bratchell class 455 kit which has been on hold for a bit awaiting overlays for the South West Trains markings.