SRman

My 1994 VR Commodore was the first car I had owned with cruise control. I had DougN as a passenger in the car and it was getting dark as we turned onto the Monash Freeway. Doug tried to instruct me on how to operate the cruise control while I tried to press the right buttons that I couldn't actually see in the dark. The result was a series of speed-ups followed by slow-downs as I tried to engage it and failed! I eventually got it. On another occasion not long afterwards, I was using cruise control on the Hume Freeway, on the way to Sydney and Newcastle. There was a hill which caused the gearbox to kick down not one, but two gears, into second (4-speed auto). Now that was disconcerting! Under 'manual' control, I would have let the speed slacken a bit, but the cruise control just wanted to maintain speed at all costs. Then of course, there was the time we were coming back along the Hume, with Mrs SRman at the wheel. She had cruise control on, and we drove past some signs warning of speed cameras ahead; I glanced at the speedo and saw 120 kph on the dial (the speed limit was 110 kph). She was just 'resting' her foot on the accelerator!!

That was the reason I chose Bridgestones rather than Radial TAs for mine. The grip in the wet is better, but still a bit iffy.

It was because of these bargains that I bought a second one. My first one was bought at full price, in case they sold out! The first one was subsequently fitted with YouChoos sound and I am very happy with the result.

Lima did a model of this one.

Very wise, manna. That would have been lethal in the hands of an inexperienced driver. My own XB has a warm 302 in it. I have to drive with a feather-foot in the wet, although it has lost some power on unleaded petrol.

Are you referring to the USA dock tanks? If so, they are at http://www.modelrailoffers.co.uk/c/1084/Steam-Locomotives.

Wow. I do like the effect you have achieved there, Chris. Well done.

Continuing my industrial locomotive theme of female names beginning with 'A', I bought some more nameplates, works plates and number plates from Narrow Planet (the service was excellent, as always). The Hornby J94, Harry, was renumbered a while ago using Bulleid 'sunshine' style numerals, and now has the name Agnes, named after my wife who insisted I buy this locomotive when it came up for sale at a local BRMA meeting. The Heljan class 05 in Bulmers light green, Formerly #2, Cider Queen, is now number 11, Arabella. Sorry these are a little blurry; I snapped them off rather hastily on the phone camera. If I take better ones later, I'll edit the post and stick those in. 18/10/2017: Edited to resize the photos and also to replace the first one of the J94 with a slightly better one.

Actually they didn't even do that with the Ford: the compliance plate says "2 door sedan"! How imaginative is that? That's really useful for insurance purposes, because if it said "coupe" the cost would be bumped up by several hundred dollars.

Chrysler hedged their bets both ways with the two 2-door coupes. Their hardtops were actually longer than the 4-door cars, while the Charger ("Hey, Charger!" - remember that campaign?) really captured the public imagination more. I still have my Falcon Hardtop bought in 1985 when it was already 11.5 years old. It is now just on 44 years old.

There should be no reason why you could not use the same address for each decoder in a fixed rake, or 'consist' them, which would give greater flexibility if you move coaches around between sets.

I wasn't sure whether I should mention having a peanut for Premier of Queensland for many years (politics!), but I did get a school prize presented by him. I never went to the Bullen's attraction, although it did get quite a bit of airplay. Yatala is more well known locally for its pies, nowadays (they are good). I did go through the Big Pineapple many times (a family connection through marriage). I loved the hinterland behind Nambour; there was a miniature English village at Flaxton with a British-style pub as well - I'm not sure if that still exists now, though. Monkeyarefun: I'm not sure about Rush being "creaking"; I used to love that show too, and thought it was well done, certainly by the standards of the time. Production values have improved dramatically in the following decades; just look at some early episodes of Doctor Who (sorry, I know that's taking us off-topic a bit), which had a relatively low budget for most of its time on air to 1989; shaky sets, errors staying in because they couldn't afford any more edits, fluffed lines, and all, but it still stands up today through sheer character, and many (but not all) good story lines, and atmosphere. Back to Australia: of course, Ballarat still has its moments of fame with the Doctor Blake Mysteries now.

I can't answer for Melbourne or Victoria; I was living in Brisbane at that time.

At the 0:50 mark, I spied what I think was a Hillman Hunter (or Arrow), and in the far background, a Morris 1100! While they may not seem very Australian, both types were locally assembled. Never having actually lived in Sydney (or any other part of New South Wales), I can't say I remember that ad at all.

Thanks for that, Dale. I had in mind to use the existing light housing in the chassis, which would then continue to use the light 'pipes' to the headcode panel. Your solution deems to work well, though. If I can't rig mine the way I was thinking of, I'll do a direct copy of yours.

Not on 4TCs themselves but sort of related: has anyone yet modified their class 33 lighting? I was pondering the idea of changing the white bulb (at least, at one end) to a bicoloured LED and running an extra wire to illuminate the red part when propelling the TC unit(s). Of course, I would also need to add suitable resistors into the circuit to avoid blowing the LED. This would then balance out the changing headcode colour at the other end of the TC. My D6520 is semi-permanently allocated to the TCs now, so I don't envisage having to do this to any other 33 models at this stage. The other thought that occurs to me in this is that perhaps the red LED should be operated by a separate function and output from the decoder, otherwise the white headcode at the leading end (the one coupled to the 4TC) will be showing as well.

Stepney doesn't seem to come up very often in the usual places. I have two of the LBSC liveried Terriers, one from Hornby and one earlier one from Dapol. They are mechanically identical, but the Dapol colours are better, IMO, with the Hornby 'improved engine green' being a distinctly brown shade, rather than the rich yellow ochre it should be. You may have more luck picking up an alternate name/number, then renaming it if you can find suitable name transfers. Etched number plates would allow easy renumbering and improve the model as well. My Dapol 82 Boxhill is at the back in this photo, while the Hornby 83 Earlswood is in front; you can see the richer colour on Boxhill.

On a serious note, the Werribee Zoo in the western suburbs of Melbourne does, indeed, have rhinos in an open setting (not on skateboards, though!). If you are ever back in Melbourne, all three of the main zoos are worth visiting (Melbourne Zoo, Werribee mansion and open range zoo, and Healesville Sanctuary - the latter for Australian native fauna).

Aaaarrrgh! Noo-o-o-oo! Heresy!! The Bulleid "spam cans" are things of beauty. Bulleid's Q1s were strange beasts, although i like them, but they really can't be described as pretty or beautiful; functional might be a more apt term for them. Perhaps because i grew up in the south of England and saw the spam cans fairly regularly, they aren't so strange to me. There are plenty of them preserved in both original and rebuilt forms, but they don't feature generally as major parts of the Bluebell's stock. On visits to the Bluebell over the years I recall small to medium engines being the rule; things like an Adams radial, Terriers, P class, U class, S15, BR standards, and a Schools (class V), plus the Q1 (although out of service when I was there in '99). Liveries were varied too, from pre-grouping (i.e. before 1923), through Southern Railway variations, to British Railways.

I once put in some shelves and couldn't find my spirit level. A couple of Trix coaches did the job for me instead!

Bachmann's SECR C class 0-6-0 is another regular on the Bluebell. I even visited the Bluebell in Winter 1999, and the C was out working on the extension to East Grinstead at the time, although not trains were running for the public. The down side of this particular locomotive is the SECR liveried ones sold out and now fetch ridiculous prices. You might still come across a forgotten one in a model shop somewhere in the States, though.

I haven't been following this thread too closely, so apologies if this has been covered already: does that price include a decoder? If so, it's not unreasonable, IMHO.

Haven't you ever been to Melbourne, Paul? We have lots an' lots of those rhinos on skateboards, although I have to admit, I have yet to see a convoy of 30 of them in one go!

There are photos and videos around of CO/CP stock in mixed rakes in the 1970s, with half the train in train red with gold lettering, and half in bus red with white bullseyes (they were formed of 2 and 3 car sets in trains of 4 up to 8 cars at various times). I would hazard the guess that the shade used on the TC is closer to LT train red, or at least a modern attempt to match it. I think it looks very distinguished in this colour scheme and, like some others here, would like a model in that livery too.

You should have taken a leaf out of Tony Hancock's book and told the nurse she could only have an armful of blood.!