SRman

The Austin A60 used to be fairly common at swap meets but more recently I can't say I have seen many of them around. The Vauxhall Victor 101 and Ford Corsair crop up from time to time but have always been a little less common than the others mentioned already. At one time, Hattons had heaps of Sunbeam Alpines available but those were of the later standard and didn't even have clear glazing. I have to say, though, that the Minix Alpines were not especially rare, and seemed to me to be a lot more easily found than the real ones! I know this is getting a little bit away from Oxford Diecast, but it does illustrate that there are still useful gaps in the range that can be filled.

With a few touches, such as a lick of paint, blackening the insides of the window surrounds and wheel arches, flooding some very thin black paint into the chrome radiator grilles (better than the painted silver on the diecasts!), painting the tyres and widening the axles (in most cases), the Minix models come up very well indeed. the mouldings are usually quite sharp and the vast majority are indeed to proper 1/76 scale. They are often available very cheaply at swap meets, although some types (e.g. the Austin 1800) are much harder to find than others, and consequently much dearer. I generally avoid the newer ones with unpainted plastic bumpers and black disc wheels; stick to the ones with chrome effect bumpers, grilles and wheels. Common cars that are also still commonly available in Minix form include the Morris 1100, Ford Anglia, Vauxhall Viva, Triumph 2000 and Ford Thames van. There are others but those are the ones that come immediately to mind. While that sounds like a lot of work, it isn't really that difficult and they do come up as more realistic models than many of the diecast models, IMHO. That's not to say don't buy the diecasts. They do represent excellent value for money and also present many types that have never previously been available RTR.

Simon certainly said that to a small group of BRMA modellers when he had an informal meeting with us in Melbourne, some years ago. It also came as a little bit of a revelation to him when we pointed out the hidden sales to Australia from many of us buying directly on line from major UK retailers, indicating an even larger market than his sales figures suggested.

A little lighter relief: I should start a new thread "How Unrealistic are Your Trains?". I bought three pre-grouping vans from the local swap meet, all Roxey etched brass kits and well made, although a little battered from unsympathetic handling. Each cost me $20, (compared to the £27 each for the flat kits, still currently available) and was fitted with EM gauge axles and wheels. I have slowly regauged or replaced the wheels and axles, with two of the vans retaining their compensation at one end, while the S&DJR van had to lose its compensation unit as it was too wide to fit within the OO gauge wheelset. I fitted NEM pockets from Parkside, with a 60 thou packing piece to negate the Parkside requirement for cranked couplings, and plugged in some tension lock couplings. The S&D milk van is in a blue colour, which I may retain, while the other two LCDR/SECR vans were in a rather insipid green colour. One is now in EWS red (a reasonably close match to what I can ascertain is SECR red/maroon), while the other is in Humbrol leather colour to represent a teak finish, as used by the LCDR. All require further work before adding transfers, and two of them are rather stiff runners, so more work required there too. Making up a rather unlikely combination, I have posed my two LSWR M7 tanks with the three vans plus the previously worked on SECR (ex-LCDR) brake van. It does make for a colourful combination, although the purists are probably screaming in the background! (Edited to replace the photo with a slightly clearer one.)

I bought some more wire today to finish off the last of the point motors. I couldn't get the multi-coloured ribbon wires I like so settled for some fairly substantial automotive wire instead. It has totally destroyed any semblance of colour coding I had for the rest! It all works now, though, although one of the polarity feed wires dropped off the micro-switch while I was reseating the switch, but all fixed now. This is very similar to the previous shot but shows the last empty holes now filled with the Peco stud contacts. And this is what it looks like from behind. Note many of the signal switches are still unwired. That's for another day.

Mark: I might have to try using some dry ice to produce some smog, although the wisps of smoke when soldering could be wafted through the streets for effect too. I really need to weather a few more road vehicles too, as most are too shiny and clean to be realistic. I must take a leaf from P.C.M.'s book for this. Doug: Progress may slow down again once I return to work at the end of this week. I am pleased with progress though; I really feel as if I am achieving something right now. Having all the points on the LT section remotely operable means that next time I have a few people over, I won't have to keep doing the shuffle just to reach the far end of the loops.

I have been breaking my back lately, not just with the third and fourth rail laying, but also wiring up the points. I deliberately left the tags only slightly bent over on the Peco point motors, so I could remove them to solder the wires on without too much difficulty. That was the easy bit, as reinserting them into the slots from underneath while trying not to dislodge the Peco micro-switches proved a little awkward with a couple of the points which were positioned behind some of the framework under the boards. Peco studs and probe are used for control, and power comes from the 16V AC output of my ancient H & M Duette. On test, even the crossover can be thrown with no hesitation whatsoever from both solenoids throwing at the same time (from the same contact). I have been using twisted pairs of wire to double-up the feeds to allow full current to be carried. Even so, I ran out of coloured-pairs for colour coding the wires, so there are a couple of mismatched feeds I'll just have to live with. While there is not much to show, the studs in the control panel give the game away, and also show that I still have one crossover left to wire up. I ran out of wire, although I know I have another reel of it somewhere l tidied it up and can't find it! Behind the panel, I have sealed each of the contacts with hot glue to ensure no possible contact between adjacent studs.

Yes, it was a very pleasant afternoon, chatting with friends and watching the trains go by, not to mention the tea/coffee, pies and cakes plus home-made cake. Thank you for having us, Rick and Sharon. Here are a few photos I took with my mobile phone. These are unprocessed but I may try to enhance them a little later. They were intended to show a little of the atmosphere of Rick's modelling.

In the days of film, my wife ruined a couple of films by forgetting to rewind them before opening the back of her camera. Fortunately, that never happened to me!

Damn! I can only use one icon - I wanted to hit like and funny as well.

I hope no one objects to me applying a little bit of cheating here - These are the same as an earlier post I did of the Hornby NRM M7 0-4-4T in LSWR livery, but I have airbrushed some smoke effects in (using Paintshop Pro 8 ). It does add to the atmosphere but, unlike the earlier unedited post, I cannot reproduce this on demand if you come to see my layout! Edited to remove an accidental smiley!

That brings back memories of the old Rockhampton Mail. My grandfather got ill (heart attack) on the way from Brisbane to Rocky on the Mail in the late '60s, and had to be taken off at Maryborough.

Not horse poo, but I did attempt to model sheep poo in a diorama I made some years ago. I tried a few different things with something less than success, until a gust of wind blew some of the freshly scattered grass scenics onto the still wet paint on the road. It gave me exactly the effect I wanted. I'm not sure if this photo shows it up very well, but it is under and behind the sheep on the road at the right of the junction.

And today, while getting frustrated with the computer, I finished off the third and fourth rail laying on the branch line. I have to add the flattened ramps at the ends of the outside (third) rails ... when I find where I have put them! This now completes the third and fourth rail this end of the layout - roughly one-third of the visible track. I have to keep going through the station loops, then the crossover and plain track at the other end where I tend to take most of my photographs (it has the only greenery at the moment!).

The running sounds are not too bad, although not particularly well synchronised, but the idle was nothing like what I remembered. I had mine reblown too.

I was planning to use the old fashioned style of gates on the level crossing, at least initially, with the possibility of leaving them as plug-in units so I could swap later to more modern image barriers, depending on what era I choose to run. I do have some Peco gates, and the old Airfix level crossing kit had some half decent gates as well (now in the Dapol range). In the meantime, I have been active again this afternoon, laying a little more third and fourth rail, with the usual swearing as chairs pinged off repeatedly into the distance! This is filling in a gap that I had previously left, between the tunnel mouth and the crossover on the inner track. I am trialling some code 55 rail with this lot. I still have to add a ramp on the third rail ending just before the point at the crossover.

Do you want me to bring along the big hammer, Peter?

While I was waiting for some downloads and updates to complete on the train room computer (it's an old Pentium D one cobbled together from left-over bits after upgrading the good desktops), I cut some thin card to form a template for the level crossing. This will be refined a bit before finalising it.

I converted one driving coach only using the first class compartments from an old Triang-Hornby composite coach interior (I only had one such seat unit spare, which is why I haven't done the second driving coach of that unit). It was a bit of work and I would much prefer to be able to get replacement interiors of the correct type from Hornby. At one time, Simon Kohler said we would be able to get them but that may not be the case now with the changes in his and Hornby's circumstances.

Lovely bit of footage there, David. Lots of 4 SUBs and the odd 4 COR/RES. It also illustrates how much more visible the trains are even with just the small yellow panels. Now, if only we had a time machine and a decent video camera to take back with us ...

Illustrating what I said before about the radii, I have posed a piece of set track 3rd radius track beside my freshly laid curves and you can see that mine are not quite to commercial radii but are somewhere between 3rd and 4th radius (inner) and 4th and 5th radius (outer), being a little closer to the second figure for each. I also allow a little extra room for clearances between the tracks but close the spacing up a little along the straight or very gently curved stretches.

Hi Peter. I was going to comment on the ballast spreader in the pic, but forgot about it! It is a Proses one I bought to try after I had completed most of the lower level ballasting, so it hasn't actually been used yet. I do intend trialling it on the upper level once I have adjusted and bedded in the tracks. I always run for some time with no ballast until I am sure everything runs properly. I will certainly report back on its success or otherwise, once I have tried it out. That may be some months away, yet, considering my slow progress on the upper level.

Yes, I found that out on the old layout. Set all the clearances with mark 3 coaches and the 166 unit, then ran the 170 into the platform where it promptly 'beached' on the platform edges! I had to modify the platforms in a few places to clear those steps.

The Cargowaggons come into their own when testing clearances with lineside objects. I can't use the silver bullets any more for this since I narrowed their ladder overhangs slightly, by around a millimetre on each side.

I just spent most of the afternoon doing a little track laying, made easier because I have been able to clear most of the stock off the upper level since buying the extra Ikea Alex unit. There is now a continuous flow from the fiddle yard right around the curve at the right-hand end of the layout. The class 166 driving coaches are my spacing gauges - they are the widest and longest items of stock I possess, so are the ones I use to test clearances. I also cut away a little of the church hill to allow for the future level crossing. The curves look tight but are actually not too bad, being roughly equivalent to the set track 3rd and 4th radii or slightly larger.