SRman

Just about finishing the Ruston saga, I have painted it Network South East dark blue, added a wash of black, then given it a coat of satin varnish. The cab roof was painted light grey then given a black wash (which fortunately dried with a matt finish), and added a driver (one of Hatton's 3D printed figures intended for the Hornby Peckett and Hatton's own Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST steam locos). As can be seen, the blue ends up very close to the shade used on Hornby's 0-6-0ST Peckett, which is what I was aiming for. The final touch was to add the Number 19 etched plates from Narrow Planet. She could still do with a spot more weathering, but there's no hurry for this. P_20200106_161134_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200106_161209_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr p.s. As can be seen, I got the driver to shift that Leyland Atlantean that was spoiling the background in the previous shots!

A quick dab of thinned Network South East darker (later) blue, then a thin wash of black over the blue patches has given this result. Once weathered lightly, I think it will all blend in nicely. The black wash is still wet in the photos. P_20200104_143037_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200104_143056_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

On the industrial front, I have numbered and named the B2 Peckett 0-6-0ST, after removing the NCB lettering using T-cut. Unfortunately, the T-cut also removed some of the blue paint, but I will be weathering this locomotive in due course, and its new name plates hide some of the black areas, so the effect will not be too obvious. She is now No. 18, Amarantha. The new No. 19 has also just arrived, a Hornby Ruston DS48 diesel, which will not be named for the present. I want to repaint the Army green to a blue livery but retain the wasp strips on the ends, hence my choice of this model (it saves me having to paint the wasp stripes in the first place!). Installing a Bachmann (Zimo) 36-568 6-pin decoder was a breeze (after noting any areas of concern referred to in the model rail forums) and works perfectly. P_20200103_143232_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200103_143308_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200103_143240_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Note that the Leyland Atlantean bus in the background does not belong in the goods yard. I have been rearranging some of my storage for both trains and road vehicles, and this was placed there temporarily.

The emojee shows a laugh, but you could probably hear the groan as well!

I don't think the washer was actually rubber - I described it as such to indicate its flexibility. It looks like a silicon material. And it was pink!

Eko has already been mentioned, but Brekina also seem to have some British cars in HO in their range. I couldn't see Morris Oxfords or Austin Cambridges anywhere, but there were Morris Minors and Minis, and Austin Se7en/Minis. It may be worth searching for Wolseleys and Rileys, although the earlier ones bore no resemblance to the Austin/Morris ranges, but the Farina style was common to all.

I just had to do something about my cistern drip drip dripping now. It started last week and while not bad, seemed to get louder each day. I had no trouble unscrewing the top cap, and removing the rubber/plastic washer, thankfully (assisted by advice from earlier posts here). I cleaned the scale off the washer, which otherwise seemed perfectly intact and flexible, then smeared Vaseline over it, then reassembled it with the washer turned over to use the other surface. Put it all back together, turned the water back on and it filled up, but kept going to a higher than previous level, until I tightened the top screw cap a little further, then all was well ... and SILENT!

Being super-pedantic here: the Blue Pullmans were technically made up of half-sets, so could be argued to be multiple units, in that they could have different half-sets MU'd together. In fairness, while I agree with your definition, HSTs are sort of halfway houses between loco-hauled stock being top and tailed, and a true DEMU. Their power cars could, in theory, be used for hauling other passenger stock, or freight stock, but in practice would have been wasted on freight, and incapable of running the incompatible electrical systems of normal loco-hauled coaches.

That's really interesting. I would have seen both Railway Modeller and MRC at that time, but I don't recall a maroon Hymek. I can say I created it from my own imagination, but even so, there could have been some buried subconscious memory of it if that was the case. Basically, though, I followed the general design principles that BR's panels used.

I have memories from when I was around four years old, although I would have been watching trains from a still earlier age. How do I know that? Because my grandparents' house in Queensway, Petts Wood backed on to the southern (Orpington) end of Petts Wood station. I would stand on a 3-legged stool in their kitchen to watch the trains pass by, with suburban EMUs interspersed with Hastings DEMUs and Dover-bound trains still steam-hauled for a short time before the electrification produced what are now known as class 71 electric locos. It was always a treat to see the Golden Arrow pass through. In warmer weather, I could go to the end of the garden and watch from there, or even climb a large apple tree and observe from a better height. I remember air-smoothed Bulleid pacifics clanking through. There were a few other steam types as well, but the Bulleids stood out because of their distinctive shape. I never actually saw a goods train, but I did hear them clanking and grinding through late at night whenever I spent the night there. I can't say I ever saw or heard a diesel locomotive through there, although they obviously did travel though - what are now known as classes 24 and 33 were based at Hither Green, not all that far away.

Even with the 'standard' full yellow ends, it is interesting to note the different treatments at buffer beam level between these two locos.

When I did the maroon Hymek, I found that it looked rather dull with no relief band at the bottom. I also tried light grey for the cab window surrounds, and that also was deadly dull. I'm sure BR would have used an off-white rather than the plain white I used. The yellow warning panels lift the maroon at the ends considerably (IMHO). I couldn't think of any other suitable colour for the lower band to replace the yellow-green of the green liveried Hymeks, but if the Baby Deltics can be used as a precedent, maybe an off-white for that lower band might have been used. I think my use of the circular carriage crest is consistent with the other maroon WR locos though. As you suggested, though, the chrome yellow bands with black in the middle might have lifted it too - perhaps applied a third of the way up the side, something like the orange/black lining used on the green class 50 Sir Edward Elgar. Whatever you think of my experiment, I was being unusually brave for me! I don't usually stray too much from the prototype liveries, especially when dealing with really expensive newer models. The cheap Triang Hymek lent itself to my trying to use my rather limited imagination. I have seen other fictional liveries where their creators have been far more imaginative and creative than I have. p.s. I don't mind your opinion in the least: liveries and colours have always been a matter of personal taste, and what one person loves, another will hate (plus all the opinions in between).

For the Paxman engine sound, I would have thought possibly something like an HST sound without the turbo scream might be close. However, as none of the 29s survived, there is no way of being sure of the sounds.

The front cab windscreen and gutter shapes appear to be much better than the previous Bachmann class 24 and 25 models. I'm a bit like you, Robert, in going for variations on the diesels, even though some don't really belong on my layout. With that in mind I am eyeing off the Dapol class 21 as well, with the excuse that the early deliveries were based around London for a couple of years. I'm going to have to find an excuse for the 24/1 too, I think, then if they do it later, a 25/0 (so similar to the headcode 24/1 that it should be easily possible).

Yeah but, yeah but ... the water is also upside down so it weighs less and rotates anti-anti-clockwise upside down!

He tried to match the archival sounds from what was available. The archive material itself was not of suitable quality. This is a video I took around 2008 on my old layout (now defunct). It will give you some idea of what it sounds like. Since none survived into preservation with their Mirrlees engines, there is no way of getting a 100% accurate sound project.

Howes. Bryan based it on a slowed down class 60 Mirrlees engine and some archive footage. I was probably the one who prompted him to do this one from a throw-away comment I made at the time. I don't know whether he has upgraded this to suit LokSound V4 or 5 (mine is on a V3.5 decoder).

I keep looking at the horrible blue on my Dapol E6007 (with the grey stripe), and wondering whether I should undertake a partial repaint, but it keeps going back into the "too hard" category. I did do remedial rewiring of the circuit board to get the lights working correctly, including independent cab lights. I also used a small amount of BR blue to paint out the edges of the over-wide yellow panels, with the small strips of BR blue at the corners being barely noticeable against the overall (wrong) blue body colour at normal viewing distance. I also gave the lemon yellow warning panels a couple of coats of varnish tinged with orange to darken the yellow. However, all of that does not correct the unsatisfactory overall blue. I will have to do something about it soon, and your model of E6017 has inspired me again.

It's the cheap Australian way to get their cars undersealed!

I had a different problem recently, with the yoke-shaped lever which transferred the push on the flush button to movement of the column creating the flush of water: the lever broke in the middle, completely cracked through. After trying various search terms, I found that the part was available from bunnings for around $13 (certainly not enough to break the budget!). The part was duly identified, purchased, and fitted. The part was listed as a "Caroma Single Flush Lever Bar and Weight", even though ours is a dual flush cistern, and I found that the weight was not required.

So hot you could fry eggs? Well this guy went one better: https://www.9news.com.au/national/man-cooks-pork-roast-in-datsun-car-in-perth-heat/162fcacc-9239-43a7-be23-638346d024bb

Pickups on one bogie would work, but on both bogies would be better for less flickering.

p.s.to the previous post: Ignore the extra footsteps all the way along as I re-chassised it in more recent times with a Hornby class 121 chassis, which needs the steps carved off. I had done this with the original Lima class 117 chassis.

Having used the Craftsman conversions, I would agree with you about the 'bowed' ends of the 119 (and 120) units. The kits include overlays that need to be shaped to the profile at the ends as well as for the sides. Just for the record, my photo shows the effect of using the Craftsman kit for the 120 on the Lima 117 bodies; the 119 is exactly the same kit without the etched two-window cab fronts for the 120. P_20181224_131014_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Chris (Geep7): the class 108 would not have the right body side profile, as it has a continuous curve from cantrail to solebar level. Even Hornby's 110 is not quite right because Hornby, in their wisdom, decided to mould the change in angle below the windows with a sharp crease rather than a curve, but at least that can be filed and sanded to a smoother curve (I did that with some class 104 conversions using the 110 bodies).