2mmMark

Ah yes, the "Dorian Gray" soldering technique.

I'm pretty much a "one-club golfer" when it comes to soldering. Hi-temp 60-40 for nearly everything, via a cheap Maplin 48w soldering station like this: I'm so used to it now that it's like a third hand. A while back, I did take the precaution of getting in a stock of tips as they get hard to find when the unit itself goes out of production. What nice about this iron is the ability to quickly change tips. It's possible to do it when hot. An RSU looks like making for neater work but I find that using thin gauge solder gives me reasonably tidy joints. I'm still using a reel of "Litesold" branded cored 0.5mm dia 60-40 tin/lead that I bought in 1983! Mark

A really useful aid to soldering are flat aluminium hair clips (sometimes called sectioning clips). They can be bent to suit whatever you're soldering and being aluminium, there's no danger of accidentally soldering them to the workpiece. ebay item 173272894783 for example.

I'd just like to say that I attended last year's exhibition as a visitor and thought it hit a very good standard for a small local show.

Large bodies of water tend to attract birds. The lake around BA's HQ is home to quite a few birds, some of a size that could do serious damage to an aircraft.

Bendy sticks - I've just remembered an old magazine article which mentioned using Swish curtain rail. This is about 9mm wide.

I've got a feeling that was in 2000, celebrating 100 years of railway modelling and 90 years of the MRC.

A few years ago (quite a few years ago!) I was a co-organiser of the Staines Finescale Show, which raised money for Save The Children Fund. We were quite open about this and benefitted from some quite incredible generosity from exhibitors and traders. We simply followed the traditional exhibition template, ensuring we had a good venue, high quality layouts and appropriate traders. Exhibitors and stewards were well looked-after and we aimed to have our organisation as good as we could make it. The show had the best insurance we could get and very good first aid cover. It was prior to the need for hygiene certificates but the catering was of high quality and safe. This needed a team of reliable helpers. The formula seemed to work well and we ran four shows. The run ended because we were not confident we could maintain the standard we'd set ourselves because our helpers were getting older and fewer in number. I believe it's simply not possible to run a worthwhile exhibition on a casual wing & prayer basis. What I'm hearing about DD exhibitions does concern me. Mark

Featured on BBC1's "This Week" https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b62910/this-week-07062018 From 06:38 onwards.

Odd how the historical terminal numbering persist despite radical changes. Each of them had their operating quirks and foibles. T1 had to be closed by order of the Fire Service on several occasions as it was prone to becoming dangerously overcrowded. One time was on the Friday evening just before Whitsun week. The knock-on effects of that lasted most of the weekend. The old T2 allegedly used the carcass of what was going to be a multi-storey car park. It was a strange building, always felt a bit cramped once past check-in. Under the fascia of T3, it's still the old "Oceanic" terminal of the 1950s. T4 made people walk a long way to some stands (The "Victor" pier). We once got a feedback form saying the flight was nice but why did they have to go to Maidenhead to get it. T5 was an intimate part of my life for several years leading up to the opening. I was design lead for BA's control centre, which we opened in January, which allowed us to thoroughly debug it well before the notorious opening day. I wonder if my emergency fix to the network cabling is still in the switch room.

So it is a gravy train then?

I think there will be a 6th terminal at some point. Otherwise flights could be facing long taxy times from terminal to runway. This is quite an issue in icy weather as deicing only lasts about 20 minutes as I recall. Maybe convert the BA offices into a terminal! Mark.

There is already an embryonic station underneath or near T5 built in anticipation of new rail links. T5 has as much below ground as it has above ground. The current plan is for southern rail access from the Reading/Windsor line, leaving the main line just after Feltham and travelling NW towards LHR, above ground as far as the A30 then underground to the airport. There's likely to be an intermediate station in the Bedfont Lakes area to serve businesses and new housing. Free rail shuttle transits on the Heathrow Express are already available between T5, the Central Area (T2 & 3) and T4. The major transport issue will be road traffic growth. I'm expecting some "brave" moves to try to control that, like turning the roads around LHR into a congestion charging zone. Not going to be popular with people like me who live in the area as it'll divert traffic onto local roads. Personally, I'm split on the issue as LHR gave me a good career from 1976 to nearly 2016. Recent history is littered with broken promises - T4 promised it was the last new terminal, T5 promised no additional runways... The argument about jobs is debatable as many jobs have gone from LHR and those that remain are no longer as lucrative as previous. The aviation industry has enthusiastically addressed the race to the bottom as we all desire cheaper air travel. If you see the original 9 runway LHR plan, you'll realise we got off lightly! https://londonist.com/london/transport/heathrowstar Expect a long slog through approval and planning. Some land north of the airport has been parcelled up into metre squares and sold off to thousands of individuals. That'll be fun for the lawyers. Much is being made of the "above market" compensation but it'll be dependent on the actual valuations, which I expect will be debated. Harmondsworth Village is a nice spot, a shame to see it go. Ironically, my former employer BA's headquarters Waterside will be demolished, having been completed 20 years ago. This might encourage IAG, BA's owner, to up sticks and move head office to Madrid. Finally, I hesitate to mention the B word but if current aviation agreements get unpicked and replaced, an expanded LHR might become an expensive white elephant. BA spent a lot of time, effort and money becoming EASA compliant, as did other UK airlines. Mark

Perhaps the way out of this is to come to an agreement that Mr. Dibben will no longer bother the model railway hobby and in return the model railway hobby won't bother him.

I use chopped up bits of emery board for cleaning up 3D prints. They can be shaped to get into awkward corners. The GNR 4 wheelers on Copenhagen Fields are from home made injection mouldings by Denys Brownlee (there's a S&D connection for Jerry!), from masters made by Matthew Wald. I have a set of unmade sides which I'm going to copy using resin castings. There were no ends or roofs, as these were scratchbuilt. Mark

Ah, that answers a question I had. So FUD & FXD have been renamed to include the word "smooth" which based on the results I've had from Shapeways is quite a misrepresentation. Very tempted by the Dia. 120 Full Brake but it looks like one of those prints where it's difficult to clean up the layering. Pity as it'll look good in a parcels train on Copenhagen Fields and also in a "mixed" on Burwell Fen. Mark

I'm going for 9mm, allowing for the slightly deeper than scale flanges. I don't have any justification for one but it was used very local to me, as was a C class.

Maybe the solution is to make a small close fitting collar which can be slid onto the shaft and locked in place to limit end float. Looking at the Chinese can motors I have, it looks like you'll need to pull the shaft towards the front bearing to take up the end float, then locate the collar in position with a tiny "fag paper" clearance between it and motor. A squeeze with pliers ought to be enough to fix the collar in place. Mark

I like the doubled-up frames. As you say, it makes for a more robust assembly with fewer spacers. As there's now all this extra room in the chassis, how about a cosmetic inside valve gear etch... The way you've set out the G6 is interesting, it is quite a low-slung loco. Rather a pretty one too. Mine will be one that was shedded at Feltham (70B). Mark

With a lot of the interesting exhibits elsewhere, it's the Notional Railway Museum.

I've been to Bodmin. It didn't seem to need renewing.

It's quite expensive crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.

Ah, one of the tougher challenges then. This needs thinking about.

Ooh, is this a new RMWeb challenge?

I like this very much. It's reminiscent of Inkerman Street, the MRJ 7mm project layout. N gauge stock will be fine on 2mm Easitrac. Tom Everitt's Ropley uses it. I would make the lower yard operational as it'll be a good contrast to the main line. What you could do is automate it using a shuttle unit to move some stock from time to time when operating single handed. Revert to full operation when operators are available. You could run it from the front. Mark