PhilJ W

You forgot to add "Paid into my Swiss account."

Morning all from a sunny but cold Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Jim and many more of them. Bit of a sore throat last night and this morning, not full blown man flu yet but the tea and toast I have prescribed myself this morning should help to alleviate the symtoms.

Evening all. When I started the classical music thread I little realised that it would 'take off' like it has, five pages at the last count. Not that I'm complaining as its such wonderful music including pieces that I cannot recall ever hearing before and some forgotten favourites such as Sartre who I have been able to reacquaint myself with. Only problem is that with so much wonderful music to listen to I have not reached the bottom of page 2 yet!

You must now have a wallet full of brownie points, don't go wasting them now.

We can only hope that the Adams Radial will be as good.

You can now get square sponge pads, but I must admit they only work effectively with good quality paints.

I'm using a paint roller on a very long pole.

Elsewhere in Wheeltappers there is a classical music favourites thread. When I last looked there were nudging 60 contributions, each with a different preference - and not a cross word in sight. Pity some modelling discussions can't be undertaken in such an atmosphere. As I started the classical music thread I'm more than happy to accept any suggestions, indeed I have just posted Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' on the thread, all 17 minutes of it. I did consider putting it here on ER's (the classic music thread) but the way its 'flown' just as well I didn't as its taken me all of those 17 minutes and more to catch up with ER's this morning.

Classical music is in the ear of the beholder, I am currently listening to this, which to me is classical music >>

Perhaps you could swap the wife for one?

Thats what I'm doing, I am playing some music as I type this, you can play it on another tab at the same time.

Thanks everybody for your input, and excellent good taste. Perhaps I should have said 'Your favourite classical music (plural)' as following this thread I've added a couple to my list. I do think I spend too much time on RMweb, now I'll be spending even more time on RMweb listening to some wonderful music. PS keep it up.

You could use any one of these as a start >> http://www.editionsatlas.fr/collection/minisite/michelines-et-autorails/index.html click on L'autorail du mois to see the range. I have three of these and they are very good models, similar in build and quality to Oxford Diecast. EDIT I forgot to mention to page down to see the range.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I see in the news this morning that the building that is on fire in Dubai is called the 'Torch', talk about tempting fate but fortunately there has been no casualties.

Evening all, very sorry to hear about Andy's daughter but she's in the best place.

Damn sat navs again.

What is your favourite piece of classical music, this is mine >>

I had a comparison of the coach buffers with a Mk 1 coach. They are wider apart than normal but only by about 1 or 2 millimetres, about the same difference as you would get if you mixed HO and 00 stock and unless viewed from directly above not very noticeable. I think that the fact that the Rocket coach is about 4 mm narrower than modern stock serves to accentuate the difference. I have a few drawings of early passenger rolling stock and the buffers seem to be further apart anyway which brings me to another point, is the coach too wide? The proportions compared to the drawings seem to indicate that the coach is over width. There is very little that can be done about it anyway and this could date back to the Triang coach it was copied from or even the 1929 replica.

Theres also the Tiptree branch where you could modify some of the Bachmann 'Thomas' coaches to go with it. Bachmann make a coach based on the Wisbeach and Upwell coaches that ended their service on the branch and the 6 wheel brake third from the 'Emily' set looks similar to the one also used on the branch. They would need some modifications and repainting and if you want to follow the prototype more closely you will have to fit smaller wheels and raise the buffer beams but you would have to fit the W & U coach with bogies anyway.

The 'garden shed on wheels' being pulled by Puffing Billy has given me a few ideas on rolling stock.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Looking like its going to brighten up, kettles on and bread toasting have a good POETS day all.

They were not even hooked to the chimney, there are two slots on top of the firebox, the forward one for the stays and the rear one for the steam pipes. The stays have been clipped into the steam pipe slot so that they do not reach the appropriate holes and are too long to fit into the holes for the steam pipe. Both the stays and the steam pipes are single pieces of bent wire.

As I mentioned the guy came this afternoon to install the loft ladder. He was using power tools which entailed him unplugging one of my appliances to use the socket. The item which he unplugged was a strip of LED's that I use to illuminate my computer desk, however when he'd finished he did not plug them back in again. I went to switch the LED's on just now and instead of not working at all they gave off a faint glow, despite the plug being completely out of the socket, strange!

Quite a lot of interesting items in that catalogue. Pity is that Bachmann do not hold the UK licence for Thomas the Tank Engine and can't legitimately sell them over here. I have looked at some of the items on the USA E-bay, prices are quite cheap but quite often the postage is often as much as twice the price of the model or even more.

As I mentioned earlier the copper coloured pipes from the cylinders to the chimney on my example of the Rocket appeared to be missing. I have now found them loose in the packaging. Still a problem though as the chimney stays are attached to the firebox where the 'copper pipes should have been attached and are proving difficult to remove without bending or breaking them.