Regarding Alan Short's letter about the Hornby Dublo EMU - OH Goody! I have both, and a 2-rail motor version and a 3-rail E3002 all bought new by me with .££££££££ in my eyes. I wouldn't sell them though - too sentimental.

George McKie

I agree with Pat and other correspondents about the need for you to go out to your local hobby shop and order as many of these Spine wagons as you can afford.

If Dapol receive enough orders and go into production, there is a good chance they may consider further 4mm models. The next subject could then be a little less modern - something like a Sturgeon rail carrier or a scale BR 21 ton mineral wagon.

Here's hoping!

Phil Bartlett

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I am not surprised there is apathy concerning the aforementioned container flat. We live in 'the Electronic Age' today. If people can't do something on their computer they often don't bother. I buy most of my model railway gear on the net, as it's much more convenient. Personally, I would buy quite a few of these flats, but surely some sort of on-line poll would give a truer reflection of a particular model's (un)popularity, rather than how many people can be bothered to pop into their local model shop if they even have a local model shop!

Nick Knibbs

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Chris Day makes some important points in his e-mail regarding the indicated demand for a FEA container flat in 00 - as Dapol are apparently considering.

Firstly, Chris’s email was the first time I have seen the TOPS code of the proposed ‘spine wagon’ specified, which I have to admit I knew nothing about until last week. The Dapol website doesn’t give much detail. However, as I voted for an FEA in the last MREmag Poll, I can state that I will probably purchase at least three or four of these if they are manufactured to current standards and sold at a reasonable price. However, the likely demand (not just from me) will be dependent on both price and quality. An indicative price has not been indicated by Dapol and the quality of all manufacturers’ releases varies. As Dapol do not currently produce any 00 wagons for modern era modellers, many of those (including myself) who may purchase an FEA will be unsure whether it will match the best of what Hornby and Bachmann currently produce.

As an example of the problems inherent in estimating demand, I was looking forward to the release of the Bachmann OCA earlier this year and intended buying several. However, when I actually saw the models in my local model shop, I was disappointed by the over scale top edge, which I feel spoils an otherwise acceptable model. The result of this is that I have not purchased any, despite previously being interested. There is the same risk if Dapol do go ahead with an FEA and it falls short of market expectations.

Personally, I would have thought that there was enough demand to sell at least 2,000 units (most modellers buying more than one), although I doubt very much that Dapol will get such a high indication of demand from retail outlets. Prior to this year’s Glasgow show, AMRSS sought to gauge demand for their limited edition Class 158 on the basis that modellers could give an indication of intent without committing to a purchase (i.e. they weren’t actually ordering one). As we all know, fewer than 100 modellers indicated that they would consider purchasing one of the limited edition models and yet 500 models sold in just under nine hours. Dapol will therefore have to consider a similar scaling factor if they are to produce enough stock.

In general, I tend to purchase stock at model railway exhibitions and, therefore, I will speak to the traders that I do most business with at the next fairly local show. Fingers crossed that this proposal does actually get off the ground.

David Laing

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From around 1962 until 1966 I attended and lived at Bishop Vesey Grammar school in Sutton Coldfield. In my early years, the dormitory I slept in overlooked the railway line, from Birmingham New Street to Lichfield City, via Sutton Coldfield.

As I recall, the 'sleeper' went past every Tuesday night, heading towards Lichfield, and beyond. I believe it took the cut-off line to Lichfield Trent Valley.

As a regular schoolboy user of the line from Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham, I seem to remember the car loading ramps at (I believe) Sutton station.....but something about Wylde Green station also sits in my mind.

I don't recall witnessing any loading of cars (probably a 'time' thing) but I do recall knowledgeable older lads watching from the high windows, informing us all that a 'Brit' was pulling it, more often than not. This train was a highlight amongst the usual rabble of bewhiskered DMUs and even rarer was the sight of a diesel-hauled freight train.

Sounds that jog the memory are the rasping DMU exhaust, with the gear change that took forever?

Alastair Queen

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In reply to Neil's queries the night sleeper did indeed run from Sutton Coldfield to Stirling (Sterling is what you'll need to finance your layout) and, of course, vice -versa. But I think, if my memory serves me correctly, it was railway staff who loaded the cars into the bogie vans. I forget the correct name for the vans but Lima made models of them.

The loco for these trains was almost always a Duchess or City because it formed part of the Perth-London service picking up, of 3/4 sleeper coaches and 3 vans, when it came down from Perth at about 2200 hrs.

On the 'down' service, i.e. from the south, this train arrived about 0600hrs at Stirling where the sleepers and car vans were dropped off and the rest of the train departed for Perth. The stock left at Stirling was then shunted about so that the vans were at the loading bay for unloading by railway staff. The cars were put in the Motor-rail car park ready for collection by their owners

The service to Sutton Coldfield was discontinued in the 1980s but was continued for a short while to London Kensington (Olympia) until finally done away with in the 1990s.

William Fairweather

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Neil Rogers is right in thinking the Motorail train went from near Sutton Coldfield. I believe it was actually the now closed Sutton Park station (the line is still open for freight traffic).

However, for a train starting in the West Midlands, it certainly won’t have been 'Flying Scotsman' hauling it. I have no actual knowledge but I guess it was much more likely to have been a Black 5.

Jim Campbell

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With regard to Neil Rogers query, I initially thought this could have been a Princess Pacific, however, in Trains Illustrated Motive Power Miscellany for August 1961, reference is made to this duty being upgraded to 7P Motive Power, in place of Jubilee Class locomotives.

Royal Scot Class locomotives were observed as follows:-

15th Jun - 46145 'The Duke of Wellington's Regt (West Riding)' (55A);

20th June - 46166 'London Rifle Brigade' (5A);

25th June - 46125 '3rd Carabinier' (5A);

27th June - 46135 'The East Lancashire Regiment' (5A)

On 1 July 60088 'Book Law' (55A) arrived on the southbound service and is referred to as "the second appearance of an A3 Pacific on this duty".

On 5th July 1960 - 72009 'Clan Stewart' arrived on the southbound service and returned north the same evening.

Ian Breeden

Further to the recent posts about Heljan 33s, I too have had a problem. I purchased 33212 (BR Blue without headlight) and both bogie pivots were broken. One broken piece was in the box, the other was inside the body and dropped out when I picked the loco up. I arranged to swap this for a second one and, again, both pivots were broken. I have since returned this for a refund and purchased from elsewhere - hopefully from another batch. This third one seems fine.

Chris Wright

Just to advise anyone who has not yet seen the new Hornby King Arthur Class 'Sir Lamiel' (now released), this is another excellent loco and has been finished in its current preserved livery. It, therefore, has the latest style electrification flashes on the deflectors, boiler and tender, plus NRM plate etc.. The loco is, therefore, not suitable for the late 1950s and early 1960s, unless these are removed. This may assist some people who may be considering purchase of this particular locomotive.

Research has already been made to see if this loco did possibly carry the early style electrification flashes, but all photograph evidence so far confirms no such flashes were ever carried. In fact, none of the King Arthurs were around long enough to gain these flashes unless, of course, someone out there can prove otherwise!

The July BRM, which arrived this morning, has a nice photo spread of King Arthur Class by Eric Sawford.

John Cherry

Regarding Stuart Reid's recollection of locomotive models similar to the ES1 class he has seen in model railway catalogues, Jouef produced a model of an SNCF locomotive - possibly a Class BB12000 (BB13000), all of which had a centre cab and 'bonnet'. I believe Kitmaster also made a kit which was referred to by the nickname of this type - 'Crocodile'.

Tri-ang also produced a 'Steeple Cab' shunter (0-4-0) and I seem to recollect reading about a diesel of similar outline in Aberdeen docks.

Ian Breeden

Regarding the above, what a wealth of knowledge Braid Anderson has about railways. He hasn't failed me on the occasions I've asked him questions, both technical and loco types, etc. and it has not just been on British railways - but more or less world wide systems. I tried to catch him out once by asking what the driver had in his sandwiches on a particular run. The answer came back: "Corned beef and 'broon' sauce!"

Bruce Fairweather

There has been much debate over the original allocations of the BRCW Type 2s. My earliest recollections of Class 26 was in 1960 at Kings Cross when I remember seeing a couple of tablet catcher fitted examples standing in the station as well as several members of the D5300-19 pilot scheme batch. I have photographs of D5331 and D5333 at Kings Cross. I believe a small batch from D5330-D5336 spent about a year at the then new Finsbury Park depot, before migrating to Scotland. The pilot scheme batch D5300-D5319 followed north in late 1960/1.

The Class 27s of the final batch (D5379-D5415) were all initially delivered to Cricklewood. I photographed most of them whilst they were there. Some subsequently ended up at Leicester and Toton, whilst Wellingborough, Derby and Bedford had examples regularly on shed. D5370-D5378 were transferred from Thornaby to the Midlands Line division sometime in 1969, I think, and I have photographs them at Leicester and Burton-upon-Trent.

D5380 and D5382 were both painted into a two tone green scheme similar to the later Class 25s. I have slides of both and Colour-Rail currently list D5382 in this livery.

Finally, I did see D5383 in Oxford in 1964, working the daily Washwood Heath to Hinksey Yard freight which was normally a Class 25 working. It was written-off in a serious accident the following year . Oh, such good memories and am I glad to have recorded most of it on film!

I hope this helps.

Grahame Wareham

Having just digitised my fledgling (and still under construction) layout, I attended the 4th DCC day at Peco's premises in Beer. Everything was spot on. The seminars were 1st class and informative. In the marquee one could talk to (and ask questions of) the DCC exhibitors.

I was able to talk to Simon Kohler about my problems with 'King Arthur' and he kindly offered to have it looked at it if I returned it to Margate. I also 'ear wigged' a prolonged discussion between a DCC enthusiast and Simon, over some apparent shortcomings in the Hornby DCC system. I feel that maybe Hornby have directed their DCC marketing approach to the mass market, who want a 'plug and play' Hornby system. The true DCC enthusiast would probably want more from a system and would opt for something else. I do not know - these are just my thoughts.

I also was able to talk to Tommy of Mackays and he was able to inform me that the 'AUS' message I was getting, whenever I started up the system, was German for 'STOP - did I feel a little foolish!

Overall, it was a truly excellent day. The only query for Peco is: why did the sandwich stall close at lunchtime when everybody wanted food?

John Jeffery

I have decided to run both European and British outline (not at the same time) and will be adding more of English Electrics Finest to my fleet. However, I shall be having only locos that I rated when following the class. I am also looking at fitting a soundchip to the flagship of my fleet. Does anybody know how much this will cost and whether it is for refurbished or un-refurbished examples?

Ian Reynolds

Graham Farish have released three High Speed Trains (HSTs) onto the market. The sets comprising of a motorised power car, dummy power car and intermediate vehicle are now available in InterCity (Catalogue number 371-479), GNER (371-480) and the new Midland Main Line (371-475A) liveries.

The N gauge model High Speed Trains were first introduced in 1981 by the former Poole based Graham Farish company but now benefit from a totally new chassis. These models have not been available for some years and matching Mark 3 coaches are also being produced to allow modellers the opportunity to build up sets to the correct number of vehicles.

By Brian Macdermott

In response to Ian Reynolds query, while I am uncertain about fitting Hornby decoders in Roco locomotives, the expert advice that has consistently applied to Roco has been to fit Lenz decoders and if it were me I would be cautious about fitting anything else.

However, Ian might like to contact British retailers that specialise in Roco. Two that have substantially advertised Roco regularly in Continental Modeller for many years are Mackay Models and Howe's, both of whom have websites.

Richard Whitmore

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Ian Reynolds asks if Hornby Decoders are OK to use with Roco locos. My advice would be to check the current draw of the loco on start-up. If it exceeds 500 milliamps, then don't use the current Hornby decoders.

I have a Hornby Select unit on my layout now (yes, sorry folks, I've gone DCC) and find that, so far the best budget combination is the Select unit with the Bachmann 3 function decoder with BEMF. Hornby 4 function decoders are just not up to the job and locos I have fitted with them crawl round at a third of the speed they should. Put a Bachmann one in (essentially a Lenz one) and they go much better. If you have lights on a loco that are lights, not LEDs it is essential you check the load on the decoder before fitting. Heljans will blow a Hornby decoder.

Julian Martin

Like Chris Day, I am very interested in the Dapol container flat/Spine wagon. However, I am somewhat cautious over expressing committed interest (either financial or verbal) in any model before I actually see it 'in the flesh'. What I say next could sound a little unhelpful, abrasive even, but it is intended as constructive criticism.

There have been too many either silly and/or unnecessary errors or design choices from all the manufacturers (Hornby, Dapol, Bachmann, Heljan and ViTrains, in no particular order of guilt, but some are more guilty than others) of 00 ready-to-run stock in the recent past for me to absolutely trust what the final product will be from any of them. So, I have to say: "Sorry, but I simply can't make a commitment 'sight unseen'. Show me a good model first, then I'll consider it."

If any of the manufacturers want me to make an up front commitment, then they will have to establish better reputations first.

Ian Vale

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Bob Hart asks about the details of the proposed Dapol spine wagon in 00.

This would be the same as the wagon due to be launched later this year in N and is an FEA-B twin-set built by Greenbrier in Poland from 2003 onwards. Dapol are suggesting two liveries and, as the N gauge one is being produced in Freightliner and GBRf liveries, I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that these would be the two produced in 00. Freightliner, GBRf and Balfour Beatty operate these sets with Fastline using a minor variation for their Class 56 hauled trains. I have already informed my retailer of choice that I would buy several sets.

As for original BR Freightliner flats... I had a Tri-ang Hornby one as a child far too long ago to remember, then one day I bought a Hornby wagon for my own son's layout - it was quite a shock to find exactly the same wagon I had as a child in the box with no apparent improvements - perhaps it's time for Hornby to give this a makeover and bring it up to current standards, it has a much larger potential market than either the Dapol or the existing Bachmann Intermodal flats.

Alan Short asks if the amount paid for the Hornby Dublo 3-rail EMU is a record. If it is, all I can say is, what an obscene amount of money for such an item! If I ever win the lottery I fully intend to buy up these sort of models throw away the boxes and run them just to see the jaws drop on the faces of the collectors (you can't take it with you when you go so why not enjoy it while you are here). Let's face it, it's why these models were made in the first place - to run them! All you have to do now is pray I never win the lottery.

Julian Martin (tongue welded to cheek and tin hat on!)

Glenn Martin writes that we have yet to see a good attempt by either Hornby or Bachmann at reproducing realistic weathering effects, and that it would take 'a bit of effort' to achieve authenticity.

Having just received mine, I think the Bachmann 9F 92044 model is excellent. True, much of the weathering is 'blow over', but the boiler staining is very well done, and there was such immense variation in appearance in actual service that it would be well-nigh impossible to reproduce an 'average'. I doubt that the costs incurred by very complex painting could be recovered, as no two engines were ever exactly the same.

The effects of dust, rain, steam, ash, heat, soot and rust are quite easily changed and perhaps enhance by extra work by a purchaser.

My initial concern was the selling of weathered models which may vary from advertised pictures and the advertising of finished models with supplied super-detailing fitted.

I doubt it is practical to please everyone. I have photographed my 90244 Class 9F and it looks great, reminiscent of my days of photographing steam during the 1960s. What a superb model! My only gripe would be that the tender-spacing choices are fractionally wide - but that is very minor.

It reminds me also of a front cover on a c1964 Model Railway News showing a 9F looking forwards from low below the driver's-side cab. It may have been credited to G F Heiron but my memory of a series of excellent covers is not great. Does anyone remember that?

Robbie McGavin

With regard to Thom Ritter’s enquiry about sleeper train formations, these can be found in the Passenger Train Marshalling book, for the appropriate region, which was published by BR for internal use. I have a copy of the London Midland Region edition from 7^th May 1973 to 5^th May 1974 which, unfortunately, does not cover the period or regions he is interested in. This publication shows changes to train formations en route and, in some cases (see below), the return workings of the stock were unusual.

Thom's enquiries may bear more fruit if he requests information about specific sleeping car services (e.g. Kings Cross to Aberdeen in 19**) as another enthusiast may have a record of the actual stock operating that train on one or more specific dates during that year. Most sleeping car trains used two sets of stock, operating the 'down' service on Monday night, returning on the 'up' service the following night. At peak periods, such as Bank Holidays and weekends, the formation could be strengthened.

He may also need to bear in mind the fact that some formations in the BR maroon period could have included ex-GWR, LMS and LNER sleepers.

As an example of unusual workings, the Motorrail service departing Inverness at 1010 hrs on Friday was formed: loco - RBK+FO+FK+FK+SLSTP+SLSTP+BFK+8 Carflats. At Perth an FK +2 Carflats were attached and the train continued to Crewe as loco - FK+RBK+FO+FK+FK+SLSTP+SLSTP+BFK+10 Carflats. On arrival at Crewe the FK+RBK were detached and the remainder of the train formed the 2250 hrs Motorrail from Crewe – St. Austell as loco - FO+FK+FK+SLSTP+SLSTP+BFK+FK+10 x Carflats with 4 Carflats being detached at Newton Abbot.

This stock subsequently formed the 1240 hrs SO St. Austell – Crewe Motorrail train.

The RBK returned to Inverness at the front of the 2020 hrs FO Euston to Inverness.

Ian Breeden

Just to mention I have a layout based on North Norfolk Railway’s Weybourne station. One of its guises, is as the set for the Dad’s Army episode of The Royal Train. It features a modified working Bachmann Gandy Dancer cart, on which are models of Dad's Army characters, the vicar, verger, mayor and Warden Hodges.

The layout was recently at Bressingham at the annual Dad's Army day. If anyone would like to use it for a '40s event etc., please let me know at keithtommo@hotmail.com

Keith Tompkins

In answer to Derek Morrow's (correct spelling of Derek) posting on 6^th June, regarding Inventory Software. I use a programme called Track those Trains. This was advertised in the model railway press a few years ago and is still available as a trial download before you purchase a license at www.trackthosetrains.com. This allows you to set up an inventory of your locos, rolling stock, layouts etc.. You can also add history and livery details as well as purchase price and insurance value. Each entry also allows you to attach photos of either the model or a prototype example. I have found it a useful programme to keep a record of your complete collection.

I hope this helps.

As a separate question, does anyone know what happened to W & T model kits range? Did anyone take on producing the kits?

Steve Gibbons.

After the annual poll, where the request for working semaphore signals came very high, I was surprised that there was not a follow up of comments to MREmag. I have noted mention this week that one the manufactures may be taking a strong interest. However, I thought I would offer my own viewpoint for consideration.

Initially a quick resume of what is currently available.

1 – Ratio – a good selection of kits and ready made signals which cover a number of regions. I have made these and would very much recommend them to anyone who wishes to 'have a go' at building semaphore signals. The one downside is that they are plastic and very delicate, thus easily prone to damage on a layout.

2 – Model Signal Engineering Components - these are etched etc. and require soldering skills. I have seen finished items on some exhibition layouts and they are excellent but I would consider the downside for many may be the soldering aspect and the time scale to actually make.

3 – Hornby ready made. These are currently the only items available from one of the leading manufactures and have been around for a number of years. I personally would not reject the range which represents distant, home and starter and offers a junction version. To me the main problems with them are the large clip-fit base and that the junction version too seems to be over scale for 00. However, I have signalled my layout with these as I have some of the former Tri-ang releases which have a much better slimmer base, with two good size fixing holes for attaching to baseboard. Also, the junction version was not as tall and therefore looks more appropriate. A case of mixing and matching old and new.

The biggest problem with new manufacture must be what type to choose to make. The sheer diversity of signal types that prevailed across the BR system and earlier would be impossible to cover. So my suggestion would be make the BR tubular post type and possibly a wooden post version, which are more aligned to the LMR semaphore signals. Yes, I can hear the howls from modellers of other regions but we cannot expect to see every type issued.

The BR tubular post type is ideal for the steam era, well into the diesel era and almost to today’s scene. I actually saw one still working only last weekend. They also need a strong/slimmer and more representative base and initially could be produced as distant, home and starter – also with a distant and home on one signal. A junction type and a gantry facility could also be produced, similar to the current Hornby type with fitment slots, but offer a better range of individual signals to be installed, i.e. short post, long post and double arms etc.. The gantry could also be produced as 'lock together parts' so that it could be installed in a variety of positions. Take a good look at photographs to see the various types that were once common place.

This just my own view and I feel it would help a good number of average railway modellers, but I also appreciate that it will not cover everybody’s requirements. However, I cannot see any main stream manufacture making specific types with the outlay that will be required to set up production. We must accept some compromise but provision on the lines suggested would offer good flexibility.

John Cherry

The National Railway Museum (NRM) has set an estimated completion date for the overhaul of 'Flying Scotsman', following discussions between the NRM’s Workshop team and contractors. The date is December 2008 for running in and ready for mainline operations in January 2009.

The NRM is aware that this is a substantial delay to the original time plan, however it was discovered that the locomotive’s firebox needed more extensive work than was first anticipated. In order to carry out this work, specialist copper is needed of which there has been a substantial shortage in the UK. However, the copper has now arrived and is ready for pressing, which will be carried out at R K Pridhams new premises in Tavistock.

Just a brief note to say that I today had occasion to talk to a contact at Dapol and was very surprised and somewhat dismayed to find out that there has been a great deal of apathy regarding the projected FEA multipurpose container twin flat (not spine wagon really!). Much of the apathy was from shops who are otherwise large movers of numbers in "box" terms.

I know, from my discussions with various modern image sectors, that this wagon, if manufactured to current standards, will cover what has been a serious omission (one of many you may say) in the modern image wagon fleet. It will be available in Freightliner, Fastline and GBRf liveries immediately and, indeed, may well be in Balfour Beatty and other users liveries in the fullness of time.

If Kennedy Howden wants to run a train double-headed by two Class 20 locomotives, why doesn't he run two powered ones?

Jane Sullivan

Stephen Dimmock mentions the sketchy documentation concerning the English land-side arrangements of the Dunkirk evacuation.

Unfortunately much of what interests us nearly seventy years on was cloaked in secrecy at the time and probably not planned in the detail we suppose as "drive to Redhill and ask for further instructions" seems to confirm. Over the past few years, I have been researching a single street in Dover, as it was in WW2, to form the basis of a motorised diorama. The N sized version of this was on show at the Model Bus Federation AGM last October and the Faller Car System based half cab buses with home made bodies performed faultlessly all day. The railway passes out of sight beneath the Western side of the diorama in the tunnel just to the North of Dover Priory Station (in case anyone thinks this is not a railway related message).

After the diorama was finished, my brother discovered an old video compilation of archive film of Dover called "Summer Holidays" which includes shots of some of the road and rail transport used for evacuated troops arriving there from Dunkirk. The original source of the film is either the Imperial War Museum or one of several prolific Dover photographers and film makers. The book "Dover at War" records that 327 special trains operated from Dover moving 180,982 troops over a nine day period. As far as I know there is no single place to find information about this period so the message to anyone wanting to model it is "be prepared for a lot of research, and just when you think you have finished something fresh will turn up".

As is the way with these things after I had finished making the Sir John Falstaff pub, a source at the Dover Transport Museum found me a photo of the pub taken just prior to the war which revealed that my use of older style multiple paned windows was wrong. By then, the building was firmly glued in place between the fire station and the electricity company office and is still waiting for someone more knowledgeable to point it out to me!

Mike Harvey

Back in the late fifties, as a small boy of 3 to 5, the family holiday was always in Scotland. I can remember travelling in the car to a station somewhere (I think near Sutton Coldfield). I think the station had only the one train there, because I don't remember any other trains. Also, from what I can recall, the yard or station appeared surrounded by large brick walls.

We would arrive in the afternoon and drive on to the train through carriages that had fold down metal plates between them and doors that were closed after each carriage was full of cars.

I also remember my Grandfather walking me up to the engine to speak to the driver and look into the cab. I remember it as a large light green engine, like the 'Flying Scotsman'. I don't know if it was or not. We would then get into the sleeper carriages and wake up at Sterling where we could drive the car for our holiday. The only other thing I can remember about it was hearing and feeling the banker attached at Beattock, as it would wake me up.

I would like to recreate this train on my loft layout. So, if there is anybody out there who knows of or remembers this train, what it composed of and where it ran from, I should much appreciate any information they may have.

Neil Rogers

I think I can confirm that new cars of the '50s (and before) were often in colours other than black. As I write this, I am looking at pictures of a blue Bugatti, grey Rolls Royce, white Bullnose Morris and blue Austin Seven. A salesman's handbook alongside my desk, for the 1956 Ford Consul and Zephyrs, describe two tone colour schemes, as do many contemporary sales brochures.

Yes, many pre- and early post-war cars were black and the basic versions were predominantly so and hence why they were more common. In the '50s, though, improved paint systems, and a reaction to the austerity days of war, saw the change to 'any colour you want - except black'.

Although my 1955 Morris Minor was black, my friends 1938 Morris 8 also, alternative colour versions of both were available. My grandmother had a pale blue 1953 Anglia and my father a beige 1955 Renault.

It should also not be forgotten that the MOT, or 'ten year test', was introduced in 1960 and this was the catalyst that removed many old cars, often 'old bangers', and frequently black, off the road.

In response to the request for information on Sleeping Car train formations by Thom Ritter, I would offer the following information obtained from BR(WR) Passenger Train Working (Paddington) publications:

October 1983/May 1984.

1B02 - "The Night Riviera"- 00.05 for Penzance.

3 TSO Penzance.

NEA

TSO

FK

SLEP

SLE

SLEP

NDX

SLEP - Plymouth

2 NDX

Formed by 19.49 ex Willesden, due Paddington 21.30.

May 1973/May 1974.

1B09 00.55 Penzance. Conveys Sleeping Car and Motorail Passengers only.

GUV (Cars) Penzance.

GUV (Cars) Plymouth.

BCK Plymouth.

SLF Plymouth.

SLS Plymouth.

SLC Penzance. (Fridays Only until 28.9.73)

SLC Penzance.

SLF Penzance.

4 SLC Penzance.

BCK Penzance.

Formed by 21.40 Old Oak Common, due 22.00.

The 2 GUVs were attached at Paddington after loading on platform 2 with passengers' cars.

I hope that this is of use,

Pete Nolan

During my recent research into LNER 0-6-0 locos, I compiled some interesting figures.

The total number of LNER 0-6-0s taken over by BR was 1,698, of which LNER classes J38 and J39 accounted for 324. This left 1,374 pre-Grouping 0-6-0s taken over by BR from LNER. Respective totals were:-

NER - 358

NBR - 297

GER - 276

GCR - 252

GNR - 191

If you then take only classes numbering over 100 locos each, the figures are:-

NBR - 227

GCR - 174

GER - 127

NER - 115

GNR - 110

I think there's a pretty good case for a model NBR 0-6-0 in there somewhere - and I didn't invent any of the figures!

The recent posts regarding bogie problems may be related to a problem I have noted with all my recent class 33/1 and 33/2 purchases with high intensity lights.

Straight from the box, when placed on the track, only the wheels on the outer axle of each bogie contacted the rails and the bogies were reluctant to pivot freely. Taking the body off revealed that the wires to the lights were being trapped between the cab inserts and the top of the bogie gear towers thus pushing the bogie down. If you try to force the bogie into alignment the pivot is likely to break.

My solution was to bend the wires up vertically as close to the PCB board as possible so that they are now inboard of the cab inserts. Putting the body back on the bogies are now free to pivot and rock.

The big question is – if this is a common problem, why didn’t Heljan notice this at the inspection stage and put things right before the end user has an issue? Is it yet another case of lack of attention to detail that could potentially put off the buying public making further purchases.

Martin Russell

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Only two Class 27s were painted in the two tone green livery akin to the later Class 25s and these were D5380 and D5382.

Both locos were repainted thus when allocated to the LMR, but were still in this livery when transferred to Scotland c1968/69. D5380 received full yellow ends while in this livery.

I have seen pictures of these on the web, but can't remember where.

Alan Rintoul

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What an eye for detail your readers have.

I would just like to set Robin Johnson's mind at rest, regarding 'type' and 'class'. It was just me being a little sloppy with terminology. I know that 'types' didn't go up to Type 26 in early BR diesel days - everyone knows the largest was type 12 (only joking).

Apologies also to Mr Brooks-Burke. I said that BRCW Type 2s (not Cromptons before anyone says) were at Ipswich in about 1961 - probably it was in 1959 or 1960. They were just a few months old at the time.

Dudley Jones

Is this a record? Hornby Dublo 3-rail EMU boxed and trailer unboxed - both with yellow end panel and black rear. With ringfield motor the EMU sold on eBay on Tuesday evening for £430 and trailer for £201 - a total of £631. (Item Numbers 190116846869 and 190116850263).

Alan Short

Once upon a time, when the world was young, the ES1 locomotive was used on Tyneside. It was an electric which could pick up power either through a pantograph on the cab roof or by third rail. The cab was centrally located and the body sloped down to front and rear. I believe there's one in the NRM.

Now, I have two questions:

Was there a diesel version of this, or something which looked similar, because I can remember as a very small boy seeing something very like it trundling around Aberdeen harbour, which certainly wasn't electrified.

Secondly, I'm sure I can remember seeing pictures of the same in old model railway catalogues - we'd be talking early 1960s

Does this ring any bells?

Stuart Reid

Not being blessed with electrical knowledge I am looking for help in wiring up a Peco electrofrog double slip. I am using Peco point motors and the PL15 twin micro switches and am baffled by the instructions!

I was wondering whether any of your readers could help by explaining where I am going wrong by perhaps drawing a simple schematic showing exactly where the track feeds should go and how to wire up the micro switches etc..

Chris Boyle

After a recent trip to the Netherlands and seen the fabulous locomotives and rolling stock out there, I decided I would like to model a small NS/DB layout. So, I have sold all but one of my Class 50s and have a small stud of mainly Roco NS locomotives that I would like to fit Hornby decoders to. All my locos have working lights, which is the norm for even the basic hobby models for the European market. So, does anybody know if Hornby decoders will work in Roco locomotives?

Ian Reynolds

The staff of Model Rail have been particularly quick off the mark with their review of the new Bachmann 00 Class 37/4, samples of which arrived from China by air just a few days before the magazine landed on the doormat. I shall not reveal their conclusion other than to say that it makes interesting reading.

Other reviews include recent Hornby Mk1 releases and ViTrains Class 37/4s, Oxford Diecast 4mm scale Ford and Morris vans as well as trees from Woodland Scenics and Grand Central Gems. There are the first pictures of the forthcoming Graham Farish Class 60 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel', the Tower 0 gauge 14XX and the Bachmann 141/181 locomotive for the Irish market. Heljan's release plans for the future are revealed.

The layout reviewed is 'Shaweport', an N gauge modern image scene by Stephen Farmer. The masterclass features the BR Class 14.

'Construction' articles cover an 0 gauge FNA nuclear flask wagon, updating the Heljan 0 gauge Class 47, modelling fields, improving lighting on the Hornby Class 60, BR mineral wagons, horse traffic, a working 0 gauge layout on a 10ft plank and The Workshop Apprentice series looks at assembling 00 subassemblies.

The Bachmann Collectors’ Club has launched its own website at www.bachmann-collectorsclub.com which will provide members with the latest information. The site can also be accessed through www.bachmann.co.uk by clicking on the Collectors’ Club section.

The Collectors’ Club pages includes details of all the exclusive club models produced by Bachmann for members over the years and a comprehensive guide to the contents of each of the Collectors’ Club magazines produced over the years.

Dennis Lovett, Public Relations Manager at Bachmann Europe said that "the Bachmann Collectors’ Club has seen major growth in the last 12 months and we intend to provide even more facilities and offers during the new club year, which starts on 1st July".

By Brian Macdermott

Sunday 10 June: Travel Channel, 13.00-14.00, Swiss Railway Journeys.

Derek Morrow may like to check out www.trackthosetrains.com. This software was developed from a fairly general collector software programme, which I have also used.

'Track Those Trains' will track inventory costs, valuations, allow photos, links to layouts, train spotting records, contact list, sources of spares, a diary (past current and future) and is programmable to provide a set of database criteria for your own special needs. I am not a computer wizard by any means, yet find it simple to use. The database can be searched by a number of variables (which you determine) and can provide printed reports.

The website allows for a free trial to be downloaded, providing most basic function for experimentation. The full software is, in my opinion, reasonably priced. The only technical support I have needed ("Computers for Dummies" is too technical for me!) was help on how to transfer the database to a new computer and the response was fast and helpful.

I have no connection with the company other than as a very, very, satisfied customer!

David Nevett , Edmonton, Alberta

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Braid is right, I am lucky. Manses do usually have quite good spaces for a layout and this one is no exception. I have a 17 by 8 shed in the garden which is where mine is based. He is right also about church halls. (There are some perks to every job!) I have started a model railway club for the school where I am chaplain and the layout is some 27 by 15 feet. It is not too popular with the ladies in the church who do not like the stack of baseboards on the stage, but the kids love it!

I am glad someone was paying attention and could correct my mistakes! I do not remember now from where I got my information with regards to numbers, but it was clearly wrong. Thanks, Braid. It makes the case for the J36 stronger which appeals to me more because it is that much smaller and therefore brings more variety, as far as the casual observer is concerned, which I think is very important. Most folk out there, particularly in exhibition land, do not know the subtleties of various classes but they do like to see movement and variety. A J36 looks so different from a larger J39 that it will spark more interest at an exhibition than the in-between J37. So, how about it Hornby/Bachmann?

Graham Crawford

Paul Jansz wrote that the EE Type 2 Baby Deltics were withdrawn because they were unreliable. I seem to recall that Modern Railways magazine, in 1967, reported that the Eastern Region considered them to be their most reliable type 2, achieving several periods of 100% availability. Without doubt they had problems, but so did many of the numerically larger classes. It should be remembered that, at this time, all 263 of the Brush Type 2s (later Class 31) had to be re-engined.

I think more to the point was that they were a small non-standard class and that BR, in the late sixties, after Beeching, had far too many small diesels than it had work for and that was the reason they were withdrawn.

Mark Jenkins

I am sure that Clive Mortimer is wrong about Class 26s in Ipswich; they may have made it in 1959/60, but by '61 they were all in Scotland. The early LMR based Class 27s definitely made it to March shed on freights in the 1960s. They also made it Gloucester too.

Perhaps Clive can enlighten me as to how many 27s were repainted in 2-tone green? Are there any pictures on the Web?

Paul Brooks-Burke

There are several different ways of looking at the duplication of models, when Hornby and Bachmann go into competition with their Jubilee offerings, the result will almost inevitably be one of good and bad. The Hornby offering will have strengths that the Bachmann does not and vice versa. Hopefully, we, the buying public, will have two worthy locos to purchase. The worst case scenario is if one is greatly superior to the other which may have a big impact on the inferior products investment.

Quite often we have seen one manufacturer feed off the success of another i.e. Bachmann's sales of SR locos must have been buoyed by Hornby's huge investment in Southern subjects.

Then there is the question of cheaper alternatives such as the 37 which comes as cheap or expensive as the buyer wants it to be. Just because someone buys a cheap 37, it does not mean that it is not any good. It just means there are more sophisticated models around.

We have also seen one manufacturer drop a loco from its range only to be taken up by another and greatly improved upon, the 9F for instance. If one looks through the history of manufacturers there are plenty of examples of one of the aforementioned scenarios and, by and large, it has served buyers well.

I believe that instead of bemoaning the duplicated offerings we should welcome them as it gives us a choice. One interesting observation about the forthcoming Jubilee's is price. Hornby locomotives usually have a higher RRP than Bachmann's ones. If both locos are pretty even in quality it could be down to who is willing to shave their profits most, to get sales. We could end up with a price war on our hands!

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Frank Spence points out that Bachmann and Dapol are in competition with one another, and he is right, but there is a very good reason why these two fine manufacturers should consider discussing future projects with each other and it is entirely illustrated by the Class 66 situation.

The market for N scale models is lucrative but small. If two competing models appear, one is almost certainly to be judged here and elsewhere as 'superior' based on some criteria or other. The usual one seen in these pages is the basic appearance of the model. Although unusually rough running will cause comment, I rarely see a model’s performance touted to the same degree as (say) the accuracy of the roof profile. This is a situation in which the 'losing' company will take a bath as word spreads and even those, who would not normally care, will develop a preference for the more accurate of the two models.

Should consumers be in the rare but happy position in which both models are identical in appearance and performance, it would be best for each company to offer their versions in liveries not offered by the other. Identical livery in catalogues lead to another area in which inaccuracy can be judged by the knowledgeable. The opinion shared by those of less encyclopaedic knowledge can lead to sales being lost to a slip of the airbrush. This goes double for rolling stock, especially modern profile goods wagons.

Both companies have areas of the hobby in which they excel over the other. Better their efforts should coincide than collide on the odd occasion they each pick the same subject. I want both companies to be healthy and profitable for a long time to come.

And who knows, a workable NEM pocket standard based on de facto UK 00/N realities could fall out of the discussions too.

Peter Gomm should visit the Dapol website where he will see exactly what a spine wagon is, although it is early days and the pictures are CAD workups so far. It looks to be a nice addition to any modern layout.

Steve Mann

Referring to the recent posting about the Heljan 33/2, I find that my Heljan 27/1 has the same fault, derailing on the points. Luckily, I have also a continuous loop on my layout, enabling the Heljan 27/1 to run without any mishaps.

I contacted Heljan UK regarding this fault, but they were unable to assist me. Perhaps a reader of MREmag will be able to assist in rectifying this fault.

Robert Stalker

I was converting one of Hornby's beautiful Merchant Navies ('Canadian Pacific') to DCC this week and I have read the correspondence about the variable pulling capabilities (or otherwise) of these locos with interest.

I was surprised to see that the rear drivers of this model were sprung so that gentle downwards pressure on the cab compressed the spring on the rear axle and the front drivers lifted off the track.

I think this may be the cause of their adhesion problem. As soon as the loco is pulling a load that will tend to transfer weight rearwards and if the suspension spring compresses this will allow the front wheels to lift and hey presto - reduced traction.

Two or three years ago, I was working with modifying the Hornby 9Fs to loco drive. I found that, without the body fitted, the chassis were impressive load pullers but as soon as the body was fitted they were extremely prone to slipping. The cause was the front bogie lifting the front drivers fractionally off the track by contact with the buffer beam. A similar effect to the above but with a very different cause.

As 'Canadian Pacific' was a customer's loco, I could not experiment with the suspension, but I suspect converting it back to effectively a rigid chassis would improve things dramatically. A stiffer spring above the rear axle may help but this must not cause the rear drivers to be lifted off the track or the problem will remain.

Having suspension will help with pickup over uneven track but good pickup and poor adhesion are not very useful partners. Perhaps, if it had been the front drivers that had the springing, then it may have worked. Has anyone with one of these locos tried their pulling power when reversing?

Stuart de Boer

The next toy auction at The Old House, Station Road, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands B93 0HT, is next Tuesday, 12th June at 11.00am. Viewing will be on Saturday between 9.30am and 12.30pm and on Monday from 9am until 5pm. There will also be viewing on the morning of the sale from 8.30am until 10.00am.

The Bachmann Collectors’ Club limited edition Class 66 locomotive No.66540 ‘Ruby’ has now sold out. The locomotive was named to celebrate Freightliner’s 40th Anniversary at Coatbridge in January 2006.

The limited edition locomotive was offered to Bachmann Collectors’ Club members in the Spring 2007 issue of the Collectors’ Club magazine. 504 models were released, each with a numbered certificate. When the recently published Summer issue was distributed in June, only 20 examples remained and these have quickly sold.

Dennis Lovett, Public Relations Manager at Bachmann Europe, said, "All three of the 2006/7 00 gauge locomotives have now sold out. We have three more locomotives in 00, one in N gauge, as well as sets of wagons in both scales, lined up to be released during the new club year which commences on 1st July 2007".

Bachmann Europe PLC displayed the first shots of the new Voyager driving car at the Annual General Meeting of the N Gauge Society held in Redhill on Saturday 26 May.

Some of the first components of the forthcoming Class 37 locomotive were also seen, together with working examples of the new Class 04 diesel shunter. Undecorated samples of the new Jubilee with single and double chimneys, long and short fireboxes, smooth and riveted tenders were on show together with both bogie types.

We thank Rails of Sheffield again for their sponsorship of the competition. We have set aside two weeks for you entries to be submitted so the closing date this month is 22:00 on Thursday June 21st. Don’t forget to send your entries on a separate email with the subject "June Quiz".

Here are the questions. Some nice and easy ones and a couple to make you think a little.

Brian McDermott is not far off in his reference to those "bake" coaches. Back in the '70s I spent a lot of time travelling up and down the country in Mk1 stock and always remember the characteristic smell of ancient dust baking in the heating system, especially at night when it was full on.

Stuart Reid

Pedantry No. 1: Dudley Jones appears to be getting his diesel types and classes a little mixed up (Monday MREmag). 'Type' was of course a pre-TOPS power classification for diesels, while 'Class' was the TOPS notation. Considering that Type 5 was the highest pre-TOPS power classification (the 3300hp Deltics), the mind boggles at the power available to the driver of a "Type 26"! Perhaps it was a Type 26 that 'London-Brighton In Four Minutes' was filmed from... in real time? (wink)

Pedantry No.2: Alas, John Simmonds has further misspelled Deryck Guyler's name!

I must admit that I'm of a generation where things like 'Much Binding In The Marsh' and 'Round The Horne' are regarded as very much of their time. Humour is notorious for not travelling well through time - I'm of 'The Goodies' and later 'Not The Nine O'clock News' and 'The Young Ones' (no, not the sappy Cliff Richard film!) generation, but I can well see why those who weren't adolescents at the time wouldn't find them in the slightest bit funny.

It takes a very special comedian or comic actor (the late, great Dave Allen springs to mind) to make humour transcend generations. But in the vast majority of cases, the most appropriate expression is - 'you had to be there'.

But I was pleased to see Mick Reynolds reference to the glorious Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. I assume his brother makes the noises for the talkies?

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With reference to Gordon Hopkins' post today (Tuesday 29th May) I really must disagree, why should a coupling box that doesn't appear on the prototype need to be scaled to a different height in 00 rather than H0? It's not a prototype feature, so just has to work, which the existing standard appears to be able to do.

The whole point of NEM boxes is so that we can standardise on our couplers of choice (regardless of what they may be) and have them reliably work together, that needs a consistent height, the existing standard gives a consistent height that will work reliably with H0 or 00, so what's the problem here?

Why do things the hard way? We have a standard, we have some companies already working to it (or getting close) at least some of the time - the idea is to promote compatibility, not incompatibility.

Martyn Read

Crawley Model Railway Society is celebrating its 50^th anniversary in 2008. We are trying to make contact with as many former members as possible. We would welcome seeing them at our next exhibition which will take place over the weekend of 12^th and 13^th April 2008, or before hand.

The exhibition will be approximately 50% bigger than the last and we are pleased to announce that Gordon Gravett will be exhibiting his long awaited 'Reseau Breton' masterpiece. The society will also be unveiling two new layouts in N Gauge and ON30.

We look forward to hearing from any former members and renewing friendships. If there are any modellers in the Crawley, Horley or Horsham area who would like to see what we have to offer, then the same invitation applies.

Barry Mursell

If Peter Gomm goes to Dapol's website: http://www.dapol.co.uk/newsn.html - under April, he'll find the first 3D Cad/Cam images of the spine wagon. He can then make a decision how important it may be in his life!

Tony Pritchard

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I am (along with many others I suspect) very excited at the tentative announcement in Friday's (01.06.07) MREMag of Dapol's proposal to produce a 00 gauge model again after all this time, It is a much needed type.

However, I need a few questions answering about this new model though. By the term 'spine' wagon, do they mean Freightliner Intermodal container flat? 'Twin unit' presumably means permanently coupled, as with the superb Bachmann sets? If so, will the model represent one of the later open sided style twin flats, as operated by EWS, or one of the many other styles currently in service?

It is great news, though, whichever style they go for, but what would be fantastic news would be to hear of an original coupled 4-set liner wagon being produced. Now that would sell at least as well (and as many items) as a fresh 'twin' set!

Also, to really put the icing on the cake, how about producing an ever increasing range of 'out-of-the-box-, ready-to-run, compatible, 20ft / 30ft / 40ft and 45ft containers in both standard and 9ft 6inch heights to go with both this new wagon and the current Bachmann ones?

Bob Hart

Further to Mr Robert Stalker's comment (04.06.2007) May I add: Colonel Chin Strap's "Don't mind if I Do" (Have another drink), Mrs Mop's "Can I do you now Sir?" and the odd comments like "Don't forget the Diver" and in a very non-PC world good old "Ali Upp!"

After the War (WWII), Two Way family Favourites was going out to BAOR in West Germany - all, of course, on the BBC Light Programme and not on the BBC Home Service.

Rowland Batson

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For the record, ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’ (broadcast 1944-54) starred Kenneth Horne and Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch. They were ably supported by several other character actors, such as Sam Costa, Maurice Denham, Nicholas Parsons and Dora Bryan. Although the original setting was an RAF station (during and after the war), the team ended up demobbed and running a local newspaper!

Kenneth Horne did of course go on to greater things with ‘Beyond our Ken’ and then ‘Round the Horne’. Richard Murdoch and Arthur Askey had been together in another wartime favourite, ‘Band Wagon’.

A simple Google search will reveal much more information about these programmes and performers, and others, for those interested.

Nick Stanbury

Not that you are likely to have the time or the inclination, I guess, but putting "Horace Batchelor" into Wikipaedia is really quite illuminating - especially the local Bristol Newspaper Article which you can access at the end!. I don't think he was too short of a few bob!

Johnny Haynes [also a late night Luxembourg listener and Kenneth Horne devotee].

It is great that Dapol have brought out a non-motorised Class 66 to allow a double header. I hope that Bachmann might follow suit and bring out no- motorised units. I particular would like to see a Class 20 in such a form as these are common on the railways.

Kennedy Howden

I am not so sure that Clive Mortimore is quite right in his claim that D5379 - D5415 were allocated to the Midland Lines rather than a specific depot. This certainly may have been correct later on, but I am sure that when they were introduced in 1962, this system had not been introduced and they were in fact initially allocated to Cricklewood.

Living at the southern end of the Midland main line I saw all this batch of locos and travelled behind many of them in two tone green livery and, if my memory serves me correctly, carrying 14a shed plates. I also have two separate publications that confirm 14a allocation.

Tony Elliott

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Just a minor correction to Ian Taylor’s posting on the Class 26/27 allocations. In 1963, 15A was Leicester Midland, not Leicester Central. The Midland shed had been 15C for many years but this was changed to 15A in 1963.

Dick Flower

In answer to the recent enquiry, D5379 to D5415 were introduced between June and October 1962 and were all initially allocated to 14A Cricklewood Depot. Thus, they were seen on the Midland main line and on cross London Freights etc.. It has also been suggested that they worked to Dover on the Car Carrier service, I have yet to locate a photo confirm this working.

Sadly the Heljan models were not issued with the interconnecting doors so do not represent the early locos - although the BR green issues do carry the appropriate numbers. This was a missed opportunity by Heljan to generate some worthwhile sells to those who model the early BR green era.

John Cherry

It was interesting to hear about the final planned consist for the Hornby Railroad Range.

However, surely the R1092 City Freight Set should be also part of this range with the crude/inaccurate under scale ex-Lima Deltic along the non-prototypical use of a Deltic on a short (unfitted?) assorted freight train. Assuming that this set is still going to be released, I would be interested to hear from other readers on this subject.

Mike Leonard's email, published on 30^th May, is an interesting and useful contribution to the debate about LNER 0-6-0s but I think he is off the mark regarding the Great Eastern. It would be hard to envisage the Great Eastern branch network without Y14 / J15s. J17s are no substitute for these superb little engines which, with their low (13.5 ton) axle loadings, could travel over the whole system. They functioned both as goods engines and for branch passenger services.

The North Norfolk Railway's J15 pops up regularly at various venues round the country winning new friends and, of course, the world record for fastest construction of a locomotive is held by Stratford for building a J15 (9h 47m) - so it should be simple enough for Hornby or Bachmann to build.

Malcolm Harding

Do you know of any UK based software for collating a complete inventory of a model railway, with pictures, price, history etc. – with or without links to the database of ready-to-run manufacturers, current and historical?

I seem to remember some years ago there was one and it came out of the offices of one of the great national houses. Unfortunately, I cannot remember which one or find any reference to it now.

Philip Morgan

Further to Peter Bedding’s message regarding WW11 models, I would like to add the layout 'Overlord' to the list of excellent layouts depicting the wartime period. I agree with Peter that this period is a fascinating one to model.

"I am taking photos for my model railway project".

"Yeah, right, come with me Sonny Jim".

I have a passing interest in Operation Dynamo being the evacuation of Dunkirk when the railways moved thousands of service men from the Folkestone and Dover area back to bases throughout the UK. Locos and stock from all over the system converged on the Dover area but very little of the details of this amazing operation can be traced.

My one hearsay quote that sums up the operation is from a seconded non-Southern driver, leaving Dover with a fully laden train of rescued troops, saying:

"Where am I going?"

The answer came:

"You’re routed for Redhill stop there and ask again"

I do know that some of these rescue trains went as far as Exeter and maybe beyond so there must have been some unique workings of locos and stock yet to be unearthed.

Stephen Dimmock

Many thanks to Messrs Hubbard, Plowman and de Boer for all your helpful replies regarding my question on Bachmann DCC fitted locos and their use where a Relco is fitted. This is very useful information which is much appreciated and, hopefully, I can obtain Jubilee 'Alberta' (a personal favourite) when it is eventually released.

It is also gives much credit to MREmag as a good source for exchange of information.

John Cherry

Hornby have just released the following N scale models in their cold cast resin Lyddle End series:

Bay Terrace Houses - left-hand (N8687), right-hand (N8688), garden walls (N8689)

garden walls T section (N8690).

Town Gas Works - gas holder (N8737), retort house with chimney (N8738), boiler house (N8739), tower condenser and washer (N8740), purifiers (N8741), office & gates (N8742), stores (N8743), straight walls x 3 (N8744) and corner walls x 2 (N8745).

Lyddle End Terminus Station - main building (N8713) and terminus offices (N8714).

Upper Lyddle End Station - main building (N8716) and waiting (N8717).

Lower Lyddle End Station - shelter (N8718), waiting room (N8719), office (N8720) and platform signal box (N8721).

St Andrews church N8700 and lytch gate (N8695).

Skale Oil petrol station (N8727).

The Saracens Head (N8705).

Country police station (N8701) and police box (N8696).

Phil Bullock on Friday 1st June made mention of the various diesel classes employed on the Kings Cross suburban services. It was sadly true that the EE Type 2 'Baby Deltic' (later Class 23) was unreliable. Despite remedial attention, this was the cause of its early scrapping.

Regarding slipping Pacifics, a major factor which is often forgotten is the superheater. Add to the larger grate area and boiler possible when this format is adopted instead of a 4-6-0, the installation much larger superheaters. Wonderful for more economic power production; but if the regulator is on the saturated side of the steam pipe, this constitutes a large reservoir of steam heading for the cylinders, effectively beyond the control of the driver. Once the lubricating technology had caught up, the possibility of fitting the regulator after the superheater was realised, and this was widely employed on the Riddles Standard designs.

Paul Jansz

How can I order a Spine Wagon when I don't know what it is? Is it something very important to my life? Am I missing out?

Peter Gomm

Recent correspondence has referred to the weathering on the latest 9F (92044 from Bachmann) differing from the pre-production photographs. In my opinion, we have yet to see a good attempt by either Hornby or Bachmann at reproducing realistic weathering effects. Most examples still consist of a quick 'blow over' with the airbrush to the lower regions of the loco with some pseudo-rust colour.

If you take the time to study photographs of the real things in service, you will see that the wheels were rarely rusty, especially on main line locos. Most locos had a smattering of dirt (brown) on the underside, especially at the front end around the base of the cylinders, the frames and some discolouring of the ashpan due to hot ashes. The boiler top was under a constant rain of soot from the chimney giving a dusty grey colour to the boiler top, usually washed down the sides by the rain.

It would take a bit of effort from the main manufacturers to achieve an authentic weathered finish, but if one of them can produce that lovely teak finish on their (sadly flawed) Gresley coaches, with a reputed 100 passes of the painting process, it is certainly not beyond them.

Glenn Martin

There has been a lot of comment regarding the duplication of models by manufacturers and, currently, the debate has surrounded the decisions taken by both Bachmann and Hornby to produce models of the Royal Scot Class. Elsewhere there has been duplication of the Class 66 in N gauge by Graham Farish and Dapol.

Hornby, Bachmann/Graham Farish and Dapol are separate commercial companies seeking profitability and in direct competition with each other. Looking back, as I have done in Past in Print, the output of the then major manufacturers was more restricted when compared to the level of offerings available today.

I cannot imagine anyone in business being prepared to discuss their own development programme with a direct competitor but we are fortunate that the main organisations do take notice of the comments and opinions expressed by us. It is inevitable in such a situation that duplication will occur in the future but healthy competition will continue to benefit the hobby. What may be worth exploring is those areas where co-operation and common standards would be more beneficial to the hobby. Couplings and DCC come immediately to mind.

Frank Spence

4mm Heljan 33/2, straight from the box, ran OK on the straight but it came off at the first point - and this kept happening. There was no immediate obvious cause, but on closer checking I found the cross members that hold the front bogies in place were broken. There appears no reason for this break on a new locomotive. So, if you have a similar loco with this problem check the cross members.

Mac Strong

If there are any other decals that people can't find, please ask through my website ( www.precisionlabels.com/d66.html ) and send me a picture of it, ideally showing some feature of the stock it's on, like a grill or the side of an engine from top to bottom, so that I can scale from that.

John Peck

Re - those older listeners of nostalgic radio (MREmag 30/31 May) - probably modelling layouts set in the fifties and early sixties - readers may like to know that BBC7 (available on digital radio and the BBC website) frequently replay old favourites such as "The Goon Show"; Hancock's Half Hour"; "The Navy Lark"; "Round the Horne"; "Take it from Here"; and many others...just the job to recall ones (misspent) youth when steam still reigned supreme!

Stephen Derek

Congratulations to Dapol on their 00 spine Wagon initiative. I hope it succeeds. I wonder if we are seeing the emergence of a new way to market with this and Heljans Falcon i.e. that manufacturers canvas support first. If so, this may actually be the way to get an 0-6-0 tender engine along the lines of recent correspondence. I'm for a J37 myself but then I'm geographically biased!

Dapol are a refreshing change in model railways. They keep their prospective customers in the loop, publishing drawings on which comments are actively encouraged. There is a short development time (typically within a year) and models turn up on time.

I hope this venture back into 00 is a success. There's room for lots more.

Russell Benton

A recent correspondent bemoaned the duplication of models between Bachmann and Hornby, whilst another gave logical reasons for a particular LNER 0-6-0.

Along the same lines the top three loco types (in terms of numbers) on the Southern at nationalisation were WC/BB, M7 and the C class 0-6-0. Few others came near, so the C is an obvious choice. As Hornby seems tied to (albeit very good) passenger locos, how about Bachmann repeating the foresight they had with the N class and producing a C, there is even an example on the Bluebell. While they are at it they could do a an early Southern pillbox brake van to go with it, another big gap in the market.

Roger Norman

Gordon Hopkins wrote: "Like Jane Sullivan, my main use for NEM style pockets in 4mm scale, where they exist, is to fit buckeye style couplers - whether they be Kadee or any other make. Whilst it is true that such pockets do not exist on the prototype, buckeye couplings most certainly do - at least on the prototypes I model. So, if I want to apply the same simple procedure that Jane mentions to change coupling style, is it unreasonable to expect the pocket to be set at the height appropriate for that item of stock? This means near buffer beam level in 4mm scale, not at an artificially low level just because that's what 3.5mm models already use. Experience shows that magnetic uncoupling at this greater height can be readily achieved, so this is no barrier to operation either."

What Gordon’s asking for here, is that the NEM style socket be adjusted on 00 stock so that the Kadee type coupling is placed at the 00 scale height of a buckeye coupling. But this wouldn’t actually change anything. The Kadee style coupling is an H0 coupling, whose characteristics were defined by the original manufacturer (Kadee) to "vaguely" emulate the US prototype buckeye coupling at near to (US) prototypical height in H0. No amount of fudging makes it an 00 coupling.

Kadee did not specify the NEM 362 standard, they merely followed it to produce the NEM 362 socketed version of their couplings so that they were inter-operable with their own defined standards existing in US H0 practice.

If Hornby and Bachmann were to suddenly change their pocket height so that NEM 362 Kadees so fitted were at 4mm scale height (which is odd to argue for in a non scale coupling) then where does that leave the people who want to use an alternate coupling, such as the Roco close coupling? Suddenly, that will be too high to automatically uncouple, and a new design of tension lock, would be required as well.

Even then, the buffer beam mounted Kadee won’t be right. It’ll stick out too far (actually further than currently as it’ll have to clear the buffers) it’ll be over scale, it just won’t actually look right.

Gordon Hopkins wrote: "Of course, if accuracy of representation is of no significance to you, and you intend running almost anything with anything else, then the H0 standard will do fine. But, in these days of super detailed 4mm models, it seems a shame to allow couplings to let the side down for the sake of largely unnecessary compatibility with another scale, just because they happen to use the same track gauge as manufactured."

Gordon, I think you have missed the point here. The NEM 362 pocket is at the height it is because that is the height that is most commonly been used to secure couplings in both H0 and 00 in Europe and has been for quite some time. You will note that the uncranked NEM tension lock couplings supplied by Hornby and Bachmann are at the same height as those tension locks not NEM socketed, and you’ll note that the former Airfix clip in coupler pockets now used in some Hornby stock are almost exactly the same height as the NEM 362 defined standard which means you can pop a slightly modified NEM coupling in there and it’ll work happily, and that was not a standard defined by anyone other than Airfix so that you could have a choice of slim-line or chunky tension locks (eventually only the latter were supplied). Those tension locks were not inter-operable with the continental couplings of yore, but that was just a damn sensible height to put the (non-scale) couplings at.

The NEM 362 standard exists not so that you can couple any old bit of rolling stock together but so that you can use your preferred choice of coupling to couple your stock together, not just the manufacturer supplied couplings.

Paddy Sinclair

In response to a question about traction tyres on the J52, I have a J83 that also suffered pickup problems. I removed the traction tyres and now it runs well over all my point work. This has not seemed to affect its pulling power - in fact it will still pull better than my Bachmann Golden Eagle A4.

I hope this helps.

Paul Davis

The 140th toy auction at the West Street Auction Galleries in Lewes, Sussex, is next Monday (June 11th) at 10.30am. Viewing will be on Friday between 9am and 5pm and on Saturday from 9am until 1pm. There will also be viewing on the morning of the sale from 9am until 10am.

Does anyone know where I can find information on BR sleeper train formations and locos used for them? I am particularly looking for details on Eastern Region maroon Mk1s, Western Region blue and grey Mk1s and Western Region Executive livery Mk2s and Mk3s.

Thanks, Pat, for this brilliant website and for anyone who can help me out.

Thom Ritter

Thanks to Mike Leonard for his sensible digest of prime candidates. Any of these 'maids of all work' would be very welcome in model form.

My own primary interest is in the J6, for a couple of reasons.

The first is very simple: despite ample production of Doncaster's big engines in model form over the years, there has never been a suitable 0-6-0 produced in ready to run form to go with them on their home turf. (The J39 was notable for its general absence on the East coast route south of Doncaster, but were ubiquitous elsewhere on the system.)

Second, there is no easily utilised Doncaster 0-6-0 7' 3" + 9' 0" chassis available. All current models with this spacing have dated features that make them difficult to 'recycle' into other models, being either plastic with an awkwardly positioned motor (Hornby's N2, B17) or split chassis type (Bachmann B1, V1). I should say this has not stopped me using these chassis, but something better would be welcome. There are just so many common Doncaster types using this chassis: K2, other J's including J50 and J52, N1.

Regarding Goslin's list and the GER J20, while these were the largest capacity GER goods engines, they were one of the smaller classes. The numerous J15 and J17 were more widely distributed and, with similar numbers surviving into BR service, the larger J17 is probably the better proposition for manufacturing. Anyone who has struggled to conceal a motor in a J15 would probably concur.

Paul Jansz

I for one would certainly endorse Stuart de Boer's suggestion today that "future polls could be remodelled so a vote for 'a small 0-6-0 tender loco with a northern flavour' did not get lost through being diluted with the many variants." Most of us are likely to buy a particular type of loco if it is offered to us rather than getting sniffy because it isn't the particular class we asked Santa Claus to put in our stocking.

Stuart Reid

I was having difficulty with removing the body from a Hornby J52 - a nice weathered version. None of the screws on the bottom seemed relevant. I emailed the Hornby Service Desk for help and ten minutes later Julian rang me to give me the answer - it unclips from the back and slides slightly backwards to unhook from the two lugs at the front.

It couldn't be much better than that! Thank you Hornby.

Linking to another recent theme, this loco has traction tyres on the middle drivers. These stick like glue to the track - it is hard to push it along as they grip so well. It should be able to pull the Titanic. However, this is at the expense of pickups. It is noticeable that with only four wheels picking up it is a bit prone to stall at slow speed over pointwork.

Stuart de Boer

Having been assured by many that the only Class 37 worth having would be the forthcoming model from Bachmann, I couldn't wait to get my example (37672 in Transrail livery) home and into action on my layout. After some running in, I put it to work on an engineers train and ran it for well over 30 minutes. Very impressed.

It ran well as I come to expect of Bachmann models, although my example was a little noisier than usual. To me (not a rivet counter), the body looks fine and the finish was good. New features include opening cab doors (like Hornby locos) and an interior cab light. The latter in my opinion is great but a little too bright.

The final verdict.

It is better than the original Bachmann model in terms of accuracy. Not that much better than the ViTrains version of the Class 37 ( I have 5 of these) as far as value for money is concerned. I will happily run examples from both stables. Bachmann does need to think about more liveries and variations though. The Class 37 is an enormous subject to cover!

Both manufacturers need to move on from the 37/4 and 37/6 bodyshell variant soon.

Andrew Wiltshire

I fully agree with Jane Sullivan. There is only one correct height for Kadee couplers which is determined by the height of the coupler tail above rail level - it is the same for both H0 and 00 scale stock.

Bachmann use two different NEM pocket heights corresponding to their straight and under-set (cranked) hook and bar couplers. The height difference is about 2.5 to 3mm. The lower pocket height (designed for straight Bachmann NEM coupler) is near enough correct for use with Kadee NEM couplers nos 17-20. However, most stock has the higher NEM pocket. I have tried many different solutions, including modifying Kadee NEM couplers so that the head is under-set, but I have come to the conclusion that the easiest solution is simply to super-glue a second Bachmann NEM pocket (with the plastic tail fixing removed) onto the bottom of the existing pocket. This brings the second pocket down to near enough the correct height, and is a simple low cost solution. Bachmann NEM pockets are available in the spares packs 36-027 and 36-030.

One minor point of detail - the Bachmann NEM pocket wall seems to be slightly thinner on one side compared to the other. Glue the second pocket so that the thinnest side is uppermost. This lowers the coupler by about 3mm.

David Randles

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Like Jane Sullivan, my main use for NEM style pockets in 4mm scale, where they exist, is to fit buckeye style couplers - whether they be Kadee or any other make. Whilst it is true that such pockets do not exist on the prototype, buckeye couplings most certainly do - at least on the prototypes I model. So, if I want to apply the same simple procedure that Jane mentions to change coupling style, is it unreasonable to expect the pocket to be set at the height appropriate for that item of stock? This means near buffer beam level in 4mm scale, not at an artificially low level just because that's what 3.5mm models already use. Experience shows that magnetic uncoupling at this greater height can be readily achieved, so this is no barrier to operation either.

Of course, if accuracy of representation is of no significance to you, and you intend running almost anything with anything else, then the H0 standard will do fine. But, in these days of super detailed 4mm models, it seems a shame to allow couplings to let the side down for the sake of largely unnecessary compatibility with another scale, just because they happen to use the same track gauge as manufactured.

Looking at it another way, if they existed in quantity, would we expect 3mm ready-to-run models to use the 3.5mm NEM standard too, just because there's still only half a millimetre in it and people might occasionally want to run both together on some dual gauge track? I very much doubt it.

Gordon Hopkins

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I've been operating my 00 scale British layout with Kadee couplers for over 30 years, and I completely agree with Jane Sullivan. Interestingly, if you check the MOROP specification for NEM 362 (at www.miba.de/morop/nem362-d.pdf) you'll find that the pocket height for H0 scale (smaller than 00) is exactly the same as for S scale (larger than 00). So it's hard to see how the appropriate height for 00 could be anything different. There is, in fact, an entirely separate specification (NEM 363) for coupler mountings with adjustable heights. This corresponds to the Fleischmann 6574 close-couplings, which can be used between the coaches in rakes of British stock (although, nowadays, I prefer the Keen Systems devices, which are usually easier to fit).

Humphrey Bryson

The BRCW Type 2s allocated to English sheds were:

D5300-19 Hornsey. A few were around long enough to be transferred to Finsbury Park when that opened. All had been banished northwards by October 1960.

D5370-78 were originally at Thornaby, but later transferred to the LMR Midland lines circa 1966, before going to Scotland.

D5379-5415 were allocated to the LMR Midland lines. During the '60s the LMR did not allocated diesel locos to sheds but to locomotive districts. Most of the BRCW locos were allocated to the London and Leicester districts. They could be seen on the ex-MR lines from St Pancras to Sheffield, Birmingham to Peterborough.

Clive Mortimore

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Type 26s were also to be seen at Ipswich, where I believe a few were allocated for a while. My records show D5311/8/9 to have been there (on shed) about 1961. I never saw one at Norwich.

NB Type 2s were also at Ipswich around this time, including D6117/22/4/7/9 and D6131-35/7.

Norwich was obviously impressed with the Type 15s. When several of the first ten of the series arrived, they spent some months in a siding by the coaler, apparently laid up, while J15s, J17s and the last B12 performed duties apparently suited to the Type 15.

Dudley Jones

ITMA stood for' It's That Man Again' followed by 'The Tommy Handley Show'. I could be wrong, of course, unless I am the only 'oldie' daily reading MREmag.

Robert Stalker.

I have a twin cassette pack from the BBC with 4 episodes of Much Binding. They have been played to death! There is no sign of Deryck Guyler in any of the episodes that I have but I think memory can play tricks with us sometimes.

However, I did just want to add that Deryck Guyler, also famous as Corky in the Eric Sykes show and of course the head of the General Assistance Department in the Men from the Ministry, moved out here to Brisbane, Australia, late in his life to be close to his family and, for those interested, his memorial is in the large Mt Thompson Crematorium Gardens at Mt Gravatt.

Getting back to my model railways, are there any rumours circulating yet that any of the big companies are going to do something about signals next year. Hornby have been so good lately, I would happily forego the T9 for 12 months if they would just bring out a new series of decent, ready to use signals.

Stephen Russell-Clark, Brisbane

I'm a great fan of the old BBC Sunday lunchtime comedy shows. I'm too young to remember 'ITMA', or 'Much Binding...', sorry to those who can, but I had to correct Peter Gomm's spelling of the surname of Derek Guyler. This actor was an icon. He had so many memorable characters during his radio and TV career. He was the friendly neighbourhood copper in the Eric Sykes/Hattie Jacques TV shows and he stood out as the school caretaker in 'Please Sir' with John Alderton and co. and, even now, he is parodied in the 'Churchill' insurance ads, oh yes he is, and, indeed, he was famous for his adeptness with the washboard. Sadly I am old enough to remember those!

I think the idea to name a 'Warship' after 'HMS Troutbridge' is brilliant, but it would need many dents added to the front end to reflect 'Mr Phillip's' navigational and docking errors don't you think?

My layout has a station named 'Keynsham ("spelt K,E,Y,N,S,H,A,M"), near Bristol. The Station Master is Horace Batchelor and I paid for all the stock with a pools win using the "Infradraw" method. From Crystal set to DCC, looking back how privileged we have been to be involved. Enough, now back to the MAC.

Unfortunately, track most definitely is about millimetres here and there - just as much as on rolling stock.

Peter Morgan asks instead, "If track was produced, which remained 00 gauge, could accept all current and some past products with no modification, was dimensionally inaccurate but of cosmetically "scale" appearance, would you buy it?".

Maybe, but not without knowing what the details actually were. That's where the millimetres come in. 'Cosmetically scale' and 'dimensionally inaccurate' are phrases which are contradictions in terms, for which there can never be a compromise that will please all parties.

Like Peter, I would also like to see some examples produced to see what is being proposed - and the variations that might be on offer. Only by doing this and displaying them as widely as possible, both on the web and at shows, are we likely to see much in the way of progress on the matter.

Gordon Hopkins

By Brian Macdermott

Sunday 3 June: Travel Channel, 13.00-14.00, Swiss Railway Journeys.

Reader Paul Crake (30th May) obviously shares my taste. There has been, thank heaven, a pacifist backlash to aspects of the two world wars, but I'm not sure whether the period is unpopular (Foyle's War comes to mind and was popular enough), or just simply misunderstood. The reality is that the social attitudes and environment of that time are beyond the comprehension of many current modellers. There was much more social cohesion that has been lost. It does seem a tad illogical, though, that the Maunsell lined green and the BR eras should be favoured, and the bit in between gets swept into a black hole.

But there are some superb layouts which have been on the recent exhibition/magazine article trail and which are of this period. These include 'Lulworth Camp', 'Curyford' and 'Wartime'. All power to the respective owners' elbows; may they repeat their success.

Peter Bedding

John Cherry asks whether he can use a DCC decoder fitted loco on a Relco-fitted layout. This is an issue which I have covered in an article:
http://mrol.gppsoftware.com/Relcos.aspx

It is not necessary to "avoid a number of proposed purchases of Bachmann locomotives" or any other similarly decoder-fitted locomotives. Simply wire a switch in the 16VAC supply to the Relco unit so that it can be turned off when required i.e. when a DCC loco is present. Alternatively, unplug the power supply to the Relco.

With a switch fitted, there is no problem and no locos need to be avoided!

Graham Plowman

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Stuart de Boer

The latest state of 00 gauge has the top two manufacturers set to fight it out over the Royal Scot class, rebuilt of course. This makes one wonder, as in all things the market forces influence heavily the choice of model manufactured. This has seen the popular creation of the A3 and A4 Pacific's and the return of the Britannias. These are all historically important locomotives and they are followed not surprisingly by the Royal Scot class, the mainstay of the West Coast for many years. They will be amazing creations, there can be no doubt that the battle will make great models. The question becomes then how an oddity, such as the ugly duckling Q1 class locos, sold so well.

The key to marketing is the originality of your product, so, like the Q1, the Class 411 EMU will be a great success for Bachmann. It represents a new concept not approached by the model rail manufacturers before. So, to ensure good sales volumes, Hornby and Bachmann must continue to search for the original products to service those needs. With the reflection in the creation and provision for a market avenue previously not explored, at least not by opposition, and convince the consumer of the need.

So, now Hornby and Bachmann should stop fighting each other and, instead, search for new avenues to expand their product ranges. By directly competing they will have less of the market share for their Royal Scots, and this will be detrimental to the sales volumes and investment by each company. Some duplication should be expected. 'Mallard' is so popular it is good that each company has one, so there will always be a model in production. However, there are so many types and class of steam loco there would be little need to duplicate to this extent. I hope the Royal Scot is a success for both companies, but also a minority event, and that in the future the companies will seek alternate routes to expand their ranges.

As an after thought, is 6100 going to be manufactured by either companies at this stage, as the preserved example or the BR version?

Just a few thoughts.

Thanks to Pat for the great magazine everyday.

Simon Baldwin

Ian Taylor

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Regarding Norman Cluelt's enquiry about the early days of Class 26/27 locos, D5300-D5319 were originally allocated to 34B (Hornsey), D5379-D5415 (inclusive) started their careers at 14A (Cricklewood) and roamed widely up and down the Midland main line so would undoubtedly have been seen frequently at Wellingborough, Leicester and Derby.

All the others started as Scottish engines except for a small batch - D5369-D5378 which first went to 51L (Thornaby).

Although I saw all the Hornsey locos at Kings Cross, they did not stay long, being replaced, I believe, by what was to become the Class 31s. The Cricklewood engines arrived in 1962 and remained for a number of years, but I cannot recall when they actually left for the North.

Tony Elliott

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Class 26s were allocated to Kings Cross suburban workings from their first deliveries. This would have taken them as far as Cambridge and presumably Peterborough. They shared these with EE Class 23s (Baby Deltics), NBL Class 21s (D6100) and Class 24s, until sufficient Brush Type 2s were available for all but the Baby Deltics to be allocated away. Indeed, the D6100s were expunged under a very dark cloud being unable to pull the skin off a rice pudding! Initial allocations were to Hornsey pending the opening of Clarence Yard (Finsbury Park 34G) as a diesel servicing depot, after which all GN main line southern end motive power was concentrated there. I am not aware that they strayed much from these workings.

Class 27s were initially allocated to Cricklewood (14A) and I think Leicester (15A, D15) and Toton (16A, D16). They certainly worked between those two areas down the Midland main line and also strayed off piste. Saltley (2E) was not adverse to hijacking them for work rostered from that depot and I can well remember D5400 turning up one lunchtime at Worcester on a Washwood Heath-Gloucester freight.

There was also an initial allocation of non-boiler fitted Class 27s to Thornaby, but these came south in (I think) 1966 in exchange for some early Class 25s.

The website http://www.derbysulzers.com is a mine of information on diesel workings from 1958 onwads and is well worth a look for further interest.

Phil Bullock

Stuart de Boer

A number of rumours have been circulating regarding the status of the recently introduced Class 37 locomotives. During transit, a number of locomotives were damaged and could not be released. Those that were released were checked prior to despatch and no damage was found.

By Brian Macdermott

As this is Snippet No.100, I thought you might like a small diversion from motive power details into the complex world of 1961 coaching stock rostering (extracted from the November issue of Trains Illustrated).

Take the 7.27am Newark-King’s Cross – a 9-coach restaurant car formation.

The 4.57pm King’s Cross-Grantham on the previous evening provided a 5-coach set (bake second, frst, two open seconds, bake second). This spent the night at Grantham.

Three coaches (composite, open second, brake second) provided the passenger section of the 4.00am King’s Cross-Leeds on the previous day. In the afternoon, it formed the 4.43pm all stations Leeds-Doncaster, where the stock waited from 5.54pm to 9.40pm before travelling south on an ECS train to Grantham.

And the restaurant car? This was used to supply dinners on the 7.30pm Down ‘Aberdonian’ on the previous evening. Detached at York, it was worked south empty at 1.06am to Grantham on the 10.25pm from Edinburgh.

By 3.06am, all the constituents have reached Grantham and then have to be marshalled in order: the 5-coach set at the south end; the 3-coach set at the north; and the restaurant car in the middle. At 6.10am, all is ready for the start as an empty train to Newark, reached at 6.35am, 52 minutes before scheduled departure as the 7.27am to King’s Cross.

Two of MREmag’s regular contributors run excellent Yahoo Group websites to do with coaching stock.

I thought Mike Leonard put forward a very balanced summary on model 0-6-0s. My only slight quibble might be to exchange the J17 and J11. But that's a personal bias, because I've always had a soft spot for the 'Pom-Poms'.

As regular readers will know, I'm very much a North British Railway man. On the other hand I would venture a guess that I probably know more about many other enthusiasts' favourite railways than they know about mine (the company that owned the first British inside frame inside cylinder 4-4-0s in Britain, the first train ferries in the world, the first 'merry-go-round' trains in the world, the first sleeping car in Britain, the longest railway bridge in Europe, and so on!).

Before leaving Britain in 1966, I travelled extensively around the country. Even in my Army days (May 1960-May 1963), though based on Salisbury Plain, I paid longish visits to Yorkshire, East Anglia, Devon and South Wales, among others. During my childhood a 'step uncle' owned a farm near Retford, where we spent a summer holiday. To this day I can still remember the 'clank' of a Gresley 2-8-0 on a long goods train.

During my pre-Army days in the Merchant Navy, and post-Army as a civil engineer, I have watched steam engines at work around half the world. 2-10-0s in Germany and South Sumatra, 4-4-0s in Pakistan and West Java, plus Garrats in East Africa and Australia. In Papua New Guinea, while building the Lae Sports Complex, I unearthed the tracks of the narrow gauge line which once upon a time connected the Voco Point tanker terminal with the Main Wharf.

But I digress - I call it Oldtimers Disease.

Braid Anderson

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Thanks Mike for some interesting work. It was certainly interesting for me particularly with the conclusions drawn which vary a little, but not much, from the listing in Goods Traffic of the LNER by Geoff Goslin. The first chapter he devotes to a brief survey of LNER goods locomotives. In it he lists the following pre-grouping principal classes (followed in brackets by your suggestion):-

GOSLIN Your List

GNR J6 (J6)

GCR (J11)

GER J20 (J17)

NER J27 (J27)

NBR J37 (J36)

So, it is only for the NBR and GER that there could be some disagreement.

With regards to the NBR, the J37 was more numerous but with an RA of 8 compared to an RA of 3 the J36 could be used on branch lines where the J37 could not, which might make it more attractive. Again, the J20 on the GER has a slightly higher RA of 5 compared to 4 for the J17, which again could be a factor. All four engines were in use until December 1962 so there is a wide scope for various liveries. I believe there would also be wide scope for releasing these unnumbered with transfers included as many people would want more than one.

Personally, I would love to see a J37. There were 23 at St. Margarets in 1938, 28 by 1959. For all the Lothian and Fife coal traffic, they were in much demand. There were only 14 J36s in 1938 and 6 in 1959 at St. Margarets so that one has less appeal to me as I am not modelling a branch line.

That's my tuppence worth, who's next?

Graham Crawford

As a long time reader but first time poster to MREmag, I feel the need to publicly commend Bachmann for the excellent level of customer support shown to me this week.

I am a BR 4mm modeller from Australia and recently purchased a Bachmann Class 45 via mail order from the UK. On receipt of the loco, it as apparent that the air tanks were missing from the battery box areas. I sent a quick email to Bachmann in the UK about this and received a courteous reply, within 24 hours, advising me that the parts were on their way to me. They duly arrived yesterday; so, well done Bachmann! In an era when good service is generally declining, this was a most pleasant surprise.

Great magazine Pat, keep up the good work.

John Keane, Brisbane

The Bachmann 9F weathered version varies.

It might be time to consider some sort of code-of-practice about marketing illustrations. I bought mine on the basis of a Bachmann picture which was quite quickly removed from the website of a major retailer... showing rust and staining quite different from the engine offered for sale. The factory picture shows extensive airbrushing of white stains and rust stains, and possibly enhanced-image colouring.

To their credit, the major retailer took their own basic pictures of the product. But not before I had ordered one on the basis of the factory picture.

Some manufacturers, and in 00-scale this is mostly Hornby and Bachmann in steam at least, appear to have a haphazard approach to things like production vs catalogue. Hornby have appalling steam effects. Maybe they mean it this way. <g>

I am quite a fair writer and photographer and have edited some magazines to do with disability. I enjoy modelling, but would not even begin to guess the breadth of the 'honesty-in-advertising' issue when we have digital catalogue pictures, and hand-finished 'weathering'.

Robbie McGavin

One of the originals was Sam Costa. The second I think was Richard Murdock. That's given the age away hasn't it? So many of those early comedy shows are available on the web.

David Rigby

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Just a quick note that you missed out Derek Guiller (I'm not sure how to spell his surname but this is how it sounded). He appeared in many programmes including on TV. He played the washboard. How many readers know what that is?

Peter Gomm

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You appear to have forgotten another member of the Crew at Much Binding, Sam Costa!

On a different tack, I have often been tempted to name a station Troutbridge, or adorn D871 with the name of that frigate. For those now totally lost, I'm thinking of 'The Navy Lark' broadcast on the Light Programme that starred, amongst others, Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Ronnie Barker.

Frank Spence

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By your statement you are not as old as I thought!

The radio show "Much Binding In The Marsh" was supposedly a fictional RAF Station based 'Somewhere in England' and did indeed star Kenneth Horne and Dickie Murdock as Officers. Also there was Nicholas Parsons, Sam Costa, Dora Bryan and Maurice Denham. Super comedy with no smut, as I recall and I can well remember Messrs. Horne and Murdock bringing the show to a close by singing the song "There's Much Binding In The Marsh".

I believe the show ended in the mid-50s and then Kenneth Horne started his own Sunday lunchtime comedy shows.

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This radio show was part of my childhood's evening listening, along with ITMA and, never bettered, Dick Barton - Special Agent. James Bond is but a pale comparison.

Kenneth Horne played the part of the Station Commander, I seem to remember, "Stinker" Murdoch was his sidekick, and Sam Costa played his batman. The humour was topical and the satire wickedly accurate. It was said that the "erks" of the time believed it to be a documentary.

Even such is time..

Like the little boy reported on Wednesday looking for WW2 model railways, I too am somewhat surprised as to the lack of WW2 railway models in British outline. At best, I suppose, most liveries were just dull colours rather than camouflage as was the case on the continent.

However, in European outline, there are and have been some superb WW2 camouflage models from, initially, Lima, then latterly from Liliput. Just look at Liliput's current range - locos in standard and winter camouflage with boiler armour plating, coaches and wagons, especially the twin wagon set with an Me 109 just being delivered from the factory. There is a flak coach with quad AA guns at each end and sets of "four tanks on wheels", both in camouflage and grey, that were used to patrol the German railway network.

If you model Epoch II WW2 European HO outline there is a plethora of models, both for layout modelling and for dioramas. Just add some tank and train busting rocket carrying Typhoons and you can create WW2 all over again in layout form - peacefully of course!

Bob Knee

I am just replying to Phil Brice's question on your site.

I passed Wilton earlier this year and was surprised to see the goods shed and yard had gone and the site has been redeveloped after many years of neglect. All the upside buildings were still standing until recently, although the box was moved to Meadstead and Four Marks some years ago. There are many books on the route . As for gaining access to the site from the road side, it should be fine. From the track side it is very doubtful as the station is fenced off. Again, all can be seen in books that are available.

Laurence Hopkins

I'd like to say, that my experience is mostly with 3.5" models...and the power to weight ratio of them is really quite staggering compared with full sized. I own a 0-8-0 (Martin Evan's Caribou) and a Britannia (LBSC, built to the words & music). Both of them will slip violently, if given the chance to do so. The Britannia will slip at up to 9 miles an hour (real MPH, not scale) and will do so with basically any load behind her. Typical driving at full power outputs involves driving on the reverser, rather than the throttle. This is a fairly prototypical way of driving, as it minimises loss across the throttle and maximises N. Given a 1/2 turn on the reverser, she will typically loose her feet, at which point the smart move is to back the reverser again fairly smartly (reverser is 13 turns from full ahead to full reverse and has fairly even balance between the two).

I think that a lot of the problems are to do with power to weight ratios that are excessive. Electric locos (and diesel/electrics) can have severe problems with wheelslip. There are numerous commercial solutions to this problem, ranging from the simple to the extremely technical. The issue is that, particularly with a "modern" steam engine, the power to weight ratio is such that, at 'blowing off', they have enough power to easily slip the wheels. This means that the driver must drive, and not just willy nilly open up the regulator. Under the right conditions, a slip can be a very violent affair.

James Powell

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I have heard it was something to do with the reverser being set too high and that the rails at Waterloo were a 'no sanding allowed' area due to the track circuits getting gunged up. However, it has been said that, in the last years of steam, many drivers went for the slip just for show or they were a poor driver!

Laurence Hopkins

I am writing with reference to Gordon Hopkins' letter about NEM pocket heights in Tuesday's MREmag.

My model railway runs with Kadee couplers. The easiest way to convert a vehicle with NEM coupler pockets to Kadees is to pull the existing coupler out of the pocket and replace it with a Kadee from the 17--20 range.

In order for Kadee couplers to uncouple magnetically, the tail of the coupler has to be at the correct height above rail level. Once you've got that height, all the other heights, such as the height of the NEM pocket, follow automatically as night follows day. It doesn't matter whether your vehicle is H0 or 00 scale; because I am using Kadees designed in H0 for H0 NEM pockets, the NEM pocket has to be at the H0 height for magnetic uncoupling to work properly.

If the NEM pocket on a vehicle is at the wrong height, or the vehicle does not have NEM pockets, then I am reduced to fitting Kadee No.5 (standard length) or 46 (longer) couplers, or sometimes by drilling a hole through a No.20 and screwing that into the hole that a tension-lock coupler was screwed into. This is just the right height, requiring no extra packing or filing, would you believe. I have lost count of the number of couplers I have fitted over the years.

I don't understand Gordon's comment about applying a "mandatory" requirement to something that is not even to the same scale, since NEM coupler pockets are not to any scale, since they don't exist on the prototype and neither do the couplers they support. As for: "Inter-changeability between UK and 'other' stock is not really much of an issue anyway because the two rarely meet - and their bodies would be out of proportion if they did", they do meet regularly on my model railway, and who cares? It's my railway, and I'll run what I like.

So, as far as I am concerned, there is a standard height above rail level for NEM coupler pockets in 00 and it is the same height as for H0.

Jane Sullivan

With the wonderful array of container wagons available from Bachmann and Heljan's container terminal crane (if you've got plenty of money) does anyone know whether there is a trailered lorry suitable to compliment these, whether it be in a kit or ready-to-run form. I have been searching websites and magazines but have been unable to find anything suitable in 00 scale.

Martin Jones

I wouldn't want to appear pernickety, but for those modelling the 1950s, who were too young to have been around at the time, in the West of England, at least, the attractive brightly-coloured post-war cars didn't really dominate the scene until the mid-1960s. Even as late as 1962, when I became an avid car-spotter, most cars to be seen in my neighbourhood were still pre-war or immediately post-war saloons from Ford, Vauxhall, Austin and Morris, with the occasional Alvis, Bentley, Jaguar, etc. thrown in to leaven the mix. And, unlike the period dramas you see on telly, these were almost universally painted in a very high-gloss black.

Even those cars produced after the war (Morris Oxford, Vauxhall Wyvern, Rover 60, etc.) were little different in style from late pre-war designs and were still more often black than not. The earliest cars I remember looking distinctly colourful were the Ford Consul 365 and the Zephyr/Zodiac equivalent, plus the early post-war Popular (100E?) and the infamous Vauxhall Victor that rusted so fast they all disappeared before their predecessors!

So, quite a lot of the cars to be seen on steam-age model layouts were not actually typical of the scene before 1960. The exception was, of course, on car transporters like the Hornby ones, which look quite cute with rows of Morris 1100s and Minis. But remember that two-tone paintworks like those on the Cararama Mini models were also very uncommon, although Vauxhall Victors and Triumph Heralds did have two-tone paintwork as a manufacturer's option and were seen occasionally.

If you're not a wheel-nut counter (or whatever the car equivalent of a rivet-counter is), then don't worry about it, but I just thought I'd mention it!

Anthony New

I just thought I would drop a line re Julian Martin's coupling message and your response. I'm not quite old enough to recall the Kenneth Horne radio show referred to, but I do remember a model layout featured in Railway Modeller many moons back with a station called 'Much Cussing in the Marsh', and wondered if that might be what Julian was referring to? As I recall, the layout featured a branch line to 'Swearing Town', so you can guess what the layout was called!

This led me to thinking about funny layout names (which was featured on this site some time ago), and I recall another layout which featured a station called 'Stackton Tressels'. There were (I think) two other stations with similarly amusing (and apposite) names, but I cannot recall what they were (does anyone else know?).

The reason that this station stuck in my mind was its connection with another classic comedy series, "Dear Ladies", starring Dr Evande Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket. This pair of venerable ex-stage starlets; played respectively by George Logan and the late Patrick Fyffe; graced our TV screens in the 1970s and early 1980s and lived in the charming old English village of 'Stackton Tressel'. The village scenes for the series were shot in Knutsford and Great Budworth, for those with an interest.

Peter Bedding's comments (24 May) on models from the end of the Southern Railway struck a chord.

Last week, in a branch of a well-known chain of model shops, I overheard a mother with her son asking a shop assistant if they had any models of "troop trains". Despite there being in a cabinet behind his head a beautiful Southern Q1 and a superb A4 in black "NE" livery, LMS and Gresley teak carriages, and some older models in Second World War liveries, he immediately replied "no". The prospective but now disheartened customers left the store empty-handed.

It always surprises me how little the manufacturers push this period when, if my childhood is in any way representative, I would guess that large numbers of small boys are interested in things related to war. There are glamorous engines, including the A4s and (hint, hint) Schools, that in appropriate liveries could be branded specifically as war models, as well as quirkily interesting machines like the Q1s (although I note that the advertised 3rd Q1 to wear Southern livery was cancelled, presumably because the first two were slow sellers).

With fantastic-looking Maunsell carriages about to appear, a Southern troop train set would be easy to put together - as indeed would troop trains and war freight trains from other regions.

I wonder why this period is apparently so unpopular?

Paul Crake

I have today purchased the new Bachmann weathered 9F 92044 of 34E and must offer my praise to Bachmann for an extremely well "dirty" loco, apart from the shiny coal in the tender!

Well worth the wait for this issue and certainly recommend to all awaiting such a loco - also much cheaper than the Modelzone limited edition version.

I operate my 'analogue' layout with Guagemaster controllers and my two main lines have Relco track cleaners wired in. I now understand from my local dealer that I should not purchase a Bachmann locomotive that has DCC on board (i.e. chip fitted) as this will not operate under analogue control and the Relco will cause damage. It was also mentioned that the same would happen if Guagemaster electronic track cleaners are fitted.

This will mean that a number of proposed purchases of Bachmann locomotives will now have to be avoided and to keep to non-fitted items. However does anyone know if it is possible to simply remove the "on board" chip and, if so, whether the loco will work under analogue operation? Has anyone attempted this so far?

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this subject.

John Cherry

Early members of the class were allocated to the southern end of the East Coast Main Line and could also be seen at St. Pancras, Leicester and Derby before emigrating to Scotland. At what depots were they allocated to in England up to 1968?

Thanking you in advance - your work with the MRE is much appreciated, a must read every day !

Norman Cluelt

If Ian Taylor would like to contact either of the people listed below he can be brought up to date with proposals for the Class 47 and other items.

The Class 47 is being handled by Paul Furner who can be contacted at Paul.Furner1@btinternet.com This project is not a 3mm Society venture so the loco will be available through a small number of outlets.

A proposal for other ready to run items is being researched by Chris Harris who can be reached on chrisharris_51@yahoo.co.uk. This also is not a 3mm Society project.

There are other proposals being thought seriously about which these have an association with the 3mm Society and details of the progression of their proposals are privy to members of the society. We welcome you to join us. Refer to our website for information about the society and how to become a member. http://www.3mmsociety.org.uk

David Rigby

I've got some set-track points in my fiddle yard, with a curved point connecting toe-to-toe with a straight point. The Hornby Class 52 I have won't make it round the curve of the two points. Is the curved point less than 2nd radius on the inner curve or is the Class 52 not compatible with 2nd radius curves?

Mike Wonham

Given that the LNER vote was somewhat diffused in the last Poll, have taken it upon myself to view the relative merits for all concerned, of various pre-Grouping 0-6-0s, courtesy of the information available on the LNER Encyclopaedia website. In this way, perhaps we can all appreciate their relative merits and, I hope, not just be conditioned by our local regional allegiances.

From the current information available, the most suitable locomotives for R-T-R production would seem to be:

GCR - J10 & J11

GER - J15 & J17

GNR - J6

NBR - J36 & J37

NER - J21 & J27

I would certainly welcome constructive comments from anyone, who could suggest more deserving locomotives, but having perused the information available, these would seem to be the most numerically produced classes and the ones which covered the greatest areas throughout their service history. Consequently, when you consider the recent Bachmann criteria highlighted in BRM, I believe that you can reduce this list further. You can then begin to identify a possible priority order for Bachmann or Hornby, based on fairly sound commercial principles. I would therefore like to propose the following:

GCR - J11, as opposed to the J10. The J11 was produced in greater numbers than the J10, and was a heavier locomotive, with a larger diameter boiler and therefore would be easier to manufacture. The J11 operated in both GCR and GER areas, as well as on those of the M&GN. It operated into North Wales and Merseyside in the 1930s and 1940s. The J10 range was not so large. Unfortunately, there seems to be no example of either locomotive in preservation.

GCR - J17, as opposed to the J15, but this is not so clear cut as above. The J15 was produced in greater numbers, but the J17 is both the heavier and larger locomotive in terms of boiler diameter and so may be easier to manufacture. Both locomotives operated in the GER area, but appeared not to have operated outside this area - although I am open to further information on this! Both locomotives have preserved examples that can be seen currently, the J17 being part of the National Collection.

GNR - J6 by self-selection, unless anyone can educate me to other viable alternatives. The J6 is the third heaviest locomotive after the NBR J37 & GCR J11, but its boiler diameter is relatively quite small at 4 ft 8 ins. I believe that the J6 operated only throughout GNR territory and that there is no preserved example in existence.

NBR - J36, as opposed to the J37. The J36 Class was produced in greater numbers than the J37, albeit that the latter was the heavier locomotive and larger in boiler diameter. The J36 was seen in operation in North Yorkshire and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Borough Gardens Shed) during WWII, outside of its normal NBR area. It also has a preserved example, unlike the J37.

NER - J27, as opposed to the ubiquitous J21 - head ruling the heart here! The numbers of J21s produced, easily outnumbered those of the J27. However, the J27 was both heavier and larger and the dimensions are fairly compatible with the Bachmann J39, which is already in production. Both the J21 and J27 have preserved examples, but the J27 had the wider area of operations as it saw service in Scotland, south of Edinburgh, as well as operating in GER areas. In contrast, the J21s only operated though out the NER area.

Now for the really contentious bit, especially after my opening comments. This is what I would suggest as my final order of priorities - and here I accept that a Middlesbrough-born man living in York might just have a smidgen of NER preference and loyalty:

1. NER J27 - due to its operational area including NER, GER and Scottish areas, plus a preserved example of the locomotive, and therefore a merchandising opportunity to help reinforce commercial sales potential.

2. GER J17 - combination of its popularity in the recent MREMag Poll, its operational area in GER and having a preserved example in the National Collection - again a possible commercial merchandising opportunity.

3. NBR J36 - combination of operating outside of its normal area and a preserved example - possible commercial merchandising opportunity.

4. GCR J11 - based solely on its large area of operations in GCR, GER, M&GN, Merseyside & North Wales.

5. GNR J6 - only GNR 0-6-0 that seems to appear under the Bachmann criteria.

6. NER J21

7. GER J15

8. NBR J37

9. GCR J10

Having offered up my opinion, I now look forward to receiving some interesting comments and hope that they will be of the constructive variety!

Mike Leonard

I glanced through the track poll and found it far too complex to begin to answer. Surely the poll could have been a lot simpler. The crux of the issue is surely not about millimetres here and there or P4 EM etc., what scale check rails, but the much simpler: "If track was produced, which remained 00 gauge, could accept all current and some past products with no modification, was dimensionally inaccurate but of cosmetically "scale" appearance, would you buy it?".

It is, after all, what I suspect people are asking for, accurate 00 track is an oxymoron. I think everyone accepts that (unless you model some very obscure narrow gauge system), but what is needed is a cosmetically enhanced product and that is not going to come from a CAD system or a slide rule but from the artist's eye and observation.

The old trick of cutting a few sleepers from your flexitrack and spreading the rest out to a more 'scale' appearance, is what we're talking about here, but extended to points and crossings - and maybe some work on sleeper lengths too. It's not a question of scale but appearance, a better poll would require more work, building mock up prototypes or some digital photo trickery to ascertain which compromise looks best in most peoples eyes.

'Scale appearance' 00 track is going to be a compromise. It is going to look right and definitely be wrong but I suspect it will sell. It might even find a few converts in the EM faction. Perhaps today's models are getting too detailed and too delicate to be re-wheeled easily (this is speculation on my behalf not a fact etc.). Remember, nearly 80% of people who answered the pole seemed to suggest that EM P4 etc. are a complete waste of time - to put a cheeky opposing spin on someone else's 'take' on the results.

In a way, I'm very pleased with my move to 16mm/SM32 with very few of these sort of arguments. Most people are freelancers and you can gain a lot of fun adding gloriously incorrect details to your rolling stock to make it look nice, without anyone telling you it's wrong - wagons made of wood, locos that need fuel oil and water. It's great fun and not as expensive as you would believe. My Roundhouse Millie, at £400, looks very good value when placed next to a Hornby or Bachmann £100 model.

Peter Morgan (the other one)

by Stephen Haskins

Currently the situation really doesn't look very promising. In short, LGB of America (LGBoA) refrains from their previous offer of €7,5M to take over LGB in Nuremberg, together with about 100 remaining employees. LGBoA could not fulfill the requirements of the bank consortium, according to a short press release. However, they are still willing to take over the responsibility for the bankrupt company LGB if another participant joins them to fulfill the bank's financial conditions.

Schedule - Week Beginning 28^th May

MREmag readers may be interested to know that with four days still left to go in the month TRC has broken the 1 million hits barrier! Figures for the channel reveal that from 00.01am on the 1^st May until 23.59 26^th May 1,112,051 hits were recorded a quite staggering achievement and an endorsement of TRC's policy of providing free entertainment for railway enthusiasts.

By Brian Macdermott

Perhaps one of the reasons why British manufacturers do not consider adherence to the NEM standard as being that important is that it is defined for HO at 3.5mm to the foot, not 00 at 4mm to the foot. You can hardly apply a 'mandatory' requirement on something that is not even to the same scale. Inter-changeability between UK and 'other' stock is not really much of an issue anyway because the two rarely meet - and their bodies would be out of proportion if they did.

However, it would be nice if the manufacturers were at least consistent within their own ranges and perhaps agree a standard for 00 separately from NEM.

Gordon Hopkins

Terry Gee's wishes for 00 scale cars from the '50s and '60s may be nearer fulfilment than he realises. Has he seen the recent advertisements from Oxford Diecast models who are to introduce 1:76 range of cars and light vans? Early releases appear to include a Vauxhall Cresta, Humber Super Snipe, Ford Zephyr, Mini and Morris Minor vans and they are reasonably priced. If they are a success we can, no doubt, look forward to other favourite additions. Perhaps a look at their website might prove interesting.

Tony Elliott

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The Oxford range is a relatively new one but in the past Marks and Spencer have produced a set of 3 Jaguars of the right era.

Peter Gomm

I have been reading MRE regularly for some time now and must say how much I look forward to it, even though some contributors get a little too hot under the collar sometimes. I am wondering if the knowledge base of the readers can help me with a couple of items.

I am researching Wilton station on the Salisbury and Exeter and I notice on Google Earth that the "up" side yard and goods shed seems to have been cleared, flattened completely. Can anyone in the Salisbury area confirm this as I wanted to make a site visit this summer to photograph and measure up, permissions permitting.

The other thing is, can anyone say what has happened to Sharman Wheels? Their website is unavailable and exhibition appearances don’t seem to happen now either. I am about to start a couple of loco kits the wheels for which are not readily available from other sources.

Any information would be welcome.

Phil Brice

From my understanding, Pacific locomotives are a bit slipperier than other engines but my understanding is divided between that which pertains to models and that which pertains to the prototype.

Having not seen a Bulleid Pacific in action, I can only assume that, between the equalisers on the frames and the force of the steam engine cylinders, there is a point of moment or 'turning force' which could, however minuscule, lift the front driver wheels from contact with the rail. In the case of the Bulleid engine, if there was a degree of improper equalisation, then it would be possible that the weight transfer could result in less contact for the rear driver to the rail and to the front driver and therefore slip in the initial application of power.

Flexibility in the drivers? Possible but I somehow think unlikely!

With models, the issue is more one of balance over the three drivers. Because the motor is often over the back of the driver set, the tendency at the point of moment is to lift, again from the front, creating a 'slippery' situation. The motor is constant torque as distinct from however many power strokes. Because the 0-6-0s and 4-6-0s have the motor fully over the drivers, there is less of a tendency to slip. I had a Pacific for which I built a new motor and had to weight the front considerably to balance the wheels on the rails.

I hope this is of help,

Trevor Gibbs

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I have to chuckle when the subject of slipping is mentioned.

I have watched Pacifics slip when running light out of Waterloo.

I had a friend who was an avid Great Western fan and he claimed that their locos never slipped. He just should not have said it as one morning on one of our holidays in the West Country we watched a County slip on leaving Tiverton Junction. Of course his excuse was that the Counties were not Great Western engines but BR ones.

Peter Gomm

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With regard to Jeremy English on Friday 25th, in his comment on the propensity of the Bulleid Pacifics to slip, there have been a fair list of contributing causes advanced over the years, but no firm conclusion.

The lower mass of the BFB wheels (partly from being 6'2" rather than the typical 6'8" of express types on the MN) and higher stiffness of the BFB wheels, when compared to spoked types, are thought to have had an effect. Add to this the relatively low adhesion weight for the power output capability, the large cross section and low internal losses in the steam circuit and the suspension and balancing arrangements. Then there is the tendency to spill oil from the sump, which was confined to these locos in their original form.

For comparison, the Britannia Pacifics, with their conventional spoked wheels, which although not affected to the same degree, were also recorded as occasionally slipping at speed. Again, no final conclusion was reached to explain this.

This rather suggests that these classes were nudging against the limit for the power output to adhesion weight ratio, for reliable adhesion with the dynamic balancing and uncompensated suspension arrangements typical of UK practise.

Paul Jansz

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I was told by someone who drove them, that at least part of the problem was oil dripping from the oil bath that protected the chain drive, but that would not account for them slipping in their rebuilt form.

Martin Bradshaw

Some of your readers might be interested in some videos I put up on YouTube which was shot at Expo EM. I hope this will give a good flavour of the exhibition, which I very much enjoyed. My disclaimer is that I shot this for my young kids and for myself and I'm not a professional videographer. Take a look and if you like it please feel free to pass this on via MREmag.

To my horror, I find that two layouts were missed: Liverpool Crown Street 18.2mm (Liverpool Model Railway Society) and Liverpool Lime Street 18.2mm (John Holden). I'm not sure how that happened although they were in the same aisle and I had to take some breaks in filming. This is a shame because both were really interesting.

I hope this will be of interest to readers and that they will excuse my shaky camera work.

In general I think YouTube is an interesting beast and I would certainly love to see more video of layouts on there.

Nick Thompson, Scotts Valley, CA

Anyone modelling the current railway south of the Thames will be hard pressed to find any ready-to-run passenger stock. I can think of a Eurostar, a Networker and a limited edition 170. Three classes that rarely meet. I do not think that I have missed much.

Paul Harman

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Peter Bedding asks for Bulleid liveried M7s and King Arthurs and I expect he will get them eventually, but it has to be remembered that taking into account the period of wartime black it was relatively short lived livery and Hornby will naturally want to produce the more popular liveries first.

On the subject of a T9 being used as the basis for an L12, I must beg to differ. Given that the locos were built on the same frames, that is where the similarity ends. The L12 (and S11) have a larger diameter boiler pitched at a higher centre line, on a different pattern smokebox saddle with different boiler mountings. In addition the cab is higher to cope with the bigger boiler. In short there is nothing above footplate level that is the same.

A similar suggestion was made some months back that a newly tooled L1 could be used for a D1 and E1. Again, a 'non-starter' once as you look at their respective major dimensions. By comparison the changes required for the different Arthurs produced so far are minimal - a different cab, smoke deflectors and steps, plus a safety valve cover.

I look forward to that T9, though.

Roger Norman

I've just picked up on this topic and am rather surprised that nobody seems to have mentioned Scale Link who do a useful range of figures (workmen, drivers etc.) and vehicles as well as their better known etchings.

Their site at www.scalelink.co.uk is worth a look. Brian Macdermott might even find the hoardings he wants here. I have no connection with the company other than as a user of their products.

John Whitelaw

I have been looking at Peter Smith's website on station colours, which is very useful. It emphasises the similarities and differences in the BR and big 4 colour schemes. To get around the problem of running private owner goods trains, e.g. LMS as opposed to 1950s' BR Southern mainly passenger trains, I have been contemplating the idea of adapting a layout so that key buildings (station, signal boxes etc.) could be lifted off and replaced with those of another company. This would give a different and more appropriate atmosphere for the scenario. It obviously would not be suitable for the purist but I wonder whether anyone has tried this approach?

Secondly, there was some interest, a little while ago, in tank wagon schemes and lack of information. There was a series of articles in Model Railways (published by Argus) by Paul Bartlett and Peter Fidczuk of which I have only Part 6. This was in April 1992 and covers the 45ton TTA. Earlier parts covered the 12 ton type tank wagons. Perhaps one of the current magazines may be able to rerun this series or publish a monograph?

Robert Inns