Northroader

I reckon France showed their Gallic insouciance over not being in the Final, “ who gives a sh** about third place”, allowing England to put four easy goals through, then went in at Half Time and got a rocket up their ar**. The second became a proper game, good to watch, and England got it. Phew!!

Sorry to hear of trouble at t’Exhibition, it must have been a strain when you wanting to put on a good showing. I’m just again DCC on the extra cost grounds, as I like to go for discount or pre-used on ordinary DC in any case. Just watching a DCC steamer in action, i worry how many DCC steamers dont synchronise the chuffs with the wheel rotation. Then looking at the chat I get baffled by the technicalities. This cheap skating has led me to purchase old controllers off bring and buy stalls, not recommended, so I’ve splashed out on a Gaugemaster Combi, which does well enough, so I’ve got two now. They’re intended for 4mm use, I gather, but my Gauge 0 is all quite limited in size and power with Mashima or Dapol motors, and these do quite well on the Combi. The one snag is they have a power knob, and a forward/ reverse switch, and I prefer just a centre off knob, combining both functions, as it’s all shunt moves, and I’m unable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Have you tried Connoisseur models? Mainly 7mm, but Jim does a few 4mm, and his kits are not overly complicated, and decent value. www.jimmcgeown.com

My apologies, I was thinking back to apprenticeship days in a main loco works, rather different from today’s scene.

P.S. if you want a real laugh, set some cotton waste on fire, beat it out until it’s smouldering, then drop it into the tank filler after the mug who’s struggled into the tank.

Well, it’s not as if you’ve had some practice at it. Best wishes on this one.

Has anybody got into the side tank to free the balance pipe bolts at the bottom, wriggling over the baffles? Now that’s fun.

So there’s me in the summer of ‘53, walking along the dockside at Waterford, having just got off the S.S. “Great Western” (the ‘cattle boat’) at Adelphi Wharf pontoon. If you’re a 15 year old scout lugging a kitbag for your summer camp, it’s a long way to Waterford North, but we made it, and in we go. There was this diesel railcar in one of the west bays, looking brand new with a wedding party being seen off, (Dublin, maybe?) Nice dark green with some thin light green stripes. Then our train comes in for Limerick way, older corridor stock. ‘Twas dark green the same, with wider bands of light green, but I couldn’t say if any were missing the banding. Oh, the loco, a D4 with outside framed front bogie, real nice looker, but real dirty, like pretty well every railway engine back then. I was used to LMS maroon, or GWR chocolate and cream, both of which could look pretty careworn by then. There was the through train from Birkenhead in SR malachite Green, a bit brighter. I suppose I must have seen some BR blood and custard by then, though not as I remember. To me the CIE two shades of green looked quite an up to date, with it job, must have been because it was taken from the buses.

Nice update, I did do some long time ago, so good to see how it’s done now. My main struggle seemed to be with keeping the mould flat and level whilst casting, then getting the cast part to have a uniform thickness after the pour.The catalyst for the rubber mix back then was also requiring a terrible level of care in its use, hope that’s improved? Certainly the results would be an easier thought process than mastering 3D printing.

You can do it, it just needs some straight track between the two curves, so you’re not getting “S” curves. The throwover with the buffers gets too much..

Trouble is, all this stuff is just too clever for me, drawing on my experience with mobile phones and printer/copiers. The setting up, the feeding and replacement of consumables, working out what the programme/menu has to be told, then trying to clear print queues, it’s doomed to failure. Now if they could send a four year old Chinese kid along with the kit, things would be much better.

You’re very welcome to come and visit my continental thread. Ideally I aim for pre WW1, but it does carry over. I do try to put useful links in, as much as I can, so there some very nifty German layouts tucked away in there for inspiration, plus some good video and photograph stuff. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/151308-“beyond-dover”/ Just a guess “TW-schuppen” equals “treibwagen schuppen”, railcar shed.

Put a S on the front.

I would be inclined to build something simple to start with rather than trying to fill the shed with a large layout from the start. Either a simple terminus to fiddle yard, say 8’ x 1’, or a 6’ x 4’ oval with a few sidings in 00 scale to build up your experience and explore what’s possible. Ones you could aspire to in time, say, Ballyconnell Road or Kilbrandon Junction as good examples? https://3mmsociety.org.uk/ballyconnell-road/

Looking very good. One thing, the big dome at the back of the tender is for water pickup troughs, so really needs removing and blanking over.