Horsetan

"Is it a kind of nudey thing, Father?"

I remember it as The Passion Of St. Tibulus.....

Have you not tried your hand at doing banknotes?

Not had that happen with AGW outside cranks before. Having said that, I have experienced some being loose on the axle, and a couple (the specific type for the 08 shunter) have actually split when eased onto the axle. There are a couple of ways to alleviate this: 1. Countersink from the back of the crank; once seated, Loctite 601/603 or Nutlock 242 should help the bolt keep its grip. 2. Don't overtighten the bolt when you get it in. 3. For the axle, partly running a 3.2mm drill from the rear will allow the axle to be inserted more easily. Then it's a case of either running Loctite in as the crank reaches its final position, and/or running a fine drill through the crank and into the axle so that the crank can be pinned in place - not easy. Note: AGW and the old Sharman outside cranks seem to be based around a generic 22" stroke. Ultrascale only produce outside cranks for their 08 shunter wheel, and these rarely if ever give problems. Their crankpin system seems to be more secure; some people redrill AGW wheels to take Ultrascale crankpins instead.

That escalated quickly.

I think someone's trying to tell him he should go back to work

News update: Jeff sez his retirement hasn't had the ideal start: last week his car broke down and then some feral stole the new motorbike he'd only just taken delivery of.....

Actually, no.

Looks like one of my cousins has finally decided to retire from the railways This is the fella who got me into model railways back in 1975, with the birthday present of a Hornby Freightmaster set. My parents never forgave him for that. The rest, as they say, is hysterical.

Irish expediency.

I can sort of see why Ryanair is the way it is.

Ever seen the musical "Barnum"?

It's a bit like the Church trying to get something banned, resulting in the subject becoming much more popular.

I wonder if there'll ever be a kit for the Drumm battery cars?

I think 560 still had it on the buffer beam up to withdrawal.

That's quite close, although I think the GSR/CIE script was wider and taller, with more of a shadow. In some photos, the number appears to take up almost the full height of the buffer beam.

He just likes buying loads of stuff and showing it off.

The DR Reko 03 and 03.10s did haul Doppelstock on occasion

I can never get enough of the ex-DR Doppelstock. The general design was modernised to some extent towards the end of the DDR era and, after reunification, looked particularly good when refurbished in the new Deutsche Bahn liveries. I've picked up a fair few in DB Regio colours, and also have 18.201 to haul them. They would work equally well behind either the DR 65.10 or DB 65 suburban 2-8-4Ts. Not sure about using the S3/6. It's a touch too old for that type of thing. Doppelstock is much more suited to the post-war Neubauloks and Rekoloks.

Ah.

BR were trying, by various degrees, to make some branchlines - East Anglian ones in particular - viable, or rather less lossmaking than had been the case with steam, so anything that was cheap to procure and capable of carrying low-volume passenger traffic (and it was very low volume for some routes, with some services regularly failing to reach double figures in terms of passengers carried) at relatively low cost had to be a goer. That was good news for AC, Park Royal and Waggon und Maschinenbau in particular, all of whom turned out 4-wheel railbuses.

I'm guessing that any weatherproofing had long since failed

The Pacers were cheap to build, which is why they came into existence. Using a bus body on a rail underframe was no different to what the LMS, GNRI, CDRJC and others had done in the past. Even the various small single-unit diesel railcars introduced by BR in the 1950s/1960s share the same philosophy. What could be simpler than a 4-wheel chassis? Back in the mid-1980s, the 142 Pacers were enough to inspire Railway Modeller to run a scratchbuild competition. The winning model 142 I remember being a superb effort - finer than Hornby's eventual RTR model.

Thing is, the Irish loading gauge used to be almost capable of taking European stock, but still needed a bit more height and width.

I think you did say quite a while ago that it was rare for any train to be completely uniform; it was more a case of forming a train out of whatever stock was available that day.