Horsetan

Ah, but some of us are a bit more....Catholic

I gave up Lent for Lent. Although I managed to observe Lent for two years, what killed the whole sacrifice thing for me was realising that St. Patrick's Day (and the drink that is sine qua non) always came before the end of Lent.

Likewise. Need to acquire some FB Code 75 rail now....

Will we set the timer going on this? Let's play County Down! The value of your investment can go up as well as down.

Might be the NCC "W" 2-6-0 which has quite a lot going for it. An 800 wouldn't be enough to tempt me away from my SSM kit - at least I'm building that in 21mm gauge from the start.

That's a bit like the whole "helping Ukraine" thing.

Nothing has changed since then.

Only Piko and Gützold (still) use plastic for outside motion. That's been a thing ever since the 1970s when the East Germans had to make the best of whatever resources were available. I'm not sure what grade of plastic they use, but they have perfected the method over the years and, in the rare event of anything breaking, spares are cheaper to buy. I've only ever had to replace one coupling rod on a Gützold DR Br65.10 2-8-4T, costing no more than a fiver. The "clip-fit" technique makes the motion parts easy to fit, with no riveting required. The upside of all that was that the shop prices were about a third to a half of their Western rivals, so offered UK modellers (traditionally notorious for short arms and deep pockets) a cheap way into Continental HO. I remember testing a Piko Br.03 Reko which was priced here in 1985 for thirty quid brand-new. The nearest Western equivalent, a Fleischmann Br.01 (they didn't start making 03s until later) was already above £70.

The famous Japanese technique of "lean production" isn't always appropriate...

Y'know, I thought the Americans were bad at geography, but it looks like we have problems closer to home.

Another Cravens standard coach. I bought this one. Not a bargain as such, but cheap compared to an identical one that's being offered for more than double the price....

...and yet these items will suddenly become worthless for Inheritance Tax purposes if the seller drops dead.

*subliminal messages*

There'd be quite a bit of modification of both engine and tender: Driving wheels and bogie wheels Frame width, and quite likely footplate width as well Boiler pitch - the U2 is pitched noticeably higher Differences in cab front and roof curvature Tender outside frames are different from a standard Fowler - the 483 uses what looks like a Johnson tender which would be wrong for a UTA engine anyway

...we still haven't found what we're looking for.

This one suggests there is a fold-up chassis in the pack....

Remarkably untouched from the original SBB Re460 / BLS Re465.

Interesting that the website doesn't mention that omission....

So that's eight etches so far.....

I think they have to cater for the surprising number of people who still use Code 100 track.

Not all hornblock bearings are alike. AGW and LRM bearings are similar, but AGW has the sliding groove running down the centre of the sliding surface, whereas LRM is biased to one side. I've used AGW bearings in an experimental LMS Duchess chassis, but I didn't use the 0.45mm guide wire supplied as this makes the bearings too loose in the guides. I found 0.6 or 0.7mm wire to give much better sliding characteristics. High Level bearings are smaller, as are the guides. Then there's the rectangular Brassmasters/Comet bearings which are designed to slot into the frames directly without needing separate guides.

I'm after pre-ordering another Park Royal just in case the first one goes missing.

You must be joking! Irish stuff is usually beset by price-gouging!!

My points have transferred over together with my basic details, but that's all so far.

I've just checked into the Accurascale account. The basic details have been retained, but unfortunately my previous IRM order history is not visible, and my existing pre-order for a Park Royal coach is also not shown....unless I'm looking at completely the wrong bit or unless the Accurascale account system isn't supposed to cover that type of thing.