rayarpino

The stupendous dynanmometer coach produced by a certain Canadian company on commission from a certain Sheffield railway specialist store. I believe this to be the best model of a coach I have ever seen (excepting the exceptional brass 00 coaches produced in the Orient), and that includes models by German companies. I can only hope that, now they have produced a coach initially running with the NER, other types will follow in the teak livery. There are just no R-T-R NER coaches out there (but then neither are there locomotives). The North East is a beautiful region and the NER was one of the main pre-grouping companies, so manufacturers, please give this company and its admirers a break.

The new Osprey (there have been relatively little LNER green A4's offered in 00) and A1 Woolwinder both of course in the gloss "railway museum" gloss finish. I didn't want to purchase the complete Gresley set of four engines at more than £500. This having been said, These productions of identical renamed engines (in model form) is becoming frankly boring, which rather contradicts my decision to purchase two of these.

Stirling single: Thanks LCDR, here are the pictures. I hope the modeller who built it sees this and provides us with commentary about his work. I will be changing the driving wheels with Gibson's since the model strangely retains the Kitmaster plastic parts. /media/tinymce_upload/7d192a0fcc49c940e66f883a2bb2cf3c.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/3064489490f23d566a4b33a2d8c77fd7.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/13a207612db3851e3f4b994e964a6c7a.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/c60b6c27c96ca9f9f2a60a2822622b2c.jpg

Hi, My favourite engine has always been the Stirling single and, after unsatisfactory attempts at modifying the blue box Emily that has too many out of scale elements but can be turned into a good 'impression' of the real thing, for want of anything else, were it only because the drive train is really good mechanically though the driving and cab wheels are not to scale, I turned my attention to an old unbuilt Kitmaster kit. This is much closer to scale but the problem is motorizing it. There is very little room in the boiler and powering the driving wheels only would not be satisfactory. I was still tinkering with it when I came upon such an adaptation on fleabay. I purchased it on the spot because the ad had lots of photographs indicating it was an unbelievably professional build, highly detailed and extremely well painted and lined. If the unknown builder reads this, my congratulations. This model has a top grade power unit in the tender driving the the two end axles and it works beautifully, I must admit, though I generally don't like tender drive. If anyone out there can tell me how to post pictures on this forum, I'll glady do it. I am eager to see what will come out of the Shildon shop Thanks.

The Locomotion limited edition 'glossy' King with bell and all. A really superb model that arrived here in Belgium within three days, well packed, no damage. The sales people at Shildon are a realy nice bunch. By the way, it ran smoothly out of the box. Another acquisition was a world apart: a Wrenn A4 Golden Eagle. As good as newe, extremely smooth but was missing its tender. Failing to find an actual Wrenn A4 tender, I purchased a Hornby Dublo vefrsion that will be resprayed and given new transfers.

Two more diecasts and both Hornby-Dublo 2-rail: a lovely City of London in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition and Cardiff Castle that runs well but is in fair cosmetic condition (was cheap though). I am beginning to grow fonder and fonder of these heavy models and their sheer weight. Pity the spamcans produced by HD and Wrenn are way above my budget.

A Wrenn Dorchester in new condition, comestically and mechanically. Will haul anything. I just love these nice, heavy engines that aren't going to lose any detailing parts on the track. Ok so they are not absolutely scale, but they run soooo well. I do appreciate the minute detail on modern models that I also buy but one does have to be ever so careful when operating them. These Wrenn models can fetch idiot prices. Waslucky to get it for £100 and it is almost mint. And its motor can be maintained and repaired!

Two C1 Atlantics. One in GNR livery, the other purchased later in LNER livery. Just beautiful and run very smoothly and quietly indeed. No problems at all on the Trix plasic ballast track that is immensely stable, allows you to run wires within the ballast section and look fine to me with a very light sprinkling of "real" chips, in N gauge, and weathering. The problem is the limited choice in point geometry. Come on now Hornby, bring us a NER Atlantic and a rake of coaches from the same company. They could also be offered in LNER and BR liveries.

Four (different) Hornby LNER coaches in teak varnish transitional livery, i.e. without LNER markings but BR class numbers and warnings. LNER transfers can easily be obtained from one of thee specialist manufacturers and applied to these coaches after having very carefully removed the BR markings with T-Cut or something else that doesn't mist up the plastic. Since the full range of LNER versions hasn't been available from Hornby for some time, I was delighted to purchase these versions that were on special offer at Locomotion Models, Shildon museum, for only £25 each (the super detailed versions, not the obsolete RailRoad versions). A real steal. I also seized the opportunity to purchase the Atlantic in LNER version as a stable mate for my GNR version. These are exquisite models that work efficiently. Next move will be to pay a deposit on one of the long-awaited Stirling singles. It's always the same isn't it? I was working on the completion of a Kitmaster body fitted to a Blue Box Emily chassis (with different wheels) when the announcement came. I will finish it nevertheless with different numbering. All very well but when, when is someone going to produce an Atlantic, Pacific or anything else in an out of the box NER livery. Come on Hornby!.

It arrived on Tuesday 14 April after a very long wait: a GNR liveried Atlantic from Shildon. It really is elegant and exquisitely detailed and runs ever so smoothly. A bit pricey but still well below the prices charged by German manufacturers (though they are generally superior in many ways but I am out of railway modelling if engines start costing between 400 and 600 quid)). I am convinced Hornby's Atlantic will be equally good if not better but that one did not travel in my territory. So it's another long wait now for someone to produce GNR coaches(can also be liveried in LNER and some in early BR). Something for Atlantics and Singles to pull, though the long-awaited latter remains another long wait away..

Right you are happybear. What I have on the top of my wishlist is to ask Hornby to stop spending time and money on re-issuing the same engine over and over with all its different names and numbers. I can rename and renulmber an engine myself, thank you. The same for wagons. Let us have newly designed undercarriages and bodies, not just repaints of wagons that have been around forever. But bring up to date, to modern standards of detail and running is a must. So yes, there is a need for a new Princess. For an up to date Lord of the Isles (look what Shildon have just announced. I have been waiting for years for this to happen. I am convinced there is a market for the most iconic Singles), etc, etc. Please not another A4, not another A3, not another Castle, unless there were unknown versions with floats in case of mainline flooding. And please get rid of the Christmas wagon, invariably in an ugly, useless livery.

Hi all, Just to second everyone who liked these cabinets. I am not a shareholder but honestly I don't think their prices for these can be matched if one bought all the materials and built them. Not counting labour. I made four myself some years ago, basically four planks, the two side-planks I had to route to fit the glass shelves, and the two top planks were also routed to take the sliding glass panels. Plus the backing panel, wood stain, glue, varnish and time...Was fun though as my first extremely modest attempt at "cabinet-making" (wouldn't have stood a chance as an apprentice at Hepplewhite's), unashamedly copying the assembly method from a rather succesful Swedish flat-pack specialist (where I bought the ironmongery). Getting on now though, bulding the layout slowly as funds permit, detailing and lightly weathering engines and rolling stock. On a morbid note, I wonder how much a varnished teak coffin on scaled-down Gresley bogies would cost. Chimes and whistles from 100 engines playing the funeral march in the glare of the lamps as they wheel me out of the layout room after the wake...But not just yet. The layout isn't finished and neither am I.

Hi Vespa, Thanks for that. I tend to prefer artists's materials, in this case ground crayons or very hard pastels or pencil graphite from the softest numbers. I grind this kind of stuff in an old electric coffee grinder. The longer you grind, the finer if comes out. It's always mildly sticky. For earth I save tea bags and just let them dry in the sun or behind a window. I find the dried tea gives an earthy texture. For ashes, such as in depots, I burn some coal. Thanks again.

Was that "the Deltic" - I used to live a few minutes from New Southgate, which was about ten minutes out of Kings Cross. The original Blue Deltic could be seen almost every day, along with many A4's, running probably to Newcastle, Sheffield, York and further. The era would have been about 1957-1960. Hi BB, I would have remembered THE blue Deltic. I should have wrote A Deltic. Sorry

Just arrived in the post this morning: Hornby's double-tender Bittern. Superb model and runs very smoothly indeed. Needs sound, working lamps and smoke unit, real coal plus some detailing not forgetting the crew and a dust of weathering. I's just that I have these things about A'4's that I remember from my childhood journeys from King's Cross to Newcastle and back.I used to stand in awe at their driving wheels that stood higher than I did. And on one journey toward the end of the A'4s one of them (don't remember the name) turned up to haul our train when the Deltic broke down....