VESPA

Certificate or not, many Limited Editions, rarely increase much in value. I have 501 Squadron which was a Ltd Ed for Beatties and I would be lucky to get £50-£60 for it, unrun, boxed as new. The ones to watch out for are those that are not popular. The recent Clans and even better the earlier Clans tend to hold their value and in some cases increase in value, even used. There are other examples but all value will crash when Hornby or whoever brings out the same loco slightly revamped. I remember the old HD full red BRMk1 fetching over £25 at the demise of HD in Liverpool. Then Mr Hatton (Norman) found he had hundreds of them and forgotten about them. They went on sale at £1 to shift them. That took the wind out of that one at the time.Some of my Dublo stock was fetching fantastic prices in the 70's and now it's worth much less. Limited editions face the same fate. They should be called "Ltd Production as we have to feel the water first locos" That happened with the Coronation Pacific, "Sir William A Stanier FRS" that sold out before it ever got to the shops.

The both bogies bounce on the point frog. Hornby points are notorious for derailment of bogies on diesel and steam. Peco points are miles better.

There is quite a lot of cut price stock about at present and sold nearer to what the price should be ie the true value for normal people and not millionaires. My purchasing is almost nil this year. No way am I paying extra for dust, I expect it free.laughing

Using set parts from other things can make great structures. An instance of this is pages 104 105 of Hornby Magazine, where R660 has been used for a river crossing. not quite what is wanted in the OP requirements but a good example of utilisation of exsisting products without going fully scratch.

Build the two supporting structures first then lay the top width on in card to get the angle you want. Transfer that tp the under structure and if you want an arch measure the cntre from the structures and transfer that to card again using a compass (the one for drawing circles) If it looks too round use the centre point again and draw a bigger cirle and use the bit that suits best. From the outer edges of that arc extend 90o upwards a straight line to the height of the bridges upper wall. Then use grey matter to design the rest of the bridge from ideas off photos of a real bridge. The lot can be done in thick card with Metcalfe or Superquick brick/stone papers or with plasticard brick or stone covering. The whole job may take about 10-12 hours overall but will be unique and the perfect job.

Interesting post with some good ideas but bridges and tunnels are some of the easiest things to scratch build from card or plastics. Why the arch? Why not just a straight angled section. On my old 3 rail layout I built 3 bridges from card, balsa wood, matches and Superquick papers. Nooks and crannies suitably "mossed" and weeded with weathering by poster paints. The sectret being, find a suitable real bridge and draw up plans to suit your layout. Supports at either side can be made first then the inner made. Or modify a kit. Metcalfe and Superquick make easy to alter bridges and look fine taking out the full scratch part. Metcalf also has a good matching plain brick/ stone sheet for alterations.

Whether you can get hold of them on Ebay or not, HOBBIES of Dereham Norfolk, produced a full set of plans for all the Dublo style wooden buildings. I have the full set somewhere in my over stocked items.

I too have a fascination for TPO's. I have the Hornby LMS and GWR TPOs x2 of each and a set of Bachmann TPOs with a sorting van. Also the later Lima vans for parcels, Rail Express Systems. There are a few books on Mail by Rail and of course the famous film from the LMS, a link to that here plus some others.

Thank you all for your replies. I have been busy with hospitals, Dr's and pharmacists over the past few days so my time has been a bit limited for a reply to you all. It is obvious that manners have become thin on the ground. I have just given advice to a chap buying a car who was ripped off by a car seller. He has now got his old car back but as yet not the cash make up. That is all in hand with the next step of legal action which sadly I think he will have to do with the backing of Trading Standards. I have also made another friend across in the USA with an interests in the same car's as mine. We also have an interest it aircraft, mostly military. His 93 YO father was based near me in WW2 flying bombers. After a bit more chit chat his son is a railway buff and writes for a US modelling mag. (0 Guage). A small world but a different one regarding thank you's on the car site.

Sometimes several members on here, spend quite a bit of time delving into, archive to answer a query for someone. I spent a couple of hors last week on one subject and the OP never replied. Surely a thank you isn't hard to do? I am not prepared to delve through books or the internet any longer for those hard to solve mysteries of choo choos. I regularly contribute to another website (not railways) and 99% reply with a thank you or thumbs up emoji.

Personally I think it's horrendous. It'll be worth millions on Ebay soon being sold by sharks who bought several.

Contact Peco publications in Seaton and I am sure someone there will find the copy and send you a photo copy of that article.

You may be interested in the book "The Royal Train, The inside story" by Brian Hoey Haynes 4556 Locos used 81-82 87028 Lord President, 47449 Fair Rosamund, 47511Thames, 47577 Benjamin Gimbert GC, 87005City of London, 47461 Charles Rennie MacIntosh, 87004 Britannia, 47439, 47501, 47511 Thames, 31423, 86211 City of Milton Keynes, 25054 + 25054 (4 coach special 1975) The book also lists the coaches for those days of use

Use Peco or Hornby rail buffers as used in sidings. They clip to the track, are relatively cheap and enough to stop the locos leaving the track. From memory real engine drivers never ran off inside the sheds with no buffers but these will do the job cheaply. Like these, https://uk.hornby.com/products/buffer-stop-r083 and https://peco-uk.com/products/buffer-stop-railbuilt2

Faller and other plastic kit makers give much scope to make the kits better. My option would be red sandstone or grey granite. Red use Halfords brown undercoat and dark grey, use their grey undercoat. Make the model up and then spray in the choice colour. Use even sprays all over the model. Do not try to cover it all at once or you will get runs. Move across each area with a sweep. Continue this allowing the first coat and subsequent coats to dry off the carrier. This may take an hour done carefully (or less) once thoroughly dry you can add the "cement" if required. To do this I would spray some of the base into the lid and add a small amount of white or cream acrylic to lighten the colour (not too much) Then add some water about 50% and mix thoroughly. This should be very runny. With a good quality sable paint brush, load it and just touch the cement depression areas. Capilliary action will draw the mix from the brush into the cement. Be patient and just allow it to flow as it will take time and need to dry. Cover the whole kit like this. It is a slow process. Once done and dry you will need some black paint (matt finish for all) Get a wide brush and dip it in the paint wiping off the vast majority. Then dry brush the whole surface so that you only leave a very light cover on the raised parts. One sweep and the stone should look older but still show the light colour well. Do this until you are happy with the effect. The tops can be that bit darker if you wish. Using the smae technique but in small quantities here and there add dabs of green to show moss growth. The best thing to do is research some actual photos of similar bridges. You may wish to gently cover under the arch in white, again not too thick but enough to show water seepage. That would be maily in the upper arch with dribbles on the inner walls. Refer again to real life photos. Using PVA glue to add weeds to the upper outer areas. Hornby make lichen and suitable coloured "flock" to make it look like leaves or use actual plants from the range that look like weeds, such as Rosebay Willow herb. I hope that gives room for thought.

Is it the same loco?

I have trawled several books to see if I could find just one photo of 2218. The class was elusive in the books. I have one that has a section dedicated to Welsh areas and there were only 2 of the class photographed. I suppose, as I have said, that there was not that much interest in the small tender locos and that is why there are few photos. In early days of colour photography for the masses Dufaycolour and Agfa were the cheapest but Kodachrome gave better reproduction. The trouble was that it was only 8 ASA which is a very slow film (light absorbtion). The others were similar but Kodakchrome had to be sent to Kodak for processing. Without getting to far into reasons, one was a sustantive film and the other nonsubstantive meaning one had the colours built in. Another problem with B&W was that earlier films were Orthochromatic whist newer films were Panchromatic. Again these would render some light colours darker or would not differentiate between certain colours. Photographers would use coloured filters to change this. eg red and green are hardly distinguishable on Pnchromatic film unles you use a red or green filter. A green filter would make the red look darker and a red would make the green darker. Many photographers used a yello or yellow green filter to get the lining correct on green passenger steam locos. OK photo lesson over but that is what will complicate any B&W photo referred to by changing the apparent lining or colour from green and black. I will keep looking as I have several hundred books, mostly LMS (BR) or LNER (BR) with quite a few with all regions. That reminds me I must have a clear out of books.

The first link you give is green as the orange lining is just visible. The trouble with 50's photos of trains is that they are mainly black and white due to the cost of colour those days. Secondly it is a minor class of loco so photos will be thin on the ground. I will have a look through my books of GWR locos and see if I can come up with something.

This Youtube review shows the later model quite well and will be correct.

Have a look at this website pages 21 >. https://davidheyscollection.myshopblocks.com/pages/menu Some of my photos are on the site under Trainspotters when I could only afford a Brownie 127. Later I used Canon and Nikon with a smattering of Mamiya RB67. David passed away a couple of years back but amassed a fantastic collection of photos from many photographers and are all now part of the National Archive. Most are not in printed books so they may hold info that you are looking for.

I wonder if they will ever reproduce the Stanier Black 5 in the wallpaper finish for a Solvite paste advertising stunt?

HIDEOUS to say the least and the real loco Taw Valley needs putting back into green asap. No doubt they will become as rare as donkey do and in 10 years sell for £Ks I forgot to add, that I saw an AUDI custom sprayed in purple yesterday, in Tesco car park. It sounded like it was fitted with sewage pipes and driven by someone with one braincell. Luckily Tesco sell anti sickness pils.

Just a small point, the loco is "The Sapper" not snapper. BR later number 60809. Seeing this post of one of my secret days out to York when Green Arrow had just come on to shed in the NRM. I had a friend who let me get up into the cab and chat with the crew after a mainline run. I was wearing a cream coloured coat. When I got home my wife wanted to know were I had been. "Oh just out with the camera" I replied. "then why do you smell of oily smoke and have the impression of a seat back on your coat in soot and oil?" Caught out good and proper that day. The seat was typical LNER curved top and it made a great print in soot and oily steam on the coat. Luckily it came clean after two washes.

Watch out for a programme called "Train Truckers" on one of the smaller channels eg Quest etc and it shows Alleleys moving all sorts of railway items from all sorts of places. I have seen it recently so it may not get another airing for a couple of months. Well worth a watch. We went past "Butler Henderson" some years back on the M6 travelling south.

It was reported in the financial section of the Daily Mail that Hornby are having shipping problems of products. That is the reason new things seem slim on the ground.