D9020 Nimbus

Era 6 is BR (blue) pre-TOPS, approximately 1967-73 or so. Not many models are produced for this era in most scales, except for diesel hydraulics and locos such as the class 17s which never received TOPS numbers.

Wasn't Llangefni on the Amlwch branch? I seem to remember photographs of a station hard up against a big rocky outcrop?

AFAIK all the big Co-Co EE locos had the same basic bogie design. Originally the 37s had fabricated bogies, while the Deltics had cast bogies. After they were withdrawn, some of the Deltic bogies appeared on 37s and vice-versa. Not sure what type the 50s had, but they would have to be capable of 100mph.

I'd have thought the class 37 would be behind many of the others as it will have had to be designed from scratch, whereas for the 31 and 9F they have research carried out for the OO versions as a basis. The same applied to the J50, so clearly they can move quickly if they want to. I don't think Evening Star spent much time on goods trains. Perhaps its most famous operations were on the Somerset and Dorset line where it hauled the last run of the "Pines Express" — the heaviest train ever to be hauled over the line by a single locomotive (but with two firemen …).

@Silver Fox 17, if a Deltic doesn't fit, you could consider a DP2 body if such a thing exists — it was used regularly on the Eastern Region until its unfortunate demise at Thirsk in 1967, and was of course the prototype for what became class 50.

The "ordinary" power track contains a capacitor (for TV interference suppression) while the DCC one doesn't (a DCC supply — which is AC — won't work correctly with a capacitor in the circuit). If you don't like soldering the Tillig Modellgleis power connecting track is much neater than the Hornby one.

Do TT locos that are sound-fitted come with the correct sounds installed? Most of the coverage seems to involve downloading sounds via the app, to locos where the sound chip was added afterwards. What I'm wanting to know is whether it's possible to purchase a sound-fitted loco, and run it using a standard DCC controller, without using the app at all.

Though the 1960s Triang-Hornby models of "Thompson" coaches (actually alternate sides on mark 1 chassis) were "of their time", the teak effect looked pretty good, and has been modelled in both OO and N gauge without issue many times since — perhaps it isn't as difficult to do as we might think. Now, if only the manufacturers would agree on the correct colours for "blood and custard" coaches — on some N gauge models the red varies from almost orange in colour to something close to the later maroon livery, and the cream colour sometimes looks more like yellow. That said, colour photographs of the period show a similar range too… the colour rendering of films of the time was somewhat variable, and the paint was probably prone to fading too. Green used to be the colour least prone to fading — the vast majority of European coaches were once painted that colour.

Those TT coaches shown are East German DR "reko" (rebuilt) coaches — modern bodies built on the under frames of older stock — and are considerably shorter than newer coaches, many of which are — in the prototype — 26.4 m long. Indeed, they are so long that many HO coaches were made to a length of 1:100 with the other dimensions at the usual 1:87. Some current HO models may still be to such a scale. Indeed, even in this country Hornby-Dublo made mark 1 coaches shorter than scale, while Triang emphasised their "scale length" mark 1s, although their full brake was the same length as the others so it was actually too long. The first Hornby mark 3s were also somewhat shorter than scale.

Just wondering why the Midlands — class 50s and HSTs suggest the West Country to me…

It seems to me that most American modellers either have lots of space — typically a (large) basement — or live in an apartment and have very little space. This may account for the popularity of N and Z in the USA — it's one of a very few countries with commercial support for Z, and of course US trains are often longer than in many other countries. I'm not sure that @Rallymatt's layout is that Freezer-like — there's surely nowhere near enough track for that!

I'd have thought it would be a good idea for Hornby to commission Paul Lunn to do a track plan booklet for them. He has done several for Peco Setrack and his plans are more realistic than the Triang/Hornby track plan books of the past.

The Austrian shunter shown has been modelled in HO by Jägerndorfer, but not by anybody in any other scale AFAIK. Arnold do make some ÖBB items in N — the 5047 railcar, the 4061/1064 electric loco and the 2050 diesel. Despite having more than one domestic manufacturer in the past, there are relatively few Austrian items in N gauge apart from versions of locos of German origin. There are as yet no mass produced steam locos of Austrian origin, although some lasted into the late 1970s such as the 93 class 2-8-2Ts (these are different to the German 93 class of the same wheel arrangement).

The Ivatt 2MT was released during the year (existing body, chassis upgrade for DCC sound). The class 69 was announced during the year but has yet to be released, even the OO version, although that has definitely made progress as samples have been shown. Dapol introduced an upgraded M7 during the year, and also a class 59. They've made a lot of announcements, but seem to have difficulty getting them out — the class 59 was first announced back in 2012 when Dave Jones was still at the company, as was the Bulleid WC/BB which is still awaited… Bachmann's commitment to N has often been doubted in the past! Probably unfairly, but not without cause…

This is a problem with other NEM coupler mounts too — notably the NEM362 used in OO and HO. Sometimes the fitting of a shim is recommended. It's particularly tricky if Kadees are being used where the height is critical. The NEM 355/358 box used in TT (and N) is particularly complex as it has to allow for lifting couplings like the standard Arnold N type as well as couplings that need a fixed height such as the NEM 359 (the standard TT coupler) and Fleischmann Profi N gauge coupler (used to be used on Roco TT models too).