D9020 Nimbus

Well, there are locos — even recent ones — where not all the measurements are accurate. The Bachmann OO Ivatt Atlantic has undersized wheels; if you see how close the wheels are on the real thing you will understand why. It doesn't seem to have generated much adverse comment.

The tooling for the old Airfix (and ex-Kitmaster) railway kits was sold to Dapol a long time ago, as were the tools for the Triang Model-Land building kits. Many have been reintroduced at one time or another.

They're also strong as far as wagons are concerned — an area where Hornby are relatively weak as they tend to concentrate on passenger stock, as a look at the (original) catalogue would confirm.

I get all my model railway magazines in digital format nowadays. I don't buy HM regularly — does anyone know if the Pocketmags digital edition has the catalogue or not?

Well, no Jinty or Terrier. Looking back, it's clear to see that they wanted an 0-6-0T that could be introduced quickly. They would only have CADs for the J50 and Terrier, and I imagine that fitting a Bluetooth decoder in the Terrier would be challenging to say the least. The Dapol N gauge Terrier isn't even DCC ready. I'd have liked to see more information on the status of the other announced models — though I imagine we'll be informed when, as in the case of the '37', there's something to show. The signals, despite being described as following early GWR/LMS practice, are clearly all — including the 'single' ones — upper quadrant rail post designs. They should consider a version of the level crossing without the yellow diagonal lines — I wonder how many gated crossings lasted long enough to receive these?

I thought I recognised the Metcalfe farm buildings. They look very appropriate in the scene. It's not easy to tell from the photograph what weathering you've given them, but the Metcalfe buildings represent limestone whereas (yellow) sandstone would be more appropriate for most of the north-east. Seen from a distance they don't obviously look like the wrong colour stone.

Well, BR did lease the original class 50s (from English Electric).

Here's a thought with regard to possible 0-6-0Ts in TT120. All of the types being suggested have been modelled in N to current standards (and all except the "Terrier" to previous standards), and: Dapol have re-run the 57xx/8750 pannier tanks almost every year since they were first introduced, and they have never appeared in the bargain bins; They have re-run the Terrier several times since it was first introduced, though less often than the panniers, and they've never appeared in the bargain bins either; Farish have re-run the "Jinty" just once, and it never appeared in the bargain bins either; The EFE Rail J94 introduced last autumn for £129.95 RRP, has been reduced to £69.95 for all the industrial and LNER versions, BR versions are £99.95, all at Rails of Sheffield. The J94 was made by Farish in Poole days, it has been re-run by Bachmann though the last were done 16 years ago.

I've had a number of Hornby wagons, mark 1 coaches and one loco so far (blue 08). No problems with the couplings on any of these, or with the Arnold ferry vans (or, for that matter, with the various German-prototype Tillig stock I have). I have had issues with the Peco 7-plank wagon I have, however. It is both reluctant to couple and tricky to uncouple from other stock. It's also very light and easy to derail when using the Tillig "magnet on a stick" uncoupling tool. Looks like it will need extra weight and a coupling change, assuming this is a standard mount (the recent N gauge wagons don't have a standard mount). Hopefully it will be straightforward to sort, as Peco are introducing a number of new N gauge wagons following on from the 7-plank in that scale, including 16-ton minerals and both planked and plywood sided standard BR vans, many of which would be useful in TT…

Usually the DPD tracking displays a map showing where the van is and where your house is and says something like "<Driver's name> is currently making delivery no xx. Yours is delivery no. yy. We will be with you in approximately <time>." My local DPD depot is also Team Valley, and I've had no problems with them so far. The local Evri couriers have generally been excellent, but I've occasionally had issues before the parcel got to them (not model railways, thankfully).

@ntpntpntp models European prototypes in N. Unless relatively recent times or in really major stations, no high platforms!

MSL now only offer FedEx as an option in U.K. At first after Brexit they still used DHL but local delivery was by Parcelforce. They sent you a letter requesting payment of the VAT before they would deliver the item. I've had three orders delivered by FedEx, all over the limit. The first time I received an email with an invoice for the VAT before delivery, the second I received a letter after delivery. The third I've received (yesterday) but haven't had a letter yet. I expect it's on its way. But these were all for European N gauge items.

Tillig do an "aufgleiser" specifically for their ballasted track range. It has "legs" some distance out from the track.

New scales have often been introduced in the past with relatively small numbers of models. OO (Hornby Dublo) had just two — an A4 and the 0-6-2T (it was never "officially" an N2 and appeared in versions for all of the 'Big 4' — the purported GW 56xx version being "Swindonisec"). Triang launched TT3 with just one loco — the Jinty. IIRC Minitrix launched RTR N gauge in the U.K. with just the class 27. A lot of N gauge layouts of the time featured Western Scotland…

Even 3mm scale modellers use Dapol N scale signals. Peco/Ratio were planning N gauge GWR style semaphore signal kits — they were announced back in 2022.

I thought Hornby had got rid of all its concessions? Are Fenwicks still selling non-Hornby model railway items?

There is a real-life instance of an HST with just two coaches between the power cars due to the unavailability of a class 158. Now, the last time I checked the class 158 was unavailable (in TT120)… If you're thinking about a small layout, it might be worth considering using Tillig points rather than Hornby (or Peco) as they're quite a bit shorter. Using such points it's possible to fit a BLT into about 1250mm. It might also be worth looking at Micro Model Dispatch. This magazine is free, and approximately quarterly. It’s edited and produced in PDF form by Ian Holmes. Issues are advertised on RMWeb, and if you "subscribe" you get to be able to download them a week in advance. In particular issue 10 last year covered the use of various IKEA items as possible baseboards. Many years ago, in one of the last issues of MRC, Martin Goodall fitted a 4mm scale (P4!) BLT into 4ft — about 1220mm; it was actually on a 6ft board with integrated fiddle yard (Crichel Down). It was, however, a light railway prototype. There are also track planning books. None of them, as yet, cover TT120, but the plans can serve as inspiration. Most of Cyril Freezer's plans — with the honourable exception of Minories — are rather dated nowadays, but I'd recommend books by Iain Rice, Paul Lunn and, more recently, James Hilton.

Remember in real life platform heights used to vary. Pickering on the NYMR has low height platforms; there are portable steps to bridge the gap to the coaches. Most stations on the national network have the standard high platforms, however at North Road, Darlington, only a short length of platform is — the rest is low. If travelling there from the main Darlington station, it's wise to travel at the rear of the train — it's a big drop down anywhere else.

The issue in the diagram is that you're connecting the curved leg of the LH T8008 point. This equivalent causes an issue in quite a few track systems. There is a special short straight which solves this problem with Peco N gauge Setrack, but it only comes in a set with a curved point…

I'm not sure that the Esso variant is correct. It's described as a 35 ton tank wagon — these were an earlier type and were vacuum braked. I notice that it doesn't carry the TTA lettering nor the HAZCHEM lettering that the other two do, so it's certainly an earlier livery — whether the livery actually appeared on a TTA I don't know. The earlier 35t tank is well known as the prototype for the Airfix kit, though that was a class B tank wagon and these are class A. It hasn't appeared very often in RTR form, being offered in OO by Heljan and (possibly) Oxford, though I'm not sure they ever introduced theirs. In N gauge it's produced by Revolution Trains.

Not quite all brands — it's HO only, as the cover makes clear. So no Arnold.

In N gauge, the Farish 08 is considerably wider than scale over the coupling rods, despite the gauge being somewhat narrower than it should be. The same applies to Dapol's 9F. It's curious, though, that these discrepancies haven't been mentioned in any of the reviews that I've seen.

It's not a model that the current Hornby have ever touched; it's been modelled by Bachmann in OO and, more recently, in N. It's more closely related to the Fairburn than the Stanier type; AFAIK they are all different lengths, so I'm not sure how many common parts there would be. Hornby have done the Stanier type (and the earlier parallel boiler Fowler type) in OO, and Bachmann the Fairburn type in both OO and N. Hornby-Dublo did the standard 4MT 2-6-4T back in the 1950s—an excellent model by the standards of the time.

DM-Toys/Modellbahn Union have a range of couplings of a Fleischmann Profi-like design, although I don't know whether they're compatible or not. Unlike the original they come in various shaft lengths. I've never tried either of these types myself, however — like Nick I've stuck to the Arnold type of coupling, which usually work well on European models. However the recent Fleischmann Pwg41 "guard's van" has couplings which do not lift high enough to clear others, and tend to snag the other coupling too, in a manner I'd only previously encountered with Dapol models. Ironically, Dapol's versions are improving…

Tillig's power connecting track in their Modellgleis range comes with a connecting cable. It's probably dearer than the Hornby version but it is compatible (and the same length), plus it's much neater.