Page 10 - May June 2000
P. 10

  From Bill Hutchings...
“Hi Everyone. This is a warning put out by a Pensioners Group I belong to. It may be a bit OTT but it may have some credibility.”
“If you receive a telephone call from an individual who identifies himself or herself as an AT&T service Engineer conducting a test on your telephone line (I think I would react to that saying “Who the “h***” are you and what are you doing on a BT line”, contact the police if they ask you to do the following:-
To complete the test you should press “9, 0, then hash (#) and hang up. It is alleged that this will give full access to your phone line enabling them to place long- distance, international or chatline calls and bill the charges to your account.”
All the best,
Bill (Scaremongering) Hutchings
(Eds. Note: Sounds like my wife’s been up to her old tricks again!)
From Ted Roberts...
Dear Martin,
The October 1999 Roundhouse featured the live steam NYC Niagara and also mentioned the NKP Berkshire.
It may be worth mentioning that the dates of opening this year for the Stapleford Miniature Railway (as given to me by Lady Gretton) are 17th and 18th June, and the late August bank holiday weekend.
From Lee Ward...
Dear Martin,
I see in the latest issue of the Roundhouse (April 2000) that you are carrying an advert for the N-scale All-Purpose Spine Cars from Alan Curtis Models and thought you might like some member input about them. I recently purchased a Ready-to-Run set from Alan and I can say that they are superb. The construction and finish is on a par with anything that the US can produce and they run excellently as well. They can be made up in any combination of load that the prototype is able to carry. i.e. 20-48’ containers and/or TOFC. It’s all the better in that they are British made! An indication of my satisfaction is that eventually I hope to have a complete train of them. I can also say that Alan is a nice person to chat to. The usual disclaimer applies in that the only contact I have with Alan is as a very satisfied customer. I hope that this is of some use for a future issue of Roundhouse.
Jeff Thompson says...
Swap, Buy and Sell Model Railroad stuff (or anything else) FOR FREE at -
http://www.thisforthat.net Cool site, easy to use board!
Keith Webb writes...
I would like to thank Mike Martindale for his contribution to April’s R/H. I must correct the small error that crept in
UNCOUPLED CARS
   adjustment. The 40’ coal load needed only minor trimming to fit an Athearn 40’ hopper. I also fitted one stone load into a 36’ hopper. The width required minimal trimming, and the load was cut to length by repeated gentle scribing across the flat underside of the load. The surplus was then gently snapped off (if it breaks in the wrong place, gel superglue does an invisible
mend).
The loads are at least as good as those by Chooch, with less tendency to bend and the plaster is easier to work and paint and is more forgiving than resin. The price at the show was £5.00 for a pack of three loads. Ten Commandments suggested that they could be persuaded to widen the range of loads, and if suitable prototypes can be identified they may consider HO lineside items too. They mentioned possibly pulpwood loads and sheeted loads for flat cars
including some of the big 70’ and 86’ cars. I was given the impression that they would be very receptive to ideas from the UK HO North American modelling fraternity (they had already had a good response at the big Doncaster exhibition) and would be happy for dealers to carry their lines.
Now all I have to do is get the hoppers and gondola weathered to match the
loads and take them to the D&H divisional meet in Poole next weekend.
Ian Wheeler says, “Get into 12” = 1ft.!” It’s not an SD40 but...
Aspiring diesel locomotive engineers can have a taste of the real thing, courtesy of the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway (Wallingford, Oxfordshire).
The Society is pleased to offer Diesel Footplate Experience Days on its 2.5 mile rural line at affordable rates. The day’s activities are aimed at parties of between 2 and 6 adults and cost just £120 (£20 per person for a party of 6).
A minimum of 6 hours will be spent on the footplate with participants crewing the Class 08 locomotive under instruction. Only a limited number of Diesel Footplate Experience Days will be available this year (dates subject to mutual agreement).
For details contact Ian Wheeler
Tel: 01491-652295, Fax: 01491-651696
or email: ianwheeler1@compuserve.com).
Hi Martin,
Whilst visiting Eurotrack today I spotted some US HO freight cars, gondolas and hoppers, with coal, aggregate and scrap loads fitted.
The loads are made by the Scottish manufacturer Ten Commandments, who advertise widely in the British Model Railway magazines. They can be contacted at 100C High Street, Cowdenbeath, Fife, KY4 9NF, tel 01383 610 820, Internet at: www.railwaymodelling.co.uk/tencomm andments/.
 The first three loads (above) are coal or stone loads for a 40’ hopper and a scrap load for a 52’ gondola. As with all their models they are made of stonecast plaster and these loads are sold unpainted except for a black wash to bring out the detail. The wash levels seem to done in batches, so the two packs I bought, each containing three stone loads, varied slightly in colour between the two packs (a good thing). The loads are heavy, 2.25 ozs/65 grams for the scrap load and the coal load whilst the stone load was lighter at 1.75 ozs/50grams. The loads are absorbent and take colour washes, and for the scrap load the manufacturer recommended using Colron wood dye to give a deep brown/rust finish.
Back home, the scrap load fitted well lengthways into an Intermountain 52’ mill gondola, but it needed quite a lot of careful sanding to reduce its width to fit, however some of the ready to run gondolas on the market look wider and so should take the load without so much
 10 ROUNDHOUSE
 



























































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