Which do you prefer

In the latest edition of ME 4478 shows two locomotives at opposite ends of the spectrum. The front cover and accompanying article shows John Richardson's pristine and immaculate Great Northern Atlantic. On page 464 is a photo of Alan Moreton's Aster 9F in weathered condition, which reflects reality.

Living in the real word I know which I prefer.

Which do you prefer ?

The Atlantic!

IanT

Less locomotives

Jo

I could never be a judge as I like both equally. I never cease to be amazed at the tenacity of blokes who often over long periods of time complete their loco's.

I have left it to late to start another one now (Simplex - half complete - sold - divorce, you get the picture?) but I am very content to make stuff of a less ambitious nature.

Rik

For an Atlantic I would prefer an NZR Ab in the colours we all saw them in, black soot, and rust. I remember them double heading out of Dunedin when I was A child, back in the 1950s. today the preserved Ab's are black and red, with polished brass boiler bands, and polished brass plates, that's just a Kiwi's idea of locos. ian S C

you mean "fewer"

It is a bit like the antique furniture thing. Clean it up and you destroy the value but Chipendale never meant his pieces to be old, dirty and looking used. After 20 years use he would have preferred you to chuck it and buy a new item in pristine condition.

I always wonder if you were to ask our suppliers about their sales what type of models would come out on top. I can imaging that there are plenty of tools sales but I was thinking embrionic models = castings. Do Locomotive casting sales really outstrip all the other types of models being made to the extent that is written up in the publications? (There does not seem to be relatively much loco stuff on this forum)

As for the finished model: that is but the end of a journey and an opportunity to start making another. As you can tell I am not into playing choo choo trains .

Jo

Hello all,

I have no preference, be it gauge 1 or 5" gauge, both are superb examples of their art . The Atlantic is a first class piece of work and a credit to its proud builder; whereas the G1 9F, an Aster product is beautifully weathered representing the sad condition most of the class operated in.

Interestingly, in Smoke rings, the editor mentions she didn't recall seeing another example of the GNR Atlantic in 5" gauge, defiantly a rare beast. I only know of a couple, albeit from years ago; Fred Stone, a well known model engineer and supplier built one many years ago and W. A (Bill) Carter built a wonderful example, winning the Model Engineer Championship cup along with the J. N Maskelyne Memorial trophy back in 1964.

As regards preferences, I have to say the Model Engineer magazine of has of late had a reasonable cross section of articles and In my humble opinion has a good balance between the various disciplines, although wooden cannons are best suited to Practical Woodworking and quite where a set of door chimes fall is anyones guess!

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Having grown up on plastic models, I'm all for well-done weathering. At least we can console ourselves that we don't suffer 'brass belaying pin' syndrome as afflicts parts of the ship modelling world.

> wooden cannons are best suited to Practical Woodworking and quite where a set of door chimes fall is anyone's guess!

Neither of these would have been thought out of place in ME for the first 70 years of its history.

Neil

Re ,ost popular design. ME has onceor twice published the sales numbers of MAP plans for locos. So MyHobbystore will have a count of all types but nowadays probably think it is commercially sensitive.

As others have said, it's not easy to judge, however, if I build something I expect to do the best I can and am pleased to show it off in all its glory.

Buts thats just the beginning.

I expect to get a long operational life out of my builds, regular runs, regular maintenance and repairs as required, so a Loco, that is now just over 25 years old and still runs regularly hauling kids at a local club, still looks good but has the look of maturity about it.

So, each has to be judged in its own right, the beauty of the finally finished item or the 'lived in', well used old timer that has stood the test of time.

Each equally important.