Yes, I have that track on their "Live in LA" release*, haven't heard it for ages!

Tim

* try this Martyn @port perran

I've not come across The Rippingtons before but very nice indeed.
I'll be listening to some more.

Another from the GRP label: Rippingtons Miles Away


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynduhf-c2YI

To answer a couple of  points;
I cut the Dapol magnets in half. They can tend to splinter so care is needed.
With fixed rakes I use a combination of medium/short or short/short couplings to achieve as close coupling as possible. I then use Dapol Easi-shunt couplings at each end, again a mixture of medium or short.
I'm not aware of anyone supplying Easi-shunts already fitted but it's an easy unplug/plug in process.

If anyone thinks using these couplings is a slow, painful process, I volunteer at the Ashford International Model Railway Education Centre (AIMREC) https://aimrec.co.uk/ refers. On the Gresley Beat our longest train is around 82 wagons long – all coupled correctly with three link or screw couplings. We think very hard before varying the rakes!

Here I am, new to the hobby, 8 years later, have spent weeks researching couplings so I can make sure I have the best chance of reliable coupling and auto uncoupling in a ready to run fashion, without modifying anything.

Are there wagon brands that come ready to run with Dapol easi shunts or similar?

Quote from: emjaybee on March 28, 2026, 10:54:05 AMOkay, the flashbacks are happening.

My early model railway experience was the obligatory 'O' tinplate. We had enough track for a oval & a siding. I can remember the builders doing our family extension winding up the loco for me & setting it off. That was 1973.

Then came my first trainset.

My first set too, but about 5 years earlier, with birthday presents over the next few years, some GWR carriages, a hall loco, plus a few other items created my first scenic layout 6ft by 3 ft.. loosely based on the station  my grandfather worked at.. very loosely, in oo gauge that station is 32ft long!!!.
Sadly no photos..

Also Sadly when I went away to work my nephew's and nieces destroyed it,..
I still have the remains of the rolling stock..

Soon after I got my first N gauge rolling stock, but that was left at my parents while I moved again and disappeared..


I now have 2 N gauge layouts and an HOe layout under construction, having worked on club layouts in various places during my previous peripatetic life

George sent me a pic of him and Anne being mobile, although George is walking with the aid of a stick. Unfortunately, it seems they think he now has pneumonia
I must admit when my Mother fell, broke her hip and was taken into hospital first she got a UTI then pneumonia. Hospitals, eh? They just keep on giving.

I'm just happy to have got through Storm Dave with no damage to my little bungalow.
I have to say in all the years I've been here that one was the worst, I reckon.
I'm sure at least twice I felt the property vibrating!!

This probably ought to go in the "Phew! That was lucky!" thread, but as we don't have one, this will have to do.

A note on the family calendar reminded me that the house insurance was due tomorrow, but I thought it odd that I hadn't had a renewal notice. I searched through my paperwork and emails and found I didn't get one last year either. That was when I started to worry. I had taken out a 3-year fixed rate deal in 2023, and got a renewal notice in 2024 but stupidly I thought the deal meant it was renewed automatically. Reading it again, more carefully this time, I found I was still expected to actually respond to it. So..., we have been uninsured for the past two years! What a good job the house didn't burn down.     

Thank the Lord for instant cover, even on Easter Sunday.

Cheers,

Chris