They didn't need to - most of Europe is on 4' 8.5" gauge, same as us. They did need to make special smaller ferry wagons for European traffic to the UK though, as our loading gauge (how high and wide stock can be) is smaller. Occasionally standard Euro wagons would turn up on the ferry and be shunted aside for immediate deportation, as they wouldn't fit under bridges here!

I now have two ME Supers. A silver one with 50mm and winder, and a black one which I've kitted up for walkabout use with a wrist strap (instead of a shoulder strap) and the 40mm. I might well get hold of one of the official Pentax belt clips (intended for the ME, but the ME Super has the same dimensions), just need to check how much P&P the seller wants...

Yup, HO scale. It's a train ferry after all...

Seriously, I think it'd be a reasonable size - you don't want to build it too small as any waves will flatten it, something of those dimensions wouldn't have anything like as much trouble.

Can't help but think I'd be better off with a ready to sail tug to begin with though, then build a barge for it to work with!

ME Super and 40mm f2.8

What? It's a pocket camera!

Talking of radio control, the local model shop is currently attempting to set up a boating club on the lake. They've been told by various people that you're "not allowed to run model boats on there" when making inquiries about starting a club but nobody has as yet come up with a written document to this effect.

I hope they succeed (as a few scale electric boats will be quieter than the existing wildlife, and the lake is more than big enough for ducks and boats to co-exist) but it may be bad for my wallet. See, I have a few books about ferries with basic plans, and I've always fancied modelling one of the old Dover train ferries at 1:87 scale with everything functional (as in bow rudder, thrusters, etc)...

Anyone's guess. It might be possible to make an adapter which would allow a K mount lens to fit a Minolta, but I suspect you'd have to use extra glass elements to keep infinity focus (if that would even work!) which would degrade image quality significantly.

You can use M42 lenses on your ME Super with an adapter, but that's only possible because the M42 mount is smaller than a K mount so you can nest one inside the other with a flush-fitting adapter. In general, attempting to make an adapter to fit a lens to a camera that it wasn't intended to fit will put the lens too far away from the film, meaning that you won't be able to focus on distant objects (infinity focus).

There are exceptions - some 3rd party manufacturers offer lenses where the mount can be removed and swapped for a different one, enabling them to make one lens and a selection of mounts to fit different camera brands.

If your wife wants a zoom then it shouldn't cost too much to obtain a good used Minolta-fit one. I'm not sure whether Minolta's manual lenses fit the Sony DSLRs - if not, then the lenses will be cheap as chips even for a very good one.

Thanks for the offer Tony, but I've already managed to get hold of a generic one for a quid on ebay. Just have to be careful with it for a few days.

Talking of lens caps, everyone's favourite overpriced ebay dealer has plumbed new depths. £12 for a genuine Pentax 52mm lens cap!

I could do with a couple of the original K-type 52mm caps (with "Asahi Pentax" on the crinkled finish, all in black with no silver lettering) but I draw the line at paying that sort of money. I know it's "best offer" but I doubt they'd take my best offer of £4 each...

Got my latest LBA fix. 28-85mm feels sweet, unfortunately I don't have a lens cap to fit (nothing else I own uses 62mm filters either!), the 28mm is probably not coming off the K-m for a while after a first test shot at f3.5 proved sharp enough to make out individual pixels on my laptop screen...

As nobody has answered your final query about the 70-300mm...

I think we need to know what brand it is. Pentax made an FA-J 75-300mm which is well thought of, although it has now been replaced by the DA (or DA L) 55-300mm. I use an elderly Pentax-F 100-300mm which I think was probably the first autofocus lens they offered with this focal length, it's not bad but a bit heavy and probably not as sharp as more recent efforts. I may replace it with the 55-300mm one day, but as I seldom use it I'm in no hurry to.

There are essentially two types of zoom lens - one touch and two touch designs. On the former you push or pull the grip in or out from the camera body to zoom, and turn the grip to focus (as on your 50mm). The latter has a second grip which you turn to zoom. The aperture ring functions in the same way as on the 50mm.

You will probably find that performance improves dramatically at around f8 or so (this seems to be the sweet spot for most lenses). In low light you'll probably find this needs quite a slow shutter speed, so consider buying a tripod if you don't already have one. It doesn't need to be anything impressive, I have an ancient Slik 500G which I paid £8 for and which works perfectly.