Hi Folks,

It's been a while now since I last posted anything in this blog, largely due to having resumed work on the house renovation, realising that if I didn't do it no other bu@@er would. Apart from that I recently took my half yearly trip back to the UK.

I had recently bought a French Senior Citizens rail pass which gives me 50% off of SNCF fares so booked 4 months in advance for Eurostar. I was very impressed with the TGV, very comfortable, smooth and quiet too. Eurostar looked a bit jaded by comparison, but what a quick journey 12 hours from door to door and I arrived as fresh as a daisy (well almost). The time taken included a 2 hour stopover at Victoria coach station, the total cost £120 return.

While I was there I went down to south Wales by train to see friends, on my return early Sunday morning I saw Nunny Castle waiting in Newport station with a train of mk1 carriages in tow.

I travelled down to East Sussex via St Pancras again where I caught the HST to Ashford it was the Javelin, wow! it accelerates like a javelin too, very, very quick.

I recently bought this on Ebay:-

I believe it to be a J72, it's white metal kit built and I think it could have been made by Nu-Cast, there is an X04 type motor fitted but far smaller, with a squiggly pattern on the top plate, seen here :-

According to Wikipedia some were in LNER Apple Green which would look quite nice and Some later ones in BR Black.

I would be grateful if anyone could verify this and if so were they plain black or lined.

When I get some time to myself I'll do a decent paint job on it, it'll need stripping first and as it's fixed together with glue I'll have to be careful, can't just dunk it in brake fluid. It needs some pick ups and wiring to the motor fitted to make it a runner.

more later

Regards Roly