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This is the second part of a story based on a real incident on the Great Western at the turn of the century. It draws on the transcripts of a court case at Old Bailey. The story is narrated by Dennis Watts, a slipper boy in the employment of the GWR. Part one is here. As I stood there, surrounded by thieves in a dark corner of the goods yard, I thought my last hour had come. Luckily the moon came out, which seemed to unsettle them, and so they let me go. The next morning I went to find Walmsley. He is with the GWR police. His job is to prevent theft in the goods depot. I told him what had happened. Walmsley has more muscle than brains, so he sent for help. So then Detective Benton arrived. He is with the GWR Detective Department at Paddington. That’s him on the left. Walmsley showed him the scene of the crime, and they found the remains of the stolen box. The silks it had contained were gone. The Detective was very meticulous. He kept searching, until he found what he was looking for: It was a torn piece of paper wrapping from the box. Then the detective demanded to see the suspects. I watched as they confronted Woods and Lawson, two of the thieves I had seen the night before. As the law enforcers came upon the villains, they found them carrying a sack. The detective demanded to see what was in it. The sack contained thirty-five yards of silk, sixty-six yards of grenadine and a piece of paper wrapping. The thieves were stubborn. They claimed innocence. They had not stolen the goods, they said. They found it lying on the ground. Someone must have dropped it, they said. But Detective Benton was shrewd. He produced the fragment of paper he had found by the stolen box, and placed it next to the wrapping from the sack. We all gathered around to see... The two pieces of wrapping were a perfect fit. It was damning evidence. Well dear reader, you may think that was that. But there is more to the world than meets the eye! Watch this space for the third and final episode, where all will be revealed. Part 3 is here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/blogs/entry/17254-the-honourable-slipper-boy-part-3/

As noted, my weekend was somewhat spoiled by feeling under the weather, but today I have been able to get through one of the more repetitive tasks, that of pressing the hundreds of rivets in the bridge's bracing angles. There is no doubt that having a rivet press is a definite advantage and I would recommend this "luxury" tool as verging on a "necessity" if constructing a kit of this type. My tool happens to be a Metalsmith model but any of the available rivet presses out there would suffice. Having pressed hundreds of rivets (I didn't count!) the nickel silver strips then have to be folded through 90º. Folding bars would be useful but I don't have any, so the combination of a small vice, large pliers and thumb pressure was used. I also found it worthwhile to deepen the folding etches with a craft knife. The end result of all this pressing and folding: Meantime, the basic bridge was put together using the side frames and nickel silver stretchers. This went together reasonably well but my fingers did have problems with locating and tightening the M2 screws and nuts. Also, two holes of the inner frame stretcher needed to be drilled out, which I did after loosely tightening all the other screws - needless to say the vibration undid several of the nuts. I have now put some solder on each bolt thread to lock them up. The instructions for stretcher T2 are somewhat vague (to me at least) saying that the tabs should be folded back to form a triangle so that an opening is formed to accept the drive bar with a smooth fit. My drive bar is not a smooth fit and I think some whittling down will be required. I have not fitted the deck piece yet, as there seems to be no need until after the deck rails are fitted. Also, the bracing angles will solder on to the side frames more easily without the deck. I think that a call to Dave Smith will be required when I am ready to install the bridge as there are a number of questions about the which-way-up, etc. of various components. I will wait to make that call so that I can have all my questions answered in one go. The bridge frame prior to attaching all the bracing angles, sitting on the turntable well: Next, the first serious soldering of the kit with all the bracing angles, a total of 24 pieces (I think) and some of them need trimming, the fret being designed for either the 60' or 70' kit. My soldering always looks messy at this point, before having a serious go with knife, fibreglass brush etc. However, in this case I decided to have a good clean up before taking any photos. Next post!

As a bit of relief from pictures of grass and hedges, I thought I'd include a few pictures of actual trains! I've also added a few images into my gallery http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3811-train-spotting-at-sherton-abbas-september-1905/ which I hope people will like! Best wishes Dave

Hi all. well, it's been a bit quiet here recently! Progress on Ropley has been frustratingly so this year, for a variety of reasons. Whilst work on the layout has continued, the infrequent nature of it hasn't really been conducive to a blog entry of any substance. To that end, I have decided to start a thread in the layouts section here on RMweb. This will allow me to make shorter but more frequent updates which would otherwise not really be worth a full blog post. The blog will remain, and will still be updated once there is enough content to make it worth while, but for now any future updates will be made here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105616-ropley-mid-hants-railway-in-n-gauge/ Cheers, Tom.

Afternoon all! Following up to my earlier portrait of our NGT6 "Leoliner" trams by HeiterBlick, I would like to continue this series of showcases with a few paragraphs about our NGT12 trams, which at present are the largest steeds in our stable, if you will. To provide up-to-date and accessible rolling stock on those lines characterised by particularly high ridership numbers and earmarked for gradual upgrade to light rail equivalent standard with large proportions of grade-separated track, LVB contracted Bombardier in 2003 to develop a five-segment articulated tram based on the Flexity Classic design, taking advantage of the near-parallel development of the NGTD12DD trams for Dresden's DVB. The NGT12-LEI was procured in three batches, two of twelve and one of nine, in 2003, 2005 and 2011 respectively. These cars are used for all regular turns on Lines 11 and 16 and the majority of those on Line 15, with a few turns on Lines 3 and 7 also being booked with them at this time. Lines 11, 15 and 16 are, in fact, those upgraded to quasi-light rail standard for all or at least much of their length. Due to their high passenger capacity, NGT12 trams can also be seen on Line 4 during football matches or other events taking place in the Leipzig Stadium, now officially called Red Bull Arena. 1228 "Essen" standing by at Angerbrücke for one of the last sorties – onto Line 16, or, more precisely, Turn 1622 – on the morning of 16 October. This is one of the 3rd batch cars, easily recognised by the coloured LED destination signs which but are not currently planned to be refitted to 1st and 2nd batch cars. Leaves were falling as 1208 "Nürnberg" was stood at the Exhibition Centre on the north end of Line 16. On the holding track on Rathausplatz in Schkeuditz, 1208 demonstrates one recent minor upgrade: The monochromatic destination signs on the 1st and 2nd batch cars have been updated to display slightly bolder text, improving readability over the original configuration. …and later during turnaround on Schillerplatz at Markkleeberg Ost on the south end of Line 11. Same location, same day, different time: 1210 "Dortmund" shines its lights through the autumnal night while I was waiting to drive up to the Wahren terminus in Leipzig on Pater Aurelius Square… …where I arrived while a new band of rain showers passed over the city. A view from the cab, which in spite of the darkness outside will hopefully suffice to give an impression of a driver's perspective from these cars. A look through the passenger space… …and one of the two onboard ticket machines. The control panel is, I think, well designed and puts all main functions within easy reach. Once again, note the static balancing handle set for the right hand, which as on the NGT6 has trigger buttons on the inner face for easy manipulation. The button facing the seat is one of two bell triggers, while the buttons set inside the handle are the secondary deadman switch; track brake; and sander. Note the power/brake controller lever being installed at a slight angle to the front left and having a T-shaped handle which must be rotated 90 degrees clockwise, thus serving as the primary deadman switch. One useful detail is that the controller handle includes a bell trigger, set for the left thumb. Also visible are the reverser knob and activation key lock to the left and in front of the controller. Additional instruments – mainly for auxiliary systems like the cab air conditioning but also for car preparation and emergency holding brake release – are provided on the secondary panel, located left of the driver's position. Once again, note three lidded activation triggers for holding brake emergency release activation ("Hilfslösen"); breakdown running mode ("Räumfahrt") for removing a severely malfunctioning car from the route; and OHLE de-icing ("Eisfahrt"). The latter function mainly does two things: For one, it enables the traction packages to remain working with an OHLE voltage as low as 400 V rather than the normal lower limit of 520 V, and it also configures the braking rheostats to continuously draw power in order to yield a thermal heating effect on the OHLE wire to assist in removing thick ice. In de-icing mode, speed is automatically limited to 20 kph in order to prevent pantograph bouncing and possible arcing. Close-up of the main instrument cluster. Note that on the NGT12, it is possible to manually open Doors 1, 2 and 7 separately. The diagnostic terminal can be set to display OHLE and battery voltage, which I prefer to do as I like to keep an eye on how much power the car is drawing at any time, which you can, to a degree, extrapolate from variations in the OHLE voltage. The CCTV monitor is installed to the top left of the driver's position. As on our other types, you can either select a full sized image from any single camera, or quad-split images from groups of four cameras. It's common for the last revision date and nominal service weight to be written on inside the cabs. A look at the rear view mirror… …and the auxiliary control panel at the rear end, hidden under a locked lid. Tram jam during the recent Blue Lines diversion through the East Circuit while engineering work was carried out on Goethestraße. Again, it's evident that visibility from the NGT12 cab is excellent. Once while I was at Angerbrücke, firemen were practising how to jack up a NGT12 in order to recover accident victims from underneath the car, on which occasion I was able to glimpse one of the motor bogies with the skirt flap folded up. Note the wheelsets again having inside bearings in order to save space and provide sufficient rotational motion for the bogies inside the underframe skirts. The wheelsets themselves are slowly being refitted with a newer type of annular noise absorber, replacing the layered sheet package type originally provided. Effect view of Bogie #1. Technically, the NGT12 is configured with five articulated body segments, of which #2 and #4 are designed as "floating" segments carried by the adjacent segments #1, #3 and #5. The latter three are also configured with two bogies each, with segments #1 and #5 comprising the motor bogies with conventional wheelsets, and #3 the trailer bogies with independent wheels. Cab and passenger space have separate air conditioning circuits. Passenger capacity on these cars is for 104 seated and 160 standing at 4 persons per square metre. The A/C and Drive Control Unit pods are set atop the roof. Propulsion is provided by two Drive Control Units, supplying each pair of motor bogies, and two 85 kW asynchronous AC motors per bogie working through two-stage reduction gears. The holding brake works with electrohydraulic actuation and is provided in each motor bogie, with one pair of magnetic track brakes being provided in all bogies. The main characteristics: Overall length – 45.09 m Overall width – 2.30 m Overall height – 3.56 m Configuration – Bo'Bo'2'2'Bo'Bo' Wheel diameter – 600 mm Wheelbase (all bogies) – 1.80 m Minimum curve radius – 18 m Empty service weight – 59.2 tonnes Maximum service weight – 78.6 tonnes Power output – 680 kW/912 hp Design maximum speed – 70 kph (operational limit for all our types is 50 kph) My personal impression of the NGT12 is that in spite of its considerable size and weight, these cars are very easy and carefree to handle, reducing fatigue and stress for the driver. They are also surprisingly agile considering their size and weight, and quite safe even in poor adhesion conditions. Their performance in an emergency stop is particularly impressive, with my estimate from our instruction being that they can stop roughly within their own length even from 50 kph. This tremendous braking force which is applied in emergency stops is why – on all our tram types – we must inquire as to possible injuries among passengers if we needed to pull an emergency stop in revenue traffic. They are, however, a bit top-heavy due to the considerable weight of the A/C pods and their cooling liquid in particular, and may thus commence oscillations more quickly on less well aligned track. All in all, I personally tend to view them as the "Stretch Limos" in our inventory, as they're undoubtedly comfortable even during longer shifts. I haven't had any major malfunctions with them myself and I keep hearing they're highly reliable in general, with Bombardier also still going great lengths to providing optimal technical support even years after procurement. Thank you for reading!

The Grime Street team had an outing to Peterborough this weekend to exhibit at the Festival of Railway Modelling, we had a very enjoyable if busy weekend, the layout seemed to go down well and I was fairly busy answering questions, mainly about the cyclist.... We were well looked after and had a thoroughly great time and it was great to chat to several RMweb members from the boss down.....! I'll be honest and say I didn't really get to see as much of the show as I'd have liked but that's often the way it goes, Andy one of my helpers and a fellow RMweb member shot quite a bit of video of Grime Street as it's something we'd never really got round to, so a big thanks to him for that and uploading it to Youtube. Only problem is, is that I now can see quite a few things that need attending to, one being 'that' board joint which I think took a bang in transit!

Pretty much finished for now. Needs some grills adding behind the guards compartment. I've got some somewhere but do you think I can find them? May have to add handrail to the guards door yet and it needs a driver hence the tail lamp for now but otherwise done. Toned down the paintwork with lifecolor acrylic washes removed immediately with moistened cotton bud. Coupled with 1454 (though I see I've chipped a bit of paint off some of the pipe work) I have to say I'm pleased with how this has turned out and the train will be in service at Warley in a couple of weeks.

It is 1961 and here is a view of 6029 King Edward VIII with some chocolate and cream carriages behind it. This is the arrival of Hornby’s new King Class engine. The purchase was an ‘on the spur of a moment’ decision – well worth it I feel. Hornby 6029 King Edward VIII Why 1961? Well the Great Western Archive has 6029 allocated to Plymouth Laira in March 1959 (as shown in my Ian Allen book for 1959). Also it has its last shed as Old Oak Common which agrees nicely with my Ian Allen book for Spring 1961 and Hornby’s shed code plate on the model. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the new model but the finish seems to me to compare very favourably with the latest Hornby Castles. Rumour has it that the spokes on the driving wheels are not quite the right shape but I have to say that this is not apparent when looking down at the engine running on the layout! My model runs quietly, smoothly and straight, and will handle seven coaches up and down and roundabout the layout. This is just the same as Hornby’s Britannia and I might be hard pressed to decide which of the two models I prefer. It is 1958 (see Footnote) and 70015 Apollo is just about to leave God's Wonderful Railway for Trafford Park (9E) 6029 King Edward will replace my earlier Hornby model of King William. King William was DC ready and to my untrained eye, quite well detailed. A comparison of the old and new models is quite instructive. 6002 King William IV, Hornby R2234 6029 King Edward VIII, Hornby R3332 Aside from the different shade of green there are other significant differences. Head to head, King William left King Edward right I always thought there was too much space between the bogie and the footplate on William and the view above shows clearly how the body shell of the old model had been raised (as were a lot of Hornby models). I am guessing that this was done to allow the buffers to clear the couplings. Side by side, King William left King Edward right The view above showing the models side by side again shows William to be' raised up'. Cab to cab, King William left King Edward right Surprisingly at the cab end Edward is now the higher. I think William’s cab looks tiny and out of proportion as if it had been shrunk to fit. Tender tops, King William top King Edward bottom I know even less about tenders than I do about engines, but William’s tender from the top looks to me to be a completely different beast to the one fitted to Edward. King William top left King Edward bottom right Perhaps when viewed from a greater distance the differences are less obvious? However what about the ‘wonky’ steps on Edward? Before and after fettling the front footplate steps I am very pleased with King Edward and despite what follows I feel that Hornby have come up with a very good model. It might seem that Hornby still have some Quality Control issues. Out of the box, both front footplate steps on Edward were loose and set at a jaunty angle. I was surprised to find that these steps were a separate detail with their own tiny spigots and matching holes on the footplate to fit. Well done those ladies in China – it took me five minute or more to get one set of steps back in place. Oh dear! My model had only been out of the box a few minutes before it shed a crank pin. There is supposed to be a spacer between the connecting rod and the coupling rods but this had escaped, never to be seen again. Not to worry I had a bag of Hornby spacers and would fit something suitable. Hornby Spacers Up until Edward, Hornby coupling rods seem to me to have come with either a big spacer or a little spacer. I have shown these two sorts of spacer in the picture above at the right hand side of the wooden block. The spacers on Edward are smaller again. I tried fitting my smallest spacer but I felt the motion was too tight. I would file down one of the small spacers. How to hold the spacer whilst working on the kitchen table? I used a small G clamp to press the spacer into a block of softwood and this held it sufficiently to allow it to be filed to size. Hornby New King Tender Wheels The tender with my model felt very light and had a noticeable wobble. It seems that Hornby have removed some of the metal ballast weight to hold a speaker and that this has reduced the tender weight from around 72 gm down to 57 gm. Comparing wheel sets from recent models shows that the tender wheels that came with Edward are a slimmer profile. It is just a pity that they didn’t run true. I had to double check the tyres on the engine but these were still all regular Hornby profiles. Well – I had better start saving as there are more options due in 2016. Footnote According to David Hey Apollo was allocated to Cardiff Canton (86C) late 1956 and only stayed 18 months before being transferred to Trafford Park (9E). Interestingly David indicates that Apollo only received its BR (WR) smoke deflectors in 1958 some six months before transfer to the BR (LMR) Region. It was during the 1958 works visit that the tender received a late crest, but it would be 1960 and a visit to Crewe works before a speedometer was fitted. Addendum Hornby Apollo with its Xmas Present - a set of ModelMaster etched plates

I have been a member of RMWeb for about a year now since taking early retirement after working as an aircraft engineer in Airline maintenance for 30 years. My father has been interested in trains and then model railways and has built a couple and changed each one a few times and he is still enjoying finishing and tinkering with his current layout today. About 5 years ago I bought a set of baseboards from a guy's father who was planning to build a layout but unfortunately he wasn't able to get past making the baseboards. So I would like to plan and build one layout without too many changes to the original plan if that is possible as I want time to enjoy the building and running of it. As you can see from the pictures below, the baseboards are about 36-39 inches high and about 26 inches wide with a cut out / lift up hatch for easy access which can be moved to suit the final plan. Before I start I need to modify how the boards join together to improve the final running of the layout, 3 of the boards are 6 feet long and I want to make them all the same length of 4 foot long. Also I want to turn over some of the boards to enable me to create some height and depth to the layout. I want to do a 00 Southern Region themed layout set somewhere fictitious and set between 1930 - Nationalisation of the big four companies. Over the past 5-8 years I have been storing away some stock and bits and pieces to spread the cost. I would like to include some of the following:- DCC operated Junction Station with or without Branch Line / Main Line split where passenger trains are made up or split or go straight through as express trains. Small goods yard for making up and splitting goods trains. Want to have more countryside than buildings. Not to overcrowd the layout with track, maybe have some nice large easy curves possibly carrying through the station. 4-8 storage tracks 2-4 in each direction or if anyone has a better idea for storage of complete made up sets please fee free to make a suggestion. I have thought of having this on a lower level. I have looked at a few station plans with junctions and pleasing curves like Horsted Keynes, Halwell, BRM Blog featured Pencarne Junction, Rowland Castle and many others. If anyone has any others to consider that may be suitable to modification to suit the layout size please feel free to comment. We have looked at so many layouts and ideas we feel we now have layout planning overload. If anyone can recommend a Track Planning Program for Windows that may help. As you can see this is as far as I have got as I am currently doing some contract work in the UK so I am open to any ideas or suggestions with the planning of an interesting layout which will give me hours of enjoyment.

For those readers of this blog that also thumb through the pages of Model Railway Journal it will be no surprise to see these photos. 2912 has been given the prestigious front cover photo in the recently release MRJ242. There are also a couple of lovely photos taken by Philip Hall towards the rear of the magazine. Here are a few more of Philips excellent photos showing some more detail. I'm pleased to have been associated with the re-engineering and re-painting of this wonderful model. Well done Gerry. See my previous blog entry for some background of the model and the work undertaken TTFN.....Morgan

It had to be done. Although the Lenz mini decoder is small there was too much wire to loose, even after removing fully those 3 feeds I didn't have a use for it was going to be tight. The Hornby decoder is quite small but in comparison it's huge !! I decided to cut down the 4 leads I wanted With a small piece of plasticard blanking off the void I managed to tuck the shortened leads and decoder out of sight. All that remains visible are the spud DCC conversion wires that will end up with a coat of black paint as will the cab floor. I need to re-address and check out running before I seal the decoder in forever by sticking the cab roof on and attaching the spud & body together. Still loads of painting to do before the exhaust pipe is re-attached. Now to the loft to test running. Dad-1

So I haven't updated these blogs for a fair while as life has sadly gotten in the way of thinking about any kind of modelling. That and my nature for being easily distracted by other things! I haven't forgotten about this layout plan, but money hasn't been available sadly to make a start on the boards for it. The plan thankfully is pretty simple at least so shouldn't require too much work track wise beyond a couple of points being built (it will be EM). I'm toying with the idea of it being dual level, with the lower level for storage of cassettes, but am in discussion with Natalie about the feasability of this at present. Hopefully in the new year some progress will be made. A 4EPB (BR built) and an 465 are in progress to some extent however, but no photos to share at this stage. A rough idea of the proposed plan is below. It will likely have a rat run behind some scenery to allow running around behind the scenes, as well as possibly curving around to a lower level at the sides for cassette fiddle yards with storage underneath, but none of this is final yet.