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Another look at the Newcastle to Carlisle line for this afternoon, heading west. Note the bars on the door windows of the Class 108 in the first photo. These were added to units working the Cumbrian Coast line. Stocksfield Class 108 Carlisle to Newcastle 15th April 89 C11869.jpg Stocksfield 156469 Hexham to Newcastle Aug 92 J13302.jpg Fourstones 47289 up freight Aug 92 J13311.jpg Plenmeller Class 156 Stranraer to Newcastle 29th March 94 C19379.jpg Wetheral 156501 Newcastle to Stranraer Harbour Oct 91 J12895.jpg David

Over the years I’ve gathered a small collection of anecdotes and photos that document quirky situations and customs on the real-life railway. The idea is to re-enact them in model form while the glue dries on other projects. The Slipper Boy story was one attempt at this, although admittedly that one got a bit out of hand! Here’s another, simpler one. First, the props: ***** Clear as mud, I suspect! Here’s what it’s all about: Railway Magazine, January 1906: Just another incident on the everyday railway, but we can’t allow this stuff to be forgotten! Below is an attempt to re-enact it in my Farthing setting. I’ll see if it works without words: ***** That was the event as reported. But I wonder what happened afterwards? All those tasty eels, and no ice left to keep them fresh... A quick discussion among the staff, perhaps, to find a solution? 🙂 ***** PS: I couldn’t find a period description of exactly how live eel were transported in Edwardian days, so the container seen here is loosely based on a 1970 FAO publication which documents a method that does not seem out of place in earlier days: "Live eels can be transported in small quantities in tray-boxes […]. A typical wooden tray-box contains four lift-out trays about 50mm deep, each designed to hold about 10kg of eels graded according to size. The top tray is usually filled with crushed ice so that cold melt water trickles down through the eels during the journey to keep them cool and lively. […] Each tray has drain holes and is divided across the middle to make a total of eight compartments holding about 5kg each, that is about 40kg for the whole box. The lid of the box is nailed on, and the whole is steel-banded both to prevent pilferage and to prevent the eels escaping through the joints. Boxes of this type are used successfully for live transport not only within the UK but also for 24-hour journeys from the Continent with little or no loss." Source: http://www.fao.org/3/x5915e/x5915e01.htm#Live storage and transport

The Elizabethan now appears, but 60012 is running a little late. It is timed to come through just before the Grimsby leaves.

Here are a couple of pictures which show a class 50 hauled coal train passing through the station at Blueball Summit. In the goods loop behind the signal box, an empty clay train waits for a clear path. Some evidence of activity from the civil engineers can be glimped on the far left as a track machine and wickham trolly are stabled. An upstairs window in that cottage would make a great vantage point to just sit there and watch the trains go by.

Bit of an anniversary today, been an Early Riser for a year. Thanks for being there. Robert

Hello again. It seems safe to post now. I wasn’t very well yesterday and the symptoms seemed remarkably similar to common side effects when starting metformin but I suspect now it was due to some fish we ate as Aditi was a little unwell too. I have a dermatology appointment some time this afternoon. I don’t think the skin condition has returned so should be able to satisfy the consultant. I had another call on Friday about my skin but it was from the team that did the stenting asking if I had developed any skin redness on back or chest. I said I hadn’t, and the call was just to check there hadn’t been any affects from the radiation dose I had received due to the long time the procedure had taken. Aditi had a Zoom call with the chap who will present the next French Circle lecture. They had swapped emails about suitable times but Aditi became concerned that the chap was based in France on CET time. He emailed to say he had been based in England since 2003 so not to worry. MiL is upset. One of her younger sisters in India has just died. It wasn’t Covid related. Aditi’s aunt had been ill for some time but seemed to just give up after her husband died recently of heart failure. In any other circumstances Aditi would have gone over to see her Mum but we can’t now. MiL is upset she can’t go to India to see the family but she isn’t well enough to travel any more anyway. She was recently wondering about going to California soon but needed to be gently told it wasn’t possible even if Covid ended. Tony

I've finally completed my scratch built Bodmer single no.124 of the London & Brighton Railway. It's taken a year of blood sweat and tears, trying to be too clever and paying the price! Details of the project have been promised to the HMRS in the form of an article for their Journal, so rather than spoil that I'll just deposit a couple of images here in the meantime. Further details of this project can be found on a previous blog entry entitled 'Build a Bodmer Competition - not!', or a more comprehensive write up should be in the next HMRS Journal out this summer.

A'noon. Despite the glorious sunshine and clear blue sky, a certain dampness in the wind and 7c is making it feel quite chilly out. When I went for my walk I ended up with gloves on and an extra layer than conditions appeared to need. Stopped to chat to new neighbours, who had come from 'across' and out of recent self-isolation, as they bought the house when things were not locked down, but everything got tied up for them. Eventually they got permission to come here as they had nowhere to live in the UK, but had to have 3 tests and isolate for 21 days. No third heads noticed, I think they'll be OK!

The slot car spares I ordered from Spain on Friday have been cleared by customs at Heathrow and the parcel is now on its way to me according to the Royal Mail app. This all seems very efficient so far. They are not expensive so perhaps that helps.

Morning all! Busy enough doing mostly nothing it seemed all weekend, so never managed to get on RMWeb. What with dog walking, and a bunch of small chores, home "to do" items, the weekend seemed to past by disturbingly quickly with little substantial to show for it We did manage to remove two more suspects from our murder mystery, it's getting quite exciting, especially since the four of us have "side bets" as to who the killer is. Sadly it's starting to look a lot like my preferred suspect may in fact NOT be the culprit. Ah well, the dizzying excitement of it all, eh Weather a mixed bag over the weekend, we had some light snow, about an inch, and then warmer temps and sunny. Then overnight another couple of inches of snow. Back at work today, we'll see what arises. -11 and sunny, heading for a high of -6. Carry on.

Jolly good, back to full size. To celebrate, another shot of a shiny Haymarket A4. I know you like those. It is also under the roof, and people seem to like those images too.

Sorry to hear of this. I suspect (and I'm sure I shall sit corrected by our resident Doctor if I am wildly off the mark) that it relates to the eustachian tube. All the bits inside our heads are inter-connected in some way. If there is infection under the teeth it may well be affecting the eustachian tube which manages balance. If the pain is worse when in one position than in another then I am reasonably confident there could be a connection there. What might feel like a gum problem could be an infection elsewhere. Dr. SWMBO suffered Labyrinthitis some years ago from which she never fully recovered. Not a dental infection at all but the same considerations applied namely that she was often OK when lying down but couldn't stand without the world spinning and her head hurting in a manner she described as "About to burst" and whilst having severe dizziness and nausea. I hope your problem gets resolved quickly. In other news I dropped into the pharmacy this morning and bought some dental putty which now occupies the space where half a tooth recently was. It might last until the 11th when I am due to be relieved of a large number of modelling vouchers by the local tooth-wrangler. There's enough in the pack to replace the "blob" if it falls out and a second pack is in the mail. Chances are I shall need more in the future if the last couple of years are anything to go by. The velocipede was delivered to the essentially-open bike shop this morning for its annual service and a new rear tyre. They decided I needed a new chain too but for the amount of use it gets I declined their generous offer of parting with another £50. Collection is later today or tomorrow morning. The items missed from Ocado's delivery yesterday are all on the van today as arranged with their customer service person. Nothing was out of stock except perhaps a picker / packer in the warehouse. Other than that it's grey, unnecessarily cold and no white rabbits have been sighted. Welsh people with daffodils, yes. Welsh flags, even. Happy St. David's Day to all with red-dragon blood in their systems. But what could be more Welsh than a leak???

Morning, couldn't post at all earlier. A white frosty but sunny start here, with all the washing already done I'm not sure what they day's entertainment will be. We're still teetering on the verge of a circuit breaker here, general opinion is the two 'random' cases need to be more honest about their errr friendships.

Happy AnnivERsary Sister (61) has been able to book her first jab having received the letter inviting her to do so. I also received the letter but had already done so. Collected the bike from its service this afternoon and, knowing the tides and times were right, returned to the Hill of Strawberries via Twickenham Riverside and Radnor Gardens both of which were under significant amounts of the River Thames. The highest tide of this cycle, and one of the highest all year, has coincided with the down-flow of Spring floodwaters from the entire Thames catchment area following a wet winter. These areas flood fairly regularly - indeed there are signs warning people not to park in certain areas - so this is nothing abnormal. But it still surprises some and attracts others. There were geese in the road and the bike path had vanished. The footbridge across to Eel Pie Island (the only way on or off without a boat) "landed" in a foot of water. Our war memorial was almost an island (and I have seen it once entirely surrounded by water) but by a couple of millimetres one side stayed dry this time.

RMWeb seems to be settled now, thankfully. I thought I was going to have to resort to doing something..... Just had the call to say I'm going to be Pfizered tomorrow at 14.15, and the second on the 23rd. I already have loads of paracetamol handy. Don't care, I think it is important personally (I have several of the 'underlying conditions') and a social duty to be inoculated. I doubt it can be as bad (famous last words...) as the yellow fever one we used to get in the Merch.

A sea of rails. PIctures of Clapham Junction for Nearholmer.......and the rest of you lot. Featuring that long leaky footbridge.

Morning all, Currently a day of mist and mellow fruitfulness although the great yellow orb is planned to appear according to eth seaweed of the west. No doubt if their 'puters get things wrong they will try to blame it on the Luftwaffe but their premises is quite a way from the site of the bang. Unfortunately it looks as if things might not have gone exactly as planned (hoped?) with the detonation and it set off the bomb instead of destroying it. Mrs Stationmaster is in touch with a former work colleague whose daughter commands a bomb disposal unit so we might one day get to hear more about it - as we did about certain events in Afghanistan (which were somewhat different from things teh media had to say). Presumably there's trouble in't cloud mucking up various wesites although somebody will probably blame on which ever villainous nation they happen to think of first. As for old school fellows we go out for a meal (when officially permitted to do so) with a couple I've re-established contact with since moving back. One of them was in my ear at infants and junior while the other one and i went through in the same class from infant school to A Level although we weren't close friends. Unlike some of our vintage we all acquired wives from not exactly local places and they all hget on well together. The latter organises an annual (well it used to be) get-together for various folk from our year at secondary school but it seems to major around a golf course so - sorry Mick - it might not entirely be my scene. Today I must try to suss out haow 'We Transfer' works as while I can get it set up as regards addresses I can't for the life of me work out how to load photo files into it! Sort of defeats the object of it. Havea godo day one and all and stay safe - presumably the weekend lemmings will now all be back in their boxes (I hope).

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun might be trying to break through the grey overcast sky. It was certainly colder out there than in the last few days when I got the bins back in earlier. Glad to see that NHN is getting his jab. SiL (47) gets hers today; I think it is because she ha asthma. I also heard my BiL got his last week. He's early 50s but had a heart attack a couple of years ago (despite being skinny and pretty fit). As for reaction to jabs, the only I really remember reacting to was the cholera/typhoid jabs I had as a child, which made me very sick. Glad to see RMweb is back running properly.

That's better, can post now. Thought I was going mad......well madder than normal. Cattle coming past...

Can I post yet? things most odd, maybe the forum doesn't like the March hare... Over on a boat forum based on the same software as this by the look of it, I've lost all contact with page 2 of my Boat rebuild thread. They have a setting of 100 posts per page.. That's a lot to lose.. I've notified their Admin and await results.. Meanwhile.. Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare. 5 hours sleep followed by a long awake period followed by an hours semi dozing. Back playing up, All that bending down to pushing or pulling drain rods.. 30ft of them.. I generally feel a bit rough.. Ben The Happy Collie had a good snuffle around this morning he even charged towards a Pheasant alarm call rather than running from it.. It was very light, a combination of a full moon and almost dawn. First light being after I Ieave for work sometime this week , and dawn should be before I leave for work on the 18th March. Still waiting for this weeks major system, a major software update over the weekend upset a lot of computers.. Ah just been given this weeks system.. 100M ohms now settling. This week I shall mostly be thinking of the fitment of "extras" on the trailer when equipment is doing it's thing.. Time to.. Start Sketching..

A dull and grey morning in North Somerset. North Sea low cloud has finally reached us, and the only question now is; how many days will it take to clear? My tooth/gum ache is becoming more random and more unfathomable by the day. Yesterday evening at about 9pm, it suddenly became "throw myself off a ten storey building rather than endure this" severe pain bottom left. In the end I went to bed after trying to watch The Ranganathan, and within two minutes of lying down the pain vanished, and has not returned since. What can this be? It is the pain from hell while my head is vertical, but vanishes immediately the head is horizontal? Any budding medical/dental students here? Managed to find an old can of thick black Hammerite in the garage, and so I painted the ceramic bird bath which has a crack in it, and water leaks out. My thinking is that once the paint dries over the crack, then it will provide the seal. Fingers crossed, but I gave it two coats just to be on the safe side and left it to dry in yesterdays sunshine.

Like many others I wasn't able to get much sense out of RMW this morning, which is a shame as it would have helped to pass the time while I waited for the GP to call for a telephone consultation. After thinking that my back was getting better, when I went to get out of bed the sciatica pain was excruciating and cocodamol didn't initially make much impression on it so I rang the medical centre. While I was waiting I repeatedly did the back exercises I've been given and eventually things started to get better but it took well over an hour before I was able to walk. The upshot of the consultation was that there is no way I can start taking anti inflammatories again because of the blood thinning medication that the neurological consultant is insisting I take, even though it is purely precautionary. Hence the GP is referring me to the physioterrorists again but part from that it's painkillers with laxatives to combat the side effects unless it gets so bad that I ask to be referred to the spinal consultant. We shall see. The rest of the day was spent doing exciting things like crosswords and a jigsaw puzzle, basically anything that didn't involve back movement, and now things are quite a bit better. The acid test will be what happens when I get up (or try to) tomorrow. As they say in France, there's allus bl**dy summat. The silver lining on the horizon is that if I am mobile (ish) tomorrow I have a SWMBO pink chit to spend a decent proportion of the day in the workshop. G'night all, stay safe and well. Dave

Well the Strawheads dvd +cd arrived so I have a lot of listening to do, 22 albums, of between 11 and 32 tracks!!! I've listened to the first one, and realised I'd heard them before,, back in the late 1970 early 80s I used to drop into the folk club after volleyball training at RAF Locking.. between the live acts which were mostly from Locking, sort of folk karraoke, they played some music, some of which I think was from Strawhead.. I've just read the comprehensive album notes, and I read there's further stuff in pdf format on the dvd as well.. I will rip everything off this dvd and cd on my computer which is the main listening device for me , then this physical music will go into storage with the rest. I aways buy the CD, and keep it as a master. I don't trust that downloads won't disappear. Time for sleep..

"Busy doing nothing, working the whole day through trying to find lots if things not to do" Yesterday was a busy day for us, we had our second shots locally. Not much to it, a couple of pretty nurses (female) were doing the deed which brightened things up and then we went shopping for dinner treat. Pretty heady stuff for one day! Brian.

I don't have an accent and nor does anyone I know, we all just sound normal.

Bit late on as i couldn't get on earlier so had to interest my self in other tasks greetings to all and happy St Davids Day to our Welsh Bretheren

Now I am going to be really upfront and say this layout has evolved over the years to its current format. But..... I feel another modernisation and upgrade program being formulated for the right hand side by the pub and small factory. Overall area I was happy with but not so much now so here is the general area Pub and shop looking dated now and a bit basic which I know I could do better. The main area of concern is this small factory, never quite worked out what it did. First building built for this layout in 2009 now in its third version but time to build something more suitable. Need to sort out the back scene which looks more like a city than a town.... So book a front seat and follow the trails and tribulations of redeveloping an area....!

Greetings one and all It felt a bit odd to say the least. At 7 am yesterday I was booking a set for an evening theatre performance of Riverdance six months hence. Whether it would have been better, or more user-friendly of the website, at a later hour is difficult to assess but one glance at the seating plan for my chosen evening told me that I was not a moment too soon. I have a seat in the back row of the circle, which should not be too bad for a show in which the stage will be filled with dancers. Before I started working out how the website worked I jotted down some dates and places. By securing a seat in relatively nearby Milton Keynes I have saved myself the prospect of a long drive to Cardiff or Bristol or not quite such a long one to Cambridge. It will be interesting to compare the 2021 version of Riverdance with the one which hit an unsuspecting world during the Eurovision Song Contest in April 1994. How will I remain patient for six whole months? Old friends: it has distressed me for many years now just how easy it is to lose touch. I am in touch with one from primary school days. We were thrown together in 1955 and have the niche interest of trolleybus destination blinds in common! From the posh school in Hammersmith but two contacts survive and much the same is true of the quiet country grammar school to which I moved in 1962. One contemporary from university phones from time to time. How, then, do I manage to send 70 seasonal greetings cards at Xmas? My e-friend Harry, who is far too busy for his own good making Amazon even richer and himself with it, is not short of people he met at school or university with whom to go places and you cannot believe how envious I am. I suspect there is a generational component here. Finally, has anyone else noticed that it is difficult to do anything other than ‘like’ a post? I have just tried to endorse a couple of posts with the heart symbol but the technology will only let me ‘like’ them and it’s not appropriate to do so. Best wishes to all Chris

Evening all. I note the school’s conversation has moved onto friends which we have retained since our school days. I had two close friends in my school days. Steve and Dean. Steve and I were best mates in primary school and this friendship continued into the early years of secondary before we ended up in many separate classes for GCSE and the friendship began to wane. At a similar point Dean joined the school and we struck up a friendship over our mutual interest in football, often spending evenings kicking a ball about on the local park. When I set up a five a side team, Dean was one of the regulars. He was a rock when I suffered a very painful relationship break up and I am forever indebted to him the support he gave me during those difficult times. Nowadays Dean and I converse over Facebook regularly. He has his own ongoing battles with the black dog, mainly brought about by frustration at the arthritic knees and back issues which robbed him of a professional football career. We catch up now and again but he knows, if he needs support, or a chat, he only has to call and that works the other way too. As Steve ended up in other classes, he got in with another group of people. Sadly some of these proved to bullies and I was one of their victims. Their actions resulted in much of my secondary school days being unhappy and probably laid the foundations for the confidence issues that have plagued me throughout life. At times, Steve was a part of this and it is unsurprising that our paths deviated after school finished. Over the years I heard snippets of what he was up to. He got thrown out of uni for drug taking, worked in partnership with another old school friend running pubs in London, battled alcoholism which resulted in a failed marriage. We briefly caught up now and again via Friends Reunited and then via Facebook but nothing of any substance. Last year, he was back in the area staying with his mum and got back in touch. He was preparing for a move to Canada with his new wife to be and wanted to catch up with old Friends’s before he started his new life. We had a nice catch up over a coffee in the garden and he actually apologised for his actions back at secondary school - that was unexpected. He has been “dry” for several years and has worked as a counsellor with AA. He is now happy in Canada, but we do keep in touch via WhatsApp usually discussing football. Night all.

Its hard to lose. I've been here in the US these last fifty years or so and those in the know still recognise my Plymouth accent which is similar - but different! Brian.

Happy Anniversary! Got so much planned for my days off this week. Must get back on the 3D printing wagon again. Need to call Bosch to claim on my warranty for the washing machine (the seal has broken - they have so far said it's not covered) . Also need to read / send off the meter readings, set up new internet stuff (although that may have to wait now as Mrs. STH is still working from home so don't want to mess it up for her). But I may be able to get some of this out the way tomorrow. But the most difficult and stupid job I'm not looking forward to is putting up a shelf. It fell down and brought a little of the plaster (not plasterboard) with it, not to mention crumbling a bit of the brick. So I tried using filler mixed with PVA glue but it won't stick to the brick. Apart from drilling a deeper hole and using a longer screw (not sure I have one!) there doesn't seem to be another option.

I had a couple of technological challenges this morning. Some of my slot cars wouldn’t trigger the lap counter. I noticed that the ones that didn’t register laps had blue guides (the bit that goes in the track slot) rather than the more common black. This gave me something to base my Google searches on and it turns out the guide has to be black otherwise the infra red detector doesn’t work. I have painted the blue guide black but will see if there is a direct replacement. The next task was to sort out why Aditi’s PC wasn’t sending emails. It received them perfectly. Windows kept insisting it was a password or sync error. I don’t think Aditi has used that PC to send an email since BTYahoo mail ceased as the send server was some Yahoo server. I said that there seemed to be some other Mail stuck in the outbox too. Anyway I changed the outgoing mail server to something more sensible and today’s messages went. She hadn’t wanted to lose them as they were condolence messages to cousins in India . It would appear that until today Aditi had used her Mac or Android tablet to send all her emails. Anyway all sorted now.

Good morning everyone A bright sunny day with blue skies, a few clouds but quite cool at 4C. Today’s plan is to spend some time in the garden, dead heading the hydrangeas and pruning the roses ready for their spring growth. It’ll be nice to spend a bit of time in the fresh air. I’ve also got some leaves to sweep up at the front so I’ll probably spend most of the day out there. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

School friends: Andy's experiences remind me of my best friend in primary school who lived up the road. As lads, he taught me how to play chess and we both liked to build Airfix kits. By the time we were seniors in high school we had drifted apart and he was close to a mutual friend (in all my classes and son to a popular member of staff at the school) and someone who was both a class clown and bully to some, including me. During my second year at university, my friend (after an evening out drinking with these two mates) drove into a tree on the side of the road. All three of them were in the car, but only survivor was the bully. He was asleep in the back seat. Theirs was the saddest funeral I have attended. It was held at the school. Pretty much the whole senior class, then about 18 or 19 years of age, attended.

Particularly if cropped a little to increase impact (if I may be so bold?) Loco front, as the focal point of the image, now in the bottom left 'golden section' area. The impression of 'turning heads' viz-a-viz the people on the right hand side works really well (nothing to do with my cropping!)

George has been kept-in by the vets for XRays, Investigations and Blood tests. I took the bit of string, he coughed up, and a new one so they could compare lengths. Saturday he was 3.85kg and 38.8'C. Today he was 3.45kg and 39.1'C. Whilst still very lethargic, he was VERY keen on not wanting to go to the vets today! They are going to call me later today. Kev.

........ and here it comes!

Waiting for the train on an overcast late summer day.

Morning all, looks like a nice day which I intend to spend most of outside doing something, a walk and probably some of the "G" word, take care all.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. RMweb looks a bit strange this morning but I seem to be able to rate posts as normal. I just had a quick look at the Great War forum which also uses the same software as RMweb and its the same there as the Q's boat forum and RMweb. I have an Essex accent though it doesn't appear unless I'm with other people with an Essex accent. It comes from my grandmother who was Essex born and bred. Tea is ready to be poured, be back later.

A man takes his young son to a horse auction. Once there, the man begins examining the stock, running his hands over the horses' necks, along their chests and stomachs, down their legs, over their rumps, etc. The lad watches with interest, and says: "What are you doing, Daddy?" "I'm checking these horses to see which one I want to buy," replies the father. At that the young boy bursts into tears. "What's the matter," asks dad. "I think," replies the lad between sobs, "the milkman wants to buy mummy!"

That's better, I couldn't get in before breakfast this morning, but I see there was an issue. Anyway; the Sun is shining and 37183 is running around its Train in Bridge End Sidings at Seven Mills.

School friends - still in regular touch with five from grammar school, two of whom were also at primary school with me. We didn't actually see a lot of each other for quite a few years, just keeping in touch via greetings cards, round robin letters and suchlike, then about twenty years ago we started having annual get-togethers as well as other visits and three of us even meet up in Spain every now and then. Since Covid kicked in we've been having Zoom meetings. Foreign language accents - apparently I speak German with a Munich accent; no idea why unless my school German teacher had such an accent and passed it on. I'm told by German friends that at least it isn't an English accent, which is apparently a compliment. I have an ex-RAF buddy who has a gift for languages and can speak French with (I am told) quite convincing Parisian and other regional accents. My Dad used to have a work colleague named Doctor Wang who was 100% Chinese but spoke with a pronounced Glaswegian accent, which seemed quite incongruous on first meeting. Dave

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just been trying to sort out my will. The old one was written over thirty years ago and is way out of date. I've decided to use a will writing service as I did last time only last time it was free as it was through my trade union but the price is very reasonable this time. I had something similar a couple of weeks ago affecting my sinuses. It was only occasionally painful, mostly when I pressed on the swelling on my face. It stopped when the fluid (mostly a water like fluid) burst into my mouth. It turned out that a fruit pip had got lodged between a tooth and the gum and started an infection. No amount of brushing or mouthwash would dislodge it but it came out after I kept sucking on it followed by the watery fluid.

A few more views

Hi, After the B7 is released, I will work on a matching 1in7 diamond and Single/Double Slips and also a crossover. I will then work on one of the shorter turnouts. Perhaps another 3 months or so. Proper crossover kits will be produced with prototypical shared timbers and track centres, much like I have done in my N Gauge range.

Not all is as red or blue as the bars shown. On look north for yorkshire on Friday evening data was displayed showing a large increase in cases in Leeds. No reason was given..well it happens that they tested the young offenders in the prison in wetherby and, guess what? A large number of them are positive. Hence a big increase.. most of the city is showing reductions in cases. Just shows..never mind the data check it to find out why things are increasing.. ( note the same thing happened in Rutland.). As an engineer my job was not just to look at data but find the root cause of why it was at that level which seems to beyond those in the journalist jobs. Baz

Another shot taken at Newton Heath Works, this time with a Drewry in charge.

Afternoon all. What I will describe below has been carried out over the course of every evening this week and has proved to be quite good fun. The subject of all of this palarva is a bog standard Hornby Skaledale Butterley waiting room. My example was acquired s/h from Rowsley17D of the parish. The platform side had been repainted in Midland Railway colours whilst the back of the building was as per factory finish. Proceedings commenced with popping out the windows and cleaning up any webbing on the inside of the apertures which could be seen through the windows. The windows were set to one side to be weathered separately once the rest of the building was finished bar any tweaks. First up was a removal of the Midland Railway colours. Pretty certain its called Midland chrome yellow but I could be wrong. I dug out my tub of Modelstrip. It was solid and utterly unserviceable. Plan B then. A 2mm glass fibre brush was employed on a plank by plank basis to scrub away the paint on the walls. The roof and chimneys were fine and left alone. I wasn't too worried about the finish as I wanted a bit of a rough finish anyway. This removal took quite a while and I acquired more than a few splinters along the way. It did however do the job. Next, I deepened the grooves between the planks using a couple of pointy pokey probe jobbies. These were also used to add a bit of distress to the planks. There were a couple of slip ups which I hope are not too noticeable. However, I did take a couple of chunks out of the window sills at the back of the building. I didn't want to risk filling them so have left them for now. I have a plan to suggest a bit of rot and moss but I have left it for now. The walls were repainted with Humbrol 103 enamel cream . I wasn't too precious about the finish as the below image shows. The lowers, doors, frames and uprights were then painted in Tamiya XF64 Red Brown though to me it looked very choclatey. I painted each plank individually and some were repainted to provide a bit of tonal variation. Bits were however missed and I decided to leave it. It suggested to me that the brown paint had flaked off here and there. Once dry, the paint was sealed with Humbrol matt acrylic varnish. I then moved onto the weathering using the usual powders. Smoke was brushed into the grooves between the planks to pick them out. Iron oxide was then added, working on each plank individually. Rust was used to 'taper' the colour. Some planks were coloured using Sand weathering powders, other lightened using white. Some were toned down using dark earth or smoke. I just made it up as I went along, blending until it looked right. Once happy the powders were sealed using Humbrol matt acrylic varnish. Some of this was the removed using our 2mm fibre brush on a plank by plank basis. I did over do this on a few planks which required repainting and further weathering. The perils of listening to Planet Rock radio!! The brown lowers simply had Iron oxide and rust powders applied here and there. This was toned down using smoke powder to blend it all in. Uprights had a bit of iron oxide added as did the doors in the midst of the panels. Some Smoke powder was added to the tops and bottoms. Once again, all was sealed using Humbrol matt varnish. The brown lowers were then lightly buffed using a large soft brush flicked over as were the doors. Doors and uprights were also buffed. It seems to deepen the colours and highlight and raised details. Door handles were picked out using a soft pencil. At this stage I left the gutters and barge boards as I was handling the building so much and probably have rubbed the paint off. I then moved onto the ridge tiles and painted them using Humbrol 70 Enamel. Not sure of the name but it looks Brick Red. I then moved onto the roof and began picking out individual tiles. A variety of greys , all Humbrol enamels, were used including Feld Grau, Extra Dark Sea Grey, a light grey seemingly something to do with Israeli aircraft and a couple of others. By the time I had finished, I had painted every tile. The roof was then varnished. Black weathering powder was applied beneath the ridge tiles before the entire roof was dusted with Smoke powder. You have to be careful to avoid daubs or streaks ( and finger prints...) but the powder did settle into the grooves and serve to blend the various grey paints used on the roof. Ridge tiles were also toned down using Smoke powder. The brink plinth was painted using Humbrol 70 enamel. Again I painted each brick, leaving the grey base colour of the mortar clear. I then looked and saw I had the same colour but in Humbrol acrylic. It looked lighter and I picked out a couple of bricks here and there and it did indeed dry lighter and provided contrast. A few other bricks were picked out in Humbrol 173 Track Colour. The chimneys were done at the same time but just few bricks were picked out as they were already factory painted in brick. I was a tad troubled that the mortar was white instead of grey as per the plinth but decided to let it go. Smoke powder was then applied and this served to tone down the mortar. I was less troubled. Last to be painted were the gutters and barge boards. The only weathering powder added to the barge boards was Iron Oxide, daubed here and there as per the gutters. Again, once varnished a spot of buffing was conducted using a large soft brush. The windows then were simply varnished to act as a key, dusted with dark earth powder, revarnished to seal and replaced. The pre-printed notice boards had the white printed highlights coloured in using a 0.5 black Sharpie. I pressed quite hard and the the resulting indent happily seems to suggest a frame. They were the varnished before Black powder was applied to hide the posters etc. A bit of iron oxide and dark earth was tried to suggest wear. White weathering powder was daubed here and there to try and suggest the residue left by posters that had been removed. Two boards were then added to the building. The third I will hang onto for now. I will probably leave them as is but if I see some posters I like, then we could see something applied thereon. Just not sure what yet. And there we have it. I shall add fire buckets and a few other bits and bobs just before I plant it on the layout but I will leave them off to prevent damage. That then is my station building. Next up will be the engine shed but I need to give that a bit of thought. However, I do anticipate it will be a tad more distressed that the station building Rob.