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Showing content with the highest reputation on 21/10/21 in all areas

  1. Passing the time of day.....
    33 points
  2. A contrast this morning. The Claud is at the south end of Platform 6, having brought in the East shuttle, but now we see another two coach train leaving from the north end, and heading for Grantham. Alas New England's B1 does not match the standard of March's engine cleaning.
    27 points
  3. Today's batch of photos were taken by me at Pilmoor, on the ECML between York and Thirsk in my black and white days. Scan-131117-0096 Pilmoor Class 40 D278 down pass on up fast 20th August 1967 Working wrong line a few days after the accident involving a cement train and DP2. Scan-131129-0009 Pilmoor Class 55 D9012 Crepello up ex pass September 1967 Dad was also taking photos! Scan-131129-0053 Pilmoor Class 40 D254 up ex pass June 1968 Scan-131129-0054 Pilmoor Class 40 D251 down ex pass June 1968 Scan-131129-0056 Pilmoor Class 47 D1581 down ex pass June 1968 David
    24 points
  4. Final night of the trafford park job 37099 in crewe Blue pullman HST powercar 37099 then came back and through the centre road and off toward Manchester, not sure if it was a road learner on the job itself We got held in Piccadilly for a while so I grabbed a photo And then back to crewe at 07:00 this morning, colas 56078 waiting to head off to Stoke with a spoil train That’s me until Saturday now, RHTT job with the 66s
    22 points
  5. Thanks chaps. A nice man has finally delivered my plastic so I've made good progress today. The gables on the end walls have been added and the roof is nearly ready to be painted. The photo we found yesterday shows a concrete canopy over the entrance and although we have only one track going in I have added an adapted version. I will add some more black so the smoke stain is actually over the track! I have done the tops of the shed walls in brick rather than concrete as that is what the photo's suggest. I'm out all day tomorrow so I'll add more on Saturday. Peter
    20 points
  6. 92001 heads south with an Intermodal for Dollands Moor. 47761 waits to head back into the mail terminal.
    20 points
  7. Well seeing as you mentioned that and that we were speaking of weathering on the phone, here are those Bachmann fish wagons I was telling you about. For those that weren’t in the phone call, I was saying to Tony that it’s amazing what can be done to RTR stock with some transfers and paint. I purchased about a dozen of these fish vans for the fish train (obviously) and they’ve been running out of the box for a few years. Now that I’ve been kit building wagons, building the fish train up and also the meat train, I decided I’d weather these, which then led to altering them. So from left to right: the first one has just been weathered, no renumbering, I’ve weathered it as if someone has cleaned the outside whilst the door was open awaiting to be loaded. So you get a nice dark stain from where the door was against the side, I’ve also tried to show scratch marks from the door being opened and closed. Not sure how well it shows up in the photo but they’re there. Next we have a single number change, no prizes for which number as the Bachmann numbering is quite large. Then a heavy weather with the lettering and numbering being cleaned away to be visible. The third wagon has just been weathered to a nice in use effect. Now, the next wagon I’m rather proud of and has had the most work done to it. It’s had its factory lettering removed apart from the large NE, it’s had a repaint so you can still see said NE. It’s been numbered in the post 37 scheme and weathered, still showing the older type of lettering underneath. I’ve always wanted to have a go at that and I think it worked a treat. The roof also didn’t get a coat of black/grey I left the white roof and weathered it with black powders. Last but not least, this wagon had the same work as the second wagon, a simple one number change and weathered, but some cheeky weathered has been used to hide the smaller number. You can see when you are this close to the wagon but in a train of 30+ vehicles travelling at a scale speed…you won’t notice it. The other thing I am very happy about is this photo, it shows the characteristic different heights of wagons you see in photographs. This is down to kitbuilding stock, as you can’t get this from a complete train of RTR wagons. And oh god does it show up the horrible ancient fiddleyard board. Even though it’s got more humps and bumps then Parramatta road (Sydney Siders will know what I mean) it works fine.
    19 points
  8. Just a reminder from our past. 21 Oct 1966. Never have I seen so many parents coming to school to collect their children.
    18 points
  9. I did look at Wikepedia too, but it is not famed for its accuracy, and what it said did not fit in with what I have seen or what Mr Brown says. My lawyer's brain won't let go of this, so I went back to the book to try to get a definitive result. I am going to post some images from the book, as I take the view that what we are discussing here counts as research. I will of course remove them if the owner of the copyright so wishes. The Carriage working book for 1958 shows the normal Grimsby/Cleethorpes expresses as loading to 11 bogies, but photographs show that quite often parcels vans were added, and on summer Saturdays there could be 13 on. So to evidence. First is a sketch plan from the book. Then a 1962 dated photo looking North. The far end of the Up platform can be seen, and even allowing for foreshortening there isn't room for many more coaches behind the two in view. How far from footbridge to level crossing, which incidentally prevented the possibility of extension to the South? Well, here's the opposite view. The WD is not far short of the footbridge, and almost none of what is behind the tender is in front of the barrow crossing. Here is the North end, again the date given is in the 1960's. End of Up platform in view, and the sidings and goods shed on the Down side look very similar to the plan. No evidence of extended platforms there. All that evidence strongly suggests to me that things remained the same post war as described by Mr Brown in his book. The book is 108 pages long, and he goes into considerable detail, including the changes that occurred between his boyhood and closure. I don't think he would have forgotten to include information like lengthening of platforms if it had happened. Result Wikepedia 0, Mr Brown 4. You can't beat reliable evidence. Even for those who aren't bothered about this esoteric discussion, I hope that seeing a little of what Firsby Junction was like may be of interest.
    18 points
  10. 31 418 passes through Charwelton 21/10/87
    17 points
  11. The end of the line for this Covhop.
    17 points
  12. 17 points
  13. Another favourite view tonight, further enhanced by the presence of a Claud.
    17 points
  14. Well the lights came back on 20 minutes ago. Keeping fingers crossed that it's for keeps this time. We had 3 minutes worth at around half one, so this is an improvement on that. Mrs SM42 was about to sit next to a candle for warmth. I was considering letting her light it too. Andy
    16 points
  15. Absolutely. & Thanks. I have given myself about 4 months to see if this will take off enough to provide an income, but am fully aware that I may need some form of employment if it doesn't. SiL works for Sainsbury as a home delivery driver, Europarts are advertising for drivers as well. I am confident I could find gainful employment within a short period, but I need to concentrate on the modelling first, and having 6 months off, paid, seems the ideal time. So not feeling too bad about the R word, every cloud, etc.
    16 points
  16. 16 points
  17. Having been severely upset recently by finding a squashed hedgehog on the road outside our house and thinking that it could have been the little one that I found in the garden a few months ago and have been trying to feed up fpr winter survival, I'm a bit more optimistic having found the the food I've been putting out is being eaten and the hedgehog house has had some visits. Of course, it could be a different hedgehog or even a different species, although whatever it is would need to be able to negotiate a tunnel about five inches diameter, but I live in hope that either it is 'my' hedgehog or another one that has moved in. In other news, I've now started ballasting my layout, which is almost making me nostalgic for the years weeks I spent doing the cobbled road and yards. Since it's an MPD layout I'm trying to simulate ash/cinder ballast employing Steve Fay's method using kiln dried sand and boy, is that a bu**er to brush and glue in place neatly enough. I know that it doesn't need to be too neat for a loco shed but it does have to be relatively smooth and getting the right finish takes ages. Another fun aspect of our hobby . Off now to see the scnozzle sister to have things looked at and to try to book flu jab appointments. TTFN Dave
    16 points
  18. Tony, I took some photographs of “Clumber” this afternoon. Here she is on the down boat train which passed Retford at 12.37. The B17 worked the train from March to Sheffield. She was turned at Sheffield and returned from there in the afternoon. So the same B17 worked both trains at Retford. As Robert Carroll has now very kindly assembled the carriages for the train in both directions I have photographed “Clumber” hauling it both ways.Here she is heading east with the up train to Harwich and here’s a closer view of her on the same train.”Clumber” is the only loco apart from the Britannia which can haul this 11 coach train out of the fiddle yard. As this is the only passenger train which regularly crossed the flat crossing in the east/west direction I wanted a representation of the working in both directions. So an extra road has been added to the fiddle yard, as there was not a great deal of space this had to be squeezed in but there was just enough room. The problem is that I don’t really want to use this locomotive on both trains as this would involve too much handling of the loco so at the moment I’m using 70037 “Hereward the Wake”on the up train. However she is out of period so I’ll have to build another B17 and really it should be another model of “Clumber” but I could never build or paint it as beautifully as this one so I’ll make a model of 61657 “Doncaster Rovers”. This engine was shedded at March and I do have a photo of it on the boat train. Sandra
    16 points
  19. I have been quietly going through my large collection of pictures I have taken over the last few years since the layout first appeared and was quite amazed at what I have taken, many have never seen the light of day, some I have completely forgotten about taking? Like this one where I was messing about with light filters and overlays, then forgot all about it, and it has stayed in the folder since last year!!!! I was trying to bleach the photo, so the colour appeared washed out caused by the sun bursting through the trees and causing lens flare. Anyway here it is, someone might like it?
    15 points
  20. 15 points
  21. Thanks again Sandra, I'm glad 61620 continues to do what she was (eventually) built to do. The beautifully-natural painting/weathering is the work of Geoff Haynes. I still can't find the picture I took of her complete on Retford, but here she is before I erected the valve gear. During my late-'50s 'spotting days at Retford, CLUMBER was by far the most-common B17 on the boat train, sometimes rostered for a whole week's work on the service. GAYTON HALL was also common, though I never saw any B17 with the larger tender. Did I say I'd make Retford's telegraph poles?!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another classic flat crossing scene, to be replicated now you've got an O4/8? I also murmured something about point rodding................ What a delicious amount of clutter. Please (all) observe copyright restrictions on the protototype shots. Regards, Tony.
    15 points
  22. Evening all. Another Bachmann 08 has joined the expanding diseasal collection. Bought from that auction site for a reasonable price it came with an advisory of a detached window. It was also noisy on running but a strip of the gears and a thorough clean to remove a copious amount of what looked like automotive grease, has produced a much quieter loco. Very smooth with good slow running. It is, incidentally, the Mk2 with pick ups bearing on the backs of the wheels. The cab was removed, glazing reattached and then all was reassembled. And there we have it. Pleased Sheep.
    14 points
  23. You're all quite lucky as this train has a very rare beast in a choc/cream BG. According to coach guru @chrisf BR only had a handful of these so seeing one here is a novelty. A nice contrast to the crimson/maroon and green on the other vehicles. More anon.
    14 points
  24. I remember once the RMT proudly announcing that they had been "Organising women for 100 years" A strange, somewhat risky and quite patronising boast I thought at the time. Andy
    14 points
  25. Tom, Paid a visit to the Chalk Pits Museum at Amberley today and found this tucked away in the railway exhibition hall. Looks a little familiar! Regards, Geraint
    13 points
  26. At 71 I've re joined our old Rock Band, and leap around like a demented baboon when playing, especially the Stones stuff. Its also why I like to build new Layouts, the planning and building keeps the old Brain working, then of course there's my art. Far to many hobbies, just need a young lady around to re kindle that side of my Yooofff.
    13 points
  27. I haven't been modelling lately but I have been doing some sketches of the compartment side of some coaches from LNER diagrams. Diagram 116 locker CK diagram 149 BFK Diagram 275 Restaurant Buffet, as built. Thanks to Mike Trice for his assistance with this. diagram 127 BCK, 2F/2S Diagram 316 BCK 3F/3S, notice the guards ducket is on the compartment side, most other LNER gangwayed brakes had the ducket of the corridor side. I have also altered a Nick Campling drawing of a dia 167 Buffet to its later rebuilt stage. If it breaches copyright rules I will remove it.
    13 points
  28. Well it’s been 3 days since the Uckfield show and my knees have finally recovered from standing for two days and grubbing around under baseboards during set up😀 The layout behaved it’s self and despite the fact that I can either talk to the public or operate the layout, but can’t do both at the same time everything went to plan! I collected the hire van at 10.00am on the Friday morning and with the help of my pal and master fiddleyard operator Roger the van was loaded with the layout by 11.30 am. The new extension board fitted in the van without any problems, we’re obviously getting better at this packing lark😀 We were on the road before midday and arrived in East Sussex by about 3.30pm, it was a pretty uneventful journey despite the rigours of the dreaded M25! Set up in the exhibition hall started at 6.00pm, so with a couple of hours to kill and being so close we decided it would be rude not to pop in and visit the Bluebell Railway😀 The station building is delightful, with an ornate half timbered porch and tiled upper storey, I particularly liked the ornate chimney stacks. The ticket office and waiting rooms were equally lovely, all they needed was a roaring coal fire in the grate to add to the ambiance! We were greeted in the platform by a rake of magnificent wood finished Metropolitan coaches, Sherton Abbas definitely needs an excuse for a model of one of these! Maunsell’s splendid S15 class number 847 was in steam, so we spent a happy hour or so on the platform watching it run round and depart with an excursion. The couple of hours at Sheffield Park passed all to quickly, but we left by 5.30pm to make our way to the Civic Centre at Uckfield and get the layout set up. We met my other pal Al at the hall and had the layout set up in about an hour and a half. The new extension board fitted into place without any problems, which was a relief as there’s insufficient space in my workshop to set the layout up in its entirety! After a good night’s sleep at the local Premier Inn, we arrived at the exhibition hall for 8.00am to get the stock set up and get the layout ready for the public. An excellent breakfast was provided by the Uckfield club, as were copious amounts of tea, coffee and biscuits during the day, I can honestly say I’ve never been to such a well organised show😀 10 minutes before the show opened Roger thought it might be a good plan to run a passenger train through the layout. It departed the fiddle yard and then abruptly came to a sudden halt as it entered the new scenic board! Although I’d tested the new board by pushing a few wagons and running some locos, I hadn’t considered that my brake third coaches have duckets and were consequently too wide to enter the layout😳 Some frantic adjustments were made with a hacksaw and although the aperture now looks like a dogs chewed it trains passed through all weekend without any further problems! We had an excellent evening meal on Saturday evening hosted by the club at the Hare & Hounds in Framfied. After the meal our host Adrian had organised an excellent quiz, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. There was then a presentation of the cup for the best layout as voted for by the exhibitors and traders and I’m delighted to say that Sherton Abbas won! There were some truly excellent other layouts at the show, so being awarded this award was a huge surprise and made the whole weekend even more special. The show was a little quieter on Sunday which gave me chance to have a better look at the rest of the show and chat to other exhibitors. Ian Smith’s Modbury is quite exceptional, the locos are like pieces of jewellery and the despite the small size of 2mm the level of detail is remarkable! Martin Finley’s Newton Heath Works was also fabulous and a perfect example of how to do a cameo layout properly. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the cup on the layout, as you can see it’s a pretty magnificent trophy! The show finished at 5.00 pm on Sunday and the layout was unassembled and back in the van by ten past six, which I think is probably our best break down time ever😀 The M3 / M25 was a delightful experience as always, but we got back to Cardiff and had the layout unloaded and back in the workshop before 11.30 pm. Huge thanks to both Roger and Al for all their help during the weekend and to Adrian for inviting us to such a rewarding well organised event. Best wishes to all, particularly those that came to the exhibition and came for a chat! Dave
    12 points
  29. For the last few months I've been dabbling in creating "Art" from debris found on my local beach / my own recycling, using a lot of skills I've learned via this forum, I might add - somehow I've ended up with the basis for a children's book, with quite a few publishers interested. Today I made a Facebook page to show my work on, please like or even better follow! https://www.facebook.com/Spacekinsart/
    12 points
  30. I wonder if his first name might be Roly? With all the LDC he consumes it might be quite appropriate...
    12 points
  31. My heart goes out to virtually everyone in today's working environment. It is worlds away from the lush fields of job vacancies some of us found on leaving school, when a job for life was commonplace.
    12 points
  32. Stu - When I was made redundant in the mid-90s the world seemed quite binary: full-time or still looking. Bad experience of 18 months on the dole. Both my son and my son-in-law were out of work early this year; both have picked up 24 hr/week jobs (Aldi, Waitrose). Plus Uber-Eats is piece-work - my son became a bicycle delivery-boy (Transportation logistics executive), limiting himself to when the Leicester rain wasn't torrential. Until he got the better offer from Aldi. Embrace the opportunities not to risk all on one approach - entrepreneur or nothing. Best wishes, Denys
    12 points
  33. Thanks for the picture of SILVER LINK. It's an interesting muddle of a model. 2509 never ran in service with a nameplate, not with the parabolic curve at the front, anyway. It had its name painted/printed in the middle of the casing (one of Gresley's daughters thought it looked better that way). It has a double chimney (incorrect) and the 'wedge' in the firebox casing is in the wrong place. As for the tender, it's entirely inappropriate; it should be a 1935 streamlined corridor type, not a 1928 sort. Imagine the 'outcry' if Hornby was to produce such a model today, yet I couldn't find a mention of these inaccuracies in the model press of the time when these locos were reviewed. Interestingly, this original Trix A4 formed the basis of the later Bachmann one, though with modifications. The firebox was altered and it certainly had a different chassis, but the weird tender (a non-corridor type was produced by merely removing the corridor connector at the rear) remained. Also interestingly, I have a couple of links with that original Trix A4 running on Little Bytham. This has a much-modified Bachmann A4 body on top of an even-more-modified Bachmann chassis, towing a Crownline streamlined non-corridor tender (complete with strip at the base of the tank). The painting is by Ian Rathbone. This one has the same Bachmann body-modifications, but it has a South Eastern Finecast chassis. The tender is also from SEF, modified to represent one of the trio with the back end cut-down in order that the A4s could take water on the SR and LMR in the '48 Exchanges. Again, the painting is Ian Rathbone's work. My goodness me, this shot was taken quite some time ago!
    12 points
  34. Fabulous pic— Prince Harry caught travelling without a ticket !
    12 points
  35. I know where I can get the kiln dried sand, but where are you getting the boys from?
    11 points
  36. Layered some more undergrowth today, along with adding the boundary stone wall across the front of the layout. The structures aren’t permanently fixed yet…but this gives an idea of how board 2 is looking. Jay
    11 points
  37. Sometimes patience is rewarded. My book was written by a gentleman who was brought up very close to the station, and knew it very well from the mid 1930s to closure. He describes a sequence of events on a typical day, and includes the following:- " The express is a long train, and it stops with the front part by the platform.... whistles sound, and the train draws forward to bring the rear half to the platform." "More shouts, whistles and arm waving bring the train to a halt. Yet again the staff shout their instructions to passengers, and now to the slamming of doors is added the sound of barrows trundled along, and the noise of mail and parcels being loaded and unloaded." I don't think all that would happen in a couple of minutes. Firsby was also the junction for local mail and parcels, as well as passengers, and the author stresses that most, if not all trains had transfers taking place. So, now we know. The book, by the way, is Firsby Portrait of a Country Junction by Gordon H Brown. Published 1994, so sadly no doubt long out of print, but it is a fascinating read.
    11 points
  38. Thanks For me, part of this hobby is the photography. I enjoy setting up a scene more than I do operating trains - leave that to my Grandson. LM has often been referred to as one large photo plank…… quite near the truth if I’m honest…! Even my controller needs dusting before we use it!
    11 points
  39. Lots of work but little to show for yesterday’s effort. The day was largely made up of wood work with 3 small sections added to the Ardlui area. Hopefully I will feel sufficiently confident to start laying plaster cloth later today. The track on the approach from the south was tight to the baseboard edge. I grafted an additional 30 mm piece of baseboard onto which I will create an embankment. The lower level baseboard around the station entrance leading to the A82 was rebuilt. The original was a temporary affair, the new section is much more robust. A small triangular corner was added to the baseboard at the northern end, again this was to create a larger space between the track and the baseboard edge.
    11 points
  40. We bought a new iPad on Friday. Today I took it back. The primary justification for this is for holidays. We may need to do banking as well as keeping up with emails (and MRWeb). While I was trying to set it up, I couldn't find a place for the SIM card that connects to the cell phone network. I went in today and was told that it didn't have one and that the ones that did weren't available in store, just online. And they were over $200 more! So I did a reset and took it back. They were quite good at giving a refund. Thanks, Staples. The next nearest store didn't have any in stock and seemed to be even more expensive. (I think the model I had bought was last year's.) They all agreed with me that a cellular connection was probably more secure than somebody's wifi if I was doing confidential stuff.
    11 points
  41. York B1 61065 on a train of vans from Huskisson to York. Hornby model with its original wheels pulled out.
    11 points
  42. No idea about that. Thompson O1, rare at Walton for the period but John Ward recorded one in 1960 and the Hornby model isn’t too hard to convert to EM with its original wheels pulled out as the axles are nicely splined. Still needs detailing and it’s smokebox number changing. It’s a really nice runner.
    11 points
  43. Managed to get appointments for flu jabs today in keeping with HMG's exhortations to get them done ASAP. The earliest we could get? - December 11th! Now that we have passed the six months since our second Covid jabs, the next thing is to see whether we can book for boosters. Wonder when that will be - 2024 maybe? Dave
    10 points
  44. Dapol just posted this about investing in UK production. https://www.Dapol.co.uk/Dapol-Continue-To-Invest-In-UK-Production Paul
    10 points
  45. Radlett last week, waiting to depart with 6V54 to East Usk which I worked as far as Landor St in Brum....
    10 points
  46. I still have my Trix double tendered Flying Scotsman, A4 Silver Link and A2 A H Peppercorn, along with a Trix blue Western class diesel. The A2 runs OK (ish) and has traction tyres on the drivers, she merrily bounces along pulling anything behind her. The other two run just about OK, the Western, well she is not well at all. I bought them around my 21'st birthday back in 1973 from a sports equipment shop in Pemberton near Wigan. I remember asking the lady "How much is that Western Hydraulic in the window" (the one with the wobbly wheel) !! - she shouted upstairs "How much is that westernised relic" - Laughter all round, happy days !!!!!!!!! I keep them for sentimental reasons. I think Silver Link in LNER light grey is the nicest one, though not a patch on todays expensive stuff. Remember they are early 70's RTR. Brit15
    10 points
  47. Good moaning from a sunny Charente. The Tardis is still in Roseville, CA, and by some miracle it's still 9th January 2010. I had nearly completed my circuit of the yard, and passed Walmart safely, and was back across from the rotaries. The mist had cleared and I got a better picture of them. At least two are still fully operational and have had multi million dollar upgrades recently. These include, better crew facilities and the replacement of steam heating boiler with a modern steam generating unit. As Mike has commented the fan is powered by the prime mover in the former B unit. 4 traction motors are positioned around the fan to power it. The auxiliaries such as the flaps that control the width of the cut and the direction of the snow plume are still steam powered. This is apparently to prevent freezing. They are still numbered in the SP maintenance of way series. I believe that there another two kept as spares It's well worth having a look on YouTube for videos of them in action. They usually operate as a back to back pair with two big modern 4.400 HP locos in between. They do this so that they an reverse and dig themselves out if there is an avalanche behind them. They operate between Roseville and Truckee where there is a triangle to turn them if needed. Magnificent beasts and approachng their centenary. More locos were seen on the depot, including this patched Rio Grande Unit. meanwhile the track work team were still manoeuvring. This trailer caught my eye. Wat a model it would make. This, I believe was a machine for inserting and driving spikes. two operators feed spikes down a chute then the machine drives them. And of course they have to have every modern convieince with them. Quite an impressive train of equipment. More tomorrow, all being well. Jamie
    10 points
  48. Bear can exclusively reveal why HRH didn't pull the chain himself: (And , er, thanks to @Stubby47 for puttin' Bear right off his Sultana Bran as I casually surveyed his website...) Actually, I'm somewhat surprised it still has a seat - must've been the upgrade for the Royal Visit. And I did have to do a double-take on the poster on the door - I thought it read "Org*sming......."
    10 points
  49. King Poly will have an army of flunkies to do the work for him - and the loyal subjects get to pick up the tab Fear not - my first Royal Decree will be to exclude all current TNM's from shelling out. New starters don't get that privilege however - we don't want any fare dodgers now do we.....
    10 points
  50. Re unbalanced workings, sometimes Huskisson goods would require brake vans, here 76077 is taking some down there. This is a recent build with Comet chassis, Markits wheels and Portescap, a Bachmann body and tender.
    10 points
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