Leaderboard

Backstreet Boys ..

Near Nottingham now, at Sneinton junction, just east of Nottingham Midland and Radcliffe on Trent on the line to Grantham. Sneinton Junction Class 120 Crewe to Lincoln June 78 C3893 Sneinton Junction 25211 westbound freight June 78 C3894 Sneinton Junction Class 114 Nottingham to Grantham and Class 25 shunting June 78 C3895 Radcliffe on Trent Class 120 Nottingham to Skegness June 75 J4383 Radcliffe on Trent Class 47 Parkeston Quay to Manchester Feb78 J5920 47011 David

Peascliffe Tunnel on the ECML north of Grantham, 1970, 1977 and 1983. Peascliffe Tunnel Class 40 up car train Dec 70 C435 Peascliffe Tunnel Class 47 down ex pass April 77 C3278 Peascliffe Tunnel Class 254 43079 Kings X to Leeds, going away July 83 C6114 Peascliffe Tunnel 31209 up bullion July 83 C6115 Peascliffe Tunnel Class 31 up empty cartics July 83 C 6116 David

Another look at Grantham this morning. GranthamClass 105 Grantham to Skegness and Class 114 to Nottingham Sept 71 J2776 Grantham Class 55 up Sept 71 J2777 08.10 Newcastle to Kings X Grantham Class 114 Nottingham to Skegness May 72 J2926 Grantham Class 55 down Flying Scotsman Jan 77 J5617 Grantham HST up Oct 83 C6289 David

Back to railways now to visit the Stray at Harrogate in 1965 and 1966. The photos were taken with Dad's half frame camera so some are not quite as good as usual in terms of detail. Harrogate Class 104 Bradford to Harogate July 65 J211 Harrogate Class 101 Darlington to Leeds Aug 65 J274 Harrogate B1 61319 Harrogate to Kings X Feb 66 J444 Harrogate Class 46 D171 up White Rose April 66 J472 Harrogate LMS Class 5 45061 Harrogate to Kings X July 66 J569 David

Mo and I have spent a splendid day at the Colne Valley HQ of the Braintree (I think) MRC, my photographing 'Little Colne'. It's really rather nice................. The group was kind enough................. To let me take a picture of a couple of my (appropriate) locos on it. Thanks chaps, and look out for it in BRM in the future.

Photos of electric locos this morning along the WCML. Elmhurst 84004 down freight Jan 76 J5036 Elmhurst Class 86 up Jan 76 J5037 Hincaster Junction 87033 up June 76 J5263 Hincaster Junction 86207 down June 76 J5264 Sandon Trent and Mersey canal Class 86 down June 76 J5331 David

Places in Scotland beginning with F and G this morning. Mainly without trains, just bits of railway. Fraserburgh Aug 74 J3922 Fraserburgh Aug 74 J3923 Gareloch bridge over A814 line to submarine base July 74 J3859 Garelochead taken from train hauled by 37259 and 37121 WBHS Fort William to Newcastle 11th May 85 C6902 Garelochead NBR July 74 J3860 David

This afternoon we travel to Bentley, between Manningtree and Ipswich on the Great Eastern Main line to loo at trains in May and June 1975. At the time Dad sometimes had a few days in Ipswich for his work and used to go out in the evening to take photos. Bentley Class 47 Liverpool St to Yarmouth May 75 J4299 Bentley Class 31 Peterborough to Parkeston Quay June 75 J4374 Bentley Class 47 up June 75 J4375 Bentley Class 47 down June 75 J4378 Bentley Class 47 Norwich to Liverpol St June 75 J4491 David

Second training day completed successfully......................... Another great day with John getting used to the new ways of working. It's quite noticeable how the superb control which DCC affords, together with the synchronised sound effects, encourages much better driving by the operators. There used to be a temptation to drive too quickly and rush through the operating sequence. This seems to be replaced by efforts to simulate prototypical practice, as best we can remember it! By lunch time I felt confident with the Station control panel, so I moved to the Sector Plate controls for the afternoon. With only one operator on the Station panel this gives the Sector Plate operator an opportunity for a stroll around the whole layout. I took advantage of these little breaks in activity to capture a few shots on my phone: John, busy on the Station control panel, with my empty chair beyond! A view over the station roof looking towards the hotel. Lime Street and the Station Hotel. The old carriage drive entrance to the station with the main platforms beyond. Quite busy on Lime Street! Looking across the station throat to a London express waiting the "Right Away". Locos waiting their next turn of duty. 2024-04-22 15.56.16.mp4 A little video clip as the station pilot takes the mail train up the shunting neck. This is the sector plate and fiddle yard, which I am supposed to be operating! More when we can.......... Steve

5 photos of Class 20s on trains to Skegness taken at Bottesford on the Nottingham - Grantham - Skegness line. Bottesford 20081 and ano Derby to Skegness July 81 C5467 Bottesford 2 Class 20 to Skegness Aug 82 C5855 Bottesford 20180 and ano to Skegness Aug 82 C5858 Bottesford 20188 and ano Derby to Skegness June 83 C6059 Bottesford 20172 and ano Leicester to Skegness Aug 83 C6155 David

It's time for some more photos taken in Switzerland. So here is another batch at Kleine Scheidegg where trains leave for the Jungfrau. To get to Kleine Scheidegg you travel from Grindlewald or Lauterbrunnen on the train. Kleine Scheidegg Jungfrau Bahn BDeh2/4 12th Aug 91 C16322 Kleine Scheidegg WAB BDeh4/4 12th Aug 91 C16329 Kleine Scheidegg WAB BDeh4/4 Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald 12th Aug 91 C16335 Kleine Scheidegg Jungfrau Bahn BDhe2/4 202 12th Aug 91 C16338 Kleine Scheidegg WAB BDhe4/4 118 12th Aug 91 C16344 Kleine Scheidegg WAB BDhe4/4 12th Aug 91 C16345 David

And here is another mode of local transport... Still got my eye out for a few motorbikes when they get produced.

I found this topic so interesting I ended up registering so I can comment. Warning: You can tell this is written by an accountant. If you have a problem with beancounting you may want to skip this one... TL:DR version - main points are the sentences in bold. Looking at both the recent stock market update and the previous financial statements, there are some pretty clear problems at Hornby, but comments such as those by Simon Kohler in Railway Modeller actually don't touch them, they focus on the wrong problem. In fact the final Outlook section of the trading update Hornby issued does a much better job at actually telling us what the issues are - high stock and high overhead costs. It's not about the competition or the innovation from smaller entrants or any of that. It's not about firebox lighting or headlamps or detailed underframes. Sure those drive up the cost of the product and the sales price, but they do that for all manufacturers equally. They're not why Hornby is in trouble. Yes, there are newer, smaller, entrants to the market. Normally smaller entrants are more agile, but the larger incumbent players have a massive advantage, which is simply size. Being larger simply allows Hornby to do everything more efficiently and therefore more profitably. To blame new entrants into the market for changing the focus of the market, whether it's quality features, wider liveries or larger rakes of wagons, whatever, none of that is really the point. Hornby can make the exact same moves and do it more cheaply due to their ability to scale up. Ultimately all of the companies are playing the same game, there's no secret advantage, no technology that can't be copied, no significant exclusive product that makes them unique, no monopoly on the market. They're not Microsoft or Apple with a product you can't live without. Whether large or small, the products and the processes are pretty much identical. Research -> Design -> Engineering Models -> Tooling -> Production -> Sales (and repeat). With few exceptions (Dapol and PECO) that production is largely happening in India and China, so costs should be expected to be broadly similar regardless of which company is making the model. The only advantage the smaller companies have that the market has different expectations, they can rely more heavily on a pre-order funding model that reduces their need for costly stock holdings. That's their agility in play, and it's much needed as they simply don't have the cash that Hornby has to invest in production runs that clear the shelves more slowly. Of course recently Hornby don't have they money either which is why they're struggling (it is happening somewhat though and I think the TT120 market is probably a good example of this shift happening with Hornby simply not having the excess stock on hand, though whether that's by design or by mistake is a matter of opinion). So if all the players in the game are broadly selling the same goods for the same prices with the same underlying costs, how is it Hornby are struggling so much? Hornby should have the advantage, they can make larger batches, more product, have more efficient distribution, wider marketing and other theoretically more efficient overheads, so they should be making more profit than the smaller competitors, not less. Fundamentally Hornby are left with two problems then, which are exactly as Hornby have disclosed in their statement. 1. Their higher stock position is costing them money. This one is all about cashflow. When you have spent all your money buying stock that's sat in a warehouse, that money isn't doing anything useful, like buying more tooling or paying more designers. Instead Hornby are borrowing more money to pay for that, and borrowing costs interest, so it's a double whammy, your own money is doing nothing and it's costing you to use someone else's. In fact Hornby have a huge and persistent stock problem caused by what I can only assume are bad decisions in their past (railways or other brands, I don't know for sure). The latest statement indicates their stock level is around £20m (down £3m from previous disclosure which was £23m). Based on their 2023 account they had £21.3m of stock and turnover of £55.1m that means they have a stock ratio of about 39%. That means they have effectively about 4 months worth of sales value held in stock doing nothing for the business, not generating a penny. This is a level so bad that they have removed the Inventory graph from the 2023 annual accounts. If you look back over past accounts this used to be reported with a pretty graph every year. In fact between 2004 and 2018 the average stock level was closer to 22% of sales. And this was with a business model that Hornby acknowledged was on the princple of selling things more slowly over time (the opposite of the current market trend). So you'd expect Hornby to be reducing stock in line with market trends, not increasing it. In fact Hornby have doubled their stock level since 2019. To even get back to their previously levels of efficiency in stock, Hornby need to offload about £9m of stock. It's no coincidence that the level of bank debt has increased by £14m in the same time period and it's clear that the naysayers can't just blame that on tooling up for TT120. It's caused by stock not selling. We've all seen the fly on the wall documentary with Simon K and Montana at a fete trying desperately to offload unwanted garbage steampunk sets and the like. Think of this as at kind of problem but on a massive scale. It's simply stuff no one wants. Whether it's bad or just expensive I don't know. But it's costing Hornby money in bank interest (nearly £700k in bank and loan interest in 2023 when that debt was less than half what it is now). 2. Their overheads are out of control. Hornby should be making the most profit out of the players in the market because they can do things more cheaply when they do them on a larger scale. Partly this seems to be driven by the obession with online direct sales. We know from the announcement that around 18% of all sales are online direct sales. These should be making the most profit out of all sales because they're selling direct at RRP and not having to sell them at wholesale prices to retailers. Even the points discount is barely a dent in their profitability here as it's only the same as Retailers discount at and those retailers must still make something out of the deal or they wouldn't buy the products. On average Hornby have around a 48-49% profit margin on the actual cost of the product that covers these overheads. In the 2023 accounts digital sales were £8.5m, which was 15% of total sales. So those digital sales contributed about £4.3m of profit margin towards the overhead costs of the company. At the same time the cost of winning those digital sales in overheads went up by £1.9m, so actually those digital sales only contributed £2.4m toward the rest of the overheads - a little over half what they would have done if those sales had simply come from retailers instead. Yes, this is longer term investment for the future, but between 2023 and 2024 the digital sales share of the total has only moved from 15% to 18% of total sales. That 3% is around £1.6m of extra sales. Yet total sales are pretty flat at only 2% growth (around £1.1m), so quite a lot of those new digital sales have come from taking market share off of retailers, not from growing new sales/new customers. And because of this massive investment in digital, they are actually making Hornby less money, not more. Ignoring the one off exceptional costs (writing off bad investments and refurbishing the visitor centre) then these two things alone would have been the difference between turning a profit and the loss they actually made. Also, for what it's worth, last year when Hornby lost all that money, their departing CEO's pay went up from £241k to £617k. So that's a £375k pay off to someone they wanted out. Who says you need to make a profit to get rewarded eh?

The Beast Of Blacker Lane. Manning Wardle 16-inch Special moves onto the shed road at Blacker Lane D.P.

Some more photos on the London Tilbury and Southend at Laindon in the 1970s. Laindon Class 302 302306 Fenchurch St to Shoeburyness May 76 J5173 Laindon Class 302 down July 77 J5721 Laindon Class 302 302247 Shoeburyness to Fenchurch St Jan 78 C3652 Laindon 12th March 78 C3715 Laindon Class 302 238 down April 78 J5999 David

And we catch a 93xx huffing and puffing its way into town....

A Pannier across the viaduct.

Double Fairlie 'Livingston Thompson' is service at Glanfa Fach as Quarry Hunslet 'Elidir' pushes some slate wagons into the exchange shed.

A country scene for you but without the odour!

Today's second set were taken around Gonalston crossing which is just east of Lowdham on the Midland Railway line from Nottingham to Newark and Lincoln. Gonalston crossing 25121 up p w Jan 76 J5046 Gonalston crossing Class 47 down oil Jan 76 J5047 Gonalston Crossing Class 120 Lincoln to Crewe Jan 76 C2580 Gonalston Crossing Class 114 Lincoln to Nottingham July 76 C2856 Gonalston Class 120 Crewe to Lincoln Jan 80 C4944 going away David

An extra odd man out now. Somehow yesterday I missed this photo taken at Grantham. It is the same train as one of yesterday's, I wanted to include it as once again it shows the unreliability of colour images in terms of shades of colour as a result of the film ageing and scanning and the software used. Grantham Class 55 08.10 Newcastle to Kings X Sept 71 C726 David

The Ffestiniog Railway for this morning. Tan y Bwlch Earl of Merioneth 22nd Aug 70 C243 Tan y Bwlch Hunslet Linda Dduallt to Porthmadog Aug 72 J3034 Tan y Grisiau Hibberd Upnor Castle 6th Aug 79 C4680 Tan y Grisiau Hunslet Blanche Porthmadog to Tan y Grisiau 6th Aug 79 C4693 Tan y Grisiau Hunslet Blanche Porthmadog to Tan y Grisiau 6th Aug 79 C4694 David

A trip down the road for me to Morpeth, the newest photo is only about 30 years old. Morpeth USP5000 March 81 C5304 Morpeth ex grain wagons for Alcan traffic Nov 83 C6307 Morpeth 37015 up coal to Blyth and Tyne 18th April 85 C6819 This view is now obscured by trees. Morpeth 56133 shunting 9th April 86 C7454 Morpeth LMS Class 5 44767 Santa Special 18th Dec 94 C19895 Coming into Morpeth from the Blyth and Tyne so it can return to Newcastle on the ECML. David

Last week I showed the early stages of construction of a trio of brass carriage kits, which has moved on a little during the week. One was this Pocket Money Kits S&DJR 6 wheel 4 Compartment Luggage carriage. I soldered up the body and added the sprung buffer housings (MR 13in ones from Wizard Models). I also pressed out the rivet detail on each solebar and folded over the strengthening flange and soldered them to the body along with the stepboard. The kit I bought had no running gear so next task was to assemble the Comet Models etched W irons and add three supporting stretchers across the body to fix them to. But, when I went to test fit the Comet Models W iron assemblies against the body, they wouldn’t fit between the folded-up flanges of each solebar! It was something I hadn’t even considered. So with a file, I carefully began to file a recess in each solebar flange that would allow the W irons and whitemetal axlebox castings to sit. After the first one was about half done, I thought it was going to take a month of Sundays and then some, so I unsoldered the solebars, filed out the necessary material and then soldered them back in; much quicker. There’s now just under 1mm free on each side, I think enough room for them to rock and add the axleboxes. And the right way up, its riding about .5mm too low so I’ll add a bit of packing to the three stretchers I soldered between the sides. The progress on the two LBSC Balloon carriages has also progressed, with the bodies made up and test fitted to their bogies to check clearances. The Driver Third: I think its riding a little too high and I need to think about how I correct that, at this stage I might have to file down the bolster casting. And the Composite: Next will be their underframes and then fitting the roofs. Kind regards, Iain

I'm scanning old family photos at the moment, this one might be of interest for those who have rivers or harbours on their layout. Pride of the Yare on River Trent at Nottingham circa 1950. Jscan23Apr David

I do like a J72. I am currently working on my third one. All three represent locos that have been 'sold out of main line service' to either the NCB or an outrageously improbable light railway. The current J72 on the work bench is, I think, the 'guinea pig' that Iain Rice used to test build his chassis for the loco, as designed for Mainly Trains. Lots more work to do yet, including replacement buffers: Here is my first J72, weathered to represent a loco sold to the NCB and working in an unlikely Somerset colliery at the time it was photographed on 'Engine Wood'. The split chassis eventually gave out and a Perseverance chassis was substituted: The second one was originally a second-hand purchase and was repainted into a dark green to represent one sold to the aforementioned light railway. The split chassis also expired after a few years and I built a Perseverance chassis for it. Here is this unlikely loco, resting in between duties for it's improbable light railway in Mid-Wales:

Another batch from Switzerland, this time taken at Rapperswil where the line from Zürich crosses the Südostbahn line from Arth Goldau to the north east of the country. Rapperswil Südostbahn ABe4/4 14 Pfaffikon to Rapperswil 31st July 88 C9812 Rapperswil RABDe12/12 1118 31st July 88 C9816 Rapperswil Südostbahn Re4/4iii 42 Konstanz Rigi Express 31st July 88 C9824 Rapperswil RABDe8/16 Zurich to Rapperswil 31st July 88 C9826 Rapperswil Südostbahn BDe4/4 85 Rapperswil to Einsiedeln 1st Aug 88 C09965 David

I do have to defend the 60 year old Triang chassis. I am still using them. Coach building is my thing but I do need locomotives to pull them and rtr, as good as they are, struggle with the heavy coaches I make. I still use the indestructible B12 chassis in Wills/SEF Hall, Saint and Star kits- they were designed to take them and with the heavy Wills body, will haul 15 kit builds without slipping. My Gem 56XX is still running on a bushed Triang Jinty chassis 55 years after it was converted by my father. I have also used Comet, Proscale and Perseverance chassis but I can have a Triang chassis running in far less time. of greatest importance - they work, especially if they have new Neodymium magnets and/or received a Scalespeed overhaul. When running I defy anyone to identify which has which chassis (apart from the RG4 whiner). This one has the special Markits axles to fit without using bearings. Mainly trains connecting rods and brake gear. I still have another Wills Saint to build. I was going to use a Comet Hall chassis but recently picked up a Triang B12 with Green wheels with a very clean X04 for £20. I already have the Triang/Romford axles and Neodymium magnet in stock. Mike Wiltshire

Good evening Stephen, Will this do? It's certainly big and (very) ugly, in the form of Thompson A2/2 60504 MONS MEG (Crownline/Wright/Rathbone) hauling a train made by Ken Wilson. Ken and his (real railway) driver mate, Andy Swan, popped down from Newcastle today for one of their twice-yearly visits to operate Little Bytham. They always bring things with them they've made; things of great interest, and today was no exception. Interesting things such as......... This Buffet Car built by Andy. And this scratch-built M&GNR wagon; Andy's work, and a gift! Some of the vehicles made by Ken included............ His BR version of the same Buffet Car. This 12-wheeled Kitchen Car. A steel-panelled Gresley BG. And this suburban pair. Thank you gentlemen, for your tolerance of my operating incompetence, your hospitality at lunchtime, the gift and for your donation to CRUK. I'll leave it up to Ken to describe the models above. Regards, Tony.

Now we have the East shuttle, and a valanced Claud to admire. Unusually this one will start from Platform 6, rather than number one bay. off it goes for its five minute journey.

Another of those trais we see every day of the week now appears, this one being that short parcels train from New England to East, which will spend quite a while in Number 1 bay. Local J6 64177 has the job today, and we have two views of it on the approach to the station. I do like a J6, especially one that has come half way round the world to get here.

Possession train from valley to crewe started by cascading the rear loco from my train to the one behind Back to the pointy end of my train, brake tested and ready to roll and head toward the worksite marker boards The boards were at Ty-Croes where we had to wait for a while before being able to leave The signal box is only a crossing box now, not a block box so the section across Anglesey is from gaerwen to valley We then set off for the possession boards at Bangor and as we were a bit early we had the chance of a quick stop on the Britannia bridge for a pic! Don’t get a chance to get a pic like this every day! Next quick stop was Chester and into basford hall where someone took the train from us and we got away a week of 805 testing to Carlisle then another valley job on Saturday

Gresley's grimy goods tank enters Boleyn Road. J50 68791 was a Hornsey loco for most of its BR life so, in my mind, it is visiting Boleyn Road as it’s been drafted in to work in Goodmayes Yard.

My 009 gauge test diorama from last year.

Something on the Down, at last. This is the SO Hertford North- Scarborough, portions from Hertford and Hitchin, no doubt joined together at the latter. The 1960 Grantham station survey I consult says this was worked by a KX A4, so Silver Link has the job today. I assume that the Branch portion was brought to Hitchin by a suburban tank, and the A4 worked from there. How it got to Hitchin is a matter for surmise, light engine or on an early morning outer suburban from KX seem to be the possibilities.

During the nineteenth century, the expanding railway network helped create a boom in the fishing industry. With fast, reliable services fresh fish was able to be transported by rail across the length and breadth of the UK. As early as the mid-1840s special fish trains were operated by several railway companies using specially built rolling stock. As technology developed faster services were offered with trains operating on the East Coast mainline all the way from Scotland to London. Fish vans on the LNER originally featured a short wheelbase but later developments settled on a larger 15ft wheelbase on the Diagram 214 12t Insul-Fish vans designed by the LNER but built under BR from 1949. These vehicles were designed to operate in passenger trains and featured LNER 8-shoe brake gear and steam heat pipes. British Railways continued to build a variation of these vans – Diagram 800. These were built with standard oil axleboxes but some were later upgraded to roller bearings in later life. The final diagram of fish van built by British Railways was the 1/801 diagram. Like the 1/800 this featured a 15ft wheelbase and 21’8” body. Roller bearings were used from new and allowed the wagons to travel at speeds of 60mph. As they were roller-bearing fitted, they gained the ‘Blue Spot’ designation on the bodysides. This design however featured several differences on the body, most notably the diagonal end bracing and around the side doors along with the adoption of the BR clasp brake system. Three batches of vans were built between 1960 and 1961 with a total of 558 vans being produced. With the decline in fish traffic services ceased in 1968. Many vans were transferred to Parcels Traffic (coded NRV and later SPV) and sported BR rail blue livery with ‘double arrow’ logo. Other vans found use in Engineers use, barrier vehicle use and even as support vehicles for breakdown cranes carrying a number of different liveries. This resulted in vans being seen all across the network. A small number of Diagram 1/801 vans have survived into preservation at locations such as the Swanage, Great Central and Bluebell railways. This model will be the first Diagram 1/801 van ever produced in OO gauge ready-to-run. The model features the usual wealth of detail alongside many separately fitted parts including steps on the engineers versions, and two different types of buffers as seen on the prototypes. Separate label boards will also be provided for modellers to fit as required. Metal bearings will aid super smooth running enabling prototypically long trains to run with ease. Browse the full range on our website

Good moaning from a still rather cool Charente, where the dawn chorus is in full swing. Our friends came for lunch yesterday. We haven't seen them for several years but Mathew's sister now lives near Cognac, so they came up from there to see us. In the evening a good friend made us dinner. As we ate we watched a bright orange moon rise, it looked great. Today is hospital admission day for Beth. We are setting off later this morning to have lunch in Angouleme then will head for the hospital. I will probably stay and watch trains for a few hours before heading home. Her op is some time Thursday. Regards to all. Jamie

Midland class M coming off shed crossing into the yard. This loco is over 60 years old. I scratch built it to show a work colleague that loco building was not particularly difficult. We built one each in tandem to EM gauge. mine was painted and lined by my friend Larry Goddard, his was still in its raw state when he died a few years ago Spot of shunting.

On we go towards Skegness. Weather forecast is 57f, wind NE 20mph, light drizzle, and don't even think about the sea temperature. and hope Mrs McStingy, the landlady, doesn't live up to her name. Are we nearly there yet?

And in the distance we spy some Panniers, quick shot from the Squadron Leader as he flew past the other day...

Many a time I have been asked for the latest layout plan for Little Muddle and at last I finished my version of it. So now you'll have some idea where everything fits in.. EDIT Point added???

And back to... Just a Pannier Pulling some coaches... Into town.

Earlier you were talking about Fairburn tanks Tony. The DJH O gauge Fairburn is a nice kit, but riddled with errors I'm afraid. Principally, the cyclinder in the kit are too small and the slide bar bracket is too far back making the slidebars ridiculously long. I built mine with modified 80000 tank cylinders and valve gear and added extra castings ( principally for the Ivatt ) from the Laurie Griffin range to improve it, including a cast rear bogie to replace the 'tea tray' as well as a cast front pony truck.

Good morning, The absolute minimum radius this big engine will negotiate is 3'. The rear frames are fixed to the main chassis. With a swivelling inner truck carrying the pony wheels (there is precious little side-to-side movement, but enough for 3'). Anything less, then it's a ghastly RTR-style whole-swivelling unit or flangeless pony wheels (the later pair of Ivatt 'Princess Coronations', with the 'Delta' truck beneath the cab is better in this respect). This 'Semi' was travelling so fast on Little Bytham that this was the best I could do to 'freeze' it! The weight of Geoff Haynes' lovely painting obviously slowed it down a bit.............. Regards, Tony.

After 3 weeks away over Easter, I'm back on tracklaying at the southern end. Lines left to right: Normanton Up & Down Doncaster Up and Down Leeds up and Down, which almost immediately join the Doncaster lines - not enough room to carry both through Line into the south shed, which will be a 2 road representation Leeds goods up and down. These join the southbound main lines just round the corner. Looking norh. The left hand pair, Leeds down and up goods will branch off into a much, much diminished representation of Branches yard. progressing .... Giles

The 9.25 is not ready to go yet, so the WD is allowed through and back to the Up. We have a manon the bridge to record that. and there is another one at ground level near the signal box. I've just checked the WTT to see what the margin was for the 9.25, as even that would surely take precedence over a Class H. Much to my surprise, I found that it stopped at Abbots Ripton, which was being run down for closure, before it got to Huntingdon, so there was time to get the WD into a loop without inconvenience to passengers

Every now and then I try and get organised. It’s not something I’m good at but I try! Monday evenings is club night and we sit at our respective benches whittling away on something and nattering. These sessions are perfect for those dull, repetitive jobs that you can almost do on autopilot which would otherwise be put off in favour of something more interesting - like building wagons. Over the last few Mondays I’ve been doing a marathon build of over a hundred DG couplings in the hope that I could fit couplings to all the stock waiting with a few to spare. This evening I went through the stock boxes in the workshop to see how many vehicles were actually waiting for couplings. Turns out there are 117 wagons and NPCS items in the queue. I’m not sure if I’m depressed at having only about half the couplings I need or impressed at how much I’ve built in the last couple of years!! Going to have a bath and a whisky and think about it! Jerry

Enough about pigs, here's a couple of Panniers to start your day off with a smile....?

Roy Cross, whose incredible artwork adorned the lids of many, many Airfix model kits, celebrates his 100th birthday today, the 23rd of April. A man whose art was responsible for so many of us parting with our hard earned pocket money as we scoured the model shop for a kit that took our fancy! Happy 100th birthday, and thanks for the brilliant childhood memories Mr. Cross!