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Talking of back streets here's the back of the engine shed!!

Morning folks, We'll just leave this here... 🤭 Make sure you pop by, to see our (almost, we have amended the headcode font and fit) final production sample on the stand. A full update will follow in the coming days. 😎 https://www.accurascale.com/collections/brush-type-2-class-30-31 Cheers! Fran

Hi folks, One more teaser before I head to the airport and head to Brum. Full update and lots more pics later next week! Cheers! Fran

Another look at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway at Embsay with photos from 1972, 1975 and 1984. They are a bit late today as I have just heard that a friend in Canada has died unexpectedly. Embsay Barclay Aug 72 C1059 Embsay Hudswell Clarke Nellie Aug 72 J3028 Embsay Sentinel British Tar Co and Peckett Aug 72 J3030 Embsay Peckett Foleshill and Sentinel Ann and Hudswell Clarke Slugh Estates 5 Mar 75 J4205 Embsay 6th Aug 84 C6596 David

Another scene from Glanfa Fach with 'Merrdin Emrys', 'Elidir' and Standard 4 No. 80098 all awaiting their next duty.

Attention switches back to the Up, as another A1 approaches. It is another Copley Hill engine too, Kittiwake this time, bringing in an Up Leeds, which will stop here for five minutes.

Good moaning from the cool Charente. Hospital was visited yesterday and Beth has come through the op. But was in a lot of pain. I had to get a tad assertive to sort that out but some extra pain relief did arrive. The usual hospital problem arose. Due to her overall condition she is already on a cocktail of painkillers and staff don't believe that she needs extra on top of that. Hopefully things will improve. Today I'm off shopping. We have three medium sized Intermarche's alabout 1miles away then two much larger Leclercs0land a big Intermarche 2miles away. Online shopping does exist but is not hugely used. We do patronise the local market and have a fruit and veg van that calls round every fortnight. Much to do so Ttfn. Jamie

Evening everyone. I always said I would keep the thread updated with news of any published material planned regarding the layout. I'm really excited to say, that I have been asked by BRM to write an article on the layout (all 40+ft of it) which is planned to be published in the autumn.

Something went wrong with my post above as it didn't include my text or the photo hopefully now attached. I write to fly the flag for Swiss model loco builders. The loco below is from G.B. Modell, which is essentially a one man show. Appropriately for a Swiss rather than German outfit he makes only smaller loco models but they are good, don't you think? They cost a bit less than Micro Metakit examples& so I have bought a few. William

gosh, Where to begin with this one… If your wanting a box opening video online you better get a cup of tea first…. (Actually my little secret ive had my three since April 11th, ive just been on the road quite a lot so ive not had chance write this up, but the pictures were taken over the last 2 weeks, tonight I’m finally able to sit down at home and do it). The way they are delivered.. 1. wrapped in brown paper 2. in a cardboard box 3. in a white foam layer 4. wrapped in tissue 5. enclosed in a tin 6 inside a layer of black foam 7. inside a plastic display cradle 8. You find your engine…. Well its Brilliant, lets get that out of the way. The detail and paint finish are superb. Both bufferbeams are fully decorated. The model has oodles of separate parts.. starting with the bogies, the wheels holes are picked up, separate pipes, sand boxes, steps on the bogies. Not attention to both the orange and blue separately painted under body pipes.. The grills are much improved on the original class 24. door width and handles are much better than the recent Heljan offering. The roof panels, separate parts are picked out and painted individually Curved roof grills nicely picked out engine room detail visible…with relief, for the walk space. It definitely looks like a 25… It weighs in at 487g… thats not bad for a little type 2. To get inside…. This was quite tough, indeed very tough. First thought, unclip the body, no budge, no give. i noticed the buffers had screws, so I tried this, they come off… (this would be nice if Hattons 66/style there was a second set without the detailing fitted, somI could fit with the coupling, without having to remove the detailing)… Still no movement. Dont unscrew the second pair at your peril, thats the coupling cam box and that spring aint ever going back on. Theres nothing to hold on to.. not the tank its coming off, not the buffers they are coming off, not the bogie that tower you really dont want off. Now in the box is a load of gumpf… but whats not in there is a manual…. Not in any of my three 25’s. theres a nice notepad, but blank pages wont help me get the body off. the URL is here… https://sulzertype2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Class24manualV1-3.pdf It suggests the body is just clip fit, but its just not having it. After losing 2 buffers, the tank risking looking loose and the underframe detail coming loose I am on the verge of giving up… the last model stuck like this was the Heljan PWM… and a-ha… Although I had 4 hotel keys in the 4 body retainers it simply wasnt having it… so I squeezed the hotel keys and hey presto the body unseated itself and came off. (Now note last time I tried that was Hattons 66’s and the grills would start popping off, but here we are ok)… but it revealed the issue…. The under body detail is a separate piece, on each side, it is glued to the body.. not the chassis and just a bit seeped between body and chassis gluing them together under the cab doors. so now I am in… The chassis is everything you would expect, JSTs holding it together, its laid out like the Heljan style boards with cab lights at the ends, motor wires in the centre. Two sugar cube boxes for speakers. Nice view of the cab interior details. Trying to remove the jsts is at your own risk, I noted they are very tightly fitted, and the female adaptors soldered to the board are not strong, it would be imo quite easy for these to come off causing an additional job (like on the recent 37 nose boards).. however lifting the board reveals a nice surprise on the motor… Never seen a personalized motor label before for a rtr model. looks like a smaller compact motor than used in several other models, but its nice to see the spec on their… How does it perform… 0.05amp start up makes it a little higher than average but its a very smooth start. it maxes out at 0.16amp, pretty average but with a nice turn of speed, this motor is definitely right for the job. Whilst inside a quick look at the cab interior details… Yes the buffer was added back later. So I cannot pose it next to a Heljan 25, as my one and only is lost in the pile, but heres an idea what were dealing with.. what stands out is the drivers cab rivets are much refined, the under frame detail, more refined, greater buffer detail, the engraving out outlines of the grills, vents and panels are more refined. It quite simply looks sharper. The interior detail is more pronouned both cab and engine room. Finally the cab doors again the glass seals look more refined as does the handrails. Old Bachmann and New Heljan… and the SLW 25.. Which leds me to lights… cab lights is nice, but the light bleed around the headcodes is a bit obvious.. The cab lights are unswitched, so engine room, cab and headcode are one LED, and always on going forwards on DC, unless you unplug it. One interesting note is the LED is whiter in the Cab for the blue, and yellower for the green… Overall thrilled with the loco, the packaging. What could be improved: 1. the light bleed around the headcode 2. instruction manual being included 3. separate buffer beam for those wanting to add a coupling. 4. some would want working fans. otherwise this is a top shelf model, Ive not had anything like this for a while and it does deserve the accolades and attention its been getting..

Many thanks for all the good wishes for my birthday yesterday. I was royally treated by Jill who chauffered me all day (I’m not supposed to drive for another 3 weeks) after a bacon butty and coffee in bed then taken to a rather nice place for lunch with some friends. This was a prolonged affair featuring cake and champagne and just in case I need more there will be a repeat performance this evening with more friends. This, of course, is doing little for the current aim of reducing the amount of DH that is in evidence but I feel that it would be churlish not to take full part in such things. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day. Dave

Thanks Bill, yes I went yesterday afternoon. Nearly 6 hours in theatre and in a lot of pain. However it seems to have gone OK. I sorted out a couple of things for her re her meds, I'm going again today. Hopefully things wilbe settling down. Jamiel

Johnny sat cross pawed at the top of the stairs! The radiator pipe goes right under where he’s sat

Thanks Flavio. The main problem seems to be that the Anaesthetist that we saw 3 weeks ago who was good, wasn't the one who did the job on Thursday. He actually accused Beth of lying about her pain levels post op. It has taken several years to balance her current cocktail of pain meds and it was agreed that they would all continue unchanged. With top up post up as needed. This has not ha and thi gs have been substituted. We had the same problem in the UK and I nearly hit someone on one occasion. Not recommended. It took them three hours to bring her morning insulin today, after breakfast and physio had to be postponed due to high blood sugar. Thi gs seem to be calm g down but I will try not to wall anyone up this afternoon. Jamie

We are very much looking forward to attending Model World Live and excited to show the latest painted samples of our forthcoming Class 60. If you are attending the show, this weekend please visit our stand, A30, for the latest updates on all of our projects and chat about model railways and modelling. Regards Cav

Supermarkets - ah. Co-op and Shoprite (will soon be a small Tesco) in the Bright Lights of Royal Ramsey 5 miles away, then 24 miles to the Big City of Douglas for a Tesco, M&S and another smaller Tesco, or All the Way West to Peel for another small Was-a-Shoprite-now-a-Tesco, 24 miles again. That's your lot, one way mileages.

Morning, from a chilly but bright rock, 4c early doors, 6 now. Old Farts bike club will occur. There's rumblings from across the room about a job move, back to Railways - but exactly what is on offer isn't clear as yet. Sideways grade wise, but working directly for the head of motive power..... 😃 ....which would have certain advantages. #cough# May not happen, as I said it is not yet clear what the detail would be. Location is important to her. ION, weight loss continues, despite not being particularly careful this week, I'm now 'lighter' #cough again - relative term# than I have been for 30 years.

Tescos 4 miles, Sainsbury and lidl 10 miles , All the others 20 miles+, That's one way.. Mooring Awl, 5.5 hours broken sleep, 1 hour solid sleep. Temporary server problems again. Spent the awake time thinking of a display case I've been asked to make for the radar museum, https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/ it's quite small, only 6 inches square but has to be a weird shape as it has an electronic ultrasonic radar simulation in it. So there has to be two openings for the controls and the sensors. They also want to be able to be screwed down so it doesn't walk. Time got ready and got some bits from the muddling room.

Maybe why that's why the store is deserted - cr@p service?

Good morning all, Greyish start but the sun has been trying to break through. However a mainly overcast and wet day is forecast. 4°C now and it might reach 13°C. Stacks of supermarkets within a couple of miles around here. Rather surprised at the claims by Sainsbury's that everybody's going back to instore shopping but they must have the figures to support it. Our local store seems positively deserted compared to pre pandemic levels of shoppers. (Hardly any staff either now) They've changed to mainly self service checkouts so the manned checkouts have reduced from 24 to 4 -6 depending on day of the week The latter don't even open until 9.00 Monday to Thursday. On one of our rare visits on a Tuesday at 08.30 when we discovered this I told the manager that we'd leave our shopping if that was the case and he got somebody to open a checkout for us. Maybe it's an age thing but I can't stand the self service tills and will not use them which is why we're avoiding stores as much as possible and getting most stuff online now. Seems to be the case with quite a few of our neighbours too as there is a daily procession of vans from Sainsbury, Tesco, Ocado, Waitrose and Asda around here. For odds and ends or if we run out of anything we walk up to the little local and very customer friendly Asda. The Boss is still feeling a bit carp and her arm is quite painful after the jab. Weird how she's affected like that whilst I'm totally OK. Stewart mentioned increased prices for Broadband and phone etc. Same here so I've decided to reduce some TV services which are not used and change from BT to EE. Hope I don't live to regret it but already they've only sent one mobile Sim card for Herself and not one for me although they claim it's been dispatched....so why the hell didn't they send the two together. Plenty of other prices gone up and income tax too so a large hole will be made in our increased pensions but at least the latter have all gone up and should cover everything OK....he said hopefully. Time to take some tea * to Herself so farewell for now. Have a good one, Bob. *Too late, she's on the way down saying "Where's my tea!"

Today is not going as planned but it can't be helped. I was awake for 2 hours in the night so didn't hurry this morning. One of my fingers seems to have seized up, just arthritis, it usually does it whe the weather is going to change. It has been geiven a coating of pain relieveing gel which is helping. After breakfast I looked at my e mails and realised I had one from a name which was not very familiar. It turned out to be from a friend's daughter who lives in Austria to let me know that her father who lived in Canada died suddenly a few days ago. He was about 10 years older than me and seems to have had a heart attack. Our families have known each other for at least three generations though when Allan went to Canada to settle and marry there we only kept in touch by mail and later e mail and I've never met his daughters. I've sent a note to one of my cousins as I think she knew him as both his and her fathers were GPs in the same practice. If she does remember him I think she will contact her siblings, if not I will in due course. I expect to scan more photos today, the next batch appear to be things powered by steam and travelling long distances, sometimes at high speed. I think I already have scans of some of them but will do them all just in case. David

We buy meat from the farmer or on occasion a butcher, fruit and veg from the fruit and veg shop or farmers market, bread from the village cafe or the town bakers, non perishables from the supermarkets. During the summer fruit and veg comes from the garden, potatoes are delivered by the coal man..................(who is a farmer who also diversifies).

Shopping I will use direct scanning for shopping - I only handle twice, once into the bag and once at home putting away - rather then quadruple handling (out of basket, through checkout and into bag as extra. I use the store scanners - not my phone. The phone is for a list, and switching between that and a scanner app is not for me. I go to the supermarket - it will get me out of the house at least once week once I retire. I also like to see what I;mn getting in the fresh and allows me to make a physical choice. I also use the visit to fill up with fuel. I will use delivery services when I become too infirm to do the physical shop.

Yep and also depends on the manager and the example he sets. Current one OKish I suppose as he did respond to my complaint. The one before him was a scruffy individual (dirty shoes, shirt tail hanging out, tie askew) who, if he was seen on the shopfloor was invariably on his phone and avoided eye contact with anyone. The one before him (The Boss's old boss) was always immaculate and could always be seen and interacted with customers all the time. He also made a point of going round the store talking to all his staff every morning and had a really good team. Sadly most of them are no longer there. When he left the rot started to set in and I suppose the pandemic didn't help either.

I had a quiet ANZAC day, and the weather today is as good as it was yesterday so like most of the place I'm taking today off too. Not a cloud in the sky and 22 forecast, although last nights 8 degrees was chilly. In footage to bring a tear of appreciation to the eye of @Gwiwer, Collingwoods Jamie Elliot took the Mark Of The Year So Far in yesterdays ANZAC Day match. When you catch the ball from a kick its a Mark, when its a spectacular mark it becomes a "Skeccy". This is one of the best Speccies for a long time!

You have to be careful about analgesic cocktails as liver, kidneys and gut are all affected by such drugs and any existing known (or hitherto unknown) vulnerabilities in these organs could be amplified or affected. Perhaps a better approach to pain management could be changing the doses of each of the individual drugs in the existing cocktail of analgesics rather than adding yet another on top of the existing mixture. As an example of some the side effects of analgesics: now, opiates are very useful drugs indeed - but amongst the side effects of opiate use can be severe constipation. I when I say severe, I mean severe to the point that faeces have to be disimpacted (manually removed) before something like an enema or a stool softener can do its job. Changing the administration timings of the individual drugs may also provide better pain relief.

Good Morning All, A belated HB to our tame Air Commodore @Dave Hunt. I hope the usual fighter-jock “wild and crazy” birthday bash shenanigans were a bit tamer this year - allowing our boy in blue to continue to recover from his surgery (he has a sick note and all). Thanks to @jjb1970 for mentioning Eva Air - I remember them, are they still going? Anyway, before I book my flights I have to get a new passport as my current passport will expire right in the middle of my trip and airlines get MOST unhappy about changes in documentation (even when completely legit). Off to view the penthouse flat this morning - with a long list of things to note/measure/photograph. We also need to make a list of the changes we will make before we move in (the place is currently empty). New curtains are a must, as well as upgrading kitchen equipment and shower installations. I also reckon I need to get an embroidered dressing gown and silk pyjamas (and a buxom mistress) for that whole Bob Guccione/Penthouse Pet/retro 70s man-about-town penthouse dweller vibe 🤣😁 Then back to work. The “bright young thing” (who is moving on to “other things”) has not been either meticulous or thorough. To be fair, this youngster doesn’t have the decades of experience that I have, but even when I was a “bright young thing” (back at the dawn of time) I was never less than meticulous. Although - professionally - it irks me that this BYT was so lax, financially the tidying up and moving forward will be a fiscal boon (and we all need a good boon now and then). Off to do Lucy’s breakfast (stir fried chicken and rice - lucky girl) Ciao for Now iD

Good evening everyone The weather has been very mixed here today, changing from rain to sunshine several times, so I spent the day in the workshop, continuing work on the small industrial locomotive. Today I completed the cylinders, the coupling rods, the connecting rods and connected both connecting rods to the respective piston rod. The cylinders have also been fixed to the chassis. However, from here on, things became a bit more difficult. The crank pins on the 4 supplied wheels are the same length, and aren’t long enough for both the coupling rod and connecting rod. This isn’t a problem with the front pair, but I’ve had to modify the rear pins. I started by cutting off the pin close to the wheel spokes, then I filed the remains of the stub flat, marked the centre and then drilled a 1.1mm hole down the centre, before removing the stub and soldering a slightly longer 1mm brass pin in the hole to replace the original. These were then reinserted back into the wheel from the rear and fixed with superglue. At this point, I decided to call it a day, so I’ll have to check all is well next time I go to the workshop.

Ooops, sorry Dave, @Dave Hunt missed your birthday so belated greetings from me. A brief walk via Asda has been undertaken, not even a mile today. This is due to multiple complaints from The Hip and The Boss so I gave in. Regrettably most of the "proper" shops have disappeared from around here so most of our shopping is from supermarkets. We've still got a little baker but I avoid going in there as the cakes especially those with cream in are too tempting and too big! Nearest decent greengrocer is a couple of miles away as was a really good butcher but the latter closed last year. Another opened shortly afterwards but that didn't last long! We seem to be surrounded by supermarkets, convenience stores, fast food outlets, barbers and lady's hairdressers, charity shops and empty shops.

Is that a secret RAF code for naughty indoor shenanigans? Like ‘Allo, ‘Allo’s “flying helmet and stick of celery”?

G'morning all. What a wet day. Outside. I have no plans to immerse myself in sky-wee without very good cause. Shopping. Habits have changed as our situation has changed. In London we were beyond comfortable walking distance of the nearest supermarket though there were numerous "corner shops" and a selection of miniature versions of the big chains slightly closer. We could never get all we wanted in one place. Before we had personal mobility I sometimes took the train to Kingston or North Sheen where there are large supermarkets close to those stations; we of course lived adjacent to the station Upon the Hill of Strawberries. Once we had the Little Red Driving Box I used that to do Tesco runs to the Ivybridge superstore. In the midst of all that along came the Wuhan Woohaa; we were already using Ocado anyway and we relied heavily on deliveries through and after the pandemic. We now live in a modest town of 4500 people, perhaps 5000 in summer. The local Co-op is well-stocked and what we occasionally can\t get there we can get over the road in an old-style general store which has adopted modern trends. They offer cleaning products in "bring-your-own-bottle" refills, all of the non-dairy milk alternatives and non-chemical pest repellants among a surprising selection of herbs, spices and "free-from" foods. So we are pretty well catered for with a two-minute walk to the shops. I do sometimes use Sainsbury's near Penzance if I really want a wide choice; dropping Dr. SWMBO to and from the train on Mondays and Thursdays and passing through to and from MRC on Wednesdays means there is not really any extra fuel being burned for such trips. We are also blessed with a traditional butcher and a baker in town, a farmer's market and a community farm (who have a stall at the market) all of which we support so the eggs come from fields around the town, bread is baked locally and some of the meat is also "grown" over the road from us. Low food miles. And no need for delivery vans. We do see a few of those but not daily and nowhere near the number which line London's streets.

We tend to buy meat, fish and some fruit and vegetables from market traders on a Wednesday and Saturday and bread, cakes and pastries as well as cheese from a local delicatessen. Milk is delivered in glass bottles to our doorstep three times a week. Other things are mainly bought from a supermarket but we don’t use delivery services because we prefer to see what we are buying, want to reduce the amount of single use plastic we use and to help preserve the existence of real shops. Dave

And to give a real life example of what can go wrong, my father died as a result of pain killers dispensed by a GP for gout. The dose/type destroyed his kidneys and he was given 2 years to live, he managed four years (without dialysis treatment) and then succumbed. It wasn't the only medicine he was on, he had all sorts due to TIAs, so probably the painkiller was the one extra thing his body did not want.

Good morning everyone Well, what a change in the weather from yesterday, bright and sunny this morning. I prefer to go to the supermarket myself, Sainsbury’s because it’s less than a mile away and M&S because they have what I can’t get from Sainsbury’s. I by my meat from the butchers, which is where I’m off to in a few minutes. ION, 45 years ago today I became a father for the first time, we’ve just got off the phone to Vickie, who unfortunately isn’t feeling too well at the moment, so we’ll miss actually seeing her today, as she doesn’t want to pass on her lurgie. Back later n Brian

Good morning Captain, I, too, have arranged the drive on the middle axle, using a big Portescap................. The lower firebox sections were made from brass sheet, cut to shape and soldered to the inside top of the frames. One other thing I noticed was that with the new chassis, there was no representation of the bottom of the boiler. As luck would have it, I'd just acquired some dud Hornby A3 bits, so I used a section of one of the boilers from those. Though flat at the bottom, the effect works. I've added plenty of lead ballast, too. I know the Portescap will be visible between the boiler and the frames, but there'll be plenty of 'stuff' in the way when the loco is complete to mitigate this. And, from most viewing angles it won't be seen (a poor excuse, perhaps). The thing is, this already works superbly! Regards, Tony.

Bear here..... ....who went to zeddyland with the full intention of goin' piddlin' in the pool this morning..... Could've, would've, should've.....didn't...... I made an Executive Decision and decided that "other tasks" could justify wimping out and doing them instead. So I did. These tasks? Well there's the washing to do, hopefully two exhaust pipes to saw in half 😱, There's Beary Will paperwork still to complete, a delivery is expected, din dins to cook...... ION...... VHBBW's to @Dave Hunt (if a little late on "condition"....) ; also BBW's to our fellow ER'er and Mascot Ben - who we all hope will be fine. Right, time to wiggle the Bearyfurryarse..... BG.....

A belated happy birthday to Dave Hunt! I'm back off to Singapore today, it's been nice to visit Brussels and enjoy Belgian food (I love filet americain, the local version of steak tatare) and some cool fresh weather but equally I'll be happy to head back East.

Singapore AL are much more competitive for overseas users, it seems to be quite common that airlines work a lot harder to entice overseas. My son once managed to go on their UK site using a VPN and found fares half what they were offering on their local website but they have very good VPN detection and he was kicked off and redirected to the Singapore site within about a minute. The European airlines often offer cheaper fares to users in other European countries than local customers. Ditto to destinations other than local ones. For example, it's often much cheaper to fly Luftahsa Singapore - UK than Singapore - Germany, ditto with KLM, AF, BA et al for destinations other than their local points of arival. The RoC airlines (China AL, Eva Air and Starlux) are superb, among the best. You won't go wrong with business class on any of them. China AL have one of my favourite liveries.

Thank you Tony for your kind comments. Both Andy and myself throughly enjoyed our visit, and the privilege of being able to operate your great layout. It was fine, just a few small errors, not really operating incompetence on your part, and after all, you were doing two jobs, the fiddle yard and main panel, while also talking with us at the same time. There's a bit of a story to the Buffet car conversions. I'd built an Isinglass D27 Open Third / Diner kit which I'd got when these first appeared, then, needing more Tourist Open Thirds, which wernt then available, got a second kit intending do a conversion. Then, following a request, Andy Edgson at Isinglass made a TTO kit available (closely followed by the long awaited re-introduction of ex-Kirk kits). So, what to do now with the extra D27? Well, I'd read in 'LNER Carriages' that one D27 TO was converted to a Buffet in 1933 when the LNER were experimenting with the concept. Then a diagram was found on Steve Banks' website which showed the necessary changes, panelling in 3½ windows and new interior layout. So, the resulting model of a one-off vehicle. My mate Andy, liking my model, then did a similar conversion himself, using a Kirk Open Third, and in his usual impressive rendition of LNER teak, so now two versions of a unique vehicle, lol. The 12-wheeled full kitchen, another unusual vehicle, though there were three of these, which were converted mid-30s from redundant ex-GNR Composite Restaurant Cars. Again, from an Isinglass kit, but this time as intended. The steel-panelled BG also has a bit of a story. A Kirk kit, it's sides were donated to make the correct pattern brake compartment of a BT-CL Twin set l was converting from Kirk kits (5 in total). The BG kit was resurrected with a pair of Comet brass sides for the steel-panelled version, which l happened to have! Partly visible behind it, yes just the old Bachmann Thompson SK, but as can just be seen, running on 'Fox' bogies (Isinglass) which, from a photo I've seen, bear very close resemblance to the 'Metro' bogies fitted to the first batch of these. It's original bogies were donated to the Buffet car above. The pair of Gresley suburban CLs. The right hand one's a Hornby model of a standard D50 teak panelled coach. On the left, a steel panelled version, again from an Isinglass kit. Note the coupling between them, screw coupling, and with the brake pipes connected! As nicely detailed as modern models are, as a (now former) Driver it's something of an anathema to see a passenger train running with the vacuum pipes neatly stowed on their dummy plugs, particularly on non-corridor stock where its very visible. It is, of course, a bit of a cheat, as shown here... It's all on one coach end, the screw couplings soldered rigid, and it's tommy-bar acts as the hook over the goalpost wire on the next vehicle I've heard that as rebuilt those engines 'couldn't do', at least what they were intended for, hence their rapid banishment south of the Border. Thank you, yes that 12- wheeler full kitchen does make for an impressive and unusual model. As a 65 footer, l knickname it the beast. Although of course, in its original GNR splendour, it would be a RC. A kit for the original version's also available. PS, the usual disclaimer, no connection with Isinglass other than a satisfied customer

A short run back to oxley tonight Former Scottish observation 101 saloon sat at the back of LSL sidings next to the horse landing 197 Into Wolverhampton for a change ends and done mixed bag next week, possessions to and from valley again Saturday and Sunday, something I don’t know on Monday then 805s to Holyhead Wednesday /Thursday and something intermodaly on Friday by the looks of it

Ocado always rang us as described. "Is it OK to deliver early?" or "Really sorry but I am running about XX minutes late; will that still be OK?" They know how far they are behind schedule so they can be pretty accurate in offering an ETA. We only had two really late deliveries. One was due to a van breakdown which delayed our delivery by around two hours but again they kept us fully informed and assured us that all chilled and frozen foods were protected and it was the van, not its chiller, which had broken down. The other was following a fire at their Erith depot which disrupted everyone's deliveries for a couple of days. This time it was Customer Services (based in Hatfield, I believe) who called offering their profound apologies and advising that our order was not yet on the road. A couple of hours later and they called back saying it was on the road but might not reach us until after midnight. That was OK with me. It was very OK with me that they then waived the entire cost of that order as compensation for the inconvenience. They were about five hours late that night.

Stonehinge.......

Bear here..... Missions "ongoing" - which has FINALLY included writing out a new info strip to go inside my SOS Talisman Bracelet; I checked the Passport Number written on the existing strip and discovered it was for the old Passport.....and the current Passport expires next year..... Right, the Washing Machine is bleeping at Bear so it looks like I've got some "stuff" to hang out. Bear gone.

Morning All! I've been jabbed, all seems well at the moment. The nurse queried me and said "I looked a bit young for it". I then explained some of the medication I'm on and my medical history and she said "Yes, that'll do it!". I'm off for a run over to Woburn on the RD in a short while. The sun is out, the sky is blue and there's a coffee with my name on it that will be waiting to be drunk. On my return I'll be firing up the Myford again. I've got a friends Smiths Chronometric Speedo to test and whilst I already had a gadget for running them up that I made some years ago it's a bit Heath Robinson so I thought I'd make a better job of it. I've been turning up the drive shaft and flywheel, the next things to make are the bearing housing and a mounting plate for a little (model aircraft) brushless motor that does the work of the speedo cable. I might go the whole hog and build a little Arduino controller for it or I might rely on an old servo tester and use my oscilloscope to determine true speed. We'll see! Right, I'm off now. TTFN

Good point, that's what we've done!

Some black and white photos taken around Trent on the Midland for this afternoon. Trent 2P 40458 up pass c1950 JVol7309 Trent 4F 43850 down coal photo taken from train c1951 JVol2262 South ofTrent crossing bridge over River Trent LMS Garratt c1949 JVol1028 Trent Fairburn 4MTT 42184 up pass c1950 JVol7311 Trent Lane Junction East Midlands Gas Board shunter c1950 JVol7335 David

And here is a repeat of this mornings picture but in monochrome to help those that still only have a black and white monitor!

Hi Renbow, That sounds excellent, and indeed the Hornby Class 60 cab is also excellent and will be difficult to beat. As we go for lit cab dials we cannot print onto GPPS that small in such great detail required for cab dials , so we leave them clear. The handles are measured and to scale as per a real 31 (no stone left unturned etc). Perhaps this angle is a tad more sympathetic, but with the latest models we are really pushing the possibilities of injection moulding for parts size, assembly and finesse. Appreciate the feedback and glad you like it. Cheers! Fran

Must admit I've never used this remote-control shopping malarky. There's a Sainsbugs, a MegaTesco, an Asda, an M&S foodhall,, Local Tescos, Aldis and Lidls within a couple of miles and a Morrisons, another large Tescos, another M&S foodhall and another Asda within 5 miles radius. We're rather overserved by local supermarkets! I forgot, there's two more Aldi stores in the 5 mile zone, but one of the 2 mile zone Aldis has gone offline for refurbishment/enlargement...