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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Church Lane crossing on the Great Eastern just to the north east of Ingatestone on the way to Chelmsford. The first 4 photos are Dad's, he and Mum must have been spending a weekend with me. In the 70s when I ived in Essex it was a very pleasant spot to spend part of a Saturday taking photos. Church Lane Crossing 309608 Clacton to Liverpool St Apr 75 J4262 Church Lane Crossing 306019 down Apr 75 J4264 Church Lane Crossing Class 37 down Apr 75 J4265 Church Lane Crossing Class 47 Norwich to Liverpol St Apr 75 J4266 Church Lane crosing Class 309 Clacton to Liverpool St 5th May 80 C5053

A country scene for you but without the odour!

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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.

The start of another day in the back streets of Little Muddle.....

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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..

Stonehinge.......

Following the work on the wheels and couplings I painted the insides of the new Rapido PO wagons with Revell matt black and tested them in the coal empties train. All was well so I toned down the outsides and underframes using Vallejo black wash, applied in downward strokes with a flat brush. In one or two places where the white lettering resisted the wash I added a little Humbrol black weathering powder. Ah, that's better. John C.

The formation of the 8.00 Leeds/Bradford. Mk1s to start with.BSO CK. MK1 SK, two compartments reserved for passengers joining at Hitchin, who back then would almost certainly those compartments empty, whereas now they would be full of sullen looking interlopers, who would refuse to move. Then an all door Gresley SK. Another all door SK and a BSK, these two and the previous SK to be secured by KX. FO and RK, the latter one of the few to be seen in 1958. These came off the previous days 1145 Up Leeds. Now the Bradford portion. CK, again one compartment reserved for those joining at Hithchin, and a BG. Finally, MK1 TSO. For some reason on Bradford portions these were often placed outside the brake vehicle. Bonus J6 as well.

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.

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

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

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

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

So why is the WD on the slow? Well, 60505 has sneaked in to our only Up platform witht he stock for the 9.25 stopper to KX.

62613 is now approaching CVrescent Junction, and will take the chord down to East. and we have a WD creeping along the Up slow with a Class H mixed goods bound for Hatfield.

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

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!

I've just completed the latest pair in my series on 'budget modelling' for BRM. I picked this up from the Grantham Model Shop after rummaging through the 'dud' drawers. This Bachmann B1 was a bit dusty, and the split-chassis mechanism was in a bit of a mess! The centre drivers had slipped on their axle, effectively locking everything up solid - a not-unknown state of affairs. The previous owner's weathering of the motion with scale 'mud' didn't help, either. There was no tender. 'How much, please?'. 'A fiver!''. 'Done'. On investigation, I released the wheels, twisted them back into quarter and pushed them back into their muffs, with a bead of superglue applied. I was amazed; it ran really sweetly! I've never seen an original split-chassis B1 run so well. So, worth taking it a bit further? But, not as a St. Margaret's-allocated B1. How about this one? One day, I'll appear in a steam-age picture standing on Retford's Up platform. Fortunately, thanks to readers' generosities of late, I had a spare Bachmann B1 tender. Thus............... With a change of identity, some detailing, the mud removed from the motion (new weathering applied), a crew on board and lamps fitted, I was astonished how well this previously-wretched runner bowled round Bytham. Not bad for a fiver............ Will I keep it? I'm not sure, though if I do I'll make a Comet set of frames for it. As I did................. With this other Bachmann B1; detailed and weathered body by Geoff West. What next? This old Tri-ang Jinty was even less - just four quid (it might have been a fiver had it still got all its steps). No buffers, a replacement step required and in need of new brushes for its ancient (though still-working) XO4. And, after a few hours' 'fiddling' and a repaint.......... This what it looks like now - Crewe South's unique Darlington-shopped 47482. This is obviously a 'staged' shot because not only do the gross flanges ride on the chairs, they're on the sleepers as well! And, no, it's not on a Class 1 job, but is acting as station pilot. Worth it for a bit of fun? I think so, and I'll probably give it away to a (worthy) young modeller (as long as he/she has Tri-ang track or its equivalent).