Unicorn1

Is that Britain's tallest Belisha Beacon! Les

T448, a 1936 AEC Regal with Weymann 30 seat body, seen in the workshop at the London Bus Museum, Brooklands. With much of the front end completed work is now well underway on the rest of the bodywork. The new offside window pans can be seen here - along with the restored fuel tank - as a Green Line coaches these vehicles required big tanks.

They were, here is the first one - RM458 - ready to be towed away.

Newly completed ERM163 stands outside the old East Kent garage in St Stephens Road, Canterbury, on 22nd February 1990. Now 32 feet long its extra bay was donated by RM458.This was the first of ten such conversions. The former garage was by now occupied by East Kent Engineering who carried out the conversion.

RM1528 and two others inside Victoria garage, Saturday evening 9th January 1988. A group of us were in London to travel on the last RM's on the 25 before they were replaced by Titans. In the evening we wandered up to GM for a look around. Taken with my old Pentax K1000, held tight against the garage wall!

Crikey! Would many of the planes usually be stored below the deck? Les

Here's one of mine from a while ago.

Thank you Barry for your comment. The kit was a 'bargain' on a well known auction site. A fair bit of boiling water was involved in trying to straighten up the bigger parts! Also many of the bodywork part are supplied as clear plastic - which involves two lots of masking when painting. I should know better but I'm now tempted to get another Heller kit of a late '20s Renualt van to keep it company. Les

Finally got round to finishing my 1:24 Renault TN6. Made from an early Heller kit it had a few missing parts - and some very interestingly shaped large sections of rather brittle plastic! The trickiest part was making a completely new windscreen, along with trying to straighten out the floor and platform. Any way I looked at it the other day an thought I must finish it, so here it is. Les

I think the guy stretching is probably Good Morning Good Morning. The Russians - Revolution perhaps.

Baby You're A Rich Man Here Comes The Sun Carry That Weight Birthday

Well certainly for two-stroke bikes. With my first moped, an NSU Quickly, I would ask for half a gallon of '20:1'. However the tank only just held half a gallon so I would always have to instruct the attendant(!) not to fill it right up - or put the shot in first. ELB 843C, and it wasn't particularly quick. Les

Very sorry to hear this. Speaking from the 'non railway modelling' side, my main knowledge of Adrian was through his London bus kits. At shows I would always stock up on those things that no one else could provide - radiators, wheels etc as well as full kits. On one occasion- I think it was Scalefourum (Leatherhead?) - I took along some photos of some recently completed kits, I told him that they had been painted by my good friend Bob Fridd; 'I've heard of him' he said. 'Would you like to meet him, he's here with Road Transport Images'. Introductions were made and I went off to peruse the exhibits. Over an hour later I returned and they were still going nineteen to the dozen. On the few occasions when I met him he was always encouraging - he told me the only way my painting technique would improve was to keep practising, I still am! Les

You should always look out for them when swimming. Should you see one you must immediately shout 'Look out, there are llamas!' Les

In addition to 'brewing up' on the grass verges of various A roads , here's a few other things that I remember that have definitely changed since the 'sixties; Living not far from London Airport (as everyone called it then) a regular treat was for dad to take us there and park next to the North runway. Here, for a modest fee, collected by a man in a white coat, we could watch the aircraft take off and land. I seem to remember a small picket fence on the grass between us and the runway. (Also then many bus routes ran 'through' the airport - very close to the planes). Feeding buns to elephants at London Zoo. Buying small metal tubs of corn in Trafalgar Square to feed pigeons, everyone being mobbed by pigeons - the mess! Having to stand on odd items of furniture - and contorting ones self - whilst holding the television aerial in order to obtain a satisfactory picture. A reasonable picture having been achieved one was told simply to 'stay there!' Cigarette coupons. My mother smoked Embassy cigarettes, and a packet of twenty contained a coupon for six points - never buy a packet of ten because you only got two points. My mother still had things in her house 'bought' with Embassy coupons at the turn of the last century. There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough! Cheers for now Les

How about a nice cup of tea at this point. Dad brewing up - probably on the A3 - in about 1965. We seemed to do this on every journey that was more than an hour or so- and at the destination the whole kit would reappear, with tins of new potatoes etc. Note the proper tea pot - and there were no tea bags! Les Scanned from an old print.

RHDR No6 Samson - putting on a show just at the right moment. 1st August 2009.

Ah, 3 car CEPs. As a regular commuter I remember these on the South Eastern - we had quite a lot (did the open seconds replace buffet cars on the S Western BEPs?) Funny, I never thought I would have quite the affection I do now for the old units - but seeing a single three CEP coming into view on the daily commute was no fun, nor was Conex's habit of putting one on the first off-peak Ramsgate to Charing Cross every morning (including Saturdays) which was standing room only after Minster! (I would attempt to board at Canterbury West). Anyway, great pictures of a railway we took so much for granted, and thought would hardly ever change. Regards Les

I have ordered glue and some other modelling items online, the items can be safely left in our porch or outside. I personally think that if a shop is offering a mail order service then I am doing my 'bit' by buying something to keep them going. I know I'll have to wait a bit longer for it to arrive- I can live with that. We haven't had any post here since the 24th March, but I know my glue is out there somewhere, along with Boris' letter etc, and will eventually arrive. (As will the hose I ordered to unblock a drain which has meant we can't use the kitchen sink / washing machine etc!) If we can, and I believe we are being encouraged to, I think we should support model shops using mail order. (And any other 'reasonable' purchases). Les

I'll certainly be doing some extra modelling over the next week or so - not self isolating, but informed at 5pm yesterday that our two week holiday in India has been cancelled because the Government there have suspended all visas. We were due to fly out tomorrow. Now the battle for compensation starts.... I have plenty of ideas for modelling projects to take my mind of things! Les

Rugd1022 That one of RM7 is one of mine - taken on NYE 1978 at Haven Green, Ealing. That's my trusty Hillman Imp parked across the road. Posted on my Flickr account. I could have put it up in this thread myself, only all my scans of old slides went west when my hard drive packed up! Les

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Hi Jules Well done on ten years! it was eight years ago that seeing your layout encouraged me to start my own thread! Nice to see the latest additions to the wagon fleet as ever, that Mink looks lovely. Best wishes Les

Collett Full Brake? Guess who voted for one Could be Gigantic though. Les

The 'Combe has finally received some more appropriate road traffic. This little Dennis Ace is seen heading along Station Road - it's lucky to have made it onto the layout at all - It was a real pain to build, and nearly ended up being thrown out of the window a few times! Now I've built dozens of white metal kits and they all have their quirks, but I've never been so close to giving up on one before. It's best viewed side on from a distance! Another bus / coach is this Royal Blue Bristol. Seen here on a bridge (where else!). Still needs transfers and the paint tidying - but after the Dennis build I wanted something to get on the layout quickly. A different view taken using a mirror. On the rolling stock side a Lowmac has been completed. Here it is seen from the other side of shed. A little while later 9015 does some leisurely shunting. I'm toying with the idea of some video of the layout, we'll see if I can get my head round how to do it! Les