great central

Many years ago when I was an alarm engineer I used to look after a system in a house owned by three elderly sisters. In a not particularly good area of town they obviously had quite a bit of money, running a dance school in the city so although the outside of the house fitted with it's neighbours the interior was somewhat better. The house was full of these kind of dolls, every room apart from the kitchen, there must have been several hundred, all custom made. I overheard one of the sisters discussing their latest purchase with, I presume, the maker one day. The price under discussion was around £350, this being over 30 years ago. I always wondered what happened to the collection as far as I know there were no relatives to pass it on to. Walking around the house testing the alarm always reminded me of this.....

For information, Deepcar very much still exists, although currently stored it made it's last exhibition appearance in March 2020, the week before first Covid lockdown. It's certainly not 'retired' and may well reappear at a future Nottingham show at least.

They will be the ex Anglia ones, before intensive, in service, cleaning during covid lockdowns they were even worse, and had been like it for years! Before a 156 is despatched to it's new life with Northern they have to be specially cleaned. That says something in itself!

Without wishing to drag the thread too far off topic, compare and contrast the Meridian I showed with the next train at the same platform on the same day. Edit: Andrew you work through Derby regularly, aren't EMRs trains consistently scruffier than other operators?

The entire EMR fleet both London and none London stock was reupholstered and repainted when Stagecoach had the franchise, the red is common to both fleets. They even deep cleaned and repainted the ex Grand Central HSTs before putting them into service despite knowing they had a limited time. Since Abellio took over even basic cleaning is skimped if done at all Their standards were obvious when the ex Anglia 156s arrived, they were absolutely disgusting and continue with the filthy 170s from WM! Don't expect any improvement with the bi modes, still 5 cars replacing 8 car HSTs.

Wilkos, was £3 a can last time I bought some. Halfrauds likely 50% more at least.

Hopefully the link works. G reg Nissan with 12 months MOT sold by Albert Looms in Derby. Looking through the MOT history it's done less than 10k miles in about 15 years. Railway connection is that they broke up quite a number of steam locos back in the day, there was also a MK1 coach body still in maroon in use as an office, I think, for many years. Edit: I've checked the link and it seems to bring up lots of their Facebook photos but without any descriptions. Most vehicles shown are for breaking https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=557477472850463&id=100057646441915&set=a.292385032693043

Compared with EMR Meridians the Voyagers are almost immaculate! This from earlier in the year shows the state they got into. Not cleaned for weeks or even months at a time, so much so you can hardly see out of the windows. This is a typical example not a particularly bad one.

That's the check rail surely?

Somewhere there's a Peter Handford recording of a 9F on a GCLE passenger service, possibly Princes Risborough, which I know technically isn't part of the GC! It's obviously got a fair turn of speed on. A good number of my recordings are actually copied on cassette from borrowed library records many years ago. Trying to find it on YouTube last night to quote on here took rather more time than I had, and still proved fruitless although I did find, possibly, the best recording of a V2 ever as it hammered away with the 'papers' in the early hours intent on regaining lost time.

Phone rang a few minutes ago, not a number known to me. Didn't answer anyway but followed by a text asking who I was and they'd missed a call from me this morning. Unlikely because I haven't called anyone this morning! Blocked and reported as spam

An example of how keen some amateur motor sports are to uphold their rules and regulations? The disqualified 747 car came first in the race and 120 in third place. http://www.saloonstockcars.com/News/2022/10/SSCA-World-Championship-Statement

Hi David, I'm almost certain that the loco in J4110 is a standard rather than LMS one. The tender tank looks decidedly bigger and the lifting rings on the rear are standard fittings. Obviously happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. Edit: looking again I think it may well be a class 5 going by the size of the boiler

Crumbs, that's a long time ago now! As far as I remember it was done as you said. Magnet have specialised in model railway insurance for many years and, although I'm no longer personally involved with such things, always seem to offer reasonable rates and excellent back up. More recent treasurers have tried to obtain a better price, particularly for our clubhouse building but most of the time it seems any other company quoting simply doesn't understand the particular area of the business. I believe the Chiltern scheme is, or was at least, done through Magnet as well?

For everyone who frets about getting their (model) ballast evenly weathered. Edit, sorry the images have come out sideways, I'll see if I can correct them.

I'm not sure of the actual regional boundary but I think it was at Kirkby South Junction, just north of Annesley shed and yard, points north of there staying with the Eastern region. Certainly Annesley shed was recoded to 16D from 38B, coming under the Nottingham Midland District rather than Colwick which had been 38A, Colwick being demoted to 40E as part of the Eastern region's Lincoln District.

Just make sure they don't get wet!

No reason for laughter in my opinion, I think the opinions of many who know various BLMC era cars are that they were actually pretty good in many ways. Much of the negativity stems from the press of the day focusing on the industrial relations side of things which did, admittedly, impact on quality and the latter day Mickey taking by certain elements of the media using them for 'entertainment'.

It was a very quick sideways glance but from what I saw would need extensive welding and filler to even make one good one, shame really.

Getting back to old cars rather than the technicalities of current bumper stickers or what have you, driving down a fairly narrow street in Alfreton earlier I glanced into an open gate where there were half a dozen or so rusty looking Triumph TR7s!

Text message about 3.30 this morning supposedly from the government saying I'm eligible for help with fuel bills and to click the link! Don't these idiots look at the time difference? Last week it was returned parcels about the same time

I've just had what could be a new variation on a theme. About the right time for these things, 01472 code and recorded voice saying it's name is Michael something. Asks if I'm still the home owner, so I ask where are you calling? Obviously it's programmed to respond to any reply because it then goes on to ask if I have a gas supply, not available here. I ask which area it is calling, it then asks if I've got double glazing, I have but reply again with where is it calling? Obviously decided it's getting nowhere so hung up. At least it sounded like a Michael, not like most of those using British sounding names, who the closest they've been to this country is probably watching Coronation Street or East Enders on their satellite TVs to learn the lingo!!

Oh yes, I'm only looking on a phone so not the biggest or clearest picture. My excuse and I'm sticking to it😀

Push me pull you or bidirectional? I'm struggling to work out which end is the front 🥴

Similar to Liverpool-Norwich EMR services. Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Peterborough, Ely for Cambridge and finally Norwich. Norwich-Nottingham is invariably a 2 car 158 with, often, added holidaymakers and offshore workers. Nottingham-Liverpool should be 4 cars but is regularly short formed, leading to chronic overcrowding and passengers left behind