Blacque Jacque

Looking good. I shall follow this topic with interest, I too grew up no more than two miles from your chosen location Shawplan & A1 made some detailing parts for the Hornby models IIRC, some carefully applied details & weathering can do wonders for a loco's looks.

You can use either method. That said however, using the point blades generally proves less reliable & using external switching, particularly in a DCC environment, will prove far less hassle in the long run.

From that most wonderful album entitled Next.... Sensational Alex Harvey Band - ######.

Why not ? It's proven to work by painting almost anything yellow & slapping a Network Rail sticker on it. I've got a few old Lima & such like I may unload that way at some point.

Quite true, but as Olddudders said "He should have started with a handful of items as individual sales, at least, to test the water." In all honesty, I am wary of most sellers on Ebay.

Hmmm, I'm wary of that lot, a zero feedback Ebayer who's only been a member since 3rd Oct ? It may very well be legit, but being of a suspicious & untrusting nature I'd give it a wide berth.

Having read the listing, yes I believe he is quite serious. I'm no expert on the Tomy stuff, but there appears to be some quite rare items amongst that lot & 3 tonnes is a not insubstantial amount.

My flabber is ghasted : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280973532919

Thanks Simon for that very thorough explanation. It raises another question though; Why was it's last classified repair 16yrs before it's final withdrawal ? Is this a side effect of sectorisation ? Did the repair / overhauls system change ?

One for the spotters & historians I suspect. I plan to model D6754 (37054 as it became) in the BR green period as it was a regular in the Eastern region. I've managed to dig up a reasonable amount of detail as below but I still have a few blanks from the "significant" points in the timeline. When did it receive full yellow ends instead of small yellow panels ? When (if ever) was the steam heat boiler isolated ? When did it lose the frost grilles ? Did it ever suffer any accident damage or undergo bodywork changes ? What does "Last Classified Repair" mean (noted 07/11/1983)? Below is the timeline I have pieced together for it so far Any additions most welcome. D6754 (37054) Timeline: Number Date Built Builder Works Number D6754 19/09/1962 EE E3046/D708 19/09/1962 First Allocated to Darnall (41A) 19/09/1962 Delivered in BR Green, small yellow panel split headcode. 26/04/1964 Transferred to Tinsley (41A) 04/1967 Photographed in BR Green with full yellow ends. 08/1967 Transferred to Ipswich (32B) 05/1968 Transferred to March (31B) 09/1968 6754 D prefix dropped from loco record. 1969 Photographed in BR Green with full yellow ends. D prefix still intact. 13/10/1970 Photographed in BR Green, FYE, D prefix removed, steam boiler port still open. 09/1972 Repainted British Rail Blue 06/05/1973 6754 Reclassified Class 37 02/1974 37054 Renumbered TOPS Class 37 03/1974 Transferred to Gateshead (52A) 01/1975 Transferred to March (31B) 01/1987 37054 Reclassified Class 37/0 14/07/1979 Photographed in BR Blue, full yellow ends 07/11/1983 Last Classified Repair 08/1990 Photographed in BR Railfreight Grey livery 13/03/1993 Photographed in BR Engineers "Dutch" Livery 04/1999 D6754 37054 Withdrawn 27/09/2003 Scrapped at Motherwell TMD by Sandbach Car & Commercial Dismantlers Edit: to correct chronology

Rainy, grey & miserable there today by the looks of it.

The Wikipedia entry for Derby Road references Alderson and Kenworthy Branch Lines to Felixstowe and Aldeburgh (Middleton Press 2003) ISBN 1-904474-20-9 H I Quayle and G T Bradbury, The Felixstowe Railway (The Oakwood Press 1978). Punching the ISBN into Google give a good set of results <<<<linky I have a couple of other books that may have something interesting too, I'll try & have a look tomorrow for you.

Got PlanetRock streaming,Alice Cooper DJ'ing, Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed. Top tune !!

Given the silly money these things are going for in N & OO gauges, I'm surprised there hasn't been interest from the manufacturers for an RTR ? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310452343997

It depends which you see as more valuable to you, time or money ? Spending money will save you time, the material goods purchased can probably be resold later on, recovering some of their monetary value. Time however, once spent, cannot be reclaimed. An interesting discussion, but I think we've drifted somewhat from the OP's question.

My Dad's layout has a frog juicer earning it's keep where out & back services depart "wrong line" from a through station & run through a crossover to get back on the correct line. As each piece of electrified stock passes over the crossover, each of the frogs changes polarity repeatedly. This would of course work with any DCC autoreverse, but the juicer offers value for money providing 6 outputs for ~£50. This situation comes about because we have stuck rigidly to the right rail is red for consistency of wiring.

And today's favourite; Jet Airliner - Steve Miller

Probably because of who is selling it. They seem to be able to do no wrong on Ebay & can list complete tat which sells for silly money. I have seen this happen with many of their auctions & it beggars belief.

This bit did make me chuckle though: "Please note: This item is by no means a perfect item but it is what it is. Its a coach that has been converted to look like a MK2 DBSO, a random german looking wagon that is meant to vaguely act as the structure gauging wagon, then another MK1 wagon sprayed into Network Rail Livery." And the money shot: "The Weathering Works... adding realism to your railway!"

But surely the "pro weathering" makes it alright ?

I bet the seller's chuffed about this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320977420631

Yes I've seen the Youtube footage of storms swamping the line there, scary stuff. In this instance my guess would be that the HST was put onto the other line to pass the DMU. Perhaps the DMU was running a little late ?

Hmmm, are those lines bidirectional ? I've just seen an HST on the left rail, heading into Dawlish, followed a few seconds later by a single car DMU (DSU?) on the right rail ?

I think he means "NetNanny"; an application for those who shouldn't be allowed out on the internet on their own (or who's employers think so anyway)

Great link !. I spotted an engineers train, with an EWS 66 on the front, loaded with what looked like prefab rail sections as it was getting dark last night.