stewartingram

Don't forget that WCR "own" the train paths for the Jacobite. They would have to hand back their rights to NR before they could be transferred to another operator.

They were on my want list above!

Well, theres a few on there that I would like, I must admit. Not sure that they ever appeared, but I'm reckon something good could be made of them.

That means only 2 more people have to say it - please don't encourage them!

I believe they used the flyash as you have said. The whole area is now an established housing estate, shopping centre, and massive Tesco. (When the Tesco first opened, the staff used roller blades to get round it!). There were some serious issues with subsidence when it was being built I'm told.

I've lost/damaged a couple of buffers on my class 71, and can't find spares listed anywhere. Does anyone know of a source. I'll use replacments that are not Hornby if necessary.

Looks like a normal road in the Fens round here. We seem to manage quite well with them.

In do wonder if this some tidykng up of their systems (possibly automatic by PC?), as I've had a number of emails informing me of added points to my account for recent purchases (what recent purchases?). My J69 was fully paid on the Partially account a little while back as I understand it. The schedule for delivery is shown as Q2 so it isn't far away anyway.

I am NOT speculating here, but it does make one wonder about what other standards they don't keep to, such as maintenance?

There is if you copy & paste the address.

Not very realistic then is it? Vehicles stopping at a red light? Whatever next.

I always use Araldite (loyalty here to the local company that apparently invented it?). I've always thought the 24hour version to be stronger, but properly mixed, the 5 min version (I always leave it longer though) is fine in the modelling world. I remember going to the 1st Duxford Air Museum open day, where they had a BMC 1100 car suspended off the floor, with its rope(?) araldited to the roof. The Ciba-Geigy factory was just down the road....

The headmaster at my eldest daughters primary (who was aver good teacher and ran a quite tight ship & was well respected) hit this decimal lark on the head. He firmly believed that pre-decimal had to learn their tables properly. Think 12 (pence), 20 (shillings, 8 (1/2 crowns), 16 (ounces) 14 (lbs), 22 (ton), 3 (yards), etc. He found that with decimalisation, the kids actually didn't concentrate so much (and aided by the early calculators coming on stream as well). I reckon he was right.

Had this one offered to me on YpuTube:- Tragic Moments! Shocking Train Moments Filmed Seconds Before Disaster That Are Pure Nightmare Fuel ! (youtube.com)

I handled a few in my repair shop days. I loved them (had 4 myself). Every one I handled was stripped right down, then re-assembled with "TLC". They all became quiet runners. I can't say exactly what I did, but the TLC definitely worked!

Running into a mice, or even a rat, is little inconvenience to a train. However a large dog could easily cause a derailment in the tunnel. Even if the dog got killed by the live rails, it could still cause a derailment.

I have pics (not all mine so I can't post) of 78020/21/28 (at least) working Kettering-Cambridge. As Clacton was accessed via the Stour Valley line with similar weight restrictions as the Kettering line, I'm certain they would have passed straight through Cambridge, and turned left at Shelford.

I have a H-D one, repainted, in my disposals box...

That isn't a steering wheel. It operates the water scoop so the guard can make a cuppa.

My dear old lady next door (now deceased) changed some curtains, and donated them to me, complete with linings. I installed a curtain rod above the doors and hung them on that. They really do stop draughts. I'm not bothered that they are second hand, in a place where they can get grubby; they can be easily taken down and washed if required.

When I was working on the Underground (as a contractor for another company) we had to wear hi-vis with our company name on it. Later on, a number of our guys jumped ship to another company new to the Umderground; they too of course had to abide by LU rules and ear named hi-vis. In later years, that company tookon more contracts on the tube - I believe they were "warranty" jobs for new equipments intallations. So for those jobs they had to wear the appropriate named hi-vis. These guys worked on foot, lugging a wheeled toolcase &spare equipment - one of my (ex) workmateds told me he had 4 sets of clothing to carry all day!

I may have pics that I have downloaded, or in books, but not sure I can spend the time to search at the moment, maybe I have some in books as well. They were used on the Ketterng-St.Ives-Cambridge service due to weight restrictions. This was also the limiting factor on the Cambridge- Colchester route (often traversed for seaside specials). Another similar route was St.Ives-Ely. Though closed to passenger traffic, some seaside specials were run that way using the LMS version. Bear in mind that the Kettering trains, if they ever ran to Ely (unlikely), would have to reverse at St.Ives.

There was a Black 5 allocated to 34A for a while.

Much better. Modern trains though, I would have preferred Mk1 coaches, but I grew to them quite rapidly. Good lookers too.

My 1st car, in 1967, was an Austin A30. 12 years old when I got it, I ran it (on a shoestring) for another 12 years, before storing it in the garage. It eventually went to local club owners for spares. I did 250k miles in it, and did all my own maintenance. This was in the day of BMC mix & match engineering off the shelf, there were plenty of spares available from all sources - new,3rd parties, or scrapyards. Mine ended up with a bigger A35 engine, newer A35 gearbox, part of the floor from an A35 to accommodate this, different rear axle, van rear springs, etc. I even found an older handbook for the early A30, which showed how to reset the engine to run on 80 octane fuel instead of 95 octane. (Basically - think aka paraffin?) My mate had a Minor, his theory was, if you used the starting handle, with the engine set up properly it should start instantly. He wasn't far wrong, it is what I aimed for (without any sophisticated tools). I loved that car, with the good old A series engine. After a few years with a B series Marina, I was made redundant, and bought a 3 month old demonstrator Ital from the local dealer. It had an A+ engine; that lasted me 250k as well. I then swopped to Rover 800s, and eventually in 2007 to Rover 75, where we are today. But I have a Metro outside partially restored.....