runs as required

As for the actual terminus might Harwich Town be a captivating precedent ? Here it is pre Parkeston Quay at 25 inch scale in NLoS I’ve always loved it, with the old Great Eastern Hotel - and there used to be the bustling Naval launch across to Shotley coming and going. I always wanted to model it with the Town station much nearer the Hotel (The ideal is of course the Zetland Hotel but at sea level adjacent to the steam packets.) - and the later train ferry berth.

Is this a believable explanation of why Battenberg cake is so called? 2 Referring to the previous posting: How clever to drop a Ha Ha in at the bottom of the garden too.

Since a certain flying visit up to Durham (and to Barnard Castle Specsavers) all the Collared Doves in the North East are driving us mad with " We blame YOU for no p.p.e" repeated endlessly from dawn to dusk. ... I can hear one now as I type.

Isn't that top one a US Baldwin 2-6-0 ? One of a whole bunch of foreign locos bought by the Midland and others as stopgaps in the early 1900s. And didn't the SE&CR buy some Gorman built L class 4-4-0s, only a few of which got delivered before the Kaiser war?

Our serious Quaker friends are very protective of their crow family: father, mother and baby. They all live on a sought after 1920s "homes for heroes" smallholding bungalow lot division in Northumberland (the NER steam autucar extension to Darras Hall Estate, Ponteland was to one that subsequently became Newcastle most expensive housing) Just before Lockdown we were across there for coffee and were shown how the Crow parents were busy chasing off poor last year's bewildered bairn in favour of this year's yet unhatched. We have since heard that there is a new favourite child having care lavished upon it, while last years cast-off and other Corvids are ruthlessly sent packing. For such intelligent birds, they are remarkable cruel (I suppose like humans). 2 Did you read earlier in the week of the "common" cuckoo that was one of 5 captured in Northern Mongolia last year and fitted with a tracking device, noted in Zambia in December/ Feb, then found back in Northern Mongolia this year, 5000 miles away having crossed the Indian Ocean - with an overall average speed of 46 mph? It appears to be the only survivor. On the whole being Human does seem an easier life.

And carrying more body protection than a cat, might they have fared better getting shut away by Schrodinger?

What caught my eye in that pic was North Weald just down the line from our 1937 semi at Theydon Bois. My uncle Pete often flew his fighter low over our house from NW, having earlier done silly things in a Tiger Moth trainer from RAF Hornchurch. I loved the scary spins best: silently twirling right down over the garden - before restarting the engine, kicking into the spin and climbing away. He didn't last much longer - he obviously lost it in a cloud in a Thunderbolt over Burma three weeks before VJ day and was posted missing, He'd have probably killed himself anyway on his Matchless, if he hadn't got his wings; just 12 years older than me!

I too am not sure how the UK will accommodate these changes - both of inevitable growth and at the same time "de-densification". Although I shan't be around to participate in them, as I enjoyed doing in the first half of the 1960s working on the formulation of the PTEs with Barbara Castle, I'd hope to see a return to regional strategic Land Use/Transportation plans as have been hinted at but not yet moved to by the present Government in its election appeals to the north of England. We still only have the London area that was spared the abandonment of integrated transportation at the time of de-regulation. I suggest the following: A return to earlier 1950s policies of Land Use de-centralisation (town expansion and promotion of growth in other regions) to discourage over emphasis on the South East. Transportation Planning strategies that are co-ordinated with land use promotion A return to "high density/low rise" built form that facilitate home based working. Stoneycroft originally built for rent in Washington New Town, (the prototype for Milton Keynes New City) is now one of the most sought after medium cost housing locations in Sunderland. Here are English 3 storey examples of the world's most popular house type: the Asian "Shop House": a permeably paved front apron, a built in garage/workshop/office/studio opening onto a green with play area and with small private fenced gardens at the back. All once within T&W PTE with through ticketing until the early 1980s. But now highly favoured by "White van man Much posher is Alexandra Road Estate, in West Hampstead, alongside the WCML - in effect a horizontal skyscraper cluster.

You are absolutely right. The sociology lecturer on my Liverpool Civiic Design Masters course back in 1962-63 was Elizabeth Gittus, whose classic book: "Flats, families and the under-fives" published in 1976, was a summation of incontrovertibly appalling statistical evidence. This effectively killed off high rise at the same time as the gas explosion at Ronan Point in East London, triggered a horrific progressive collapse at breakfast time . Most successful high rise since then has been for households without children, for foreign investors (as in the central districts of London) or young professionals (as in Manchester and other Northern cities led by Urban Splash). My hunch is that given the New Normal, urban densities (bed spaces per hectare) will be generally lower.

what a saddo! I've always tried to pretend to be Trevor Howard. Actually Imust confess I have drink taken outside in broad daylight at 21.30H ! And I now think that that Dominic Cummings is absolutely brilliant for having fessed up to telling us we are total losers if you daren't use your own judgement in interpreting our own government's rules. This afternoon is the first time we have seen our Newcastle grandchildren over here in Gateshead for 8 weeks. My how they have grown!

You can surely devise a precise way in which all the boards can be removable - a boon when you get older for adjusting wiring on the underside. And, who knows, it may even aid it being a Major Exhibition attraction clamoured for by your rising fan club of parishioners!

Where was it that the whole film was condensed into “Fancy a quick Ferk?” That the version my kids all remember.

I blame the Bullingdon Club. Oh! And didn’t BJ and D both read Greats at Oxford ? 2 Is Castle Barnard in England or Ireland?

I haven't bothered to try Googling this I confess, but a year or so ago there was a lot of Social Media guff about a US site where people competed to assemble the most outrageously post-mod useless creations out of IKEA catalogue stuff. I think I recall the inspiration came from US architect Peter Eiseman's house commissioned by a Billionaire that was to be purposely designed as impossible to live in.

I used to know and love Menai Bridge very well, we had a decrepit caravan on Anglesey. As a boy in the 1950s, my dad worked for Shell-BP. He was well aware that the "solus" petrol station on the lefthand side of Telford's Menai suspension bridge viaduct approach leaving the Island was one of the highest volume selling filling stations in the whole of the NW division (roughly a triangle between Caernarfon, Bakewell and Carlisle). He was keen that we should move there permanently (I was keen on the move too, as I'd learnt Welsh). But my mum put her foot down (supported by my sister) so we stayed put near Manchester. The original pre-fire exterior view of R Stephenson's bridge was undoubtedly elegant, BUT I have to say I was always disappointed that, when crossing the Britannia bridge, the train plunged into a disgusting smoky blackness just as the ride was getting most exciting. I always wondered why they didn't replace the tube with a trussed girder for the train to pass through. Brunel's Saltash was no anticlimax and, showman that he was, still today affords the passenger a great view of the bridge as you approach from from the Duchy. However, the ECML from Durham to Dundee still offers the best bridge ride in the UK- sitting on the righthand side of the train.

May I recommend listening to this morning’s ‘Start the week’ on BBC R4 on iPlayer or as a Podcast or whatever about all of the above. Very illuminating.

Another suggestion about the south facing (?) window. Your multi tracked eye level bridge reminds me of a 1960/70s reflective light shelf across - as is still visible in many oFfice blocks of that date, to supposedly bounce natural light further into deep plans. My suggestion would be a minimal (double track) vertical depth ledge for the rails in front of a shallow planter against the light so that your trains would progress across 4mm scale woodland With sunlight percolating through it on good days. The planter could hold the first welcome sparks of spring in Jan at our latitudes, and forests of herbs, maybe with an adjustable window blind, at the present time of the year. Anotherpoint about the sensible lighting for working at modelling, is that the auxiliary spots and more scenic lighting could create a more intimate warmer atmosphere for times when you want to be reflective and simply enjoy the spectacle of the modelling as a backdrop to some other thinking. 2 Another practical prob is that the movable bookcase etc. will make the removable span across the door impossible to maintain with the precision locking required.for continuity. The track base will have to be securely located relative to the Rokeby Venus’s walls, with some felt underplay to permit the furniture to be moved independently.

Just received this "Land of the Prince Bishops" poster from daughter down in Rugby (formerly of 'New College, Durham).

This morning just sitting down to open my laptop, I looked around at my study (photo well analysed by all in earlier posts ) and realised that the deeper down I was getting in de-cluttering, the more superficially untidy the place was getting. I keep discovering old computer stuff: the old Locland PC I went all the way to Livingston New Town near Wemyss Bay to get specially tuned up to run Autocad on at home after I retired, a later under-desk big vertical stack job I built built myself after doing a computer course - and whole box fuls of old electric and audio kit not to mention old railway stuff I've unpacked. How do others deal with such junk ? I take tons of old mags to the Tanfield (to do what with?), but what about old files of personal stuff , lecture notes, old project drawings and files? I watched how York uni dealt with a colleague's room in King's Manor who'd died in harness. Estates simply arrived, removed a leaded light casement window and emptied the entire room, furniture and all into two skips then had the room re-painted and ready for a Visiting Academic to move into the next Monday. Where I've 'missed the boat' is not to have hoyed the lot once the tip re-opened last week. Unlike him, I could still get to write my own epitaph! Such as "Never ever declared a project complete"

I still recall vividly the wonder of living in London in the first years of our working married life, living in cheap flats in Highgate and Primrose Hill and enjoying that old world famous London Skyline (we could actually see St Pauls from our bath in Hampstead Lane, Highgate). London's Planners successfully defended it with their much copied 'Protected Views' High Rise policy until Boris destroyed it utterly in the City encouraging grotesque 'pomo' high rise - even that simplistic giant mobile phone! Paris notably stuck to High Rise at La Defense, we could have done likewise with Heseltine's Docklands.

Following a tip-off by an Italian friend, wife and I were delighted to ride that beautiful prewar ETR 200 a few years back during one of our memorable Italian holidays bumming round minor FS lines with an Horario (The deal was never to be on a train at mealtime, and a promise to find a b&b in time for a prosecco before an evening meal). The train was appropriately (and proudly) in service on the old over-the-top Pistoia to Bologna line replaced by Mussolini's long Appennine tunnel direct to Forence. The interior was an Italian art-deco extravaganza in shades of pale green . There was apassengers' view forward through the cab, via a strikingly deep blue tinted glass screen, to the line twisting through the mists above the snow line. Unforgettable - and we were enjoying a wonderful al fresco Bolognese pasta by 12.30 (another tip off). 2 As regards the Fiat diesel AL car (and don't forget we had to buy back our own WCML APT from Fiat badged as their Pendelino), no one has yet mentioned that its - to me endearing cartoon character face - is Fiat's car brand 1930 radiator seen here on the best selling Ballila Apparently Breda's version of the AL diesel railcar was wholly licenced from the GWR AEC Southall railcar. I think the really sad thing about the last picture quoted above is that derivatives of these ALn cars still still run in the otherwise now totally wrecked Italian minor lines in SE Sicily - on screen: the glorious land of Camilleri's Inspector Montellbano. .

We were in 'Finbarrs', our favourite Durham City eatery for lunch (up by the Police HQ in Akenheads) on the Friday before Lockdown was declared by Westminster the following Monday. We discussed prospects with the proprietor while paying the bill. He was certain that a UK Lockdown was imminent, despite there being no cases yet listed in the County. We fessed up to one in Gateshead, and he added there was also one in Sunderland. In direct contrast, last week's National media reported the North East as being the worst in the UK for recorded Covid-19 cases, with Gateshead and Hartlepool the very worst for deaths. Just one week later, Westminster is pressing Local Authorities to re-open schools in the region on 1 June! Now we learn how the key Government Adviser was active himself in spreading the virus up from Westminster into Durham "at least once". Ministers have gone into great detail: rather than let the train 'take the strain', he drove up. Moreover we are assured that luckily he and family have strong bladders so they did not need to stop to spread the virus at any Motorway services during the 4 hour drive. What a Relief !

I completely agree about the train protection afforded by the upstanding trussed girders. The tubular piers and braces are the problem, dangling in mid air from rail level at the obvious support points of each girder. Would you simply model them ‘realistically’ as compression structures, when visually, the eye reads them truthfully in ‘reality’ as in tension? That is what I pondered when remembering the apparent sharp curve of the Taw bridge - its plate girders emphasise their support points less emphatically than do the cross bracing of the trusses. But the Taw bridge would lose its dramatic spectacle were its plate girders to be modelled as upstanding. Actually on the outer upstream side of the curve there is a handrail. That, modelled on both sides would initially restrain a train from toppling, though may not be robust enough at 00 scale to survive constant handling. The canal lifting bridge structures suggested would only span a boat’s width and would still require removable approach viaducts/embankments.

Thanks for the reply James, metaphors are powerful weapons when wielded by lawyers. I feel that too often that we are too literally driven by "realism" in modelling. The silver Swan in Barney's museum isn't "realism", that is why it is so extraordinary. I've always enjoyed earlier C18 & C19 modelling that got incorporated into fine bits of cabinet making. Isaac Jackson's table top model to demonstrate the viability of the Wylam Billies to Lady Bewicke at Close House was a cross between between a brass clock and an elegant coffee pot. You could span the line across the window out of angle iron (that has the appearance of lightness, compared to expensive perspex or clear polycarbonate)) and clad it with stick-on mirror mosaic - precedent the US 'Seebord Airline'? On Barnstaple bridge, I did try the gate idea suggested, but rejected it as it seemed too dominant. I imagined the hanging tinkly jewellery model of the piers, sand and boats could be a trinket hung on the underside for 'Sunday best' occasions. precedent: Gaudi's hanging bead models of Sagrada Familia.

As usual CA has spun on at a dizzying pace since "I had a dream" - could the lift out bit be Barnstaple bridge? I remember how - several thousand pages back - you fessed up to ambitions for modelling multiple locations especially Barnstaple. Last night, driven on happily by Harry S Beethoven's Ninth on R3, I visualised 2 versions: plain: a solid curved hunk of timber locking down precisely into place - dressed up in the bridge's plated girders ... and fancy with suspended 3D bit of jewellery hung on below. It could portray the river Taw piers and stays with the tide well out as usual (plus a boat or two - one of those sand barges I remember from hols in the 1940s.) It might tinkle a bit in the draught when the door is inadvertently opened to offer a pleasant warning I don't remember T9s there, they seemed to be mostly Bulleid's hated elderly tanks on the SR. The GW slow slow line across to Taunton had the tender locos.