Jim Martin

That is absolutely terrific! Thanks so much! Jim

Does anyone know the location of any Great Central or LNER (GC section) Carriage Working Notices, ideally from the 1920s? I've looked in the National Archive, GCRS archive and NRM archive catalogues and I can't see anything there. Thanks Jim

Many thanks for all of the suggestions. The tap is now fixed, although not the way I expected. My wife remembered this morning that several years ago she'd found an engineering company that takes on small jobs. A quick check and it turns out that they're still in business and even open on Saturday mornings. It took them about ten minutes to remove the screw, clean up the thread and pop a new screw in, ready to go. If anyone in Liverpool needs their services, it's Fernland Engineering and I recommend them very highly. They're in Seymour Street industrial estate, which is by where Millers Bridge meets the Dock Road. Why it took Mrs M so long to remember this is a mystery to us both. She reckons that finding a solution to a problem is a journey, and you have to go through all the failed ideas to find the one that succeeds. I, on the other hand, am put in mind of this: Jim

It's an Abode Linear Flair, but the bits I've dismantled in the past look like they're identical to the Bern. I imagine there are some very small stylistic differences between them. Jim

Lots of interesting ideas here, thank you all very much. I'm going to pick up a torx bit tomorrow and go from there. Even if it doesn't survive the process, I'll still be ahead unless it costs £100! Jim

I have a problem with a jammed grub screw which is causing a lot of inconvenience and might potentially cost quite a lot of money, so I'm looking for suggestions about how I might be able to fix it. This is my kitchen tap. The hot tap shows what it's meant to look like. There's a nylon bush which fits over the splines on the valve, then the lever fits over that and is fixed in place by a grub screw: The problem is with the cold tap. The grub screw is supposed to take an allen key, but the hole has rounded out so I can't get a key to bite. The grub screw is 5mm across and the top of it is 3-4mm below the surface of the lever: I was able to get the lever off by brute force (it was already a bit loose on the nylon bush, which is why I was fiddling with it in the first place). As you can see the bottom of the screw is protruding slightly into the interior of the lever piece: I've tried getting a screw extractor (one of the reverse-threaded ones) in there, but I don't have a drill that's up to making a pilot hole in the top of the screw (I've tried), so it won't bite on the metal. Not having the cold tap working is a massive pain. Opening the tap by holding on to the bush and twisting it is hard work at the best of times, and frequently impossible (if the hot water's been running and heated up the body of the tap, there's no shifting it). All I need to do is to get the screw out: then I can replace it with one that isn't knackered; but if I can't shift it, I'm going to have to replace a whole £100 tap for the sake of a part that costs literally pence, if that. The lever doesn't seem to be available as a spare part. Does anyone have any suggestions? Jim

Loving those photos! What shade of blue did you use on the PDA? I have a couple of those in need of painting. Jim

Hi Graham There are a couple of websites that provide train information. Probably the best known is Realtime Trains. If you use the basic site, this will give you passenger train arrival and departure times; but little else. Switch to the detailed options and you can get freight trains and intermediate timing points. This search: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:NSHMLC/2022-04-27/0001-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt shows all of the timetabled services passing Newsham Level Crossing, which is on the Benton-Blythe route, tomorrow (click on the individual train for timings over its entire route). It's important to note that freight services often run way early or late, and frequently not at all (a lot of timetable paths exist so that trains can use them, but they won't run if there's no requirement to do so). This search shows trains passing Newsham last Wednesday, and you can see that only three trains actually ran: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:NSHMLC/2022-04-20/0001-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt (I think they only store about a week's workings in arrears, so this link may die tomorrow). Hope this helps Jim

Gosh! I must have ridden on 158s hundreds of times and not noticed that. Jim

On the one hand, I agree with you. It looks like a lovely model. I hope that we won't be waiting for years more for the versions with revised aircon pods; and there are so many liveries to choose from that I can see the one I really want - the vile First TPE blue vinyls overlaid on the Northern Spirit plum and gold "scheme" - never getting done; but it looks like a lovely model. On the other hand, it better had be the best N gauge UK outline DMU ever. It's the first new model of a DMU since 2019 (the not-brilliant Dapol class 142) and the last one Bachmann released was the Blue Pullman in 2012. You'd hope that a manufacturer could find something to improve on, given a decade to do it. Jim PS. I thought something looked "off", but I couldn't place it: what's going on with the cab side windows? There's a recessed section where the lower window's supposed to be, but no actual window. Jim

I've given up viewing the site on my (Android) tablet. It's unusable. I only use my phone now; and suffer through the ads. Jim

Interestingly, though, York Street (which is not a very long street at all) is home to a watch repairer: It also used to be home to the St. Petersburg, which was a totally crazed but very enjoyable Russian "dining club". Jim

I very much like the way that the station is cut into the side of the hill. You've pulled that off very nicely. Nice work! Jim

I've never read The Cruel Sea, although i have leafed through it in the library; but I know what you mean about the film (which I have seen) allegedly toning some of the gorier bits down. I believe there's a bit in the book where they recover a lifeboat "crewed" entirely by skeletons? And there's a distinctly off-heroic-message bit where one survivor of the Compass Rose throws another off the bit of floating wreckage he'd been clinging to, to claim it as his own? Of course, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that these actually happened, since Monserrat had served in the navy during the battle. I too saw Midway the other day. It does seem like those British films of 70(!) years ago, which is another way of saying that it comes over as very old-fashioned. I was impressed by its historical accuracy but wearied by its grim determination to recount the entire history of the Pacific War (Pearl Harbour! The Doolittle Raid! Japan's war in China! Coral Sea - for a few seconds! It's all here, folks!). Also, I wouldn't want to have to guess which part of the USA Ed Skrein's character came from. Jim

I've watched a lot of YouTube videos of the WCML over the last two years and I've often wondered about those. Thanks Jim

Are the Novelis containers the lowish, silver, apparently curtain-sided ones that show up in pretty much every YouTube video of Acton Bridge, in a train of about a dozen each holdalls and container flats? Jim

My trust in Guardian editorials has eroded somewhat in recent years (despite me being a regular reader for 40 years and still agreeing with the paper's core values) so I went to the source and watched one of Farage's videos on YouTube. It starts with a lengthy bit about how he's collected money for the RNLI (no idea if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me) before accusing the RNLI of employing a PR company (possibly the "same one employed by Meghan and Harry"; which seems quite likely because, as you may know, there's only one PR company in the whole world) and saying that his fear is that "the RNLI is doing the wrong thing " by rescuing migrants. I watched a bit more, in case he got around to saying what "the right thing " might be; but he didn't.

It's an interesting point about areas with relatively self-contained economies, where there might not be as much mixing-in of wagons from outside the area. I'd imagine that such areas would tend to be on the fringes, where a lot of bulk commodities could potentially arrive by sea, too (coastal shipping was a huge industry certainly up to and during WW2). There's another thing that might be relevant if you're modelling the GWR, which I recall reading about but have no references for. Among the major pre-grouping railways, the GWR was a lot more inclined to build opens with sheet rails than other companies. I have a feeling that GWR staff were disinclined to despatch GWR opens to destinations off the line, because they were regarded as superior vehicles for that reason, which might influence the balance of owners in a local area. This is absolutely not something I'm sure about: maybe a GWR expert could confirm whether I'm right about that, or if it's something I've conjured up in my head. Jim

LMS wagons will suit just about anywhere! I tend to discourage the Divine Mrs M from buying me railway-related presents. I appreciate the thought, obviously, but my wants are pretty specific and it would be easy for her to get the wrong thing. Also, to be honest, I prefer her not to be too knowledgeable on how much this stuff costs! Jim

Prior to WW1 companies were only supposed to load their own wagons; and empties were supposed to be returned promptly to their owners. So even then there would have been plenty of foreign wagons in goods trains. A movement from Hull to Wigan, say, would have sent a North-Eastern Railway wagon across the Lancashire & Yorkshire (or maybe the LNWR) and then back again. The many empty movements this created were very inefficient; and during the war the Government decreed that companies could load wagons for the return journey to the owning line, if the traffic was there. Over time (and I'm paraphrasing here: it wasn't a single big change) the system evolved so that all ordinary goods stock (I.e.short wheelbase, unfitted opens and vans) were considered "common user": they could be used by anyone, on any route, as if it was theirs. This was the situation throughout the Big 4 era. So it would be a virtual certainty that foreign wagons would be seen in goods trains. There were plenty of "non-common user" wagons. Anything other than standard opens (a mineral wagon isn't the same as an open wagon, remember) or vans, anything with vacuum or air brakes etc. These were generally indicated by painting a white "N" on the lower corners of the body. When I was modelling the grouping era, I used a ratio of 4 LMS: 3 LNER: 2 GWR: 1 SR for opens (for an LNER layout set in the North of England). That wasn't perfect, but it seemed about right to me (and the non-common user wagons were overwhelmingly LNER, of course). That exact ratio might not suit you but the principle still applies, wherever your layout is set. Jim

I'm wondering because I took the Divine Mrs M to Wigan this morning, to put her on the 08:00 to Glasgow; and the preceding train (the 06:15 Birmingham-Edinburgh, due out of Wigan at 07:38) was held in the station until 07:54, apparently while the police were summoned to remove someone who insisted on smoking their e-cigarette. I can recall there being smoking compartments - maybe even whole carriages - on trains in my youth; and obviously there aren't any now; but I have no idea when the changeover occurred. Does anyone know? Jim

The valances also create a big, slab-sided vertical surface that I don't find particularly aesthetically pleasing. By the same token, I prefer the look of the GCR "Directors" after the LNER removed the splasher over the coupling rods. Jim

Thanks very much. I assume that it is for engine testing: there isn't any airfield for miles from Sinfin. This struck me as an opportunity to run a single wagon of a type usually seen in block formations. Jim

I was looking at this photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/151904976@N08/49400924767 earlier. According to the caption, the TEA is on a Grangemouth to Sinfin aviation fuel flow (presumably returning empty, since this is a northbound train). Sinfin is the site of a big Rolls-Royce plant: am I right in thinking that the fuel was used for testing engines? Also, when did this flow start and finish? Thanks Jim

It's City station. The giveaway is the shape of the roof, made up of straight segments ( there's a photo showing it well in the station's Wikipedia article, in the section headed "1938 rebuilding"). Leeds Central, which was still open when your photo was taken (closed in 1967), had a series of pretty modest pitched roofs over the platforms. Jim