31A

Thanks Lez. I left the body on while I was doing the 'turning' in the hope that it would keep most of the filings out of the mech., which it mostly did seem to do. Nevertheless when I'd finished, I took the model completely to pieces and cleaned all the wheels, gears etc. of filings; also flushed out the factory applied grease and re-oiled all round. Not the easiest of locos to re-assemble, the Hornby B17! So I hope it'll be all right. The gear train is actually quite well enclosed. At least it does run for now anyway, without shorting and stalling on the pointwork.

Apologies Lez. At least it seems to have worked!

Bit of a modelling 'doldrums' here at the moment. I've got a coach build for Peterborough North on the go, but today didn't seem to be the right day to do much of that, so I looked around for other things to do and my gaze fell upon the Hornby B17 61646 "Gilwell Park". Lovely model, Hornby could do a good shade of green in those days, but has never been a good runner. For some reason it has driving wheels more suited to a steam roller, and makes short circuits when it runs across the Peco Code 75 Double Slips in the station throat. She either stuttered or stopped, as sparks flew from her driving wheels (as The Eagles didn't quite write). I've got two other B17s, both from the original production run which run perfectly well through this area, but I think "Gilwell Park" was from a later batch, bought from a late-lamented Hatton's fire sale. So, I turned her upside down in a Loco Cradle, attached power and attacked the driving wheel tyres with various files, and 'turned' an angle on the outside edges of the tyres. Not a pretty sight and brass filings all over the place which took some cleaning up afterwards. Luckily it's got a can motor! But after much trial and also error, she will now run through the station throat with no fireworks from her wheels. Rough Engineering Made Easy, as @Clive Mortimore might say. Now, if I can find the right box in the Box Mountain I'll fit vac pipes, brake rodding etc and see about a crew and some weathering.

Not sure about the Goods Shed kit, but the signal box which they call Teignmouth was originally made by Heljan and sold in a Heljan box, then later sold by Knightwing. It's actually a pretty good model of a Great Northern Railway signal box, based it appears on Biggleswade North box, of which a drawing appeared in the Model Railway Constructor around 1974 (I think). Actually having lived in Cardiff myself in the early 1980s, it occurred to me that the Taff Vale Railway signal boxes that were still around at that time bore a passing resemblance to some Great Northern Railway boxes!

Thank you, I shall try and get some of that. When I have painted coaches in red & cream I have used Railmatch BR Cream, but against other models (and how I think the real thing should look) it does look too 'yellow'.

I had that problem recently, trying out Halfords lacquer for the first time over Railmatch enamel paint. It was much worse than yours, and I ended up stripping the paint and repainting, using Johnson's Kleer instead to provide a gloss finish for the transfers. What a faff! I should have thought it would work properly over Halford's own paint, but haven't had a chance to try that yet. It certainly looks a bit orange peely in your photo, but sometimes it's a question of how it catches the light in a photo. I normally use Humbrol 32 or 67; they're both dark greys, there's not much to choose between them. Could I ask, what colour did you use for the cream part of the livery? Sorry if you've already said and I've missed it!

On the southern end of the ECML at least, "Parly" referred to King's Cross-Peterborough stoppers until relatively recent times. It probably went out with electrification as prior to that they were irregular, but I remember being on Biggleswade station sometime in the early '80s and some P Way were working on the fast lines in between the platforms. The Lookout sounded his warning as a train from the north came round the corner in the distance, but then said to them, "It's OK, it's the Parly on the Slow". This was at the time when there was a Huntingdon - Hitchin (or Hertford) shuttle worked by DMUs in the white livery with blue stripe.

Thank you Rob for posting these fascinating photos every day! The first two of this evening's selection are a reminder that J39s were originally considered to be mixed traffic locos and were sometimes used on Express Passenger turns. Also a reminder of how welcome a new model would be, to replace the elderly Bachmann model with its clunky boiler bands, amongst other things!

In fact now I think about it, there were announcements made while I was waiting at intermediate stations asking passengers to stand back from the platform edge as trains approached in case a door was opened before the train stopped, which may perhaps have been in response to the incident mentioned. I think the phrase was to ask passengers to stand clear of the coping stones (there aren't any yellow lines, thankfully!).

I had a very enjoyable day at the Great Central Railway's Winter Steam gala on Saturday, which included an excellent all day breakfast in the Griddle Car on a non stop run from Loughborough to Leicester on the 1345 departure (75069 + 73156). It was a very well organised event making full use of the double track, with frequent passenger trains interspersed with freights, so there was almost always something on the move to watch. I would really recommend the GCR as a heritage railway incarnation of a proper steam main line! As far as I remember the non stop I was on was announced at Loughborough as non stop to Leicester by station announcements and finger boards, but I don't think there is any PA on the trains. Neither are there door stewards or any kind of door locking. In fact I thought it unusual (although nothing at all wrong with it) that the middle doors of the Mk1 TSOs were available for use - these days most I've come across on heritage lines have them locked or sealed. I don't believe any of the trains I was on exceeded 25mph at any point, and such was the density of the traffic that the train was checked almost to a stand at Quorn and Rothley due to preceding trains still 'in section' ahead in any case. Later I rode on the single unit Derby Lightweight DMU M79900 and was waiting for it to 'get going' then realised it wasn't allowed to exceed 25mph! I believe the higher speed limit which they have authorisation for only applies when the line is not open to fare paying passengers, i.e. so that the railway can benefit from revenue from third parties using it for such things as testing new stock or for training purposes etc.

Thanks Gilbert! You can always add some to the 'round tuit' mountain, although it's quite big enough already!

To join in about textures (or not) on model buildings, I get what is said about using printed papers, and embossed mortar courses being too deep, but on the whole I find it easiest to work with Slater's embossed products. I'm happy working with Plasticard anyway, and find it easy to add details such as plinth courses, sills, quoins and arched courses above doors and windows using Plasticard. Sometimes the bricks can have a rounded surface (but this seems to vary from sheet to sheet) so I tend to rub lightly over them with fine sandpaper before starting, which also gives a key for painting. It also suits the way I paint and weather buildings (and rolling stock etc) as I am happiest using enamels which may or may not be thinned as necessary with white spirit to produce washes. Also, I have seen examples of buildings covered with printed sheets of various sorts which have faded or discoloured quite badly over time with exposure to light, which won't happen (as far as I know) with my Plasticard buildings!

Not really. After 68846 was painted up for display at the Wood Green Exhibition (but still in BR stock) the injectors were painted red: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394992177894 It was used like that for a while as a shed pilot at King's Cross before it was sold to Captain Smith. Possibly injectors were always painted red but were never cleaned so they didn't stay like that for long?

"Baker": https://www.platform5.com/Catalogue/Maps-Atlases-Track-Diagrams/Rail-Atlas-Great-Britain-Ireland-15th-Edition-ORAGBI15

I cancelled mine about a year ago, mainly because I was finding that there was very little of interest in it for me. I thought the best bits were the product reviews, but obviously they weren't always of items that I would buy!

Do you by any chance mean me?! If so, thank you for those kind words and if not, I quite agree and this is what I did to try and improve things:

It's a very long time since I used to lean against those railings and watch the trains (even longer since those signals were replaced by a colour light), but I think it said B (for Branch) or M (for Main),

Pretty sure the LMS locos would have come from Bletchley via Bedford. Passenger services on that line originated from Oxford and Bletchley, and there was also quite a bit of cross country freight by that route. I have seen pictures of Jubilees and ex LNW Super Ds at Cambridge that had worked over that line. LMS locos also came to Cambridge from Kettering via Huntingdon and St. Ives, but not big locos on that route due to weight restrictions; e.g. on the wooden viaduct at Godmanchester. At the end of steam on the Bletchley line, it was almost entirely Black 5s.

Sounds like "Operation Quickspend" on Network SouthEast!

I'm not sure whether the steam operation at Wolsztyn in Poland counts as 'real' or not. Undoubtedly it would have ceased years ago were it not for the efforts of The Wolsztyn Experience, and more recently interested people locally, but it does provide an ordinary passenger train daily, shown in the public timetable as such and open to ordinary fare paying passengers, and it isn't in a tourist area. Currently it's down to one working loco (2-8-2 Pt47 65) and one return trip each weekday afternoon, although they do have plans to return other locos to traffic.

Looking forward to my visit; most likely on the Friday.

Even less precision job: I fitted small washers over the keeper plate retaining screws, sandwiched between the keeper plate and the chassis block, which give an extra smidgen of downward travel to the sprung axle. Quite agree re. performance, I have three Bachmann ones and one Hornby; the Hornby doesn't get used as it stalls every time on the dead frogs of the Peco double slips (OK there shouldn't really be any dead frogs on the layout, but when I built it Peco didn't make live frog double slips, and changing it now would be too much of a faff). Whereas thanks to the sprung middle axle, the Bachmann ones sail across every time, even at dead slow. The later Bachmann 08s have modified pick ups which don't collect crud, but the earlier ones I modified by soldering short pieces of wire across the tops of the pick up wipers, such that the wipers now run on top of the flanges rather than on top of the wheel treads; they no longer collect crud, as @34theletterbetweenB&D says.

I thought that too, as Jeumont is / was a station of some importance on an international main line (although now a terminus for passenger trains from the French side; it is no longer on a through passenger route into Belgium). But, it wasn't obvious but I think the premise of the plot was that the murder was discovered as the train left Jeumont (in the opening scene) and the station where the coaches were detached and the action took place was a subsequent wayside station along the line towards Paris. Although having said that, the weed strewn Czech branch line didn't really give a very good impression of a French main line!

To be honest, this 'singles only' policy is getting on my wick a bit. Apparently it is in the name of simplification. I live in York which is well placed for train travel and I use the trains a lot, as public transport. If I go to Scarborough for example, I can buy a return ticket and use it to come back any time I like, which seems very convenient and is the same as it has always been. What could be simpler. The same applies if I go to Leeds, Harrogate or Hull amongst many other places. But if I want to go to Newark, Darlington or Newcastle for example, I can only buy a single for the outward journey. Very often when I set off, I don't know what train I'll be coming back on. But luckily, the staff at York Travel Centre are very amenable and are happy to sell me an anytime single in the reverse direction to come back with. But that makes more work for them. LNER seem to think they're like an airline, where passengers have to finalise their plans in advance and pick the flight at the time of booking. OK I might sometimes do that, if for example I go to visit relatives in Scotland, but on day trips out for relatively short journeys, it doesn't seem appropriate to have to tie yourself down to when you want to come back. In fact, you could say what is the point of having a frequent, "turn up and go" train service, if you can't do that exactly that? Perhaps I'm missing the point, being not one of the Smartphone generation, although I do use one, but not usually for things like buying tickets. I have often thought of writing to them with my thoughts, but don't expect they'd take any notice. It's a pity, because in other ways I like LNER as a train company. Apologies for the rant, I don't often rise to the bait of subjects like this but this one is getting to me more than a bit!

I watched that; it was interesting! In another episode (sorry can't remember which one) they filmed some railway scenes in Belgium on I believe the CF3V line, Mariembourg-Treignies. At least it looks a bit more like France than the Czech Republic does! The SNCB station at Binche also featured in one of them. From the credits at the end it looks as though TV production companies from Belgium, Czech and Switzerland as well as France were involved in making the series.