MR Chuffer

I have half a dozen modern Bachmann steam outline locos - no problem.

I'd check out Morley Controllers. Was having problems with my Gaugemaster Combi with older Triang/Hornby/Ks motors, not enough umpph. The Vector 3 Crawler has loads of umpph, 2 controllers, DC and AC ports, plus CDU and 2 wired remote controllers for less than £100. V happy...

Calderstones - this was originally a line to a brickworks shown on ordnance surveys of c.1905 at NLS. Later extended into the hospital grounds when that was built around 1913. Evidence of the trackbed from the Blackburn-Clitheroe line still exists, walk down the footpath besides the Eagle at Barrow to the bottom of the field and cross the track. The scrubby woodland to your left on the west side of the line is where the exchange sidings were. And there is a road overbridge on Mitton Road where the line passed to the vicinity of the hospital and to the brickworks.

I think that's what Tracked 24 hours means, priority, and why so many eBayers are getting their goods next day, which can't all be medication, and RM will not always know the parcel contents. As I said, commercial reality....

I've just had my online prescription delivered, Royal Mail Tracked 24 delivery, the next day -posted Friday, a strike day. It's only a small packet but I suspect they (RM, Unions..?) are paranoid about losing this profitable and expanding business. Letters? Meh...

Thanks for the clarification. Having just acquired a kit-built Ratio Brake third and a composite in decent shape and livery pending next year's Hatton 6 wheelers and my dilatory efforts in building my own Ratio kits, I have 2 carriages and wondered how prevalent it was for the MR to run with one brake. I'm guessing, better with 2 brakes...

Although the photo is a little indistinct, any ideas what the carriages are? It looks like only one brake to me.

And for @Compound2632, @jamie92208, @WFPettigrew and others interested in coal traffic, these are the missing files, courtesy of @eastglosmog which provide some insights into railway coal traffic, as it was likely that loaded trains travelling east to west could quite conceivably travel the reverse direction loaded, notwithstanding PO wagons. It was all down to the end use of the quality of coal. I recently purchased on excellent book, The Rise and Fall of King Coal, amply illustrated and with much to interest the railway enthusiast.

Its all in here...

Similar to mine, but mine is based on a real branch line, the Barnoldswick one just north of Colne. That was indeed funded by local business people who opened the just under 2 mile branch in 1871 after they had been bypassed by the Midland Railway's Skipton to Colne line in 1848. The Midland operated the branch from day 1 and the line was a success paying a 5% dividend to its shareholders such that the Midland bought them out in 1899. And it remained a busy line for both goods and passengers until complete closure in 1966. So I'm trying to create a similar sort of "feel" and I'm looking forwarding to seeing Kirtley close up at the show.

I once posted about this and someone sent me a very interesting distribution map of UK coalfields and their qualities. Unfortunately since the great server wipe down these are now lost and I have no local copy but have requested them again from the originator and I'll repost. And yes, Lancashire coal was good for gas generation (and therefore coke byproducts), but terrible for brewing beer (see attachment) Death_in_a_beerglass.pdf In the meantime, whilst I wait for the files, there is this: 1. Peat is the first stage in the process, still used after drying as a fuel, but has the ability to hold significant volumes of liquid so is a highly effective absorbent for spillages, while its water retaining qualities make it an ideal soil conditioner; 2. Lignite (brown coal) is the lowest grade but suitable as fuel for electric power generation. As an aside Jet is a compact form of lignite and often used in ornaments and jewellery; 3. Sub-bituminous coal is used as fuel for electric power generation, and is a source of hydrocarbons for the production of chemical synthetics; 4. Bituminous coal is dense and used mainly as fuel for electric power generation, for generating heat and power in manufacturing, and the production of coke and gas; 5. Steam coal was so-called because it was ideal for firing boilers for steam locomotives and ships. It was also the general grade used in domestic open fires; 6. Anthracite is a hard shiny black coal used primarily for residential and commercial space heating; 7. Graphite, whilst technically a coal, is commonly used in pencils and is also a low-friction lubricant.

According to the website about Barlick (aka Barnoldswick in Lancashire now but Yorkshire pre-1974), a Mr Billycock, a go-getting entrepreneur developing the cotton weaving industry in Barlick ".. By the time he finished Wellhouse he controlled the Corn Mill, eventually buying it. Outside the town he had an engineering works and iron foundry in Burnley and even purchased a coal field at Ingleton with a brickworks." And "In 1870 he was the chairman and main investor in building the branch railway line from Barlick to the Colne Skipton line at Earby. All this in just over thirty years." Elon Musk of his time? As for dates.

Thx, and Pendle, I had decided not to go this year as it had got a bit same-y and not my modelling profile - no pre-grouping! - Kirtley Bridge's attendance is just the incentive I need.

Your buildings, walls and other "brick like" structures, what materials/products have you used to create them as they are so authentically "northern" and I'm struggling to get away from the far more common brick-based structure products? I think the generic name is "ashlar", which can be "random" for earlier structures and becomes more brick like later on and any tips that might transfer from 7mm to my 4mm set up would be very helpful. Thx in anticipation.

Back to MR Shunters Trucks, there was some debate upthread about them and how many the Midland might have had, and that The Pregrouping Railways website having a model. Well I was researching single plank wagons this morning and was reading up on LNWR 1plk (Dia.1) and it says this: The LNWR built 20,000 of these wagons between 1857 and 1904....... Even though they were built in vast numbers their numbers had dropped to 6 of the shorter wagon by 1923. However these wagons were rebuilt in to other wagon diagrams which also accounts for the low numbers in 1923. 75 were converted to shunter’s trucks (dia 51) between 1894 and 1910,.... Given the tendency for major (and minor) companies to "follow" fashions in wagon building, this is one big number of wagons for the LNWR to find usefulness in compared, say, to its arch rival the Midland.

Titanic Plum Porter one of our landlord's favourites, he's got some in for his birthday later this week, and Ossett White Rat, top top beer even though it's a bit below my alcohol threshold (4.5 to 5%+) but so tasty, as most Ossett beers, how do they do it at this strength?

With your penchant for accuracy, and you kindly provided me with your summary of which are the closest models to actual MR 6 wheelers, which ones are you planning to buy? I identified the 1st/3rd lavatory composite, the 3rd, one of which I shall mess around with by blanking out windows and rearranging grab handles to represent a Brake 3rd, and a Full Brake from which I shall remove the centre wheels so that it resembles a D.529 Full Brake, although of a longer length

5 billion? How do they know? That's probably a lot of Chinese in there in the middle of the night. Think it is reasonable to say a lot of people saw it, I didn't....

And then there was Sheffield Wednesday....

I drop in here occasionally to admire your work, I like busy yards, but why send coal empties to Dewchurch? Is there a coal mine there or coal loading point?

No, I'm very precise in that people are lashing out and crying out "windfall tax, windfall tax", but on whom, a multinational corporation with head offices in Riyadh. And was their profit north of $40bn in the last quarter?

As has always been the case..

Hopefully, my pension should reap the enhanced dividends then, but probably not enough to keep the heating on.

I was listening to a Radio 4 News interview with, I think, an Ofgem representative when questioned about its policies. And that this is much less than the supermarkets make of between 2 and 3%. And so a quick web search came up with this, as in: "In 2021 profits earned by the large legacy suppliers continued to vary substantially, but generally showed a decline. In 2021, British Gas was the only supplier with a positive margin which stayed relatively stable at 1.73% compared to 1.75% in 2020" After all, if it was such a "fat margin" business, how come we lost 30 suppliers over the last 2 years... Just sayin'

This still doesn't makes sense, in a global economy, you want to handicap UK-based companies generating profits globally against foreign owned companies milking it in the UK? Not sure that'll work, and many of us on here have our pensions invested in the major energy companies on our behalf so double whammy.