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Based on my dealings previously with TV people, I doubt that you had an awful lot of say in how, or what they wanted to do. But it does strike me as a bit unfortunate that people were prevented from coming in. Is it that having people in the shop wouldn't fit their narrative that model railways are in decline? I really do hope that that wasn’t their intention. It’ll be interesting to see how this is presented in the final broadcast piece. This was posted by @iL Dottore this morning on the Early Risers thread. It’s a really interesting read IMHO; https://thecritic.co.uk/death-of-the-model-railway/

…and no doubt Fat Alan was looking forward to his evening later at the WMC and a pint or three from what at that time would have been Barnsley Brewery. I guess Vera would be at the bingo.

I'll put this here as it's a potential photo opportunity that some might wish to consider. There're a couple of paths in the system from Strawberry Hill CSD to London Waterloo and return on 27th January. The rumour mill suggests that it might be 4 Vep 3417 top 'n' tailed by a pair of class 73s and is in connection with Gordon Pettitt's 90th birthday. The information has been posted on another forum and given that this Saturday isn't the 1st April and apparently has been confirmed by an 'industry source', there may well be some truth in it. Paths below for anyone interested; 5Z73 Strawberry Hill CSD to London Waterloo 5Z74 London Waterloo to Strawberry Hill CSD

Resistance is futile. A Colas grid will be on its way to me today. Looking forward to recreating my little part of West Yorkshire.

It was a ballast train derailment during an engineers’ possession around Mitre Bridge Junction last Sunday apparently. Reported elsewhere as; “6R03 train involved, derailed whilst making a propelling move, has taken out 4 overhead gantries in the process”.

Another blast from the past - although it's only nine years ago. January 16th 2015 and a South West Trains class 158 crosses the bridge over the Lymington River on its way to Lymington Pier.

An urban class 150.

Glad they'll be of help @MarshLane. The ones that I've uploaded here are low-res 1500x1125 files. If the full size from the camera would be of more use - generally they're 4224x3168 around 6Mb in size - drop me a PM and I can email them to you, or provide a link where you'll be able to download them from.

From images that I've seen on the internet the LU's 4-TC is fitted with CDL. And door window bars too as it happens.

And also much more representative of the type of tampers that are seen on Network Rail for modellers of the current scene.

These are some close up photos of a B5(S) bogie and a Mk6 bogie fitted to 3 Cig 1497. To all intents and purposes they'll be identical to those fitted beneath a 4 Vep. For comparison, here is the bogie fitted to a class 73. I hope those will be of help. The photos were taken at the Eastleigh Works Centenary Open Day on 24th May 2009. I've just had a pleasant trip down memory lane looking at those images again. 😀

You could try using something like this; Horolene Make up a solution sufficient to immerse the parts you want to clean.

This might help a bit; “For the body of a car, Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) is generally considered the best material. It is an alloy with additional metallic elements and solutions to increase strength. The key characteristic of AHSS is its tensile (i.e. a material that can be shaped and stretched) strength, which can be measured and graded in mega-pascal (MPa). AHSS and its different grades are categorised by vehicle producers and associations, showing that product differentiation plays an important role in automotive steel – something that can be potentially useful when considering steel differentiation according to carbon intensity.” It’s taken from here https://www.pubaffairsbruxelles.eu/opinion-analysis/can-the-cars-we-buy-drive-green-steel-production/ which, to me, is an interesting read but I also acknowledge that this is a complex issue of which this is but one dimension. If I’ve read the piece correctly, in summary an electric arc furnace can produce AHSS steel, but it’s difficult to do at scale because of the volume of specific scrap material required. That brings in significant questions around economics and logistics. I’ve not seen those answered yet.

Yes. Not a gentle 'kiss' was it.

Rather unfortunate. Fortunately though no injuries reported, other than just pride. Two Royal Navy warships collide off coast of Bahrain

I don’t know enough about the economics of the global market for steel and the steel producers, but I’d suggest that the market is unduly distorted by the production in ‘low cost’ countries and the consequent ‘dumping’ of low cost (and possibly lower quality) steel onto the world market. Abandoning the UK’s ability to produce virgin steel and relying solely on overseas production as a source in time of growing global conflict, longer supply chains and an uncertain financial climate, strikes me as unwise in the extreme. is this just another example of ‘the race to the bottom’?

To add to @Nearholmer’s post yesterday which mentioned “The basics of the branch in history terms, and good detail of the infrastructure, are given in Volume 2 of the Wild Swan Southern Branch Lines set”, another good reference is ‘From Devon to Dorset - The story of the Lyme Regis Branch’, by Martin Smith and George Reeve. Published by Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-903266-37-8. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstrathwood.co.uk%2Fproducts%2Ffrom-devon-to-dorset-the-story-of-the-lyme-regis-branch&psig=AOvVaw082oqZRmlT-6UD08llngKD&ust=1705836756163000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBMQjRxqFwoTCLC3rKbv64MDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Makes a change from swearing at your parcel courier. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68025677 I would guess there will be more instances of this as ‘AI’ spreads further.

It would seem, from WNXX, that DB Cargo parking up their 60s might be down to another reason; “…they are not currently dispensed with but are not being used at the moment. It transpires an issue has been discovered with 60062, undergoing a B exam at Toton, which has caused the stopping of 60024 & 60074.”

Also aided by Bob’s style of delivery. He was so good. My God, we could do with some of that right now IMHO.

Not sure if photo-competitions are of interest, but the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is currently open. Details here; https://apy.rmg.co.uk/ https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/competition

I know it's Wiki, but is this one close to what you had in mind, if you've not already seen it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHSmith#/media/File:Horsted_keynes_station_W_H_Smiths_stall.jpg

They're not the last blast furnaces functioning as Scunthorpe still, for now, have theirs although closure of those was announced too last November. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-67329074

It's my understanding that the paths are generally retained throughout the year in both the 'summer' and 'winter' working timetables. This allows Network Rail the flexibility to continue to run them, as required, beyond the nominal end of the RHTT season. For example, the timetable for my local station at Huddersfield has them currently listed as 'Q' paths (ie runs if required). Here's todays. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:HUD/2024-01-19/0001-0405?stp=WVS&show=freight&order=wtt

I guess from a modelling point of view the question is how far from the third rail? As I'm sure you know, in real life the 74s regularly went off the juice with boat trains to Southampton East and West Docks and also over the West London line and on to the Western Region with coal trains to Acton Yard. Perhaps Southampton Docks isn't that far away from the third rail, but the diagram to Acton Yard was a bit more of a challenge trek for them. There's photo evidence of them occasionally running west of the then limit of the third rail at Branksome, on parcels workings as far as Weymouth. And rail tours taking them to Blandford, Chandlers Ford and Romsey. The market for a 4mm version of them is no doubt small and the corporate blue only livery, perhaps supplemented with a weathered option as they were rarely clean for long, is definitely a limiting factor. But I can still dream.