jonny777

Yes, sorry.

I find that occasionally Vuescan fails to recognise my scanner, but after a few switch on-and-offs it seems to recover again. The easy way to see if it is a hardware fault is to connect the scanner, choose 'about this mac' from the apple drop down menu, then click on the 'system report' button. Then go to whichever is the connection you use, either usb bluetooth or firewire and click on the relevant option. If the computer recognises the hardware its details ought to come up in the box on the right hand side.

D1037 is indeed very easy. It is the west end at Reading.

Yes, the WR in SW England did operate quite a number of 116s in the mid-60s, so there is no problem with one being at LA. I lost all my pre-67 notes, but from what I remember there were a mixture of 116s, 117s, 120s and 121s working various services in that area.

This may have been discussed before, but have you tried Vuescan? http://www.hamrick.com/ I know it costs a few notes, but everyone I know who has bought it wishes they had had it bundled with their scanner from the start. I scanned all my slides with the Minolta software, then did just one with Vuescan and realised I now had a transformation in what I could get out of a previously rather dark image. I set about re-scanning everything and have my fingers crossed that the scanner will hold out long enough to finish them all again.

And yet the Temple Meads shunter always had a brake van in the 1980s which the shunting staff rode in. Here it is, even as late as 1992,

Yes, very nice to be able to find a silver washed fritillary that will remain still enough to get close for a photo. I find the few that I occasionally get in my garden, fly off just as I get to within a few feet.

There is a Mac version of Photoshop. It is not just PC software. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Photoshop-Elements-Mac-Download/dp/B00NPAHWO4/ref=sr_1_2?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1423560033&sr=1-2&keywords=photoshop+for+macs But if you want Mac photo editing software that is cheap and simple to use, then Graphic Converter should be fine. http://www.graphic-converter.net/mac-graphic-converter.htm

The WD appears to be on the up fast, which is rather unusual. I bet the driver is feeling really privileged, but maybe the guard will be in for a bumpy ride if the driver pretends he is on an A3.

I did have a problem, not with a parcels courier but with an online supermarket delivery driver. I booked my hour delivery slot for my online groceries, and waited on the day. When no one turned up, and after giving them an hours grace I phoned the depot only to be told that the driver had returned to the warehouse because my address didn't exist. I asked how they knew it didn't exist when I was living there, but they thought I was being funny. Eventually, they agreed for the delivery driver to contact me personally, during which conversation he told me that he had been to the T-junction where he was supposed to turn left, but could only turn right and that was a cul-de-sac so he couldn't turn right at the end of that road. I asked why he could not turn left at the T-junction and he said it was not the same road, and I assured him it was. He replied that he knew it wasn't because he had been there. I said that it certainly was the same road because not only had I been there but I had lived in the same house (that apparently didn't exist) for 25 years. After about 5 minutes of him insisting that he was right, he eventually relented and said he would try it again - which he did and turned up 20 minutes later. However, there was little or no communication from him - he just gave me the carrier bags and left sharpish.

I remember that being said by the (then) chairman of the BRB (Richard Marsh I think) in front of the TV cameras way back in the 1970s, after being asked a political question by some pushy Tory-biased interviewer about it being more efficient to replace trains by buses. It certainly shut the interviewer up for a short while; long enough for Marsh to move on.

I'm afraid that my involvement with couriers is more unintentional comedy than horror. One of my neighbours are away a lot and I often take parcels for them when they are not at home. One morning the postwoman called to say would I take a package for the neighbour's neighbour on their opposite side to us, and asked if I knew they were away. I said I didn't know but it was quite possible, and she said there was a parcel outside their front door and it might be a good idea if I took that as well. We walked around and their recycling box was still outside from the previous day, so I said I would and put a note through their letterbox to say what had happened - which I did. Later that day there was a knock at the door, and the neighbour was there so I gave him the parcel; only to have him explain that he had left it there for a courier to pick up in the middle of the day. I apologised profusely, and although he was obviously irritated he seemed to blame the postwoman rather than me, although she was only trying to be helpful as well.

Sadly, though, there are politicians who think only of getting extra votes; who will jump on the bandwagon of nonsense such as this and put it forward as a well thought out plan.

I have no info for D854 on 23rd or 24th. I didn't see it at Exeter on the 23rd, and I had a railway-day-off on 24th. However, on the Martin/Mark info that I have - for Friday 23rd it states - - D854, M/R (Teddington c/w switches defective). But I am not sure precisely what that means in terms of availability.

Oh no. Not again. I thought we discounted D845 as it would have been at Old Oak Common?

Is this allowed? You should be able to do "save image as" with them.

If D852 was inside the works shed, then I would not have seen it so many times on my travels through the station. The problem is that The Book Of The Warships lists 852 as stored at LA between 25th May and 26th Aug, which hardly explains how I have it down in my notebook at NA on 19th, 21st, 22nd and 26th of that month. I could not have misread the number that many times, surely; and it must have been in the open for me to see it from the train/platform. I presume that it was stored serviceable and like D842 (the other 43 that I have as stored NA) could have been reinstated in a short time if the need arose?

That is possible Neil. Maybe the train ran from Radyr or Llantrisant with coal for West Drayton and went via Reading yard to Acton? But it was a regular Hymek job, at least in 1973/4 when I was taking notice. Edited; to add that it may have also made a stop at Slough, to detach coal wagons for the industrial estate.

Yes, wasn't 8A87 the West Drayton coal working from Reading yard? Mind you, I am going from memory now so highly unreliable.

In case anyone needs it for modelling purposes, here is a close up of the consist -

If Pixie's comment about the time of day, due to the shadows, is not a joke; I reckon it was sometime around late morning. Newton Abbot station is virtually North - South in orientation, and the shadows seem to be quite short but not in front of the locos. My guess is that the photo was taken the following day Sunday Aug 24th. It would make sense as the front two locos would not have been there in the middle of the previous day. I can't add any personal Warship photos, but because I have had a great afternoon/evening down memory lane, here is D1054 at White Waltham on a parcels train with a great variety selection of vehicles.

Well, looking at my spotting notes from the two weeks that I was down there while my parents were on holiday in Paignton, I saw D852 half a dozen times and every time was at Newton Abbot - not anywhere else. This suggests it was indeed parked somewhere on the depot. The other times it may have been obscured by locos in front of it as I passed by on the train, or I just became fed up with writing it down every day.

Were you on Exeter station during that month, Peter?

My research was much assisted by a few snippets of Warship workings sent to me many years ago by Martin Street when I was trying to discover what event had caused the chaos at Newton Abbot on that day. I was only travelling from Paignton to Exeter, but from the working details of the locos I saw at that station during the 40-odd minutes we were stopped there, showed that up services were running well over an hour late. I never did discover the cause, but credit must go to Martin and Mark Alden for the original info.

That's a shame, because (and this is a long, long shot) I have just found that D856 did work 1V72 the 0733 Liverpool to Paignton forward from Temple Meads on Saturday 23rd August 1969. It then worked the empty stock to NA and was stabled on the depot. Edited; to say, furthermore - D807 worked 1V68 from Bristol that day, which was the 0830 Nottingham to Paignton, so would most likely have been at NA as well later in the day. D845 is unlikely (if this madness is correct) because it worked the 1135 Kingswear to Paddington throughout, so probably spent the night at Old Oak Common. D852 was in store at NA at that time.