MarkC

Good post, Mike (DLI Mike, that is), I'm 63 next month, and I'm wondering just when/how that happened... Mark

Ah, now we scumbag seamen were often restricted to visiting the <Friendship Clubs>, where one was initially subjected to a lecture on the virtues of the Soviet system, but after that, cheap booze was available until, as I vaguely recall, the last person's tonsils were awash... At that point, time was of no real consequence... *hic* 😏

Back for Good - Take That

Only personal recollections from having the misfortune to call at USSR ports in the early 1980s, I'm afraid

ISTR that the USSR did similar - everything was on Moscow time...

Thanks, Ian Cheers Mark

Flash - Queen

Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty

Not a Mk 1 at all 😔 http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=825&fbclid=IwAR1-yDJPX3mVlhNjxPQRP0vLX7ouc5texd87zIyYrepAdgxmdzpQliEJg4E Mystery solved. Now to find drawings... Mark

Departmental vehicle - inspection saloon, I think?

I've amended the number - this was, I think, an inspection saloon of some sort, possibly based at York?

I'm looking to make a model of Saloon E962450, but as yet have had no luck sourcing any decent photos or drawings. Help with my search greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Mark

Just picked up a completed DJH D20 for £95. No other bids. Well pleased 😎

Had a walk to the top of Roseberry Topping today, and stopped for well-earned beer & food at a pub at the bottom afterwards.(The King's Head in Newton-under-Roseberry). Food was great, as was this brew. Love the name too... Mark

Ditto Mark

I've already commented on Wright Writes, but can I just say a big thank you again to all involved. Great show, excellent layouts, good trade support. Let's hope that the society is happy to continue putting this one on. Mark

Just had an email - publication date now 1st October. If I wanted to, (I don't), the option to cancel is there. Mark

I'd just like to add my support for the Expo EM North show. Another great effort by all concerned, and I would encourage all who can to go & visit. Excellent layouts, good trade support and always nice to meet up with folk one knows. Seeing Tony & Mo was a bonus - and I'm delighted to hear that the sale of the goodies he took went well 👍 Mark

45 years ago, when I was starting my career, the traditional maritime ports still had a great understanding of shipping. The likes of South Shields, for example, saw 30,000 men & boys go to sea in the Merchant Navy during WW2 - 10,000 of them are still "on passage". And yet, these days, the same town has pretty much forgotten it all. Mark

I hadn't given this "tweaking reality" thinking much time until I read this thread - but it's an interesting one. My own layout - a simple single track, single platform through station, with a small goods yard, on a now long-gone branch line. At a specific period of time, be it pre-Grouping, Grouping, early BR or Modernisation Plan BR, trains would have been few, and most would have been similar locos & stock. Pretty boring to the average person, I suggest. However, by running an assortment of trains that would have been seen on the line throughout its life, some of which were real oddball one-off workings, I hope to keep viewers entertained, especially as time between trains will be compressed. Who knows what we will see next? An early DMU? A pre-Grouping train, all ornately lined out locomotive with matching gleaming stock? A work-worn goods loco pottering about with the weekly pickup goods? Let's wait & find out... The other compromise, of course, is that the station itself, with associated detailing, can't easily be switched between time periods, so the trick here is to have the little cameos for folk to see, and have it looking interesting enough to be more than a simple backdrop to the trains. Will it work? We certainly think that it does for us, so hopefully viewers will too. We'll find out in February... Mark

Well, ships carry boats, but not vice versa... As an aside, submariners refer to their craft as "boats", but as you have to be slightly mad to be a sun-dodger, we'll let them off! (And I'm allowed to say so as I have a 2-ring nephew who served on those HM war canoes that sailed, dived & didn't surface again for several months, and whose whereabouts were very much kept close to the Admiralty's collective chest. Purveyors of instant sunshine if so required, as it were...) Mark

If I recall correctly she had an Archimedes screw arrangement for getting the coal into the machinery spaces, and this regularly jammed, Nightmare for the crew. Mark

Always prefer pneumatic gear - as long as you've got good, dry air for it. Oh, and don't let the damn Mate bxggxr about with the cargo plant controls either... "I was just fine tuning it, but now it's not working". The whole plant - banjaxed... I asked said idiot to show me what he'd used - he produced a personal tool kit. He made the mistake of handing it to me. Oops - it accidentally fell over the wall... Mark

There are a few copies on Amazon - but an eye-watering price. FROM GBP76.44, PLUS GBP2.79 postage. 😲 There's also one on eBay - a more acceptable GBP20.30, including postage Mark

Look on that as saving you an awful lot of paperwork... 🤪 Mark