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Claude_Dreyfus

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Claude_Dreyfus last won the day on October 14 2010

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About Claude_Dreyfus

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  • Location
    Sunny Sussex
  • Interests
    Railways!
    Music, History, fish, Tortoises and Guinea Pigs...

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  1. I only went into Lidl for some tonic water...

     

    *Examines new pressure washer.*

     

    #curseofthemiddleaisle

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Claude_Dreyfus

      Claude_Dreyfus

      A tragedy indeed, but we have definitely plenty of gin. Problem is it easily falls out of sequence...a bit like the 'Pimms Conundrum'; you either run out of Pimms or you have run out of lemonade. Disaster!  

    3. Hroth

      Hroth

      You need someone to stand by your shoulder whispering "You don't need that..."

    4. Claude_Dreyfus

      Claude_Dreyfus

      Sadly the decision was aided and abetted by Mrs Dreyfus...

  2. Quite possibly, it often leads to 'where is this set' type questions. That was my way of getting around it. Didn't stop all of the questions, some still didn't see the full-sized Japanese flag at the front. More frightening were those who did not recognise the flag itself!
  3. It's Pancake Day, yes it's Pancake Day, yes it's P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P Pancake day!

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Hroth

      Hroth

      Yes, but how many did you eat???

       

       

    3. Claude_Dreyfus

      Claude_Dreyfus

      Not enough to put me off my dinner...

    4. Corbs

      Corbs

      Pancake day is a regular fixture

  4. I have loved railways for as long as I can recall, influenced by holidays (mainly Cornwall), my father's model railways (German, Swiss and Austrian) and an enthusiastic head teacher from my primary school who encouraged my interest. My interest really took hold for watching real railways in 1989 when I started senior school. The Coastway West ran along the end of our school fields, with the Lavant branch running along side the science and art blocks. There was a surprising variety along the main line then, with regular engineers trains (33 or 73, usually the latter), plus the Portfield oils (37 or 47), Ardingly aggregates (always a 56), and of course the Lavant gravel shuttle (always a 73 when I saw it). Regular visits to London from about 1990 (into Waterloo) properly introduced me to the class 50, and I have happy memories of a day trip to a number of termini that year. Oh, to have had a camera back then!! That got me properly started, and although I didn't travel regularly I managed to get a reasonable haul of numbers in the early to mid 90s, mainly residents and visitors to the south-east. Although I have not collected numbers for many years, I still like to take a few pictures...
  5. We took our club 70s set DR layout 'Inspired by Friedrichstrasse' to a show recently only to find the owner of the layout next door lived in Berlin in the 70s! What is more, a few other visitors and other exhibitors had either done the same or visited the city during that time. I expected one or two would have known the layout during that period, but there were more than i would have imagined! Fortunately the purpose of the layout was to capture the essence of the place, as opposed to being a slavish copy, and the comments were very positive. My Japanese layouts have been similar conversation starters with people who lived, or visited there. In terms of overseas layouts at exhibitions, a good variety will attract me to a show, whereas I tend not to bother with shows that have no-overseas offerings. That is not to say I will ignore British models...far from it...I just like the variety a well-rounded show offers. I am less fond of excessively twee models, or those which chuck every cliché in the book at the layout. For example, none of my Japanese layouts had a pagoda or set of torii gates, or regular Bullet trains. They take the subject seriously. I would add, the addition of cliché and tweeness has appeared on a fair few UK layouts as well (although not the Bullet Trains!).
  6. I have seen the proposed changes timetable, and there isnlt much there to 'improve' the service. There are a few things would immediately improve the service (at least from an Arun Valley perspective) however. A later departure from VIC along the Arun valley (the current 22:30ish departure is not much use). People want to use the trains, but if the service isn't there (theatre, concerts etc, normally don't finish in time to get to VIC for the last train of the day), they're not much use. People drive to Horsham or even across to Haslemere to get the later services (good I suppose for car park revenues). The proposed timetable changes make the Portsmouth service much slower, so renders the splits at Horsham rather pointless. There was a lot of anger when Southern introduced this from passengers along the Arun Valley, removing the direct Chichester service from the Arun Valley stations, as well as making the journey to London longer as there is an additional wait at Horsham for the 'fast' section to arrive/depart. It would be better for the passenger to return the Bognor split back to Barnham. Naïve I know, but the degradation in service was not reflected in the ticket prices from our local station... Reinstate the well patronised London Bridge directs. The justification for their withdrawal was straight out of the Beaching sleight of hand play-book. Withdraw the later afternoon service and then say the service isn't used. Guess what, the 18:05 was withdrawn 'due to Covid' and the 17:05 was retained. A 17:05 departure from London Bridge may work for Southern managers and Civil Servants, but was pretty useless for those who actually do a day's work in the city. The trains to London Bridge are now very well patronised, with large numbers of passengers joining the Thameslink services to get to the city. There is certainly a case to reinstate this, and other LBG directs. I know Southern have no intention of doing any of these things - they spent years trying to dump the London Bridge directs, so I don't expect them to return, and given the rather pathetic excuses given not to run a later train (engineering works was one (do they have engineering works every night on the Arun Valley? Of course they don't...)), that ain't going to happen either.
  7. A couple of pictures from the 1990s featuring de-icing units. Picture quality is not great as these are scans from prints. First up is 930017 at Eastleigh in about March 1994. It was quite early, and the winter sun was very bright, so not a great photo. That said, I'm glad I managed to get this picture, as it is another of those unrepeatable pictures... A few years later, and in a newer livery, 930005 rests at Haslemere.
  8. I have a set of ADE centre entry bogie carriages in DB Green. Despite being around 40 years old, the level of detail is excellent and they hold their own against far more modern offerings. I did not, however, realise they produced locomotives.
  9. Not really the weather for taking photographs; dull and foggy, whilst running through a cutting! 155311 passes north from Pulborough forming the 2Q10 09:58 Barnham Up Sidings - Tonbridge West Yard via London Bridge. 29 January 2024.
  10. They also produced the tamper in N. I have one. Lovely looking model, but the motor was absolute rubbish and the build quality suspect. I bought it from Hobby Search, and had to send back for repair/replacement. HS were excellent and the service they provided was first-rate. Had it repaired and returned at no extra cost.
  11. Nice to see the layout on here in more detail. I do like Austrian railways, and am currently at the top of that slippery slope having got hold of some OBB stock last year. I did not visit Ally Pally last year, but some club colleagues did and were of the view that this was the stand-out layout of the show. Would definitely like to see this 'in the flesh' one day.
  12. They will be, and there will be no concession for overseas modellers! Manufacturers such as Green Max are very much for the domestic market. Keep an eye on some of the Japanese for (the English language JNS forum for example) as someone on there may tackle it.
  13. Agree, Hobby Search are very good. Note about the kit, it is not motorised, nor by the sounds of things will it be easy to fit a motor. Obviously someone will do it...will be interested to see how it will be done.
  14. GBRf 66304 leads the 6G12 11:02 Eastleigh East Yard - Gatwick service through Pulborough on 20 January 2024.
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