sixoh8sixoh

It looks lovely but maybe just too new - when you compare to the b&w photo above it looks too pristine. Maybe rough it up a little bit and you’ll be happier with it? I stepped back from model railways for a while and have been painting Warhammer miniatures, and one technique I’ve picked up there is to do a wash of a thinned down dirty colour, then a dry brush of a highlight colour or your original colour over the top.

Afternoon all from north of the Wall! I was on Rails' website looking longingly at the ESU Loksound 50210 and wondering if Santa might bring me one this year, which reminded me of Gordon (as I was chatting with him about his Eastwood Town DCC controller shortly before he passed away), so I thought I'd pop in and say hello. Life keeping me pretty busy - 15 year old and 9 month old girls definitely keeping me busy, and still a while before I can think (other than longingly) about retirement... Absolutely no further forward in planning or building a model railway - 2023 was completely wiped out with a complete redesign of the (only 5 year old) house - study became bedroom, kitchen became study, dining room became kitchen/diner - and garden redesign at the same time as arrival of baby girl. Still in the middle of trying to reorganise everything after the moves... Nice to see many of the old faces are still around... and some new ones too. Hope you're all keeping well!

I was at Locomotion at Shildon on the 3rd and was looking at Locomotion No.1 and thought to myself, I wonder if Hornby will do a model of it for the Stockton and Darlington 200th in 2025... and was pleasantly surprised to see that this morning!

Afternoon all, seeing @BoD's "Inspired by Crianlarich" update gave me a little nudge to pop in to ERs, as I've not visited RMweb for a considerable time! No progress whatsoever has been made on railway modelling other than the acquisition of some new stock (Class 91 and Mk4s set, Caledonian Sleeper 92 and Mk5 coaches, nice Accurascale Deltic, some Consett iron ore wagons etc...), and the modelling cupboards are now overflowing... It was probably more than a year ago that I last visited ERs, so a very quick rundown of events since... Anamaria and I got married in June last year and last month celebrated the arrival of future railway modeller baby Emma. Currently sleep deprived and held hostage to a tiny bundle of lungs. Hope all are well and getting more sleep than me!

The Mary Queen of Scots 37 is tempting. I’d be interested to see the comparison between Bachmann’s new tooling 37 and the Accurascale 37 as both are to 2022 standard.

I think Boydells in Durham was possibly still going in the very early 80s, as I definitely have/had some models from there, and I was only born in 1977... I had a Hornby 37 in BR Blue and I think a Hornby BR green 08 shunter. I remember Staddons too, though that was primarily Airfix and Revell kits in the early 80s. Northumbria Models in Newcastle was a nice little shop, very friendly, and they stocked some of the LINKA moulds, which I remember wanting but never getting. Beatties on Northumberland Street in Newcastle was always a treat as I was fascinated by the trains running round at ceiling height. Thankfully after a long fallow period, Co. Durham is now well served by Durham Trains of Stanley, and there is also the model shop at Chester Moor, though I tend not to visit there so much as Mick at DTOS is a friend and my first line of enquiry for anything!

I've just had the chance to unbox mine, and try it on my short straight. I chipped it with a DCC Concepts Zen V12 Blue+ decoder. Most engines I've tried have run very smoothly from the box but this one is quite stuttery. I'll run it in, but it's unusual in that respect. Looks very pretty, lovely looking loco. Could just do with some nice RTR carriages to run with it!

My pack of 9 arrived last week - they look the part. I never saw the option to order loaded ones, so I’ve got unloaded ones. Would be interested if anyone produces any cast loads or if KR Models offered them as an additional purchase option.

I never had the chance to meet Gordon in person but he was incredibly supportive, helpful and patient and took so much time to share his knowledge and experience with me by PM and through this thread. I finally had the chance to say hello face-to-face during the ERs virtual meet-up which was lovely. My thoughts are with Jackie and Gordon’s family, as I know are all of those who knew Gordon through the forum. A really sad day, losing someone with so much more to achieve and with the energy and outlook of someone half his age. Gordon, you’ll be missed deeply.

I’m so very sorry to hear this. Please send love to Gordon’s family.

That’s great news, really pleased to read it! And thank you BoD for keeping us updated all this time. Fingers crossed Gordon will be back to RMWeb soon and back to the modelling (or at the very least watching the trains go round!) very soon.

We’re all definitely looking forward to seeing more trains running around Eastwood Town, so fingers crossed for you and hope you’re back on your feet soon! (Spoiler alert) Mickelson’s won the US PGA Championship at the age of 50 (just shy of his 51st) so there’s hope for you yet to beat his record! Don’t worry about getting out golfing, the greens will be waterlogged anyway, and it’s been so windy a westbound drive could well have ended up in the Solent… or the Wash! Keep on fighting and we’ll look forward to seeing you soon. Best wishes, Mike & Anamaria

Thanks BoD. Keeping everything crossed and sending positive thoughts.

Guilty as charged. Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, as you’ll probably have read in the news... plus moving my mum and her two dogs up to Edinburgh from Durham. I’m not sure which needs more looking after... On the plus side, my OH and I were both vaccinated on Saturday (before anyone asks, our appointment time was 6 hours after the vial of vaccine went walkies from the EICC!) and then spent yesterday feeling like sh... Tomorrow is hopefully the end of the saga that I’ve been working on for the last 2 years, the formal part of it at any rate. Looks like the Committee will publish tomorrow and there will be a vote of no confidence too and then Parliament rises for the elections on Wednesday night. Roll on purdah! Generic greetings to all as you’ll appreciate I’ve not had time to catch up!

Evening all from south of the Wall, land of the Prince Bishops, Dunelmia, very close to a certain open air museum with a replica of Locomotion No.1... Happy birthday @New Haven Neil! Penultimate night in the house my parents have had for 22 years. Skip number 6 is now filled, most of the stuff that's going is packed, a few things to still be collected by folk with bigger gardens than ours in Edinburgh who might be able to make better use of them. Had an amusing moment while sorting garage, when I got locked in as the electric garage door refused to open (I'd had to shut it to remove some ladders which were catching). No phone so had to rely on my wits to escape...

Evening all from the seriously wilds beyond the Wall... bracing ourselves for Fraggle Rock crashing into Scotland and causing a plant sending the Isle of May off to Norway... Busy day at work, but I’m off for the next four working days while I move my mum up to Edinburgh from Durham. We’ll miss the old house and garden but it’s too much upkeep for my mum and she’s been relying on her brother to keep her company since my dad died. Funny moment during extended proceedings at Holyrood this evening. They were debating the Hate Crime Bill still at 9pm when the Parliament’s automated systems clearly felt they should all be tucked up in bed already and switched off all the lights in the main chamber.

I have an Epiphone Les Paul cherry sunburst, an Epiphone viola bass, a Crafter (who?) electro-acoustic which has been excellent as an acoustic since I snapped the thingummyjig on the battery cover about 10 years ago and a mandolin (couldn’t tell you the make and can’t play the blessed thing either) Gosh, that’s a fair proportion of the entire population! Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. Rumour has it that our Deputy First Minister will face a vote of no confidence tomorrow but looks likely to survive it as the Greens have been persuaded to vote with the Government. OH is still watching Thirsty and Kill’s Love it or List it and getting more ideas for how to extend the house. Dog has decided he doesn’t want to be with us tonight and has set up camp on the cool wooden floor downstairs. Weather broke at about 7pm and it’s now hissing down... Nothing much of interest to report, otherwise! Happy birthday to @jonny777

Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. The OH is busy “upcycling” a table. The legs have already had 3 different shades of green on them, so hopefully this will be the shade that meets with approval. Had a pretty hectic day at work, followed by a drive over to Glasgow and back to drop Jamie back at her mum’s. About ready to collapse in a little heap now, then start all over again tomorrow. Working 3 days this week, then off till next Wednesday but during my “long weekend” (ha ha) I’m moving my mum up to Edinburgh. Not planning on watching the interview. I’ve nothing against either of them, but it doesn’t particularly float my boat. I watch very little tv as it is!

Is that a posh term for eyelids?

Congratulations Dominik!

And good news on checking my email, I’ve won the lottery*! * well, £5 and a lucky dip, but hey, I’ll take any win...

Morning all from the wilds beyond the wall. was woken from my near 8 hours of sleep by the dog “talking” in his sleep downstairs. At least it wasn’t the full howl this time that he once woke us with at 3am, while he was sound asleep. That time we dashed downstairs to wake him and shut him up before the entire neighbourhood heard and he then thought that was a perfect cue to dash upstairs and spend the rest of the night on the bed with us. We have a number of Chinese takeaways nearby but we order from just about the furthest on the high street as we trust their food and have always had good food from there. However they’ve really struggled at times with having fewer staff due to Covid and last night I was told it would be an hour from ordering to collecting. I set off on the 15 minute walk so I would arrive there an hour after ordering, but then had to wait an hour more in 3 degree chill for my order. My hands were frozen by the end of that! There were a couple of grumpy people but most accepted the unusual situation. The poor lady who is front of house was very stressed, I think so I was very understanding when I eventually got my chow mein! Had to re-pot a honeysuckle yesterday. Eventual intention is to plant it in the ground but for now it has to be potted. It had rooted extremely well through the bottom hole of the terracotta pot so the only thing for it was to smash the pot to release it. Once I’d done that, my daughter Jamie (now 12) took great pleasure in smashing the pot into potsherds with a hammer, to use at the bottom of the new pot for drainage. Today may involve more gardening but will definitely involve installing blinds in my mum’s flat (no drilling required on these ones) . She’s due to move in a week and I’ve just realised PlusNet need 4 weeks to do a house move... @southern42, I lost the quote in attempting to trim it, but was going to ask you to post a link to the thread. Actually it would be nice if we could have something like an “ERs layouts digest” post with links to layout threads, if such a thing doesn’t already exist! Good luck Dom and Elise! Jamie, what are you using for the scanning? I had been using an HP flatbed scanner with slide adapter but it’s not compatible with my new MacBook so I bought a Kodak “Slide & Scan” which (apart from needing the simple modification of adding a blob of blu-tack to the slide tray to stop the slide sliding along) is brilliant. I’ve been scanning in some of Dad’s slides from the ones we’ve been clearing from the loft. I may even have discovered pictures of a previously unknown girlfriend before my mum. Funnily enough I’ve not mentioned this to mum... if only Dad was still around to ask!

Interesting! I wonder where in Edinburgh? I tried the Azera stuff but it wasn't for me. What it did remind me of was the powdered Nescafe coffee that came in the big catering tins that my Dad used to buy from Makro in the 80s before it changed to being granulated. I've been here too long. I read that as "one of my hippos"... What happens if you shut them out of order? Right before left instead of left before right? My 12 year old daughter has had a voicemail from such a caller, threatening her with jail. And after all that... good afternoon from the wilds beyond the Wall. Things seem to have calmed down a touch with work, though the morning was still fairly bonkers. We're apparently on course to have vaccinated the entire of the adult population of Scotland by the end of July. Our favourite Holyrood committee are currently in private session so we're waiting to hear what comes out of that for the amount of work our team will need to do next week. Having worked last Sunday and some of the team having not had a day off since the previous Sunday, we're really hopeful of not having to work this weekend.

Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. Today has been another crazily busy one with me now feeling beyond tired. Takeaway jumbo sausage and chips has been consumed which is going to propel me from average UK male towards our transatlantic friends. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will help and the weekend, and looking further ahead, Purdah, can’t come soon enough.

You Brut!