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Jason's 2017 Mystery Tour


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Here Dave and I are posing by the "walkunder." Faced with the challenge of getting to the centre of his extensive O gauge layout, Dave actually planned and built a couple of steps down into the ground and up again, so that he will be able to enjoy his layout for years to come and not have to worry about crawling under a layout in his 80s. This guy is awesome.

 

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I can just imagine the house being sold to potential buyers in a few decades time. They will walk into an empty room, where the big layout was, and see this hole in the middle with a couple of steps down and up again - leading to all sorts of questions like "Why?".

 

Shoot forwards several centuries, you might have archeologists un-covering them leading to publications on all sort of speculations as to what this hole with steps could be. "Was it a bath place for a dog? An experimental toilet? a shoe washer? a place for naughty kids to sit when they are punished? etc". I wonder if any will guess that it was to walk under a layout...

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Jason,

Just looked at the videos of the China factories, a fascinating glimpse of how these things are produced. Having been involved in ships and shipping for a few years in the past, I hope that the placing of the palletised goods in the container was not the final packing of it as there was a lot of room for the pallets to get moved, flipped etc when the ship encountered rough weather. I have experienced a container ship rolling 40 degrees from the vertical, and although I survived, I remember some of the cargo not sounding very 'intact' afterwards. Do you get much damage from shipment?

Nice to see the zany adventure serial is back on RMweb, and that you seem to be able to do these distances using mostly public transport. I hope the visit goes well and that you get all the 'business' completed and your hotels are comfortable.

Looking forward to news about what's next.

Cheers, Ian in Blackpool

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Day two of my Mystery Tour of the UK began extremely early in Reading. Why Reading, you ask?

 
Well - I don't do Air BnB. I like to stay at a hotel. I also like to take real taxis, rather than Uber in some guy's uninsured car. So for £150 I can get a decent room in London. Or for £60 I can stay at the Hilton in Reading. Reading wins.
 
If I have one weakness, it's that I have become used to nice hotels. I spent too many years as a student staying at rubbish no-star hotels with no AC and the windows painted shut. As I get on I have no patience for them any more. And as I can't afford to stay at a posh hotel in London, it means I usually stay in Reading my first night in the UK. The taxi driver from the station to the hotel was driving a TX5. The Chrysler engine is rubbish, apparently. Did I mention I'm a member of the London Vintage Taxi Association? I want a taxi too. I'm also a member of the Wythall Transport Museum, the Routemaster Association, and the Trolley Bus Museum at Sandtoft. Yes, I'm that guy.
 
The Hilton was as you would expect from the brand - clean, well-appointed, Paris Hilton hanging from the chandelier. The breakfast was very tasty with warm, fresh bread and a wide variety of fruit. Here's a photo of the hotel, that I didn't take:
 
 
To get to Peterborough, my options were to go to London and lug my stuff on the Tube, or to go to Birmingham. I will never pass up a chance to go to Birmingham. It was my home for three years. Wasn't there a song in the 60s called "I Left My Heart In Selly Oak"? But my penchant for all things Brummy does mean that when I am in the UK I ride rather a lot of Voyagers.
 
 
When you have a first class rail pass (eight days in a month for just over £400 provided you DON'T have a UK passport!), Voyagers are lovely. There is no toilet smell, and every five minutes a friendly but clearly bored out of her tree attendant comes by and offers you more tea.
 
Arriving early, I took some time to soak in New Street. 
 
 
Shortly after I took this photo some people offered me their loose change. I think I'm going to be spending more time sitting on the platform at New Street. It's certainly more profitable than producing N gauge models.
 
 
Birmingham City Centre has changed - a bit - over the last few years. Gone are the days when I could wander into Ian Allen on Stephenson Street before catching the 63 bus back home. Now there are these rather attractive trammy thingies in the road. 
 
 
Watching the trams doodle past and reverse/cross over was a treat. Watching the ning-nongs run in front of a moving tram was also a treat.
 
 
Passengers may hate the new New Street because you have to go through 47 barriers to get to your next train. But as a public space, it is just wonderful. The old New Street was a steaming dungeon topped by a series of putrid, excremental corridors known as the Pallisades. What an awful place. 
 
 
But just look at that space! Natural light, plenty of room, a great selection of shops. This is what a city centre station should look like. This welcomes visitors to Birmingham with open arms. I think it's fantastic.
 
Oh look! Buses!
 
 
Oh look! Buses!
 
 
A Cross Country Class 170 took me to Peterborough, and I was the only first class passenger until some minor aristocrat joined me. I think one of her rings could have outfitted Cross Country with a new fleet. I'm guessing her private jet was at the garage.
 
 
I came to Peterborough to meet with my chums at Model Rail magazine: Richard Foster and Chris Leigh. We're discussed our forthcoming OO gauge J70 model, along with ways that Model Rail and Rapido can work together more closely in the future. I'm not allowed to call the J70 "Toby" but of course that is what everyone else calls it. We had a bite by the cathedral, and I was struck once again by the diversity, history and beauty of British architecture. We don't have buildings like this in Canada. Everything in Canada that was old and beautiful was torn down in the 1960s to become a Beaver gas station, then torn down in the 1980s to become a parking lot, and then ripped up in the 2000s to become a condominium. If Peterborough Cathedral was in Canada it would be called "Cathedral Towers" and have a gym and party room.
 
 
I love old leaded glass windows. We're replacing a window in our dining room, and I wanted one of the ones off the cathedral. I started climbing the wall of the cathedral to remove a window (just one - they have lots, you know) and I was chased off by two burly men with a mastiff. I was actually saved by my bellbottom trousers. The mastiff took a jump at me but hit my massive trouser leg instead and missed me altogether. I gave a donation to the church restoration fund (five Scottish £1 notes that Arran gave Bill and that no shop will accept) so they let me off. I still have five more £1 notes. Anyone want them?
 
 
Chris and Richard took me to Dave Lowery's house. Have you been there? It's heaven. I may have a train in my basement, but Dave has the East Coast Main Line in his garden.
 
 
 
For some reason, Richard and Chris do not seem so shocked by the fact that Dave has the ECML in his garden, nor do they seem as ecstatic at the passing HSTs. Or maybe they are exhibiting that well known British gift for understatement. DAVE HAS THE MAIN LINE IN HIS GARDEN!
 
DAVE HAS THE MAIN LINE IN HIS GARDEN!
 
Why is nobody else shouting?
 
Here Dave and I are posing by the "walkunder." Faced with the challenge of getting to the centre of his extensive O gauge layout, Dave actually planned and built a couple of steps down into the ground and up again, so that he will be able to enjoy his layout for years to come and not have to worry about crawling under a layout in his 80s. This guy is awesome.
 
 
Dave is well known to the railway modelling community here in the UK. He was one of the original voices in Model Rail magazine; he manufactures O gauge wagons; he builds custom models; he watches trains go by. He is pretty much leading the life I want to live when I retire. And he has a cracking sense of humour.
 
Here's a great shot of one of the kit-built 87s on his layout:
 
 
And here are my fellow travellers. Is the halo around Chris's head a portent, I wonder? 
 
 
I'm now en route to Darlington on a Virgin HST. No complaints about the comfort or the service. Travelling Virgin East Coast is such a pleasure. And unlike VIA Rail Canada, there are more than three trains a week.
 
I'm staying at the Houndgate Townhouse, which doesn't have a gate and isn't a house.
 
More to come...
 

 

I have the GWR main line a hundred yards away - all sorts of interesting stuff passes by!

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I have the GWR main line a hundred yards away - all sorts of interesting stuff passes by!

 

I have steam trains running 200 yds from here.  :D

 

That's because the Dean Forest Railway runs right across the main street down the hill from me. But only on Wednesdays and weekends.....

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Just got latest news letter repeating much what has been said here (ok they had a meeting with Locomotion today and that is all that was said on that subject), however there was also an update on the 92 in N gauge. Not my cup of tea personally, however I do hope 92 in N battle does not delay other things that I am interested in.

 

I,ve a pet peeve when I see newer projects from the same manufacturer jump the queue only because it's duplicated especially when I paid fully up front for an item.

My hope therefore is that the new high speed super tool shop gets the Stirling Single out Rapido and it's not guzzumped by an upstart

92.

 

The danger is that too much focus and resources will be thrown into the duplicate battle, that other items end up delayed or mediocre (though I imagine the NRM and others will eventually complain if Revolution took over much of the factory to the others detriment).

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Quote:

 

Here Dave and I are posing by the "walkunder." Faced with the challenge of getting to the centre of his extensive O gauge layout, Dave actually planned and built a couple of steps down into the ground and up again, so that he will be able to enjoy his layout for years to come and not have to worry about crawling under a layout in his 80s. This guy is awesome.

 

UnQuote

 

I can just imagine the house being sold to potential buyers in a few decades time. They will walk into an empty room, where the big layout was, and see this hole in the middle with a couple of steps down and up again - leading to all sorts of questions like "Why?".

 

 

Shoot forwards several centuries, you might have archeologists un-covering them leading to publications on all sort of speculations as to what this hole with steps could be. "Was it a bath place for a dog? An experimental toilet? a shoe washer? a place for naughty kids to sit when they are punished? etc". I wonder if any will guess that it was to walk under a layout...

 

Dave's layout isn't in his house, as he explains in the latest issue of Model Rail. (CJL)

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We have a layout here where a large operating space was cut into the floor of the "crawl space" (low ceiling part of basement under a split level). This layout was used for the promo video "APT E meets the Daleks".

One of my neighbours in my previous house dug out his basement too.

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Just got latest news letter repeating much what has been said here (ok they had a meeting with Locomotion today and that is all that was said on that subject), however there was also an update on the 92 in N gauge. Not my cup of tea personally, however I do hope 92 in N battle does not delay other things that I am interested in.

 

I,ve a pet peeve when I see newer projects from the same manufacturer jump the queue only because it's duplicated especially when I paid fully up front for an item.

My hope therefore is that the new high speed super tool shop gets the Stirling Single out Rapido and it's not guzzumped by an upstart

92.

 

The danger is that too much focus and resources will be thrown into the duplicate battle, that other items end up delayed or mediocre (though I imagine the NRM and others will eventually complain if Revolution took over much of the factory to the others detriment).

 

 

You have nothing to fear. At any time we have up to ten projects in development. Just because you see drawings of a class 92 does not mean the Stirling Single - which is well past the drawing stage and is in the tooling workshop - will be delayed. Now that we have two factories we could have even more projects in development at once. One can be in the early design stage while the other is in production. The work is done by different people and one is not affected by the other.

 

There are times when a newer project gets out first, but that is due usually to one or two other factors:

 

- the first project may be experiencing a technical problem that we are having trouble solving (see N TEA vs. Pendolino)

- the first project may not have enough sales (see LRC locomotive - delayed by about six years)

 

For our North American models, it is most often the second reason. If we don't have enough sales we don't make an extra 1000 pieces and hope for the best. We just keep pushing back the order deadline until more people know about the model. And it usually works.

 

-Jason

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Day 2

 
Wednesday had a busy start as I realized: "Oh, crumbs! I haven't sent out a UK newsletter." There went the morning as I scrambled to let our 21 UK newsletter subscribers (happily up from 7) know about this trip. Once Richard Pearson had completely lost patience with me, he took me over to Darlington Locomotive Works where Ian Matthews was kind enough to give us a private tour of the new build P2.
 
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Richard was quite surprised that I knew what I was looking at, and Ian was even more surprised when I started asking questions about whether it was being built as delivered or in one of the rebuilt guises. "You've done your homework," Richard said. Actually, I just read a lot of railway magazines and you sort of ingest this information by osmosis.
 
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Having some experience with metal fabrication (there's a lot of metal in the railway carriage in my basement), I could understand the scope of this project. And it is enormous. The smokebox door was annealed and hammered into shape, and it's all compound curves!
 
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While the front of the smokebox is tapered, the hinges must be vertical. Ian had quite a challenge getting them completely vertical using all sorts of straight edges and levels. A lot of the work is done by Ian alone. In the photo above, Richard and I are doing our own inspection of his handiwork.
 
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In this overview photo you can see how the engine is coming along. This is a huge undertaking, but we know they will get there in the end.
 
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The hornblocks provided all sorts of opportunities for goofing off.
 
The new locomotive will be called Prince of Wales. While I have always been partial to the name "Cock o' the North" because I'm really a childish pratt, I understand the decision to give the new P2 its own name rather than take on the name of one of the retired engines. Our future monarch, the real Prince of Wales, is a big supporter of heritage preservation and I am betting that one day this will mean good things for the railway heritage community.
 
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In a few years' time when I see Prince of Whales fly by me on the mainline, blowing its whistle like nobody's business, I can say "I did that first."
 
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I am so impressed by the UK railway preservation community. New builds like the P2 and Tornado - along with other projects like the Baby Deltic "kitbash" - are such incredible achievements. Rail historians and preservationists in North America can only dream of something like this happening because it never will. The current record holder for fastest production train in North America is the TurboTrain, yet all of the Turbos became aluminium cans in the early 1980s.
 
Forget the fact that few people would consider supporting a Turbo new build. Very few people have even heard of the train or know that it holds both the Canadian and American speed records. Compare that to Mallard. Every British schoolboy knows about Mallard and its speed record. 
 
Railways and railway history are a part of mainstream life here in the UK, and you should cherish this. I also encourage you to support the P2 new build efforts. They still need another £3 million in funding. There are a number of P2 events going on this year, where you can meet the people involved and learn more about the project. Click here for more information.
 
Now who wants to start a TurboTrain new build? We only need about $10 million....
 
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We then headed just across the way to Head of Steam, a small museum celebrating the granddaddy of all railways, the Stockton and Darlington.
 
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I grew up with a pile of books on railways, most of which were published in the UK and most of which started with either Trevithick or the Stockton and Darlington. To be able to stand up close to Locomotion was like walking into a 1970s watercolour illustration from my youth.
 
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The highlight of the exhibition was, of course, the toilets.
 
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I just can't resist a good toilet, and a Victorian toilet is even better. 
 
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For some reason everyone else in the exhibition room ran away. Did you know that the term "crapper" and the expression "take a crap" came from one Thomas Crapper of Chelsea, purveyor of fine water closets and accessories? Neither did I!
 
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Richard then took me over to Skerne Bridge, which is in surprisingly good condition for its 192-odd years. 
 
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The workmen told us that the bridge is being fully refurbished and a bicycle path is being built alongside the river Skerne. Here's how I've always known the Skerne bridge:
 
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We then headed to Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon which needs no introduction.
 
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Much of the day was spent in meetings with Brian Greenwood and the Locomotion model railway development team. We even had London in on a speakerphone and a board room table and everything! I felt very grown up. Thankfully the VIPs in London couldn't see I was wearing a T-shirt and bellbottom trousers. Because, you know, I lke to maintain an air of respectability.
 
Of course, being the respectable clothhead that I am, I forgot to take any pictures of Brian. We only spent the ENTIRE DAY TOGETHER. So here I've Photoshopped him into a photo of me. We're truely having a nice conversation in this Southern Region 2-BIL.
 
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Brian is a wonderful man, and much of the credit for Locomotion's highly-regarded "National Collection in Miniature" series can be attributed to his hard work. Spending a day with Brian is quite humbling. He has accomplished more since he retired 10-plus years ago than most of us accomplish in a lifetime. I am fortunate to consider him a good friend.
 
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Being one of the NRM's suppliers comes with certain privileges. I was invited to explore any of the stock at the museum, and being a passenger train fan I immediately asked if we could go inside the royal coaches. And amazingly they said yes!
 
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To enter Queen Alexandra's private coach we needed to put on little blue slippers so as not to disturb the carpet. 
 
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Feeling all posh I thought it only appropriate to use Her Royal Highness's posh china to poshly drink some posh tea. Brian jumped in front of me, causing me to spill the tea all over the posh chair. I quickly ran out to a charity shop to find a replacement, and while I couldn't find an exact match I did find something close. Please don't tell anyone.
 
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I spent some time just hanging around...
 
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And driving locomotives...
 
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By the end of the day, I was completely knackered.
 
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Brian and I went for supper at a vegetarian restaurant in Stockton called The Waiting Room. Brian's SatNav took us to a completely different waiting room in a completely different part of Stockton. We got there eventually.
 
The food was decent, but the service was a little strange. This was likely due to the fact that Brian kept asking for steak.
 
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In Darlington I stayed at the Houndgate Townhouse. This is quite a nice hotel - clean, well-appointed, cozy, with a very generous breakfast. I learned a trick on the second night - if you leave the bathroom door open, it's not a FREEZER in the morning. The first night I hadn't figured this out and the next morning they had to call the fire department to pry me off the floor as my feet had frozen to the tiles.
 
Next stop is Leeds followed by Brum. I shall be in touch again on Sunday, all going well.
 
-Jason
 
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I recall on a family trip to London from Coventry, seeing the prototype Deltic at Euston Station when we caught our train back in the early evening. At that time Euston had not been rebuilt and still had the glass roof over the platforms. The staff there kept us away from Deltic as it was being revved up and their concern was it might bring down some of the glass! It didn't of course, but I suppose such resonance from the engines made them nervous.

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A couple of years ago I did my talk on the APT project at the Head of Steam Museum.

 

It was a trifle bizarre talking about a 150 mph gas turbine powered train while standing only a few yards away from 'Locomotion' which was over 150 years older than E-Train!  :O

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Hi gents,

 

No time to do a report today - it may be Monday before I have another chance. But I thought this photo might be a good teaser of things to come...

 

-Jason

 

attachicon.gif1-Charlie.jpg

 

Charlie said he was going for a free lunch - he didn't say he had to arm-wrestle for it.......

 

Cheers,

Mick

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The journey continues...

 
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Finishing up in Darlington I headed to Leeds on a Transpennine Express class 185. I have to say, for a wee DMU the train was very comfortable. The first class compartment was nice and cosy and everyone was posh and lovely, except for one fellow who may have had a first class ticket but I'm certain he took his last bath when "I Saw Her Standing There" was #1 on the charts.
 
I've been to Leeds several times but never as a tourist. This trip would be no exception. I had to meet up with Charlie Petty from Realtrack Models to discuss our forthcoming 4mm Class 156 project.
 
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Last time I was in Leeds station the whole place was under construction with hoarding everywhere. I now see that all of the construction was in order to erect a big poster of a piece of toast with arms and legs. It would have been a lot cheaper and quicker just to use real toast.
 
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Charlie and I argued. A lot. I wanted to make the OO gauge Class 156 gold-plated, package it in a fancy wood presentation box, call it "Fuscia Label" and increase the RRP to £500. Charlie instead had some insane idea of actually making the model affordable. What a nutter. 
 
In fact, the arguments got so intense that we decided that only way to settle it was to have an arm wrestle.
 
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In all seriousness (because I am never not serious), we were working out some of the details for fitting sound in the 156 and discussing the schedule for delivery of the first batch and for announcing the second batch.
 
The UK model train industry, as we know, is structured around exhibitions. The manufacturers are expected to make announcements at the big exhibitions: Warley, Glasgow, York, etc. This causes a mad scramble to have a whole bunch of new announcements ready and the factory is overwhelmed trying to get samples out the door.
 
In this age of online communication, surely we should be able to make new announcements whenever the latest samples are ready and not have to rely on shows. I'm going to work on changing that. Rapido's APT-E was one of the first models in the UK to be built entirely on the pre-order system and that was a success. Let me see what I can do about this as well.
 
Charlie and I ate lunch at the Jewish community centre of Leeds. Charlie decided to get into the spirit of things...
 
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Do you like Charlie's "kippah"? He enjoyed the lunch at the Jewish community centre so much that following our meeting he moved to Golders Green and changed his name to Shloimie.
 
After "schlepping" from Leeds to Brum on another Cross Country Voyager I needed to put my feet up, so I met up with a friend at the Wellington on Bennett's Hill. I highly recommend this pub. It's a proper working man's pub that hasn't changed much since the 1940s. I can just imagine the office workers on Colmore Row in the 1950s stopping in for a pint before heading home on a local slam-door stopper. 
 
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I took one of the ubiquitous West Midlands Class 323s to Alvechurch where I stayed at a lovely B&B called Rectory Cottage. I am always amazed in the UK at how you can travel a few miles out of town and you're smack in the middle of rolling fields. Here's the view from my room:
 
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My very large and very comfortable room only cost £45 for the night!
 
There is method to my madness. I stayed in Alvechurch as it is close to Wythall, home of the Wythall Transport Museum. Wythall is a hidden gem. If you are a Brummie Bus Nut like me, this place is a little piece of heaven. For all Midlands buses, actually. They've got lots of Stratford Blue, Midland Red and others.
 
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I was honoured that the chaps at Wythall opened up for me in the dead of winter, but I was even more honoured to be given a tour by Malcolm Keeley. Malcolm is the O. S. Nock of Birmingham buses. He literally "wrote the book" on Birmingham City Transport and Midland Red, and his most most recent book - Birmingham's Blue and Cream Buses - is one of my favourite bus books (and I have a lot of bus books). I read it cover to cover last month and I was a bit of a gushing fanboy when wandering the museum with The Man Himself.
 
Here's a picture of Malcolm in front of Birmingham "Standard" Guy Arab IV #2976.
 
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You know, the "Birmingham front" - as introduced by Birmingham City Transport in 1950 - was called the "New Look." A lot of people think (assume?) it was Manchester that first put "tin fronts" on their buses. In fact, it was Brum. Well, technically it was Midland Red. BCT actually contacted Midland Red to check that there was no copyright issue as Midland Red had been enclosing their radiators since 1944. The BCT "New Look" was iconic. I really think someone should make a museum-quality model of that "New Look" bus. A model that has more detail than any other British bus model ever made. It should be done by someone with expertise in buses called "New Look."
 
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I can't cover a visit to Wythall without at least a token Midland Red photo. 
 
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That's a D7 with the typical Midland Red enclosed radiator. You see the BMMO (Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited) logo? Here's another bit of British bus trivia with a Birmingham twist. Leyland made a batch of 100 PD2 Titans for Midland Red in 1952. The BMMO logo fits in that space at the top of the grille. From then on, when a bus company anywhere in the UK ordered PD2s with an enclosed radiator, they almost invariably got a BMMO front, complete with the space for the BMMO logo. Ha! Score another one for Birmingham!
 
Wythall has an extensive workshop - it's an entire shed the size of an ice hockey rink! Here Dave Taylor shows off a tiny slice of it.
 
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Why am I spending so much time writing about buses? The main reason of course is that I love classic buses. While I have always loved North American New Looks, I've only recently discovered the colourful world of classic British buses. My passion for them was kickstarted by a spur-of-the-moment purchase of a Sunstar Routemaster three years ago and I was hooked. I've been devouring bus books and subjecting my friend, family and employees to minute bus anecdotes like "Did you know that Birmingham's single-deck Fleetlines were purchased exclusively for the 27 route to Bournville because of that low railway bridge? Isn't that fascinating?"
 
Some train guys may be muttering "blooming bus crank" but actually train and bus enthusiasts are 100% cut from the same cloth. Bus enthusiasts and train enthusiasts - especially those involved in restoration and preservation - share a passion for public transport and for preserving our transport heritage. We're also tilting at windmills a bit. It's no surprise that many of us love both classic trains and classic buses.
 
It's best that we work together to further the cause of transport heritage preservation and to increase interest in heritage preservation among our children and grandchildren. Similarly, all hobbyists - whether a railway modeller or a bus collector - need to work together to ensure that hobbies in general have a secure future. I'm not too worried about the UK, but in North America traditional men's hobbies as a whole are seriously under threat.
 
That's it for now. More to come...
 
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The UK model train industry, as we know, is structured around exhibitions. The manufacturers are expected to make announcements at the big exhibitions: Warley, Glasgow, York, etc. This causes a mad scramble to have a whole bunch of new announcements ready and the factory is overwhelmed trying to get samples out the door.

 
In this age of online communication, surely we should be able to make new announcements whenever the latest samples are ready and not have to rely on shows. I'm going to work on changing that. Rapido's APT-E was one of the first models in the UK to be built entirely on the pre-order system and that was a success. Let me see what I can do about this as well.

Jason, I firmly believe that product announcements made at large trade conferences (in my professional world) or model railway exhibitions (in your professional world) get lost in the noise, particularly so if multiple competitors are announcing product at the same time.

 

Even here in the last few weeks, we had two suppliers make annual announcements within days of each other. I think this hurt them both - it certainly did in terms of my enthusiasm level.

 

In my humble opinion, so long as you have the electronic reach (including the traditional print people) you can get a lot more mileage for your announcements by staging them separated in time from others.

 

I am also happy to relay to you that your newsletters (unlike the weekly chaff from a large Sandwich-based British model railway supplier) do not automatically end up in the junk mail folder filed away as "suspected spam".

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Here is another Bus historical fact. My father's uncle was the first Bus driver to be caught speeding on the Maidstone & District. I believe he had actually reached a speed of 20mph!

 

Announce things when you lke, I can understand Hornby and Bavhmann having special events, they have huge ranges and catalogues. While other smaller players do not.

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