The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

But why not the Russian sorcerer

Strangely enough the music didn’t invade my brain when we visited the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg. They have a recreation of scenes from the death of Rasputin in the rooms where what took place happened. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

But why not the Russian sorcerer?

Douglas

Cos it's a dig at Brian's trials and tribulations (aka procrastination) about building an Airfix ship for his grandson:

 

HMS Belfast.

 

I'm not a great fan of Belfast either, having been on the receiving end of a less salubrious welcome  a long time ago.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Cos it's a dig at Brian's trials and tribulations (aka procrastination) about building an Airfix ship for his grandson:

 

HMS Belfast.

 

I'm not a great fan of Belfast either, having been on the receiving end of a less salubrious welcome  a long time ago.

When my mate and I went there to ride the trains Keith said he would have been much happier in his Saladin  with a Stirling in his hands.  However we had a great day apart from Aldergrove having run out of Guinness when we tried to get a pint before the flight to Leeds.

 

Jamie

Edited March 1, 2021 by jamie92208

[simontaylor484]

I know a former Policeman John. who did an exchange with an officer with the RUC as it was at the time. Hedid comment how strange it felt the precautions that had to be taken just if someone knocked on the door involving some serious hardware. Pistols and a pump action shotgun were mentioned. John lived up the street from us and brought the Ruc officer round when we had a bbq. 

John was a bit of a prankster and once changed my dads front number plate to PEN 15. Dad didnt notice and parked in town.

 

Also Boney M i watched a documentary about a climber tgat had been left for dead after a fall somewhere remote he managed to drag hisself back to civilization with Brown Girl in the Ring as a constant earworm

[Happy Hippo]

I've been looking at a 1:16 Challenger II to replace the old M1 Abhrams I used to have sitting on the firing point at Wrekin Havock (It should have been a Centurion but such a model does not exist).  I think I paid about £30 for the M1 back in the day.  Imagine my surprise when the price popped up at £319!

Admittedly the new one has a set of metal gears and metal tracks, which would mean I could use it in the garden to chase squirrels, but I think I'd rather put the money towards one of Dapol's Class121 DMUs when they finally make an appearance.

 

 

[pH]

29 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I've been looking at a 1:16 Challenger II to replace the old M1 Abhrams I used to have sitting on the firing point at Wrekin Havock ...

Why settle for 1:16 when you could have 1:1?

 

http://www.helstongunsmiths.com/default.asp?ID1=427&ID2=0&ID3=0&ID4=0&CB=3%2F1%2F2021+9%3A16%3A03+PM

 

(Don’t know about the price, though.)

Edited March 1, 2021 by pH

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, pH said:

Why settle for 1:16 when you could have 1:1?

 

http://www.helstongunsmiths.com/default.asp?ID1=427&ID2=0&ID3=0&ID4=0&CB=3%2F1%2F2021+9%3A16%3A03+PM

Just the thing for todays commute.

[Tony_S]

36 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I've been looking at a 1:16 Challenger II to replace the old M1 Abhrams I used to have sitting on the firing point at Wrekin Havock (It should have been a Centurion but such a model does not exist).  I think I paid about £30 for the M1 back in the day.  Imagine my surprise when the price popped up at £319!

Admittedly the new one has a set of metal gears and metal tracks, which would mean I could use it in the garden to chase squirrels, but I think I'd rather put the money towards one of Dapol's Class121 DMUs when they finally make an appearance.

 

is this any good?
 

https://howesmodels.co.uk/product/heng-long-1-16th-bristish-challenger-2-camo-rc-tank-smoke-and-sound-version-with-2-4ghz-radio/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAvvKBBhCXARIsACTePW8W5cJ8dk1w5Ei8Lzd6GstGPsqzXICr3E9r7bzXbdy0y7oZcSTncoUaApu6EALw_wcB

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Tony_S

[jamie92208]

Just have a word with Baz, I'm sure he could find you one.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

Spent most of today hors de combat with sciatica but things have improved somewhat now. However, we got some very good news that a dear friend who has been having allsorts of treatment, operations etc. for bowel cancer for over two years has just been told that her latest scans show no sign of the disease. If it wasn't for the lockdown we'd be over there with several bottles of bubbly and probably legless by now.

 

With luck and providing I'm mobile I should get in some modelling time tomorrow so time for eyelid inspection.

 

G'night each.

 

Dave 

[rockershovel]

My main recollection of Belfast is its small, crowded airport where my colleague managed to spend £17 in Burger King...

[Winslow Boy]

56 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Just have a word with Baz, I'm sure he could find you one.

 

Jamie

Knowing Baz he could probably provide you with the blueprints and you could build it yourself. Don't know what that receptionist would say though when you pulled into the surgery carpark though. Nadya might insist on you being buried in it. Let me know and I'll slip the gravediggers a few quid to keep them sweet.

[J. S. Bach]

On 27/02/2021 at 02:30, polybear said:

Mrs. JSB:  "You've made a nice job of cutting the grass dear.....now explain just why does my garden look like an 'effin' plowed field??  And I suggest you think very, very, carefully......"

A friend and I pulled it out yesterday, the gran Cañón of Chester will be attended to when the weather gets better:

 

[Barry O]

The Sheng Long Challenger 2 (it never has been a Challenger II) can be bought at a decent price. Worth buying replacement metal tracks if you are going to drive it around a lot.

 

Baz

Edited March 2, 2021 by Barry O

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

is this any good?
 

https://howesmodels.co.uk/product/heng-long-1-16th-bristish-challenger-2-camo-rc-tank-smoke-and-sound-version-with-2-4ghz-radio/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAvvKBBhCXARIsACTePW8W5cJ8dk1w5Ei8Lzd6GstGPsqzXICr3E9r7bzXbdy0y7oZcSTncoUaApu6EALw_wcB

 

That's the cheaper version with the plastic gears and tracks.  They shred too easily for my liking.

 

Of course £300 is cheap compared with the Tamiya versions which are now retailing at £1000+

27 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

A friend and I pulled it out yesterday, the gran Cañón of Chester will be attended to when the weather gets better:

 

Looks mighty like another holler y'all.

[Happy Hippo]

Sadly I have read, and it's reported elsewhere in RMWeb that the LLangollen Railway have called in the receivers.

 

I've thought for a considerable time that the UK  railway preservation scene was going to grow until on day it would become to much for itself and then the cracks would appear.

 

I don't think the pandemic has helped one iota in the survival of what are really only tourist attractions.

 

I do hope a solution can be found,  especially as I prefer the Llangollen Railway over the larger and much nearer (to me) SVR.

[coastalview]

58 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Sadly I have read, and it's reported elsewhere in RMWeb that the LLangollen Railway have called in the receivers.

 

I've thought for a considerable time that the UK  railway preservation scene was going to grow until on day it would become to much for itself and then the cracks would appear.

 

I don't think the pandemic has helped one iota in the survival of what are really only tourist attractions.

 

I do hope a solution can be found,  especially as I prefer the Llangollen Railway over the larger and much nearer (to me) SVR.

That's a shame, hopefully the Trust will be able to rescue something from the ashes and restart operation. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Sadly I have read, and it's reported elsewhere in RMWeb that the LLangollen Railway have called in the receivers.

 

I've thought for a considerable time that the UK  railway preservation scene was going to grow until on day it would become to much for itself and then the cracks would appear.

 

I don't think the pandemic has helped one iota in the survival of what are really only tourist attractions.

 

I do hope a solution can be found,  especially as I prefer the Llangollen Railway over the larger and much nearer (to me) SVR.

I have thought that for some time, I understand the Llangollen railway was having financial problems before the pandemic and I wondered how some manage to survive. The pandemic has only exacerbated the problems as it has with many high street department stores. Many preserved railways were existing on a shoestring even before the pandemic so others will certainly be going the same way. The only light is that the model railway shops seem to have weathered the storm quite well. I put this down to them being the sort of business that has already had to leave the high street (mostly due to sky high rents) and move elsewhere. There are actually five model shops within reasonable distance from me and only one has a proper shop, two operate out of industrial units, one has a (very small) space in an old mill and one operates out of a shed in a back street. The shop mentioned above is in the middle of a traffic system with double yellow lines and no nearby parking, most of his business is done by mail order. This applies to the other four businesses as well.  

[simontaylor484]

I do seem to recall reading in either steam railway or heritage rail they had been having problems with the engineering side of the business

[Dave Hunt]

Without exposing too much sensitive information, the Llangollen engineering works allegedly made a horlicks of the Patriot build that resulted in the job being moved elsewhere and involved quite serious financial adjustments, which can't have helped the Railway's bank balance either directly or indirectly.

 

Dave

Edited March 2, 2021 by Dave Hunt

[Joseph_Pestell]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Without exposing too much sensitive information, the Llangollen engineering works allegedly made a horlicks of the Patriot build that resulted in the job being moved elsewhere and involved quite serious financial adjustments, which can't have helped the Railway's bank balance either directly or indirectly.

 

Dave

 

It would be rather silly to take on that sort of work without making it a financially separate business.

[simontaylor484]

From what i read in the articles in the preservation press I think they had allegedly  under quoted on jobs as well as some jobs allegedly not been of sufficient quality.

Losing this work obviously made the engineering side of the business unviable. Other railways have been using paid work to keep their engineering side busy eg Ffestiniog.

 

Ctl Seal in Sheffield seem to have taken up some of the slack 

[pH]

It used to be easy to get down to trackside on the CPR lines here for photography. Then, once work started on extending the Skytrain (rapid transit) line through Port Moody, a fence was built which prevented access, but still allowed taking pictures through the mesh. However, part of the work for Skytrain was to build a solid concrete wall to prevent people crossing the CPR tracks onto the Skytrain tracks. (This was necessary because people crossed the tracks to get to work in businesses on the north side of the tracks, and CPR crews could cross on meal breaks when working sidings on the north side.) You can see the west end of the wall in the picture below. The CP mainline is immediately on the other side of the wall, the Skytrain line is on this side of the wall.

 

 

This means that you can only see the top of engines on the CP tracks:

 

 

So, if anyone wants pictures of the top half of North American diesels, let me know.

Edited March 2, 2021 by pH
Spelling (mine)

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, pH said:

It used to be easy to get down to trackside on the CPR lines here for photography. Then, once work started on extending the Skytrain (rapid transit) line through Port Moody, a fence was built which prevented access, but still allowed taking pictures through the mesh. However, part of the work for Skytrain was to build a solid concrete wall to prevent people crossing the CPR tracks onto the Skytrain tracks. (This was necessary because people crossed the tracks to get to work in businesses on the north side of the tracks, and CPR crews could cross on meal breaks when working sidings on the north side.) You can see the west end of the wall in the picture below. The CP mainline is immediately on the other side of the wall, the Skytrain line is on this side of the wall.

 

 

This means that you can only see the top of engines on the CP tracks:

 

 

So, if anyone wants pictures of the top half of North American diesels, let me know.

Couldn't you scramble up the wall and teeter precariously on the top.

 

Dress in greyish clothes and if anyone asks, you're an ornament.

[Mike Bellamy]

5 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Without exposing too much sensitive information, the Llangollen engineering works allegedly made a horlicks of the Patriot build that resulted in the job being moved elsewhere and involved quite serious financial adjustments,

 

LMS Patriot Project. It is reported that parts were lost and needed to be replaced or were not manufactured to the correct specification. A detailed report is in the link below - and that's just one of the locos they were working on - note the date December 2018 and so long before Covid.

 

https://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/engineering/2018-12-20/engineering-date-december-2018

.