The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Trees are lovely things and needed but they need to be in the right place

There was a sign in the Rural Studies classroom in the first school I taught in ;

”A weed is just a plant in the wrong place”. At home I have learned that daisies in the lawn are pretty but dandelions are not. I have countered in recent years that dandelions are essential in spring for bees. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Oh no,

 

QUICK CALL HM’S CUSTOMS HES ESCAPED!

 

[J. S. Bach]

There is a US candy called ZERO that used to have a Polar Bear as part of the label graphics. I can see it now ; a herd of Bears chasing after the HH!

 

Available here (US) floating in that big river, however it is little pricier than I would want to at at $9.07 (US) plus $5.99 shipping and $0.15state sales tax!

Edited November 29, 2021 by J. S. Bach
To do a minor edit.

[pH]

A British candy (for the information of North American ERs):

 

https://abitofhome.ca/7515-thickbox_default/fox-s-glacier-mints-130g.jpg

[AndyID]

For some unknown reason this gent's name popped into my head. My dad knew him and always spoke very highly of him.

 

Charlie Baptiste

 

[pH]

42 minutes ago, AndyID said:

For some unknown reason this gent's name popped into my head. My dad knew him and always spoke very highly of him.

 

Charlie Baptiste

 

I wish you hadn’t posted that! That name is away down in my memory, and I’m having great trouble trying to remember why I know it. Perhaps from the cast of a 60s/70s TV show?

[AndyID]

38 minutes ago, pH said:

I wish you hadn’t posted that! That name is away down in my memory, and I’m having great trouble trying to remember why I know it. Perhaps from the cast of a 60s/70s TV show?

 

Open the link

[pH]

I already had. It didn't help me in remembering.

[AndyID]

Was it Garnock Way? It's mentioned in the article along with other theatrical work.

[Dave Hunt]

Funny how the last few posts here have morphed from hippo shaped sweets into memories of military figures that became comic actors. Remind anyone of someone we know who may have been involved in starting this forum?

 

Dave (from a frozen and snow covered North Hipposhire)

[Happy Hippo]

24 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Funny how the last few posts here have morphed from hippo shaped sweets into memories of military figures that became comic actors. Remind anyone of someone we know who may have been involved in starting this forum?

 

Dave (from a frozen and snow covered North Hipposhire)

A hippo shaped sweetie? 

 

That's what all the ladies say. 

 

And who am I to disagree? 

[Happy Hippo]

We have just arrived back from (warm) Reading.

 

Although we missed the 36 hour power outage that the Lane suffered, it did knock out the central heating, so the Hippodrome temperatures are more in line with PB's Igloo rather than the usual sub tropical paradise.

 

I've got everything working, so it's just a case of waiting for things to warm up.

 

OFMC this evening, in the extremities of the building, might be slightly chilly unless I cheat and get in some of the halogen heaters to accelerate the warming process.

[Compound2632]

57 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

We have just arrived back from (warm) Reading.

 

That'll be Reading, PA? A balmy 4 deg C today, compared to our 2 deg C.

 

Regards,

 

Shivering of Earley.

[J. S. Bach]

16 hours ago, pH said:

A British candy (for the information of North American ERs):

 

https://abitofhome.ca/7515-thickbox_default/fox-s-glacier-mints-130g.jpg

First hippos, then bears, now foxes????  TNM Zoo tickets now being sold in the lounge car.

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That'll be Reading, PA? A balmy 4 deg C today, compared to our 2 deg C.

 

Regards,

 

Shivering of Earley.

We left Earley at about 1130, and it was not too bad.

 

The temperature kept dropping as we headed north and then picked up again.

 

However, when we arrived home, the indoor thermometer was registering lower than the  external one fitted to the car!

 

 

[BSW01]

I’ve spent the later part of the morning and most of the afternoon, redesigning a ‘Free kit’ that came with a magazine. It’s a water tower and should be built square, however, it wouldn’t be big enough as it is, so I shall build it as a rectangle, the sides being roughly twice as long as it is wide. I will also replace the card based water tank, with a plastic tank from an old Airfix water tower kit instead. I started by scanning each sheet of parts and then I manipulated the colour of the brickwork, changing the colour so that it matches up with the brickwork of engine shed that we’ve previously been building. Once again, Ava is coming to spend the day with us next weekend and this will be our next build project. 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

19 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

A hippo shaped sweetie? 

 

That's what all the ladies say. 

Presumably with a soft, gooey, centre?

4 hours ago, BSW01 said:

I’ve spent the later part of the morning and most of the afternoon, redesigning a ‘Free kit’ that came with a magazine….

As a sort of relevant digression from this, I am prompted to ask has anyone actually built a kit from one of those multipart comes-with-a-kit magazines that one used to see turn up in the newsagent every so often? I dimly remember such things appearing in the 80s and 90s in newsagents in the UK. The magazines came in a plastic bag with a few parts and were usually advertised as allowing the purchaser to build “an accurate replica in “X” scale of (insert famous subject) in N instalments (issues)” The funny thing was, although I visited my local newsagent on a regular basis, I don’t remember seeing such magazines appear on the newsagent’s shelves beyond the first one or two issues of each magazine. Can anyone illuminate?

 

And moving on to a more modelling issue, I am building a signal box for a chum and we are in disagreement about whether or not the building should have an interior. I maintain that to have even a passing stab at realism, any model building should have, at least, dividing walls to avoid that whole plastic box look, even if one doesn’t go “Full Pendon”.  
 

“Interior or not interior, that is the question”

[Dunsignalling]

I think the idea was to hook the buyer and get him/her on a subscription to receive the instalments by post.

 

IIRC the large format part-works (e.g. "World of Railways" and "Great Trains" operated the same way.

 

John

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

As a sort of relevant digression from this, I am prompted to ask has anyone actually built a kit from one of those multipart comes-with-a-kit magazines that one used to see turn up in the newsagent every so often? I dimly remember such things appearing in the 80s and 90s in newsagents in the UK. The magazines came in a plastic bag with a few parts and were usually advertised as allowing the purchaser to build “an accurate replica in “X” scale of (insert famous subject) in N instalments (issues)” The funny thing was, although I visited my local newsagent on a regular basis, I don’t remember seeing such magazines appear on the newsagent’s shelves beyond the first one or two issues of each magazine. Can anyone illuminate?

 

I see adverts for such part-works occasionally; many seem rather desirable at first, but on reading the (very) small print you soon discover that whilst Part One is £1-99 - and all the  subsequently issues are £5-99.  Multiply that by the 100 parts and you've got yourself one bl00dy expensive model of a Ford Cortina.....

And I always wonder what happens if they stop trading at Part 80 - you're sh@fted, that's what....

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

And moving on to a more modelling issue, I am building a signal box for a chum and we are in disagreement about whether or not the building should have an interior. I maintain that to have even a passing stab at realism, any model building should have, at least, dividing walls to avoid that whole plastic box look, even if one doesn’t go “Full Pendon”.  
 

“Interior or not interior, that is the question”

This is one of the problems of building something for a friend rather than as a professional model maker.

 

You have your friendship to consider, whereas the professional model maker has his reputation to defend.

 

Pointing out the signal box made for your layout by the world famous box builder, Ianto Codpiece, that is lacking an interior, working block bells, the fully interlocked and working lever frame and the 'box cat using the litter tray, would immediately be considered inferior to his other works of art as seen in MRJ. The impact on his business could be devastating.

 

However, if it's pointed out as the signal box made by 'my friend Bobby Bodger', then suitable cooing noises will be made and nothing more will be thought or said.

 

So the question should be are you a Codpiece or a Bodger?

[Oldddudders]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-59429487

 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Presumably with a soft, gooey, centre?

As a sort of relevant digression from this, I am prompted to ask has anyone actually built a kit from one of those multipart comes-with-a-kit magazines that one used to see turn up in the newsagent every so often? I dimly remember such things appearing in the 80s and 90s in newsagents in the UK. The magazines came in a plastic bag with a few parts and were usually advertised as allowing the purchaser to build “an accurate replica in “X” scale of (insert famous subject) in N instalments (issues)” The funny thing was, although I visited my local newsagent on a regular basis, I don’t remember seeing such magazines appear on the newsagent’s shelves beyond the first one or two issues of each magazine. Can anyone illuminate?

 

And moving on to a more modelling issue, I am building a signal box for a chum and we are in disagreement about whether or not the building should have an interior. I maintain that to have even a passing stab at realism, any model building should have, at least, dividing walls to avoid that whole plastic box look, even if one doesn’t go “Full Pendon”.  
 

“Interior or not interior, that is the question”

I think the kit in question is not a partwork but one of those offered 'free' in model railway magazines. Usually they are from the likes of Ratio/Wills (plastic) or Metcalf (card).

[Compound2632]

29 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I think the kit in question is not a partwork but one of those offered 'free' in model railway magazines. Usually they are from the likes of Ratio/Wills (plastic) or Metcalf (card).

 

One magazine in particular, since those brands are more-or-less tied to the Peco brand.

[Winslow Boy]

49 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-59429487

 

 

There were a few of these done for the new towns in england as well. The only one I recall were the concrete cows for Milton Keynes. I think Skelmersdale had them as well but not sure.

 

[BSW01]

The kit in question is from a company called ‘Scale Scenes’ and is a complete kit, 4 sheets of prints, each on A4 paper), you just need to glue the sheets to various different thicknesses of card to complete. I actually built a few of these, when I made Max a train layout a couple of years ago and they are quite good.