The Night Mail

[Dave Hunt]

22 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

In that case I'll just close my eyes and see Aberflyarff (Low Level) in all it's glory, fully finished and with it tastefully extended into a roundy with a couple of 56xx and a 5205 added to the fleet.

 

In the background, Jamie and Dave,  occasionally encouraged by Danemouth's bullwhip, pedalling frantically in order to give the cycle driven generator enough power to keep the DCC sound units going.

 

For that much power we'll need regular intake of Eccles cakes and Lagavulin.

 

Dave

[SM42]

Happy day at SM42 Towers 

 

No work till Tuesday, The beer is open  and most significant 

 

I have just found my long lost counter sink bit. 

 

It was hiding in plain site on a shelf in the kitchen pretending to be the world's smallest lemon juicer

 

Andy

Edited January 14, 2022 by SM42

[AndyID]

34 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When Wilbur Shaw won the Indy 500 in a Maserati, wasn't it described as the Maserati Special?

 

Dave

 

Boyle Special according to this

 

https://www.maseratiofnewportbeach.com/blogs/1559/maserati-history/history-maserati-8ctf-indy-500

[Dave Hunt]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Boyle Special according to this

 

https://www.maseratiofnewportbeach.com/blogs/1559/maserati-history/history-maserati-8ctf-indy-500

 

Ah, yes. It comes back to me now. I used to have a copy of Wilbur Shaw's autobiography Gentlemen Start Your Engines but can't find it now.

 

Dave

[pH]

A very frustrating hour or so this afternoon. At one point in town, for about a quarter of a mile, parallel to each other are a street, a rapid transit line, a 10 foot (or so) high wall and the CPR mainline. I was on the street, and there  were 2 engines in Union Pacific colours switching a local industry on the CPR line, behind the wall. I tried to get a photo of them, but it was like ‘Whack-a-mole” - when I was at one end of the wall, they were at the other. I eventually gave up.

 

However, over the top of the wall, I managed to get the numbers, and to see that they had ‘CP’ in large black letters on the long hood. They are part of a group of SD90MACs Canadian Pacific have bought from Union Pacific to be part of their SD70ACU conversion program. They’re apparently being used in their current form while waiting for slots in the rebuild program.

 

I’ll have to try again for photos.

[iL Dottore]

On 14/01/2022 at 00:15, rodent279 said:

All model railways are a trompe L'oeil. It's not what you see that is important, it's what you think you see, what's in the minds eye.

I certainly agree with this observation; in fact, I’d go as far as to say that some layouts that are exact and perfect scale replicas - down to the point rodding and begonias outside the station’s waiting room are less convincing - in toto - than layouts that have more of a broad brush approach.

 

I read somewhere that for a fraud or a swindle or a deception to take place successfully the key is to get a few essential elements absolutely correct and the mind of the person being deceived will fill in all the other elements. The secret, of course, for a successful deception (or a convincing layout, film or stage set) is knowing which of the many elements have to be spot on and which can be safely left to the viewer’s imagination.

[rodent279]

19 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I certainly agree with this observation; in fact, I’d go as far as to say that some layouts that are exact and perfect scale replicas - down to the point rodding and begonias outside the station’s waiting room are less convincing - in toto - than layouts that have more of a broad brush approach.

 

I read somewhere that for a fraud or a swindle or a deception to take place successfully the key is to get a few essential elements absolutely correct and the mind of the person being deceived will fill in all the other elements. The secret, of course, for a successful deception (or a convincing layout, film or stage set) is knowing which of the many elements have to be spot on and which can be safely left to the viewer’s imagination.

I used to have a roundy-roundy up in my mum & dad's loft. It was quite large, about an 8m run around the perimeter. There were 3 lines, a station with 2 wooden platforms, one with a loop line, a small headshunt, and a fan of sidings on the opposite side.

Stock was mainly Triang and Hornby GWR-a couple of Halls, a Lima King and a Hornby King, an Airfix Castle and a 61xx, a Hornby County, and the inevitable pannier tank. I had 4 Hornby Collets, two Airfix Centenaries and two Hornby clerestories, a Lima Siphon G and an assortment of wagons.

I also had a Mainline Peak, a Triang 31 and 81, and a couple of Transcontinental Diesels.

There was no scenery, just track laid on foam underlay, and a plastic tunnel. I'd run one of the Halls with the 4 Collets and 2 Centenaries round and round for hours, and position myself on the other side of the station, between the rafters, and watch it come flying through. In my mind's eye, it was the Cheltenham Flyer on it's record breaking run.

[Winslow Boy]

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I certainly agree with this observation; in fact, I’d go as far as to say that some layouts that are exact and perfect scale replicas - down to the point rodding and begonias outside the station’s waiting room are less convincing - in toto - than layouts that have more of a broad brush approach.

 

I read somewhere that for a fraud or a swindle or a deception to take place successfully the key is to get a few essential elements absolutely correct and the mind of the person being deceived will fill in all the other elements. The secret, of course, for a successful deception (or a convincing layout, film or stage set) is knowing which of the many elements have to be spot on and which can be safely left to the viewer’s imagination.

 

I recall watching a programme on some obscure channel, probably BBC 2 on the goggle box about the brain and role it plays with allowing human beings the privilege of sight.

 

It turns out that the eye plays very little other than providing a means by which to receive images. It is the brain that actually deciphers the signals and then assemblies them into the images we see. Furthermore to stop an 'overload' occurring the brain slows down the signal and then fills in the missing pieces in order to create a visual representation of what it knows is there.

 

For example if you look at a say a coach the brain fills in the missing parts from memory and the signals from the eye confirms that it has wheels, windows and its colour. The brain then checks that with what it has stored and voila you see a mk II early British rail coach. It is for this reason that you can be fooled into seeing something that might not actual be true but is a close enough representation of it.

 

Quite what that says about the brains of model railway enthusiasts I'll leave you to interprets as you see fit.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

I used to have a roundy-roundy up in my mum & dad's loft. It was quite large, about an 8m run around the perimeter. There were 3 lines, a station with 2 wooden platforms, one with a loop line, a small headshunt, and a fan of sidings on the opposite side.

Stock was mainly Triang and Hornby GWR-a couple of Halls, a Lima King and a Hornby King, an Airfix Castle and a 61xx, a Hornby County, and the inevitable pannier tank. I had 4 Hornby Collets, two Airfix Centenaries and two Hornby clerestories, a Lima Siphon G and an assortment of wagons.

I also had a Mainline Peak, a Triang 31 and 81, and a couple of Transcontinental Diesels.

There was no scenery, just track laid on foam underlay, and a plastic tunnel. I'd run one of the Halls with the 4 Collets and 2 Centenaries round and round for hours, and position myself on the other side of the station, between the rafters, and watch it come flying through. In my mind's eye, it was the Cheltenham Flyer on it's record breaking run.

Thank you for your unashamed adoration of a great railway, and the acknowledgement that pannier tanks are inevitable.

 

I also had a Triang Brush type 2 A-1-A A-1-A as the Class 31 was known in pre tops days, so I do have a soft spot for them.  However, a layout based in S Wales during the transition from steam to diesel traction would struggle to justify such a loco's presence unless applying Rule 1.

[PhilJ W]

This guy was on the BBC Breakfast show this morning, he's really good.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/europes-best-elvis-impersonator-19-6497459

[rodent279]

7 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Thank you for your unashamed adoration of a great railway, and the acknowledgement that pannier tanks are inevitable.

 

I also had a Triang Brush type 2 A-1-A A-1-A as the Class 31 was known in pre tops days, so I do have a soft spot for them.  However, a layout based in S Wales during the transition from steam to diesel traction would struggle to justify such a loco's presence unless applying Rule 1.

Rule 1 covers anything. I also had a couple of black Triang Princess Victoria's, a couple of Hornby 0-4-0 tanks, an Airfix Royal Scot and a 4F, an SNCF 4 wheel shunter (that could really fly!), a couple of SNCF coaches, a DB coach, a Lima Deltic and Western, and a few other oddments. I'd happily mix all of them together-a pair of 0-4-0's on a long train, thrashing along was good fun.

Perfection is great for those who want it, but so is having fun.

[Happy Hippo]

Is anyone here aware of the Rule 1 (Reversal Act 1999)?

 

This allows  a scale model of a pannier tank, it's Brake Van and the train of mineral wagons to become:  Duck, Toad and Troublesome Trucks.

 

I feel sorry for my class 08 diesel shunter, when the grandchildren scream at it:

 

'Evil Diesel!* Oily creature.'

 

 

*  The woke brigade have managed to change this from the original to 'Devious Diesel'. Fortunately we are a family of traditionalists.

[jamie92208]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Is anyone here aware of the Rule 1 (Reversal Act 1999)?

 

This allows  a scale model of a pannier tank, it's Brake Van and the train of mineral wagons to become:  Duck, Toad and Troublesome Trucks.

 

I feel sorry for my class 08 diesel shunter, when the grandchildren scream at it:

 

'Evil Diesel!* Oily creature.'

 

 

*  The woke brigade have managed to change this from the original to 'Devious Diesel'. Fortunately we are a family of traditionalists.

And of course, "Coughs and sneezles spread diseasals" very appropriate these days.

 

Jamie

[DenysW]

SWMBO tells me that all diesels are evil, even if they come from the LMS, that source of all great locomotives. I think she may have been influenced by the Rev. Awdry as a child.

[Oldddudders]

The layout round the loft is a great idea. When my parents moved from our tied cottage into a detached house in a private cul-de-sac in 1965, we found a previous owner had had a model railway up there, so there was a decent space, and I made the most of it. A few Faller buildings, Peco track and we were away. It really became something when I bought a Gutzold Flying Hamburger railcar set - and with max momentum set on the Codar controller, it would take about three laps to slow down and stop. Great fun!

 

Later that year (by now 1967) I travelled across Germany, Switzerland and Austria to Vienna, hoping to see the Vindobona Express from Berlin (then in remote East Germany, of course) arrive at Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof. It duly arrived, but was a modern VT18-16, rather than the elderly VT137 of my model I had been hoping for. These days the VT18-16 is itself a museum piece, albeit very mobile. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, DenysW said:

SWMBO tells me that all diesels are evil, even if they come from the LMS, that source of all great locomotives. I think she may have been influenced by the Rev. Awdry as a child.

 

Green are OK in this Bear's book, as are various "unusual" colours such a DP1 Blue.  But BR Blue?  Noooooooo........

[SM42]

I am currently sat at the modelling bench, staying out of the way whilst Mrs SM42 holds a meeting about the Polish Saturday School's future with the secretary.

 

I am in decal mode and a sea of gloss varnish patches stretches before me as I try to resurrect some very old Woodhead transfers mixed in with other makes of various vintages. 

 

However, I have been tasked with updating a 7mm Slater's MR 10t brake van into LMS livery. 

 

The question is which size of LMS do I use for the mid to late 20s?

 

The c 12mm size ( seems about right for open wagons) or the c 7mm size?

 

Any guidance from the LMS glitterati herein greatly appreciated as my source of LMS wagon references is very limited. 

 

Andy

Edited January 15, 2022 by SM42

[Happy Hippo]

48 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

 

Any guidance from the LMS glitterati herein greatly appreciated as my source of LMS wagon references is very limited. 

 

Andy

Thank you for that welcome box of ammunition!

 

I presume you are talking about those that prance around on the footplate of a Princess Coronation like demented Morris Men, whilst wearing a knotted hankie as a hat and a sequinned boiler suit?

[Oldddudders]

"Ding! Ding! Seconds out - Round two!"

[SM42]

20 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Thank you for that welcome box of ammunition!

 

I presume you are talking about those that prance around on the footplate of a Princess Coronation like demented Morris Men, whilst wearing a knotted hankie as a hat and a sequinned boiler suit?

 

I was thinking more of those who dangle at the back of freight trains, or, as they are sometimes known,

 

rear gunners

 

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

7 hours ago, rodent279 said:

 ...snip... Perfection is great for those who want it, but so is having fun.

I guess that this is really not perfection :

But it sure was fun setting it up! If the 4-2-4 had been operable, the fun-factor would have increased exponentially!

 

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 ...snip... But BR Blue?  Noooooooo........

Almost as bad as CR blue! The L&C blue is the same:

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

I was thinking more of those who dangle at the back of freight trains, or, as they are sometimes known,

rear gunners

 

Jamie's probably your man then - he is known to spend time in somewhere called St. John's Danglies.

 

Dave

[rodent279]

40 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Almost as bad as CR blue! The L&C blue is the same:

I reckon they'd suit either large logo blue, or Railfreight red stripe.

[Dave Hunt]

33 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Almost as bad as CR blue! The L&C blue is the same:

 

I'm not sure that Caley blue was ever quite as vivid as that, which I think is a shade called 'Frightening the Horses' blue. I think that Caley engines were one of two shades; most were a darker colour nearer to Prussian blue whilst some were painted in what I think was known as 'Perth blue' that was a much paler shade and one that I have always found quite attractive when I've seen models painted in it. Mind you, I'm no Caley expert so I stand to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable than me.

 

Dave