The Night Mail

[simontaylor484]

5 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”

The partworks you mention go off sale or return after a number of parts so Newsagents won't stock them unless you specifically order them in. I remember some controversy a number of years ago regarding the partworks of the Flying Scotsman as to the quality of both the accuracy of the printed material and instructions as well as the fit of some of the parts.

If you want to see how some of these partworks models turn out check out World of Wayne onYou tube he builds them and films the build when each parts land.

 

I have no connection with his channel I just watch out of curiosity 

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

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....

Which is exactly what has happened on a number of occasions.  I have never been tempted by any of these sort of "offers", being a tightwad helps a great deal.  You do see part-built 1:200 models of the Titanic, for example, because the publication stopped three-quarters of the way through the series (presumably the manufacturer of all the remaining parts wasn't paid either). 

There are many similar examples of even sharper practice; sets of football/collectible character cards where certain ones are printed in much smaller quantities than others, so it becomes incredibly hard to complete the set without buying far more packs of cards than the law of averages would suggest, and everyone ends up with huge numbers of duplicates that they can't swap, because everybody else has them as well.

[jamie92208]

There have been accusation of a certain bias against the GWR in these pages, spread by a certain Pachyderm and his acolyte Captain Cynical.  Just to show that there is no bias on my part.  I did attempt to photograph the GWR when I went near it's HQ. The livery is certainly better these days though still not a correct shade of Crimson lake.

And they obviously maintain the great engineering traditions of Swindon.

They have of course moved their HQ to Loveland Colorado.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

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

Well, I’m certainly no bodger, nor am I a codpiece (not needing a tool “for powerful men to make a statement of their virility” - as it has been described by historians)

I am, perhaps, a “codger” (the best of both worlds, perhaps?) and I’ll admit to being an old one at that.

[iL Dottore]

28 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

..spread by a certain Pachyderm and his acolyte Captain Cynical….

Point of Order, Sirrah! CC is nobody’s acolyte!

[TheQ]

On 28/11/2021 at 22:04, Tony_S said:

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. 

Corr First time I've found anyone else who had anything to to with rural studies lessons.. or even heard of them..

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, TheQ said:

Corr First time I've found anyone else who had anything to to with rural studies lessons.. or even heard of them..

Rural studies for me was the walk to school.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

The only one of these million part sets you need to be a millionare that I've ever bought part of ,  is " your model railway village".

I bought quite a few copies of issue one, a complete railway carriage, at £1.99 that was a bargain, they can easily be converted into something quite presentable.. There have been threads on this forum about that..

[simontaylor484]

I did rural science as part of my science GCSE it was a modular course and was dual award so I got 2 C grades when I got my results. My Grandmas family on mums side were farmers until most of their land dissappeared under the A1/M62 they used to live near the caravan showroom at the junction although the house where my Great Uncle and Aunt lived has recently been demolished my Great grandparents bungalow still exists although now it is surrounded by a Tk Maxx warehouse and an Amazon warehouse

[bbishop]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

There have been accusation of a certain bias against the GWR in these pages, spread by a certain Pachyderm and his acolyte Captain Cynical.  Just to show that there is no bias on my part.  I did attempt to photograph the GWR when I went near it's HQ. The livery is certainly better these days though still not a correct shade of Crimson lake.

And they obviously maintain the great engineering traditions of Swindon.

They have of course moved their HQ to Loveland Colorado.

 

Jamie

 

Somewhere else I'm not visiting.  Bill

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I am, perhaps, a “codger” (the best of both worlds, perhaps?) and I’ll admit to being an old one at that.

 

Hum. Is it wise to settle for "Bodpiece"?

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

I did rural science as part of my science GCSE it was a modular course and was dual award so I got 2 C grades when I got my results. My Grandmas family on mums side were farmers until most of their land dissappeared under the A1/M62 they used to live near the caravan showroom at the junction although the house where my Great Uncle and Aunt lived has recently been demolished my Great grandparents bungalow still exists although now it is surrounded by a Tk Maxx warehouse and an Amazon warehouse

Rural Studies was a separate subject to Science when I was at school, it included digging / planting / harvesting the school gardens which supplied veg to the school kitchen..

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Rural Studies was a separate subject to Science when I was at school, it included digging / planting / harvesting the school gardens which supplied veg to the school kitchen..

None of the produce where I worked went to the school kitchens. It was sold. For quite a lot of the students taking it, it was their only exam subject (a CSE) , otherwise they were in non-exam groups. The head of biology had been very keen to offer something  other than the academic subjects. For some reason the subject seemed to annoy senior management. They were forbidden from having large animals on site but they kept chickens, geese, and rabbits. Beehives too and quite a few greenhouses and vegetable crops. I didn’t teach on the Rural Studies course but got involved with the associated after school and lunchtime clubs. 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, BSW01 said:

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. 

You can download them as well https://scalescenes.com/

[BSW01]

53 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

You can download them as well https://scalescenes.com/

Yes, I've done so on more than one occasion. 

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

You can download them as well https://scalescenes.com/

If you've got a decent printer you can scale them up to 7 mm scale!

 

[JohnDMJ]

14 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”

 

10 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

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?

 

The interior of the prototype box has never been seen by me so how it would look is pure speculation. Since the box closed to general working, a panel was installed in an office on Platform 1 of the station and even this has been superseded.

 

I will be more than happy with an empty shell but an exterior construction which reflects my memories and visions of this box for display (without the Castrol advert!).

[Canal Digger]

16 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 know of someone who was building the London Routemaster Bus from such a 'partwork'. Looked very detailed 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

 

The interior of the prototype box has never been seen by me so how it would look is pure speculation. Since the box closed to general working, a panel was installed in an office on Platform 1 of the station and even this has been superseded.

 

I will be more than happy with an empty shell but an exterior construction which reflects my memories and visions of this box for display (without the Castrol advert!).

@iL Dottoresearch the Signalling record Society for a box diagram. That should at least tell you the number of levers and usually whether they were next to the track or against the back wall. That will give you a starter for ten. And don'tforget the comfy old armchair near the stove.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

The partworks you mention go off sale or return after a number of parts so Newsagents won't stock them unless you specifically order them in. I remember some controversy a number of years ago regarding the partworks of the Flying Scotsman as to the quality of both the accuracy of the printed material and instructions as well as the fit of some of the parts.

 

If you calculate how much it would have cost to make the Flying Scotsman from one of those partwork thingies, I think you'll find it would be cheaper to buy a Finney kit.

 

Dave  

[Dave Hunt]

Just learned today that the second procedure on my schnozzle appears to have been successful and no further action is contemplated pending a check up in six months time. Hoorah!

 

Dave

[SM42]

Well Mrs SM42 has again come up trumps for bizarre tasks from work that need my input. 

 

This time it was 48 2" x 2"plastic squares. Don't ask. 

 

40 thou plasticard cut into squares and the corners rounded off. 

 

192 square corners filed round.  Ouch!

 

Fingers sore. 

 

Beer therapy in progress

 

Andy

Edited November 30, 2021 by SM42

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just learned today that the second procedure on my schnozzle appears to have been successful and no further action is contemplated pending a check up in six months time. Hoorah!

 

Dave

 

Fantastic! You'll be able to equip it with a festive piercing now.

 

 

 

[AndyID]

Currently engaged in a bit of cloning.

 

Don't panic! Just cloning the hard disk on our laptop. We've had it for a few years and it's fine for most things but, thanks to our pals at Microsoft, since it was upgraded to Windoze 10 it takes ages to get going from a cold start particularly if any updates are required.

 

I noticed that when it's "out to lunch" the disk drive is always pegged at 100% so I'm converting it to a solid state drive which has greatly reduced access times. If that doesn't help improve the situation I'll bin the laptop.

 

*BTW, if anyone is encouraged to do something similar it does take quite a long time to clone (make an image copy) of a hard drive.

 

 

*EDIT: Just checked. It says "10h 40m remaining"   (I'm not really surprised. The target disk is connected by a MK1 USB port on the laptop. Should be OK as long as we don't have a power cut.)

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by AndyID
Moinfo

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, AndyID said:

….I'm converting it to a solid state drive which has greatly reduced access times. If that doesn't help improve the situation I'll bin the laptop.…

May I suggest an alternative to binning it? I had (have) a extremely aged desktop tower that was struggling to do anything with Windows. So, upon advice of a chum, I stripped the PC back to the DOS and installed Linux with Libre Office on top. It now has been working flawlessly for a good 5 years now (and it was quite elderly when I installed Linux on it). It’s my workshop machine.

 

Perhaps Linux would give the laptop a new lease of life?