Peterborough North

[thegreenhowards]

Gilbert, are they any Twins due through PN in the near future? Also, how did you 'acquire' yours (sides on donor or something?)

Thanks a lot,

Phil 

Phil,

 

I did mine using Mousa sides on Hornby Railroad shorties. It was quite straightforward if rather time consuming. The shorties are just the right length once you've cut off the domed end. The most difficult bit was dealing with the inset brake end, and filing down the chassis to match. I've now got two more sets of sides in the roundtuit pile to make up a full full car set.

 

Good luck!

 

Andy

[Mallard60022]

Are

 

Phil,

 

I did mine using Mousa sides on Hornby Railroad shorties. It was quite straightforward if rather time consuming. The shorties are just the right length once you've cut off the domed end. The most difficult bit was dealing with the inset brake end, and filing down the chassis to match. I've now got two more sets of sides in the roundtuit pile to make up a full full car set.

 

Good luck!

 

Andy

 Are the 'Railroad shorties' the same as the old Hornby (too short) Gresleys by any chance?

Those look very smart by the way.

Phil

[great northern]

Have you got an external hard Drive (for your PC Gilbert....no sniggering please) onto which you can place all your lovely pics. That will free up your space a good deal.

Phil

 

 

Don't forget to delete old restore points as well. They can take up several GB's of space.

 

Best regards,

 

Rob.

 Please gentlemen could you explain a bit more, as I don't think I know what these things are, or where to find them.

[Grafarman]

Hmmmm..... PC appears to be slow as it claims I'm nearly out of disc space, though I don't know where it has gone so suddenly, as last time I looked I had plenty. I've cleared the cache, emptied deleted items and got rid of everything I can, but to no effect. Pictures take up a lot of space though, don't they? so I'd better get rid of a few more.

105 2.jpg

DMU 2.jpg

At least the destination is for the right stretch of line on this DMU! Getting closer.

 

Second shot is spot on IMO - you almost get a sense of the anticipation of a waiting passenger; and yes, I do like these early DMU's - spent some wonderful evenings trundling along the North Wales Coast sat behind the driver of some very old versions of these - that would be a couple of decades after this one!

 

 

David

[Mallard60022]

An external hard drive is a thing wot plugs into the a  port in the side of yer puter. It becomes an F Drive I think and is just like your C drive (in the puter) but dangles around outside it. Quite good also in case yer puter gets hacked or blows up. There ya go. Technical explanation done.

P

[Market65]

Restore Points.

 

They are 'snapshots in time' that are created, most typically before applying an update, by Windows. To delete, on Windows 7, you go to System Properties. From there you click on the System Protection tab. It shows you two buttons, Configure and Create. Don't click on Restore, unless you wish to perform a System Restore!

To delete old restore points, click on Configure, and then within it Delete. That deletes all of the restore points. When done, then click on Create. This enables you to create a restore point manually. Just type in the date and time. Then click on Create. It then creates a new restore point. You are then finished until next time, you should have a few GB's of space released all being well with all the old restore points having being deleted from the system.

 

Rob.

[great northern]

Second shot is spot on IMO - you almost get a sense of the anticipation of a waiting passenger; and yes, I do like these early DMU's - spent some wonderful evenings trundling along the North Wales Coast sat behind the driver of some very old versions of these - that would be a couple of decades after this one!

 

 

David

 We had some of the very first ones at Lincoln David, in 1954/5 I think, but I don't really remember them. it is the Derby heavyweights that stick in my mind, and I would like to have one of those eventually.

[great northern]

Restore Points.

 

They are 'snapshots in time' that are created, most typically before applying an update, by Windows. To delete, on Windows 7, you go to System Properties. From there you click on the System Protection tab. It shows you two buttons, Configure and Create. Don't click on Restore, unless you wish to perform a System Restore!

To delete old restore points, click on Configure, and then within it Delete. That deletes all of the restore points. When done, then click on Create. This enables you to create a restore point manually. Just type in the date and time. Then click on Create. It then creates a new restore point. You are then finished until next time, you should have a few GB's of space released all being well with all the old restore points having being deleted from the system.

 

Rob.

Thanks Rob. I'm still on Vista, and the process is different, but similar. I tried it, and wasn't sure if it worked or not, but after restart I have 3 GB more, so perhaps it did, or at least partially. I shan't experiment any more tonight, but I'll see if it is any faster in the morning.

[great northern]

I can still post stuff I've already processed, so the usual evening shots follow. Two light engines tonight.

61630 has come down the engine road, and will move up alongside the coaling stage to await the call to duty.

While Sir Vincent Raven also waits in the bay for the arrival of the Heart of Midlothian.

[thegreenhowards]

Are

 

 

 Are the 'Railroad shorties' the same as the old Hornby (too short) Gresleys by any chance?

Those look very smart by the way.

Phil

Thanks. The paint finish is none too good, but I'm quite pleased overall. Yes, by railroad shorties I mean the old Hornby too short Gresleys. I guess they used to be main range and poor, and are now railroad.

 

Andy

[jukebox]

Gilbert - what can you tell us about the finish on 61630?  It has a lustre and suggestion of soiling and dirt that, to me, looks amazingly lifelike.

[The Blue Streak]

I think that the picture of the B17 above has become one of my new favourites Gilbert. An absolute cracking photo that wouldn't look out of place on the cover of any model railway magazine.

[Mallard60022]

Triplet set- yet another item in my to-do list....

Don't forget the now available 3D print roof vents once you do this david.

Phil

[great northern]

I have been seriously mucked about this morning, and am running late, so one quick image, and I'll deal with queries later.

Explanations of what's happening later.

[60012 Commonwealth of Australia]

Having just gotten past the discussion about poles (maybe about a dozen pages back? can't remember), theres a very inconvenient one on my Australian layout Cudgee Sidings which managed to wriggle it's way into a shot today. Hope it's ok to put here, if not let me know, but it's blocking my view from the platform! and I now know how you feel!

 

 

A very disgruntled train-spotter.

 

p.s - I'll bring an angle-grinder next time

 

[great northern]

Gilbert - what can you tell us about the finish on 61630?  It has a lustre and suggestion of soiling and dirt that, to me, looks amazingly lifelike.

Tim Is the man to answer that really, as he did it. I asked him to try to show a loco which had been allowed to get very run down at Stratford, but on transfer to March had been given as good a clean as possible, and I think that , as always , he did a very fine job. I'm sure it involved Klear, but I'll ask him tomorrow if he can give further details, as it is now bedtime.

[trw1089]

It looks a lot like some airbrushing of a grime mix with some cleaning back then the addition of Klear, but I would defer to Tim as he is the master!  I did something similar to mine a while back:

 

 

Definitely my favourite loco on the layout (when it is on there, as it is only very infrequent visitor for the occasional failed pacific)

 

Cheers

Tony

[Phil]

Gilbert

 

The most common reason for your computer going slow is it's bunged up with surplus files that you don't need, eg temp files and the like. This is rubbish that can be deleted.

 

Imagine you're writing something and you make jottings on a scrap of paper that you don't want to show in your final piece. When it's finished you throw away the scrap of paper. That's what the temp files etc are and you can get rid of them. If you've never done this before, after you have, your computer will go supersonic.

 

It's easy to do and there's nothing to worry about. The following might sound tedious but once you know what to do, and do it regularly, it becomes second nature to do it.

 

Are you on Windows 7? If not, there's similar things on other operating systems. On Windows 7, click on the Windows globe icon in the bottom left hand corner and a vertical menu will appear. Look for 'Disk Cleanup' or if it isn't there, type 'Disk Cleanup' in the search box.

 

Click on it. A small box will appear asking you which drive you want to clean up. It will be on 'C' as a default so click 'ok'.

 

Another box will appear with a green line going from left to right. The speed of this will depend on how much rubbish you have. When that's finished another box will appear with a list of items and sizes eg 'Temporary Internet Files 510KB'

 

Click on the box with any values against them and click 'ok'

 

A box will appear asking 'Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?' Click on 'delete files'.

 

Another box will appear with a green line going from left to right. The speed of this will depend on how much rubbish you have. When this has finished, and again how long it takes will depend on how much rubbish there is, turn off you computer and switch it back on again.

 

You should now find it's a lot quicker.

 

I use Disk Cleanup every day but I'm on my computer 25 hours a day but if you're just on for a few hours a day, once a week should be enough to keep your computer up to speed.

 

How much rubbish you have will take up a larger percentage of your disk drive if you have a small one, eg 250Gb than if you have a larger one, eg 1Tb which is what I have because I run a website that has over 40,000 files in it and that's before you count the size of Windows 7 and the other programs that are on it.

 

Another thing to do is again go into the Windows globe icon at the bottom left and click on 'computer'. That will tell you how much free space you have on your 'C' drive. You could do a before and after reading to compare the difference.

 

Something else to do is look for Disk Defragmenter. If it isn't there, again type 'Disk Defragmenter' in the search box. When it opens up, click on 'Analyze disk' and then when that's cleared, click on 'Defragment Disk'. If you've never done this before, the process may take an hour or maybe more, but it will create extra space for you. You won't lose any information. When it's finished, turn your computer off and then back on.

 

You could check this, say, monthly, and if it needs doing, you know what to do.

 

Between 'Disk Cleanup' and 'Disk Defragmenter' your computer should be a lot quicker.

 

I hope it works for you. Good luck. The 10:30am may be delayed through leaves on the track but it will be worth it.

 

Carry on with the website, It's fantastic

 

Phil L

Edited July 15, 2016 by Phil

[great northern]

In the end I had a lovely day out yesterday, meeting some friends I hadn't seen for years, and got home very late. Not much done on the railway front then, but when I look out into the garden this morning, what do I see?

A bloomin' hosta.(and a lot of reeds and other stuff.)

But I have a few photos of trains too.

60966 has just taken over an Inverkeithing - KX Goods class C, and is heading for London. The others are still waiting.

And is seen from a different angle. More later when I've sorted the PC out, I hope.

[great northern]

First, the answer to the PC problem. Despite doing everything that you had so helpfully advised I still had virtually no free disc space, so i called out an engineer. After some searching and headscratching we established that the problem was pictures taking up a huge amount of space. But they weren't, I delete most after I post them on here, BUT, he then discovered that whether I liked it or not the PC had kept the original of all the photos I had taken, over 4000 of them. And it did that because of a question on a page I didn't even know existed, which asked after what period were these original images to be sent to the recycle bin. And the box that was ticked? "Never"!!! I love computers, not.

 

I now have loads of free space, and the ****** things will be deleted weekly. To celebrate, another picture. A looming V2. The photographer must have been hanging by his braces from the end screen of the roof to take this. I'm a happy bunny now.

 

[landscapes]

First, the answer to the PC problem. Despite doing everything that you had so helpfully advised I still had virtually no free disc space, so i called out an engineer. After some searching and headscratching we established that the problem was pictures taking up a huge amount of space. But they weren't, I delete most after I post them on here, BUT, he then discovered that whether I liked it or not the PC had kept the original of all the photos I had taken, over 4000 of them. And it did that because of a question on a page I didn't even know existed, which asked after what period were these original images to be sent to the recycle bin. And the box that was ticked? "Never"!!! I love computers, not.

 

I now have loads of free space, and the ****** things will be deleted weekly. To celebrate, another picture. A looming V2. The photographer must have been hanging by his braces from the end screen of the roof to take this. I'm a happy bunny now.

 

Hi Gilbert

 

I do like the angle of that last photo of the V2, it make a vey nice photo indeed.

 

Regards

 

David

[bigwordsmith]

Gilbert, excellent pics as ever, - you might find this useful for your storage problems...http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/data-storage/wd-my-passport-ultra-exclusive-portable-hard-drive-1-tb-wild-berry-10133627-pdt.html

 

ATB

 

Peter

[Mallard60022]

Gilbert, excellent pics as ever, - you might find this useful for your storage problems...http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/data-storage/wd-my-passport-ultra-exclusive-portable-hard-drive-1-tb-wild-berry-10133627-pdt.html

 

ATB

 

Peter

That's the thing to have and then you can make & keep albums of all your lovely pics (that you want to keep).

Phil

[glo41f]

Gilbert

 

As ever you have shown us all how it should be done!  Wonderful pictures and I too love the B17 one. It has just the right patina of a used loco that has had some attention lavished on it. That is how I remember them. I cannot recall seeing a really scruffy one. The B1s were a different matter and they were frequently really scruffy. I wonder if it was that the green livery made the loco staff pay more attention to their charges.

 

Thank you so much for the pictures and the memories they evoke

 

Regards

 

Martin Long

[Timara]

Many thanks for all your kind comments on 61630

 

Hornby's B17s seem to vary a bit with their out-of-box finish, so my methods change depending on which base model comes my way.  The first batch (of which this is one) are a simple case of taking a cotton bud and some T-Cut to lightly buff up the bodywork, making sure no lining is damaged in the process, and then seal that with a single coat of Klear.  It's best advised to wash the bodyshells before the Klear is added, to get rid of any residue of T-Cut!).

 

My "gunk mix" is a simple mixture of Humbrol 27004 (Metalcote gunmetal) and 62 (matt leather).  After a main coat of dirt is given, a slightly damp (with white spirit) wide brush is used to paint said dirt in a downward motion; cotton buds remove most of it and the process repeats.  More paint is removed than is left on the model, as is the norm with weathering.  Speaking personally, I can never understand how someone can merely squirt dirt at a loco and then call it "weathered".  I forget how many cotton buds I go through on models these days, but plenty get used in the course of a single loco!

 

Here's the other side of 61630, sat in platform 6.....

 

 

There is a further B17/6 to come at some point in the future, but I'll leave Gilbert to announce which one that is.  I think a photo of it (taken by my dad back in 1958) has possibly featured before in this thread, but I may be wrong.....