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NO PLACE


Les1952
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More progress

 

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I've primed the arch and got the first coat of black on it, which does make the thing look a lot more like an exhibition layout.  These pics were taken late this afternoon, and the shed lights were reflecting badly on the gloss black - so I turned them off.  Most of the illumination here is from the LED stripight over the layout.   With hindsight it might have been better to leave it a while and use warm white, but there should be enough ambient light in the halls (he says hopefully).  If not I can always change them later.

 

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Looking the other way.  I'll retake these when there is a decent amount of daylight and see what the effect is.  I'm not painting the piece under the layout until I've finished the details on the layout itself.

 

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With just the overhead yellows on the scene does take on a yellow hue.  This one shows the new street lamps fitted.  They aren't working.  The end-on house hasn't an interior, so there wasn't a lot of point in doing lights.  Up in this area I've started the greenhouse and will buy some Evergreen tomorrow to use when I stick down the vertical edges on the walling that are curling up.

 

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Under the camera flash the area around the shed comes up much whiter.   The name over the layout will be in small white lettering, to make it as understated as possible.  It may be gold if Letraset in that colour is more readily obtainable.

 

Les

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mr Simon went shopping this morning, so I got a couple of hours working on No Place, which is laid on its front on the workbench.

 

The good news is that putting a CDU in has provided enough grunt to throw the two electric points.  The one at the headshunt end is working perfectly.

 

The bad news is that the point behind the shed needs the alignment of the motor sorting out.  This shouldn't be difficult when the layout is back on the stands.

 

A few pics to follow- I think.

 

Merry Christmas and a happy whatever other holiday you might celebrate....

 

Les

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Underneath the layout before rewiring the two points.  I'll take an "after" now I know it works.

 

The point decoder is at the top of the second bay from the near end.  This has come out and been replaced by a CDU two bays further on.  Dangling red, black and green wires (second bay from the far end) are from the Peco switches put in to work the points. 

 

The copper strips are the power bus - taken round to form complete rectangles giving two routes for the signal from the circuit breaker ( on the top edge of the bay beyond the point decoder). The blue and white two-core wire is the power fred  feed to the layout.

 

The black wire dangling at the far end is the power feed to the lighting bar on the proscenium and the cab bus is the lead dangling at the near end.

 

Not exactly tidy, but a model of tidiness after the underside of Hawthorn Dene.....

 

Les

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A month to the first show.

 

The electric points both work, and both throw the same way off the levers.  I did have to replace one motor.  The motor on the front one is hidden, but on the one beneath the wall there is nowhere to hide it, so I'll have to disguise it.  Watch this space..

 

In the mean time, and because Gresby is still in the workshop blocking access to the paint I need to finish the proscenium, I've been getting on with small details and ground cover.

 

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Up in the back corner an owl is watching out for prey....

 

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Has he seen the mouse in this part of the field?

 

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Or the grass snake in this picture?  Butterflies being installed tomorrow on the buttercups in the meadow....

 

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Meanwhile the barn is stuck down and the tractor I found at Newark Toy Fair is being grottied up to be stuck down somewhere near it.  The barn needs bedding in and some debris parked up against the walls yet...

 

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Moving round behind the wagon repair shed a coal dump has appeared and been bedded in.  I've yet to work out where the loco crews would throw out their ash and make a couple of dumps in appropriate places.

 

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I've tided up the ground at the back of the shed.  I've got a bike rack under construction to go here, and the surface is now smooth enough for the electric delivery van.  I just need a snogging couple to go behind the bike shed....

 

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Also tidied up is the ground level in front of the wagon shed, and the first of several dumps of rusty scrap is going in - the track from a mine tub tramway.  I've another pile of this in front of the screening house.  Two loads of crates and barrels are screened sheeted over, and I'll add to the wheels when I remember where all the bits of wagon kits I failed in the seventies went....

 

Still plenty to do.  The layout curtain has been measured up- the one from Hawthorn Dene has the right drop but is a couple of yards too long, and the one I sold with Furtwangen Ost wouldn't have been long enough.  Consequently a new one is in the pipeline.

 

Les

Edited by Les1952
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A Few More pics

 

Taken today, the eighth.

 

A little cramped in this area Arkwright has decided to get his van looked at by a couple of fitters while he is delivering the milk.  Crates are still being painted...

 

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The van is this way round to hide the fact that the fitter doing the repairs has his hands flat against the sides of the vehicle.  It is placed in front of the shed because of the position of the bike shed-

 

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A bit of forward planning would have meant I chopped off the rail ends that protruded through the shed door.  Instead I have a slope where the shed has been dumped on top.  There was a prototype for this with the original placement of bike sheds at my school, later moved...

 

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First stage of disguising the PL11 point motor at the back of the layout.  Looking at it the second stage will be to extend the foliage along the base of the walll- there is at least one point wire that needs hiding.

 

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At last a Peckett has arrived.  Still to be numbered it has DCC address 36 and will carry the name HAZARD.   Isn't it tiny next to the yellow peril....  That whistle has bent again - must see if I can find a stronger one.  Not quite visible is that I've already added magnetic droppers to this one's rear coupling- dittto the Yellow Peril.  Front couplers have no dropper (except for No.42 which runs the opposite way round.   Another batch of droppers to do tomorrow.

 

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I've got the barn bedded in a little and added a butterfly to the yellow flowers.  there is another one in the grassy meadow- a third one disintegrated when I tried to remove it from the sprue.  Three still to go.

 

 

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A hedgehog starts off from the long grass towards the cover that will be beside the barn.  There is another one on the sprue which is still being painted.  There are also a couple of small lizards, three squirrels, some rabbits and hares and a woodpecker.  Eventually......

 

Les

Edited by Les1952
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A Few More pics

 

Taken today, the eighth.

 

A little cramped in this area Arkwright has decided to get his van looked at by a couple of fitters while he is delivering the milk. Crates are still being painted...

 

 

arkwright.jpg

arkwright2.jpg

The van is this way round to hide the fact that the fitter doing the repairs has his hands flat against the sides of the vehicle. It is placed in front of the shed because of the position of the bike shed-

 

bike shed.jpg

A bit of forward planning would have meant I chopped off the rail ends that protruded through the shed door. Instead I have a slope where the shed has been dumped on top. There was a prototype for this with the original placement of bike sheds at my school, later moved...

 

point motor.jpg

First stage of disguising the PL11 point motor at the back of the layout. Looking at it the second stage will be to extend the foliage along the base of the walll- there is at least one point wire that needs hiding.

 

peckett 1.jpg

peckett 2.jpg

At last a Peckett has arrived. Still to be numbered it has DCC address 36 and will carry the name HAZARD. Isn't it tiny next to the yellow peril.... That whistle has bent again - must see if I can find a stronger one. Not quite visible is that I've already added magnetic droppers to this one's rear coupling- dittto the Yellow Peril. Front couplers have no dropper (except for No.42 which runs the opposite way round. Another batch of droppers to do tomorrow.

 

flutterby.jpg

I've got the barn bedded in a little and added a butterfly to the yellow flowers. there is another one in the grassy meadow- a third one disintegrated when I tried to remove it from the sprue. Three still to go.

 

 

hedgehog.jpg

A hedgehog starts off from the long grass towards the cover that will be beside the barn. There is another one on the sprue which is still being painted. There are also a couple of small lizards, three squirrels, some rabbits and hares and a woodpecker. Eventually......

 

Les

No snakes?.......
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Looking good Les.  I hope all goes well on its first outing.  I have relatives in Barrow Upon Soar - you never know, I might drop in.

Best Regards,

Brian.

 

If you do, then come and have a chat.  If you can't there's always Cotgrave on 22nd and 23rd April, though I've put No Place as the reserve layout for this as I'll not really be able to play trains and run the show at the same time.

 

One thing I did get done was add the layout name to the proscenium.  I'll photograph it later in the week once the protective varnish has dried.  The lettering is gold and not all that big- I wanted it to look understated.

 

Geoff Warren came over this afternoon, partly to help load Gresby back into the car to take back to RAF Newton for storage, but he also stayed for a play for an hour or so.  Geoff will be the main other operator at Sileby.   Having someone else drive while I watched has helped with tack cleaning no end- I had lots of trouble on Furtwangen with trams finding dirt I couldn't see, and the small locos on this layout have the same attributes.  Geoff thought the layout has atmosphere- just as well as atmosphere is what I'm trying to create.

 

The Peckett has a nasty habit of crabbing when it sets off.  I'll put a shout on the Peckett thread to see if anyone knows how easy it is to open up the back-to-back by up to a millimetre to help it behave a little better.  The alternative might be to give it a heavy coal cart to keep it honest- in a previous OO incarnation I had to do the same to a Doxford Crane Tank, though that was a whitemetal plate wagon....

 

Against that the WDs and the Beattie behaved well- only 68023 and 65 are out at the moment.  65 managed to shunt both roads of the screens without derailing- something 71515 and the Peckfield loco can't do.

 

Plenty still to do.  Club day tomorrow and I've got to take a trip to Booklaw on Wednesday.

 

Les

Edited by Les1952
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No Place no longer with No Name....

 

 

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Meanwhile the Beattie is deputising on the screen shunt again...

 

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While the driver of the J94 has been a little wayward throwing ash away and got it on the engine side (while miraculously missing the front footplate).  That ash heap will grow as I get more glue and chalk down.

 

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All these taken without flash but with the layout lights lit.  Nottingham tomorrow.

 

Les

Edited by Les1952
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Second Peckett arrived yesterday.  Chip from Hornby arrived this morning. Their shop website managed not to delete a mistaken duplicate so I have a spare chip again.

 

First Peckett (HAZARD) now has the number 36 on its buffer beam and the middle of the cab back, and its whistle has given up the ghost.  Second one now has been chipped and has had the number 11 removed from the tank side (to match HAZARD) and the number 66 applied to its cab back.  I ran out of time today to do the front buffer beam.  This one will be CHARLES NELSON.  I know the prototype was a W6 rather than a W4, but visually there is less difference than the chopped cab HAZARD had in later years.  It does, however, have an intact, straight whistle (so far)......

 

I should have ordered nameplates for HENRY C EMBLETON for the Stephenson side tank while I was at it.  I've hit a problem with this, however.  I've got two No.65s at present, the Stephenson and the Yellow Peril.  HENRY C EMBLETON carried no number at all until the NCB numbered it 65.  One alternative is to number it 3766, which was its works number.  Alternately I'll just have to make certain the two Number 65s aren't on the layout at the same time.

 

Les

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Yet More Pics

 

 

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A Meatloaf day in the workshop so I was undisturbed all day.  Mr Loaf does rather repel visitors without ear defenders.......  I've extended the foliage along the base of the wall, so the bit hiding the point motor isn't so obvious.  A few flowers on one area of the bushes and another butterfly perusing them will add to the distraction.  This leaves me with the problem of disguising the rest of the wall bottom, which looks a little amateurish at the moment.  The end of the wall in front of the platform steps in the foreground needs a little alteration or disguising - more likely the latter.

 

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The two Pecketts showing their stock numbers on the cab rears, carefully arranged to be at different heights due to me not measuring the first one.  However it is unlikely that both will be in view at the same time so I don't really care.  No.36 is HAZARD and No.66 is CHARLES NELSON (really a W6).  With a little bit of luck the plates will arrive from Narrow Planet before the first outing at Sileby in a month's time. Note no.36 has its neodymium magnet on the coupling dropper while no.66 is yet to be done.

 

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I've also been going at the Yellow Peril with dirty thinners and weathering chalks.  I think I'll leave the general muck level at that, and just tweak one or two areas that are a little too clean- needs some soot along the tank top etc.Y

The last two days have been spent on track cleaning and more track cleaning. The 0-4-0STs will now run along the main line and into the wagon repair shop, though not yet onto the coal road.  They will nearly run into the two odd sidings at the back and will run into both screening roads, though getting them to run out again is still not good enough.  Anywhere a Peckett will go a larger loco shouldn't have electrical problems with.

 

Another cleaning and detailing day tomorrow, with gluing on another batch of coupling magnets just for light relief and to give me a chance to stick my fingers together doing a different job for a change....

 

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

I may have gone quiet but I've not (quite) stopped working.

 

A trip last weekend to Manchester to visit my daughter, who had bought us tickets for "Billy Elliott" at the Palace Theatre.  Very well acted and performed, the lead boy was incredible.  The book was far too potty mouthed (I don't remember kids in the area using the f-word in front of adults for a good many years after 1984) but the show was worth seeing, especially as my daughter paid for the tickets.

 

We've measured the length of the layout curtain and my wife has started making it, though 90-year old in-laws are proving troublesome and time consuming at present.  Fall-back for Sileby is to use Hawthorn Dene's curtain doubled up for part of its length and secured with drawing pins.

 

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I HAVE managed to work out how to secure the small shelf fiddle yard beyond the screens.  No more anxious moments as locos hurtle towards a hole in the end wall with a drop beyond.  It shows up the hamfistedness of my carpentry, but once the outside has a coat of black paint the imperfections will be a lot less noticeable.

 

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An addition to the fleet is a custom weathered 03 with a Bachmann Club Edition 08 to follow, both courtesy of eBay.  The 03 has passed its screens test and will be allowed to shunt the colliery.  There is now a magnet on that road so empties can be uncoupled at last.

 

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Shed yard showing locos waiting for couplers still to be sorted.  Done now are the Sentinel and most of the other proprietory locos.  "Done" means some form of loop at one end and a tension lock with a magnet on the dropper at the other.  Not all locos face the screens.  There will be one or two that have loops at both ends, meaning these can take trains out of the yard but not bring them in.  "James" (seen on the right of this pic) wll be one of these.  The Knightwing diesel and the Ruston 48DS will also be in this category.  I think the Hudswell 0-6-0T,  Hudswell 0-4-0ST "Smellie Nellie" and 0-6-2T no.42 might also lack droppers once finished.  Like most layouts it has more locos than wagons and only a few will be in sight at any one time.

 

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I've now painted the rest of the front board, indicatng that the layout is just about show ready.  That means most of what is left to do now involves getting the stock useable.

 

Still plenty to do...

 

Les

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A numbering problem.

 

I have two locos numbered 36 and two locos numbered 65.

 

Peckett HAZARD has the same NCB number as the Seaton Deleval USATC, and the Yellow Peril has the same number as HENRY C EMBLETON, the RSH tank.

 

The latter is easier to sort as I forgot to order the nameplates for the RSH.  The Peckett has its number on the cab rear, and theoreticallythe USATC could be renumbered as 35, which was also a USATC in the South Northumberland Area.  However, the South Northumberland Area used highly non-standard numbers with the shading on the "wrong" side.   The Peckett will have to have a new number- probably No.1 as that number is vacant in the fleet.  Perhaps just as well I didn't get the Backworth WD from Hattons, as Smelly Nellie carries the same number (4).

 

Another job----

 

On the plus side I've managed to get a working coupler fitted to JAMES (No.6 in the fleet) and at last all of the roads into the shed area are working and all locos run into the shed area.  The USATC tank will cope with the screen roads so it looks as if about half of the fleet will be able to work this side of the layout.   I've hidden another mouse in the undergrowth- so well I'm struggling to find it.

 

Plenty left to do.

Les

 

Smelly Nellie worked at a sewage works......

Edited by Les1952
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  • 2 weeks later...

Still making progress.

 

The fascia curtain and the bits to shield the fiddle yard from the eyes of the punter are finished (almost).  I still need to cover the gap between the fiddle yard and the layout itself.  I've some small pieces of left-over curtain that have been cut for use on Rise Park and there is a spare one of these.  The pic shows the fiddle yard sloping downwards away from the layout, though there is still a gap when it is level, but the edge of the curtain is further from the floor.....

 

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A pack of cats and dogs ( from eBay) has resulted in a confrontation in the street.

 

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There are a couple of extra butterflies, a hare and a rabbit, together with another mouse now in place.  Some "raspberries" which don't look a lot like raspberries but are in any case quite attractive bushes are now in the garden.  I've put  the rest around the layout to hide defects or to make hedges a bit more interesting. 

 

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A whole lot of figures are now appearing, the first to arrive being a welding gang.  These are cutting up a pile of old tramway track just in front of the screens.  Hopefully more figures will appear shortly.  

 

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Geoff is coming over on Friday to do a trial run fitting the layout into the car.  It should go as it s smaller than the boxed "Hawthorn Dene" but how much else will go in is a moot point as there isn't room to stack anything on top of it.

 

Still plenty to do before Sileby.

 

Les

Edited by Les1952
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Fun with figures

 

A spending spree on eBay has netted a decent number of assorted figures to grace the layout.  The welders arrived first and a bumper bundle (showing my age...) of Preiser and Bachmann figures arrived yesterday morning.  Having slept on their positioning I put them in place today.

 

Starting with trainspotters.   Barry and his mate John have saved up their bus fare (two buses, change at Sunderland for the Consett bus and get off at Beamish Mary pub) and come to have a look around the steam site.  But what are they looking at?  

 

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Looking at them in close-up the N-gauge trainspotter pack does seem to capture trainspotters a little better than OO ones- the baggy shorts are more convincing in N.  They seem to have their back to the railway, though they might be looking at the yard.  Just in front of them can be seen another of the trainspotters getting a camera ready.  Have we got a celebrity loco visiting?

 

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This lot don't seem interested in it, no matter what it is.   It seems to be the monastery's day excursion to see the trains- well, if vicars can be railway enthusiasts why not monks?  

 

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Two more of the monks seem to have brought some ale with them and are having a rare old time round the back of the shed.

 

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Meanwhile another is off to find the toilets.  

 

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This is what the fuss at the shed front is all about.  It seems 'er and 'im are on a private visit to the railway preservation shed.  In my day Durham University Railway Society didn't have visitors of quite such a status but we did have the Bishop of Durham as a patron and got a very nice letter when he retiredand we asked his successor if he would also become a patron.  The fat controller obviously wasn't expecting the visit as he isn't in uniform.  However the paparazzi seem to have got a representative in place.  "Smile Please, Ma'am".  Looking at this scene for a few minutes after setting it up I realised something was missing.  Then I remembered the pack of dogs I bought some time ago that hadn't been opened.  Lo and behold, the answer.

 

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The Royal Corgi!

 

Time to have another look to see if there are any other odd figures to be had.  Meanwhile I've got the layout ready to try in the car tomorrow.  The add-ons are three small pieces of wood, three small boxes of stock, the tool box and a box with the electrickery bits in it, plus the two trestles and hopefully the stools.

 

Les

 

 

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South Hetton would be a WD type, they had six of them of which two are preserved.

 

Still looking out for more figures.  I've decided against Father Christmas, and also against  a second layout with a bonking banker (Furtwangen Ost had one behind the blue glass in the bank window...)

 

Les

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 Barry and his mate John have saved up their bus fare (two buses, change at Sunderland for the Consett bus and get off at Beamish Mary pub) and come to have a look around the steam site.

 

 

No No No . . . . . They got the Northern 45  from Horden to Chester le Street, via the crossing at Fencehouses,  , , and caught the Diamond T service  from Chester to Stanley, and got of at the Beamish Mary. . . 

 

I know this for a fact 'cos' I had to carry on to Stanley to visit me Granny.

 

 

John

Edited by Two_sugars
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I nearly mentioned changing at Chester-le-Street but my Northern timetable from 1967 is in the loft somewhere (with my United one and fleet disposition cards of the same vintage.)

 

This was my first bus into Stanley - teaching practice coach depositing us poor unfortunates at South Stanley primary in early 1971.

 

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Only seems like a lifetime ago when I think of nearly 39 years in the classroom since..........

 

 

Les

 

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