All Activity

Scenery progressing with landscape taking shape , retaining walls in , rocks ready for sculpting and painting track now ballasted set up outside this weekend and worked faultlessly on first attempt circa 3 months until its first outing in public 🫣

It explains a lot, its all based on tasteless chickens...

Good morning all, Sunny start with some blue sky and some clouds. Sunny spells ands showers, possibly heavy and thundery and fresh to strong winds are today's offering. 11°C rising to 18°C. Not sure what I'm doing today. I might have another go at updating the Sat Nav once a new flash drive arrives as that may be the problem. The Shed hasn't been visited for a couple of days so that's another option. I might even watch the Trooping of the Colour ceremony. Of course that does all depend on Her Bossness. I have primed her with tea and it sounds like she's on the move so once she appears anything could happen. Have a good one, Bob.

Hello Dennis The DJH B16 is no different than at least 2 of their other ex-NER/LNER offerings, I suggest. Take their A8. On its own it looks fine. However, stand it next to a Little Engines A8 and there are differences. Doubtless placing a 52F Models A8 next to the other two will be different again, and my money would be on the 52F for accuracy. (The same is true of the DJH H1 (NER Class D), which is the same body as the A8.) Similarly, the Little Engines A6 is a nice model, capturing the classic Edwardian appearance of the class. However, compared to a North Eastern Kits (Arthur Kimber) A6, which again will be more accurate, then there are obvious dimensional errors. I guess that in many ways, your DJH B16 would be fine as a "layout loco". Certainly there are quite a few that have been built & run. Oh, the DJH A8 & H1 are improved when the bodies are fitted to 52F chassis - and AFAIK the A8 & B16 were produced by DJH using the same basic chassis, so it might be possible to cut down a 52F chassis to suit the B16? Mark

It might be worth getting a "PAYG" O2 sim with a minimal amount of credit on it to see if the O2 signal is any better/available.

This is how end-of-life care should be managed! I’ll be doing a version of this for Lucy and Schotty (Mrs iD and I have decided that when it’s time for them to go, we’ll euthanise them at home - together with their loved ones, amongst familiar surroundings, at peace, unstressed and not scared). And I expect that, when my time comes, I will discharge myself home and enjoy the pleasures of my life one last time. Someone once wrote that death to modern susceptibilities is as pornography was to the Victorians: something you knew existed, but something you certainly didn’t talk about and avoided thinking about. Unhappily, far too many people die in hospital - often after considerable expense has been taken to prolong their lives by a mere few weeks, if not just a few days. And in another interesting and provocative journal article, it was claimed that for every hundred pounds spent on your healthcare, over £80 of that £100 will be spent on end of life care - to little or no avail. Unfortunately, both traditional medical training, and – especially – the law do not recognise that dying can only be managed and not prevented. Whilst letting a patient die does, on the surface, seem to be the complete antithesis of what a doctor should be doing, in reality successfully managing a patient’s death is as important as preventing death where it can be prevented (although to be pedantic, you are not preventing death, just postponing it to a more natural time). The Victorian approach to death, considering it to be as much part of life, as birth and marriage, was (and I would argue is) a heathy one.

Sit ups every day of the week!

Coincidentally, I've use my copy for some work in the new extension of my Elbow Lane layout. Had the book since publication and it's the 3 time of use. Dave.

Morning all, Many thanks to all regarding the explanations about point sizes etc. The bullhead issues are interesting and my self and Chris H are the process of feeding this back to PECO. Their response has been excellent. When able, we'll update. Rob

After the visit to Keyworth Brewing I headed back into Fort Worth again, with another shot passing the FWWR depot on the way....... By the time I got back to FW Central, Amtrak had put in an appearance, with the stock for the Heartland Flyer laying over adjacent to the main platform with a rather battered looking #14 at this end of the top/tail consist...... That's actually a very good example of a short Amtrak passenger train for modellers as well, with just 3 Superliner cars between the two locomotives. The Texas Eagle was also about, though this is currently disrupted with a bus bridge between Longview, TX and Fort Worth - Dallas not seeing any trains again until later this month. The southbound run left shortly after I arrived.... Note the interesting arrangement where a track actually crosses through the long passenger platform at the station. Out in the bus station section, "Molly the Trolley", the free Downtown loop service run by Trinity Metro was awaiting passengers....... ...and one of the TM routes has been converted to articulated operation...... Just to the south of FW Central is the original Santa Fe station building...... ...now part of an events complex of some sort, whilst the adjacent freight house is now part of a local University........ I then headed off to a rather large tin shed for a meal though...... Cowtown Brewing was very good and the beer and food were excellent, but as a warning to anyone like me who hasn't gravitated to a Smartphone yet, the food menu is theoretically only available by scanning a QR Code on each table and they don't have printed copies.... The simple suggestion of what I wanted was enough to come up with the goods though, as most places tend to do cheese & bacon burgers and fries!

Ooh, aah, just a little bit - Gina G.

Good moaning from a windy clifftoin Bournemouth. I'm sitting g next to a 5 Yr old watching cbeebies. Breakfast soon then we start our journey home. First a trip to visit apniece in Basingstoke then the ferry across to St Malo tonight and home tomorrow. Jamie

Very many thanks Tony. Looking at it, the totem is too high so that will have to be replaced and lining alterations will have to be made. I'll have to find the bow pens!

I think you’ll see more duplication . Manufacturer X can’t afford for Y to have a monopoly with the most prevalent and popular diesel classes , you just have to have it in the range . For AS, whatever wagons they produce next , I’m sure they can’t have a competitors loco pulling them , so that may be a guide to what is going to be built .

I’m glad to hear that Aditi had no severe consequences of her fall. @Tony_S must be relieved. This post got me thinking about a recent medical journal article I read about fitness in the elderly. Now, I refuse to be “old”, but I am sane enough to recognise that I can’t stop the inexorable ravages of time; however, I can manage them. Which brings me back to the article. Falls in the elderly can have deadly consequences: not immediately from the fall, but from the aftermath. A person has a fall, suffers an intertrochanteric or subtrochanteric fracture (which many health services, including some NHS trusts, will not repair in elderly patients) leaving the person bed bound with resulting physical and mental deterioration and an earlier death than would have been the case. This is now a major problem, affecting women more than men (due to post menopausal osteoporosis. A good review is here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6610445/#:~:text=Hip fractures can be classified,as intertrochanteric and subtrochanteric fractures.) However, regular weight training helps as by building, or maintaining, muscle mass, when you fall you tend to bounce rather than break (a good lay article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/20/aging-weight-training-health/) I go regularly to the fitness centre (2x week), each time doing two circuits of mixed weight training and intense cardiovascular exercise and I’m now starting to feel the benefit (it does take a while). It’s definitely worth my while.

EXACTLY my sentiments when SWMBO pointed it out to me earlier this morning. Absolutely brilliant!

Bear here..... What fun does Bear have in store for today? Well I need some bread n' nanas n' apples n' satsumas; I also need to submit Meter readings, maybe order some spare repair/penny washers from the 'bay (my stocks are low and I find they come in useful at times), do some work on the anti-pachyderm defence system, maybe a bit of pondering.....possibly a bit of minor sorting...... Pink Pills have already been deployed - the o/s/r paw has come out in sympathy with Mickey's o/s/r wheel arch n' bumper and has given minor gyp for the last couple of nights (usually around 3am - like wot such things do); probably a bit of fall-out from the week's fun at the Warehouse. Right, time to get a wriggle on.... BG

Thanks No the mounting plate has to be brought separately along with the wire.

Yes thanks, I have several spare 85 bodies. Think I got them from Rainbow Railways if memory serves.

I see the connection to wood chips but that is such a low density cargo that I’ve never known something this small carry them, it’s usually converted hoppers or the modern purpose made types which are huge.

Thanks for the insight. Please forgive me as I’m just getting started with 3D printing but is going from 0.3 to 0.4 mm a case of changing settings on the printer, or is it a function of the drawing/slicing?

I seem to have bought duplicates of several parts I didnt really need in the first place! Any latest timescale on the Scammell?

Good morning, I think the motor might be a Zenith. The Jamieson B1 looks well-made, but the lining on the tender is incorrect; it should just be a rectangle below the coping plate. It's similar to the way a few ex-LMS Fowler tenders were lined. My own Jamieson B1 is some 45 years old............ Seen running in Bytham's early days. I don't know which came first - Jamieson's B1 or the same firm's V2? I say that because both had the same tender, which really only suits the V2 (and only a few at that) because the front cut-out is large (similar in size to the rear one), when it should be small. I built the B1 tender in complete ignorance! This image should show the difference in the cut-outs - the far one being suitable for a B1, not the near one. And, rather going off at a tangent.................. The first V2 had the LNER 4200 gal GS tender with the larger cut-out (built from a Jamieson kit, painted by Geoff Haynes and now running on Grantham). Two more Jamieson kits I've built running on Little Bytham........... Have different styles of tender with the large front cut-out, 60821 painted by me and 60820 painted by Ian Rathbone. The Nu-Cast kit provides the most-common V2 tender (with small front cut-out), this one painted by Geoff Haynes. The Bachmann tender is ideal for a B1. And finally........ One more shot of my Jamieson B1, in company with another 4-6-0 of much the same vintage; an ancient Nu-Cast B16/3 (on a scratch-built chassis). I still keep these pieces of antiquity, not so much to run these days but more out of curiosity. They're just nowhere near 'current standards'. Regards, Tony.

A pacer like body on a Mk1 underframe.... Andy G

Evening Broad Gauge Cheer Up Picture: Now this definitely is a Broad Gauge locomotive even if it is one of Dean's convertible '3001' class singles. The carriages are all convertible ones as well to make a matching set. I know I've seen express in full flight snaps taken at this location before as I recognise the signal box. Anyone know whereabouts this is?