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Grocer Heath or Grocer Jack?

Big updates over the weekend! Managed to finish the paths the railings along the paths painting them took ages! flocked the embankment, and gave the road a repaint with a lighter grey. Also painted the walls for the factory area, just weathering them up now!

Fair call, however American popular culture of which Disney is a major component has certainly played its part in normalising and even glamourising gun violence, whether its some 1950's cowboy and Indian TV show through to a typical Gangsta Rap ode to popping a cap in someone. I recall seeing "Kindergarten Cop" on release back in the day (1990-ish?) which was sold as a family friendly screwball comedy about a police detective who goes undercover in a primary school in order to catch a drug baron, from memory. The climactic scene graphically shows the drug baron being shot dead in the school boys toilet , which I remember at the time thinking "How the $$*%# is that a scene thought suitable to put into a family movie?" Now if I was to go on Mastermind, my special subject would not be "US school gun shootings" so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of many school shootings in the US up to that point other than Kent State University, so effectively normalising someone being shot dead in a school several years before Columbine (the first shooting that got mass coverage here) seems a bit disturbing. In 1990 I'm pretty sure I could still go into our local Kmart and buy a rifle off the shelf (albeit a low calibre low velocity rifle suitable for rabbit shooting) - I definitely remember them being racked up in the sporting goods section in the mid-1980's - so our gun laws were rather lax at the time but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no family friendly movie made here back then incorporated a scene showing someone being shot dead in a school, there definitely wasn't such a depiction in BMX Bandits for instance! There must be a PHD waiting on why Australia and the US, although both sharing many historic similarities - both large frontier countries populated by an Indigenous people who were mercilessly subjugated, both with settlements springing up far from civilisation due to mining or opening up of farming lands, do not share the same gun violence path. Australia did have outlaws, mainly the bushrangers (essentially Highwaymen for any UK readers!) who would rob stages, government mail coaches and remote farms at the point of a gun, however despite our convict settlement beginnings we did not have the same gun culture as depicted in early US frontier accounts. Other than the Eureka Stockade, where gold miners rose up in protest against the imposition of mining license and opened fire on government forces sent to quell the uprising, I can't think of any other use of firearms here on the scale apparent in the US "wild west". (Hideous massacres of the local indigenous folk - often on the order of the British Government aside...) Perhaps its due to the judicial system in both countries? In Australia policing was by government police and troopers, centrally controlled by the government, with a system of government assigned magistrates in major centres who would try all criminal cases. Capital sentences were carried out in the major country centre like Bathurst, rather than locally where the crime was committed, and sentences could be appealed. In contrast if my studies of US frontier justice, based on watching many a Saturday morning western when young are correct, US frontier law enforcement seems to be based on locally elected "sheriffs" and judges, many untrained who would organise a possie of locals or bounty hunters to bring alleged suspects in. Justice was localised and swift and there was no central authority to oversee the sentence or to be appealed to.( Maybe I'm wrong? ). Its understandable that this would lead to a culture of gun violence as those with no faith in the justice system, as well as those seeking to exploit its shortcomings used guns to sort it out. Following the gun buyback in 1997 there were 3.2 million guns in Australia. As of 2019 there were 3.5 million guns, so despite many a MAGA enthusiast claiming the Australians gave up their guns, there are actually MORE guns in the community now than when the Port Arthur buyback scheme was implemented. Despite that we have not had a single mass shooting (apart from one tragic murder-suicide). The fact that we have strict background checks, need a valid reason for owning a gun (which does not include self-defence), must be a registered owner and be subject to annual police checks of your gun storage facilities, as well as a ban on certain gun-types including semi-automatics, large capacity magazines etc, shows that many of the reforms called for by the sane part of the US population do work, and the gun enthusiasts don't need to disarm.

I don't believe eternal life will allow sufficient time to complete what I have stashed away!

Hmmm, it’s difficult isn’t it. Maybe in the railmotor era and for some time afterwards there was a coal bin and a coaling platform alongside each other? And by the 60s the timber platform was gone, leaving only the bin? Or the bin could be an ash bin and the coaling process was all done form the lost platform?

I also finished what I hope will be the final turnout for Camden Shed Mk2, and thought it might be worth documenting. In case I forget how to do it. Lay the template and add a thin strip of double sided tape: I tend to annotate the template with timber lengths and the number of chairs of each type (I know it’s on the templot template already but just makes it a bit more noticeable. Also I may reduce the prescribed number of slide chairs by one). Add the timbers (I pre cut these in batches of different lengths in bulk). I then lay the straight stock rail, or rather the one that must follow the curvature. On the 4 mainlines, it was crucial to get a smooth continuation of the very shallow curve through all the formations. I find this a lot easier if I lay the main stock rail first and build the rest off that. I know some lay the vee first, and I tried that but never quite got on with it. Chairs opposite the check rail, and close to the slide chairs, are partly trimmed to fit in preparation. I also add the slide chairs at this point, glued to the web and underside of the stock rail with a tiny bead of cyano, and left to dry while I……. ……make the vee. Rail pieces filed in the jig and then soldered together using the jig to ensure alignment. This one hasn’t been dressed down with fine file and 1200 grit paper yet. To be continued as I’ve run out of megabytes Iain

I don't mind using the toll roads in Melbourne (East Link is NOT owned by Transurban - although they are looking at the possibility of buying it), as long as they do provide a better product than the freebees. In the case of East Link, it is vastly quicker than using Stud Road, the only viable alternative. However, I admit that I don't have to use toll roads every day.

You are a John Major fan then?

Good for you gc4946, it takes courage to show a razor saw to a lovely rtr coach, but kudos to you for getting on with it. And now you have created a unique model, well done. And I have to say, its more than I have done, I kitbash but have never actually done a cut and shut yet.😟 Cheers TT100 Diesels

Looks like you could have an Audry II there.

W2W, a generator van conversion, photographed in Oxford, 1964. Dave

I remember the minitrix ones, a revelation at the time. When you think of it over the years N gauge has not been badly supplied with HAAs even if some weren’t quite the right length.

In Australia, the Country Fire Authority stations had sirens to alert volunteer firemen to come. In their infinite wisdom, it was determined that the sirens weren't required anymore, as pagers/text messages would work better at lower cost. The problem being, that they forgot that this meant dad left the shop when the siren went off, in turn that meant mum left home and went to take over shop duties and grandma, went to the daughters house, where the children had been left alone! All of which was easy, when the whole town could hear the siren. They got reinstated!

I like the progress on the layout but commiserations on the sales falling through. Seems to be happening round here too. Don

I’ve managed to finish the formation completely. Final few steps were to grind down excess shim and solder with the Dremel, then add the cosmetic half chairs as in part at least seen here: It has now been cleaned and laid on the layout in preparation for testing with locos. To do that I need to wire it. And to do that I need a control panel: It needs a little tidying and obviously a whole load of wiring, switches for turnouts and sections, but hopefully it will work out well. Iain

I really wanted a resin pour but there was no way I could contain it across that large open baseboard and two boards join that wasn’t exactly millimetre perfect. Toilet roll and pva was the route I chose, and layering with gloss varnish takes days but what is the rush? The main point is getting the colour right and this did take a few stabs. It’s been very rewarding so far and there is still much to do. Thanks for interacting, life alone in the attic can get lonely at timed so feedback and comments are welcomed and very much appreciated. Just have a go at various techniques. I have a few experimental boards here. My build is painfully slow but it’s because I’m learning, experimenting and flying solo but everything I share is the result of learning. Don’t settle for your first attempt if you’re not happy. Just keep bashing away. Good luck with your build but just be patient and keep trying until you are happy.

Thanks for your response. I knew that it was an old company but thought it better to double check before someone picks me up on it at an exhibition!

Hi all, Had some fun this weekend adding DAS clay to the rough ground areas between the running lines. I've never worked with clay before, but I successfully managed not to make a vase or summon the spirit of a dead loved one... I have to patiently wait 24 hours before painting, but that's fine, as I've got to wait for some flock to arrive anyway. I will be using static grass, but if the internet can tell you anything, it's put some scatter down first. Due to the fact that I'm doing all this on a super tight budget, because I can't afford to advertise my model kits in the break during Coronation Street, I'm having to do a lot of things manually, that I would otherwise throw money at. For instance, to use my airbrush without a compressor involved a lot of deep breaths. I'm joking of course, I got the missus to do it. I needed a steady hand. One of the main unaffordable costs was going to be trees. So I thought I'd have a go at the wire twist method. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. It looks like Jimmy Saville at the moment... I'll have a better idea when I've given it a waft of paint. Plus some extra fine leaves and it may save me some money, or cause me to be pilloried the length and breadth of the land. Not unlike Jimmy. Don't ask me what kind of tree it is. Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a botanist! Until I do something else stupid. Dan

As I started this thread asking questions, and found the answers useful in the actual job in hand, here are a couple of pictures of the 37/4 straight out of the paint shop, before decals and weathering. General view of the four main livery elements. It destined to be 37403 "Isle of Mull" Thanks again for the replies up thread, Cheers TT100 Diesels

It certainly has the look of Woodham Wagon Works! I reckon that they are "Perkins" PO wagons. Lettering used to be available through POWSides. Best wishes Eric

Aditi went off to watch ballet in Basildon this afternoon and I thought I would go out and do some modelling. I didn’t. I won’t be tomorrow either, we are crossing the big bridge (not the one to Canvey Island). We are off to Bluewater. Aditi has booked a private Covid vaccine from Boots. We haven’t been to Bluewater since 2019 so we can see what has changed. Hopefully then John Lewis sandwiches will still be ok! Tony

TSO is a private company set up in 1852 and a supplier to SNCF and to other railways. Its name dosesn't define it geographically (if it ever did) but may be where it started but its registered offices are actually in Chelles Seine et Marne. It also for example laid the track for the Channel Tunnel and for Crossrail (Elizabeth Line). There is a Wikipedia entry for it, just search for Travaux du Sud-Ouest. There are references to considerable works in Paris.

Not Fresh Flour by any chance? Dave

As an alcoholic Australian I must say...