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Good moaning to one and all from the Charente. It's sunny out there. The market this morning then learning Belote this afternoon. Jamie

Yes thecAtlanteans really shhok every time the bus pulled up at a stop or traffic lights. Most Leeds buses were Roe bodied, built at Cross Gates. The other buses were mainly Daimler Fleetlines, which from memory were much smoother. One of my Inspectors used to have a phrase of "go outside and catch a big green Daimler" , if you asked for a lift in a panda to one of the outlying estates. Jamie

I'm after an A1 models Class 25 roof fan grill, to replace one on aHornby Class 25. Many thanks. Steve.

I used to say, yes I'm a baptist do you want me to pray for you. Jamie

That would be my interpretation too Phil. I resisted a split headcode 37 for a while but eventually gave in to the A/s flyers and decided on D6702, but no sound fitted ones available. So I did the DIY thing and ordered decoder speaker and clips and "self fitted" !!

Your original post wasn't that clear as Dapol made a 4mm B set. Lionheart's short buffered 7mm coach is an E140 and is correct as supplied. These generally stayed in their fixed pairs - the similar brake 3rds ran as singles but the model of that already comes with long buffers at either end. Attached shows the short buffers on a later E147 from a pair but is the same principle: http://www.gwr.org.uk/b-set-notes.html If you do want square taper GWR coach buffers, there are loads of alternatives. I prefer CPL and Slaters personally - the Markits buffers I've had before were over-scale, albeit not that type.

Maybe. Wikipedia says this of the fifth generation Impala: Length: 222.9 in (5,662 mm) The fourth generation Buick Le Sabre (1970s) was: Length: 221.9 in (5,636.3 mm)

I really wish people would stop repeating this "city should be treated like Everton or Forest" rubbish. Both those teams were clearly shown to have breached the guidelines and admitted it and so were punished accordingly. City haven't admitted anything, nor is there anything that can be shown to clearly prove it and so they have contested the charges. Yes its taking a long time, longer than us City fans would like as well, we'd rather it all over and done with if for nothing else to stop the constant sniping. But, like the EPL there will be an army of lawyers making lots of money out of it. As to whether City or EPL are delaying it, who knows, I'd take anything the EPL says with a pinch of salt these days. What's as interesting is that over the past 5 years City are only seventh in the net spend league. Yes they've spent big, like the others, but they've been careful how they've bought and sold, all the charges relate to before this time, several years before in fact, they all relate to the early years of the ownership whilst setting up and establishing the City Group. The trouble is now is that it's been dragging on for so long that there is a general feeling that City are guilty regardless, several recent posts say so, despite no evidence that they are. So if they're acquitted there will be accusations of fixing and if they are guilty then punishment will have to be seen to be severe, regardless of whether the breaches are severe or not. The EPL have backed themselves into a hole in it. My own personal opinion, and it's just that, is that they've used a "scatter gun" approach in the hope that at least one charge will stick.

Possibly even longer than my '76 Chevy Impaler wagon. 😄

Convertible Buick Le Sabre coupé? (I notice it is left-hand drive.) A colleague in the mid-1980s had his parents' hand-me-down Oldsmobile Delta 88 sedan. We called it the 'tuna boat'. He bought one of the last 'big' model Buick Regal coupés in the late 1980s. (Like this, but in grey, if I'm not mistaken.) Growing up I knew someone with a left-hand drive Lincoln Continental. It stood out. In the mid-1980s I once rented a Cadillac Sedan de Ville. It felt huge.

Talking of the French - an Old Citroen: Almost needed a wideangle lens to get this one in: Chips On A Stick! I think there are few grills tougher in appearance than the XY Falcon GT grill... The Banana Splits turned up.

Isn't She Lovely — Stevie Wonder

According to a lot of the sources I looked up, the RN traditionally used something more like "luh'TEN-ant" or "le-TEN-ant" - but definitely not "lef-tenant". What I read suggested more emphasis on the second syllable in the RN pronunciation. Despite all the learned suggestions I read, I suspect it was an aversion to sound "French" in the army, much like all those 'Britishified' French words such as valet, fillet, claret, etc. One presumes the RN was less afflicted by this. They didn't even change the names of a lot of French prizes they took. Buried in this lot are a bunch of French prizes whose names were not changed. The English line of battle at Trafalgar included Spartiate, Belleisle, and Tonnant - all captured French ships sailing under their original names (though Belleisle was named Formidable at time of capture and there was already a Formidable on the Navy list). The first HMS Temeraire (1759) was the captured French Téméraire during the Seven Years War. The Turner painting featured the third of the name. The RN liked the name so much they used it six times for ships and twice for a shore establishment.

Thanks @martin_wynne - As I said, I assumed there'd be a way, I just hadn't invested the time in finding it! Only recently started to play with the possibilities. Thanks for pointing out how to do it.

R761 is back in the livery it wore as restored in 1985.

I have asked several RN officers why they use the US pronunciation of lieutenant where the army uses left- and none of them have ever had an answer beyond the usual inter-service rivalry type answers about pongo's etc.

I'll keep the Australian car pics to a minimum because there were some English cars there that will probably be more interesting to those in ye Olde Dart. A couple of Mk 3 Cortinas: Look - Someone's gran has turned up! Some @Ozexpatriate targeted nostalgia - 1974 Kingswood station wagon. Worked V8 and no weight over the wheels - what incredible fun! The finish of the timber tray though was tippity top:

This is supposed to be enjoyable. If this hobby isn't doing it for you right now, and something else is (like the moon, or mountain biking, or...) then do them instead ! (I do appreciate it knowing that people haven't kicked off though, so the occasional post here is looked forward to...) James

Well that's got me in the zone for the 9:30AM session of Mad Max 5 on Thursday! There were a LOT of bikes, and one or two of them weren't even Harleys. Spotted this one for @PupCam Od school Kwaka But apart from that it was pretty much Harleys! Current temperature is 17, hence all the beanies and hoodies and jackets in attendance.. And one for @Sidecar Racer

Historical note: Around 1958-9, Kadee introduced the K10 coupling which was a drop-in fit for the standard Athearn coupler box. They already had the K4 and K5 -- which fit a different box; K5 included a box which could be mounted (or vice versa). When the magnetic version came out, the K4 became MK4 and the K10 became the MK5&10. When the delayed feature was added, the 5&10 became the MKD5 and is now the #5. (Yes, I was around for all this, but too young to afford many of them.) Dates may be approximate. I've broken a knuckle or two, but usually by dropping on the floor.

Very late to the party here, but I'd offer the observation that the main attraction of Roy Link's plan was that, not only was it compact and simple, but it could be plausibly built, stocked, operated, and scenicked, with equipment that was available r-t-r or as simple kits at the time it was published. I suspect that most potential builders would have been thinking in terms of Airfix 14xx and autocoach for passenger services (making running round a B-set irrelevant), with a Hornby pannier (was the Mainline one available yet?) or Lima 45xx, a handful of wagons and a toad for goods. Some Peco/Merit kits for structures and you're most of the way there with a relatively modest expenditure of cash and effort. Given that, in 1978, even quite "serious" modellers were less fussy about absolute accuracy of eg loco and stock allocations, in the interest of just being able to get something sorta running and finished, I suspect that more recent criticisms held less water in 1978.

One of many favorite night scenes from my Colmore traction depot..

On firefox you can still reinstate the menu bar and use View -> Zoom. On (at least) linux Ctrl + to zoom in (and Ctrl - to zoom out) also work.

I added a couple of small details on the front ends of the Lima 31 to complete the body modifications. There are handrails on top of the cab front door mounds, which were never moulded on in the first place. I have added wire handrails there. Also, in later years, some small shields were added to the windscreen washers. I cut some small not-quite-squares from some plastic sheet and carefully glued them to the tweezers I was using! After freeing them again, then freeing them from my finger tips, I managed to get them to stick where I actually wanted them to go. They may be slightly undersized, but they were as good as I could get them. A lick of yellow paint on the handrails and ears completed that job. I took it along to show off at the BRMA meeting yesterday (Saturday 18/05), in a Dapol box to protect it. The "ears" and handrail had only been put on that morning so were unpainted there. The second photo shows it running in on the rolling road, a procedure that is also now complete. Now it's just those horrible Lima couplings that need to go.

Few more scratch build yard lighting towers on this weeks workbench..