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Last time we stopped in the Viking the fire alarms there went off in the middle of the night!! We regularly used to stop in a place in Low Petergate but it got quite noisy on Sunday mornings at Easter being rather near the Minster - and the bells

This Song Has No Title — Elton John

A Tower Struck Down - Steve Hackett

It was never logical. It is a remnant of the long hundred of 120 and was only defined as 112 lbs in the Weights and Measures Act 1835.

I don't think I've ever seen an LNER platform trolley. They were probably made in the carriage works so perpetrated the pre LNER design. Remember the BTF "This is York", the porter straightening the platform barrows? They are all pre grouping design. I remember Morpeth still having them in the late 1980's. The may have had LNER number plates on them but to the old design.

I know the feeling!, I have a 12t van test train, (honestly I'm not just playing trains!), and through one certain curved turnout 2 or 3 or 4, it depends, just knock a bit, not derail, as they go through the frog area, the b to b's have been checked, and re-arranging the vans in a different order causes different ones to knock, bloody exasperating! Mike.

Enjoyed myself at the show today including the vintage bus from the station (actually Tesco bus stop). Goof variety of layout and excellent food. Well done to all involved. One small point, the setting out in the main hall was a bit lopsided so a narrow gangway on one side between two layouts (difficult to get through) and much wider on the other side between layout and demo stalls where there were less people. Regards Nick

Tower Of Song - Leonard Cohen / The Jesus & Mary Chain

as i said its between me & whoever, if your saying your interested buty dont like the terms, email me HOLBY CITY RAILWAY@GMAIL.COM

Hope you get this finished before the rtr one comes out! Mike.

and obviously well before electrification, which was completed to Huntingdon in 1986 The bridge above the bridge in the upper photo was demolished a couple of years ago when the A14 was diverted around the town rather than over it.

Thanks. And no I won’t be unless you pay a substantial premium! D

I think most of what you are seeing is a difference in the gloss level between the ‘chalkboard’ and ‘ordinary’ paint

Thanks Mol, that's great. I thought they might be 10.5mm, so I'll get on and order some. Seems quite a difference between new and minimum sizes! Thanks to you too Merfyn, I see that's what you have used and it does look about right. They do look very small in comparison to the 14mm wheels on the Class 304 I'm also building! Steve

As I planned I walked down to the beach after posting here this morning, expecting to back home in time for coffee. 3 1/2 hours later I got back home, having walked nearly 4 miles in total. The Battery display was interesting, most of the volunteers knew what they were talking about. I always think it is about as realistic as preserved railways are compared to the real thing. This year it was not billed as being set in any particular period. I spent quite a long time talking to people who collect items relating to SOE (Special Operations Executive). They had a very nice telescope which is about 2" long, lots of old maps and identity documents. It was interesting to see the knives, some relating to SOE operations ranging from various daggers, a tiny hacksaw, along with a very neat knife inside a fountain pen and another one inside a pipe. They would have been very useful when standing next to someone. The big torch which had a small battery, the rest of the casing being filled with plastic explosive was interesting too. Apparently you prime it by pressing it on and off to show it works, then you hand it to the person who is going to examine a piece of equipment, they switch it on and there is an explosion. The idea was that you organised a power outage where you worked and handed the big torch to an engineer who came to sort it out, then you left quickly. As expected there were a number of make believe Germans and Americans all with Geordie or Scottish accents, along with the Britsh forces reenactors. There were lots of firearms and knives on display but there was ample security as there were two policeman walking round looking at the displays. There was more to see than in past years, one room was done out as a 1940s house lounge/kitchen, both WW1 and WW2 observation posts, searchlight building and magazine for the 6" guns. There was a replica nuclear war era underground monitoring post as would have been used by the Royal Observer Corps. The real one was was just across the road and was demolished when it was no longer needed. Some photos - more to follow a bit later. Jeep Jeep by the Magazine building By the Magazine building German guns An assortment of British weapons Police old and new along with a very young soldier. David

81509 was running with the modified 'Tube' and the ex-Fruit D W 975411 when it lifted the Staines branch south of Poyle Halt in c.1981. It was an interesting project when I modelled it for Model Railway Constructor at the time (my crane has an extending jib (easy to do with rectangular brass tube) but I never did crack the rewind on the cable as the jib contracts! Mine also is self-propelled (Tenshodo SPUD). No 'Toad' when I saw it - I spent several lunchtimes watching its melancholy progress, lifting rails and dragging them away to the instruction, "Walkies!" The Toad worked with a much older crane which took over after a week or so. I have the details of that, too, (it was a Booth Rodley similar to the Airfix/Dapol kit.)(CJL)

Another option is to blag your way in for free. There are ways to do this at most exhibitions but I would never use this option. In fact the opposite tends to happen to me. I pay to go into an exhibition and then end up spending a few hours operating a layout because the owner knows me and is short of crew.

The build quality of British bus bodies has long been the source of complaint among operators and the public at large. Some rattle alarmingly; some don't. But why? The Hastings buses referred to would have been those bodied by Weymann or Park Royal (the operator, Maidstone & District, had batches from both) which I recall were solid and largely rattle-free products. Weymann was later sold to the Metropolitan-Cammell business and were built under the "Metro-Cammell-Weymann" or MCW brand. These rattled. One conclusion might be that the change of factory from Surrey to the West Midlands was the cause. Surely not of itself though. The assembly and finishing at MCW might have been different to that which Weymann had been accustomed to however. Park Royal bodies were largely rattle-free at that time but on later AN68-series Atlanteans, as opposed to the earlier PDR-series models, their ubiquitous body design which adorned vast numbers of buses started to rattle after just a few miles in service. Portsmouth, which still had some cobbled streets in the 1960s, also operated early Atlanteans with MCW bodies. These, as I recall, did not rattle despite operating over the cobbles. Neither did their earlier PD2 rear-entrance half-cab MCW-bodied buses. I suspect the answer lies somewhere in between batch build quality, customer specification, operator maintenance and driving technique. Look after the chassis and suspension and the body will stay in good condition. Do nothing beyond lubrication and parts will wear causing vibration which is passed up through the body and translates into every joint loosening fractionally. And rattling. And driving technique. Leave the bus in gear when stationary (Atlanteans were semi-automatic with a mini-stick shift) and the engine pulling against the brakes would send vibration throughout the vehicle. Some operators reprimanded drivers for this momentary laziness; others allowed it to pass as normal driving technique.

I go prepared for both, but will usually use card payment if offered, so I have cash available for later if necessary. The relevant clause of Murphy's Law states you will find something you've been searching for since the year dot, on a "cash only" stand, five minutes after you have split your last twenty..... John

Tower of strength - Gene McDaniels

All Along The Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

A look through my 1940 volume of The Model Railway News reveals both Nickel Silver and German Silver are used, German Silver as late as the December issuie.

There shouldn't be much of a challenge here. I have Wabbit accessory decoders on my layout, these have provision for momentary push button actuation. I have been using these embedded in the fascia since the layout was built. A few problems have show up. First, we all have corporations so that, when leaning over the layout our tummies tend to press the buttons. The second problem is punters. Whenever people see a button, it must be pressed. Operators need to be extra vigilant to be sure that their route hasn't changed on them. So, I obtained a 6 pack of Cobalt-S levers. These have a passing contact switch and two on-on switches, for LEDs and the like. I thought to myself, I'll just see what others have done and watched one where the chap was installing his levers. As I watched I was horrified to see that he is making a SECOND accessory bus (I do have one). Then he went on about how you need an encoder and something called a sniffer. Well, all that seems too complex for me and TOO expensive. So, today, I set up a test rig to determine how the lever works with my accessory decoder. All pretty simple as it turns out. Here's the rig: Don't mind the mess. All quite straightforward. Lever on the left wired to it's board. I'm only using 3 of the 9 wires. These I connected to a choc bloc. NCE Powercab on the right, connected as normal. DCC output from the fascia panel connected to the Wabbit accessory decoder. Tortoise is at top and connected to the decoder. Only the outer wires for driving the motor are needed here. I had to mess about a bit but finally sussed that the outer wires from the lever need to joined together, yellow in this case as I think you can make out. The two wires, black is common, are connected to the decoder. Success! It all works! No faffing about with fancy gadgets for me. John

As the goods shed appears to date from the 1930s and seems to have been some way south of the original goods shed it sounds to me more likely that it was re-sited to allow room for an enlarged station at and to the south of its existing site. The new goods shed was built to the normal layout for a depot of that size - cartage (lorry) loading on one side of the deck (platform) as seen in the first image you linked and rail wagons dealt with on the opposite side of the deck. Although some people didn't like the idea of a wide deck it did allow plenty of room for sorting inwards traffic to spots for delivery rounds and allow stuff to be kept in position for loading to rural rounds that ran at less than daily frequency. What were known as 'stand trailers' (i.e the trailer part of an articulated lorry unit) could be used for town rounds and be pre-loaded ready to be picked up when the tractor unit came off its previous delivery. It is possible that the large new goods depot was built with an eye to expanding road delivery, especially for Goods Smalls, but the 1938 edition of the GWR's 'Towns & Villages' book indicates that nothing radical had happened by then It looks as if a lot of alterations and expansion of facilities took place in the Paignton area in the early 1930s - the line between Paignton South and Goodrington was doubled in 1931 and a Down Loop was added in the following year. After the goods facilities were removed I would think expanding Paignton station to 4 platforms (two islands) would have been relatively straightforward but some demolition of adjacent properties may have been needed and that would have taken time to progress before work could start. Paignton station was by the 1930s very clearly in need of enlargement. The July 1938 Service TT shows as many, if not more, long distance trains starting from there as originated at Kingswear. Torbay was well established as a holiday area by the 1930s so the number of trains starting from Paignton was obviously justified but having only two platform faces must have been a problem because while there were local carriage sidings at Goodrington the train engines had to come down from Newton. Thus a station with 4 through platforms would make sense although 5 sounds a bit odd as it would have been a lot more expensive that 4.

Dug out the other carriages, just got one cut down. Waiting for the poly cement to dry, but I’m trying to figure out which I like more… 6”s are easier to mod (two cuts to shorten, perpendicular to the walls), but I feel the extra work of the 9”s will pay off (got to cut diagonally as to not destroy the window frames). Hopefully once I have them all filled, sanded, etc, I’ll be able to cast final judgment.