The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

And is the L space also connected to the black holes that surround all modelling benches, that are full of such things as 12BA nuts and washers ands all castings that go missing. 

You forgot Kadee coupler springs, and as for others' mentions of carpet-monsters, that presupposes you have a carpet. I have none!

[coastalview]

13 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I have been trying to do that for a while now, not in Beamland but in Shedland (Jill tells me that last time she ventured into Beamland she was horrified at what was up there too) but it doesn't seem to have made any appreciable inroads into the piles of stuff. The only visible (as distinct from in places like the cupboard of shame) difference has been that a large collection of old model aircraft magazines has gone, as have old model railway magazines apart from MRJs. Jill was quite pleased with that but this evening I had to confess that HH is calling round tomorrow with some old magazines for me and so far the only comment has been, "Hmm." It was the sort of "Hmm" that brings a chill to the spine though.

 

Dave 

Well if you run out of reading matter from HH delivery, I have plenty more than can be delivered from here....

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks (again),

 

As an update to my earlier post about storage/L space and the ability to fill it, I have attached some photos of my version.

 

First is the rolling stock storage.

Starting at the bottom, we have BR WR & LMR, next up is BR SR, ER & SECR (Sheppey Light related), third up is BR WR & LMR coaching stock/NPCCS, next BR SR, ER  & SECR coaching stock/NPCCS, followed by BR wagons (all regions), then private owner/LMS/Industrial locos and wagons. Top shelf is the kit built stock, mostly Cambrian/Parkside/Ratio wagons/NPCCS with three whitemetal loco kits in the 'tuit' pile.

A lot of these have been acquired from shops/shows/eBay as secondhand and I believe there are still bargains out there (most of my LMR and a lot of the WR stock was acquired that way).

However, some recent announcements will achieve the 'stash-full' state, so some pruning may be required (not really :))

 

Second is the 1/72 aircraft stash (again mostly eBay or shop bargains) and the box of built models - mostly WW2 RAF single seat fighters, with some FW190/Ta152s and Bf109s.

 

Third is the Desk of Doing. Currently home to a Mk1 Spitfire and Mk1b Typhoon in the next build phase, along with a Cambrian LMS D1663 unfitted van. This needs weight adding inside and then painting/brake levers adding.

Entertainment provided by CDs, currently The Smiths.

This will be given up at Xmas and Easter when my son comes home from Durham, so it will be back to the kitchen table then!

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[TheQ]

I have a 2 deep stack 5ft high and 5 ft wide of magazines. 

I'll keep MRJ & GWRJ., there's a few BRMs and RMs with information  that I'll keep, there's a lot of random BRMs, MRs, that  won't keep. Along with a huge amount of old sailing and computer magazines to go..

 

As for the model stack that's another question...

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Didn't you say that you would want them back at some time?

The emphasis is on the 'some time'.

 

As in 'not some time soon'.

 

By the time Dave has finished reading them, my luck will probably have run out against the Colombian assassins I've been warned about on these very pages.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, GMKAT7 said:

Good morning folks (again),

 

As an update to my earlier post about storage/L space and the ability to fill it, I have attached some photos of my version.

 

First is the rolling stock storage.

Starting at the bottom, we have BR WR & LMR, next up is BR SR, ER & SECR (Sheppey Light related), third up is BR WR & LMR coaching stock/NPCCS, next BR SR, ER  & SECR coaching stock/NPCCS, followed by BR wagons (all regions), then private owner/LMS/Industrial locos and wagons. Top shelf is the kit built stock, mostly Cambrian/Parkside/Ratio wagons/NPCCS with three whitemetal loco kits in the 'tuit' pile.

A lot of these have been acquired from shops/shows/eBay as secondhand and I believe there are still bargains out there (most of my LMR and a lot of the WR stock was acquired that way).

However, some recent announcements will achieve the 'stash-full' state, so some pruning may be required (not really :))

 

Second is the 1/72 aircraft stash (again mostly eBay or shop bargains) and the box of built models - mostly WW2 RAF single seat fighters, with some FW190/Ta152s and Bf109s.

 

Third is the Desk of Doing. Currently home to a Mk1 Spitfire and Mk1b Typhoon in the next build phase, along with a Cambrian LMS D1663 unfitted van. This needs weight adding inside and then painting/brake levers adding.

Entertainment provided by CDs, currently The Smiths.

This will be given up at Xmas and Easter when my son comes home from Durham, so it will be back to the kitchen table then!

 

Cheers, Nigel.

Those pictures are so blatantly staged, and are more in the remit of House and Garden magazine or Ideal Home, rather than the unholy clutter normal TNMers create and thrive with.

[New Haven Neil]

8 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Those pictures are so blatantly staged, and are more in the remit of House and Garden magazine or Ideal Home, rather than the unholy clutter normal TNMers create and thrive with.

Agreed.  That's just the garage...

 

[SM42]

I've had a tidy up in the modelling space.

I've gained about a square foot and I've emptied the bin. 

The recycling box is still full. 

 

As for the carpet monster, springs and things are nothing. 

I've lost a whole class 128.  

 

Mind you it is Heljan  so maybe the carpet has swallowed it bit by bit. 

 

Andy

Edited November 22, 2023 by SM42

[Hroth]

31 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I've had a tidy up in the modelling space.

I've gained about a square foot and I've emptied the bin. 

The recycling box is still full. 

 

As for the carpet monster, springs and things are nothing. 

I've lost a whole class 128.  

 

Mind you it is Heljan  so maybe the carpet has slowed it bit by bit. 

 

Andy

 

Thats not unusual, much of a Heljan 128 can remain in the packaging when you take it out!

 

[New Haven Neil]

38 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I've lost a whole class 128.  

 

 

It's probably in my loft, there are several things up there I have no recollection of buying!

[GMKAT7]

Hello Happy Hippo,

 

I confess to having tidied up pre-photo but there is a creeping untidiness in the right hand corner.

Plus, there are paint splodges on the cutting board and table cloth, I am getting there 😆

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[SM42]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

It's probably in my loft, there are several things up there I have no recollection of buying!

 

If you find it can you pop it over to the NEC. 

 

Ta

 

Andy

Edited November 22, 2023 by SM42
Bloomin predictive text

[J. S. Bach]

22 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Parting with a DL109 would be tough, and I don't think you have an I-5, a steam streamliner to die for. As J S Bach implies, the Jets do seem to have been the biz. 

I was lucky enough to score a K-Line EP-5 (originally O gauge three-rail) that someone had converted to two-rail:

 

 

 

According to some, the K-Line Jet compares very favorably (possibly better than) the brass import.

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

8 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Only ONE wagon?

I expected that you would need a fleet...

 

Maybe he could borrow these:

 

[Happy Hippo]

The MRNs were safely delivered to Dave.  Jill has been convinced he's only borrowing them.

 

Horace the Cat was not so easily swayed, and watched me the entire time with that look only cats can give you.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Happy Hippo

[GMKAT7]

Good evening folks,

 

True confessions time.

 

Lurking within the bottom shelf stash are (whisper it if Sqdn Ldr Hunt is about) Panniers!

Four of them are 8750s (2 Bachmann and 2 Hornby). They are kept company by a 64xx and 94xxx (Bachmann) . Other than the 64xx they are in black.

I also have a 15xx in NCB livery living with the LMS and industrial locos. This is in Coventry Colliery maroon, so may appeal more to Red Leader (or possibly not).

 

As an act of contrition I have a number of models of the products of Horwich, Derby and Crewe, including Crab, Compound, Jubilee, 7F, G2A and Princess classes. Having worked in Derby and Crewe for the big railway it would be rude not to.

 

Plus a 3F in both tank and tender engine form, again in lovely LMS black.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

Edited November 22, 2023 by GMKAT7
Missing info (doh!) Added 3Fs.

[Happy Hippo]

14 minutes ago, GMKAT7 said:

 

 

Plus a 3F in both tank and tender engine form, again in lovely LMS black.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

3 Fs were what I uttered just after my finger/table saw interaction.

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

 

I'm tempted, but the new found space could also be used for important things such as a bag for clothes etc over the weekend.

 

 

't

The car isn' full until you have to put the last few things in by lowering the rear windows and posting them.  Through.  We had a car like that when setting off for France one December. First stop was a Carol service and someone gave us a bag of clocks to take to her sister in France.  They went through the one unused rear window. Then en route  certain person saw some bargain winter anoraks in WHSmooths at a service station.  They had to be wrapped round the front seat headrests. 

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

3 Fs were what I uttered just after my finger/table saw interaction.

Only three...... 

 

Jamie 

[J. S. Bach]

32 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

The car isn' full until you have to put the last few things in by lowering the rear windows and posting them.  Through.  We had a car like that when setting off for France one December. First stop was a Carol service and someone gave us a bag of clocks to take to her sister in France.  They went through the one unused rear window. Then en route  certain person saw some bargain winter anoraks in WHSmooths at a service station.  They had to be wrapped round the front seat headrests. 

 

Jamie

Imagine a full customs inspection and then re-packing!

[jamie92208]

8 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Imagine a full customs inspection and then re-packing!

Fortunately that was pre Brexit with minimal inspections for private vehicles. We got our stuff over before implementation.  Then my wife got some stuff from her Dad's house and the documentation was a nightmare but we did get it here. Fortunately no one has ever confiscated any Eccles cakes at the border. 

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Imagine a full customs inspection and then re-packing!

When we visited Germany for the first time nearly fifty years ago we went by car via Dover-Ostend. Back then there was duty free allowances and as our German hosts were in the German wine growing area we stocked up with as much wine as we were allowed, the car was sagging on its springs. As we were saying our goodbys our hosts and a few other German friends plied us with even more bottles of wine (and Brandy). On the ferry back we were debating what would happen if we were stopped by customs. We need not have worried, one of the first vehicles off the ferry was a van full of hippies, as we went past the van was up on a lift with the wheels off and the seats out and one officer was waving all the other vehicles through.

Edited November 22, 2023 by PhilJ W

[Dave Hunt]

20 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

When I am in her presence tomorrow I will say in a loud voice 'You can borrow these Dave, as you'll probably remember when they were first published... But I want them back'.

 

I think that may help.

 

With your back in such a perilous state, I'll even carry them down to Valhalla for you.

 

I do like a pachyderm who keeps his promise, which HH did. The only deviation from the published script was to add, "But if there are any you want to keep you can have them," which the management took lightly. And so far there have been no adverse comments, even though the coffee table currently sports four bound volumes of Model Railway News 1946-1950. Who'd have thought that a hippo could be so devious diplomatic?

 

Dave

[petethemole]

14 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

When we visited Germany for the first time nearly fifty years ago we went by car via Dover-Ostend. Back then there was duty free allowances and as our German hosts were in the German wine growing area we stocked up with as much wine as we were allowed, the car was sagging on its springs. As we were saying our goodbys our hosts and a few other German friends plied us with even more bottles of wine (and Brandy). On the ferry back we were debating what would happen if we were stopped by customs. We need not have worried, one of the first vehicles off the ferry was a van full of hippies, as we went past the van was up on a lift with the wheels off and the seats out and one officer was waving all the other vehicles through.

Including the car driven by the hippies' straight looking friend....

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, petethemole said:

Including the cars driven by the hippies' straight looking friend....

Thats more like it.