Peterborough North

[great northern]

Tony W has been busy photoshopping the photos he took last week featuring his W1, and here is the result. Very nice from my point of view to see what things look like without doors, book cases etc in the background, so I'm very grateful for this. I don't want to start the debate about altered images again, but surely something like this should be permissible? All it does is to take out non relevant and non railway stuff. I can't go and put this layout outside and photograph it with a real background, as it is immoveable, so this is IMO acceptable.

 

[S.A.C Martin]

I'd say spot on the money. I do like that, very much so.

[HerbertHopkins]

I can't go and put this layout outside and photograph it with a real background, as it is immoveable, so this is IMO acceptable.

 

 

Perfectly acceptable IMO Gilbert. Nice to see that Tony hasn't lost his touch! I take that the W1 is his.

[great northern]

 

Perfectly acceptable IMO Gilbert. Nice to see that Tony hasn't lost his touch! I take that the W1 is his.

 

Yes, it's Tony's. I don't have one.......yet. I've got some lovely brick wagons with no couplings though!

[jwealleans]

Is that a PECO loco lift in front of the hotel, Gilbert? That would rather give the game away...

[great northern]

Is that a PECO loco lift in front of the hotel, Gilbert? That would rather give the game away...

 

Ah, yes, well...... we rather hoped that no-one would spot that Jonathan. In a way it's reassuring that I'm not the only one who doesn't spot things like that until after taking the photo,but it's a bit hard on Tony when he's done all the paintshopping to discover that I'd left one of those things on the station forecourt. I've tried to think of something else that I could claim it was that actually belonged there, but no luck, it is exactly what it looks like. It's not there any more though. I've moved it somewhere safe, which means I won't find it again for weeks.

[great northern]

And now in a hurried attempt to deflect attention from that gaffe, here is a nice photo of the Up Flying Scotsman rolling through at about 3.40 pm today.

 

 

This photograph has been carefully checked for extraneous objects before posting. And so has this one.

 

 

Though not for wonky platform ramps....

 

 

And here's a ROD waiting on the Up slow for the Scotsman to clear.

[Guest Tom F]

I love the flowing lines of the track work in that first photograph Gilbert...lovely!

 

Tom

[HerbertHopkins]

 

I've got some lovely brick wagons with no couplings though!

 

You just can't get the staff these days! I know someone who might be able to rectify that for you, we can discuss it when I next see you.

[artizen]

The discussion is about the fact the wagons are made of brick or that fact that you can't find the staff?

[great northern]

A few more photos taken while I should have been getting on with some modelling.

 

 

An afternoon KX- Newcastle pauses with A2 Happy Knight at the head. I don't think this loco has featured before on these pages, possibly because it is as unpopular with me as the real thing apparently was in the '50's, when it was passed round from depot to depot like a hot potato. New England kept getting it back however often they manged to shift it, but I think in August 58 Kings Cross was the lucky owner. It's built from the DJH kit, and has a Portescap motor which whines more loudly than most of them did. Given the fact that a Bachmann model will very soon be available this particular Knight may soon be looking for a good home.

 

 

Head on view, which could have been taken without risk, as the loco is stationary. There's nothing particularly wrong with it- I just don't like it, so it doesn't get used.

 

 

In contrast here is one of my favourites.67398 was the last C12 at New England, and seems to have been used on station pilot duties right to the end. It was even cleaned. Who says railwaymen weren't sentimental? Having brought in the stock of a M&GN service to Kings Lynn, she will now be marooned here till it departs.

 

 

This is one of very few locos I have which I built myself, using the SE Finecast kit. She carries the correct lamps for a pilot locomotive, though I've seen a number of captions of such locos which say "Note the express passenger code". It isn't!

 

 

Finally for now, two wagons designed and used for the carriage of bricks. They were built from the Parkside kit by a recent contributor to this thread, but are confined at the moment to posing for shots like this, having no means of attachment to a loco or any other stock. By my period they ran I gather almost exclusively South from Fletton, and mainly in block trains, but I'm sure they would have been seen fairly regularly in and around the station. I wonder what would happen if I asked their creator to build another twenty or so?

[jwealleans]

The LNER used to use them for a fitted head to mineral trains as far as I recall - there's a picture, I think, in Geoff Gosling's book. So you can legitimately use 2 or 3.

[JeffP]

As a little boy I had a Hornby Dublo 3-rail trainset, with Standard class 4 tank 80054.

One of my wagons was a bogie brick wagon, in tinplate, just like those. It was lettered: "Empty to Fletton" on both sides.

[Brian D]

Fogmen in thier little huts were a famiar feature of railtravel around the land of Smog, Manchester. I left work early on Oxford Road at 4pm during a 1958 smog and struggled to find my way to Man Vic having walked past it once! The station was cram packed with people waiting for the boards to change to tell them their train had arrived and in which platform. I was eventually herded with15 others into a compartment in a non-corridor coach....The train must have been well overloaded. After what seemed like an eternity of slow progress and bangs from detonators, someone lowered a window momentarily and said he thought we were passing Middleton Junction. Ah, I thought....this should be fun....Werneth Incline 1-in-27. Our steam loco struggled up the gradient getting ever slower until the brakes leaked on, and there we stood for ages. A thud that reverberated through the train told me assistance had arrived. More detonators banged near Werneth station and eventually we reached Oldham Mumps where I alighted. I never did find out what the locos were. By the time I'd walked from there to Holts Estate some miles out, it was 8pm and my face was as black as soot except where the hanky had been tied around my mounth.

 

Are detonators still used today?

What a splendidly evocative description, Coachmann. How times have changed in all aspects of life, not all necessarily for the best IMHO.

I don't think that detonators are used in this way now. In fact the only use I know for them is to protect a p-way work site under possession, really as the last resort warning to a train and track worker in the vicinity that a train has entered the possession when it shouldn't have!!

Regards,

Brian.

[micklner]

have you seen the Portescap whinning cure on Comet Models Download page ?

[HerbertHopkins]

 

I wonder what would happen if I asked their creator to build another twenty or so?

Isn't this the same idiot who built 25 Blue Spot fish vans for Tony Wright? Who knows, maybe if you ask him nicely!

[great northern]

Isn't this the same idiot who built 25 Blue Spot fish vans for Tony Wright? Who knows, maybe if you ask him nicely!

 

Yes, but I'd want the fish vans as well I think I'd have to ask very nicely indeed.

[great northern]

Just taken a couple of photos of recent acquisitions for insurance records, so I thought I might as well share them. I think I mentioned that I couldn't resist one of these.

 

 

And what a lovely model it is! Runs silky smooth and silently even before running in. A number change to a Leicester loco, and a liberal coating of grime will be applied, as sadly even when ex works they didn't look like this for long. She will mainly work Midland line freight, but occasionally at times of pressure I wouldn't be surprised if she were to be rostered to a Leicester- Peterborough East all stations stopper. £62 for a loco like this. To put that in perspective six Markits wheels would cost me £47, and a chassis kit another £35. That's already £20 more, and I haven't yet got a body kit, and other necessary bits, let alone considered building the thing, or getting it built. I know how soul destroying this is for kit manufacturers, and I sympathise, but doesn't it put in perpective the relative cost of RTR?

 

Next is yet another A3. I happened to be in my local model shop a few weeks ago, and saw a Hornby St Gatien- brand new. Rare as hen's teeth. They had found it hiding in the stock room. I wasn't going to miss that, and here she is, now a long time GN section loco.

 

[S.A.C Martin]

I've been um'ing and ah'ing over the 3F for about a week now. Having examined photographs more carefully in my collection of 37B/56C material, there's one 3F which always seems to appear beside the carriage works, in steam, having worked in from somewhere. It seems to be prototypical of Copley Hill in 49/50/51/52 I need at least one grubby 3F somewhere.

 

Now imagine if we get an 0-6-0 of that quality for the Eastern and North Eastern regions - J6 please...!

 

The layout and stock looking terrific as usual Gilbert. I feel a bit sorry for Happy Knight - it'll be an unhappy Knight soon!

[Markeg]

I'd buy one if I were you.

 

I just bought one and have the early crest on order, so will have 2, but will likely sell one. The late crest ones are selling very well I see, shops are selling out of them, so hopefully will restock for those um'ing and ah'ing.

 

I hope we see a LNER/ER 0-6-0 announced from the same maker as these 3F's. If Model Rail tested them and they pulled 13 coaches and look as good as this, bring it on.

 

Hi Gilbert, fantastic shots, I will have to practice with the wife's SLR when I get a chance.

 

Mark

[CUTLER2579]

Forgive me Gilbert,but I thought any more A3 acquisitions were out of the question just a short time ago?

[great northern]

Forgive me Gilbert,but I thought any more A3 acquisitions were out of the question just a short time ago?

 

Did I say that? Well, obviously circumstances must have changed- economic imperatives dictated a change of course,and any other political speak you can think of to justify a U turn applies. It was a bargain guv, honest, and that particular model is so hard to come by you have to grab it while you can. I suppose I had better just put my hands up, locoholism struck again.

[CUTLER2579]

 

Did I say that? Well, obviously circumstances must have changed- economic imperatives dictated a change of course,and any other political speak you can think of to justify a U turn applies. It was a bargain guv, honest, and that particular model is so hard to come by you have to grab it while you can. I suppose I had better just put my hands up, locoholism struck again.

 

I don't know Gilbert,still I can tell that your legal background has not been wasted as your plea is quite rightly :- Guilty as Charged. :dance_mini:

[great northern]

 

I don't know Gilbert,still I can tell that your legal background has not been wasted as your plea is quite rightly :- Guilty as Charged. :dance_mini:

 

No no Derek, I have a defence- locoholism- it's a well known condition, or it will be by the time I've perfected the argument. I'm temporarily not responsible for my actions, but not of course to the degree that I need any form of punishment or treatment. I'll get off- I know a good lawyer.

[great northern]

On a more serious note, today I was told that the polyp I had removed was totally benign, which is a considerable relief. Many thanks again to all of you who expressed concern and sympathy.