Peterborough North

[great northern]

Hello Gilbert 

 

I use a colour calibrated iMac and on the image there is a white blob above the engine probably halfway to the horizon. Sorry to point it out but it is there.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 You're not supposed to be able to see that after I've finished processing. Obviously Macs are much cleverer than Windows.

[great northern]

Another look along the overall roof, but from the opposite end.

 

and still the 9F keeps coming, as we wonder if the end of the train will ever come into view.

Actually, I think it has.

[Ian Smeeton]

Only just!

 

Regards & Happy New Year.

 

Ian

[great northern]

The big idea is coming together, but would mean a radical reorganisation of the fiddle yard. That in turn would mean that I would have to spend hours amending the sequence on Powerpoint. Do I want to do that? I'll go and give the whole thing another good looking at shortly, as I still have a nagging feeling that it might not work in practice after all.

 

The last of the tripod shots, for the time being at least.

Some very badly parked cars there. Then some wagons, receding into the distance.

[KNP]

I like the recent set of aerial views you have taken as you know these where my favourite type when we last met as it shows the size and scale of the layout at its best.

However.....

Don't forget the idea of white roller blinds to the book cases, windows and then those 'infamous' movable backscenes we discussed - wouldn't harf help when photo editing!!!!

 

Best wishes for the New Year

[great northern]

I like the recent set of aerial views you have taken as you know these where my favourite type when we last met as it shows the size and scale of the layout at its best.

However.....

Don't forget the idea of white roller blinds to the book cases, windows and then those 'infamous' movable backscenes we discussed - wouldn't harf help when photo editing!!!!

 

Best wishes for the New Year

Time for an update Kevin. I'm waiting for a quote from my joiner for roller blinds to cover the bookcases. So far, so good. However, (often an ominous word), when I suggested the same for the windows, there was a sharp exhalation of breath, and an indication that he didn't feel that could be done. I had already had the same reaction from the Company that fitted the blinds in the first place. I can myself see substantial risk of damage to the layout if anyone slipped while working in that very confined space, so that may have to be abandoned. Movable backscenes are still on the list, when I get round to it.

[Martin S-C]

Window circled in red. The week before last I was sat in the room behind that window enjoying a cup of coffee and a cake. The Great Northern Hotel still does great lunches though I've never stayed in it's rooms.

 

 

 

[great northern]

Window circled in red. The week before last I was sat in the room behind that window enjoying a cup of coffee and a cake. The Great Northern Hotel still does great lunches though I've never stayed in it's rooms.

 

coffee.png

I stayed once, many years ago, whilst on a training course. My abiding memory is of being kept awake by the sound of people walking on floorboards which creaked very loudly, even though carpeted. The hotel gave the impression of being rather run down, frankly. This was 30 years ago though.

[Denbridge]

Time for an update Kevin. I'm waiting for a quote from my joiner for roller blinds to cover the bookcases. So far, so good. However, (often an ominous word), when I suggested the same for the windows, there was a sharp exhalation of breath, and an indication that he didn't feel that could be done. I had already had the same reaction from the Company that fitted the blinds in the first place. I can myself see substantial risk of damage to the layout if anyone slipped while working in that very confined space, so that may have to be abandoned. Movable backscenes are still on the list, when I get round to it.

regarding your windows. A friend with had a similar situation to you. Because it wasn't possible to fit blinds,he made lightweight frames which were a snug fit in the window apertures and covered them in blind material. These are easily removed as needed.it may be worth discussing this with your builder.

[Oldddudders]

I stayed once, many years ago, whilst on a training course. My abiding memory is of being kept awake by the sound of people walking on floorboards which creaked very loudly, even though carpeted. The hotel gave the impression of being rather run down, frankly. This was 30 years ago though.

This would have been not too long after the hotel had been disposed of by BR. BR had inherited about 34 hotels from the Big 4, but how do you prioritise expenditure on hotels against running a railway and shipping services?

[great northern]

regarding your windows. A friend with had a similar situation to you. Because it wasn't possible to fit blinds,he made lightweight frames which were a snug fit in the window apertures and covered them in blind material. These are easily removed as needed.it may be worth discussing this with your builder.

Great idea. I will do that.

[great northern]

And so at last we see the end of that fitted goods.

Literally.

 

Next we come to something that fell into place very nicely. I now wanted to see my new fish train on parade,and when i looked at the sequence the next move was..... Grimsby and Hull fish empties. So here they are. You'll see several views of these over the next couple of days too.

 

Golf at 8.20 tomorrow, so an early night beckons.

[Martin S-C]

That fitted goods was long. It took 2 days to go by.

[St Enodoc]

That fitted goods was long. It took 2 days to go by.

And slow...

[St Enodoc]

I stayed once, many years ago, whilst on a training course. My abiding memory is of being kept awake by the sound of people walking on floorboards which creaked very loudly, even though carpeted. The hotel gave the impression of being rather run down, frankly. This was 30 years ago though.

 

This would have been not too long after the hotel had been disposed of by BR. BR had inherited about 34 hotels from the Big 4, but how do you prioritise expenditure on hotels against running a railway and shipping services?

Stayed there one or twice in the mid-80s for BR management meetings. Yes, a bit run down but plenty of liquid anaesthetic before bedtime made it bearable (for the avoidance of doubt, this was long before the zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy...).

 

BT Hotels had a role to play when a) folk were more likely to holiday in the UK than abroad or b) before higher-speed rail services made long-distance return trips in one day feasible. Most of those that still exist offer a far better service than before privatisation (although why they had to change some of the names is beyond me - as far as I'm concerned the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh is still the NB). Trivia fact: the clock on the NB was always two minutes fast to encourage passengers to hurry to the station so as not to miss their trains.

[great northern]

That fitted goods was long. It took 2 days to go by.

 

 

And slow...

If you think that was slow,wait till you've seen the fish go by......eventually.

Even with a heavy crop, that was a lot of lattices and poles to photoshop.

Nearly at Spital bridge, that must be the end, surely?

[great northern]

It's a fishy morning again.

 

Loss of RMweb yesterday allowed a lot of further work on the future of the fiddle yard, and completion of a detailed analysis of all main line express formations. That is now on a spreadsheet, and I just have to decide what to do with it.

[great northern]

 A notable burst of progress today. Coach roofs painted, wagons weathered and a lot of sitting typing away at carriage formation stuff. I now have a full record  of every summer 1958 ECML express on file, and have identified ten different relatively common groupings of coaches. Then I've colour coded them all on the spreadsheet, and very pretty it looks too.

 

The result is that my changes to the storage of trains and to the fiddle yard look like becoming even more far reaching, but there is plenty more thinking to be done, and then I'll need to see if it all works in practice. All good analytical stuff though, much easier than messing around with those silly little millimetric things, let alone thousandths of them.

 

So, back to trains, and fish fixation is not over yet.

lots of lovely little spaces to photoshop again. There's still one more of these, but I'll save that till tomorrow, and show something different for a change.

 

This is the 7.53 from Sunderland, which as usual brings the only Heaton loco of the day this far south. Next time you see this train, it may have the correct formation instead of the generic one I've used up till now. And the gap under that platform mounted signal is actually tiny, despite what the camera alleges.

[great northern]

On with solving the fiddle yard puzzle today, but it might help if I first decided exactly what I'm trying to achieve, and why. I may ask for some help on that later. First though, the very last view of fish vans you will see for some considerable time.

 

The next one got cropped more and more, but finally arrived at something acceptable, if you don't mind posts obscuring your view.

 

The driver of the Cravens unit still hasn't been on the course where he will be taught how to change the destination blinds. This will probably happen about three weeks before he is due to retire. There is also a rumour that this unit will eventually be transferred down south, where the current destination will be much more appropriate.

 

[bigwordsmith]

On with solving the fiddle yard puzzle today, but it might help if I first decided exactly what I'm trying to achieve, and why. I may ask for some help on that later. First though, the very last view of fish vans you will see for some considerable time.

12 fish last.JPG

 

The next one got cropped more and more, but finally arrived at something acceptable, if you don't mind posts obscuring your view.

14 88 and DMU.JPG

 

The driver of the Cravens unit still hasn't been on the course where he will be taught how to change the destination blinds. This will probably happen about three weeks before he is due to retire. There is also a rumour that this unit will eventually be transferred down south, where the current destination will be much more appropriate.

 

 

Happy New Year Gilbert

 

I noticed when blowing up the pic of said Cravens as I couldn't read the destination blind, that it has OHL warning flashes on it - Would the be temporally appropriate for PN, or have you been associating with that naughty Dr. and her Telephone Box again?

[great northern]

Happy New Year Gilbert

 

I noticed when blowing up the pic of said Cravens as I couldn't read the destination blind, that it has OHL warning flashes on it - Would the be temporally appropriate for PN, or have you been associating with that naughty Dr. and her Telephone Box again?

A Happy New Year to you also Peter. The Cravens was always supposed to be temporary. What I really need is a Derby heavyweight unit. I did get one some time back, but it was unsatisfactory, and I returned it. The plan now is that Tim will build a proper Class 114 for me, and when it arrives the Cravens will be passed to him for use on his projected Faringdon layout, where it will of course be entirely appropriate.

 

All of which reminds me of the mid 50s, and sitting at the front of a 114 behind a nice driver, who didn't put the blinds down, on the way to Grantham for a day's spotting. Such anticipation!

[bigwordsmith]

A Happy New Year to you also Peter. The Cravens was always supposed to be temporary. What I really need is a Derby heavyweight unit. I did get one some time back, but it was unsatisfactory, and I returned it. The plan now is that Tim will build a proper Class 114 for me, and when it arrives the Cravens will be passed to him for use on his projected Faringdon layout, where it will of course be entirely appropriate.

 

All of which reminds me of the mid 50s, and sitting at the front of a 114 behind a nice driver, who didn't put the blinds down, on the way to Grantham for a day's spotting. Such anticipation!

 

 

One could of course argue that the theory behind all DMUs was that they should be inter-region, hence standard application of OHLE warnings!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what fills up the 20 cassettes as the year goes by!

[great northern]

One could of course argue that the theory behind all DMUs was that they should be inter-region, hence standard application of OHLE warnings!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what fills up the 20 cassettes as the year goes by!

So am I Peter. So am I. At the moment it changes by the hour, let alone by the day.

[great northern]

Can anyone, perhaps our ex railwaymen, give me an answer to something which is puzzling me, please?

In the course of plotting out all of the ECML carriage formations I have found some instances of part formations which are stated to be SK SK FK SK. I could understand this if they were in separate portions of the train, but they are not. Why put your posh customers in a second class sandwich?  They are usually given the best accomodation next to the catering cars, and with the shortest distance to walk on arrival at termini.

[Clive Mortimore]

Happy new year Gilbert.

 

I still owe you a return visit to Sheffield Exchange, the duck has threatened to land here soonish would you like to join him?