M.I.B

By the time NC gets the full scenic treatment I won't be travelling any more. Regards from a chilly Baghdad.

How do you cope with general dust John? Stock is not so bad as it can be lifted up for leaning with the pink 5 branch crane, but building roofs etc? I did have ideas about dust covers or thin boards to lay over the layout, propped up with suitable stands which were inserted into pockets. These pockets would be covered by removable buildings like a plate layer hut or lamp hut, placed at strategic points.

And to double check ( without having to go to Kew) take Miss Prism's list above and input each of them into the BR Database: http://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&id=4707&type=S&loco=4707 it's a bit hit and miss: not all tender allocation records are on there, and some stop at Nationalization. Some only start at Nationalization. Worth a try tho.

This is coming along very well Rich. Thank you for sharing.

The black roof and dirt looks excellent . I am still very envious of the corner warehouse, and your ability to get some many excellent buildings onto the layout without it being crowded.

I will let you know immediately Phil. Regards.

Its a castle body - beware. See my post 2 up.

The Dartmoor Railway in Oke closed its doors this week. (most of them - the Supporters Shop and Museum is still open) A complicated story involving an American company, something called Polar Express (but not involving Tom Hanks), and in the cross fire are lots of old codgers who repaired old rolling stock in a shed at Meldon. This tin shed in Meldon kept them out of the way of the wife, and for many who no longer had a SWMBO, gave them a meeting point for tea, cake, tall tales and paint scraping. I hope something can be done to correct this sad situation. Even only to keep the codgers codgering.

It can be a minefield. I did more research and the statement above from Wiki sums it up. If you want a Hornby Hall and the one for sale is maroon, you either have to buy a very recent one with a headlight (which is a Hall shell) or the Olton Hall "as preserved" with "GREAT WESTERN" on the tender.

Neither game was spectacular.

Calcutta Cup was a wet and windy disappointing affair, but at least we got to see it here: closer to Calcutta than Murrayfield. And we had some real beer to add cheer. On the hunt for a recent Hornby Hall - confession time - over the Christmas break, whilst under the influence of flu, I managed to melt the body to Adderley Hall which was in the process of becoming Pyrland Hall. I have given up with searching via Ebay and tried RM Web, and quickly to be offered a "Hogwarts Express" This is a minefield because the early Hornby offering was indeed a castle not Olton Hall, which itself is another variation on the same theme. Only the newest Hornby Hogwarts Express locos are actually Halls. So what Have I been offered I wonder. We will see. I will be putting the spare Bachmann Hall body on Ebay when I get home: making a Baccy Hall fit a late Hornby Chassis is not super simple. Wherever you are in he world tonight, Stay happy and healthy.

From Wikipaedia: The Hornby Railways model of the locomotive is actually a model of a Castle class locomotive, not a Hall. Tri-ang Hornby did release a model of the Hall class in 1966; however, this model was last offered in 1983 as 4930 Hagley Hall, In 2015 Hornby introduced their model "RailRoad GWR 4-6-0 'Olton Hall' 4900 Hall Class - R3169", originally announced in 2012.[13] In 2019, Hornby announced a new Harry Potter range, ..............2 separate Hogwarts Castle locomotives with headlight, one being TTS Sound fitted. This is the first Hogwarts Castle model they have released being correctly of a Hall class. So do you have an "Olton Hall" or a "Hogwarts Castle" on the nameplate?

I will drop you a PM

Peters - yes.

Looking for a late/recent Hornby Hall body - "Adderley Hall" or similar era. Zillions of Kneller's and Alberts from the 70s for sale, but nothing recent. Thanks.

Street Band - "Toast" (first appearance of 80s crooner Paul Young)

On exercise in Germany and the Fresh Rations had just arrived. We got a call to ENDEX, muster at Sennelager Mandalay and prepare a low loader road move of Light Armour from Falli to Bosnia (!!!!) I made the call to pack the tins in case we needed them on route, but the eggs and bread needed to be consumed. (We could always get more from the Light Dragoons) So we had a banjo blowout - eat them until you were fit to pop. 3 or 4 days worth of bread, eggs and red sauce consumed in an hour.

Cafe Nuvo, next to the Greencoat Boy, and down the road from the Albert, on the boundaries of Westminster and Victoria. A huge and excellent full English, (an even bigger full veggie) including thick toast and a brew, for a fiver!!!!!!!!! (£6 for the veggies but worth every penny). Everyone I take there is just mesmerized how they can supply such a full plate, to a high standard, in the Capital for that price.

or perhaps an egg banjo................

There's some incredibly fast work gone on up there /\ /\ /\ Kirby Hall passes the trainspotter and there's two tracks of about 8 wagons in the back ground. By the time Kirby passes the running in board, 7 x 5 plankers have appeared on the far road. That's fast shunting!

Hardest working man in Showbiz in the 80s - all those Top 10 singles and LPs, yet nobody with "cred" liked his stuff - all that success based om entertaining Mums, Grans and kids. Must have been hard work, yet he managed to do it.

Rather glad to see SOSJ back in circulation. I'm sure two Halls would have flown up that bank.................

Thank you all. Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I'm certain that this is the earlier version and thus not DCC ready - there aren't wires going to the tender.

I probably have some BRITISH RAILWAYS in GWR script from HMRS. if you need them, let me know. I'm not hove for a few weeks but id you can wait they are yours,

When you take the plate off St Pat, pull the top towards the horizontal and back almost to the vertical. Then lift it out vertically. You are left with a small slot ( easy to fill) in the horizontal part of the running plate/frames. Unlike Bachmanns and earlier Hornbys where you were left with a box shaped hole in the splasher.