RJS1977

Since my original post, I have seen the 'Related Products' ads pop up on a lot of other websites (including BBC!) so not an RMWeb issue as I first supposed.

If that's a criteria, then perhaps PS Medway Queen would be a better choice (has sunk at least three times IIRC!). Not a Warship as such, but she took part in Dunkirk.

Yes, Malliphant sidings at Swansea has its masts installed.

Fitting magnets also means that the locos can activate reed switches if any form of position indication is needed.

MERG do a 12v regulated DC power supply circuit kit for £1, though you have to be a member to buy it from them. That said, as there are only four components, it wouldn't be too difficult for a non-member to source the parts.

I did fit an LED to one (just to prove it could be done) - blu-tack the signal to the workbench so the arm can't move and carefully drill out the spectacle plate. Hopefully as and when I install/reinstall the signals on my layout I will do more, though the ones already installed on my father's layout will probably remain as they are.

And most of the old 'Crescent' whitemetal signals are easy enough to convert to either relay or servo operation.

It's based on the children's story of the old woman and the pig, which was read in the video clip I linked to. The difference in the 'flagon of beer' story is that as she gets more drunk, her instructions get less coherent.

And if you have a flagon of beer as well, things get very complicated! An old woman was sweeping her house and came across a sixpence. “What shall I do with my sixpence?” she thought. “I know, I’ll go to market and buy a pig and a flagon of beer.” On the way home, she came to a stile. The pig refused to jump over the stile. “Pig, Pig, jump over the stile,” the old woman said, “or I won’t get home tonight.” But the pig refused to jump over the stile. It was a hot day and the old woman was thirsty so she took a drink from the flagon of beer and walked back along the lane until she came to a dog. “Dog, Dog, bite pig,” she said. “Pig won’t jump over the stile and I won’t get home tonight.” But the dog refused to bite the pig. The woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane until she came to a stick. “Stick, stick, beat dog,” she said. “Dog won’t bite me, I won’t jump over the stile and pig won’t get home tonight.” But the stick refused to beat the dog. The woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane until she came to a fire. “Fire, fire, burn stick,” she said. “Stick won’t beat dog, dog won’t jump over the pig, pig won’t bite me and stile won’t get home tonight.” But the fire refused to burn the stick. The woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane until she came to some water. “Water, water, quench fire,” she said. “Fire won’t burn stick. Stick won’t beat me. I won’t jump over the pig. Pig won’t bite stile and dog won’t get home tonight.” But the water refused to quench the fire. The woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane until she came to a cow. “Cow, cow, drink water,” she said. “Water won’t quench fire. Fire won’t burn stile. Stile won’t bite pig. Pig won’t beat dog. Dog won’t jump over me and stick won’t get home tonight.” But the cow refused to drink the water. The woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane until she came to a butcher. “Butcher, butcher, kill cow,” she said. “Cow won’t drink water. Water won’t drench dog. Dog won’t light fire. Fire won’t burn pig. Pig won’t bite stick. Stick won’t jump over the stile and you won’t get home tonight.” But the butcher refused to kill the cow. The old woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane till she came to a rope. “Rope, rope, hang butcher,” she said. “Butcher won’t kill cow. Cow won’t quench fire. Fire won’t burn dog. Dog won’t bite stile. Stile won’t go under pig. Pig won’t beat stick and water won’t get home tonight.” But the rope refused to hang the butcher. The old woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the lane till she came to a rat. “Rat, rat, gnaw rope,” she said. “Rope won’t hang butcher. Butcher won’t kill stick. Stick won’t beat pig. Pig won’t bite dog. Dog won’t drink water. Water won’t drench me. I won’t jump over the cow and fire won’t get home tonight.” But the rat refused to gnaw the rope. The woman had another drink from the flagon of beer and walked along the road till she came to a cat. “Cat, cat, kill rat,” she said. “Rat won’t gnaw rope. Rope won’t hang pig. Pig won’t light fire. Fire won’t burn butcher. Butcher won’t drink water. Water won’t drench stile. Stile won’t beat stick. Stick won’t bite dog. Dog won’t kill cow. Cow won’t jump over the moon and moon won’t get home tonight.” But the cat said to her. “If you will go to the cow and get me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat.” So the woman took another drink from the flagon of beer and went back to the cow. “Please give me a milker of sauce,” she asked the cow. But the cow said to her, “If you go to the haystack and bring me back a handful of hay, I will give you the milk.” So the woman took another drink from the flagon of beer then went to the haystack and brought back a handful of hay. As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the woman a saucer of milk. The woman drank the saucer of milk and put the flagon of beer down in front of the cat. As soon as the cat had drunk the flagon of beer, the cat began to bite the cow. The cow began to gnaw the stile. The stile began to burn the rope. The rope began to hang the dog. The dog began to kill the stick. The stick began to beat the rat. The rat began to gnaw the pig. The pig began to drink the water. The water began to quench the moon. The moon began to go over the haystack and the butcher carried the old woman home that night.

Someone obviously saw the cartoon in last month's Modeller....

But if you have a pig with you, you need a dog, a stick, a fire, some water, an ox, a butcher, a rope, a rat, a cat, a cow and a haystack! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcDTYmCL2f8

All this talk reminds me of the window cleaner who hated doing bungalows because it took him all day to dig the holes to put his ladders in.

But you don't *have* to buy all those extras. If you just want an autocoach and aren't too fussy about all the extra details (I have a general rule that I don't bother with detail I need my glasses on to see!) then the Hornby one wins hands down on cost.

Indoor Garden Railways are certainly not new. Back in the 1980s, Astolat MRG built an indoor garden railway to go on the stage at the Methodist church where they used to hold their shows, and PECO built an indoor garden railway for a trade show which featured trains in four different scales (SM32, 0, 00 and N)!

Hornby continued with alternative numbers at least into the late 80s. Diesel and electric locos were often supplied with just the class number in place and a transfer sheet bearing three sets of numbers and name plates. My father's class 86 has different names and numbers on each side so when it goes round the reversing loop it comes back as a different loco!

Back in those days, only the rich could afford Exleys and it wasn't until first HD then Tri-ang and Grafar and later Airfix and Lima brought out less-detailed, more affordable models that the model railway hobby really became the mass hobby spawning railway clubs and shops in nearly every town. I do fear that the drive for ever-more expensive/ 'high quality' models and the withdrawal of less detailed, cheper ones, is returning us back to the early days :-(

Also gone, I'm afraid. MoT ran out in Aug 2008, tax ran out the following February. Again no SORN :-(

Doesn't look good I'm afraid :-( MoT ran out in March 2009 and tax that October. No SORN filed :-(

'The Adventure of The Norwood Builder'. To be precise, Holmes deduces that the letter was written on a train because the writing gets *worse* every now and then - as the train passes over points.

I seem to remember seeing an article on building that model (and a much earlier Dean heavy freight design) in RM probably about 20 years ago.

What do tram locos taste like?

"Are you a piece of string?" "No, I'm a frayed knot..."

Presumably though, if water capacity was an issue, the front edge of the tanks would have been brought forwards to align with the cylinders/back of the smokebox. Or would total weight/weight distribution have been affected too much?

There looks to be a connection point at Cholsey, and another at Moreton Cutting.

Yes, the railway side of Hobbycraft in Reading was curtailed shortly after ModelZone arrived (which of course we don't now have either, apart from WHS - and by the sounds of it, that not for much longer either).