RJS1977

An on-and off project of mine has been to build a Dukedog using a rewheeled and re-motored 'Nellie' chassis block and a much-altered Dapol City body. That project has been on the go so long that 9017 has had a complete overhaul and gone all the way through a boiler certificate in the meantime!

Or if it's toy Miuras you're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaFhHNZHuUA

I see your Miura shunt, and raise you this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgJuVOrXv68

What's wrong with that cow? (Sorry, wrong thread...!)

Saw a bloke carrying a long piece of wood into the athletics arena. I asked him, "Are you a pole vaulter?" He replied, "No, I'm Hungarian - but how did you know my name was Volta?"

I thought it was Robinson...

I think that's what's John's saying - speedometers err on the side of giving to high a reading (over -reading) rather than too low (under reading), which is illegal.

And what's wrong with being c1977 may I ask?

Personally, I've always thought Raf Valone had the right idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hcmGG6VUsU

I know someone walked straight into the side of a Croydon tram a few years back!

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's still on the circuit (it was at Warley last year!).

How about an occasional rendering of the late Stephen Lewis "Oh, that ruddy train!"

I've tried to be sparing with the sound effects on The Seaside Layout - all I have programmed in so far are loco horns/whistles/safety valves, the guard, coal shovelling.and an occasional flock of seagulls. (I did experiment with having a Beach Boys CD playing very gently in the background but I couldn't get the levels low enough without losing the other sounds). The sounds are deliberately kept low and used sparingly, but they do serve another purpose - the background to the layout is a laptop screen (see profile pic) and the key presses on the external keyboard which trigger the effects prevent the laptop from falling asleep!

I know there was one incident involving Neil Armstrong some years before he went to the moon which shows the level of his capability. Neil and another pilot were flying a USAF bomber(?), slung underneath which was a rocket propelled plane due to be tested, the plan being that the rocket plane would be released at altitude and piloted back to the ground. Neil and his copilot had an agreement with the pilot of the rocket plane that if anything went wrong with either aircraft, they would release the rocket plane there and then, giving at least one crew chance to make a safe landing. Neil became aware that one of the engines had caught fire, so, as arranged, he released the rocket plane. Seconds later, the engine exploded, with one fragment going straight through where the rocket plane's fuel tank would have been.Other fragments peppered the fuselage of the bomber, several severing control linkages with the result that Neil and his co-pilot found that one of them could only control the elevators and the other only the rudder. Neil and his co-pilot were able to co-ordinate their actions sufficiently that they were able to make a safe landing, as was the pilot of the rocket plane.

I believe Bill Oddie gets similarly frustrated if people start talking to him about giant kittens....

It shouldn't be too difficult (even for an analogue layout) to simulate the correct bell codes for the trains - after all, the Automatic Crispin was effectively doing that nearly 50 years ago, and all it would take now is to have the timetable programmed into a laptop - indeed I've got a program which does that but as yet I have no timetable and the layout I indended it for has been in bits for the last 2 years!

Given that most ready-to-plant buildings are limited runs, I assumed this was as well and assumed it would only be available secondhand - hence ebay!

Quite - I had the very pleasurable experience of appearing on Brainteaser with Alex Lovell about 10 years ago. She was absolutely delightful and really made me and the other contestants feel at ease - bear in mind that this was a live show. There was one mishap which fortunately was resolved before the cameras started rolling - on our entry forms we had to write a story about ourselves which she could refer to during the show. I was a bit stuck for ideas but before the deadline for getting the forms in, I went to help on a church Kidz Camp at the YMCA site near Padworth, which included a very boggy area of ground where children managed to get stuck almost as soon as they had arrived! One child in particular got stuck, and I had to edge in to rescue her. Of course, I got stuck as well and had to be rescued by one of the other kids! So, on the form, I wrote: "Whilst helping out on a church Kidz Camp, I got stuck in a bog and had to be rescued by one of the kids!" The Endemol researcher received all the forms and typed them up into the form of cue cards for Alex, which she ran through with us before the show. When she got to me, she looked at what the researcher had typed and asked me, "So, what's this about you getting caught in a toilet? Was that like George Michael or something?" I'm very glad that didn't go out live!

Completely off-topic but I'm reminded of a delightful story David "Poirot" Suchet told in an interview. Apparently he'd been invited to a meal at Buckingham Palace. Towards the end of the meal, a butler came round with a large plate of fruit, and David Suchet took the piece of fruit which was nearest to him, which turned out to be a mango. David Suchet then realised he'd never eaten one before and had no idea how to! As he was sat next to the Duke of Edinburgh, Suchet turned to him and discretely said, "Excuse me, Your Grace, but I've just done something rather embarrassing. I've picked this mango up and I've just realised I don't know how to eat it!" The Duke smiled, called the butler back, took a mango for himself and demonstrated how to slit it round the outside and scoop the stone out. Apparently David Suchet has met Prince Philip on a number of occasions since, and has always been greeted with "Oh yes, you're the mango man!"

No, you should never name-drop (or so the Duke of Edinburgh told me) ;-)

I'm not sure that paying a professional modelmaker like JdF or Allan Downes to build a layout or rolling stock rather than building one yourself is any 'worse' than buying ready-detailed locos and ready-to-plant buildings in red or blue boxes and plonking them on a baseboard. The difference of course (apart from the higher quality of the professionally built layouts) is that the layouts with ready to plant buildings and RTR stock all look the same as each other whereas the professionally built models are all unique.

Stephen Is this any use to you? (usual disclaimer) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bachmann-Scenecraft-44-0016-Narrow-Gauge-Station-Building-00-Railway-Model-/131373090267?hash=item1e967245db:g:W0sAAOSw0vBUfEWP Richard

That's pretty much how I did mine except that I used the RTR version of the L&Y Pug in an attempt to make it work. Unfortunately it never ran all that well as the piston rod on one side kept 'escaping' from the slide bars at the furthest point of the throw. Maybe when I get it back from the Museum I'll take another look, it might just be that the cylinders are slightly too far back, or not quite parallel to the chassis.

Thanks for sharing the photo, John - not one I'd seen before (obviously!). Somewhere I may still have the drawings of HP1 I used to make my 00 model. If they turn up (and having moved house twice since then I have no idea where they are, if they have survived) I'll pass them on. Worst case scenario - when the Museum give me my model back in February, I'll scan it in for you! Compressed air models of fireless locos are definitely possible - the Sittingbourne & Kemsley have a compressed air model of 'Unique'. We even considered hooking HP1 up to a compressed air supply at one stage when we were weighing up different options for it.

And the longer people have to wait at the barriers, the more likely they are to try to beat them.