tractionman

A lovely evening yesterday out along the Mawddach estuary

Here's my Dad on his Ariel 350, it was ex MOD, a 350cc, he had it from aged 17 or thereabouts and went all over the country on it with my Mum in the 1950s and early '60s--for many years after the bike was kept in the shed slowly decaying, but then Dad got it restored and used it for the odd VMCC rally in his older years. It was a beast of a bike, sounded fantastic, I wish I'd learned to ride myself and been able to keep it in the family. In the end Dad sold it to a bloke in Wiltshire. Here's Dad starting up at the back of our house in 2006:

anyone been out on their bike recently :-) I was out on Friday, a mixture of train and bike to / from work, then on Saturday with my son, down at Tollymore Forest Park, enjoying the scenery and sunshine: cheers, Keith

has BSYP livery ever appeared on a Peak before in 4mm, I can't remember seeing one done, looks very tasty to me https://railsofsheffield.com/products/class-45-0-the-king-s-shropshire-light-infantry-d50-br-blue-small-yellow-panel

a 'model', pretty open to interpretation, so could be a wagon, or coach, or a signal etc etc?

Rails discounting Heljan 009 locos eg https://railsofsheffield.com/products/Heljan-9956-lynton-barnstaple-taw-2-6-2-tank-locomotive-no-1363

superb :-) what a great scene - love it!

More Hunslets :-) https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/article?id=1096

I'd be very happy with that @big jim for a first trip out on the bike after a long break 👍 cheers, Keith

Good point, thanks, I had not spotted this! "March depot's 37140 was one of the first Class 37s to gain the high visibility headlight, being so fitted in mid-1986. It also gained an orange cantrail stripe later the same year before it moved back to Stratford in May 1987." https://www.accurascale.com/blogs/news/new-announcement-class-37-run-2 cheers, Keith

ACC2611 Accurascale OO Gauge Class 37 Diesel in BR Blue with Orange Cantrail #37140 with the orange cantrail, are we looking at c.1983? cheers, Keith

good to see the primroses out -- seems a bit more like Spring -- this was the scene in County Down yesterday late-afternoon on a post-work spin looking forward to some warmer days to come...

on offer at Tesco's, very nice

is it the picture here http://railthing.blogspot.com/2015/01/ilfracombe-ill-be-back.html

if anyone is still after the NRM 'special', LNWR Precedent Class 2-4-0 No.790 'Hardwicke', it's on sale at £180 at the mo -- via https://locomotionmodels.com/exclusives/steam-locomotives/lnwr-improved-precedent-class-2-4-0-no-790-hardwicke

just spotted-- NRM sale on LNWR Precedent Class 2-4-0 No.790 'Hardwicke' https://locomotionmodels.com/exclusives/steam-locomotives/lnwr-improved-precedent-class-2-4-0-no-790-hardwicke @ £180. cheers, Keith

fraid I can't help with your q @robert17649 but hope someone can. good to see the equinox in with a ride out on a quiet coastal path... cheers, Keith

same here too! yes, the thrill of the chase, and a bit (for me) of FOMO kicking in--I was tempted by the 009 Hunslets when I saw them come out, they look so good, but I managed to keep my splurging under control, not least because of cash flow but also guilt! I dream up too many layouts in my mind, and I need a reality check, they ain't all going to get built, not in my lifetime, so keeping the focus is key, and... I might just put the track down loose on the boards in the loft and give the trains I have a spin, for amusement. I have the boards all in place already, but keep changing my mind over the track-plan, so consquently nothing gets done. See what I mean!?

that kind of sums up my railway 'modelling' at the mo, amassing stuff but neither the time (nor tbh the inclination) to actually do anything with it... I'm not sure about that Guardian piece on mediocrity and hobbies, some find it really hard to do anything and get started because of our fear of failure or the fear of being dissatisfied with the results at least. it's easier to fire up RMWeb and idle away reading threads **about** model railways than actually **doing** any modelling. at the mo at least I am managing to keep a lid on buying stuff, but everytime I go into the loft and see what's sitting there it feels almost overwhelming, so nothing happens as a consequence. I wonder if I should get rid of some of the stock, clear the decks, clear my mind, focus, on my mind through is say in 10, or 20 years time would I regret it? Say selling all my SR stuff, and then finding in 2034 that I really want to build that 1930s Southern layout I had always dreamed of in the early 2000s? cue more procrastination!

I like the look of these, especially the colliery liveried examples: https://rapidotrains.co.uk/rch-1907-private-owner-wagons/

interesting, the first to sell out is LNER black with red lining, obviously the popular choice https://railsofsheffield.com/products/sonic-models-s4101-05-robinson-a5-gcr-class-9n-4-6-2-tank-locomotive-lner-black-red-lining-no-5024

as an aside I see this month's Railway Modeller mag has a special supplement dedicated to "Express Steam Locomotives of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway", basically the LMS-built locos in this instance but still nice to see for those of us (in the minority it seems!**) who like our 1930s/40s LMS... ** but see below 👇

Looks like the Black version has now sold out at Rails, the latest offer of £179 perhaps helped: https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/lnwr-precedent-class

I was thinking perhaps something going more in the opposite direction, a small industrial ST... something like a Hunslet 16in 0-6-0ST that would fit the needs of a multitude of 0 gauge 'planks'? cheers, Keith

It's back :-) https://www.brdatabase.info/index.php with this statement: "An Apology - 25th February 2023 BRDatabase has suffered an outage for the past week or so and this was due to the domain name expiring. I knew it was due to expire but I was suddenly (and I mean suddenly!) called away on business to Paris where I had no access to my renewal details. BRDatabase is secure for another year at least and I hope I have not inconvenienced anybody too much. I should also say that rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!"