great central

We're pleased confirm that we're able to hold a small but perfectly formed (sorry) show on the 18th and 19th September at the same venue as our last show shortly before lockdown last year. Highbank Community Centre, Farnborough Road Clifton NG11 9DG. Despite it only being around 18 months it seems like a very long time ago. Layouts will include: Norman Colliery NCB, in O gauge. Zlata Vychod Czech, in HO Industrivej Danish HO plus others to be confirmed. Traders will include Sherwood Models Anoraks Anonymous and others Further information and updates will be added as they become available.

I've bought several part built kits over the years and what often surprises me is that heavy white metal kits tend to come with small motors. One I had from a member on here a while back was a hefty 2-8-0 with a small Mashima motor. Add the equally heavy white metal tender and I doubt the loco would shift much in the way of a train. Unfortunately due to the closure of Mashima, sourcing a big enough motor for the job is becoming difficult, not to mention the added cost. That project along with most of my others is now stalled, due to a loss of interest as much as anything else. Add to that the lack of a suitable layout for most of them, only a very few of my previous builds have actually run on a layout, and I find myself seriously doubting I will move any of them forward, however I'm keeping them just in case, especially if I'm forced to retire from work. I'm unwilling to buy Chinese made motors as since the 'issues' of the last year and a half I try to avoid buying such products as much as possible. Also most of the larger motors now available are too wide to fit into a narrow firebox, so it's quite likely that when I'm gone my son will have several part finished or unstarted kits to dispose of as well as rather a lot of RTR stuff!

C6986, recent news and plans for 43044 here: https://www.125group.org.uk/you-can-help/

I'd thought that area as well, although I only know it from track level over the last 18 years, so full of overhead line masts and wiring. There's a good number of bridges along that stretch where the photo could have been taken from

Talking about tyres, I'm looking for a bit of advice. One of the front tyres on my Jeep Cherokee has worn badly along one edge, it obviously needs the tracking doing, more important at the moment is it's out of MOT. It has a set of 4 fairly knobbly off road tyres on and the spare is a normalish road tyre although the same size. As cash is rather tight currently can anyone advise whether having a road and off road tyre on the same axle would fail it's MOT? Once I get it back on the road I can probably pick up a pair of part worn tyres and get the tracking done fairly soon, it only does 3-4k a year anyway.

According to BR database it was broken up by McWilliams at Shettleston so I doubt it would have been dragged so far while missing the bogie, more than happy to be proved wrong though.

Could be interesting if it is in steam, also more or less in full forward gear! Edit: looking closer it seems the 'steam' is coming from somewhere behind it, also given the rust on the valvegear it's likely not been in steam for some time. Further edit: the photo is dated May 1967, according to Wikipedia 'Clive' was withdrawn in April. Maybe a bogie problem brought about it's withdrawal or it had donated it's own to keep another loco running?

This website is a real treasure trove of information on class 37s, unfortunately it shows 670 as cut up in 2018 after quite some time in store. https://www.class37.co.uk/fleet.aspx?strnumber=37670

Today for no apparent reason the name Greg Biffle turned up in my head. Looking him up he's a semi retired NASCAR driver. I do have a passing interest in NASCAR but I didn't think it was enough to bring up any driver's names.

Termination boxes for axle counters I believe, or if it's still track circuited then the same but for track circuits

Does anyone else have random words, often names, or phrases pop up in their head with no apparent connection to anything? I regularly find myself with words in my head first thing in the morning, oddly enough often when cleaning my teeth or other morning ablutions. Today's seems totally off the wall, how the heck did the name Evadne Price arrive in my head? I had a vague recollection she was some sort of TV astrologer but what depths of my memory have suddenly regurgitated that? Is it just me, if not feel free to add your word or words of the day.

Yes but at least the bagpipes won't fight back

And at least cats don't insist on trying to keep the rest of their kind alive artificially, even though they live (sometimes) thousands of miles away and are unknown to one another, in defiance of nature. Some may find my comment cruel but the planet is being overrun by humans, so if it's deemed unacceptable to let humans die because of the forces of nature why do some people want to deny any animal similar protection? Out of our two cats, one is far too laid back (lazy) to catch anything, the other occasionally brings a bird, two so far this year, both of which have been liberated seemingly unharmed. To put that into context there have been at least three that have flown into our windows with two certain deaths.

He did a good rock show, still referenced today. Then again rock is probably more related to classical than most pop will ever be, especially the more modern types of pop 'music'

Fella I knew many many years ago drove around in his garage 'hack'. Scratty looking Anglia van with a 1500 Cortina GT engine mated with a lower ratio gearbox they used for towing. Several of us regularly finished up in a heap by the back doors when he set off a bit sharpish!

The antidote to a 'knocking' V2 is on the Great Central album, one, possibly 60831 but I can't get to my copy to check at the moment, tearing through Princes Risborough on the overnight newspaper train! 60831 went on to become one of the last V2s active in England based at York As well as a 9F making pretty rapid progress with a summer passenger service.

Regarding drivers taking the wrong route, it happens, momentary lapse of concentration and you're past the point of no return. It can happen to any of us doing any job, had the odd incident myself but I'm not a driver. There was one a few weeks ago that I know about although I can't share details, no harm done apart from some inconvenience for passengers and awkward questions for said driver.

I don't think an LM to ER transfer would be that common, a lot of the ER 9Fs went for scrap at very few years old due to dieselisation, some made it the other way, but at least one Annesley 9F obtained a 1C/D tender late in it's life, also one received a low side tender from memory

Have you tried shifting gear at half past four Hat, too warm for a coat, byeee

^^^Were you still there half an hour or so later? If so I was the guard on the 11.57 Norwich-Liverpool.

You've presumably not had any dealings with solid fuel then. Attached are a couple of pictures, see if you can tell the difference between the different fuels, they're all black and will burn and provide heat under the correct conditions. These two while looking very similar are a medium quality housecoal, excuse the odd bits in one of them as we burn all our address labels and such so there were lots in here awaiting the next time we light a fire, the other was obtained from a house clearance where the householder, being a model engineer with steam models had some properly sorted and graded steam coal. I brought it home for the fire anyway. This is smokeless coal, again there are different grades and brands. It burns given the right conditions and provides lots of heat. Which would you suggest be put in a loco tender for a mainline run?

Hopefully this will work, copied from the Twitter account @eastmidrailway. Note this is not the fully official version and therefore not edited by the company. More like a ghost on the machine but somewhat akin to the GWR and LMS lettering that survived on a couple of steam locos into the late 50-early 60s. For our younger readers that's the 1950s and 60s!

Probably when it was realised that the railway is actually an asset to the town, it now seems to form the centrepiece of some townwide events.

Regards the ex Anglia 156s they all arrived in unbranded filth livery, some with random patches of Central Trains green showing where the Anglia vinyls had been scraped off! Still like it now in some cases, even with the EMR vinyls applied. This is one of the better ones!

When EMT was first formed there were units in umpteen different liveries but 153, 156 and 158 only I'm afraid.