great central

I'm currently on a new Anglia Stansted express unit providing a supposed inter city service to Norwich from Liverpool Street. The only positive I can come up with is it's quick off the mark. No tables, woefully inadequate seats with an upright stance and very short bases. Ride is very harsh with lots of bumping and banging at speed, expecting to leave the train with bruises and back pain! The heater ducting is tight up to my leg using a window seat, fortunately it doesn't seem to be over hot otherwise I'd be very uncomfortable. I came this way to have, probably, a last ride on an HST from Langley Mill into London. The last time I travelled this way it was a 90 and mk3 set, if this is what is deemed satisfactory I won't be doing it again. As a railway employee I don't have to pay, if I were a paying passenger I would be complaining and most likely, vowing not to use the service in future.

I'll just leave this: https://youtu.be/l5YPLswG47s

It passed me as I arrived in Nottingham from Liverpool about 11.30 yesterday, quite a surprise to hear a VP185!

From posts on here and one personal experience, I think poor assembly and total lack of testing is quite common. I bought an as new, but supposedly after market DCC chipped, Bachmann 3F. It could never have been tested, either before or after the chip was fitted, as one of the 'fingers' of the DCC socket was bent outside the plug. It proved impossible to realign as the 'finger' was much stronger than the base it's fitted into so, not being DCC anyway I simply cut out the plug and rejoined the wires, it now works.

Eltel, member on here is their former exhibition manager and leading light in the club.

While I find the, now almost, universal use of 'train station' annoying, although it's disputed whether it comes from America, the one I simply don't get is bathroom! It's now creeping into regular usage here having read it several times in news reports on my phone, sometimes there's not much more to do at work, specially over the last year. I've been asked on station and trains if there's a bathroom, FFS it's a toilet (alternatively a WC, lavatory or just plain BOG!) You can't take a bath in there. When asked for the bathroom on stations I'm very tempted to reply there's a shower room but it's for staff only!

We've got a provisional booking for a show in September

More like a snuffed candle at the moment

Yep, we're still around if not exactly active at the moment. I'll ask the secretary to check emails and stuff. I know get been shielding but we do have a wattsapp group for members

Talking of 31s, I was rather surprised to see this in the sidings at Great Yarmouth today. There's also a mixture of mk3 Caledonian sleepers and MK2 day coaches along with an odd ex Virgin mk3 buffet car.

Can't remember his name now but a member of the Woodthorpe club

Possibly crew didn't sign the road to Colwick, also as it had been dieselised by then, no coal or water facilities, or at best unknown?

Similar happened in Nottingham, black 5 if memory serves arrived from the north, probably via Sheffield. Sent back light engine in double quick time. It was so notable that it made a few column inches in the local paper at the time.

Similar to what happened with me several years ago. Ordered a CD from an apparently independent record store, price was reasonable enough and it wasn't available in the likes of HMV. Paid extra for next day delivery as I was going away and wanted it to listen to while driving. It didn't arrive in time and when it did, it was straight from Amazon! On checking Amazon I found it cheaper but as I have an aversion to using them I raised a query with the seller about the late delivery. They simply sent another by the same route with a return bag for one of them if both turned up. They both did, eventually, by which time I'd decided I may as well have two copies anyway.

Oh right, thought you meant later in the morning. There's a Hull Trains unit been down there the last couple of days, probably route learning.

Must have passed you somewhere, I'm on the EMR Spalding-Peterborough shuttles. On my way to Lincoln now, managed to get a couple of pictures which I'll post later today.

Possibly split at Carstairs, the rear portion being taken to Edinburgh?

Ah right, didn't know that. Given the state of some people now, with headphones, mask and smartphone it seems 'Tommy' is alive and living among us.

Found this pinned up in a messroom, rather a clever update on the words. No idea who the author is I'm afraid.

How to connect a Supra to a Rover: My son had a diesel, non turbo, Rover 218. Scruffy old thing to be honest but he really liked it. He came across a black Supra for sale needing some repair work and an MOT. Drove to Norwich in the Rover and towed the Supra back with it on a solid bar having disconnected the prop shaft as it was an automatic. He said the Rover hardly noticed it had a ton and a half or so of Toyota tin attached and it didn't affect the fuel consumption one bit. Maybe only a ton, there was so much missing due to rot! The Toyota needed rather a lot of welding around the rear end, in fact almost the entire floor and suspension mounts. Took a while and when finished it was stronger than ever, sold it on to someone from northern Ireland.

The preserved Great Central railway had one when they first started operations to Belgrave and Birstall, now known as Leicester North, before it had a run round or anything. The GCR(N) have something similar as well, although I can't remember exactly how that one is laid out. These are normally fitted into the gangway of a MK1 coach but I think they would fit a MK2 as well. Further edit: thread here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/154648-preservation-era-push-pull-conversions-who-what-when-where/page/2/

Had several of those in various guises, first was a green 214GSi, cost £20 as a non runner from a dealer friend of my son's. Apparently he'd left it idling, forgot it and when it was switched off several hours later wouldn't start again. Son towed it away with a mate started on the way and it was fine. Had it about three years I think, then the gearbox gave out. Second was a somewhat abused white one for £100, the paint looked like it had been cleaned with a Brillo pad, lasted a couple of years until I picked up a rather nice Nightfire red SEi for all of £370. Had that for 3 years until the tinworm got to the rear of the sills and the head gasket gave out about the same time. Then found a 418SLD, out of MOT and 125000 on the clock for £120. Cost about £100 to get through the MOT. 3 years later, it's got 175000 on the clock and the head gasket seems to be going, as well as the tinworm making advances, so moved on to a PT cruiser. Not bad really, best part of 10 years almost totally reliable motoring for less than £1000 Saw a tidy looking 418 tourer/estate on Albert Looms (scrappies) website the year before last, it had been off the road for about 5 years but, from the photos, looked rather nice. I suspect they thought so as well with a price of £350 if memory serves. I resisted the temptation to go look and eventually it went out on the yard for breaking. Shame really. Still look at them on eBay occasionally but would need it to be a daily driver, so don't think I can justify buying a mint one.

Most Triang screws are 8BA as far as I know. I think the roof screw was common across a lot of models, locos coaches, etc.

I rather like these but I've been a fan of big V8s for a long time, probably the influence of the unashamed noise from BRISCA F1 stock cars. I've no problem with whatever colour they are because it's not a car for hiding away in to my mind. But why would someone buy a grey one??

I had a 2000E for a few weeks towards the end of it's life, FEY949E, an Anglesey registration if memory serves how it ended up in Nottingham in 1978 I've no idea. Bought from auction for £50 including indemnity fee. Needed a temporary car for a short time, the radiator leaked so I pointed the overflow pipe out of the side of the bonnet, when it blew steam I knew it needed water. Poured cold water straight in, you could hear it boiling as it went round the engine! The ignition key barrel was so worn you could take the key out with the engine running, good job it wasn't a steering lock one! Originally brown it had been painted purple and then black by hand I think. There were no sills to speak of just a jagged rust eaten bit of thin steel in each side. Bought with about 3 Months MOT, I ran 6000 miles in 10 weeks, including a couple of weeks of daily trips to Grimsby. To it's credit it never let me down and I finally took it to another auction site, with a couple of weeks MOT still to run, where someone offered me £50 before it hit the auction floor. I took his money, withdrew from the auction and made a quick escape!