great central

If I recall correctly the GCR museum at Loughborough have a lot of drawings from the London extension, otherwise the NRM?

??? Surely you mean it has? The layout was 'strung' in 1990-91, the real Deepcar was energised in 1954 and decommissioned in 1981 along with the rest of the route, apart from the Manchester-Hadfield section.

Pleased they cleaned the coaches before sending them for scrap, unlike the units transferred to other operators

Don't think that would work, there's no north to west connection at Sleaford. Going almost to Lincoln then turn right at Pyewipe junction would only bring you back to Newark north gate. At that time you could then have taken the line south to Bottesford west junction but the station is East of there?

Backtracking a little to the possible excuses for not doing anything, well I don't really have any excuses apart from I haven't bothered for a long time and when I do I either get called away for some chore or other, or it simply doesn't go right. Today after a week or so of more procrastination I finally set to and cleaned and oiled my fleet of locos for Deepcar. They all still work pretty well on leads from a controller despite being powered by those awful Lima pancakes and having done several dozen shows. I realised this pair are now 30 years old, being used as a preview for the layouts debut the following year in 1991. They are usually the first electric locos running once the trackwork has been proved after setting up and the last ones put away being left to circulate for the last few minutes of a show, we are firm believers in keeping something moving until closing time. A rough calculation some while ago showed they have probably travelled well over 60 real miles. They prove I used to have the skills, well sort of, and the will. All I need to do is rediscover both. Deepcar will be at the Nottingham show next weekend. Edit: having looked a bit closer at the photo maybe it should go in the railway modelling crimes thread. Cruel close-ups like these were impossible for me when the locos were built, and this just from a cheap phone camera!

Boston is still used for steel imports, there's a train most days, usually class 60 hauled. I'm not sure how a Lackenby to Corby would get here, unless by a reversal at Grantham.

Also for the benefit of the older visitors, that includes me by the way although should be behind Deepcar at least some of the time, I don't think out of town bus passes are valid on the tram. Nottinghamshire ones are fine.

The music used for cricket was, I think, soul limbo, definitely not time is tight. Edit just checked on YouTube, definitely soul limbo

Well I'm just hoping if I get it, I get the diluted version, the Kia-Ora virus. That one thanks to a work colleague. Maybe the self medicating version would be good for the self isolated people, Covonia virus? Yes I know..........

Not really I don't think, if necessary the unit will be swapped out the next day, usually at Nottingham as most of the fleet passes through at some point during it's workings or can be swapped elsewhere to work to Nottingham.

Most of our 15x fleet can go two days without refuelling, particularly the units stabled at Boston, Lincoln and Leicester overnight as there are no facilities. Units on Liverpool Norwich diagrams finish at either Nottingham, Norwich or Crewe so can be fuelled but aren't always, depending on what they're doing the next day.

As mentioned above I think, the HSTs are diagrammed to provide a high capacity service into and out of Birmingham in the peaks. I don't know if they operate to Newquay in the summer now and if I recall correctly GWR have said there's no room on their services for surfboards and lots of luggage now that the HSTs have gone. So it seems to me that the weekend market isn't overly important

Depends on the condition of springs as well as loading, there could be half a buffer height difference between adjacent vehicles.

I think you'll find that most of the promises regarding extra seats and capacity are aimed squarely at commuters and season ticket holders, these being the passengers most likely to complain. Have there been any organised protests from weekend leisure travellers? As far as I'm aware, and more than willing to be corrected, most such protests come from commuter groups and such.

Looks like an assembly fault. There's a V shaped slot where the axles should be slotted in to align with the axleboxes. Neither axle is aligned properly. It could be a simple matter of easing the axle out from its incorrect position and refitting properly, but as you say it's a very expensive model and I'd be more inclined to return it if that's reasonably practical. Things like this simply shouldn't happen but given the very limited 'quality control' of modern manufacturing where the end user really becomes the inspector I can't say I'm surprised. Good luck in whichever route you choose.

I think a lot of it comes down to lack of observation of the real thing. Yes there can be issues connected with the wiring or whatever of a layout, biggest thing is most likely dirty wheels, it's surprising how quickly they can get coated in crud when in constant use. How many times does the average home operator use their layout for say, 7 or 8 hours each day solid, as this is what exhibition layouts are doing.? There's one well regarded layout really annoys me as it's not worked anything like the real thing would, maybe I'm biased but working on the real railway it's really noticeable to me.

People are now complaining that replacement buses are just that, rather than the luxury coaches they've been used to. This is because RRBs now have to be accessible and compliant with PRM regulations and not that many road coaches are, unlike your average service bus. But then of course service buses don't have toilets for the longer journeys

If it's the one I'm thinking of, possibly a branch of Luke Evans who are based in Riddings? Seem to remember they were shutting the shop due to increased rates and rent, it was taken over by one of the staff, still supplied by Luke Evans. It closed several years ago around the time Gregg's moved in, was a Subway for a fairly short time, now empty. There was Francis the bakers in Hucknall, bakery and shop on Annesley Road, branch on Watnall Road used to do some massive cream cakes!

Stacey's at Hilltop, as well as their main branch in Ilkeston and others, is still going strong, their truffles are excellent Sorry but I can't think of a traditional bakery in Kimberley over the last 20 odd years at least?

Class 196 I believe built by CAF, don't take too much notice but possibly following on from Northern's 195.

Only the centre car from WM's 3 car sets, the other two cars going to EMR as part of the 'modernisation', with 20 year old units, of the regional fleet. Speculation on WNXX that it's likely to be a while before it happens. Possibly dependant on the introduction of WMs new, new trains which aren't yet in service.

I have one of their D11, ex GC Director, kits. Built many years ago, possibly late 70s or could have been early 80s I suppose. Fairly rough castings from memory, it came out more or less Director shaped, but always looking rather spindly alongside a BEC version. Comparing with photos it looked to have more dimensional similarity with a D10, the boiler looking definitely undernourished for a D11. I did always think of altering the cab to look more like a D10 but like many things it got overtaken by other stuff, long distance memories having just been reawakened by Nick Quinn's pictures posted in our (Nottingham) show thread of Deepcar. I started working on DC kits class 76s in the late 80s and they're going on show again in a couple of weeks, yikes!!

I wouldn't place any kind of reliance on them at the moment. Yesterday I decided on a quick trip to Yarmouth and back. Partly because of the timing I decided to use the X1 bus from Norwich, good job I did though, train was cancelled! Did get one back later but kept checking all the time it was on it's way from Norwich before ruling out the bus. Seriously if your parents have bus passes I'd suggest, and as a railway enthusiast as well as railway employee I hate to say it, they look at the bus. The X1 only takes about 45 minutes and runs alongside the X11 every 15 minutes to Yarmouth. If they don't have bus passes I think the fare is around £6.50 so compares favourably with the train.

Had a first trip on one a short time ago. Not unpleasant I must admit, quiet environment apart from the auto announcement s which I always find a bit annoying, seat comfortable enough for a half hour or so journey.

I had an older diesel some yeras ago, it ran quite happily on vegatable oil, but once vegatable oil became a similar price to fossil fuel there was no advantage. Did help it pass the MOT on emissions though