great central

Me too, despite the fact I may have to seriously downsize my collection I couln't resist a Grantham allocated one at that price. Just might give up on the Nu Cast one I've been squabbling with for quite some time, not that I've done much, as in very very little, modelling for several years

The TOC is merely the whipping boy, all the alterations are basically at the behest of the government/Dft. They dictate pretty much everything, Thameslink is a government project through and through to appease London. As for the EMT alterations that is to allow the Thameslink service to fit and stuff the East Midlands, we won't be getting an electrified main line and time soon, once again courtesy of the government.

Talking of overnight trains, when a friend and I decided to visit Barry in 1969-70 the only way to get there and back was using overnight trains. Starting at Nottingham at 23.30 on a train to Derby, then a 00.30 or so to Gloucester arriving around 04.00 after much loading and unloading of parcels and mail on the way. Walk across the long bridge from East gate to Central station. Then 04.24 to Cardiff arriving around 06.00 to await an early morning DMU to Barry.

Had a break in Lincoln earlier so took a walk around the city centre. Heard a rumbling roar overhead. Spitfire or Hurricane, sorry I don't know the difference, did a couple of circuits over the rooftops before heading away. Made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up and raised a smile

I always thought BMW was Bleed*"g Mindless Wa***r and Ford was Fix or repair daily

Lightbulb just came on, took me ages and all the prompts as well. Think I must have missed something in my education?

Ok, I'll stick my neck out and say summer 1962 for the last one. No information other than a feeling.

If it's metric, surely 0.9 of FA?

It's heading north from Grantham, having just left the station. The bridge it is passing over may be Barrowby Road. As for date, Tony will certainly tie it down better than me but I reckon possibly summer 1960? Loco has a late crest on the tender, double chimney but no smoke deflectors. Edit, I'll be passing over there myself in less than 3 hours time Further edit, better picture

I'm sure it's not unique but Nottingham Victoria had 4 signal boxes. Stockport still has two station boxes and just outside Edgely No's 1 and 2 almost within spitting distance of each other

All this talk of correct grammar goes right over my head. I'd just like to know why the 'free cash machines' don't work for me. It keeps taking the money out of my bank account?

The raised moulding can be removed, I've done an EM2 in plain electric blue. Posted a picture several years ago, away from home at the moment so can't re-post I'm afraid

Some very nice stuff on Yarmouth seafront this afternoon, mostly American, much prefer them to European stuff. There was a very smart Rover P5 3.5 litre, no pic of that I'm afraid. Not old but very nice looking in my book and a daily driver was this Dodge Challenger named Hannibal McQueen, 6.1 litre, with AMG suspension so corners like a European. Drooled over this engine 454 Chevy Why didn't Ford just import these rather than giving us the Capri, not that there was much wrong with the bigger engine version, but a 1300? Then just before I left this arrived, always fancied one, this sounded awesome, you can almost hear each cylinder when they're idling

The product may be made in the same factory but likely using different recipes and ingredients. I'm quite happy with Sainsbury's Basics range ham for instance. Morrison's, by comparison, I find weak flavoured and very watery. To give a good example I have a glass of pomegranate juice drink every morning, it may be beneficial for blood pressure, Sainsbury's has 35% juice, more than all the others I think including the 'branded' version. My son says that Sainsbury's basic cheesecake is better than Tesco best one. Much of this is a matter of personal taste and preferences though

A PM to Andrew Young on this site may be of use, he's a volunteer on the Talyllyn

I'll even accept incorrect pantographs so long as they appear to be doing the job. All my class 76s have Lima pantographs, not strictly correct but pretty near and they're robust enough to withstand de-wirements. As for High Speed and Cross Arm for 87s, it's a bit more difficult. I'm currently trying to re-work a Hornby High Speed one for an 87 and will most likely be buying a judith Edge kit for a cross arm in the not too distant future. Those I have got have the two versions that Lima fitted as original equipment. Did I also metion that these are for DC kits class 76s and Lima 87s? Oh dear that's two compromises, but the 76s were done long before the Heljan ones, back in the late 80s/early 90s and they've covered many real miles without problems. The 87s won't be replaced by Hornby ones for two reasons, cost for a start and, as I understand it, still no working pantographs

Hardly used supermarket fuel in about 8 years, by the time I've collected Shell points with the various bonus offers I get, it probably works out about the same, car seems quite happy, whereas last time I used supermarket stuff, it didn't like it at all.

I'm just hoping that it doesn't lead to a lower quality offering from Sainsbury's, I find most Asda stuff expensive, poor quality and value. The wife insists on using Asda cos she says it's easier, but I find most of their food bland and tasteless. As for the German ones, haven't been in an Aldi since one opened about 20 years ago. Went in out of curiosity, it had been open about a fortnight and it was absolutely filthy, never again. The other one I've done work in as a contractor, all I'll say is I wouldn't buy anything unpackaged from them. Then again, I tend to shy away from anything not in packages and for customers to help themselves to, not everyone uses the tongs or whatever provided!

Suburban coaches were only painted in a single colour, crimson in early BR days and maroon later. It was only mainline coaches given the blood and custard scheme.

Present and card from my son for my birthday yesterday, had to collect it from the delivery office this morning. Too big to go through the letterbox

There was the TV advert for the lone smoker long before they were banished to the outside of buildings. Backfired somewhat. Then there was the cigar ad, can't remember the brand but used some seriously prog music by Manfred Mann

How do you stop the thing, throw an anchor out of the back?:-)

The Skegness line will be pretty expensive to resignal, a long thin route, umpteen level crossings and, as mentioned above limited amount of traffic. If I've got it right 11 manual signalboxes to replace. If I recall the Railway Magazine article from a couple of years ago it was scheduled for doing around 2029, but that was before massive cuts in spending, so now who knows??

The Skegness line is now in reality little more than a long branch line from Grantham, maximum speed is 60mph with some long stretches of 50mph. There's manual gates at Ancaster,Heckington, Rauceby, Hubberts Bridge as in the photo, Sibsey and Bellwater at least.

I recall reading somewhere, something gives me the idea it was a list in an Ian Allen 'combine' that there were plans to preserve a lot more locos than actually happened? Amongst others I'm sure 61000 Springbok was mentioned, interestingly around that time it was allocated to Colwick, presumably working out it's last days, often being seen on trip workings.