great central

I saw this on FB this morning - please accept my apologies if anyone finds it upsetting - I was reminded of some of the dash-cam videos we see of cockwombles driving on public roads

 

https://www.facebook.com/candscmagazine/videos/10154006772219206/

No great losses there, mostly nasty little foreign cars:)

I would suggest that if over 50% of the loco is still in existence (or in one place), then it counts as a cop...

There is a thread somewhere debating this very subject, tried a search but it doesn't come up. The common viewpoint seems to be that a loco exists or ceases to exist according to it's frames.

A new loco exists from the point in time that the frames are erected and ceases to exist once the frames have been cut. I know that locos have been known to have replacement frames in the past though...................

Did anyone 'cop' any of the loco's at Barry?

Phil

Plenty on the first visit but nothing much on the second

Should have remembered that there's also a GUV at the back of Eastcroft depot, what used to be the infrastructure depot but now incorporated into the EMT depot

Hmm.  BP meds.  I wonder how much they are affecting you. 

 

I have been on them for years, and they make me feel pretty crap, certainly lethargic and tired.  These (valsartan am, moxonidine pm) currently are the best we (GP and I) have been able to settle on, as some other ones worked really well for BP, but left me feeling like I was on something illegal,   and turned off one of life's pleasures completely.....    Of course, not taking something would result in a stroke....which is a family trait.....so it I prefer to take them.  But I wish I felt a bit more lively, and my mojo for modelling would return.  I always feel like I have flat batteries.

I'm on BP meds, sometimes feel like you describe, today I've been absolutely buzzing and still going. Really should go to bed got to be up at 04.30

Hi Phil,  sorry to hear you're not feeling great. I don't really like winter but that said I don't think I suffer with it like others, biggest thing for me nowadays is I really feel the cold. Maybe it's because I've lost weight recently, deliberaty I might add.

What I tended to find was when I worked a 'normal hours' job I never saw my home in daylight, found that really depressing, now working early shifts I'm up and out usually sometime around 05.00 or earlier and done a decent stint by the time it gets light, so I see the sun rise (if it ain't cloudy). I have some very good friends at work and spend all day with the public, most of whom are great and I really enjoy myself. Late shifts aren't so great but then again sometimes I don't start until it's dark so still have the daylight.

I've never had a flu jab, despite being in the at risk category on two counts, seen too many people who have had one and felt terrible afterwards.

I try to eat healthily, having had a heart attack 6 (or is it 7?) years ago. I'm firmly convinced that food can make a difference, I have a couple of small oranges and a banana for breakfast when I'm hungry, has been as late as 2 in the afternoon but usually between 11 and 12, followed by a salad some time later in the day, although I'm not averse to something warm this time of year.

Whenever I have a break I usually set off on a walk somewhere, round Lincoln today, keeps things moving.

As for modelling mojo, that pretty much got up and left at least 5 years ago, but I do feel a slight return at times. That does make me feel down sometimes but others it doesn't worry me unduly.

As for advice, I don't know if I can offer much more than has been said already. If you can get out is there a bus service nearby? If you've got a bus pass just get on and go, won't cost but it's out and about, promise yourself a reward of some kind. A good one for me is when I'm at my caravan in Norfolk I walk about 3-4 miles to have a (small) cooked  breakfast, even doing it by bus there's still the reward element. A decent cooked breakfast can still count towards your 5 a day!

Last thought: it's only a couple of weeks now to the shortest day so from then on it's getting lighter

There used to be a grounded Mk1 coach in Looms' scrapyard at Spondon near Derby. No idea if it's still there but it had been there so long it was still in maroon livery

I walk to work along Castle Boulevard, and that 'Cycle Superhighway' will be used by on average a cyclist every couple of minutes in the rush hour. I appreciate it's still early days, but I'm not really seeing there being much demand for the thing or it being worth the money spent on it. .

No doubt the rest are still tearing along the canal towpath scattering walkers in all directions!

I wonder if a great deal of the public resentment of the rail system is a reflection not just of cost and delays, but rather the fact that the UK has evolved to the point where they have no choice but to use the train to get to/from work given the government's unwillingness/inability to provide adequate road networks to allow for driving or providing other solutions to the problem of being able to afford to live closer to the workplace.

 

In that situation, trying to move more of the cost onto the user is going to be met with a great deal of resistance.

In Nottingham there are deliberate policies to dissuade people from driving into the city centre, they have recently completed a multi-million pound cycle route from the west side of the city which has made what was a two lane in each direction main road into a single lane bottleneck. There are also a good many sets of what I call PYO (p*ss you off) traffic lights that change than for no other reason than to slow you down or stop you.

If I am on an early or late turn it takes about 25 minutes to drive in or out with minimal traffic, if I try to drive in for a middle turn starting anywhere between 7.30 and 10.00 it takes anything up to 90 minutes. For those I can drive to my nearest station and use the train so long as I'm in the car park by about 08.00 or it is full.

The first bus from near my house won't get me into Nottingham much before 8.30, to get an earlier one means at least a 30 minute walk.

When I watch a model locomotive moving the thing that conveys the speed to me is the rate at which the wheels/motion are going round (i.e revolutions per second) rather than distance covered.

I tend to agree with this, watching old film of trains gives some idea of the kind of speed we should be looking for on models in my opinion. Far too often I see layouts seemingly operating to show how slow their trains can go.

This is often the case with post steam era layouts I think. One I watched a while ago I wanted to tell the operators to get a move on. Their trains approached a station along a main line at snails pace, and left the same way. In my experience that is not always the way it happens, braking is left almost as late as possible, allowing for speed limits obviously, and acceleration is usually pretty smart as well, especially some of the most modern powerful units.

Saw this in Lincoln earlier,

You could well be right, Larry.

 

The nearness of railways certainly had a bearing on my relationship with the Almighty. My brother and I were duly forced to attend Sunday School in the '50s (just off Westminster Road, Hoole, Chester). Adjacent to the Sunday School, behind the houses was an alley, across from which was a rolling field. Beyond this field (not far away) was the line to Manchester and just beyond that (though just out of sight behind the houses in Hoole Lane) was 6A - a third of a mile away at most. Palls of smoke hung invitingly, telling of the treasures beneath; and, being a Sunday, the shed was packed. However, even after an interminably long list of things we couldn't/shouldn't do (though there were no oxen present to covet) and we were free, because we were in our Sunday-best clothes it was more than our lives' worth to get smuts and dirt on our apparel. So, we trudged home, in the opposite direction.

 

In those days, Sundays hung like a dead-hand over anything exciting we might have contemplated. However, as I got older, and free from the trappings of superstition, 6A on a Sunday was regularly visited. But (and one should never start a sentence with 'but'), I wonder how much was missed from those earlier times? Visiting locos, never to be seen again, or old ones withdrawn before I saw them, even though I might have observed their smoke. 

 

When I last visited 6A, the place was really run-down

 

Chester shed small.jpg

 

Once again, apologies for the grim shot.

 

4498 Crewe small.jpg

 

On a brighter note, in between fiddling on the computer, I'm just putting the frames together to go underneath a model of this loco - in this condition. Later next year, you'll find out why. 

 

Was anyone reading this present on that day at Crewe, almost 50 years ago, in April '67? It was the occasion of SIR NIGEL's first run in preservation, to Carlisle up the WCML. Contemporary reports said it was exciting!

I would have been in the throng on the platform, I have a couple of slides somewhere from the day I think, also the spotting notes from the rest of the day.

Edit: I was born at home about half a mile from the GC at New Basford, north of Nottingham, could easily hear the trains at night.

Most areas have their own localised form of greeting as well as variations on language.

In these parts a familiar greeting is 'Ayupmedook'

On the railway, 'Yaright' is pretty universal, not enquiring necessarily about anyones health. In the same way 'See ya later' is the regular version of goodbye, even though you almost certainly wouldn't see the same person again that day or perhaps even for some considerable time.

I shall have to dig that out and let TW have a laugh. Think I Araldited that together in the mid 70s.

happy times.

Phil 

Mine is the first model in this thread:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/107801-warts-nall/

As I said at the time I sent it for a spin round Deepcar and it worked well, given that it quite likely hadn't seen the light of day since we moved here 30 years ago

Radcliffe looks very rural in those pictures now all surrounded by housing. I'll be stopping there before dawn tomorrow

Blimey, we could have been neighbours!, nearly bought one when we moved to Nottingham in 1990 ish, I'd gotten away with it other it was far btoo small inside.

 

Mike.

And now possibly in the way if HS2 I understand?

Hi, Dave. I like the photos of the Foxfield Railway, and I also wonder if the saloon windows are glazed in the first photo.

The S&C photos are a lovely mixture, and I particularly like the steam era photos. Again they show how run down steam was in those last years. In J328, Stanier Black 5, 45253 makes a fine sight at the head of a goods train - a real classic view of a steam hauled goods train.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

Agreed the locos look scruffy but appear to be in good order mechanically, working hard yet few if any steam leaks visible

was all the fiddle-yard wired too in that case? did that not really get in the way of the non-public viewing side?

Yes it was wired with some very simple and substantial overhead built up from welding rod because scratch built cross arm pans went straight up when de-wired. Also a couple of locos were designed to only work from the overhead like those on High Gill which went before.

It didn't get in the way particularly, you soon get used to it, having worked layouts with OHLE for around 25 years I simply make allowances automatically.

That said, any re born Carstairs is not really likely to have the fiddle yard wired

Meanwhile, Warley prep continues...

 

IMG_8321.JPG

Not to be outdone, Tom D has gone into mass production for platform trolleys. Many photos show these parked up against the canopy columns (one either side) to expect them to appear on the Up platform. Also is a closer view of the GPO trolleys and a potential shunting horse to be standing patiently in the Up Yard.

 

Time's getting a bit short so, if you'll excuse me, I must be away...

Amazing how a few words can spark a memory ( I think!)

When spotting there in the early 60s, there were indeed many trolleys parked on the platforms. I seem to recall there used to be short lengths of chain with a hook on the end hanging from the canopy columns. These were used to tether the trolleys to preventing them inadvertently getting onto the track.

Actually, Post 12 I believe.

And who was responsible for using an 87 with a diamond frame pan on the tankers ?

Sorry, raises hand sheepishly.

I'm looking at getting some Judith Edge cross arms if it looks like the layout may go out again

I agree with you, but I am not quite certain enough to caption it as 47019. Perhaps others will have a look too and say what they think.

 

 

I know how you feel. I remember travelling to Grantham to go trainspotting behind L1s. It was not uncommon to see them with cracks in the footplate valancing (and if I remember correctly even the footplate).

 

I can go a little further back and remember the ex Great Central A5s as well.

 

David

Then there were the flying pigs as well

Would like to see photos of the layout of possible.

It's been in store for a good many years, rooting around I've found a few not great quality pictures (I'm very much a point and shoot picture taker) taken at Wakefield show in 2006 which may well have been it's last outing.

We had got our hands on several tubs of Woodland Scenics snow and decided to 'improve' the, in places, fairly sparse scenery with snow cover hence the very light appearance of the ground.

Overall view of the station area.

Most of the station side of the layout

Lima 87 hauling tanks past south juction

Hornby 90 on passenger at the north end of the station

Same train heading round the bend towards Law Junction which was on the back of the layout then into the fiddle yard

Lima 87 heading south towards the station.

Sorry about the quality of the photos but these are about the only ones I have I think as I'd not had a digital camera long before the layout's last appearance.

Edit: There's another picture in post 13 of this thread.

Yes, that's ours. Being looked at for possible redesigning shortly.

Beware that link just froze my computer. Now can't get back onto rmweb through it!!
Can't get into anything, GRRR!

2nd Edit: Done a system restore to a couple of days ago, now seems OK but still a bit slow, that could be with the wife on the internet as well though

Both 069 and 424 have just had overhauls.

 

I think the marina is a mk3

Reckon you're right, the mk2 had a full chrome bumper if I recall correctly but different shape to the mk1. Wonder if that one's a write off then, be barely 10 years old, yes I know they had a reputation for rust, the later ones worse than the earlier I believe