great central

That looks a lot better, thing was although they were absolutely filthy, they were usually pretty steam tight. I presume you've seen the Annesley fireman website, some nice insights on there.

Lovely pictures but just one slight thing, that 9F is far too clean for an Annesley one unless recently out of works. Fraid I can't do smilies from my phone, please don't take that as critical

It's not fair while (seemingly) the rest of the world was driving around in cars with decent sized engines we were stuck with the same cars sporting lawn mower engines! I saw what was according to the badges a Ford V6 powered Marina once, complete with jacked up rear which was the fashion of the time. It was called Zeus!

Nope 1800 coupe or as I put on the boot badge 109.7 cu in! I was heavily into Brisca stock car racing at the time and they mostly use V8s with the size given in cubic inches

Funnily enough I'm sure I remember when the Vic centre was first opened the sign above the Milton St/Parliament St entrance proclaimed that it was the way in to the Victoria Centre (obviously) , Station (!) and Bus station (which was of course a quarter mile away at the other end completely!). Walked around Nottingham a week or two back while on a long break, not been into 'town' in years. All I can say politely is YUCK!!

Brian, did you walk to the top end of the car park and look down on the blocked up tunnel mouth as well?

My early Marina had a dynamo rather than alternator. It was a devil trying to get a fan belt for as all the listings were for alterantor fittings . Still got the car incidentally, keep thinking about restoring one day, been off the road since about 1982, apart from when I fired it up to drive when we moved house in 1987

We had a rather amusing (in hindsight) episode at our show a year or two back. Apparently an elderly man (won't add the gentle bit for reason to become obvious) was spotted stealing from one of our traders. Realising he'd been rumbled he made a swiftish move towards the exit, followed, I understand, by the trader. Having nearly made it outside a couple of our younger stewards were alerted to the goings on whereupon he took off like Mo Farah!! The stewards gave chase, one of them being well over 6ft tall with build to match, and caught up with him after a short while. Having caught him they brought him back and, as luck would have it, we had a couple of PCSOs on the premises. We always let the Police know about our event and they drop in regularly over the weekend knowing there's always a cuppa and cake available for them. Anyway, they call up the regular police to deal with our elderly man. Now as I got the story second hand, I was (as usual) in the office, I'm not certain about the next sequence of events but it seemed strange that an elderley man could run the way our thief did. It turned out he was wearing a full head mask and underneath was someone, I believe, in their mid-late 20s!!! Known to the Police already I think. So don't let appearances fool you would seem to be the lesson, all these elderly people may be young modellers wanting to get in at the concession rate

There used to be a Lotus, I think, in Nottingham with 130LOX. The 1 and 3 being placed very close together

And we think some model prices are getting a bit much???? Personally I do but at least they do something!

Little Engines O1, got to unTyne Dock it, as the saying goes it may take some time. In between all the other things I'm tyring to get done, sorting out the garage beside the house, railway room, cutting the lawn, etc. etc. Then I keep looking at the two (classic) cars that could possibly be retored, as well as keeping everything else going. Really got too much of everything apart from time and money

Ah yes, your 'lumps'. I've recently started tinkering with one I bought from you a while back, first problem was the odd 'broad gauge' wheelsets! Having bought some 'proper' axles , I set about narrowing the frames so that they fitted under the firebox, then test fitting the cylinders and slidebars, which didn't seem to want to allow clearance for the wheels as well? So I decided they need packing out a bit, the scrap etch from the tender frames is perfect. Oh and speaking of the tender, personally I don't use the etch frames, drill and fit bearings direct into the side frames, the wheels included are undersize but unless it looks very wrong I'll live with them as I would have to dismantle the tender to change them now. Also helps to keep the weight down, leaving out a big chunk of the tender bottom and the coal hopper, mine are usually fairly fully coaled anyway. Figured out just before packing up last night why the loco seems to sit wrong on the frames so that's the first thing tonight, then remove all the 'extra' bits and pieces and pipes. Have to say though that in general you've done a pretty decent job up to now

Re the quiz 90. It's at Trent Junction, the one between Nottingham and Derby. It was being dragged across via Nottingham because if I recall correctly the Nuneaton -Leicester line was shut. Someone then decided it was out of gauge and couldn't go any further so was left there for a time. Although I do believe several 90s had been dragged by the same route previously without incident

Not necessarily LM's fault, 170s are sealed air conditioned trains, problem is if the air con is faulty should the train be taken out of service? Personally hate air con, what's wrong with fresh air?

For anyone in the area there's a decent collection of older Lotus cars and others on Great Yarmouth seafront. No photos I'm afraid can't figure out how to attach from phone. Edit, more interesting to me though is the display of street rods, some serious engines there, shame they're not running:-)

To clarify slightly if I may? Traffic from, I believe, Toton to East Leake was hauled through Midland Station, across the junction at London Road Low Level then up to Trent Lane (GN) Junction. It was then propelled through High Level to Weekday Cross and into the tunnel. Then it was hauled to East Leake dropping traffic off at Ruddington on the way as necessary. There were run round facilities at Hotchley Hill (Rushcliffe Halt) and the return workings departed locos leading to Weekday Cross and into the tunnel, then propelled back through High Level to Trent Lane before again working forward via Low level and Midland back to Toton. I recall reading about this operation somewhere fairly recently but I'm afarid I've no idea where.

Mentioned elsewhere that until the chord at Loughborough was built freight used to come via Weekday Cross (early 70s?). Just seen the rteply above. I well remember standing on Midland Station, quite possibly in 1969 when waiting for my O level results and a pair of class 20s roared across the bridge heading for East Leake. At full throttle they were doing quite some speed, showing up the Midland freight as painfully slow. Regarding it being a dingy place, I recall seeing something on television around this time (possibly a few years either side) when Midalnd Station was compared unfavourably to a Victorian Gents toilet. It may be listed but as the saying goes you can't polish a t**d!

Very timely I'll have to look properly when I'm home, can't get the photos on my phone very well. Half a century ago this weekend it was all over!

Also happened a lot down the road at Colwick. Many pictures show locos with coal piled above cab roof height, even 2-8-0s on relatively short distance workings seemed to be the same.

There is actually a Notts Forest cricket club. I recall reading somewhere about train crews watching the match while stopped on the bridge over the Trent which is now the Lady Bay road bridge. I can't post a link from my phone but googling it will show that they're still active and a very keen group of sportsmen!

Nooooooo!!! Thanks for nothing, got that awful song going round in my head now! Remember being taken to see the film by my dad, hated it then hate it even more now!

Regarding Lord President on the GC, I remember as a very young train spotter no more than 5 years old, being thrilled at seeing 60503 on a passenger service arriving at Nottingham Victoria from the south. That is one of my abiding memories along with 92091 my first sight of a 9F around the same time.

We still use 'ovoids' in our multi-fuel stove. I recall reading that either Colwick or Annesley men called them eggs while not being very complimentary about their use in loco fireboxes. From my experience with them I could readily see them not being suited to loco use. Given a decent draught they will burn hot and quite quickly but as they burn while apparently keeping their shape, if disturbed with a poker just collapse into a heap of little more than ash. As locos do tend to shake around a bit I could see the 'eggs' disintegrating fairly quickly and becoming a solid mass of ash in the bottom of the firebox with little acual heat generating ability.

I don't think it's just model mags either, there is one 'prototype' mag that has taken on the same kind of colours. I'm know that the real railway doesn't look like that, I work on it every day. Not sure if they're from the same publishing company, if so perhaps trying to show some odd kind of 'house style's?

If it is a parcels service I wonder if it's the return empty newspaper vans from the previous night? I remember using that service to get home from a free Hyde Park gig around 1969-70, either Canned Heat or Eric Burdon and War I recall. The 'papers' used to be one of the crack services on the GC before closure despite running in the middle of the night. When the GC closed it was routed from Euston to Northampton then onwards to Leicester. I recall it made good time to Northampton then trundled across to Leicester although I think the line speed was fairly low on that stretch, quite a bit of dwell time to unload the mornings news as well.