great central

4 hours ago, Bill Radford said:

29/03/2012 - Tutbury & Hatton - 153 302

 

The first 'dogbox' to meet it's maker

37 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

My recollection was that it was between 1968 and 1970. They were printed on some sort of self-adhesive vinyl, which didn't stick too well on rusty paintwork.

Agreed,  I 'liberated' one from a rake of wagons parked up for collecting scrap as the GC main line just north of Nottingham was being dismantled, 69-70

Not sure if I've told this anecdote before but when I was young we met one of the signallers from Barkston while on holiday. 

Having been invited to visit one day, my mother took me on the train to Grantham then bus to Barkston. It was quite a long walk to their house to then find he was on shift so an even longer walk in the summer sun ensued to the south box itself. 

Totally worth it though to stand in the box watching a steady stream of trains passing almost within touching distance.

Spied on racks at a Lenton (Nottingham) scrappies. Late T reg Maestro and K reg Mini

A question if I may please?

A work colleague has asked me about possible remagnetising of Hornby Dublo locos or the use of neodymium magnets, also the availability of spare brushes.

He tells me that his father has dug out his old trains, which I'm assuming are Dublo, and started running them again.

Some are running rather slower than normal which we agree is probably weak magnets after all this time, the locos are from the 1950s he thinks, unfortunately I don't have any more info than that at the moment.

What advice can I offer regarding the neodymium magnets, not having any experience of them myself, and does anyone now do remagnetising and spare brushes? 

We're in the Nottingham area.

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Robert,

 

The model in question has a hand-written provenance (written by Larry Goddard) of 'Alton Models' underneath the footplate. It's also signed 'L Goddard '95', which, I assume is its painting date. 

 

As mentioned, it was in plain, satin black, and Geoff Haynes weathered it for me. To produce.........

 

 

As delivered by Geoff.

 

 

 

And after I'd fitted the correct pattern, nine-spoked pony wheels and a front shackle.

 

It now runs beautifully, after my fitting pick-ups to all the driving wheels on one side. 

 

I also added details, such as the lubricator drives. 

 

And............

 

 

The real thing, at Reford on a Down goods. Could I be one of the bods sitting down to the left? The scene is certainly familiar, and I did see 92037................ At Retford! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

 

As a not particularly skilled or prolific modeller myself I hesitate to point out what I see as possible faults in such company.

I note that you've fitted correct pony wheels but, to my eye, a far more immediate concern would be the relationship between loco and tender.

The tender seems to stand too tall and too wide compared with the prototype image.

If, as I assume, (always risky) it's a DJH kit build I recall when I built mine that they provided a sort of 'floor' below the tender tank sitting on top of the frames. After much deliberation, head scratching and studying of prototype photos I altered the tank so that the bottom of it sat directly on the frames which seems to show on your photo at Retford. I did also attend to the incorrect tender top profile as well.

One other thing struck me about the DJH loco was the front of the smoke box relative to the smoke deflectors, as far as I could ascertain the bottom footplate section behind the buffer beam is a couple of mm short, although yours looks better in this respect. I'll admit I cheated and moved the smoke deflectors back to give a better relationship, not correct but then again there's the saying 'if it looks correct.......' 

I'll now continue my armchair modelling.....

22 hours ago, Market65 said:

Good evening, David. That’s a most delightful selection of photo’s of the railways from around Nottingham in the late forties and the early fifties. Each one is a gem, and, as already stated, the first one is a scene which is a real gem. Now in the last photo’, at Gedling, with a class 07, WD, Austerity, on an up coal train in c1949, you have the fairly rare sight of such a locomotive working it’s train tender first. 
 

With warmest regards,

 

 Rob.

Tender first working was quite common in this area, probably just that less photos were taken of them.

There weren't that many photographers active in this area before closure. I have, literally, one or two taken when I was about 10 but they're really not very good. 

Few pits, if any, had loco turning facilities. Most coal trains were trips from the local pit to Colwick yard for onward transit. 

David, are you sure that WD is at Gedling? Something is shouting Bulwell Common at me.

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

Is it just me or have vets become money making places for their owners? We had to change vets this year as ours had shut down so I took Snowy along to the new vet. She's a healthy fifteen year old, outdoor and indoor cat via constantly open cat flaps and happily plays with us, sleeps a lot like all cats and wakes us up at 0530 for feeding. According to the vet, though, she has a heart murmur (though he said it could be just the stress of the vet visit (i.e. you need to check it out)) and her teeth were ok but needed some plaque removing (they look white to me and better than mine!). I just got the impression he was "looking for business"...

I did wonder that myself last year.  Took Amy, an adopted stray of indeterminate age but probably 7 or 8, for what appeared to be a mouth problem.  The vets we have used for over 40 years wanted to remove most of her teeth,  under anaesthetic of course, price quoted somewhat north of £400.

I found this rather disconcerting but said I'd see how she was having been given a pain relief injection. She seemed rather better and was eating again so I decided to see how it went. 

We didn't really want to put her through that level of upset and tried another vet, which it would seem, is a kind of franchise operation

They were extremely helpful, gave an initial injection followed by a course of antibiotics, a little over £100 from memory.  She's been fine since and still got all her teeth, apart from the one she lost a couple of years ago.

Needless to say I'm afraid the original vets have lost the business.

Edit, several of our cats over the years have been mentioned as having a heart murmur during other checkups but not been given any medication and lived onwards.

One was unveiled last year at Nottingham in memory of the train crew involved in the crash at Lenton in 1971

3 hours ago, jwealleans said:

Interesting that that practice continued.  On the Railways Archive site there's an wartime accident report (I think from the Sheffield area) explaining how a rough shunt in darkness caused some unsecured steel sheets to shift and foul an adjacent running line.  A troop train passed (or was passing) and the sheet sliced along the compartment side of several carriages causing a number of fatalities.

Possibly just a local practice, if the load was headed for the Tyne shipyards I presume it would be fairly heavy section, also a fairly short journey without the need for remarshalling en route.

I think, going on childhood memories, plates being worked up the GCML had securing chains over the loads, but they were going further with possible shunting and knowing GC loco crew's reputation higher speeds.

Hi Dave, I wondered if the WD in Jvol1205 had become one of the many that ended up at Colwick in later years.

According to this Wikipedia article it was exported and became part if the Kowloon-Canton railway fleet, so possibly the photo was taken earlier than 1948?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCR_ex-WD_Austerity_2-8-0

I had a Rover 214SEi, lovely car, very comfy and surprisingly quick for a smallish engine.

6 hours ago, Phil Mc said:

I took this pic today, mainly because the Meridian looked clean !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

Only cos you can't see the white(?) bits

Should have said that Jack's model looks very good 

Hoping you don't mind a somewhat tongue in cheek nitpick but EMR Meridians have never looked like yours.

They are all in varying degrees of filth, the vinyls of the early purple applications being simply stuck over the old EMT livery including the muck which had been allowed to build up since Abellio took over!

Then the later ones simply had the area where a vinyl was going cleaned, so there is a clean patch around the EMR Intercity wording which is still very evident many months after application. 

One of the worst is 222022 seen a few days ago, but fairly typical of the state of the flagship fleet of this operator 

On 17/03/2022 at 15:23, TheQ said:

Do you come from Wymondham? 

Depending if it's the Naaarrfook or Lestershoire version

Tried to add a couple of other pictures to the post above but can't scroll down for  some reason. 

The engine in this Camaro takes some beating for size, apparently whole boot (trunk) is full of fuel tank, the engine is 91/4 litres, rear tyres 18inches wide!

The piece of wood is because the bonnet slowly lowers itself.

I've always found these type of things interesting as well, pretty much a daily driver I'm told

Been to a breakfast meet of a car enthusiast group my son's involved with. 

Mostly American, my preference, but this was possibly the most valuable vehicle there?

Nice story, decent looking layout as well 

https://coleandmarmalade.com/2022/03/09/these-cats-smash-model-trains-for-a-living/

On my way up the M1, passed an X reg Triumph Dolomite,  not seen one on road in a good few years 

Just a little example of how things may be going.  Don't want to frighten anyone.

We're on oil fired central heating, a few weeks ago I had 500 litres of oil delivered,  costing just under £350, before all the current problems started. This morning out of sheer curiosity I did an online quote for the same.  My usual supplier isn't taking orders for my area at the moment!

An alternative online source who claim to be cheapest,  but aren't,  is quoting just shy of £750!!!!

On 13/02/2022 at 20:50, Clive Mortimore said:

I am sure when the line to Ipswich was built they on purpose made it go through Stoke Tunnel so when railway modellers would say , "There wouldn't be a tunnel that close to the station" others could point out "What about Ipswich?"

 

It will look good with a B17 or Britannia coming out of it. 

                                  

How about Cromford,  tunnel mouth is on the platform!

Carrington just north of Nottingham Victoria has tunnels at both ends of the platforms 

https://images.app.goo.gl/xHkQTdozMbF9ctrZ9

The photo in Kingmoor yard shows just how quickly, and perhaps unexpectedly,  things can change.

Two rows of HAAs which have been shifting coal from pit to power station since the mid-late 60s still, apparently, in use in 2003

Sandwiched between is a rake of HTAs, their modern replacements, which little more than 10 years later will be languishing out of use as the coal traffic rapidly disappeared. 

There were many rows of them at Worksop until a couple of years ago when the site was cleared for handing over to Harry Needle for both new and withdrawn passenger stock storage.

I believe most went for scrap although there are still a few trains through Nottingham at the moment feeding imported coal to Ratcliffe on Soar power station. 

PM sent 

23 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

.... I agree !

More importantly don't let it get wet.....

Sorely tempted by this, is the track plan for the full layout as it now stands?

A fellow club member has recently put a colliery layout on show in O gauge, very inspiring.