Metr0Land

I have to say I generally let the details wash over me and watch the prog as a whole and I find it quite enjoyable (not entirely fashionable on this thread). What I do find very interesting is that 'all members of the public' who've commented on it to me, have spoken very favourably about it, and seeing the development process of new trains/planes/automobiles, so I feel it is working well on a wider level and showing our hobbies in a good light.

Just a little update to show I’m still in the land of the living. I’d been wanting a Fowler 4P 2-6-4 tank to complete the Chiltern local roster. These weren’t as common as some other 2-6-4’s but certainly not rare either. I’d been waiting for a reasonably priced example to come up for auction. In the event 42315 was reasonably priced, nicely weathered and in addition had actually been shedded at Willesden and Neasden in the 50’s. She just needs a lamp, replacement steam pipe, dummy screw link coupling on front and some crew. rev 42315 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr About 18 months ago Sonic Models (a new entrant and available via Rails of Sheffield) announced an ex-LNER A5. My wallet heaved a sigh of relief as the A5’s departed from Neasden on the early 50’s and before my timeframe which starts at 1956. Then I discovered 69801 returned to Neasden April 1956 in connection with some celebrations of the opening of the GW/GC joint line. She’s quite a chunky beast and gives me yet another type of large tank loco. It’ll need renumbering, weathering, crew, coal and dummy screw-link coupling. Oddly the lamps are moulded-on in express lamp code, so they will need to be changed to a local lamp code. Others have said they will be changing theirs so I’ll wait and see just how they do it before I start surgery. rev 69804 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr

My BR early crest arrived today and I've got a good 'un. (Sorry to those that haven't). It runs very smoothly out of the box and I've given it quite a few circuits in both directions with load 6. Cab numbers are straight (though I will be renumbering). and nothing seems awry. The bogies/pony trucks were derailing at one particular place but that's a lift-out baseboard join so I attended to the join and not the loco and all worked well. I would say the bogies/pony trucks are prob more sensitive than on some other locos. Elsewhere my track is pretty good apart from some bouncy bits through pointwork but she wasn't giving trouble anywhere than at the lift-out section. From my perspective a great choice from a new entrant and well executed.

"I've never seen a farmer on a bike...." https://www.musicfromtheeastzone.co.uk/bands_artists/SINGING_POSTMAN__THE.htm

IIRC XR829 XR749 intercepted a U2 at 88,000ft during a NATO exercise

I get the same problem ie FF won't play this film or others that are said to be free, and it will play in Chrome

I think Dragon Rapide only has one pilot seat up front? Am thinking Vickers Viking/Varsity/Valetta.

You'd think it would be easy wouldn't you? All I want is 60L black sacks for the council recycling. Until recently we were allowed 3 x black bags a fortnight which has now changed to 3 every 3 weeks (ie 1 per week). We're supposed to keep to 60L max. I have 2 cats who don't go out so cat litter is a problem*, otherwise I create very little for the black bags. Trouble is, so many black sacks which are advertised as heavy duty are anything but. Can anyone recommend some sacks which ARE heavy gauge material pls? I don't mind if they have drawstring or not, as long as I can maximise the contents without them falling apart as soon as you breath on them. *Yes I'm doing most of the tricks to keep this to a minimum and have switched to wood chips so I can burn them but I tend not to incinerate rubbish if i can avoid it

It's tricky making these judgement calls. If you make too many and they're hanging around people will be quick to point out how wrong you've been, and if they sell out quickly people will be quick to point out.......

I thought it was a pretty upbeat prog and ought to have resonated well with Mr and Mrs Public

Posh and Becks McCartney and Asher Anthony and Cleopatra Romeo and Juliet Bonnie and Clyde Starsky and Hutch Dastardly and Muttley Tom and Jerry Margot and Jerry Tom and Barbara Galton and Simpson

That's a DH84 Dragon which preceded the Dragon Rapide

No it's the pink class 31 they've been holding back on

Am sure the production model will be tougher but that cab support rod looked much too fragile for a 5 yr old. Not sure what they could do to make it tough enough without being hugely overscale

Britishvolt collapse https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64303149

I recently changed from Ford Kuga MHEV to PHEV and was explaining to a friend that in current very cold weather electricity is now more expensive than petrol. I'm curr paying 34p per kWh incl vat likely to rise to 40p in April, and petrol locally is now 139.9 for unleaded. Assuming we get some sunny weather in due course.... I SHOULD get some contribution from my solar panels which has been impossible since I bought the car, and any reasonable contribution would still make electric cheaper then petrol. Anyway that's not the nub of my query. In the local U3A branch at Newcastle Emlyn we're collecting for generators for Ukraine (£300 + vat = £360, though I believe that's a favourable rate that might not be available to me personally). So my friend asked if that would be cheaper than electric, as portable generators need not be awfully large. I must admit I've no idea on costings which would be say purchase price + variable petrol (or other fuel) price over say 2 years. So can anyone say whether after April, on dull days (we have plenty in west Wales) a generator would be cheaper than mains electric at standard rate? A max charge for my PHEV is 14kWh or so.

I didn't realise there was a 50 called Rooney

This autumn I bought a Q38 driving car so I could have variations with my 4-car Q stock set. Since when, Phil Radley has passed, and I’ve had a spell in hospital (just 24 hours but still recovering), so I haven’t had a chance to work on the Q38 at all. This update is just on other projects, two more Black 5’s (making a total of four as befits a Great Central layout) a ‘French’ or ‘cupboard door’ 16T mineral wagon to make a change from all the other more normal 16T wagons, and a Blue Pullman kitchen car conversion. Someone is now doing 3D printed conversions to make a kitchen car and also some variations of parlour cars as Triang only made the one parlour car. rev 44760 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr rev Black Five 45147 side 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr rev 'French' 16 tonner 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr rev Blue Pullman kitchen car 800px by Sarah S1ddons, on Flickr

Loft Garden find https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165766072955?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20211130130302%26meid%3D5baa467b94874d3b9876e7a9bdd43c66%26pid%3D101468%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D225295441612%26itm%3D165766072955%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D3650466%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWeb%26brand%3DMainline&_trksid=p3650466.c101468.m3476&amdata=cksum%3A1657660729555baa467b94874d3b9876e7a9bdd43c66|enc%3AAQAHAAAA8B6578j%2FhNWJNFUfScE4DbZ4U4IE3ULl9wKyMhq9c%2Bhr5U3EY1jkwWS4fyVEAT3NWU%2BC8iCVjPOVL2qDFjfccx0dsvm8KMV1ot1eB8VzWemhkXex8Dt0qtXTQGdeN47aceclLC16TYIxsdom%2B7nME2sOroazk8c64s7F%2Fv%2Brffnaf5f542Qgn%2Fai9XL4u1rDu25GxFkpBEtWf527CQRMvaIkyOoRwUe9hQooe4hhodXUon8GXE6O0x9xit2wR6UB39CPv26UQMgoZ6W259bUGZb52Y02HUGJBWNJ2FnK4u1eX7jITYMeM4Ecoi4vZ0EJfw%3D%3D|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A3650466

As an economy measure during these hard times Bachmann Crabs are now running without the front pony truck https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234806779134?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20211130130302%26meid%3Decf94f0f26984d6bb1931cd6e92a9e2d%26pid%3D101468%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D225295441612%26itm%3D234806779134%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D3650466%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWeb%26brand%3DBachmann&_trksid=p3650466.c101468.m3476&amdata=cksum%3A234806779134ecf94f0f26984d6bb1931cd6e92a9e2d|enc%3AAQAHAAAA8B6578j%2FhNWJNFUfScE4DbaHEbH0qg2MBd8WyiQAOw5YCTCOYROozAU7MIASdOxF9%2Fn%2BTuIgjvRl1PjUBpSkPE3OALygIDMLZn3DO1E71HWc8R82SDmEW1mna4qrnQC0D4pRlXpdcTGpcVscDwj08WpWI3BugU1CprDN4%2BHWfSihxxChDA5idrAV6ulexl3qfDXk3mY1P9EyIg54JfZbgSV3x3YA43B5L6qlR8eUcTlDRaQu6oH%2BeyTd875Yb4NJWioJDaTC02RDHduwoZPyDEsVnchNzcfb3r07jzzbF%2FG1LVGQbOzphn24vctdbznYHw%3D%3D|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A3650466

ISTR back in the 70's oil crisis we were being told THERE'S ONLY 10,000 DAYS OF OIL LEFT! (ie ~27 years) Guess what? We've had something like 20,000 days since those banner headlines and the alarmists quietly backtracked during that time to say 'we only said there were 10,000 days of PROVEN reserves'. I suspect when push comes to shove the figures now being quoted will prove to be under-estimates but in any case I'll be long gone before those dates come around.

If the Beeb are to be believed, the NYMR are suffering from strike action today

Afraid it won't let me omit username and it thinks my email is in use by another. Am assuming the email is the one that starts swindon... Also I can't seem to pm you.