bbishop

The Q, congratulations on becoming a Grumpy. Thanks to you all for cheering me up, 'cos I'm using the M25 tomorrow morning. Which means dinner is out of the "made it myself" freezer drawer. Could have been a curry or an italian, turned out to be the former, so raita made and a couple of mini naans in the oven. Bill

That will be two pints of Twickenham, a Guinness and a cider. I'm round the corner, trying to gain access to the pub.

You may recall that I wrote about the pre-grouping milk train being build for Southwark Bridge. One of the vehicles is the Roxey kit of a S&DJR van, from which either Henry Bousher or Ivan Smith had mislaid the instructions. I could build the kit but couldn't sort out the brake gear. So a phone call to Dave Hammersley and yesterday the instructions arrived in the post. Service?

Not unexpected. His cancer was in remission for quite a while but seems to have returned with a vengeance. I missed our "Brains Trust" meeting in September, but Flavio has commented he seemed to be tired. Dishevelled obviously, we would not expect anything else, but Chris's dry wit was the life of any group. My thoughts are especially with his cousin Brian (88c). And best of luck to whomever has to clear his house, there are any number of mislaid kits, magazines and bus passes buried in there. And who will eat the strawberry? RIP Chris, you will be missed.

John Flack stopped attending exhibitions in the mid-1990s and later moved from Bromley down to Somerset. However he maintained a mail order service for a decade or so. Meanwhile Eileen and Jim expanded their exhibition attendances. When John retired, he sold his stock to Roger Sawyer. Bill

Which makes me EE #2.1, because on one occasion I took the stand out when Roger was on holiday.

North Wing or South Wing?

No I just slap it on.

and they ran beautifully. Once a month I caught one from London Bridge to East Croydon. Okay it took 5 mins to get up to speed and 5 mins to decant at EC, but they just glided along the track. Bill

I need some Somerset & Dorset blue. Bill

Actually six dams were targeted and four were bombed. The Sorpe was hit by the bombs of two aircraft but the structure was unsuitable for a breach by an earthquake bomb. The only suitable bomb was the Grand Slam earthquake bomb produced in 1945, which were rightly targeted at railway viaducts.

are you one of these weird people that actually keeps a car in their garage?

I'm building a fifth van for Southwark Bridge, presently not ready to be photographed. The ocean liners, increasing using Southampton Docks from about 1900, carried more than just passengers. Bullion was one of the high value goods transported by liner and there was a requirement to transport it to/from the docks. London was the main starting/finishing point so transportation was by the LSWR via Waterloo. Initially security was discretely improved on some 6 wheel passenger brake vans, which were dedicated to the traffic, and stored at Southampton or in Clapham Yard. Then in 1912 the LSWR built a batch of 44' bullion vans, of which we have a model on Southwark Bridge. However there was a second high value traffic on the LSWR. Portals have produced paper at Overton for over 200 years. They had a contract with the Bank of England for bank note paper, which required secure transportation to London. Provision was made in the working timetable for a van to proceed from Southampton via Basingstone to Overton during the previous evening. It was loaded early morning, then travelled to London, either direct or shunted at Basingstoke. Our conceit is that it arrives at Southwark Bridge and shunts to the Bullion Dock for unloading. Whilst the Southampton traffic is now the preserve of the 44' vans, the Portals traffic uses the older 30' vans. Both vans will return later in the day to Southampton, possibly carrying bank notes printed by the Bank of England for foreign countries. Bill

at our age, everything is downhill...

And another two. These were both damaged when they reach me and may not be accepted to run on the layout. However they were useful to practice my 4mm techniques and, if they don't pass muster, we can always remove the wheels and install them as grounded bodies. There are another seven LSWR vans to build! Bill

Just to demonstrate that I'm not just a purveyor of sarcastic one liners, but also do some modelling. At the moment we have two milk trains on Southwark Bridge, with a combined length of about six foot. Our research shows there were a number of milk trains arriving from the West Country, that were combined and returned as one very great train. Platform Line 5 at Southwark Bridge is about nine foot so we can have a third train, one direct to SB and the other two worked in from Vauxhall and Waterloo. So I'm building the third train and, of course, it is to P4 standards. We have a pile of brass kits, which were purchased by Henry Boucher and passed to Ivan Smith (Southwark Bridge Models) to build. They are now with me! These are both S&DJR vehicles, the one with windows is a Roxey kit, the other Mallard. Either Henry or Ivan mislaid the castings and instructions of the Roxey kit so I'm grateful for the help of Dave Hammersley. Whilst built at Highbridge, these vans were very much in the style of the LSWR. The other one is pure Derby, that turned out a batch with simplified brake gear for the S&DJR. They are going down to Southwark Bridge next weekend for testing. Bill

And mentioning Pakistan - England have just won a Test Match there. Bill

Possibly a good thing, being about the worst of the bunch. Only retained for one obvious purpose.

So I have learnt how to post from my phone. Bad luck, you lot. Bill

I was chased off ER by someone who reported every post I made. I then had to justify said posts to AY. Whilst said person was later kicked off RMWeb, it left a sour taste and I decamped to The Night Mail. Bill

Two noses and a finger! Bill

In so far as the calender is concerned: PB

Peter, I don't think you are in the 20th century yet. After the passing of the Railway Regulation Act 1844, the railway companies are required to provide passenger trains, so there is no need for you to travel cheaply on freight trains. Bill

Does a horizon appear in a submarine?

Yes. Gorgeous, isn't it.