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On now (07:53), live from the Market Deeping club

Looks like there will be a segment on BBC Breakfast this morning, so we can see what the spin (or not) is from them.

H&A Models have always been good for me, either online or at shows.

Could you put them on here in the 'free to a good home' section rather than just binning? Someone else might have the time and inclination to strip and rebuild them and save a tiny bit more plastic waste in the world?

But I like point 11 of the summary. Edit - SNAP

I've caught up with the Airfix annoucements and it's interesting to compare the approaches within the same company. Lots of recently tooled Airfix models being re-released after a few years away with new markings or additional parts, especially those where Ebay prices have been going up, so there must be an eye on the market somewhere. Obviously there is a difference in how things are produced between Airfix and Hornby (not to mention pricing), but the Airfix side seem to have a handle on keeping the most common/favourites on the shelves with updates to encourage repeat sales of the same 'evergreen' base models. I don't see that with Hornby, and the requests for repeats of common models from recent years (Mark 2s, Class 31s, HST variations etc) seems to come up again and again.

The Youtube video shows them all as the 'Not Thomas' body and not true Nellie/Polly etc

The Morgan Design roof etch (availble through the Scalefour Society) includes a template for reshaping the Coopercraft ends to W1/5 profile with replacement strapping. Kit part on top of the template to show the difference in profiles (not lined up for where you would reshape). Edit - Don't forget the later types were also wider than W1/5 too

There's a rabbit hole of M3/Ram & M4/Grizzly chassis, suspension and track variants in Allied armour to go down should you want to!

No 'pulpit' to be a Priest. Looking at the armour shape, Sexton?

Surprisingly quiet this morning, probably due to the line being closed between Derby and Nottingham due to flooding and colleges/universities now off before Christmas. Tickets being checked on the train too.

Back to 2 car? Crikey. XC had got the extra centre cars to extend more 170s to 3 car a few years ago and 2 car units became (thankfully) less common on the Cardiff/Birmingham-Nottingham route which certainly helped.

Priceless? (should Mastercard being involved in the buying stage...)

https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-updates-information/major-engineering-work/birmingham-new-street-2023 Going to be interesting seeing what was becoming a fairly full 5 car morning service fit into three come my next commute on Wednesday.

I picked this up looking last week to see if we'd get back to normal before Christmas as the platform work was always '6 months' starting from April. Some services have been 2+3, but not all as others have remained as just the 3 car, which has been a frankly wonderful experience for the duration. I will find out this week if things even out or not. Just in time for the peak of the Christmas market in Birmingham...

LNWR Wagons Vol1 comments in the D84 section that the two rib buffers date from 1910 onwards. The three ear buffers would be the replacement to those you have for the earlier builds. For axleboxes, the same source says the earliest small batches of D84 (1904/5) were built with grease axleboxes (these? No examples shown in the book of these early builds) and then from 1907 on, the width between solebars was increased from 5'11" to 6'1" to probably provide clearance for larger oil axleboxes, with the flat fronted ones shown on two examples with the earlier buffer type. Edit - There was also a change post 1918 on the corner strapping. Pre 1918 the diagonal goes up and is cut flush to the corner plate, post the diagonal contines with a joggle to end on top of the corner plate.

Red or grey? (Ducks for cover)

I can't recall ever seeing any GW wagons in pre-war photographs and postcards, nor a GW wagon label from Burton. Not a no, but I suspect would be most unlikely. When and which brewery are also two important questions, as the smaller breweries were less likely to have any more than a regional foothold and thus less likely to be sending out casks to every corner of Great Britain. The other issues brought up before in the thread may depend on somewhat unknowable element of agencies and local dealers, where beers could be send out to regional ales stores and then distributed locally. To give a GW example, it is likely that Bass's Bristol agency dealt with sales the south west for c1900 and barrels would be dispatched and managed by the agency from the local stores. Kelly's Directory of Bristol, 1902. Address appears to be the offices - A quick search hasn't revealed a location for a related ale store as yet. Any locals perhaps with a lead? To give the regional perspective, in 1900 the Bristol agency was was only responsible for 1.6% of Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton domestic sales, dwarfed by sales to London and the north, matching the somewhat slender pub holdings in the south west. So you may well have beer from Burton, dispatched by a Burton company but directed from from a Bristol office and ale store in a GWR wagon for onwards travel, but probably in smaller quantities. Post war even with Common User scheme in place GW wagons are uncommon (I can think of a couple of aerial photos in the early 1920s with a single wagon visible) and this goes on right through to BR days just due to the lower proportion of stock in the pool compared to the LMS/LNER. EDIT - There might be an Iron Mink lurking in the background of a photo, but I'm not sure of date or if that helps! Will try and find it. EDIT II: Worthington's Brewery C1896. What say you, Mink fans?

Barriers tend to be open at Derby off peak too, especially in the evenings. I'm struggling to think of the last time I was asked to show a ticket on XC services between Birmingham-Nottingham whereas before the pandemic it would be extremely unusual not be be checked both ways day-in, day-out. Edit - not helped since April with the platform work at New St reducing services to hourly and the accompanying overcrowding of a lot of peak services. Or is just the ones I travel on?

I don't know if it's just due to what I've seen and what I currently have (examples below), but wagon labels from Etwall c1900 seem to be surprisingly common for a small station on the GN extension between Egginton Junction and Derby. Did someone there save a collection which has slowly drifted out over time? Onwards to Burnaston, Thurvaston and Longford Hall after arriving at Etwall.

Filing this one away for the future.

'Tis a LMS 1664 and not a MR 664! Imagine my disappointment, especially when I'd made a special trip the morning after the work Christmas do last year. Not even a pot of matt black to be seen through the fuzz of the night before...

I'd love to say 'depends how helpful your local model shop is', but that's probably not an option for most now sadly. Edit - and one I went to last year I was told there was 'no demand for kits or paint' so they didn't stock either!

Easier to build with the 1 piece chassis? Certainly 'safer' as an entry level for kit building.