JeffP

But sadly, a pale imitation of itself 25 years ago, when every small town with a station had a yard, often with a small shunter present, and always with wagons. Every place near a railway was rail connected, again, often with ex-SNCF small shunters present. Large towns had bustling yards with shunters and often half a dozen main line locos stabled. And most sheds were welcoming to enthusiasts. And freight wasn't all on the roads. All gone now, mostly due to EU meddling.🤔

Thanks for taking the time to do that.

If I remember correctly, CFdP had two. They also had a D (0-8-0), locomotive, unnumbered, 1200, an attractive loco built by Henschel, and two very boxy locos from Brissoneau et Lotz. On my first visit to their works at Lingostiere, (just outside Nice), I was able to wander round in the blazing sunshine at will, and found the un-numbered D out of use up a weed choked siding. Both BB's were present, one cannibalised. The new Platform 5 stock book has 1200 withdrawn and for sale, three of the boxy locos, and no sign of either of the BB's or the D. Meanwhile, CFC seem to have acquired another BB.

Thanks, but I meant on the laser cut stuff.

In my Platform 5 book of 1996 vintage there was a photo of one of their BB 400 locos on a short freight at Ponte Vecchia. I'm unsure if anything still runs, but both the CdF Corse and CdF Provence have diesel locos listed on stock in the latest book, mainly for trackwork?

I thought Slaters did the GWR loco coal? Sorry if I've missed this in an earlier post, but what glue(s) do you use?

Been caught out TWICE by internet sites selling tickets. Both P&O and DFDS sites, unknown to me defaulted back to the month you were booking IN instead of the month you wanted to travel. Booking crossings for Easter during the month of February caused the problem. February that year having the usual 28 days, the day of the week of the booked sailing remained the same, so no red flag. Result: turned up at Dover with a booking for the previous month. P&O sorted it, just had to pay a bit more at the port. DFDS refused point blank, and I had to pay again.😒 Goodness knows what'll happen if they do close all ticket offices.

They LOOK like some I used around 20 years ago, they were just referred to as blue engineering bricks, and were available in loads of different shapes. A visit to a decent builder's merchant might be a start.

And now we use diesels under the wires, there's progress for you.

Regarding passport control, we regularly use the chunnel with our car, as my wife doesn't need to get out of the car into her wheelchair and vice-versa. We can't say we've noticed passport checks taking longer since Brexit, but we have observed the following: It sometimes seems to take an age to scan passport chips. Are they still using ZX or Commodore computers? Sometimes, even in holiday season, only two cubicles will be manned out of nine. Why? Why can one passport officer process nine full cars ehile another processes four? Pre-Brexit we used to sail into Hull. The Rotterdam ferry arrived at 0800, and passport staff processed the entire ship, before driving across the port to process those arriving from Zeebrugge. This often led to us driving off the ship, and sitting on the dock for around an hour before our queue moved. So I reckon UK passport control needs to up it's game. The

In JVol 3271 the A4 looks like 60014 Silver Link. Handrail doesn't curve down at the rear until after the penultimate handrail knob. Nameplate appears to have rounded corners.

So they bring it from Lowestoft to Whitemoor, then tip it at Whitemoor, to reload it, now a bit dirty, when it's needed? Also, I wonder why Lowestoft when there's much nearer docks at Boston and Kings Lynn?

Where does it go from Whitemoor?

Not an easy shed to get round, being in the middle of dockland, so docks police were about.

The relevant RCTS green book would be your bible.

Aye, who needs electric locos?

My favourite is trying to refit heavy shutters, either up a ladder or leaning out of a first floor window. Only two hinges, but holding it at arm's length trying to line it up and not fall...

Impressed with that. Some years ago I had to fix things to a dot and dab plasterboard wall. I hit on the idea of cutting lengths of aluminium tube to the depth of the wall under the plasterboard, drilling right into the wall, using a nylon wall plug, followed by the alloy tubing and a long screw. The alloy tubing stops the wall plug pulling out. Now you can buy those fittings made in Germany, but the tubing is steel. Wish I'd patented it.🙂

Damn! That looks quite professional and puts to shame the single sheet of 6mm ply, opening onto a "door banger" suspended from the rafters, that closes off my loft. Only been meaning to do something better for twenty years😄

Deepcar...at the start of the Stocksbridge bypass, one of Britain's most haunted roads. Travelling it alone on a windy night at 4am is, shall we say, interesting?

Superb trackplan for a model.

At least in France every small town has at least one pharmacy. But waiting to get served in them is another pita.

That crossing is near Alrewas, not Alresford.

There's a guy on YouTube has modelled a very convincing canal in 4mm scale, using resin, brown paint and even a supermarket trolley and an old washing machine dumped in.

I'm sorry, but your pic of your first module so reminded me of Homer's auto-dialler. 😁