JeffP

Cleethorpes is where I was born. In 1956 my grandpa and I boarded a train there and alighted at Grimsby Town, where my dad met us to return us home. My first experience of riding on a train.

Last time I used it, half of it was just that, with the other half a 40mph contraflow. Utter waste.

Distinct possibility. They'd have needed banking up the Gunhouse bank with that load though. It always amused me to see into the tipplers off a footbridge, etc. Never more than 1/3 full. The ore is so dense.

South Wales has its own ore terminal near Port Talbot. And there are better routes from Immingham to south Wales than through Donny. Still baffled.

I am intrigued by C3449. Those iron ore wagons are usually to be found between the ore terminal at Immingham, and the one at Santon, Scunthorpe steel works. What they were doing at Doncaster is baffling. I've never heard of a service taking the same ore anywhere else.

Can't remember how much you found plywood at? I'd like some 9mm, but am being quoted €63 odd for a full sheet, with delivery tacked on top. I want to make a barn owl nest box. £21 a sheet in the UK, £5 for as many cuts as I need.

Zoe, (Wendy Padbury) had my admiration as a teen.

Orange/FT have the worst customer service I've ever come across.* They tell lies, they are rude, ignorant and downright obstructive. * And in France, with most big companies, that's going some🙄

What a waste... while we drag freight under the wires eith diesels.

C9268. Interesting. Clapham to Liverpool? Where had it originated? Brighton? Would it turn off and go via Earls Court?

I agree. Do helical gearboxes exist in OO?

Aaaargh, don't get me started on Dr. Who assistants! There have been some right little minxes....🥰 (Alright nurse, I'll get back in bed now...)

Hollow laughter from the Haute Vienne. WiFi? What's that then? We don't even have internet unless you count 4G (when its working) on my phone. Last year I had to make mine a hotspot so that my poor wife could tether to it to practise her French on Duolingo. This year she has 4G too...when it works. (It often drops out to something that shows on the phone as "H+"). Our place is in a tiny hamlet of three houses, about 600m from two others, and 4km from a village with basic amenities...small Supermarket, TWO boulangeries, tobacconist, bank, and FOUR ladies hairdressers. And the inevitable pharmacy. Oh, and two expat second hand shops. Our hameau only had two reliable working phone lines. For three houses. So when your internet went down, out came Orange/France Telecom, and it worked again ...for a while, or someone else's went down. All that for a download speed of 7kb and an upload speed of 0.8 kb. And €20 per month, whether we were there or not. I finally fell out with them when they instigated a €60 call out fee, and INSISTED I had a French mobile number before they would book me a visit. Aren't there other internet providers, do I hear you say? Yep...and they use the Orange/FT infrastructure, so when the problem occurs... and it will, it's Orange/FT who come out. But now you aren't their customer, so good luck getting owt done this next ten days. So we ditched landline internet and went with Too-Way satellite, an English company. All worked well...unless it rained hard, was VERY thick cloud, fog, or a bird sat on the antenna head... and then they sold up ....to Orange/FT! Price went up, service went down. My price rose from €17 pm to €32 pm...again, whether I was there or not. So I dumped them too. Now I see fibre is coming...within 500m of our house. Will it reach us? Not a snowball's chance. It'll pass on the local D route Route Coeur de Lion. So next time you expats use your internet, WiFi etc, spare a thought for us.

I would. I've seen them come off or damaged without. Don't use water based varnish.

Just read through this. You seem to have had trouble with transfers? Did you seal over them eith matt/satin varnish?

C8931 the livery looks like one of the (at least) two Thornaby specials. The other was named.

Making excellent progress. I'm enjoying your exploits.

It's not voltages you need to measure, it's current. Current draw when pulling a load and stall current. Ammeters are placed in series with the motor* Not across the tracks. *You'd need to detach the track or rolling road feed, place ammeter +ve to the original feed wire and ammeter -ve to track or rolling road feed. Make sure ammeter is set to mA.

I hadn't until now. I have decent French and always ask permission if there is anyone to ask. Even when being refused entry to a shed, (Paris la Chappelle and Chatillon), the reasons why were politely explained to me. Until now I'd only really come across SNCF employees who shared my enthusiasm for their railway. La Rochelle was a sad place as far as Railways are concerned. That beautiful station contained one TGV twin set, and the area around was completely empty yards. Hard to believe that Alsthom has a huge plant at Aytre just south of La Rochelle.

Excellent! I like to see pics from that era. I came to start in France early 90's when a lot of the older stuff was still around.

Or the Victoria centre at Nottingham, where the tunnel mouth can still be seen from the lower carpark levels, as can the rock cutting sides.

Is the motor up to the job? If not, that might make it run hot. Or maybe the gears need to be better?

Ah, Doilum, you might know. Have you seen my question about the Mallard partwork "what parts in what issue pdf", in Questions?

I'm presently out in France and, search as much as I want, cannot find the pdf of which parts came in which issue of the Hachette Mallard partwork. Does anyone have a link, or know where it can be found, please? Or failing that, does anyone know which issue contained the chimney? Thanks.

Hi Gary. First off, how's your health? And did your Mallard ever go any further?