figworthy

Heater ? Oh, that black thing just in front of the gear levers. Had a fan attached to it that made lots of noise, but not much else (and the valve _was_ open). Ahead of its time in many ways,. Air con came as standard, you could see daylight between the doors and the windscreen, a howling gale blowing through there. Thick glove on the right hand, thinner one on the left hand for winter motoring. Oh happy days. Adrian

Land Rovers don't leak oil, they mark their territory. (I'm an ex IIA owner). A friend who has a 90 was rather amused to hear that there was a recall on because some of them had been marking their territory. That music thingy also ought to have a galvo bumper on the bottom. Adrian

That lane is rather lovely. Adrian

Episode 3 this Friday is (it seems) the Banbury - Cheltenham route Adrian

Nevil Shute's autobiography (Slide Rule) makes for an interesting read as he had a senior role in the R100 project. Getting airships in and out of hangers was tricky as it had to be done in a virtual flat calm, otherwise if it caught the doors serious damage could occur. Adrian

Hartshill, just north of Nuneaton. Looks like it is still there. Unfortunately, looking at Streetview, there is now a tree on the left hand side of the building, which means that you can't get a good look at that end of it. The buildings on the left hand side, between the two bridges are quite interesting as well. Adrian

I used to have a colleague who was quite smart. she always used to watch one of the soaps, even though they didn't seem to be her thing (more Star Trek and LoTR). She explained it as being a way to drain her mind after a day at work. Decades back, Mum was a fan of Crossroads, we were convinced that she didn't actually enjoy it, it was just a good way of getting us to go and do our homework (for the benefit of younger readers, it really was that bad). Adrian

We used to have a duck that did something similar. A place I used to work at had 100+ ducks of various breeds. One (we never worked out what breed she was) used to come up to reception every morning. If the door was open, she'd stick her head in and quack (she never came in), if the door was shut, she'd knock. Adrian

Looks very much like it, but this one was rather more agricultural. Adrian

I renewed a couple of weeks back, and it was relatively painless. Logged into their website, then downloaded and installed the software. It looks as though you've got to do that, even though you've already got it installed. Then you get the "Welcome to Fusion" email. They suggest that you might have to wait a short while before you can use it, but I think I got in straight away. Adrian

Looking good, but. At the risk of dropping a large container of spanners into the works, I might have spotted another problem (assuming that you are trying to be accurate). Going back to the bridge and looking at the above, the towpath is on the top side of the canal. Having the wharf on that side means that any boat coming past would have to negotiate the tow line past any thing tied up on the wharf, and the crane that close to the bank could make it difficult to get past, so is best avoided. Unless of course it is the end of the canal (a branch line terminus if you like). The other problem would be security at the wharf, although (as previously discussed) the canal would be private property, having the towpath run through the wharf makes it more difficult to secure, almost all cargos have a value, would you have a railway goods yard that was wide open ? Adrian

When I were a lad, our local greengrocer had the plain van version, complete with a single wheeled trailer (anyone remember those ?). Adrian

IMDB may be of help : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031828/locations?ref_=ttfc_sa_4 Suggests that Silverdale Colliery, Neath and the Rhondda were used, but that might not be exhaustive. Adrian

That bend at the right hand end looks tight. Depending on where you are situated, the vessels using the canal are likely to be in the region of 55-70 ft long, and 7-14ft wide. Would something of those dimensions be able to get around the corner ? I've seen a few layouts with canals on, and the narrow boats that they have put on them wouldn't be able to get around the corners. The green tide mark looks OK. I've got a couple of bits of water on Figworthy, for those, I painted the surface in a suitable colour, then went over the top with several coats of varnish. That gives it some depth, but you end up with dead flat surface (e.g. a windless day). Neither is finished yet, so no tidemarks as yet. Adrian

Thanks again for the pictures and the explanations to go with. Ready and waiting whenever it is convenient. Adrian

I know people who have lives. They seem very complicated and far too time consuming. For the time being, I'll stick to having an existence. Adrian

Upminister. End of the line, way past Barking. Adrian

Given the attention to detail that you've shown elsewhere, it would be a shame to not carry it on with the non-railway bits. From Leek, you aren't that far from several canals, so a field visit ought to be relatively easy. Adrian

I used to have a lady friend who lived nearby. It was usually referred to as "Kingston Bagpipes" Adrian

I think I've only had two parcels go missing. Firstly ~1987/8, it turned up several weeks late, looking like someone had opened it to see if it was worth having, and having decided it wasn't, stuck it through my letter box. I was in a flat at the time with some interesting neighbours. Second was a few years back. I got home from work to find a Royal Mail card, so a couple of days later I called in at the sorting office to collect it. They couldn't find it. Adrian

Probably. Canals (like railways) were usually built as cheaply as they could, fancy bits were only put where prestige (or the landed gentry) demanded it. Laying cobbles would have cost money, so surfaces only tended to be paved where they needed to be. Under the bridge, around locks and wharf sides (but even then not always - we used to have canal side premises, and the only paving was where the crane had been, and in the door ways). Late twentieth and early twenty first centuries saw the canals developing as places of leisure, so tow path surfaces started to get improved. Adrian

Have a look at the Wizard Models site, they do the wire and tube. https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/signals/wire-tube-control-pack-sm4/ Adrian

Slightly ? Before I emigrated, I was working in Rotherham, and we had a couple of lads working with us who were from Barnsley. Not so much a different accent, more a different language. Likewise Hull was always very distinctive. We had a customer who was born, bred and lived a few miles north of Hull, and he sounded nothing like the Hull accent. Adrian

Check the picture in : which shows the tide mark just above the water. Adrian

Looking good. For various reasons, canal water levels do vary a bit over time, so when you come to paint it, you _might_ want to consider a green "tide" line just above the water level, suggesting that the level is down slightly. Adrian