figworthy

Wasn't that the B ark ? Adrian

Oh dear, sounds like it could get a bit arty. Adrian

Something that has just spring to mind. There was a layout at the Stafford Show this year that had something that looked very much like a loaded Tom Pudding on it. The strange thing was that it was a GWR/LMS model. Adrian

Indeed. The compartment boats, also called pans were introduced in 1865. At their peak, they moved just over 1.5M tons of coal in 1913. That helped to make the Aire & Calder Navigation company more prosperous than most railways at that time. William Hammond Bartholomew was granted a payment of £1000 by the company in 1871 for their use of his patents on this. To bring us back to railways, W.H. Bartholomew's brother, Charles, was (amongst other things) the engineer for the South Yorkshire Railway, which later became part of the MS&LR. Adrian

Compartment boats seemed to be the official name for them. Adrian

The B&W version seems to pop up all over the place, there are probably several versions of it on here. To put it into perspective, a fully loaded Tom Pudding would carry ~40 tons, and a full length train would be 19 of them.

The wall looks rather good, as for the gate, that is a masterpiece. Adrian

Drifting a bit further away from the topic, if the line had stayed open through to Oxford, would Chiltern now be going that way rather than via Bicester ? Adrian

Then give them to the delightful (*) kiddy winks who are out trick or treating. (*) other descriptions also available Adrian

Thanks, added to my shopping list. Adrian

Thanks, if it isn't too much trouble. Adrian

Reminds me of a tale of my Uncle and Aunt. Uncle (Mum's brother) was a bike fan, and when courting my aunt, they'd go out on his bike. Apparently a similar story ("I could hardly tell that she was there"), became rather more real when it turned out that she really wasn't there. Some miles back up the road he found her sat on the side of the road. Adrian

That brings back memories. Living locally at the time, the first case I knew of, but we'd left the area by the time of the second and third. I remember being a little surprised when I read about the court case in the papers, even more so when it turned out that one of those involved had been a class mate whilst I was at skool. No surprise that he was "know to the police", but the expectation was that it would be for petty crime. Adrian

Previously, I've gone all the way by train, but got fed up with the New Street Scrum. I read your previous posting, and thought, "what a good idea". I went to Tile Hill and parked for free. Under two quid for the return ticket (thanks to the wrinkly railcard). So far, so good. When the first stopping service eventually arrived (it was running late), it was so packed, that it was impossible to get on board (is that the norm, or was Saturday a bad day ?). As it turned out, it didn't make any difference as that was the first service to be stopped by the incident between Tile Hill and the NEC. The good news was that I got a full refund on my ticket. So back into the jalopy and off up the A45 instead. To be clear, this isn't a rant. Adrian

Wizard Models list the bending jigs, but they are currently out of stock. Might be worth asking Bill Bedford who made them. Adrian

With every LDC ? Adrian

Err ... Adrian

In 1997 I lost my pair of safety boots. In 2001, I moved into the Manor House. Earlier this year I found them in the bucket that I use for washing the car. Have hope, they may yet reappear. Adrian

I am not a lawyer. 30+ years ago, I had the dubious pleasure of having to track down owners of abandoned boats at a sailing club. In some cases, they existed in the club records, and I was able to contact the last known owner (who invariably turned out to be the current owner, who had "forgotten" to pay for its storage), but in other cases, the trail went cold, letters were either returned unopened, or lost. I spoke to the RYA's legal department, and they had some standard advice on what to do. I can't remember what it was, but I suspect that it won't have changed much. There are a few lawyers hereabouts, perhaps they can comment. Adrian

As a wise man once said, inanimate objects labelled "smart" rarely are. Adrian

I'm sure I heard a loud cheer coming from the general direction of @notenoughpanniers towers. I'm sure that we can all agree, it's just what he needed. Adrian

Which have a finite endurance. 30+ years back, one winter in the depths of rural Oxfordshire, we had heavy snow, which took out the power. The phone did keep working, for about 30 hours, at which point we assumed that the exchange batteries had gone flat or the generator had run out of fuel. No mobiles in those days. The power returned after about 40 hours. As I understand it, once you've gone all fibre, the green cabinets will be passive, if used at all. Exchanges will also largely disappear. Adrian

My first microwave died a couple of years ago. It was bought in the 1987 January sales. Adrian

I was on the M27 a few weeks back, and on the overhead gantries, lanes 1 and 3 had a different speed showing to lane 2, I forget which way around, but one was 40, the other 60. Adrian

I have vague recollection from the mid 70s of glass fibre (the raw material) and Turners in the same context, in which case it is quite possible that there are people out there who handled the raw material at home when making "stuff". Adrian