Johnson044

Hi 33C - thanks for asking. There has been a little progress but very slow as domestic and work life are busy. Cardboard isn't my forte! I've added a bunker and reverser, some springs, handrails and spectacle lenses. It's noticeably larger than 7mm so the reverser had to sit on a little platform. Next jobs are the safety valve and a sandbox on each side.

The thing that never seems to be mentioned is that the Ukrainians have suffered terribly at Russian hands before. In the early 1930's Stalin sent in troops to take all the grain and other food they could, sealed the borders and left millions to starve to death. What they have been through before and what they are going through now is beyond the comprehension of most of us. We are so, so fortunate.

How curious! The third word from one of the songs in Eurovision, the story of Fire Saga is automatically censored- it's just the other noise that a bell makes.

Ja Ja Ding !!!

Play Ja Ja Ding ! Play it! Now!

Sadly not yet! But it's a sunny day and no-one's dropping bombs on me. Much to be thankful for!

Sorry - must have hit the button at the same time as monkeysarefun!

Very bleak and sadly often true. Time for some music.

Police brutality? Nothing new!

BTW - has anyone come across the splendid new figures from Modelu?

Hold very tight please Ting Ting! As this is May and involves railways this is rather appropriate too:

I found this in my book of Eagle cutaways. I had an uncle who used to drive double-deckers in East Kent in the '70's- based in Deal. He said that by gently rolling the wheel from side to side he could get the old girl swinging like a pendulum - it was especially good fun on a school run when the teenagers upstairs were being particularly obnoxious. When the screams got a bit loud he thought he should ease off a bit.

Haven't had any poetry here for a while. "From a railway carriage" with sincere apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in a very different world. Faster than fairies, Faster than witches The travelling hoodies converse with their bitches. One look in the eye and you're in for a battle, Down on the floor in the beer and the spittle. Estuary English? Assault on the senses! Morrisons, Homebase, unclimbable fences. Democratically classless, hermetically sealed. A burned-out Fiesta marooned in a field. And once in a while, with a desolate sigh An un-staffed station shuffles by. Here's a child with a spray can: A corner to linger. Looks up from his artwork and raises a finger. And here are the Pikies, the Chavs and the Wallies- And there is the river for tipping the trollies! And here's B&Q! And there's Land of Leather! Each a glimpse And gone for ever.

Sorry - don't know why I said Victorian - I meant Pre-Grouping! J.

What a glorious start to the day! Just returned from a stroll with dog around the ripped backside of Dover and to come inside away from the pulverized vodka bottles, pvcu windows and empty shops and visit Victorian East Anglia recreated in such loving and careful detail was an absolute panacea. That video clip has given me so much pleasure. I will go back over this thread and explore properly. The line is set in Suffolk or Norfolk? It has a feel of the Aldeburgh branch about it? Really lovely.

I've finally succumbed! I've not looked at this thread before, being a bit put off by the word "Virtual" but now I'm hooked! Absolutely brilliant! Well - that's MY lunchtimes occupied for a while! Well done Annie!

I'm sure your review has stirred up more interest than otherwise possible amongst a receptive demographic. The mention in Model Rail would not have achieved this! Hear hear! I wouldn't have known about, or bought the book if Edwardian hadn't drawn it to my attention.

Let's just get through the day as best we can Edwardian

I'd best not upload the photos of the little outside framed 4-4-0 in that case. Model railways are all, I sometimes think, that stand between me and a padded cell (or don't care in the community) and I really don't want the copyright police feeling my collar. Just buy the book folks! You won't regret it.

A little off-piste but has anyone noticed the little outside framed 4-4-0 in one of the colliery scenes in Amberdale? Reminds me of a Whitby Bogie.

The East Coast Railway generally used a very heavy FB rail section and the model depicts this accurately.

I love the safety valve!

Another one is the loco that is built speculatively by a builder purely to exhibit at some great public engineering exhibition to drum up interest - and then sold on afterwards to whoever wanted it. There are a number of these around. The Midland and South Western Junction Railway 0-4-4T Fairlie and the 2-2-2 that was sold to Egypt spring to mind, as does the Little England by George England of Lewisham. Several of the last two seemed to have been built. The Fairlie not so popular. Maybe the justification for something completely freelance could be that it's a speculative one-off?

Just some further thoughts on freelance locos- I think the "Get out of jail free" card has to be the "Cancelled Order". Provided the boundaries of time aren't too stretched and anachronisms are avoided then it's just a matter of sliding doors - as Dylan put it "A simple twist of fate". We are tweaking history anyway and it just takes a bad investment or some other financial misfortune or political upheaval for a completed or nearly complete loco from an independent builder such as Sharp Stewart, Dubs, Beyer Peacock etc to be available at a bargain price - there are quite a few out there in the real world- the Somerset & Dorset got some SER Cudworth 2-4-0's this way, the Furness got their Small Seagulls instead of the Cambrian and the Highland got their Yankee Tanks rather than the railway in Ecuador - I'm sure there are many others. This way it's perfectly reasonable (within reason!) to tweak history a little so that your freelance company can get their hands on your favourite loco. I'm not sure how this might work with a design that was built exclusively by a railway company as opposed to a private builder though.