southern42

Not until your post, David! (Many thanks. Brilliant!) I googled it and ordered it - resistance was futile! Looks like the Toot on the flute may become a Tweet on the peep! I think I shall be heading for the tunes for 'Sparrow' and, with a name like mine, 'Parrot'! I will probably not make full use of the book as, over the years, where there is a collection of tunes/songs, I rarely end up playing more than one or two, and often playing two songs as a pair and always in the same order. Initially, I did try a medley of three, but found a third did not work well with the other two, I got fed up with it, I could not play it well enough or it became too long and I simply ran out of puff! Although I read music, I decided to play from memory. This worked well because the original fife sat in one of the kitchen drawers so, when I fancied a toot, I could just pick it up and play without the fuss of messing about with books or sheets of music. It seems it takes me longer to learn a tune these days, but I did buy the whistle and fife over twenty years ago, and I only played once in public! Thereafter, life got busy with other things...and now, so many years later, and with the benefit of lockdown, the odd toot has turned into magical daily sessions, though maybe not for those in earshot! Looking forward to serenading the sparras up in the eaves! _________ Polly

' night all and nos da from red dragon land.

' afternoon all from red dragon land. Body in s l o w mode, today so I declined the bike ride on the spot. Toot on the flute was so-so, which lead me to, tentatively, make a list of tunes I felt I could attach to each of the fifes/piccolo/whistle. Sheer desperation, I reckon, as playing was a bit iffy this morning - not much better, this afternoon. Fingers and brain cells in s l o w mode and certainly not in sync with each other - expressing a bit of social distancing more like! All for the sake of breaking in the wooden fifes. Up to 20 minutes a day each - played in 10 minute sessions. Modelling only went as far as virtually modifying and printing out a headboard for a pannier tank. I will save the cutting until tomorrow or I might end up with a missing finger - I have already had two Pyrex (mug and dish) breakages this week, three if you include chipping the lid when I dropped it on the dish! Dinner will be something simple... Fitt and Elfie done a bunk. Take care, play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' evening all from red dragon land. Sun came out late afternoon but I missed out on the bike ride on the spot - I started a spring clean upstairs and by the time Ray had got back with the click and collect from Tess Coe's I was dunin. Before then, a bit of toot on the flute after giving the wooden fifes their weekly dose of oil. Another three weeks and it will be down to once a month. Now, will I remember? Probably not! So I made an 'Oil it' chart! Yesterday, Plastic Piccolo 'Polly Mur Mer' suddenly decided to come out of her shell pipe with a lovely rendition of Brian Boru's March. It took me by surprise as, up until then, the sound was pretty soft, if any! So, beginning to enjoy playing her now... Just had dinner - homemade chicken pie from the freezer - Ray said 'Do something easy!' Now, it is after dinner mugasomething so take care and play safe. Fitt and Elfie showing me up! ________ Best wishes Polly

Just as exciting, I remember my dad having a win on the Pools.... 17/6d

' evening all from red dragon land. Toot on the flute progressing slowly, hindered by slow progress on the fife box. Measuring, cutting and tweaking...and eventually some glueing. Almost there. Two days of no bike ride. Waiting for the sun to come out. And a bit of mo*d*ll*ng, done mostly on the laptop, creating a headboard that looks convincing. If all fails, I can just blur it and it will look like the one in the photo! Fitt and Elfie still going strong - having trouble keeping up with them. Take care. Play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. Some results from yesterday. Near life size. Not too bad? Zoom out and it shows some bad cutting. Top test (10mm long) is just the printed paper, diamond pasted on top of panel. The white line on the panel is still surrounded by the black mask and the edges of the diamond have not cut clean. The lower test (12mm) is a cleaner cut but was pasted onto plasticard afterwards, then recut - and it shows! I will have another go later today and paste the headboard onto plasticard before cutting and make life easier. I will also cut out an 11mm one and see which of the three sizes fits best. Take care, keep safe. __________ Best wishes Polly

I agree that figures on the railway are more than just a passing or last minute thought. I learnt that from our first layout, essentially a dressed up 4ft x 1ft shunting plank. At the time, with one broken arm out of action, I was left with the touching up bits of the layout - greenery, accessories, and figures. Not a lot in physicality but in giving meaning and purpose to the layout, it was essential. What I discovered was that the people not only told their own little stories (from 'I want an ice-cream' to mother and purse; boy out with Dad; buyer and seller; man with rucksack; young couple looking down from the bridge) they brought the railway to life. After that, figures took their form from the railway - time of year, type of day, activity, location, job, situation. It also lead to how people and their activities on the layout may affect activity elsewhere. So, there was a traffic jam in opposite directions on Camel Quay due to an event outside the hotel. Vehicles were placed in reducing sizes as you looked at it making the rear vehicles look smaller and the road seem longer. A trail of compost from the compost bin lead to a gardener. Lining up figures helped to spot another figure in the background. And the more I used figures, the more I went for character, size and style to suit, but careful to: put oversized ones at the front and the smaller towards the back to enhance perspective and reality; find a small figure for a Hunslet and tall one for a Castle; and cut off the legs of the bus driver. I think 3D figures are great for fine detail especially facial features but I simply love the character and magic of those sculpted figures. I get a mix of excitement and that thumbs up feeling when I see figures that I have used, or have in my box, differently portrayed on someone else's layout. And the more I see of figures used by others, as on here, the more my knowledge and appreciation grows, and the more adventurous I become, hoping that, maybe, that may inspire someone else in return. Have I use 3D figures? Yes, the BRM Mag figures on my snow scene cakebox entry! Duly detailed, painted and weathered! Polly

' afternoon all. I have been offline for a bit doing some graphics for 9773. Sometime ago, I started work on the headboard for the LCGB / REC Thames Valley Tour. Over the last few days, I have been using the LCGB and REC websites to confirm Font Styles, together with photos of the tour, to gauge Font Sizes and size of headboard. This was created to produce an approximate copy several inches long. Scaling it down to loco size was a different matter with a lot of tweaking. Eventually, I was satisfied enough to print out a sheet of headboard components: 'LC GB' on a rectangle and 'REC' in a diamond. Top is the original design and is approximately 10mm and 11mm long. The headboard sticks out [Edit to add this bit!] over the lefthand edge of the bufferbeam so aligning will be interesting. [Close edit] I made the font size larger (to counteract any ink bleed) for LCGB on the lower design though this makes the panel higher, and tweaked the width of the triangle to fit the gap between the LCGB letters. I will also have to round off the corners as my Shape selection did not have suitable ones! The black borders are simply to aid cutting since the LCGB panel has a white border and the white triangle has no border! Next, I will cut out some headboards, assemble and test for size and appearance on the loco. The most successful, if I do not have to resize, will be mounted on plasticard and a slot made for the lamp bracket. That is the plan, anyway! Thanks for poop, poop, pooping in. Keep well, play safe. ________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon/evening all from red dragon land. Just come in from my bike ride on the spot wearing my grease top (GWR letters), bib n braces, and boots in memory of the girls on the railways. Boy, was it hot in that lot! Worked the bike a bit harder, too. Beforehand, I also fitted in a couple of tunes on the fife from the Radio 4 UK Theme - Men of Harlech and Rule Britannia. A guy opposite our daughter's got out his guitar, some backing music, speakers, and sang some wartime songs - video received via WhatsApp. He was good! The area is somewhat more built up than ours so guaranteed a wide audience! I did notice a trail of kids passing by up their street while he played. They were suitably spaced out, mind! Slow progress on the fife box, an insert at a time and wait overnight to dry. It seems to be working. A couple of more days should do it. Time for a cuppa, check the chicken in the oven, then get the rest of dinner done. Hopefully I will have some time to catch up later. Fitt and Elfie chuffing along. Be good. Play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Happy VE Day, Andy. Magnificent pose of the 47 and 37 together. Great angle to show how imposing they are although I prefer them in West Coast Railways livery, myself. And I see it has been raining in Bala Town. Love it! Be good. Be safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. I am getting myself psyched up to do some more detailing by familiarising myself with the components. Reading the instructions will be a start! First off, the bundle from Fox Transfers safely stapled together and reinforced with an extra piece of card. And inside... Cab plates, BR smokebox number plate, and panel for train reporting numbers. On another sheet, 81C Shed plate - blown up a bit! Reporting numbers and cab classification discs. And lastly... Midland Train reporting numbers & panel and Bufferbeam numbers. Looks like it is going to be fun, fun, fun. Hmmm! Take care and be safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Hi Andy, at the moment, I am detailing a couple of locos, well, three TBH so, I think I should give them at least a platform for them to run into to start with! What do you reckon? Answers on the back of train ticket! Hope it is not too long before you are up and running your layout, again. Be good. Be safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Hi Andy. I am enjoying your blast from the past. I certainly enjoyed the layouts we were fortunate enough to see, so this is a bit of a treat. Hope the move goes well and you are able to settle down happily in Amp Sher. I guess we have a good excuse to come down to the Mid Hants again - and find you! Guess it will have to wait till next year or so, though. I am already thinking of the return to service of Didcot's 2-4-0T 1466, my reason for GWRd, so I am thinking Amp Sher is not too far away... _________ Best wishes to you both Polly

Starved of the BLTs I used to have between driving tr**ns at Betws!

Nope!

' morning all from red dragon land. Misread the time on the clock when I woke up, so a chance for a bit of early catch up! Sunny but quite breezy. Just checked the pine cone collectors and they say up to 16C but with Nor'easterlies. They will cool it down out on the terrace! BRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr! I might pass on the day's bike bit, it will be in the full force of the wind! All set to go, I think, to finish the fife box. It may take some time as the inserts are broken up into sections for best fit, some pieces having had to be trimmed. I will probably get in a toot on the flute at some point. Ah! Yes, I confirmed, yesterday, that the new piccolo is made of 'Polymer' - none of this lowering of standards with 'plastic,' to keep KZ happy. Consequently, also bearing in mind her shyness/reluctance to perform when I first tried her out, she has acquired the name Polly Mur Mer. Fitt and Elfie up for the challenge. Play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

And now to the fife box. This morning I trimmed the top insert to size and fitted it in place. Just one problem: the lid is shallower than the box and the foam which protrudes causing too tight a fit when the lid is closed. The foam in the box sits on a shallow base layer for the fifes to lie on which brings the foam inserts up to the top edge. Today's solution, remove the base layer which lowers the foam inserts enough to take the foam in the lid. Strips of base foam can then be placed under the fifes in their slots. This all means that the inserts will have to be stuck to the box rather than the base foam. Arrrrghhhh! Waiting for glue test to dry. I got out the Tacky Glue, hoping that if the time comes and the foam needs replacing, it will simply pull out without leaving a mess on the wood panels! So the saga continues! And more time gone from m*d*ll*ng... Tomorrow? Bike ride on the spot now. Polly

I would not dream of lowering the tone on here, KZ. It is all about using the right words! Quote: Tony Dixon DX008 Soprano high D Piccolo The DX008 is a sturdy, warm sounding whistle, That is fun and easy to play, lightweight, and has excellent volume. The DX008 is made of Polymer with an ABS mouthpiece. This instrument is suitable for beginners and professionals alike. Unquote I tried out the piccolo this morning expecting to just pick it up and play, as I did with my new wooden Renaissance fife. They did say the piccolo was for beginners and professionals. Now, there is no grumble about the pitch. But it was darn hard, at first, getting a note out of it! Then even harder to do a run of notes, especially in the lowest notes. Harder still to get a tune going - so much more breath needed. So, Plan A: work out how to make this little devil shine before I go any further. Just because it is plastic... er... Polymer... is no excuse for it not to sound angelic! Quite a few differences: Lip plate, as on a flute, with larger tone hole than the fifes. Smaller finger holes which are slightly closer together overall. Narrower barrel. A bit more toot on flute... And a bit more... ...Yay! Got the little lass going... Sweetheart Rosewood fife D Sweetheart Renaissance fife D Tony Dixon piccolo D Well that is some of my m*d*ll*ng time gone! Oh, well! Polly Mer

' morning all from red dragon land. Belated happy birthday to Stewart. Sunny. Hoping to get out onto the terrace when the sun comes round this afternoon and read the latest issue of a railway modelling mag before the next one arrives in the post - SOON! Some glueing in store for today. Off to do mugsatea&coffee. Fitt and Efie trundling along nicely. Which reminds me, 'steps' recorded for my bike ride on the spot have roughly doubled over my 20 min. stint. Hopefully, it will get warmer soon so that I can gradually extend the time to 30 min. Toot on the flute is progressing and after oiling the wooden fifes last week I am 'allowed' to play for 10 mins and 20 mins (once a day) next week. In between, I play the brass whistle which will be substituted by my new plastic piccolo (trade term, but a fife at heart!) so that I am not switching from vertical to horizontal playing. Because the instruments have their own sounds, I intend to play different pieces on them. So, for instance, William Bird and Michael Praetorious, on the Renaissance fife and Danny Boy on the Sweetheart fife. But as things develop I may well change my mind! _________ Best wishes Polly

Summary of some build dates for you, Chris so that you can determine what may have been on the line or not. 0-4-2T 517 built 1868 and 1885 0-4-2T 3571 built 1895-1897 2-4-0T 'Metro' 1868-1899; Nos. 3561-3599, 3500 built 1894-1899 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_455_Class) I do not know the Holden four wheelers but they do look nice! They must have looked very inviting in their day. I am more familiar with the later steam railmotor and autocoach, mimicking the old steam rail motor. Talking of which, in Branch lines of West London (Middleton, plate 32), there is a photo taken at Trumpers Crossing Halte on the Brentford Branch of a loco encased to look like the auto coach it is hauling. The loco is a 517! The orientation of the loco is bunker first (great in the wind and rain, no doubt!) with the chimney surfacing at the rear end of the casing. So, thanks to your thread, the photo now has more meaning. Just goodled images and found it online and not just the photo but also a bit more information: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/trumpers_crossing_halt/ Polly

Definitely some Metros at 81C, the last 35s having left about 1942 (Hawkins, p.135). Nos. 3599 and 3592 illustrated (p.125); 3558 back to back with 1487 (p.127) [I had to take a photo and zoom in to get the nos. on this photo]; 3565, 3564 (p.135 top), and 3564 1932 (p.135 bottom). Interesting what Hawkins says of them. The open cab examples were lower than the coaches and bounced on their springs. "driver and fireman going up and down in unison." The constricted cabs made the work awkward with little room to turn around necessitating a short shovel with the blade cut back; skinned knuckles and burns common. A company-issue sheet was provided for bunker first driving in the rain. 'The description "they fair rattled along" accurately recalls their "seasick" mode of progress.' When I first read that, some years ago, I thought I must get one and get it doing just that...you know, when everyone wants their RTR models to run oh, so, smoothly! Polly

Thanks Northroader, I did not think about that! Vaguely remember reading about it somewhere, but obviously not of sufficient significance to keep a mental record of it, at the time. I know BR changed its boundaries on the DN&SR from Newbury to Winchester in 1950 with the GWR falling into Southern hands, but that is another story/layout... Boo, chizz sounds about right! All set for numbering now, with Western and Midland train reporting numbers arriving last week. _________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Four figure train reporting number in the 1960s. As I said, some evidence has appeared in my lap of a Western engine carrying a four figure train reporting number. Churchward Mogul 7320, on a summer Saturday through train in 1963, is captured storming to the summit of the rock cutting at Talerddig, between Carno and Llanbrynmair on the Cambrian line. (R C Riley, Great Western Album No.2, p.97). Also (p.70), 7029 Clun Castle on a down special past Foxhall Jcn, 3 April 1965, on the Warwickshire Railway Society Great Western Steam Tour to Swindon (https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk), 1X12 throughout, from Birmingham Snow Hill, retuning to Birmingham New Street. So fairly common practice at that time, then, for Western rail tours and summer specials to carry the Midland style number. Compare this with 11 June 1965, a few months later 7029 heading the last steam hauled train out of Paddington with GWR style triple reporting number M48, Twin Cities crest above and GWR bufferbeam numbers below emphasising its historic role and the significance of the occasion. Tomorrow, I shall have a look at those little brassy bits for the pannier tanks. _________ Best wishes Polly

Identifying I have been doing a bit of behind the scenes investigation of the above Bulleid set. Composition: 34-577B SO 34-554 CK 34-504A BSo Length: 63ft more in keeping with Set 770 at 64ft so it would give a feel of a longer train in the absence of a rake of six coaches. However, only one brake. Next - Western evidence for the use of a four figure train reporting number, coming up. _________ Best wishes Polly