southern42

' morning all. Lamp test. Getting excited now. Order to Brassmasters will go in the post today. Just got to fill in the order form. Just had a thought. What were the base plates (underside) of the lamps like? Were they painted/unpainted? Prone to rust/made of brass? ___________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Great news - my Modelu head and tail lamps arrived yesterday. Excellent communication from Modelu keeping me up to date concerning delays in the order, both at their end and with delivery, due to current circumstances. Next: order some lamp brackets. I will have to be patient. Now, back to the headboard. While painting the back of the headboard, I knocked off the slot box (don't ask!) and 'lost' it - somewhere on the floor, I guess. Now this tiny thing jumps like a kangaroo...it could be anywhere! Not to worry, another one in progress, slightly narrower to take a staple. I might have to modify it or make yet another one for the brass brackets. Gee, so fiddly! But do I enjoy it? All for now. Take care, keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. To continue with Test 2 of the slot box. First, the end of the strip of plasticard folded to size (approx!) and stuck with Gorilla superglue. The slot box was cut off and glued onto the back of the headboard with Tacky glue so that I can remove it fairly easily. It is a bit loose for a staple so it will need modifying if I decide to use them for brackets. I found the safety pin a few days earlier while doing a tidy up! It turned out to be a brilliant aid for gluing the tiny slot box to the headboard and holding them together while the glue set overnight. Finally, tested on a staple. The job for today is to give the back of the headboard a coat of paint. _________ Best wishes Polly

Being dressed by a maid: that is the problem with women's clothing - especially the buttons being on the "wrong" side, left hand side as opposed to the right hand side for men. No wonder Joan of Arc had to dress as a man. She would never have got her sword out wearing a woman's jacket! Although, we women are very adept at doing the buttons this way round...those of us who dress ourselves, that is. ___________ Best wishes Not a ladies maid Polly

I got the correct answer..."Shakespeare" (as befitting us 11-13 yr olds)! I was already an 'expert'(!) having got interested in him in top juniors (although, at home rather than in school), and getting as far as reading The Tempest I borrowed from the library (and now I barely remember it, of course!) . Then the usual round-the-class-reading-of-Shakespeare's-parts-out-loud, one by one, in secondary school, put me right off! Expertise dwindled rapidly!

We are out on a beaten track so we shared clapping emojis on WhatsApp with the family. (Well done you! / N H S)

.....mmmmmmm.......custard...........

I have a memorable connection with Latymer Upper: we were both at the same episode of Crackerjack... Crackerjack, do I hear? Anyway, 4 girls from our school and four boys from their's, were asked to appear on an interim show between two season's of Crackerjack... Cra........Oh! you've already said it...Well done! I forget what the (one-off) Series was called or what other items were included in the programme and only remember one question in the Game we took part in. The game we played was set up in two rows, them in front and below us. There was a Baddlewat (something like the railway dispatch baton ) which was passed from person to person. Get an answer correct and you passed it to the next person on your team. Get the answer wrong and you passed it to the person on the other team, behind/below. Get the Baddlewat to the end of your team and you win. Well, Latymer were doing well up to the point the boy below me in chair 3 got his question WRONG. Q. Who wrote Shakespeare's Twelth Night (or other play, but that one comes to mind)? The poor boy did not know. I got the baton...and we went on to win - an Album each. I got the Searchers so I was chuffed to bits, and it was mighty strange seeing myself on the TV later. Have a winning day all and keep safe. Fitt and Elfie on stand by. _______ Best wishes Polly

Which stirs my memories of Camel Quay and it dustmen N.E. Muck & T.R. Ash.

On the Conwy Valley Train.pdf

' morning all from red dragon land. Wet and misty, rain earlier, cloud low on the mountains... but I am not destined to go anywhere... But, as well as the patio-terrace bike ride, I have taken up exercising the lungs again, with a toot on the flute - actually, a Sweetheart rosewood fife in D (my flute playing is so lapsed I get disheartened...but I will get back to it when I am happy with the fife, which is coming along, again). I printed off some tunes, yesterday, so I am better equipped to tackle the Radio 4 UK Theme Song which we used to wake up to in our sailing days. I already had a few tunes under my belt but never got further than that. One problem, I find, is with the top notes - my mouth gets so wet when I am playing that I end up blowing raspberries rather than notes! I know nervousness can cause a dry mouth but that does not work when I am just tinkering on my own! Remedy, anyone? And, to sing you out... Keep fit, Elfie and stay safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. Time to have a look at Headboard 2 Yesterday, I took the plunge and cut out the larger (9mm) mounted headboard, oversized or not, as I feel the 8mm may be a tad too small. We will see. To protect the headboard from too much handling, I held a piece of plasticard over the printed side while I took off the edges a little at a time, checking progress with a photo as previously. I include 3 of the 18 photos I used to tell me how close to the orange border I was. I used the images to see just how much I needed to bring off - lightly does it! - especially, the closer I got. The headboard is smaller again than these images. I also wore my new x4 magnification reading...er...hum...modelling (only!) glasses but it still took quite a long time...but, hey, I am not going anywhere for awhile...!!! Ready for filing. Nearly there. Done. Slot box for the back of the Headboard: Test 2 I am now in the process of making a new slot box for the rear of the headboard based on the photo of 9642, above, starting with a strip of plasticard. Fiddly...but it might work... Photos to come. _____ Best wishes Polly

' morning all from red dragon land. Raining! Happy birthday, Mike. I loved "school" milk and usually went for a second if there were any over, and was called upon to be monitor, with 41 in the class, about once every 8 weeks, I guess. I loved school dinners, on the whole, and was always up for seconds but I, too, hated tapioca, sago, and semolina but loved the prunes and custard. On the menu: plus quite a few things on iD's list as well. Dinner: sliced meat (lamb or beef, probably), lovely thin non-greasy sausages, ox liver, piece of pastry/suet pie, shepherds pie, stew... Puddings: the 3 things I hate mentioned above, custard, pink custard, chocolate pudding with chocolate custard, prunes, cooked apple, square of jam pudding, rice pudding, jelly... I don't think I had fish and chips for school dinner until I went to secondary school. That is making me hungry and it is not lunchtime, yet. Best go and catch up to distract the appetite! Take care and keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. Further to the above. 8751 stands at Old Oak Common, the letters "G W R" clearly showing in March 1961: http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesloco1942.html (bottom of the page). How many times I have been on that page! I must pay more attention. I must pay... I must... _________ Best wishes Polly

And here it is. Detail from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/7649285934 Northroader and Ade, I was not sure, when I first saw it, that the initials would have shown up after so long.* Happy to have confirmation. Thanks. It is good to have its original (1946) identity showing through. EDIT * Or maybe it would - I am more used to seeing such things as names showing through on ex-private owner wagons. According to a few ex-GWR/BR(W) authors, 81C kept things clean, so I guess it all rubs off in the end, not to mention the action of the sun, wind, rain, dirt...working on it! EDIT 2. Adjacent to the "R", it looks like there is also another outline of the late crest. _________ Best wishes Polly

...and I bet they look even better in real life! Amazing what you can do with a few bits and pieces, BoD!

' morning all from red dragon land. Sunny - may do a bike ride in the garden after lunch and some more G stuff below the new terrace - apparently it has become a public convenience for the local puddycat! Or is that too graphic? Waiting for some varnish (m*d*ll*mg stuff) to dry...details posted uno-where. Sorry to hear your news, Simon. Hope the Lurkers show improvement soon. Take care all and keep safe. Thoughts with everyone. _____________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all. Waiting for the varnish to cure - at least 24 hours I picked up somewhere. Might leave it another day. Might not! I was wondering how I should deal with the back of the headboard. What was it made of, for instance? Here is a clue: Zoom in and it is shiny. Black gloss paint? I will forget the gloss bit as it will be hardly noticeable that small! A coat of (toned down) black ink will give it a suitable look, if needed. Slot box made of wood? It is quite chunky. That should be easy enough to replicate. This is what makes these "Specials" so helpful - you get more than one photo with so many more aspects and all on the same day - not even spread out over decades! What interests me on the side tank, which is very clear with this view, is the dark square to the right of the crest. Anyone any ideas? An aborted attempt at a deep clean? Someone has removed some information or graffiti? A later example of the latter, with what looks like "BEHAVE" rubbed off and "HAVE" (in chalk?) is on the same tank in 1964. Do I have a naughty loco/crew/'spotters on my hands? https://rcts.zenfolio.com/steam-gwr/5700-class-0-6-0pt/hA88AB4C6#ha88ab4c6 Hope you can help with some of my questions. EDIT: Another thing that became clear with this side view, 9642 had 3 lamp brackets on the side not 2 as did other pannier tanks. Interesting to see that GWR head lamps came with removable red shades for use as a tail lamp, thus the loco would carry 3 lamps, 2 headlamps and a tail lamp. So much info to remember! _________ Best wishes Polly

Afternoon all. I have made two new headboards, one 9mm and the other 8mm width. The larger headboard looks a bit too big but it is difficult to tell from a photo, especially when it is taken at an angle. They have had several coats of varnish and I am now waiting for the varnish to harden. The question is: How long should I wait (days/a week?) for the varnish to be strong/hard enough for me to file the edges down, i.e., handle it a lot, bearing in mind its size? Now for the tricky bit, kitting the headboard out to fit on lamp irons so that it can be moved from one end of the loco to the other. The headboard was on the smokebox coming towards Southall, and on the bunker going towards Brentford. I should really model that. Test 1 Using the old paper headboard. First an over scale strip of scrap plasticard to make the bracket - at this stage I just want to know if this will work. And another piece to make a slot for the rear of the headboard. Then, substitute a 26/6 staple - that I just happened to have lying around in a cupboard! It seems to work - just waiting for my lamps to arrive... In the meantime, thanks for the idea go to: 2512silverfox and following posts on here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/17651-4mm-lamp-irons-how-do-you-do-yours/&do=findComment&comment=168107 _________ Best wishes Polly

A little bit of excitement earlier this evening. A whisper of the ISS passing us sent us upstairs to gaze out the opened bathroom window only to see thick bands of cloud on the horizon in the direction of view. However, Venus, then the moon were spotted and through the thin cloud in between came the the space station gradually and brightly appearing in a cloudless patch of sky before it was totally blanked out, my wonder at such things restored once more! Night all, nos da, and keep safe. _____________ Best wishes Polly

Afternoon all. Onward with ICRS headboard. First photo: taken after cutting round the oval. Not quite in focus, though! Third photo: 2nd filing with fine side of nail file (board, not metal, type). So as not to bore you with the long-winded process of file a bit off the headboard and take photo x 12, here is the last photo. With all the handling, some of the ink has lifted so the next task is to see if it can cope with a coat of varnish. If yes, I will do the whole thing again but varnish it before I do the filing. _________ Best wishes Polly

Morning all. Headboard Test 3 Yesterday, I used PVA glue to stick the paper headboard onto plasticard after roughing it up with some sandpaper. As the combination had a tendency to bend round (as expected), I placed a weighted book on top of it hoping it will remain flat when dry and cut out. If not, I might try sticking a sheet of paper behind it at the same time, though this may make it too thick - but practicalities, eh? Talking of practicalities: the letters ICRS are slightly larger than, perhaps, they should be because the headboard is reduced in size so much. What comes with trial and error! Will post the trial headboard, later, just hoping it will be presentable. If not, we can all have a good laugh/cry! _________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all from red dragon land. Hope everyone is well and glad to hear Mrs GDB is feeling better. Patches of blue sky are now bigger patches of blue sky and we are getting a bit more sunshine. It is still cold out there. The lawn (that is what we call it, anyway!) is slowly coming along. Rubbish areas are being dug up, the dirt sifted of stones and transferred to other places to level it out ready for some grass seed - fortunately, we have a box left over from last year. Stones and unusable lumps of grass are being bagged up ready for the re-opening of the recycling centre...whenever... I did suggest, to suit my supervisory position, you understand, I should wear my bowler hat out there... Not sure it went down very well...Was that a smile, I saw? Youngest's FDNYPD baseball cap does me fine - keeps the hair out of my eyes while I am bending up and down doing whatever is required. One way to keep fit and we can stay where we are. I echo Jamie's point - we are lucky not to live in a built up area. Bike ride not attempted, yesterday - water drops from above and the increasing northerly wind, eventually, drove us in for a cuppa. We had had enough by then, anyway. Work on my 9642 is progressing. This is greatly improving my knowledge of m*d*ll*ing or, rather, why it takes so long - it is all the think.....ing, wait....................ing (glue to dry, items to arrive...) and try, try, try agains....but I love it! Take care all and keep safe. _____________ Best wishes Polly

Thanks for the warning! And also for reminding me of the value and potential of balsa itself although I have not really used it since the days when you could buy it by the bundle for a bob!

Lastest GWR 57xx Head and tail lamps ordered from Modelu _________ Best wishes Polly