Dava

Let me know if you are interested in a New England O scale shortline. 3 metres long. This is a teaser on Coxheath Sidings to demo a couple of the GE locos, not the actual layout. Dava

I had to get my railcard renewed in advance as it expired whilst I was out of the UK and I needed it to return from LHR. East Midlands Parkway staff able to renew in advance, no photo needed! Support your local ticket office if you have one @RMT. Incidentally, is Heathrow Express a bit expensive and redundant now the Lizzy Line serves LHR terminals? My railcard got a reduction in the Express return ticket which was otherwise extortionate. Dava

I am shocked by today’s announcement of the closure by Molson Coors of the National Brewery Centre, museum & venue for the wonderful Burton model railway exhibition. Disgraceful, Binny please advise, tell us it aint so! https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1668696/National-Brewery-Centre-closure-beer-home-campaign-Burton-upon-Trent

I’d wait for the Dapol model, personally. The Bachman one is seriously deficient as a scale model. Just look at the wheels. Dava

I like the inclusion of US & Canadian ideas including shortlines, though two based on the unique Concord & Claremont may be a slight overexposure, hundreds of others being available! Also the designs can stretch to O scale, or probably shrink to TT-120. Overall, it’s a useful exercise in design thinking for small layouts. Cue for a shortline ‘design & play’ photo, experimenting with shunting clearances, from Coxheath Sidings below. Dava

Check the loco & especially tender trailing axles for their rolling resistance, also the plastic wheels collect caked crud which has to be removed periodically. You used to be able to get ptfe tube bearings for the wheelsets/axles from the 3mm Society which made a big difference. Dava

“The management style of most educational establishments seems to be based on bullying.”. Universities are rife with this as they strive to remove expensive academic and professional staff, de-skill and casualise. management and HR can be highly manipulative, misuse legal and procedural devices, use flawed and incomplete data, in my recent direct experience. The institute I still work for tried to get rid of at least 30 professors plus other staff, we managed to frustrate this in most cases and extract better leaving terms for the others. But we have no doubt they’ll be back next year when the HR apparatchik has paid the price for failing to achieve her targets. It’s going on across the sector. My intention is to leave at a time of my own choosing and that’s not this year. Sad the HE sector has come to this, the consequences of Jo Johnson, student loans, Brexit and a bunch of other stuff. At least there is life and interest beyond all that! Dava

It wasn’t only volunteers, the highly regarded Chief Mechanical Engineer (I think that’s his title) of the GCR led the project. However both the President and Former Managing Director who instigated it have departed the railway. There are understood to be family reasons behind the sale, there has not yet been a statement from the GCR. ’Jonny JP’ on Facebook, former owner of 7027, is leading a campaign to re-acquire the loco for completion of restoration at the GCR, funded by a new society. It depends whether the Night Owl group are prepared to let it go, having seen the generally negative reaction to their proposals. Who knows? Dava

I recalled this photo by Topical Press in LNER Album vol 1 of 6000 being despatched to Holland at Harwich in 1947, the main roof and body colours appear to be the same, but the grey/black cab roof has a border with the green. Dava

First BR Standard RTR steam loco in Gauge 0 other than brass and DJH factory built jobs. Useful medium size tank loco at reasonable price, compare with the Ellis Clark Black Five (larger & more expensive). Dava

I recall Kingdom Kits was run by Pete Westwater, well known in Fife railway circles, who decades ago worked with Ian Kirk. Johnster’s post from last Tuesday is basically correct. I recall the prototypes puggies shunting at Frances Colliery, Dysart in 1976-7 and getting a footplate ride. Mass cast whitemetal is a bit last century now. Good luck! Dava

I did, here is a list of the static locos which have run and in some cases been out of ticket for 40 years, 1338, 3738, 3822 5051 5322 5572 5900 6023 6106 6997 6998 7808 I recall visiting Didcot to see 5051 when first restored and some of those listed above have never been steamed since then. Dava

I don’t think the 7027 project paid rent at the GCR. It was owned and sponsored by a former major benefactor whose priorities have changed after he committed to the overhaul. It was within a couple of years of returning to service. It’s routine service on the GCR as a 4 cylinder express loco would have put it into a different category from the other, Mainline-only or static Castles. Sadly it’s not to be and there are quite a number of disappointed people, including those who worked on it for the last two years with nothing to show. Didcot has become a mausoleum of static locos which ran just one boiler ticket. They don’t need many to run their demonstration line. This acquisition has brought little credit or goodwill to the GWS or 4709 project. Dava

The crew who have been working very hard on 7027 at Loughborough will be pretty hacked off by this decision as the restoration is very well advanced and the loco, as one of the final build of Castles, which has never run since being rescued from Barry many years ago, is far too good just to be cannibalised for its parts. The loco has been a victim of being owned by several rather wealthy gents who seem to give up when the full costs and reality of restoration become apparent. Hopefully this fourth attempt will be more successful and it will not just become a boiler donor. There are already two elderly Castles at Didcot and 7027 probably has much more potential life in it than they do. But the GWR is a rule unto itself. Dava

Wonderful name, pleased its still going. I once had as a partner on a European project ‘The School for Well-Behaved Girls’ in Aarhus, Denmark. Much later I helped restore for new use a Georgian house in Lincoln which had once accommodated ‘The School for Waifs and Strays’. Again with European money. Now I run a railway charitable trust and we could do with a few million (£, € $) to repair and reopen the 125 year old bridges. https://emrtrust.co.uk/ Dava

My aim in life is to become an Idle Fellow, sadly I’ve yet to achieve it. Near Bradford is the village of Idle with its Working Mens Club, if I lived closer it would be good to join it. Dava

Skytrex do resin low relief warehouses https://skytrex.com/collections/o-gauge Alphagraphix do card low relief warehouse & mill kits https://www.alphagraphixkits.co.uk/ Both by mail order & recommended for what they do. Dava

I don’t know who made them, except they were available in the covered market & hot in the mornings from a shop on Waters Green. Dava

Thanks, that has piqued my interest, I saw Claremont Paper [USA] and several other N.Am shortline or other projects quite apart from the UK, I’ll be ordering a copy. Dava

How applicable is the book to other scales, eg O scale (US/UK)? All the plans reference 1/76 or 1/84 scale. Dava

I have good memories of Eleys Ironbridge Pork Pies, but do they live up to their billing? https://eleysporkpies.co.uk/ lve been away from Macclesfield too long to know where the best beef pies can be found, they were delicious when hot & runny with juices! Dava

Makes sense, I have one of these locos and couple of wagons from when I used BTTB locos for 0-12 conversions. It has a passing resemblance to an EM1 electric loco. I did say passing! Dava

That helps a lot, thank you. Sweden is a large & thinly populated country in the most part, so it helps orientate your photo coverage & description. Dava

Interesting feature on the heritage line. Is there a SJ rail map you could upload to show the location on the rail system as the maps included don’t show the rail lines? Dava

Looks like a plausible Metro-Vickers design? Dava