SM42

I found a useful little book on Polish wagons entitled, Atlas Wagonow Towarowych, by Pawel Terczynski (ISBN 839332571-4) Contains basic dimensions and build dates and a bit of a write up on each type as well as a photo. One wagon type to a page. The on introductory pages give some background on numbering, classification and so on. It is obviously, all in Polish. Andy

Sounds like my internet connection Andy

I to am quite suprised that shaving is a thing that creates such a following, but I suppose like many hobbies, it boils down to an interest in something that most people see as a mundane part of daily life. Like catching a train for instance. In terms of railway modelling, most of my aquaintances who aren;t modellers, don't find it unusual that people have hobbies or in any way look down on mine. In fact one even likened the discipline and everyday problems of golf clubs to that of model railway clubs. I'm not so sure my club has a dress code though, but it does have a (dry ) bar. Andy

Today I had the pleasure (?) this morning of finishing off tidying up the back garden after my man who does, replaced the fence on Monday. (He should have done it Saturday but the supplies weren't delivered as agreed that morning, instead they came Monday. We were briefley an open plan neighbourhood.) 7 trips to the tip (45ft of fencing and a 30 year old ivy plant to dispose of) and now we have a back garden that a hippo would be very comfortable in. In fact we have just been scouted as a filming location for a new First World War drama. The front garden tidy was this afternoon, followed by jet washing several inches of mud off the patio (I'm still damp now) and then moving tomato plants into the conservatory to get the last few fruits to ripen before the cold gets them. Mrs SM42 has already issued orders for tomorrow. I don't like school holidays as she is always on hand to ensure there is no slacking. I must warm myself with some Polish IPA. It will also dull the pain in what's left of my lumbar regions Andy

This indicates the second letter gives more detail to the GENKOC. What it is called, who knows? https://www.ltsv.com/w_ref_codes_tops.php Andy

We are closed for the duration as we have no practical means to open the club rooms in a COVID secure way. We were fortunate to go into this with a reasonable reserve of around 18 months rent, a situation that we wouldn't have been in 10 years ago. How did we build this reserve? By not having an exhibition. The exhibition was, as the club demographic changed, slowly strangling the club both the finances and atmosphere on club nights (too many committe meetings about the show and not enough modellling and running the club's day to day affairs) and we eventually decided, after a coupme of bad years that enough was enough. We now have more members and a more vibrant club. Whilst this may not be the case for every club, we found that the exhibition is not necessarily the golden goose it is often thought to be. Still miss it but not the stress and work involved. In the current climate we are frustrated that we can't carry on with the projects we had on the go at lockdown, but then the club is not spending any money on them either and then we were also fortunate to get a support grant offered to us from the from the council that gives us an extra cushion. Exhibitions will be a harder to organise for the foreseeable, so perhaps now is the time to look elsewhere and find more imaginative or low cost ways to market the club for when you do re-open. We started (about 18 months after our last exhibition) doing some free open days at the club room and putting on small, informal "meet the club days" at a local hall where we charged a very small entrance fee (£2) to cover costs and used club and members layouts and projects. They made a modest 2 figure income above cost, but the real pay off was the new members we gained. Now we won't be able to do that for a while so the thinking caps will need to come out again. Andy

That left hand filler appeears to be stuck open. It's the same in all three pictures Andy

Somewhere in SM42 Towers I have kit for a Hurricane that is a very similar idea You make the plane out of anything to hand that you can fashion into a Hurricane shape and then stick the stickers on to make it look like what it should be. Absolute genius Andy

Juts in case you get hungry and fancy some apple crumble mid procedure, perchance Andy

I use my Helping Hands as a maginfier for things like cutting out small transfers (white printing on off white backing is a nightmare) and the like. The clips hold an an old wagon weight at full extension to counter balance to the overhanging magnifier. Mine, I think, was £2 or so from Aldi so it has paid for itself. Andy

I had a blue Hymek with white roof and windows ("The Blue Flyer" was embossed on the side,) two mk 2 coaches in blue grey and three 16 tonners, two red, one green plus the tipping wagon. The 0-4-0 was a later addition. There were two signals with yellow posts and red arms and an auto reverser switch. Level crossings were crafted from plasticine. Just what you need on the lounge carpet. I always thought it strange though, that points were only in the Y format. Andy

Apologies all I've been in the loft and found the mrotal remains of a Big Big Train set I had that predated my HST and I had completely forgotten about. The HST was therefore my first proper train set with a controller (well, a sort of one) The Hymek will never work on 4 SP2s again and the 0-4-0 is looking a bit worse for wear too. The quartering is shot and the holes in the connecting rods are oval. The signals are shattered remains that those I once crudeley painted so at least they weren't all over yellow. At least they still have a train stop (bit like the underground) but they can't be clipped to the track anymore so they would probably just fall over The tipper wagon's frame is split, but the red and green 16t wagons are OK except one has been painted rust coloured at some point. The green one was my favourite. Don't know why. The auto reverse lever, that is in te same state as the signals. Wrecked. The track is still serviceable, if a few section are a little warped in places Andy

Enamel matt. Transfers applied to Humbrol enamel gloss patches, Revell enamel matt over the top. Andy

My first flight was in 1997. UKAir Fokker 100 Birmingham - Amsterdam and then KLM 747-400 to Osaka May as well make the first trip a good un with a short hop to see if you like it first, and then head for an airport where all you see is the sea getting closer and closer until suddenly the airport appears. Flight back was just ahead of an approaching typhoon. Seat belt light of for the hour or so. "What a ride" as someone once said. Andy

I find Revell works quite well. That said, I have only painted small patches over decals to hide the gloss patch Andy

Are we sure they haven't just mixed up the station design pictures with that of the site office? To be fair there isn't a huge amount of space to shoehorn an impressive edifice into but they should be able to do better. Not very inspiring by any stretch of the imagination. Andy

You've forgotten another category and indeed where the shed got its name S - Scared H - Husband's E - Emergency D - Domicile Andy

I thought they checked by looking down the barrel from the unfriendly end Andy

Hornby HST set, Christmas, 1977 or 1978, I forget which. Older brother (also a modeller) and dad spent Christmas Eve building a layout in his old bedroom whilst mum and sister in law kept me entertained downstairs. The pretext was they they had gone to the pub. The occasional bump from upstairs was passed off as the neighbours clunking about next door. The baseboards were chipboard on 2x1 frame laid directly on the carpet across one end of the room. Track was held in place by drawing pins that came witha bright yellow plastic cover over the heads. Controller was the Hornby black box with two slide switches After that it was borrowing some of my brothers stock that he hadn't moved out (only been married a year at most) yet to supplement the roster. I remember a Wrenn Peppercorn and my brother's concern at the 14v the controller pumped out. Still have the set, spread around SM42 towers. The box is a bit worse for wear though and the track power clip long expired. Next loco was the Hornby class 47 Andy

I'm intrigued as to why one would load a gun and then clean it. That certainly is negligent I have two sheds, one 16 x 3 (ex 8 x 6) and rammed to the rafters with stuff I "cleared" out of the garage and one awaiting assembly, 6 x 3 (this one was free to a good home.) Just need somewhere to put it and then the garage can be properly cleared out. Andy

Shouldn't he be facing the other way? Andy

Just a minor change or incident can have major ramifications with UK traffic flows. Within a stonesthrow of SM42 Towers there is roundabout. It is on a relatively busy main route into town. Traffic builds up at peak times but no more than 5 or 6 minutes delay. At the next roundabout traffic queues were bigger as most drivers took a route off that roundabout towards a set of traffic light around 1/2 mile distant and things regulary backed up in evening rush hour A few years ago the council built a new road to create a short cut, thus "reducing congestion." So now you cross the first roundabout and turn left to miss out the second. However they decided to install traffic light at the new junction despite many living locally saying that the same anount of traffic will still be heading that way and just get stopped sooner at the lights and cause a back up to the first roundabout. Why can't we have a another roundabout that self regulates now that the traffic flow will be split between the left turners and the straight onners. It will flow better all round "Oh not at all" said the council, "lights will be fine" totally ignoring the lesson from around 20 years ago when a new set of lights 2 miles away caused gridlock on the first day and still cause 3 mile queues now at rush hour after being "adjusted". So now the traffic backs up on the first roundabout every time the new lights turn red and it's a nightmare at most times of the day. The council blame traffic levels (that haven't really changed) and now are spending a fortune looking at some other solution, but they won't tell anyone what it is, except it's not a roundabout to replace the lights or more traffic lights. In terms of fun slip roads, I find the M50 to be right up there amongst the best Andy I forgot to mention, their first attempt to solve the probelm was to re-open the right hand lane that they closed when they installed the new junction. We now have regular drag races off the new lights for the 200yds before it reduces back to one lane

No just longer green phases, otherwise the traffic on the approach roads would be gridlocked. Andy

Doesn't work too well in the UK. The lights bunch up the joiming traffic so a a glut of 5 or 6 vehicles try to fight their way in all at once and much application of brakes and resultant queues. Andy

I remember some years ago one of those fly on the wall documentaires about the traffic police. A car had stopped at the end of the motorway slip road to give way and the police pulled up behind and advised via the PA for driver to use the hard shoulder. In fact it's not even a give way line at the bottom of a slip road, just a carriageway divider Andy