Donington Road

Them down south think that's SPAM

Oh my gawd, not that Miss Rivette Counteer, who hails from the Ministry of I Know I Am Right. The one who deems synthetic American hot dogs to be finer than my Lincolnshire sausage. Bodgit's Best Pork Bangers won't stand a chance, she'll swear blind his Gloucester Old Spots are wild boar.

That will be along Hog's Back on the way to Lt Colonel La de Da hyphen Poshname's Bordon tank emporium.

Its the stuff being grown under floodlights round the back of the potting shed I was refering to

Take them all in those tank thingies I'm always seeing down the A3. I wish I had one to drive so I could blast those 'pigging' lunatics that hold me up out of the way. Sausages fired out of those long barrels would give their rear windows at right old splattering.

Usually smoked, as in flavour. Perhaps those Spanish pigs having been smoking Andy's grass

Locos on shed and nowhere to go Time to get cracking on with the rest of the layout

Grass going down? and there's no layout

Ah, he did suggest turning the potting shed into a pie factory shop, no doubt his military men would be dishing out the gravy

There is some football(soccer) on at the moment, Real Madrid v Liverpool, now if Liverpool were playing against some of those Jermins like Borussia Dortmund we could blame their defeat on eating too many Frankfurters

Actually in hindsight the lift up 'is' perhaps the best way as when using it during a running session it tends to be a partial lift up/duck under.

Andy's Sausage and Pie Bistro now that sounds better than Andy's Burger Van

Palethorpe's or Walls, either way there wasn't much meat in them Bitton's Best Pork Sausages were so exclusive and much sort after that their private owner vans were marshalled at the head of departing expresses so driver and fireman had complete control of their destiny

Only seen pigs by rail once about 1960 and they were being unloaded from standard cattle trucks. If I remeber, cattle were limited to 10 per truck and pigs would have been around 15 to 20. There are some photos on this link of different livestock movements. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66421-livestock-photos-from-the-nrm/

Just a bit of fun being 'porked' 'poked in Andy's direction Jeff, hence the , need to get some more pages added to keep Andy busy when he comes back of holiday.

He'll be 'pig' sick when he returns from holiday to find his best laid plans have taken a new twist

The simple sausage idea could esculate into pies, then that would bring grain wagons in to the flour mill, situated behind the sausage factory, to mill the grain for making the pastry to make the pies. All those extra workers being needed to make the sausages and the pies having to be brought in from Bristol by a lovely push-pull service. I can smell the aroma now drifting out of the potting shed.

Looking at the track plan of Bitton it seems a bit limited on the amount of yard operations. It has got the usual goods shed and I hear that fruit traffic was quite prolific and I suppose there was the usual coal deliveries. I cannot see any cattle pens, which if there were would give extra movements. Perhaps Andy could incorporate some of these or perhaps he could have pig pens to deal with those Gloucester Old Spots that frequent those parts, they make lovely sausages by the way. Andy could even go one step further and have a sausage factory next to the yard where pigs could be incoming and sausage vans outgoing. Seems feasible to me. :jester: :jester:

A lift out section is the best way to go. A swinging gate needs too much room to open, especially as it is right next to the workbench, then there is the problem that it could be inadvertedly leaned on when open. A hinged lifting flap is not too bad but works best with above rail height hinges which can be an eyesore. Plus it can be dangerous, as Del Boy found out when he went to prop his elbow on it

Really, just look at that magnificent track with proper fishplates

Spot on Andy. It is a terminal pole where the wires are all brought down to the signal box. The insulators are indeed on 'J' brackets. The photographer's position of being behind and looking up renders the insulators as partially hidden by the cross rails.

Excellent little cameo. You will now need the chimney sweep's apprentice on the platform standing alongside his three wheel bycycle (ice cream type, but with brushes and paraphenalia) pointing up to his brush

I hope your chair tucks away under the workbench or somewhere else so you have good access. I have got one of those exec type with high back and arms I use at the computer, the arms will not quite go under the desktop (worktop on kitchen base cupboards minus the plinth) so it protrudes more into the room when not in use, something to keep in mind with the tighter space in your potting shed. Hope you didn't think I was implying that you was 'fat', 40" trousers mean you can't be more than 20" wide, which seems good to me

You don't always have to have the baseboard the same width all the way along. It can sometimes look better narrowing it down at the front where there are less tracks to give more of an illusion of length. The biggest problem I see is where you have your workbench when you sit down in a chair. This does require quite a bit of room to push the chair back as you get in and out of position. With a swivel type chair on wheels, 3ft 6in is about the minimum width to be comfortable, 4ft turning circle would be ideal.

I would not skimp on the scenic board width, the main line needs to curve to be realistic. If you go narrower it will be look too cluttered. Better to reduce the fiddle yard width if you are desperate for centre access. Or go on a diet :nono: :sungum: