Clive Mortimore

Steve, he is scaring you again with threats of them funny looking N-gins.

Hi Graham I am right the layout is going to be called Grantham the Diesel Years at York this weekend. How many Deltics, Brush4s and type 2s shall I pack? The other weekend I had the pleasure of enduring the pressure sore inducing seating on an Azuma. When it stopped at Grantham a rather coy (almost sexy) female recording announced "Grantham, change here for Skegness", no mention of Nottingham or Boston.

A new song from Beth Roars

Following this blokes rant I have been giving some thought on what I want to achieve, before the nursing home or I am lying in a box made of baseboard wood, with Sheffield Exchange. It isn't a real place, so that throws out any rubbish of trying to create an accurate historical model. I want to recreate as close as I can a visual interpretation of a busy terminus station during the days when steam and diesel traction rubbed shoulders. Somewhere away from London, ideally where I can mix both London Midland Region and Eastern Region motive power and rolling stock. In choosing a Sheffield location I can also include through trains from the North Eastern Region as well. On purpose I have chosen two railways that did make it to Sheffield but not on their own tracks. Another deliberate choice is not to have any Midland Railway or Great Central locomotives. There are many other major towns either side of the Pennines which I could have chosen. I also could have chosen a fictitious name, for example Halham Exchange, but choose Sheffield as one of my aims is for all DMUs to have Sheffield destination one end and a plausible return the other end. I enjoy self imposed model making challenges. To me that is where most the fun is. Mind you that compressor is sat in the corner gathering dust due to my unintentional get up and go with slashing some colour on my modelling efforts. I also enjoy operating Sheff Ex, in fact I feel quite chuffed with myself that I have operationally wise made a station that works nearly like a real one would have done. Too many times standing on the end of Kings Cross Platform 10 (later number 8) in the days when real trains with engines on their fronts went about their duties. A final aim is work out a time table where irrespective of the motive power and coaching stock in use the train is siding one of the Doncaster fuddle yard it follows the same pattern of working. I want the station to have working colour light signals based on pre 1940 LMS and Westinghouse practice which would still have been in use in the 1960s. I have the bits to do this, just need to pull my finger out. In conclusion Sheffield Exchange is a good excuse for me to indulge in a fun to operate layout that hopefully will represent a recognisable time period and location. With the added bonus of me enjoying the challenges of making it along the way. I will try to not be one of the "gatekeepers" of the hobby but someone who helps others develop what they want to do buy sharing what is in my pile of achieve material and with my modelling experiences.

Back in the 60s it was Esso that supplied Buxton, contracts did change some more frequently than others. For those interested in depot storage tanks, each region had their own ideas and many locations within the region would have similar equipment. I started to draw the tanks at Buxton for someone who used them as they were for a LMR depot.

I agree with Colin, number of coaches multiplied by the length ( I use 11 inches in 00, as my coaches are fitted with tension lock couplings) plus the loco length. That would be the minimum length required, sometimes when running shortish trains a couple more inches would visually look better than a train and platform squashed up. On the real railway platform length can dictate how long a train can be or service requirements dictate the platform length. An example is Shenfield station, that could only take 10 coaches which limited the services to Clacton to 10 coaches. Most the other stations had been altered to take 12 coaches when the line was electrified. In the late 1980s work stated to make the platforms longer at Shenfield which resulted in 12 coach trains being able to be run to Clacton.

Our very own @Andrew P on bass at last night's open mic gig

Snap!!!! As a model maker/plastic card butcher I do miss the days when if I wanted a model of class XYZ I enjoyed making it. Today's models are far better than I could have imagined back in the 1980s when I was told no manufacturer would ever make a BTH or a Baby Deltic. At least there are still some gaps in steam classes and DMUs As for EMUs

Now who does that remind me of?????

New Band Maid today.

Two of my favorite Blue Grass singers have released new videos today.

I have embarked on a modelling project, involving steam locos. A pair of Caprotti Black Fives, one will be a plain bearing loco 44744 using a Railroad 5MT as its basis and the other 44687 one of the high running plate pair using a Hornby tender drive. So far I have removed all the bits that are not needed. Neither will be right as the bodies are 2mm too short and the wheelbase 4mm too short but hopefully look like a scale representative of the real locos.

Hi Lez This sounds interesting, could you please post a photo of your set up so I don't make a mess of it and hurt myself? Thank you.

To save having to do conversions here are the 4mm scale dimensions. Edit, Having re-read your requirements the pantogragh (pick up arm) should go up and down, most models have sprung pantographs. They go up and down because there is not a set normal height for the contact wire, things like bridges and level crossings usually need to be lower or higher respectfully.

Would or should I know what he looks like? Any how I am not a miserable git, a grumpy bu88er may be. As for "Gravettesque" it was worth giving his guide dog a Bonio so it would say a nice compliment to boost your ego. 😉 Thanks for asking me again to ride shotgun, and sorting out the lifts with John and Stu.

It was also good to see you and the other Witham vagabonds.

K was for Kay (or Kate), Len's then wife. After their split the C was the initial of their son, who's name I don't have a clue. Len use to visit Karlgarin models quite a lot in those days as I did, so I am relying on 35 plus years of chat memory.

Top side is better with a b..................................................... No buses on it when I went under it today.

Oh dear look what they done to the blues RIP Steve Harley

Sad day, "Look what they have done to the blues" RIP Steve Harley

What is the point of the steering wheel being in the middle,surely it is best up the front with the driver.🤪

But you live in the semi civilised part, wot about us out on the marsh?

Driving Motor Brake Second. Modifications include removal of headcode box and a new destination box made for plastic card. This is a later unit with a two figure headcode box under the centre window. I am still thinking of making the leading passenger window a tad shorter as it is too long. Driving Motor Second, additional seating bays from a "spare" 117 coach. Front end modifications, the same as the DMBS. Trailer Second. This is the fun coach, Lima made the seating bays 1/4mm too long, resulting in a shorter toilet area, not very noticeable on the TC of a 117 or 118 but on a TS of a 116 (or 125) where an additional seating bay is needed the result is a coach that is too long, if you can live with that fine. If not you can always cut new windows and a door to make a seating bay from the toilet area. A third way as I have done with this coach is to remove the sides leaving the end window and door on the left hand end and just the window on the right. Cut along right hand side of each door. Once you have a collection of a window (or 2 small windows) and a door file off 1/4mm from the left hand side not the door. With a similar bit from that "spare" coach reassemble to make a correct length TS. Brian Kirby suggested the shortening each seating bay method. An earlier TS I made form a 117 TC for a 127 unit, where I cut a new door and windows to make a smaller seating bay. Another earlier TS for a 125 where I didn't cut down the size of the seating bays and the coach needed 2mm to be added to the roof and chassis.

Cranes are wonderful machines to model. This is my home made one. It is a ex LMS 30 ton 0-6-4 Cowans Sheldon crane. It is numbered in the Eastern Region series as it found its way to the Sheffield district when the old MR sheds became ER territory. As many cranes remained at one shed for a long time I picked on this one to make as it was the regional spare. Had I made one that did stay on the one shed for donkeys years for my fictional Hanging Hill depot layout, that bloke would have been there " I don't mean to criticize BUT crane number 123 never left so and so shed". The regional spare would catch him out so I thought. Not one blighter in about eight years of humping the layout in and out of shows did anyone notice the number on the crane. I used the Peter Tatlow drawings in an early BRM. Transfers from a Modelmaster sheet.