woodenhead

Brilliant! @Clive Mortimore this was only started Monday, no excuse for you really, get that spraycan out.

Another variation on the concept, a bit bigger and using simple MDF boards by the looks of things. Requires something to put it on, but you could do multiple railways this way and swap between I guess

And not any old sleeping cars, a Mk3 sleeping car

Not necessarily designed even by Bachmann Europe, commissioned might be a more accurate word.

So taking this into account I plumped for a sound fitted Next18 loco for £211 and slapped one of my spare blue bodies on it - hey presto banger blue sound 47.

One of my 47s was from the original batch which dragged on track and the body a bit high. It's been a bit troublesome over the years, not mechanically but the bogies have never been spectacular so I replaced them about a year ago and it seemed to make things worse - to the point I would not run it. My intention was to fit sound to both of my 47s but the body is a bit more complicated than my other non sound Farish locos - the lighting is under the cab area so my go to method of remove cab interiors for a speaker and stay alive floundered as I would lose the lights. With the new Next18 chassis now available I've waited till I could get a decent price for one and I've taken the plunge. I was going to get a cheap one from Rails (the Colas non sound) but when I added up the chip and sound file from Digitrains it was more than the cost of a sound fitted one. TMC had an offer on some of their sound ones plus an extra 5% so I took the plunge for £211 I got a sound class 47 and put on a BR Blue body. First thing, Bachmann have added an annoying switching sound when you change ends and the sound is currently very loud, but quite impressive too. I can see the lighting channels have altered slightly, leading to a dimmer red light plus this loco has a light passage for the headlight too so I need to switch that off which I hope is in the functions, if not I need a bit of tape. Loco is not run in yet either. I am going to wait now and see what comes next from Farish for the next releases of 47s in case there is a blue with headcode or green full yellow ends.

it's at least a year old isn't it if its a 72 plate?

@big jim Could it be that car is on constant rental to railway workers wearing heavy duty boots for work?

Ask me again in 6 months and I will tell you what percentage has been achieved - not a joke, we're embarking on this right now.

Dirty? I visited once whilst in London after the suburban services had been diverted to Thameslink, dewired and tired looking, I was shocked.

Evocative shot of Great Moor Street after closure to passengers but coal drops still in situ I must say this station has set off an idea in my head, something for the future I think.

I was just making a point following on from other comments that remote diagnosis of faults and issues is going to become the norm and there are benefits. And without going too far off topic, it's going to be very similar in council services too - housing repairs for example, much easier to provide the contact centre with a video showing the problem and be able to triage the issue much faster and get the right repairer in at the right time.

@Stuart A Astley Green Colliery closed in 1970 so it was quite late on and the more modern council housing stock well established. Then there was a couple of decades of stagnation before Salford council began redeveloping the land occupied by the coal industry and has been busy building houses around Walkden, Boothstown and has now reached Astley after something like 40 years of constant development. That makes me feel old, I still feel like it was yesterday that I was around that area with a past girlfriend and the development work was just beginning, certainly doesn't feel like 4 decades. I nearly bought a new home on the land where Walkden NCB shed was located, was put off by the pit head air shaft nearby reminding me why lay beneath.

@MikeParkin65 I think in general we'll have to be more used to support like this going forward, using technology to assist with support will become more the norm than simply sending something back to be looked at, it can save time and money and lead to a better support. Sending an item costs money It risks damage or loss in transit It risks damage or loss at the repair centre It takes time to unpackage, document the item at the repair centre The repair centre might not be able to replicate what you are describing is happening and so it gets returned to you and you are not satisfied because nothing has changed. Sending a video (or simply upload one to youtube and send them a link) means they get to see the fault as it happens on your railway, it's give them more information to diagnose and they see what you see. This way also allows more interation both ways as they can diagnose the issue, suggest a change and if that does not work make more suggestions or ask for the item back. If you simply send it and they cannot replicate then it will simply go back to you unfixed and you'll have to start again. I've a real world example, Mrs W has a new Yaris. It has a problem with the radio, sometimes it will not switch off at the button or will refuse to turn on. It doesn't happen all the time and it only happens to her when no-one else is around. The garage could not replicate it, so simply did a software refresh and sent her on her way. But it's still happening and only to her, never happened to me and I drive the car too. Last week it happened again, but this time she could video it, so she did and now she has a record of the issue she can share with the garage when the car goes in for service soon.

Much gentler curves had they retained the old NBR/NE route that led to the yards too.

I would suggest steer clear of any old Mainline, Airfix or Hornby (pre DCC) if you are not confident about electronics and you want to utilise DCC. You should be able to pick an 8 pin DCC one up on Ebay under £100 and at most you'll only need to put in a chip. Same for Pannier tanks and with new ones coming from Accurascale, you can expect more of the Bachmann ones to appear on Ebay as people upgrade. If you are looking at an GWR branch, you don't need a lot of locos, so focus on a few decent DCC ready models and a DCC controller, a simple Bachmann one might do if you don't want locos with a ridiculous number of sound functions.

I was watching this video about it yesterday

Crook Street, I am guessing the inspiration for a 7mm LNWR model of the same name https://www.youtube.com/@lnwrcrookstreet9954 Crook Street ran between the LNWR Goods yard and Great Moor Street station.

Some on this site is doing a pastiche of this location, this is at Daubhill in Bolton, off the line from Great Moor Street to Kenyon

How did I never visit this end of the longest platform in Britain when I was spotting at Victoria every weekend at this exact period

Before the ski jump was built, the flat crossing to the new Bury Interchange where Knowsley Street station used to be Old Map with yellow line showing where the Interchange line was laid (later the Metrolink)

Troughtastic

Then Now

It has been on previous models https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/2240/kernow_models_oo_0_4_4t_class_o2_lswr?instock=true&onorder=true&soldout=true