auldreekie

Let's hope they get themselves sorted out fairly soon.  I've always had good service from them in the past,  and one does feel obliged to sympathise with small traders whose methods have been completely upset by Covid.

auldreekie 

20 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Use one of the many retailers who supply his products, they will be most pleased with your custom. Roxey Mouldings and 247 to name 2 who have given me sterling service

And Mozzer Models

I already gave this general advice,  but hesitated to nominate any particular intermediate supplier,  since I have had consistently good service from all the above.

auldreekie

I would not have posted as I did without good reason.  I'm glad that others,  probably a majority of others,  receive good and civil service direct from him.  I have no wish to damage his business:  far from it:  the product is often excellent.  But I'm afraid that I have known him to indulge in unprovoked aggressive behaviour for no reason apparent to me.  

No doubt running a cottage industry supplying the railway modelling fraternity,  like all other paid ways of life,  has its frustrating and irritating moments.   I have no idea why I was singled out more than once to receive the backwash:  he won't ever make a fortune out of me,  but I don't doubt I've spent several hundreds of pounds with him over the years,  as well as recommending several of his products to others.

"Be warned,  but support his product" is the message from me,  and I do not intend to resile from it.

auldreekie

Mr Markits CAN be very offensively stroppy on little or no provocation.  Despite this,  much of his product is EXCELLENT. 

The answer may be to deal not directly,  but through an intermediary,  of whom several exist,  at least two of whom give (in my experience) excellent service also.

auldreekie

Well,  you might as well use Ocado.  They seem to be able to make profit/stay afloat out of home delivery.  Rumour has it that the ex-mainstream supermarkets make a substantial loss on home deliveries because of the inefficiencies inherent in "picking" orders from branch supermarket shelves/storage.  I fear that there's a heck of a shakeout impending in the retail grocery trade.....

auldreekie

Chilblains.

auldreekie

18 hours ago, mullie said:

I keep meaning to go down the mine as we live over the road from the entrance but we always seem to be somewhere else on those occasions. I've walked close to and seen the entrance today. The quarries are still working.

I understand that they have the necessary mineral-extraction permissions to enable them to continue for decades.

auldreekie

Albion Stone,  who run the main (if not the only) current stone mine on Portland sometimes do trips down the mine.  It's very interesting indeed,  not least because mining is now encouraged on Portland to reduce environmental impact,  whereas in past years time out of mind mining (as opposed to open quarrying) was forbidden.

auldreekie

May I suggest a book which will tell you quite a lot more about Portland:

Gill Hackman:  "Stone to Build London - Portland's heritage" .  (Folly Books,  Monkton Farleigh,  website:  www.follybooks.co.uk)

It gives some geology,  a lot of history of the quarrying,  giving  considerable detail,  based largely on archival research,  on local,  national and transport context (shipping and railways);  and,  for those interested,  an extended guided tour of Portland stone sites in London.

Incidentally,  I really like the job you have made of those Silver Fox trams.

auldreekie

Why not knock 'em up out of styrene (microstrip and microrod) shards,  as I did on my NZGR small C class 0-4-2ST,  double-pugbash,  which can be found on the "pugbashes etc" thread?  As I remember,  only four are needed,  and the moulded items which they replace are none too fine in appearance.

auldreekie

Ah,  well.  If you wish to go Swedish,  what about the F class pacific?

auldreekie

What about Chapelon's SNCF 240P?

Or the Maffei S3/6 ?

auldreekie

To return to the OP,  as an alternative to Cardean (or to keep it company):  North British Atlantic,  anyone?

auldreekie

"At stake",  is that QUITE what you meant?

auldreekie

Can we work in a reference to Great Snoring,  please eg as a horse bus destination).  It most definitely IS in Norfolk,  and it seems as if it might fit in quite well.......

One way and another.....

auldreekie

Blimey.  Great Mulling bids fair to be a significant railway town in some Norfolk/Fenny/ LNWR (?) otherworld.....

auldreekie

Just as a minor diversion.

IMG_0050 by Fred Hackman, on Flickr

Some ten years or more ago,  I had purchased a Bachmann "Lord Nelson",  available at that time only in BR green,  as I remember.  I made a fairly rough job of re-doing it in Maunsell's Southern green livery,  with coaled-up tender,  cast brass chimney,  and snifting valves faked up from a couple of small b.a. washers and some truncated Hornby brass whistles.  I made it up as "Robert Blake",  so I made sure to incorporate the residual steam-pipes which I believe poked through the smoke deflectors on that one machine.

Here it is in company with some other work-in-progress,  but particularly with the new Hornby "Sir Francis Drake".  Unquestionably the new model has more finesse and detail,  and it is altogether worthy of praise for this.  However,  the old stager shows up fairly well in this comparison from a distance of about eighteen inches.

auldreekie

I hadn't realised this was another one-party state....

auldreekie

Chimney pots by Peedie Models (no connection save as a satisfied customer).

auldreekie

...And the damaged steps could be replaced in styrene,  glued on with two-part epoxy or whatever (NOT polystyrene solvent....).

auldreekie

For what it's worth,  I think that on this occasion the soupy music is just right....

auldreekie

3 hours ago, Annie said:

 

No James, but the farm a little way up the line has lots of noisy chickens and if the digital wind is blowing from the west you can definitely hear them at Hopewood on Sea.

I tried to find the Onedin Line theme music to attach to the video clip, but it's bolted up tight behind paywalls and dire copyright warnings so I couldn't use it.  So I guess we'll just have put up with the chickens then.

You might be able to find it as an extract from Aram Khachaturian's music for "Spartacus".

(Just discovered you lurking here.  And I thought initially that "Great Eastern" referred to the railway....).

auldreekie

As I understand it,  the 52F model is largely brass/nickel silver,  and so would really need to be soldered,  I think (not that I have any experience of it).  If you,  like me,  are wary of your ability to solder up a locomotive kit ,  then the GEM/Lycett model (whilst less precise and detailed) is a whitemetal job and can perfectly well be glued with 5-minute epoxy resin.

There are pros and cons both ways.  I don't doubt the "present-day technology" 52F kit is capable of giving a better-looking result.  But the GEM/Lycett kit  can be the basis of a respectable model,  and it has lots of weight to give it haulage ability.

auldreekie

Hmmm.

Soldering might be the easier option!  But a locomotive kit is scarcely the place to start.

The Gem/ Lytchett whitemetal kit could be assembled perfectly well and robustly with Devcon  five-minute two-part epoxy (I have one I made about 30 years ago -- never any trouble).  But it's nothing like as fine a kit as the 52F job promises to be (although decent results can be obtained,  and the extra weight certainly adds to its haulage abilities....).

auldreekie