ardbealach

Saw this sign still there last week at Cheshire Oaks Retail Park of a sadly missed store. [Alisdair]

To get the jist of my comment you would need to watch the BBC 'Still Game' series. I was just quoting remarks from one of the characters in the series. (Alisdair)

Naw it issnay! (Alisdair)

When I was on holiday in Ullapool last week I saw this advert in their weekly newsletter. I reckon it must be a hellava model railway - if only he could get the Sprats to go with the Winkles. [Alisdair]

From the published list it is worse than I first imagined - given the numbers stolen. (Alisdair)

I seem to recall that there were some Caledonian Rlwy 0-6-0 tender engines sent to Belgium in The Great War or shortly after (Alisdair)

Here are a few more detail pictures of CR 123 dating from 10 October 1964 on an afternoon excursion with the two Caley coaches from Glasgow Buchanan Street Station to Callander. The blue colour variation is all down to the slide film. I have certainly enjoyed this interesting thread on this great little engine. [Alisdair]

Hi Drt7uk Looks good. Very impressed. Attached is one of my own pics of CR123. You will see what might be called "mudguards" with a thistle emblem over the front pony wheels. These "mudguards" also gave the engine its distinctive look, along with the polished steel edge trims to the body. Locomotive headlamps on the front footplate ahead of the smokebox might also help to get rid of the bare look of this flat area of plastic? You have done a great job. [Alisdair]

Just to add a bit more on the Jones Goods - here is a clip of HR103 I found on line of it running back in 1959 at the time of the Scottish Industries Exhibition in Glasgow. 103 ran with the other three Scottish preserved locomotives - and it was an occasion when GWR City of Truro was brought up to Glasgow specially for the occasion. [3440 was my first GWR cop!] So you can run 103 alongside 3440 legitimately if you wish. Although 3440 and 103 never ran double headed, I recall 3440 ran back then double headed with GNSR 49 Gordon Highlander on the various excursions bringing visitors to the exhibition each day. Note also in the film that CR123 has its front buffer faces emery clothed into the thistle pattern motif - which it lost the first time it was coupled up to run tender first. (Alisdair)

As someone who is now in his late seventies I can clearly recall the dress code of the Fifties and Sixties for railway enthusiasts and modellers. Back then men's wardrobes were limited - workwear and workwear. Suits worn to work would be worn in leisure time. A good friend of mine, then in his early twenties in the mid Sixties and who worked for a large insurance company, had to wear a dark coloured wo piece suit and a white shirt and tie every day at work - even although he was not even on the front line and seen by the public. He worked a five and a half day week, Saturday mornings were compulsory, but on a Saturday he was allowed to dress down to a sports jacket and grey flannels, but a tie was still compulsory. With regard to school uniforms, back then I never owned a suit. Like many of my contemporaries back then who, like me, went to state schools we would always wear our school uniforms on leisure days out. The 1962 picture at Dunragit of the Wigtownshire Rambler to Whithorn sees me in my school uniform and collar and ties being worn by all. In the second shot in 1965 [I think] of CR 123 at Callander [and I have just noted its bent front end] shows the other standard menswear of the day - the gaberdine trench coat. I suppose we were still back then coming out of the fashion of the earlier age as many men had seen military service either in WW2 or National Service where uniforms and ties were worn at all times. Don't forget flat caps were much to be found in working men on the shop floor or on construction sites. They tended to change to sports jackets - and still with ties - for their leisurewear. And finally a black and white photo of my grandfather on holiday in the late 1950's with my grandmother and friend. This was his everyday garb no matter where he went, complete with watch chain, as I remember him. [Alisdair]

Agreed the Airfix engine shed is a great model for a bit of kit bashing ...... but pendant alert!..... The large double height timber doors provided for the shed main entrance wouldn't last very long in the full size world. The two angled timber braces to each door should be angled back to the door stile nearest the hinge and should not set out, angled to the outer stile. If the doors were constructed the Airfix way I reckon they would soon distort and droop out of shape. [Alisdair] image.png

Getting the topic back on track, may I add my eight? Not in any order of priority. But chosen as books which look back over my life of railway interests and modelling. A hard decision to make as too many favourite books have been left out. 1 West Highland Railway - John Thomas 2 Callander and Oban Railway - John Thomas 3 Light Railway Layout Designs - Iain Rice 4 Tales of the Glasgow and South Western - David L Smith 5 Track Atlas of Mainland Britain 6 Steam in the Scottish Landscape - Michael Welch 7 Branches and Byways - SW Scotland and the Borders - Robotham 8 The Port Road - Andrew F Swan Luxury - direct hotline from the shade of my palm tree to RMweb. Alisdair

Or did you overbinge the bananas? And it needed a bit of time off to settle its insides? (Alisdair)

In our wonderful world of railway modelling 54 seconds is a nano second when model railway construction is often measured in years. (Alisdair)

I, too, was lucky to meet Barry Cryer. Some years ago I was heading back to Euston from a business meeting for an early evening train back to the North West, and noticed Barry sitting opposite me on the Tube. He looked a bit under the weather after what might have been a long liquid lunch [remember them?]. As I rose to get off at Euston, he got up as well. I enquired if he wanted any assistance up to the main line station, and he replied. "Thank you, you are very kind". As we cut our way through the throng I took the oportunity to thank him for all the laughter he had given me (and many others) down the years. He replied "Thank you, No one has ever said that to me". I was quite taken aback, but on reflection and reading his obituary, it was probably a remark of a modest gentleman. We negotiated the ticket turnstiles and up the escalator to the main Euton concourse. We shook hands, bid farewell with another "Thank you" from him. He went on his way to North London while headed for the Pendolino, reflecting that I had just met one of my heroes of comedy. (Alisdair)

The morning goods heading for Barrihandie through Lochband Cutting (Alisdair)

On the same theme, I also liked the Pelikan Graphos pen set which gave a crisper line. Found this at the back of a drawer here in my shed. Last used well over 30 years ago so I reckon the ink might in the cartridge might have gone a bit hard. Maybe the time has come to put in the bin and not back in the drawer. (Alisdair)

Goodness a Rotring pen - that takes me back! And don't forget a double edged razor blade for scratching out mistakes. (Alisdair)

They were employed on the West Highland line in BR maroon livery in an altered condition with less of a beaver tail (I think I recall) One ran GLW to FW and the other one from FW to Mallaig. No doubt a carriage and wagon expert will add more. The Devon Belle observation car ran on the Glasgow - Oban route. (Alisdair)

Had the same thought - Woodenhead - when I saw the Avanti fares for a visit to Glasgow Model Rail. Maybe they don't want the business. (Alisdair)

And of course don't let us forget that regular contributor to Railway Modeller back in its black and white days - R M Staff. (Alisdair)

Travelled on the IP from Sydney to Perth back in 2004 and attach some pics taken at Cook where the train refuelled. Also interior shot of the dining car and car carrying wagons at the head of the train at Sydney prior to deprature. It was less of a "luxury" train back then. [Alisdair]

Yes I can remember the GLW Central Xmas tree and double track lines around the tree. I think the second tree was at GLW Queen Street. I have a notion they were O Gauge but definitely not in 4mm. I do recall seeing a red LMS Duchess and the diesel twins wizzing round. (Alisdair)

I attended GETS with my layout 'Whithorn' in early Autumn with my two operators, the first show we had been to for a long long time. And I felt safe there. I must record that I would guess that maybe 95% of those attending GETS as operators / traders / visitors were unmasked. I also put in the hours at Chester Cathedral with Pete Waterman's layout over the school summer holidays. Once again I felt safe. I was unmasked at both events. I must put on record that I have been double vaccinated, with the added booster jab, and the flu vaccine. Both these venues had one thing in common; both have very high ceiling soffits in the locations where the layouts were being displayed. By the natural convection of warm air rising inside these venues, any virus related airborne germs would have been carried up to a greater height away from the visitors at floor level, naturally convected away. I love the York Show. It is, for me, one of the highlights of the year for railway modellers. It is always a time when you are guaranteed to catch with old friends from all over the country. As we await the results of the number of potential infections recorded over the festive season, presently I have my on-going doubts about my attendance at York over Easter weekend 2022 . The reason for my reticence is the low ceiling heights in all the exhibition spaces at the racecourse venue, where the virus has limited means of naturally circulating away from all those attending the event. But I will be watching the published virus figures over the next couple of months as I would love to visit York Easter 2022. Who would want to be a exhibition organiser in 2022? [Alisdair]

Reference is also made to the Scottish Wagon Company in John Thomas’s ‘North British Railway’ Volume One. Thomas goes on to say in his book… ‘The Scottish Wagon Company did not build wagons. It was a hire purchase finance company founded in Edinburgh in 1861 for the purpose of advancing funds to coal owners and others who wanted wagons but did not have ready cash to pay for them. Its terms were savage, its methods ruthless. Customers were given five years to repay their loans in quarterly instalments at ten per cent interest, and if an instalment was not paid within fourteen days of its due date a further ten per cent was charged. In the event of a default the wagons could be repossessed by the company. Not surprisingly, the wagon company prospered. Its original capital of £30,000 quickly rose to £180,000 and its shareholders pocketed a dividend of twelve and a half per cent’. There was a bit more to the story of the Scottish Wagon Company, which came out in a cross examination at an enquiry into the financial difficulties of the NBR at that time. A NBR shareholder, James White of Overtoun, was the owner of the prosperous chemical firm of J & J White of Rutherglen in Glasgow, and a former lawyer. He had also been a director, and deputy chairman, of the Glasgow and South Western Railway, In cross examination the NBR Company Accountant, J.P. Lythgoe, was obliged to admit that the Scottish Wagon Company had been founded by no less a person than himself. An extract from the NBR minutes of the cross examination, and quoted by Thomas in his book : Lythgoe : The North British eventually required money to pay for their wagon stock, and leases on this principle were negotiated through the wagon company. White : By whom? Lythgoe : By Mr.Hurst and Mr.Nairne (the former North British secretary) on the one hand, and the directors of the Scottish Wagon Company on the other. White : Who were the directors of the Scottish Wagon Company? Lythgoe : At the present time they are Bailie Fanshaw, William Beattie, James Ritchie, Charles McGibbon, Walter McClelland and William Hurst, locomotive superintendent. John Thomas goes on to say : ‘Other prominent NB officers, among them the general manager, the passenger manager, and chief civil engineer, were associated with him (Hurst) in the business. William Hurst, as locomotive superintendent of the North British, had conducted negotiations with William Hurst, chairman of the Scottish Wagon Company, in deals which could not fail to put money - North British money - into the pockets of highly placed NB officials. White’s inquisitors wanted to know if all the wagons represented by the £216,000 debt (of the NB) had in fact been delivered, suspecting that some of them were paper wagons. But the witnesses were all adamant that all the wagons were indeed running on North British metals. According to them the Scottish Wagon Company, far from milking the North British, was almost a philanthropic institution bent on helping the ailing North British through its difficult financial patches.’ (Alisdair)