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Mike Bellamy

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Posts posted by Mike Bellamy

  1. 17 hours ago, Quarryscapes said:

     Feels like a very rushed job - quick scale up of the 009 ones, not really bother to get the variations correct or fix what was wrong with the 4mm models. 

     

    Comments elsewhere suggest that these models were developed at the same time as the OO9 range and would have been announced a couple of years ago if it hadn't been for the introduction of the Lionheart L&B stock.

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  2. 28 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

     

    Not often appreciated is that the number of chevrons indicate the severity of the curve, and that curve does not look overly sharp.  The more chevrons, the tighter the curve.

     

     

     

    Not always the case as the following two links show.

     

    This is on a roundabout near home which was installed to serve the new houses on the right. I lost count of the number of times the single chevron sign was demolished by cars going straight over the kerb, across the grass and rejoining the carriageway on the other side. This is in a 70mph zone.

     

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9007669,-1.5563601,3a,75y,266.57h,85.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-Y0hBFpeGpvc1JNkb2foBA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&entry=ttu

     

    Compare that with the second view showing another (larger) roundabout in an area that I regularly drive through - here the dual carriageway limit has been reduced to 40mph from 70mph (sign just behind the camera) and there are nine chevron signs - but even then I have seen evidence of drivers crashing into them !

     

    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.8966026,-1.198558,3a,75y,58.55h,80.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP45ZQr_to0TEY_BO8aLdBA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&entry=ttu

     

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    • Like 1
    • Informative/Useful 8
    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 3
  3. 9 minutes ago, micklner said:

    Perhaps his interest is totally innocent.

     

    All he wants to really do is run his ancient Triang Train set round and round in everdecreasing circles with  the Wagons full of lovely Gold Bars !! It brings back happy memories of  his childhood!!. I wonder where the Gold Bars came from ????.

     

    Or does he build Airfix kits in his spare time - or has a Scalextric set up in the loft . . . we need to keep reminding ourselves that Hornby is not just about model railways.

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    • Like 2
  4. 4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

    However, the days of capital ships being able to operate on their own with impunity has long gone. 

    A carrier cannot operate independently, but must operate as a group of ships which provide essential mutual support and logistics.

     

    HMS Vengeance has just returned to Faslane after 201 days at sea - in fact 201 days under the sea if news reports are to be believed - said to be the second longest underwater deployment of a nuclear submarine - presumably with no support or logistics as that could / would give away their position. Not the sort of job I could do !

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    • Like 2
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    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
  5. On 17/03/2024 at 19:23, Happy Hippo said:

    There are two sides to Colchester Military Corrective Training Centre.

    The first is for those offenders who will remain in the Army, and who are subjected to military training, 

    The other side are those who will be discharged after their time at MCTC .

     

    As shown in a Channel Five programme last year. Link to Army News and TV below

     

    https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/08/military-justice-on-the-small-screen/

     

    https://www.channel5.com/show/court-martial-soldiers-behind-bars

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    • Like 6
  6. 48 minutes ago, TheQ said:

    Just seen our house and jungle on a gardening programme on TV.... Well they were viewing East Ruston Vicarage Gardens from above and out to the coast, and in the distance was our green blob.

     

    What an amazing garden they have created there - so much more than you would expect from a 'Vicarage' - but even the house is so much bigger than the average rural vicarage. Must wind up the I-Player later to watch the programme Glorious Gardens from Above which was on BBC2 earlier this morning.

     

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04t6tdz/glorious-gardens-from-above-13-norfolk

     

    Link below to East Ruston for anyone visiting Mr Q's part of East Norfolk. Looking at the map I would therefore guess that Ben (and TheQ) live somewhere in an overgrown garden between Happisburgh and Sea Palling - perhaps near Eccles - in which case several ERs enjoy your cakes !!😃

     

    https://eastrustonoldvicarage.co.uk/

     

    EDIT - changed the BBC link - which also includes Bressingham and the Broads so even more reasons to watch it as we plan to be in that area sometime over the summer.

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    • Like 14
  7. 8 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

    Separately, I understand from the discussion on the Nat Pres forum that the annual ticket pricing complicated things slightly by undercutting the cost of membership (which also allowed free/reduced cost repeat visits), making membership a less attractive option for some people. I’m not sure if this issue has subsequently been addressed at all.

     

    Last year I went to a small railway/museum which had a gala with a visiting loco as well as their own stock being used. For £3 more than the gala ticket, I joined the Society and got free admission for the rest of the year, discount in the shop and a magazine each quarter.

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    • Like 3
    • Informative/Useful 1
    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 2
  8. 3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

    He is on a secret mission with his dear wife to investigate the Northern Lights.

     

    If he's with Hurtigruten, then the most northerly port is Kirkenes where you can get an excursion to the Russian border. Interesting to see that Germany posted 100,000 troops there, and that after Malta it was the most bombed town during WW2 with 320 raids from USSR. We will be there mid April celebrating my "Three Score Years and Ten" but I'll keep well away from the border.

     

    https://www.hurtigruten.co.uk/ports/kirkenes/

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    • Informative/Useful 12
    • Friendly/supportive 1
  9. 9 hours ago, OwenTheSignal said:

    Yes a wagon! D1409 LSWR van, Mike Williams kit in Gauge 3. Excellent kit, as ever from Mike. Solid resin body but with very fine detail, as seen from the Real Thing just a mile from me. For scale, the drawing I'm referring to for the build, scaled from the book, - just - fits on to a page of A4 

     

    5 hours ago, OwenTheSignal said:

    Humble grovellings, was following a chat relating to Missenden. Have now caught up with this thread rules, awl painfully accepted, won't happen again.
    Apologies Awl!

     

    I don't want to get you (or me) into more trouble by talking about unmentionables but I can't help but wonder about your comment "solid resin body" - is that really correct ?  If it's a big as an A4 sheet, why not make it hollow and save the cost of an unnecessary amount of material ?

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    • Like 13
  10. 10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

    Not quite. In 2005 the Jenners business (not the building) was sold to House of Fraser by the Douglas-Miller family, who continued to own the lease on the building until 2017. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenners.

     

    Thanks - I blame the BBC as it's obvious that they got the info from Wikipedia and seem to have missed the fact that the private investor (Moorcroft Capital) was actually owned by another of the Douglas-Miller family and so still a descendant of Charles Jenner . . . . . . . 

     

    BBC

    The new building opened in 1895 and was extended in 1903. Further extensions were added in the 1950s and 1960s.

    The building was sold to private investors in 2005 after House of Fraser bought the Jenners brand and property.

    It was then bought by Anders Holch Povlsen in 2017 for a reported £53m.

     

    WIKIPEDIA

    The lease of the building remained with the Jenners holding company JPSE Ltd, owned by the Douglas-Miller family. In August 2005 it was sold to Moorcroft Capital Management, owned by Jenners' former chief executive Robbie Douglas-Miller. In 2017 the building was bought by Danish billionaire fashion retailer and landowner in Scotland Anders Holch Povlsen, reportedly for £53 million.

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    • Like 1
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  11. 15 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

    I have several similar scars on my left index finger from when I was about 10 or so.  The one on my right hand was from accidentally hitting someone's glasses in a fight at school.   

     

    In my case, it's a right angle scar on the tip of the left index finger - caused by the corner of a corned-beef tin I was trying to open at a scout camp 55 years ago. I can still feel it tingling at times.

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    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
    • Friendly/supportive 14
  12. 6 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

    You never got any money out of me, Mike... I'm sure your holiday will be a bit different from Skeggy.

     

    40 years later (or thereabouts) I'm still Treasurer collecting cash - and we're going to Mablethorpe at Easter to visit No 1 son  !!

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    • Like 15
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  13. 21 hours ago, AY Mod said:

    He moved to somewhere not too far from here and used one of the same butchers we do.

     

    @AY Mod he lived at Rangemore, near Burton upon Trent.

     

    @New Haven Neil he bought a Royal Enfield at the local bike shop in Burton

     

    Info from local news report in link below.

    https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/shopkeepers-who-knew-bbc-hairy-9132815

     

    I was rather surprised to learn of his former life as a make-up artist at the BBC for 23 years and that's where he met Si who was a director

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    • Like 2
  14.  

    Going back to the original announcement . . . . . . . 

    1. I had no idea that Game was part of Frasers

    2. I had no idea that Game stores were stockists of Hornby products - their website only lists four items !!

     

    https://www.game.co.uk/en/brands/Hornby/

     

    EDIT to add that Scalextric have 13 products, Corgi 7 and although they have an Airfix page, they don't stock any of their products.

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    • Like 1
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  15. 36 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

    I Googled 'What is Wigan famous for"?" and got, among others, this

    https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/facts.php?opt=facts

     

    Thanks John - interesting as, like Tony, it's part of the country I know nothing about and have never visited apart from one day at their exhibition many years ago when I was helping a friend with a layout - I can't remember anything about that visit except for seeing tourist information signs to Wigan Pier.

     

    The website linked to is, however, a bit out of date as I saw the quote below . . . . . . !!

     

    Quote

    Local MP Ian McCartney is currently a high flier in Tony Blair's New Labour government as Trade Minister.

     

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    • Like 14
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  16.  

    You have to prove that you have 'Charitable Aims' and that you are not just a group of friends with a model railway.  How do you benefit others?

     

    Quote

    Your charity must have ‘charitable purposes’ that help the public (known as being ‘for public benefit’).

    Charitable purposes include things that contribute to:

    relieving poverty

    education

    religion

    health

    saving lives

    citizenship or community development

    the arts

    amateur sport

    human rights

    religious or racial harmony

    the protection of the environment

    animal welfare

    the efficiency of the armed forces, police, fire or ambulance services

     

     

    What do you hope to gain from becoming a Charity?

     

    There is a lot on the Charity Commission website

     

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charitable-purposes/charitable-purposes

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-supplementary-public-benefit-guidance

     

    On a related topic, our club at one time had discretionary relief from business rates from the local authority. We had to reapply every five years and after the last submission of the paperwork (before Covid and cuts in local authority spending) our application was rejected on two counts.

    1. We showed no evidence of financial need (as we had money in the bank)

    2. We did not provide any benefit to the wider community (the benefit was only to our own members)

    However we still don't pay business rates on the clubroom as there is a central government scheme for small business rate relief which covers the cost of business rates for small and low value buildings. We still get a rate demand each year from the local council (£1,800 last year) but that is offset by the same amount from the government - so it's a way for Derby City to get money from Westminster . . . . . . . . . 

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    • Like 2
  17. 12 hours ago, Matt said:

    What they need to do is convert some of those empty HOF stores into model shops- Jenners in Edinburgh would be a good start. I’m sure it would work……

     

     

    Jenners is undergoing a major renovation and most of the building is to become a luxury hotel - owned by a Danish billionaire. Although the shop was part of the original House of Fraser group long before Ashley took over, the building was actually sold back in 2005.  Detailed BBC report in link below

     

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-68153251

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    • Like 2
    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
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