03060

I discovered last year in a petrol station near Wombwell that you could still get Stones's Bitter .... but now in cans and brewed in Burton-upon-Trent like everything else .... and it didn't give you a headache like it used to ("Great Guns !!!") .... unfortunately it seems that the taste buds of South Yorkshire folk must have changed in the last 35 years as this Wessie was the only one buying it .... they stopped getting any more in after about 6 months and I then found cans of Leffe in it's place .... I bought 4 cans to try but at £12 didn't bother again .... and neither did anybody else !!! Bring back the 80's .... when proper blokes didn't need their beer 'flavouring' with stuff that stops you from getting scurvy !!

Hope that you don't mind me posting this little 'heads up' here Andy but it potentially fits in more with your running periods than say WHL v.4, Meanach or Mallaig. Anyway, this months (Feb '24) Backtrack mag contains a rare colour photo of D6936 (green FYE) at Fort William shed in 1968 on trial, this being a full 10 to 12 years before the 37s took over the West Highland Line services. I've only ever come across 1 or maybe 2 photos before of this event and neither in colour that I can recall. It's a good clear view of the loco along with a blue and a green Class 29s. Regards, Ian.

There's a rare colour photo in the Feb '24 edition of Backtrack showing D6936 (green FYE) at Fort William shed in 1968 where it was on trials a full 10 to 12 years before the 37s started to make the West Highland Line their own. I've only ever seen 1 or maybe 2 photos of this event before.

As a subscriber to Traction I'm reasonably comfortable with the 'interesting' development with BRM Magazine and that my subscription will be transferred now to the monthly BRM (effectively doubling it, I suppose ?) but does it also include Gold Membership of RM Web (I currently have Silver membership) or was that just a previous offer to new subscribers of BRM in a particular deal, please ? Kind regards, Ian.

Great attention to detail Rob, be thankful that you are not modelling in N gauge ... I don't think that I'll bother troubling Modellu for a potential size reduction of the token machines, reckon I'll get away with a blob of glue !! LoL All very educational for me is this section on the signal boxes, I'd not even picked up on the change of roof covering at Ardlui until you pointed it out. Regards, Ian.

Agree totally Dave, one resource relevant to this thread that I've just managed to acquire after several years of looking is an April 1991 copy of Scale Model Trains magazine which features a 5 page article by Paul Lunn ( @Dzine ) 'British coal open cast - basis for a good layout' and after a first glance can report that it contains some solid information, several good photos from around the Britiah Oak site and area, a site sketch / plan with all items identified via a numbered key and a couple of potential layout ideas / plans which manage to incorporate most of the features in a relatively small manageable area (the larger of the plans being only 8'x6'.) All for 65p plus £4.80 postage from Railmags which came up in an a phone t'internet search whilst sat in the magazine room at Ingrow West VCT museum on Sunday afternoon having drawn a blank again .... ordered that evening, arrived Weds morning ... great service, great article. Regards, Ian.

I only ordered mine last weekend and as mentioned by @JohnRno money was taken (maybe 1p ??) it's just a 'valid' credit card check, there wasn't a Paypal option but I think that I queried this earlier in the thread and that is partly why I held off ordering another one until now. Hopefully somebody will take these on for us in the future but Hattons were offering the version that I couldn't resist this time around, that being a lined blue 16" which matches Chemicals / Harry which worked for a time at Crossley Evans scrap yard in nearby Shipley during the mid 70s.

Or is it a line up of Pannier tanks and @2ManySpams new software has been at work ?? (See p.738 of The Sheep Chronicles !)

I've just placed my pre-order from this advertised batch which the website allowed without issue, so hopefully I will receive this as and when. Sorry to see Hattons close and having been through many redundancy situations and 2 actual redundancies myself I feel for the staff involved, so good luck to all involved and thankyou for the great service that I've previously received from you. Regards, Ian.

T'old lad wi't Whippets looks impressed an'all !

Also by Irishswissernie is this one of the Northern end which I think confirms your suspitions of the trunking crossing under the line before disappearing into the ballast. As the date of the photo is 23/3/89 I realise that this is a tad late for your period (and as @Module00 alludes, you've probably found them yourself.) I mention the late date as when I followed one of your photos (with 37020 on it) back to Flickr the photo next to it was from year 2000 and showed some lovely trunking running South from the yard side of the platform .... but it didn't appear on Ernie's 1980s photo .... so caution must be taken. Regards, Ian.

Morning Rob, 2 photos from Flickr that may be of help or at least point you in the right direction. David Ford, Oct 1986. ... and this photo from Irishswissernies collection which on magnification you can just see 'something' straight in the ballast coming from the other side of the train to both the ground signal and the signal by the lamp store (?) I presume that the yard is hand operated going by the lever next to the nearest visible point. Hope this helps. Regards, Ian.

I've just noticed that Sheep Lane is due to appear later this month at Normanton Exhibition with it's new owner @durham light infantry ... for those of us of a Northern disposition.

Photo by Peter Sedge / FG Steinle taken on Manningham shed 31 Oct 1965. http://lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Marknealebantam@aol.com/Shipley Skipton/shipley23.jpg

Saw my first flock of Redwings of this (British) winter season this afternoon out on my local park, wonder if this is a prelude to snowfall coming as we also had wonderful thunder and lightening storm a few days ago which is also supposed to be a 7-10 day precursor to snowstorms if heard at this time of year .... according to 'old' wives and the superstitious around here ??

I wondered about this one having googled Matchbox Leyland lorries as your photo looked very much like the cabs I remember on a lot of my toy lorries as a kid which would be too small .... but .... 2nd photo on Hattons webpage states Kingsize on the box, bit short but maybe a starting point. https://www.hattons.co.uk/818614/matchbox_k_4mat_leyland_tipper_truck/stockdetail Regards, Ian.

That's one of those incredible photos that you automatically hear the sounds of the loco when you look at it ! Marvellous.

White on green from what I can tell looking through mid 1980s photos on Flickr as this 1987 photo by Steven Parker hopefully shows .... valid question though which certainly got me looking. Regards, Ian.

That's a cracking line up Tim, prototypical and covering most of the versions all in one go ! Brings back some happy memories, particularly of D200 which I saw many times in the Leeds area but never ended up travelling behind her. I also saw both 40012 and 40013 on several occaisions working the evening parcel vans that came through New Pudsey on their way to Bradford interchange from Leeds at around 9pm, I was often out with my dog walking on the back lane and would see the train approaching over Stanningley viaduct in the distance and so it would then be a race across 2 fields to try and get the number .... I didn't always make it .... but it kept me fit .... happy days ! I've now got 3 Farish 40s allocated for this trio but find your notes on your modifications interesting as it's the little things that will make the difference between a good and a great model. Sesons greetings, Ian.

One last post from me on the subject of 1506 and it's plain black livery, having taken the hint from the above photos that others have found I widened my Flickr search to include Newport Ebbw Jct shed instead of just Newport Pill ... which produced this rather splendid colour image by Robert Gadson. Seasons greetings, Regards, Ian.

What a fantastic photo of a very beautiful creature !

Thanks Rob, I reckoned to have done a search on't tinternet but hadn't come up with the Peter Brabham (Taffy Tank) photo, which when enlarged twice on my tablet doesn't seem to show any visible signs of an emblem on the tank side which is definitely dirty ... so I think that I shall leave my 1506 emblemless and try and employ some of your weathering techniques from your own thread to recreate the image as seen in the photo. Great help, thankyou all. Regards, Ian.

I've just bought my 2nd 15xx so that I can model the 2 locos based at Newport Pill shed in the late 50s, 1506 and 1507. I've found a photo of 1507 which suits a re-number of my 1501 model but haven't so far found any photos of 1506 other than a distant shot. As my newest model is the 1506 plain black with no emblems version can anybody point me in the direction of any photos or info regarding the early livery of this loco please as I assume that their must be some reason for Rapido to produce it like that. I've checked through the few WR books that I have but haven't as yet found my Pannier Papers set which I'm fairly sure I bought when they came out but haven't needed until now ... need to check into the darker recesses of the loft !! Any help appreciated, Regards, Ian.

Best wishes and a Happy New Year (being as it's the Winter Solstice today (tomorrow apparently) you Rob and All on this thread from a rather wild and windy West Yorkshire .... which I reckon must be about Row 'M' in this great auditorium that surrounds Cardiff ... thanks for the entertainment and inspiration !! Regards, Ian.

I've used cheap non-perfumed hairspray, sprayed as a mist from a reasonable distance on my 3mm S&DJR layout of Masbury which has some reasonably high embankments on it. This has held the flock in place through many movements up and down out of my loft over the last 20 odd years since we made it down at Leeds MRC. Worth a try, my can only cost a couple of pounds. Regards and seasons greetings to all involved on this thread. Ian.