Mike 84C

Hello Steve, I looked at GF Controls web site hoping to buy a couple of control units for signals. Do you know why its permanently closed? And if so whose signal control units do you use instead? They are very good units, shame if they are gone for ever. Thanks in advance Best regards Mick Whittle

Off to a good start with a Poppys Box.

I also spent late Sunday morning and afternoon at Expo Em Shipley. Excellent modelling , useful traders, soon spent £50 all put into a small paper bag! And met several friends. Clayton will be wonderful when its finished but all the layouts were enjoyable to watch and a good mix of interests. The very best thing for me was Expo EM is never crowded!

Just for a change this Sunday past my wife and I went up to Louth and visited two gardens that are participating in the National Open Gardens scheme. A bit strange in Louth, there is a beautifully preserved Station and signalbox but worth another visit because we could not stop. But at Fotherby we were walking down the main street to the next garden visit and lo there is a level crossing with a double track main line, rails in situ and level crossing gates collapsing into the undergrowth. Rather sad. But both gardens were well worth visiting if you have the slightest interest in gardening. I recommend The secret garden of Louth, it quite mad, a tropical garden with banana trees and bamboos and little shaded areas with seats and things in them its got a face book page and Woodlands in Fotherby traditional and completely different.

Re; the Grantham accident. I cannot get my head around the "fact" that the train ran from Peterboro' with no train brake as is suggested. I worked with some very "relaxed" drivers but all of them would have noticed that if the vacuum was only working on the engine the vac; gauge would have leapt up to 21" and surely the guard would have checked he had at least 19" in the back van. As for pulling the strings that only admits air under the piston so it drops and releases the brake, the ejector will continue to suck air out of the train pipe to release the brakes. nor can I see any driver agreeing to run a passenger train with no brakes or a passenger shunter allowing it to happen. I fully realise that I'm looking at turn of the century practise with 1960's eyes and accidents like this and others gave us the modern rule book but if my original statement is correct the GNR must have been a very sloppily run railway. Which is hard to believe as all railways were by then run on militaristic lines. Sorry for the pun! We can but speculate. The only place I have seen a passenger train run with the brake turned off was in Poland, when the driver turned off the air pump and we ran on the reservoir for quite a few miles! The lack of steam was entirely due to the fireman putting an immence amount of coal in the fire box and the only fireiron was a little rake used when dropping the fire. To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement,

The mention of Healings flour mill, brought back memories of delivering wheat there. One time the river was so high that the barges that brought wheat from Avonmouth were on a level with the lorry park and the decks way above! And all the meadows opposite like a brown lake.

The Great Bush rly; thats one I have never heard of. Nice little O&K but where is it?

My pen friends father was an engineer on the Penn Central and I got to ride a GG1 a couple of times from Perth Amboy into Penn Sta NY. They were amazing machines only thing better would have been to go on a K4 Pacific, 10years to late for that!

I do not think that it is possible to recreate totally that pause before steam overcomes mechanical resistance and be able to feel it through the controller. As for point and signal control using levers and rods, same applies. Better chance with signaling and points but I think it would be a very cumbersome system. But opening that regulator just that fraction before movement and ready to slam it shut if you got to much movement, its a feel that you only get by experiencing the real thing. How about the scorching overalls stood in front of the firehole doors, or the shaking about from two big ends at each end of the piston stroke and the noise in the cab of a 5MT or 8F or worse an Austerity. Operating sesions could get very tiring . I'm not sure a simulator could recreate all those sensory perceptions and probably fit recruitment on the head.

As its going to be blasting up the Lickey drifting smoke should not be a problem! I think visually ,making the outside steam pipe with a gentle curve from the superheater top right, to bottom left, so that it delivers to the middle of the valve may make more engineering sense.

If we are talking of the Lickey why does the engine need a big tender? always water and coal at Bromsgrove and with a big tender more weight to drag up the hill. It may not even need a bigger firebox an 8f could take a lot of stick before things got trickey! And that well known phrase "mortgage the boiler" springs to mind. It does not need to be full at the top because the run back down is the place to top the boiler up. Three cylinders three sets of valve gear, inside cylinder on its side. Are we good to go? more noise than a Jubilee!

Great piece of video, Blue Peter looking great, no clag of black smoke and flying the feather. The crew should be congratulated, thanks for posting.

And people wonder why coaches now have windows that don't open central locking etc, etc. if I saw a prat like that in steam days I'd have given him a quick blast with the pep pipe, just damping the coal down sir. 😎

I have a Westfield Classic step thru , bought a couple o years a go from a cycle shop in Wellington , Somerset, very happy with it , disc brakes , cadence assistance, rack on the back, lights , 7 speed derauiller gears and approx 45 mile range, only disadvantage is its all steel so quite heavy, no lifting it over gates and fences! But I am a happy customer of Kings cycles. I chose a Step thru because lifting my leg over a conventional male type frame is very difficult. Cue ribald laughter! 😎

The weathering on the tanks is really good Kirley. Thanks for showing the video.

When I was firing at Banbury, if we got back on the hump around 10pm, my driver used to bail off at the North End to go to the Bell. Quote "I.ll stand on the bridge till you blow 3 on the shed" did he ever? I dont think so. Mmm; I was only 17 and I had the drivers ticket and PPS bonus sheet and repair card to fill out. Tyesley to Banbury 6/8p and 5/4p each way indelibly stamped on my brain. Earned a lot of bonus not so much O/T!!

Back in the late '60's when I was at Bescot there seemed to be a bit of a railway mickey take to the tune of Bescot men were lost if they lost sight of the blue bus routes. Walsall corporation buses were blue. Mind you I did get to Sheffield, Willesden, Crewe by several routes, SOT and other places , so maybe the joke went way back in time. We all know how the railway was!

How about Centre Models? they did some narrow gauge models and very nice industrials. I built a Kerr Stuart Victory, could it be 40 yrs ago!! Sold it on, I wonder where it is now? Was a nice shade of maroon.

Not sure if I'm allowed to mention this on WW but, I was at Lincoln T&T fair today and one of the traders had 21 Ian Kirk LNER teak coaches all made up and some needing a bit of tlc but the teak finishing was very good. He also had a fair number of Kit built LNE loco's and various unmade loco kits. Pm me if any of this is of interest.

I lived in the hostel at Wolverhampton for several years, it was ok but rather spartan, not so many home comforts. One thing does stand out was the meals system. We were issued with a series of numbered tickets, like the old coloured cloakroom tickets, one for breakfast, dinner and tea. You could substitute one ticket for a pack up lunch to take to work. I cannot remember how much we were charged for living in such spartan conditions! It was situated in Chapel Ash near the West Park, which was great in summer and where I discovered a love of Punch and Judy! Just glad I didnt live in Saltley hostel, right next door to the gas works at Duddeston, my workmates that went there did'nt remain on the railway for long. And it was a coal fired gas works! Nothing like being in a Travel Lodge. k

I very much like the Clay Cross open wagons. As a child I lived very close to the ironstone sidings at Bloxham Oxfordshire and I remember wagons very much like these. Is it possible to obtain the markings as transfers in 4mm ? a couple of wagons would look good on my layout.

Millholme kits here's one of mine. Bought part built and some of it would not come apart! I am at a stage where i have to keep going 'cos if it goes back in the box will it ever emerge again? and I do rather like the Dreadnoughts such a shame they were a near miss. I also have a L&Y Baltic very badly put together, for a later test of my enthusiasm! I should add that I have changed a few things like extending the frames at the front, plastic water pipe to replace the undersized boiler and plasticard slips to represent the built up smokebox. Mulling over wether to extend the front bogie by 2mm as its wheelbase is too short.

Crush the car with no compensation.

From memory the lens on the square LMS lamps was larger than on the round LMS/LNE type . the LMS type was often painted black but was very often grubby white. The GW lamps were a bigger lamp all round and less likely to blow out!.

I seem to remember tenders behind Class 5's & 8's having a fairly random selection of wheels. All spoke, all disc and the random bit!