Mike 84C

Nothing available at a local builders builders merchants? Or maybe chat up a friendly builder pal?

I also used the closed cell neoprene rubber with the sticky back but mine came in 2" wide rolls! I cut the rolls into 1" wide rolls, this made curves much easier to lay and then glued cork on top of the rubber using bath sealant. Result! very quiet running trains. I got the idea from an article in Model Railroader. Downside its quite expensive, or so I thought.

I am being a little contentious here but having just finished Tim Hillier-Graves book about Edward Thompson I have to say how much I enjoyed it . I knew nothing of the man except who he was and what he did , also the alleged background to his destruction of Gresleys legacy. I believe he was a pragmatic engineer who reacted to a situation, in a period of great financial restraint and did the best job he thought possible with what he had. Dick Hardy is quoted several times in THG's book and Dick Hardy was a man with very good judgement of most things railway. I speak with experience of DH, he was a friend and I worked with men who knew him as a "boss" I can also see traits in ET that relate to my own parents and grandparents. And although we were not sent away to public school our upbringing was quite strict and in many ways Victorian, military, do as you are told, do not question my authority, be quiet, think before you speak and say something worth saying. I expect others can relate too that! I fully realise that THG is putting events and information as he sees it, all I say is read his book. And I thank THG for taking the time to write about Edward Thompson.

If you could get hold of an SR shovel they were a prized bit of kit! You d'not have to fill the pan on a Western shovel, half is usually enough! But fill it with slack and let the blast pull it over the flap makes a really good smoke effect. We used to relieve Saltley men at Tyesley lots of them had their "own" shovels usually an SR one and hand brushes. My driver made one fireman leave his shovel 'cos the one he left me was useless! He was pretty p----d off! but I did return it to him next day and had a good shovel for the rest of the week!!

Defo the burns! and the gloves but never felt quite secure firing wearing gloves. Why firebricks in the back corners? No depth of fire there was a sure way of needing a "blow up". You developed a twist and flick to fill the back corners and a shovel that was not "flat". I used to get the blade vey hot, and bend it behind a side rod then under the injector waste pipe to cool. You could fire through the trap on one of those horrible GN/LNE "chipshop" oval doors with an angled shovel. I stress never a Western shovel on a 9F.

Could it have a connection with Walsall Saddlers football team? And I think the area in general was well known as a leather working area.

92203, very good engine. Wish I had a ££££ for every ton I shovelled in the firebox. Could I still do it at 76? 🤣

Looks nothing like the Hinksey I remember in the 1960's. More like Russia or other communist country's where the railways just stagger on.

Visited Abbotsford House this summer?! Fantastic house and gardens, very close to Melrose. Worth the effort.

About a month ago my swimbo and I paid a visit to the Scottish Mining Museum at Newtongrange EH22 4QN. Its in the old Lady Victoria pit. I was not sure how my wife would enjoy it but she did, very much! helped no doubt by the anecdotes of 86yr old ex miner John our guide. Brilliant! He did use a fair bit of slang which we translated for a Dutch couple in the tour group. I purchased from the museum shop "Fife the mining kingdom" by Guthrie Hutton who seems to have written a series of photo books illustrating Scottish mining. Very interesting, lots of photos of old collieries with good photos of old NB, and PO wagons and smaller collieries. just what you need for a layout. If you are in the area on holiday, I drove up from Melrose, its well worth a visit. But I hope we all know that already!

Interesting thread with lots of good stuff. But am I an exception? should have retired at 65 but carried on full time defered my pensions, till 68 then part time till 69. I just did'nt feel the time was right for retirement. Still do litter picking and strimming round our village. I'm now 76.

Some months ago I asked questions about solar panels and thanks to all the advice on this thread we took the plunge. At this moment we could not be happier, ours is not a budget system but a 4.547 kw with a 3600w battery. Since the system was installed 5 weeks ago we seem to have imported 2 kw of power. What we have exported I'm not sure as our display is all in German! and I'm not up to speed with it yet. Any suggestions as to which Octopus tariff would work best for us? We are with Scottish power who have been excellent but only pay 12p on their feed in tariff. I'm retired my wife works from home, we have gas c/h and a small solid fuel Morso squirrel stove in the front room (parlour). Mick

Way past any trigger age at 76! But hey! our local doctors keeps its eye on me! And apart from Type 2 diabetes and having diet lectures am good! If I'm Type 2 does that make me baby Sulzer? 😎

Started reading but after half an hour really lost the will to live! What to me becomes clear is, our politicians have changed little in 60years. Talk is cheap (or expensive if you cost out MP's) and why do anything when you can talk about it. I worked on the railway in those days and was part of the staff redundancy the ministers talked of. Mick

Thanks for that info; Mike. I also had a wander through and recognised Les Greer who spent a short while at Banbury before going to Nine Elms. I believe he came to 84C/2D from Willesden. Sadly Rod Williamson died early this year but his ashes did get shot out of Royal Scots chimney passing through Ludlow where he was born. I had a mental picture of a genie wearing a grease top, grinning and shouting "come on lads the pubs open"! happy days!

Anyone know who the crew is on 34018? If they are Nine Elms men I wonder if the fireman is Rod Williamson? He went to NE from Salop and then to Wolverhampton HL. I met him in Wolverhampton hostel, shared a room before he joined the police force.

How would the valve gear layout as fitted to the L&Y / LMS Dreadnought work? that had rocking arms to transfer the drive O/S to I/S the frames. One was also converted to a compound. I'm sure Stanier knew all about Hughes work.

Not sure if I missed it but the only comments about driverless trains were at the start of the thread. Surely trains are among the easiest transport forms to automate? And I do wonder if the leaders of ASLEF & RMT have worked this out because I'm sure someone in government has. Some years ago Mercedes designed a system for HGV's which only had a driver in the first one. Can you imagine what it would be like trying to get onto say the M6 with 10/20 44tonne lorries all in left hand lane doing 56 mph just as you arrive at the end of the slip road?

Good luck Manna! plenty of potential there, I can see you are into projects! 😎

Gibson's and Loctite worked for me and an easy retailer to deal with. Agree with Barclay about their looks.

Ian, Same problem here with Lincolnshire and North Kesteven soo we decided to paddle our own canoe! We got 3 quotes from Scottish Power, Clever Energy Solar from Keighley and Ecosmart from Retford. The quotes all came in the same ball park. We went with Ecosmart because they are the most local to us in NK and I have to say the installers and electrician were a credit to the company. Feedback as to when they were going to arrive was at times a little sketchy! But we did have a problem with the scaffolder as he was not sure of the condition of the garage roof, the installers came and checked it all out and all is well. As I expected! The panels wiring etc were were up by lunchtime and we were generating. Our premises were left clean and tidy no damage was done and we had pleasant banter with the crew who were really pleasant young men. I found the above companys through Checkatrade and Scottish power is our energy supplier. Hope this helps , Mic

At long last we have joined the solar panel revolution! ha! 14 panels and a 3.6 Kwh battery. I was surprized to find even on a very dull day the battery was at 90% in a few hours and we even managed to give away some power! The physical size of the battery amazed me, its not much bigger than our bread bin and smaller than the leisure battery on our caravan. Onward into the unknown of power generation! Look out Drax! I posted some while ago about a new solar farm between Sleaford and Lincoln which will cover 1350 acres, joining that is what is reputed to be the biggest anerobic digester in Europe,( to be fuelled by chicken manure), both these schemes have stirred up a huge amount of the uccky stuff!

Corbs how is the door fixed ? does it just plug in and can it be removed without taking the body off the chassis?

Going to bite the bullet and hopefully future proof our house for my wife when I'm daisy food! being fitted at end of March will keep you all posted! Please tell me if I get boring. 😎

Brilliant job Kieran, I can forsee requests for details of your kit! Maybe even from me but not till the projects pile has gone down a bit! Keep it up mate its looking fantastic.