stewartingram

Noel Edmunds....well he used to be into mini racing (got his pic & autograph years ago at the Peterborough Showground).

Nope, its some mouldy old Castle or something like that.GWR locos are all the same anyway Stewart

Ooooh the departmental version is around then! Bring on the postie, mind you I start shift tomorrow for 4 days so won't be able to play with it till Tuesday anyway if it does arrive...grrrr Stewart

You petrol/diesel guys have it easy! Try running on lpg, that will sort your brain into forward planning mode. Just as an example, where I live within 1/2 mile is a BP forecourt @ 79.9p (2nd dearest for lpg in UK over the past 10 years) so I try to avoid it. 5 miles away in March a "proper" lpg site (well almost, its a service dealer for cars with a tank, not a normal petrol station) but nearly as expensive. About 30 miles away is Morrisons at Kings Lynn, good price (probably about 71.9 at the moment). In the south direction is Morrisons at Cambourne, 25 miles & same sort of price. East is Ely, about 15 miles, again a very expensive BP forecourt. Cambridge at about 25 miles has a real Calor site that sells lpg (usually the best places to go to for price) but moderately expensive, on past experience I'm guessing around 76p. West to Peterborough at about 20 miles, there are at least 2 options, a supermarket at round 74p and a Flogas dealer at around 78p (poor price considering he supplies garage forecourts). So thats a radius of 25/30 miles from home, including 2 cities, & less than 10 places to fill up! Compare that to petrol/diesel forecourts in the same radius from home, quite a difference. I believe there are about a 1000 sites in total nationwide. However the cost benefit, even with rip-off forecourt prices for what is basically a waste by-product, gives me at least 1/2 price motoring, which is why I use it. On a journey, a satnav is vital to find lpg sites well before they are needed, in fact its more useful for that than map directions in my view. Stewart

I work for a contractor on the Underground, maintaining comms equipment. One day I got a call to the Baker Street offices, above the station, where a radio was faulty. To cut a long story short, when I went into the room where the radio was, I touched a live wire inside the cabinet, receiving a mild shock off the 240v supply. Now before we get diverted, I'm a competent engineer with common sense, working inside a cabinet where I should have been, etc etc. Normally I would have carried on, but then thought, "this is the Underground, I have to play 110% by the rules", and duly reported to my (remote) manager who initiated the whole reporting process. To LU's credit, it was efficient, & the room was quarantined immediately pending investigation. My manager turned up pretty quick and insisted on taking me to the local A&E hospital for a checkup though I felt fine. Personally, I felt it all was OTT but went along with it. Anyway, the point is, what happenned at the hospital. I was booked in, and put on a casualty bed, where heartbeat checks etc were done. All was fine. I was then taken to be interviewed by a doctor. I think her attitude was atrocious, and follows the thinking of no-win no-fee that we are discussing. Upon entering her office, she very nicely introduced herself, & reading from my case notes started to ask questions, all good & proper so far, checking that I felt ok etc. She then said "of course, you will be making a claim?" as she went over to her filing cabinet to fetch some forms to fill in. Basically I said "no, I'm from the old school, I don't do things like that" or something very similar, & laughing it off. At this point her attitude became very stern, almost arrogant, dissapointed that I wasn't pursueing a claim, and I felt I was virtually pushed out of the room as the interview was quickly terminated. I do wonder if she was getting a backhander for referrals? Incidentally, the reason I got a shock was that an insulating sleeve on the inside of the radio cabinet wasn't pushed over the mains terminals properly. And this was a radio that technically belonged to us, being leased to LU, so really our firm was responsible, though it was new and had been made in the factory like that. Stewart

Night shifts on the Underground, with a 60 mile commute courtesy of FCC & 15 miles in my car seem to make it impossible. Maybe next year? Stewart

I don't have the car number handy but can probably find it later. I believe this is the same train, note only 1 car is blue. The March pic is of the M&GN Soc railtour coming off the St.Ives line on the last day it was open, so someone might beat me to the number! Stewart Edit Looking closer the yellow panels are different so not the same cars! I'll dig the slides out later.

That's spooky! I cleared my last 31 in exactly that spot at Peterboro when trainspotting..31296 in that livery! Stewart

Never knew John Major had a VW Convertible!.............

Anyone else been to the TMC webpage, and found no mention of this yet? Stewart

55004? You mean D9004 surely - and unnamed? I saw this loco (my 1st Deltic) many times for weeks on end on the down "Aberdonian", mainly at Offord, Sandy, etc. No yellow panels either. Always my favourite Deltic, though of course I got fed up at the time with not copping others! And no-one else at school had seen it either; we organised a coach trip to the London area, visiting sheds (including Finsbury Park), on the way home we stopped for a "comfort stop" at Stevenage and guess what came through on the Aberdonian? Everyone copped it apart from me........ Stewart

What about a scenic diorama? I'm thinking of a transport cafe, somewhere to display some of those Oxfords & Classix? If necessary including a lorry with a rail-related load (stretching it a bit!) or maybe backing on to a railway line if need be?

I do wonder if it is a physchological effect? We are accustomed to the old HD model, a quite crude diecast metal casting of a not too attractive slab. There is no real fine detail to accomplish except in odd areas like headcode discs; added to a plain green livery adorned(!) with a dip in custard yellow at the end, and highlighted by the cruel close up photography. Our brain subconsciously refers to the old model I am sure. Nevertheless, a good model I feel; I did have one on order but cancelled it as I can't really justify one. Would still like one though! Stewart

Think you missed off:- another waste of time/money/effort; another white elephant; (need we add to this?)

Nah it's just got to be a model - they were all withdrawn by the date the pic was taken! (58019)

We used to have one here in Chatteris, on the St.Ives side of the LC. After the line closed it moved to the present site, alongside the former station site. Stewart

Absolutely stunning - was loking for the photo of the model to accompany this one! shame about the headcode though...

Get Noel Edmonds back and maybe it could be..... a Deal.....or No Deal.....

2 for £199? Is this a new form of BOGOF? When I saw the announcement I initially strongly considered a green one to replace my earlier Heljan, but having now seen this ruling there is absolutely no chance. Sale lost I'm afraid.

I thought I posted this the other day, but can't see it now so I'll repeat the post here. I'm looking for cabside transfers suitable for B1 and 03 classes, but similar to the Sentinal locos, which carried the words (possibly slightly different for each class) shown in the pic. Does anyone know if they are available please? Thanks in advance Stewart

As an infrequent traveller along the Vale whilst at school, in my Grandad's car, and also on the Bletchley railway, I do remember the brickworks around here. No fine detail, but as a trainspotter , if it had wheels and a number, well....! The Chimney corner site I assume to be the one adjacent to the Midland mainline bridge, where the A6 snakes from one side of the line to the other? And Coronation pit is further south, on the right where the turn for Stewartby village is? If so, then Chimney corner definately had electric locos which I am sure were n.g, as I did get numbers there occasion in passing. Further on, it must have been the sw end of the present Marston Moretaine bypass, which now crosses the site, there was another brickworks which used a continuos cable-hauled wagon system, similar to the one at Fletton (Peterborough). I remember the wagons at both sites constantly moving, and trying to get their numbers. As for Coronation pit, I can vaguley remember seeing the line their, was there a bridge or tunnel arch that was visible? I seem to recall a loco there but too far away to be visible properly. I still have that picture in a book of a loco at Stewartby; for copyright reasons I cannot post it here, but pm me & I'll arrange something if you want. Stewart

I remember seeing the ng working, and there is a pic of this in OPC's Oxford to Cambridge Railway book. I also worked for a few years at Kempston (Fire HQ) around the time that Fragonset were doing the locohauled trains on the Bletchley line, took a few pics of them at the time so knew the area well. There is an active Bedford-Bletchley Users Assoc, fair bet that someone in it is a historian? Stewart

The last photo can be easily summed up - "What a Waste"

They DID put that screw back in then!

Don't forget to remove those brackets from underneath, and replace the screws otherwise the bogie derails on curves (as per the LNER L1)....