Arun Sharma

Didn't we all! A classic Kodak Brownie 127 circa 1962ish

Posted Today, 17:34 3rd Rail Exile, on 18 Feb 2018 - 12:53, said: Oh no it isn't. As a quick look at the relevant parts of the 'net will confirm it actually comes under the Vale if the White Horse District Council - the boundary between that DC and South Oxfordshire DC is on the western fringe of Didcot. Another minor pedantic point - but isn't the Vale of White Horse still within the County of Oxford? - albeit the southern part. As a council tax payer in the Vale of White Horse, some of my dosh goes to Oxfordshire County Council - not to Berkshire [sadly]. I think all 3rd Rail Exile was saying was that Steventon is in the southern part of the county of Oxford and has been since 1974.

and a Darwin award for the driver [and his mate] of course. I'm afraid that a physical height barrier before the crossing rather than any form of warning notice would be the minimum requirement.

Have the "Lady Diana Spencer" nameplates fallen off 47 712?

In the dim distant past when I was doing my Sinbad act on behalf of HMG, our ships' engineers were adamant that air conditioning equalled de-humidification. That refrigeration might have been included [almost invariably] within the equipment additionally was irrelevant. Thus pressure ventilation is not air conditioning whether or not refrigeration is present. It would be though, if de-humidification was also present.

At #434 Phil-b259 wrote," All these decades on, the point of restoring a Radstock - Froome would not be about facilitating residents wanting to travel between the two towns as such, but more as a feeder into the wider rail network - acting as a feeder for commuters to London for example" ​I am regularly surprised and appalled that this point put so eloquently by Phil is so quickly forgotten by folk on this site who really should know better. To use a metaphor, If you consider the railway system as a motorway, the fewer junctions that allow drivers to join, the less traffic that goes along it and reaches the end. So it is with railways - if you remove branch lines and feeders, eventually the main line will not operate anywhere near its capacity. I would add that now-closed [to passengers] cross-country lines such as Leicester to Coalville to Burton on Trent [or Colne to Skipton via Earby], would probably have a similar multiplying effect. One problem with calculating BCRs for these sorts of lines is that their terminal stations may not actually generate much in the way of ticket receipts as passengers may already hold through tickets to their final destination. The bottom line is, If you want to close a railway, do it by closing the branch and feeder services first and then act surprised when fewer use the main line!

As an 0gauge modeller, I still have an old "Home of 0 Gauge" "Mega Kits" one to start! If it comes out half as well as Staffordshire's one, I shall be well pleased.

Is that a Finney kit? 7 or 4mm scale? Really very impressed by the lining - The orange is very nicely subdued. Not something you often see done as well as that.

It is possible for NR to keep it but it will mean that, in subsequent years, NR's budget/grants will be top-sliced by an equivalent amount. So unless they have the same or more estate to sell off in later years, it doesn't make sense to keep it. Treasury Rules OK!

Interestingly Jamie, the most recent edition of the "Railway Magazine" in its editorial places the blame firmly at the feet of DofT and NR in that the promised line upgrades were not produced on schedule. VTEC appear to have paid out more than they strictly needed to and have been let down by the Govt.

Interesting - correspondence re: Mrs Trellis. Reading the page 40 letter more closely, M3005 [as it was one of the batch M3003-M3011 delivered in 1948 after nationalisation] was new in 1948. That puts the "cop" from the Tea Shop window just about 70 years ago. Let's tentatively assume that he was aged between 8 and 12 at the time [as he was reading the Meccano Magazine]. That makes him say, 80+ now. RAF Hucknall closed [as an RAF station] in 1957 though Rolls Royce continued to use it for civil test flying subsequently. If "Mrs Trellis" was a national serviceman and served at RAF Hucknall, that closure date and assuming that he was say, 20 years old i.e., at the end of his 2yrs NS upon Hucknall's closure as an RAF station that puts his DOB at around 1937 - i.e., a minimum age of 81 years now. I can't speak for PK but I suspect that someone like "Mrs Trellis" who has been a rail enthusiast for rather longer than I have been on this planet has probably a fund of interesting stories that are slowly being teased out of him via his letters to MRJ. It does no harm and indeed, a bit of digging around the story does unearth some interesting nuggets!

Additionally, Phil is usually on the adjacent stand to Roxey Mouldings at shows and he and Dave Hammersley "spell" each other as reqd. Do any of you seriously think that a guy can do a 2day show completely single handed - without even a loo break! Phil's shows are to some extent predicated around the local support available. Bristol 0 Gauge show, in my past experience there as a trader, has not been somewhere much money gets taken. It's perhaps the wrong side of Christmas unlike the Reading Trade Show which is really just a quick trip down the GWML from Bristol.

Jim Snowdon said at post 7, "A useful touchstone, taught me by my peers at the time was that "once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and three times - you have a problem". Going back to my misspent youth, the saying, "Once is happenstance, twice is co-incidence and thrice is enemy action" comes from the main villain in either "Moonraker" or "Goldfinger" - the books by Ian Fleming rather than the films of course. I don't have either of the novels immediately to hand but I suspect it was said by Auric Goldfinger.

Did you mean benevolence or malevolence?

I was on the phone to Gareth yesterday [Monday] morning. He said the site had been down since Friday but they expected it to be sorted soon. Give them a ring on 01793-642-594.

I was on 800-014 this afternoon on the 10car 1247 DID-PAD which I gather started life in Swansea. My first ride on one of these and I was very impressed by the seating. Whilst the seats couldn't ever be described IMO as "soft", the seat swab length suited my buttock-knee length very well [as a one-time helicopter & FW pilot, one gets to know what's important in a seat!]. Additionally, the upright gave probably the best lumbar lordosis support [i.e., fitted my spinal curve] that I have ever experienced on a train. Clearly someone [?Hitachi] has been doing some useful ergonomics research in designing these seat units. Granted my body envelope won't be the same as too many folk's but I was rather pleased with the comfortable journey.

Given that a black pudding is essentially a deep fried blood clot with a bit of bran/sawdust filler, I can see your point.

The 3D printing part comes in the design of casting masters [for resin] [as per JLTRT] and, by creating a negative envelope [if that makes sense], a method for producing short run injection moulding tools by casting. In the model aircraft and model armoured vehicle world, many add-on detailing parts are produced in this way - again to be used as masters for casting processes. Hi-res 3D prints themselves, IMO are too fragile and light sensitive to have any long-term use other than as casting masters.

Love the soundtrack. Any ideas what it is?

Pete 75c - All resin can warp - though it is far more common in unbuilt kits than once built. Perhaps the reason is storage and pressure put on in storage. However, there is a simple solution and that is: Put the warped item in the sink and gradually pour water that is still very hot [but has gone off the boil] on to it. The object will pop back into its proper shape. If you are concerned, give Phil Radley a ring and he'll describe how he does it. I've done this with Radley Models resin kits a couple of times and it works like a dream. Others in the 7mm world have done the same with his 30T Flat Wagon and have reported that it works well. Happy New Year

It is SRman, but it is quite a transparent colour. You'll find that the undercoat colour makes an awful lot of difference to the end result. Use the two postcard match trial I suggested at post #43

Going back in time to WW2, most [if not all] ballast motors, battery locos, electric locos [L8 & L9] and pilot motor cars were painted grey. Similarly most of the service departmental rolling stock were also painted grey - a relic perhaps of the Metropolitan's favourite rolling stock/wagon colour! Similarly, the Met Bo-Bos were also painted grey. In the early '50s, the Met Bo-Bos were painted in LMS maroon and the pilot motor cars etc were repainted in a colour called "unlined lake" which was a deep almost chocolate maroon. The closest I have ever come to it is airbrushing a top coat of LMS maroon over a red oxide primed battery loco.. You get a totally different effect from say, when using a white or grey primer. Panniers, Bo-Bos, Met E, F, X etc., classes would have been high gloss and lighter i.e., use a white or grey primer and of course gold/black lined. The use of unlined lake predated the use of ex-GWR panniers by a good 9-10 years. By LT's 50th anniversary celebrations [a weekend at the beginning of July 1983 wandering around both Chiswick Works and Acton Works never to be forgotten], many of the service locos were being painted in an all over bright yellow. "AA Yellow" [available in rattle cans from Halfords] is an excellent match IMO. If you want to see what unlined lake looks like - Go on one of the Museum Depot open weekends and gaze at the Electric Sleet loco. I would suggest practicing with a couple of postcard size pieces of plastic card - Prime one red oxide and one light grey and then spray them both with LMS Maroon. You will be quite surprised gobsmacked at the difference when dry.

During my time in the Army, I think most, if not all the folk I worked with would have been quite pleased to be considered dated, elite and non-inclusive! The Army wasn't, isn't and can never be, suitable for all.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. The Romans did have a way with words didn't they? - and 2000 years later we can still jump to the same conclusions!

Without suggesting anyone's name in particular, is it at all possible that there are some lurking about with a vested interest in keeping alive the concept of Coopercraft "goodwill" such that when they buy into or buy out the business at rock-bottom prices, there is no immediate revulsion in the minds of potential customers when they hear the name "Coopercraft"?