brack

I know we're not in pregrouping territory here, but this is what it ought to look like:

It had been at a caravan park in tasmania for kids to play on for a while before it came to tanfield (on the coast, nice and rusty - the cab was so far gone it wasnt sent). I think most of the fittings were gone before it came, and it has a dodgy boiler as they swapped the good stuff off it before withdrawal. The idea behind its purchase was that its built in the north east (RSH). all 10 of the class are preserved, the other 9 back in tasmania - this one is in about the worst condition out of any of them.

Best preserved line I've been on? Probably Blonay-Chamby. 1900s coaching stock, beautiful scenery, mallets and rack tanks, museum, both ends reached by metre gauge public transport (hell, they run steam into the SBB/CEV station at vevey) and after we'd missed the train and had a half mile walk to the MOB station, I asked one of the gentlemen where the path started and he insisted on getting a tram out the shed and giving my friend and I a lift! In this country those which stick out to me are the Manx electric, the IoM steam railway, ravenglass, festiniog/WHR and threlkeld. Doesnt mean the others are bad (I rather like exploring the dump/graveyard at tanfield for example) but that's how I feel. As a parent of small kids, sometimes the big extensions enthusiasts clamour for make the journey too long.

When we lived at Leicester I often used to wander round the woods and reservoirs near the GCR. Travelled on it a few times. It is an unremarkable but pleasant line, in unremarkable but pleasant countryside for much of it's way. And that is what makes it more representative of the past than most lines - to me (age 37, no experience of the real past) it feels a bit like a real secondary main line, rather than an overgrown branch or industrial spur stuffed with massive locos (which is what some feel like). Some of the stations are quite lovely. Would I rather be riding over the furka pass or the cockermouth, keswick and penrith? In some ways yes, but that wasnt always the option on a saturday for an hour or two.

Shapeways' edge to me was that it is effectively the eBay of 3D printing. You design and upload, then they do the printing, shipping and sales. Their marketplace has allowed me to sell models on 6 continents - I have produced more Sipat locos than Bagnalls did, and the trickle of royalties paid for my own prints, my lathe, my milling machine and other hobby purchases. Sadly their continual efforts to raise their prices and make prints lower quality and less detailed (back in 2011 they successfully printed locos with 0.17mm cross sectional diameter curly handwheels, which they forced me to revise 3 times over the years until I gave up, left them off and got some etched) have reduced the flow of orders to an intermittent trickle.

If you wanted a new build 444t I'd be looking at the wirral, rather than the rather ugly things the met had. Plus if you wanted to talk about things unrepresented in preservation, the wirral railway was one of those pregrouping lines where everything was culled in the 20s.

I believe there are somewhat earlier references to individuals practising naturism in a garden eastwards in eden...

Didn't expect The Art of The Deal in this thread....

Carbon neutral freight haulage: I believe a few of these might be lying around in somewhat derelict condition, we might have some teeny trouble with our loading gauge being a touch small and our track gauge a bit large. The Benguela Railway owned several large eucalyptus plantations along the line. I believe the inland sections were timber fired, with Angela's abundant oil supplies being used nearer the coast. Far better than a 66 though.

Biodiesel (vegetable oil)

Commercially available bits from n brass: https://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/nloco.html

For all her faults, I'd have thought mrs may was also somewhat unlikely to be caught en flagrante with a young lady.

Really, I'm not so sure our current 'leader' could possibly be more like a tomcat...

No politics.... although for some reason that particular individual hasn't been allowed out for some weeks.

How the hell do you aim your guns steady when it bounces up and down? Or try and approach anything stealthily as it squeals around mild curvature? Also, I bet you anything the turrets would leak like a sieve and when the heating is on it smells of burning metal.

Itd be cheaper to grab some land off england in the marches when our civil war breaks out in the next year or two. Balkanisation both as intended (SNP) or unintended (conservative, DUP, brexit) policy or consequence is fairly popular in our electoral choices. I daresay a newly independent wales (assuming they dont immediately schism into Cardiff vs the rest) could secure territory around Shrewsbury with ease.

When you say still produce, so far as I'm aware it hasn't yet been released, only the prototype of the kit is out there so far as I know. It looks excellent mind you. I've built the ruston Proctor though and it was a great model. Neville's chassis always run well.

I suspect buckeye couplings and the expense of fitting and maintaining them makes more sense in a rake of 40' - 50' bogie fitted vehicles than in 10' wheelbase loose coupled stock (they have to cost more and require more maintenance than what is essentially just a bit of chain and a hook, but if you remove the buffers and reduce the risk to shunters having to go into the 4' the cost calculations might be different). Ironically Arthur Bazeley, who developed many of the improvements incorporated into the standard MCB/AAR coupler in the US, was english and had worked for the GWR before emigrating.

Yes, but on reading the rest of your post it isn't so hard to to understand why their wives are happy for them to spend so long out of the house volunteering...

A fair point, and one I'd agree with, especially as a teacher. I was more lamenting that whatever you do will likely fall on deaf ears, with those who would most benefit ignoring it, and those who already choose to inform themselves being those who would likely engage.

I'm afraid a significant proportion of the populace do not wish to be informed and prefer to be ignorant of the issues arising in our current national, global economic and political circumstances. A third of those eligible dont bother to vote, and I suspect a significant number of those who do vote have little or no idea of the actual policies and manifesto commitments of the party or candidate they vote for. Unfortunately the irresponsibly cast vote of the wilfully ignorant counts the same as an informed and carefully considered vote, and there tend to be more of the former, hence the success of base, illegal campaigning which panders to the ignorant in recent elections and referenda both here and abroad. Regardless of how a person chooses to vote, if they have a reasoned rationale behind their decision that is more than a headline in the Sun or a 5 word soundbite, I can find a way to respect that choice even if I disagree with it.

I suspect a lot of landlords would happily raise the rents on their ill maintained ex council houses and soak up any such increase in payments made either directly to 'the poor' or via housing benefit.

The North Eastern used compounding more extensively and for longer than the Midland. The midland's compounds all used the Smith system. Walter M Smith was of course the NER's chief draughtsman and developed the system there (he shared his developments with his friend and former colleague Johnson, who adopted the system at Derby). The hundreds of compound locos (both von borries and smith types) the NER turned out were certainly practical and successful, but later CMEs decided simple expansion was er, simpler and the coal savings weren't worth it. Smith compounds were also used by the GCR and GNR(I). Smith's pair of excellent 4 cylinder compound atlantics were well regarded and saw use on royal train duties, the NER had planned to build another 10 but Smith died in the mean time and his executors demanded high royalties for a system which had pretty much been developed on company time and money, so the second NER compounding era ended. Deeley's slight regulator modification to Smith's system on the midland made the locos easier for inexperienced drivers, but lost some of the advantages Smith's locos had with a good crew.

Don't worry, thats a common reaction when folk first encounter middlesbrough.

Donw - thanks for the photos. I have to say I really like the concept of a visible fiddleyard on an exhibition layout where each type of loco is labelled on its cassette. I imagine it's at least partly to help the operators organise and store them, but as a nosey observer I think it's great - satisfies curiosity, especially on a more esoteric layout where the locos are more curious than the norm.