CKPR

I was born and bred in Cumbria with parents from Hull, went to the local schools and despite my affected dialect when writing about the M&CR, I have a neutral accent with a slight but discernible generic Northern burr. Needless to say, I am frequently described as sounding posh, especially by Mrs-CKPR-to-be. Who is originally from Coventry an urban conurbation in the the West Midlands that isn't Burr Ming 'Am. And who never ever sounds just ever so slightly like a female Noddy Holder. Absolutely not. Never. No sirreee.

I actually did the dreaded 'media training' in a previous job and found it to be very practical. Our tutors were ex-ITN and Reuters journalists who coached us in unscripted live interviewing in which we had to convey the gist of a complex clinical or professional issue in less than 30s. We did practice interviews in real-time in replica TV and radio studios as a part of a mock 'live' news programme. I'd definitely recommend this sort of training (and not just because they said I did very well).

I switched to using Johnson's 'Klear" floor polish or equivalent as a varnish as per the aeroplane modellers.

My miniature M&CR is set in 1908-14 so a few years to go before downgrading to a tatie store in 'speatry:

Traditionally, workbenches were (are ?) designed for standing up at and some benches used to have vertical extensions to bring work up to eye level. As almost all of us now sit down to work at our workbenches rather than standing, we're not adopting the correct posture for much of the work we're doing - I sometimes wonder whether those Scandinavian 'kneeling stools' might be more appropriate than a conventional chair or a stool .

Getting phosphoric acid fumes in my eyes whilst soldering was rather alarming and merited a trip to the cottage hospital to have my eyes rinsed out with something that turned everything a greeny yellow for the next couple of days.

Just like any other day round here but then again, we do live (literally) on the Shropshire-Herefordshire border...

Together with Hornby's 'Basset Lowke' so-called 'steampunk' collection ?!

Thanks for these leads, which I'll be following up.

I'm looking for some of the old MAJ kits for L&YR 10' 6" / 12' wagon underframes as used in their wagon kits - I'm pretty sure these were sold separately and also used in some Colin Ashby kits, which I would also be interested in.

Mrs CKPR-to-be's daughter (i.e. she who lost my stock of card and brass - see "Mealsgate" thread ) went to Vietnam last September to teach English and it looks like she is now there for the duration. Given the way things are panning out here, she's probably better off where she is as long as we can get parcels of socks, Marmite and old Penguin Modern Classics out to her.

Dangerously on topic - the entry for "Survivors" in my copy of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1979) noted that the eponymous survivors of a lethal virus (which, as the the author of the entry wryly noted, seemed to have miraculously spared middle-class professionals and wiped out the urban proletariat) wasted a lot of time and effort trying to get fuel for diesel generators when they could have much more easily have used preserved steam engines. Which in turn reminds me of a contemporary comic strip in "Warlord" in which a group of plucky teenagers and old codgers fight back against a Warsaw Pact invasion of the UK using old steam engines including IIRC 'City of Truro' and a Dukedog.

The results of two evenings metal bashing ready for the final filing, shaping and then soldering of the boiler & smokebox and forming the firebox. Yes, I know that Peter Denny once famously built an 0-6-0 in a week but then he was a reverend gentleman who could possibly call on a bit of divine intervention, or at least inspiration, to speed things up a bit. He (Rev. Denny, not the Good Lord) certainly had a Hobbies fretsaw, which probably heIped a bit as well. I, on the other hand, am a mere clinician / scientist with a piercing saw and selection of files...

My thoughts exactly !

Really nice models and you seem to be channeling not only the early days of the FR but also of the pioneering days of 16mm modelling, particularly with your figures which remind me of the characters that always to grace 'Archangel' engines and coaches back in the 1970s.

My dad is apparently very distantly related to the Earl of Listowel and we might have been in line to inherit the crumbling pile that was (is ?) Listowel Castle on account of a somewhat weak male lineage over in Ireland. However, the penultimate Earl had a late in life marriage / dalliance with a lady somewhere in south east Asia and a few years ago, I read that a subsequent court ruling in favour of said lady's son had apparently ruled out my already very remote chances of inheriting an Irish peerage. Ho hum.

Definitely a mixture of pipe smoke, over-heating open-frame motors and piles of old 1950s and 60s magazines as typified by the Northern Model Railway Exhibition in Harrogate in the 1970s - I bought my first Slaters NER hopper kit from this show and to this day, I only have to look at an unmade one to be olfactorily transported back

Which idiot decided to use 'half-hard' 10thou. N/S sheet for the new boiler...

Been rummaging in the eaves and have now retrieved my stock of raw materials from behind several large boxes of books belonging to Mrs CKPR-to-be's daughter, her never played guitar, an old carpet, a spare pair of curtains and the cushions from two Arne Jakobsen armchairs - Friday night is now boiler rolling night !

Thank you, that's really informative and I've got some of the foam-backed sanding sheets and those very paints in stock so I'll be able to give your approach a go for my next open wagon.

Water cranes, like signalling, turntables, etc were often bought in from outside manufacturers and so it was possible to see the same design on different pre-grouping railways - the L&Y / GE example probably represents a design that was bought in by the GE.

A very nice wagon indeed and I particularly like the interior finish - do you have a particular method for painting , ermm, unpainted wood ?

Only the one journey in my case in late 1971 - early 1972, which was recorded by chance by Border TV and hence I can be seen, albeit very fleetingly, on the 'Trains to Keswick' DVD [NB Don't watch hoping to see a 'Precedent' or a 'Cauliflower' , though, - strictly Derby Lightweights by this stage !].