runs as required

I'm always late in arriving at your parties.... But the bottom right corner of the Peak District also used to be noted for its wild wallabies. I used to spot them on the Cat and Fiddle moors - apparently they escaped from the silk banker Brocklehurst's estate near Congleton/Leek. Once I was out climbing/walking in the Roaches with a rather posh friend who was training to be a priest when he suddenly took off shouting "C***** there's an EFFING yak chasing us!" I'm always slow on the uptake and didn't react - luckily it tore past me and shot off after the would-be priest. We learnt afterwards that there had been two, but it's mate had met its end head-butting a red post office van down into the clough. Apparently Brocklehurst collected all manner of exotics but didn't much bother with fences. dh

Thank you for the great detail in which you have logged this project; a most engrossing read. Like an earlier contributor, I too weighed up an Emily a year or two back, pondering whether my Kitmaster versions might be compatable. But that, I'm ashamed to say, is as far as I got .... dh

This image is posted here so as not to besmirch Ron Heggs’s unique thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28293-manchester-central-clc-gn-warehouses-castlefield-viaducts/ on the bringing back to life of Manchester Central station, CLC & GN Warehouses & Castlefield Viaducts I posted in Ron's thread (post #2665) how, as a frequent user of the old Central station, I was always disappointed with the improvised timber weatherboarded front elevation that Cheshire Lines promised would be 'temporary' but which turned out to be permanent. In my mind as I approached, I always pictured something like the arcades to Tiviot Dale with the fenestration to offices above in brick and stone, with the great arch of the train shed and its clock oversailing everything behind. ‘Borrowing’ some of Ron’s brick side elevations, I have attempted a quick 'Photoshop' collage of ‘what might have been’. It is a bit daunting attempting to finish off something 130 odd years later – particularly as the original side elevation to Fowler’s arch are hybrids: big classically proportioned sash windows over gothic windows (at least it isn't the other way round). So I have gone for stone trimmed Tiviot Dale style arcades topped with dressed stone versions of Central station's upper side windows. There is a prominent central projecting pavillion, (cribbed from Clivedon) flanked by two stone faced 'bookends' terminating the facade; all topped with balustrades and urns. Recessive intermediate elements of the façade are in brick with glass canopies infilling between the arcades. This isn’t nearly as bravura as somewhere like Huddersfield, but the Cheshire Lines didn’t seem to go in for big architectural gestures – they much preferred big spending on engineering structures. But it does seem to have an urban affinity with the old Liverpool Central mid 1880s façade. dh PS I am just old enough to remember the last of those old pre-war streamline painted Mancunian Crossleys

Los mejores deseos para 2015 Ron. It is my first visit to the project this year and it really is uncanny to see the lighting and interior atmosphere of that great space re-appearing. I have a question for you. As a frequent user of the old Central station I was forever disappointed with the improvised timber weatherboarded main elevation facing across to the Midland Hotel. I'd like to ask whether you have ever considered conceiving and modelling an alternative "what ought to have been" facade? It could be interchangable to the actual elevation that Cheshire Lines promised would be 'temporary' but which turned out to be permanent. In my mind as I approached, I always pictured something like the gothic arcades to Tiviot Dale with fenestration to offices above in brick and stone, with the great arch of the train shed and its clock oversailing everything behind. dh

Very admiring of this - just like the real thing! And - all the lighting poles are vertical dh

I wish to disagree 1 I think the lawn mower .....while the Penguins, I remember were booted out from some other place....... 2 Who ever 'shopped' that 33 swinging thru the yard could at least have placed it on the same road as its train. dh

Before enjoying the cartoon, what I'd really meant to say was... "I'm really really looking forward to you tearing into that massive chalk cliff at the back of the big yard along the shoreline this New Year!" Best Wishes dt and be sure to Let it all hang out ! and do please post some action NAFF videos By way of example: dh

Ref post #4002 - this is even more true of cats. ...It is very difficult to unscramble what they've keyed in while terrorising the Querty keys. dh

Here's a 'What might have been' on the ECML It is about 1942, WWII never happened, Bulleid stayed on at Doncaster becoming CME. Ever susceptible to the cheesiest of art deco motifs, OVS fell for this LNER version of the Burlington Zephyr with Armstrong Whitworth ‘mobile power station’ Sulzer diesel engines driving generators as ‘pre-electrification’ motive power for the (eventually) electrified ECML originally planned by Merz and Raven. dh

Good to read of all the insulation going into the roof soffit and the walls - I've never ever properly learnt my lesson about skimping on this. Interesting also about the sparks of inspiration about actual layout construction possibilities - i.e. 'through' the landscape rather than on a baseboard.. Can I ask: are 'L girders' roughly the same thing as 'Spline' construction? Here is a link to images of US spline layout building: https://www.google.com/search?q=spline+model+railroad+construction&biw=1280&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=QwWrVJTJHZHY7Aatz4DgDg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw Best wishes on the venture dh

I really admire your Warship from memory, and the college piece. My mum threw out (while I was working abroad) all the stuff I'd done at school and college in the 1950s - before the days of easy photography. The only way I have ever been able to stay awake in boring meetings or seminars is by doodling. I particularly enjoy ‘What Might Have Beens’. Since you are clearly a Western’ man; I'll fess up to impossibly big single driver fantasy Bristol and Exeter tank locos – and what Hawksworth might have done - with a cab forward Swindon Pacific in chocolate and cream, oh and a NYC streamliner rip off on a Castle… …Don’t worry I’ve already got my coat dh

Some very delectable cars circulating in Louth your diarama. I always rather fancied a Jowett Javelin like my stylish friend with string back gloves owned....but instead ended up paying through the nose to keep first a big Citroen DS like that then, much later, a yellow 2CV motoring until eventually I saw sense.... dhig

Isn't that a shunting signal? dhig

Wasn't there a (Liverpool?) band called 'half man/half biscuit? Not really sure what all this existential stuff means .... is it a legitimate enough excuse to use the (? in a circle) 'indeciferable/Unsure of meaning' button? [like all those thoughts you've ever had staring at the communication cord] dhig

Up here in the Sweatshop (close to Norway), we reckon the guys with the 'precision Sat Naff' are trying to work out where you are furthest from the Frenchies (post #3634 ). Peering into Google maps we reckon it must be the north end of platform 1 both on the model in your garage and when you are out photographing reality at DP. Meanwhile keep a watch on the mouth of Shakey tunnel...just in case the French get at you from there.....sacre bleu dhig

Wifey has never forgiven me for getting compromised (just like that) while waiting for me to turn up for the pickkies on a Friday night at the bottom end of London Road in L'pool - just up round the corner from the former Lime Street station hotel....... ......and what is more....... it could well have been for "The 39 Steps" BUT which version? probably (in terms of the era) it would have been the technicolour one with Kenneth More. I preferred an earlier b+w one where Hannay jumps out on a bridge over a river. You could really imagine this was on the 'Port road' somewhere in Galloway .

A Waite Waine Bar??? Back in the days of Minis and Dièsse Citroens!! By heck lass .... you must have been real Movers and Shakers doon there in Spudlinc Spalding - way ahead of the game. Up here in Blaydon we're still awaiting our first immigrants / UKIP politicos waving pint glasses at us. dhig

painting the 82 arches of the Welland viaduct in May can get just a wee.....eee bit repeititve and the resulting canvas (of supposedly Britain's largest masonry structure*) is mighty long dhig * "hang on there.... howz'aboot wor Hadrian's waal? Geordie asks...

I was directed to look at this layout by another RMweb fundi, and I have to confess to having just walked into an unprecedented 'domestic' downstairs in consequence : "Do you realise you've been on that bloody computer THREE WHOLE HOURS ?" Anyway I eventually managed to palm the lady off with 'Homelands' with a bottle of Cointreau alongside before sneaking back up to complete the tour..... I can only add to all the eulogies about the breathtakingly intricate OHLE landscape (is it somewhere north west of Wakefield?) you've created as a setting for running a wonderfully eclectic mix of trains through - with even a hint of NIR units in the offing ! I enjoyed reading about your planned platform announcements. Our family's firm favourite was the lady who announced at York for years through the 1970s and 80s.- we all loved doing imitations of her. Eventually, as fellow drama students, my daughter became friends with her daughter - and so we met the famous lady in person. ....and no end of a character she proved to be. dhig

Actually [sniff of disapproval from Geordie down-the-A1-in-white-van-on-Mondays-back-on-Friday plumbers] we could have properly cleaned up all that unsightly plumbing within the price we quoted. Nay bother like. dhig

The ghosts of locos past..... can anyone else see a likeness to Bulleid and Raworth in that 74's face? left to right: 1940s Waterloo & Bank SR 'drain' train /SR 'Leader' / BR 74 dhig [edit: sp correction]

The father of an old friend of mine in Wigan was a professional coach painter and I'd never thought about the subtleties (and the complexities) of varnishing until he demonstrated and explained the skill while refinisnishing a classic old Rolls Royce Phantom I hearse in the late 1950s. He and his son were also fanatic coarse fishermen; his way of praising a good job was "so deep you could fish in it!" dhig

Many thanks for that.....but... ......how does it get under the DP footbridge ? dhig

Surprising that an Essex man dislikes blue engines ( even with far away 'Narch' shed plates). An Essex man myself, I used to love this J69 Lpool St pilot in GER blue https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Liverpool+street+GER+pilot&client=firefox-a&hs=kfq&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=fflb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=C108VK_zNdPtaOG3gJAG&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=647#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=mxj4DJIMnBVsDM%253A%3Bz4ZrX-pJzumBeM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fc1.staticflickr.com%252F9%252F8434%252F7733764638_994d125d4c_z.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.flickr.com%252Fphotos%252Frgadsdon%252F7733764638%252F%3B640%3B411 dhig

tried to find the famed camera truck in this overview - but without success dhig