runs as required

Nice! And....a chance for me to flaunt my CV I once fixed Twiggy's Mini - it was early one morning in Princess Road, Camden Town, simply suffering from damp in the distributor as all Minis used to do. I went off to work in Brixton walking tall dhig

So why don't you try using Google translate to post that in Eyetalian..... .....(graunchy sound of Constant Motion legs running for cover)

Ah Ha! At last a chance to deviate! So how the £&%$ do my Constant Motion Legs work? dhig

Thats the only inspirational thought to emerge from today's whole sad mauve jobbie dhig

dhig says (still sobbing purple tears.....) the colours now look a bit better, could the whole shebang be slid north a bit to get the bridge parapet line to co-incide? And how is the total height working out relative to the existing backdrop? ....... (....poised on the parapet of R. Stephenson's High Level Bridge awaiting a favourable answer)

response from the Newcastle Gattsheed (cultural side of the river) Sweat Shop: AAAARGH...... :ireful:

This needs referring to the Mods ....clearly its more properly a Brian Cox quantum mechanics post Previously the topic was just for us dear old Heartbeat 'feet in the clarts' dhig

A Johnny-come-Lately to this thread - here is a really silly alternative : Think about those balanced pulley systems that raise and lower heavy light (chandelier) installations. With that in mind what about having a rigid assembly that gets "flown" up and down to the ceiling? Obviously leave enough clearance below the ceiling not to crush stuff. Then you ( and MD) can decorate the underside of the layout -rather like the Sistine Chapel. dhig

I'm full of admiration for your open approach to developing models. So here's my wish list. I love the small old stuff oozing charisma. Did the USA tank ever actually get launched as an RTR - it was promised by a magazine a year or so back, I seem to remember ? Then there are those whimsical little old GER tanks with tall suprised looking cabs, big spectacle windows maybe with a cartoonlike stovepipe chimney - J68 or maybe an Fsomething. And except for the G2As, pre grouping Crewe never gets a look in. Yet there is nothing more characterful than a Webb loco - what about the Jumbo Hardwicke? No...wait....the CME's own Cornwall inspection saloon! er...thats it....except....dare I suggest....my own avatar?.....Brunton's Steam Horse dhig

Congratulations on the 3000 (and 15) posts ...... .......along with the 5 mock-ups. Is that .....um...... 1 mock up per 600 posts ? dhig

there really ought to be a wall for dacency's sake.......what with all that luggage - just how many are squashing into that Camping Coach? If I were that Station Master I'd be anxiously poring over the small print of BTC Hotels and Catering, Marylebone 'supplementary regulations', May to September 1958, Schedule 7 para 4.1: 'Camping Coaches, Improper uses of' dhig

Its always been the other way round for me - as in "I used to be uncertain, now I'm not so sure" dhig ...seriously though... Love those old aerial pics. I really like it when you can glimpse the wings of the Tiger Moth as the pilot holds his box brownie out into the slipstream

So what might he have brought back in it? After all these years are you ever going to get down to opening it up ? dhig

After that stupendous sequence of comparative fencing posts, mebbe you deserve an OT post (or two) 1 I think you used to do time trials on yer bike up thru Greenside onto the high NW Durham moors; my 3 kids all went to the local Comp and have just found this (though the standard of English doesn't seem to have improved over the years). 2 Eight year old grandson in Heaton was lured out of bed to get to school in Byker extra early for football practice last week. Getting there just after half seven he said 'What's the maths teacher doing here?' It turned out to be remedial 'Football and Numeracy' Who says teachers are all dunderheads? dhig

Things look pretty scary doon there - some sinister stuff around! Besides all the glue - were those poor souls lying about the platform electrocuted? I couldn't help noticing the red and black bare wires looming in the background. Day of the Tryfids? Or Conan Doyle's 'The Poison Belt'? I seem to remember the Southern Railway featured in that..... ....its safer oop noorth dhig

Here we go.....

Woops! Just woken up agin. Trackspacing? Check Google Maps in max close up. (I downloaded and measured Helpston once for someone - if I can find it amidst all the bytes and pixcels.) dhig

Blimey Jaz! You've lost me with all these 'bungalows within bungalows views' and explanations (mebbe it's because I'm a bit dozey due to all the Sunday din sloshing around in me). If you do requests: can I request a model of chez AV actually on the layout? Then perhaps we can peer in thru the model bungalow's Velux and just glimpse a little model of.......zzzzzz dhig

I think the music would really annoy me on that sound decoder Interesting that it says "Armstrongs" on that headboard. My understanding was that those diesel electrics were English Electric and that Armstrongs never got anywhere with railways in the UK (and particularly the Southern) with their "pre-electrification" strategies. It was only the British owned Argentinian railways link that bought the Scotswood made trains. dhig

Here is a link to the 2014 programme It really is well worthwhile a visit The first Grand Prix was an absolutely crazy 'Formula libre' race around the Valletta bastions three or four years ago with no crowd control, no nuffink. Cars of all eras are entered - with a lot of either classic old British or old Italian, depending on which Football team the driver supports. A word of warning though, don't take any car you really value along with you - I reckon the Sicilian mafia are across in force that week. dhig

Hang on! Was that ours? I braved that Blaydon roundabout washer plenty of times with all our various wrecks over the years. Don't remember your whole food van calling in though - and a Volvo estate lived next door. I used to enjoy that cheeky 2CV mock Audi advert "Four sprung seats for Picnic!" dhig

I enjoyed watching the Graffit festa but the Clowns are altogether in a more brilliant and sinister league. I love the idea that they could animate overnight and take over Kal's trains! dhig

Wife was a social worker at the time - which may justify her driving a yellow 2CV I've always been addicted to them (along with the corrugated iron Citroen van) ever since a Frenchman gave me a hair raising ride in one up and down the steps of a hilltop monastery in N France when I was a spotty youth biking along looking at roadside light railways in 1953. 2CVs were virtually new then and something of a rarity! dhig

I remember Ken Colyer's trad jazz band used to fit into a beautiful grey DS Safari. The Beeb had a long tradition of using Humber Super Snipes for outside broadcasts, from 1940s "Monty" type military staff cars on into the later "box on box" Rootes body styles. It would make a great cameo in the corner of a layout. dhig

My son's first ever picture of him 'driving' a car was when he was 15 months standing up on my knee holding onto the white plastic single spoke wheel of our DS19 mentioned here.There is another of him as a teenager knee deep pushing his mum's yeller 2CV ashore off the Holy Island causeway.... so he should have known better. (He is now 50 and into Dino engined cars: a Fiat spider, a Lancia Stratos + a long term project to re-construct a 246 spider to finance his OAP). But last year he partexed an MG BGT for an SM which the French dealer paid for his Channel ferry crossing to deliver/collect in Brittany. He brought the SM up to show us triumphantly and it fairly howled up over Hartside. Going back home to Oxford it lost all its hydraulics on the A1M and had to be piggy backed home. It only cost him £50 for a new seal at a Citroen specialist's somewhere in west London, nevertheless he swapped it for a simply beautiful (as new) dark green DS21 which he has used daily since in commuting to Bicester Parkway. dhig edit to add link