runs as required

So Wing Commander: this is an aerial view of the 10 chain curve from the south west, while Toddy is flying over the Harbour station. So he still has quite a lot still to build n'est ce pas ? (as we say in Douvre) dhig

My Oh My! These pics of your layout are getting within a hair'sbreadth of passing a Reality Check.... Very soon folk will be able to travel to places simply by logging onto your thread and making a Wish! dhig

Looking at post #2702 I'd give it 7 out of 10 for verticalness - despite the last pic trying to compensate for 'leaning on the lampost' - and the stanchions by tilting the camera. LOL Yer tipped the camera the wrang way pet! dhig [edit for crap typing]

Loved the DS I was never forgiven by SWMBO for selling her nearly brand new Mini in Liverpool (in 1961, where they still seemed as rare as Ferraris) and buying what proved to be a totally clapped out DS 19. She was a Child Care officer and used to drive round Kirby in it where peopel would open the door saying 'Kerist! We thought we had problems till we saw you arrive in your Motor'.

Gosh Jaz those look brilliant! Thanks for going to the trouble to dig all those out to tell the full story. On the two yalla examples I can see the value of using both the air spray and following up with brush paint and powders. I do like the idea of that Tomboy Jaz ducking around the sidings at March armed with her aerosols. I understand what you mean saying once you've broken the ice on those costly boxed ex works mint locos, everything is easy. Must have been like that in real life at somewhere like Tyne Dock 'shed' in the 60s/70s confronted with the arrival of brand spanking new 9Fs dhig

And what about taking 'Fiddler on the roof' along with you? The poor mutt has been stuck up there since 2011, a good walk will do you both a power of good!

Jaz Did you plump for the big compressor or the smaller £80 package? They'd sold out of the smaller when I called on them (they said they'd had a great day) so I thought I'd ask wor Dan when I got back home whether the larger one could be of use to him too on his motor bike restoration projects. I stopped for a long time afterwards next door watching that military chap Steve from Topp Shop, Stafford working away with his powders, brushed acryllics etc. I had an interesting exchange with him and a fellow spectator about using hair spray as a fixative over powders (like fixing a charcoal life drawing) instead of blasting it all off and away with matt varnish spray as this guy had done. I ended up driving back to daughter's wondering whether the airbrush might be a bit too smooth and bland for my needs. dhig PS I've really enjoyed all the Ricoh images and videos you've posted - were they all just done with that ipad?

Um....... This actually happened to me with woven rush matting in Malawi. A village out near Mlange mountain made these as a local industry so via a draughtsman I ordered a 10 ft diameter circular one. I kept on asking when was it going to arrive....eventually after several months the reply came that they were going to start clearing the bush to assemble it for me next week. Alarm Bells! The draughtsman and I drove out to check and the chief produced a much thumbed note with 3.00 meters dia. still clearly legible on it. Fortunately my friendly Italian contractor offered to collect all the mats in a big truck and stored them in an empty go-down. Last time I saw him he was in his eighties, still selling them! dhig Edit: still trying to think how to make this post more On Topic

Nice to see him perched back on his window cill sandwich after all that Route 66 Fat Boy stuff riding across the Big Country.... but..... we could have waited until his Batman had finshed unwrapping the Tardis dhig

Way Aye! Any other Mackem lad would do the same. dhig

How very brave of you all at Arboretumville. Careful about just how much you tie into dt's technology or you'll end up paying his eye watering Dover lecky bill ! dhig

David Wright is a really gifted lovely guy - and so generous about revealing his techniques (and explaining about what he actually sees when looking at buildings) I asked him this morning about modelling your "Ye Olde White Horse" and its thatch (yes I crept back into Ricoh this morning for another decko). He pointed to that cottage (just visible bottom left in the above pic). He said he uses "plumbers' hemp" and applies it to scraped foam board much as thatchers make up bundles and work along from the bottom of the roof pitch up to the ridge. Only prob is sourcing plumbers' hemp, long since dispensed with. He suggested trying on line - I think he said he had been dashed his chunk by Pendon. I have to confess he was NESW* about my 'break through' dhig *Never Eat Shredded Wheat

Way aye, you divvunt hang aroond Hinnie! How many posts is that since you got back to Arboretumville? Some amazing pics you have managed to put up, of stuff I never actually spotted in detail for all the "jaw jaw". Personally speaking that is the best show I've ever been to - mostly because it was possible to actually talk in an engaged way to the experts (I'd flagged up before as wanting to contact) without feeling there was a huge crowd behind resenting the old f*#¥ hogging the action. Thanks so much for taking all that trouble to herd us together - mebbe harder than cats..... dhig

I cracked this prob the other day by googling 'how to post on RMweb' and got directed to a very helpful thread. I wasn't transferring from a phone but a JPEG on my computer and could just simply copy the file into the post - no complexities with another programme such as Flikr nor nuffink. dhig

Have you seen this You tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT8xhOjYGDE of 'Environmental Dave' starting a Commer TS3 dupercharged diesel two stroke? dhig

"The roof being too heavy for the walls" was one reason why we were able to afford to buy our house when we came back from Africa with all wor bairns. I'm ashamed to admit we used child labour to take it off ...OK - it might still leak a bit - but it works. About thatch- have you thought of trying dried lavender stalks? They bunch up well, can be hustled into the right shapes plus they smell good too! And do you quote for train (and art ) room tidying on a contract basis? I'd really appreciate .... dhig

Its geet posh roond there now since you was last there - lots of new houses for sale with BMWs parked up and bits of sculpture (public art) plonked hither and thither. The exhibish was packed - with some good layouts too. I'll try my first RM web post of a pic that might interest you of a tunnel mouth and trees. Beautifully done - so much so it reminded me of DP [edit]Ha it worked! It is a wonderful layout called Blackgill that had fooled me at first with the Ribble bus - I was reckoning it was S&D (somewhere around Kikrby Stephen) over in Cumbria. But reading the programme when I got home I found it is actually supposed to be our own NW Durham going up to Stanley and Consett - so the Ribble should have been a yeller Venture bus. I bet you used to do timed hill climbs up to Stanley through Beamish and around there on yer bike....

OK an update on this: I can report how I eventually grasped the nettle, attacking first with a waft of matt black spray to give a key, then throwing the lot at it: powders (from a set of 'The Works' pastels) and acrylic paints. After a couple of goes at it - the second in daylight - I was satisfied that it looked like some of the photos I managed to trawl up of Garretts at work. (Wish I could work out how to post pix on this site.) Then it struck me! That I'd thoroughly 'messed up' Hatton's wunderkind without first checking whether it actually worked - given all the probs documented here. To my huge relief it has run silently and smoothly now for an hour in both directions. So I'm as happy as Larry with it - my most expensive loco by far in more than seventy splodge years. The only minor glitch is that the 'mineral or empty waggon train' lamp only lights up when running bunker first. I'm loath to split it apart to check whether the fibre optic to the other end is adrift until I get round to installing a sound chip. dhig [edit] Does this pic upload?

Gosh! The meat in this sandwich has got seriously spicy since I last looked in (when it could all still fit on the window ledge). A very enjoyable read from Sir Greasily @ Dawlish, through N gauge plotting for MD's play, to the Big Country and recycling empty wine bottles. dhig P.S. I read in that posh www.smarttinc.com website that the idea for those radio controlled trains a mile or more long came originally from DCC model railroading. On some railroads a guy shunts the yard sitting in his automobile using his mobile phone app. .....and now there are going to be crewless ships bringing all the crates of Hornby trains across the world for us for Christmas....

Way aye Pet.... I could slip yer another unmakeable art deco water tower I like the idea of a lunchtime pie & peas meet-up coinciding with a tab break. dhig

Yippee! Daughter Rache she say Yais! Oh ...and Bonk means Bonk up here north of the Gateshead Angel just as it does everywhere else - with Wallabies, wellies, sheep w.h.y. dhig

Way Aye...... Up early cos I'm off ter cop this in Railex NE at the Meadowell! near you I believe (Swanley Bromley and Victoria)

Thats bad news - it means I'm going to have lie through my teeth about how much money I actually managed to spend while looking at 'a few toy trains'. dhig

I really thought them the pits to ride in - compared to the view forward DMUs on other regions. They used them over Romney Marsh from Hastings via Rye. But then the real Hastings diesel/electric units were something else - I even liked standing in them all the way from Sevenoaks up to Charing Cross simply for the noise they made. dhig PS yer platform stanchions look straighter tonight dt

Um....now how do I do this... & Hi smee, in actual poisson.... dt is right, I didn't say anything to him about Coventry - cos I hadn't found out about it at that stage. I was talking to him about whether he was coming up to N Shields for the Blyth&Tyne exhibition this weekend. And actually his mum is a whole lot more fun than dt - who is always complaining about the way his layout keeps curling up in all his tab smoke. About Coventry: my CEO says its fine by her - but did I not think to check first with daughter Rache that they'd be prepared to accept the old trouts for that weekend? (we're still awaiting confirmation of that). But it would be very interesting to meet up with y'all. dhig