Mad McCann

Certainly looks nice. That grey though; looks awful pale for the NB shade to my mind. Might need to ask Alan Goodwillie for his thoughts. Dave.

Aye, looks like it will be the same here. Not my favourite kit as I mentioned but you can still make a decent model from it. Dave.

Hopefully, the responses to this model's faults will persuade Oxford to pay a bit more attention to their pre-production research. Whilst I agree it shouldn't be necessary, the remedial work required here isn't massive and shouldn't give an experienced builder/basher major problems. Of course there is also the Parkside kit but being an older Westykits tooling I didn't find it one of their more enjoyable kits. A little fiddly and tricky to get square. Hopefully Parkside will re-tool it one day though I guess this model will reduce that likelihood somewhat.

Liking the ashplant. Looks much like the set up at Kingmoor and Upperby. Dave.

Dave. Thames-Forth/ Waverley formations from the book; 1954 - B3/C3/C3/C3/C3/C3/R3/C1/CC/B3 1960 - B2/02/02/02/R1/C1/CC/CC/B2 In both cases, the bun truck was an LMS 12 wheeler. Otherwise solid Mk1. Guess the 1960 formation is closest match for you. Dave.

You about on Monday, chief?

It's incredible how many different ways cancer can manifest itself. My dad and his brothers all succumbed to various cancers - admittedly my oldest uncle had visited Nagasaki in late 1945 though his appeared to be asbestos-related. I suspect asbestos may have had some bearing on my dad's too as he was a mechanic but smoked most of his days too. In my case, I only found out about mine through my brother having a diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2014. Fortunately, his was treated with radical surgery which took care of matters. After he insisted I get a PSA, it turned out my readings were borderline. An MRI and subsequent biopsy in March 2015 revealed I had a T2b, fortunately still contained inside the prostate. While the news was disappointing, the prognosis was good and I opted for radical surgery, being operated on in early May at the Freeman in Newcastle. The procedure was a fairly new technique - keyhole surgery via remotely controlled Da Vinci robot and was completely successful in removing the offending tumour. I'm very grateful that no follow-up treatments were required and ten weeks later I was back at work. One of the side effects of surgery has been impotence but such was the accuracy of the surgeon's operation of the robot that the nerve bundles were largely preserved and over time the 'equipment' has returned to a satisfactory state of function. Apart from the discomfort of the first few days-the worst part being the post-op constipation(!) and the week of wearing a catheter, I consider myself to have had an easy ride. OK, I spent 9 months stuffing tena pads in my boxers but to be fair, that was a pretty minor inconvenience. The main thing about prostate cancer is that if you catch it early enough, it can be well and truly nobbled. I was only 50 when I got my diagnosis and had no real symptoms apart from peeing a lot (which as a professional tea drinker never appeared unusual!), so even if you're only in your 40s it's worth getting a PSA if there's a family history. Lucky can barely begin to describe how I feel.

New NCB decals out now. My sets arrived this morning with some other items required. Top notch quality and service as I've come to accept as standard from Steve. You deserve to be highly successful, sir!

Wee heads-up, folks. The June Rail Express has a review sample of this wagon, suggesting it's not far away. Didn't get a chance to read it in depth as the owner nicked his magazine back (!) but I read the overall feel of the review as being positive. Dave.