RBAGE

Hornby magazine last month and this has a two part article on the conversion from class 110 to class 104. I've done a conversion using the Silver Fox bits and it didn't look half bad. Made a mess of the priming before paint so haven't gone any further. Iron Mink cab ends are very nice indeed.

How many do you want? I might be able to spare a few. I'll drop them off if I'm ever passing. 🌍↘️🌏

Seek help.

A woman’s rather or wedded bliss? You’re a braver man than I am to even contemplate fencing in the kitchen.

Go on.

Please read Father Ted reference. Then you'll understand.

September 1969. Just changed schools and ended up being reacquainted with a friend from Juniors who was and avid spotter. Neil Cowie. I hope you're still out there Fido. My first of many sessions lineside at Croxdale, on the end of the viaduct, started soon after. Being on the ECML were standard fare at the time. My first was D9010, The Kings Own Scottish Borderer, I remember Fido asked me to try and read the nameplate as it whipped past, just a few feet away. The Kings Coin was what I thought I saw. Happy days. Most of our spotting was either Croxdale, Durham or Newcastle (on a platform ticket from Durham). The platform tickets at Durham were platform specific (North and South) so the trick was to buy one from each platform before you travelled. Then get off either right at the back or right at the front so the ticket collector at the barrier didn't see you get off. Standing at the West end of platforms 9 and 10, at Newcastle Central Station, with a Deltic on both sides of the platform, throbbing, waiting for the off, is something never to be repeated. Absolute joy. No wonder I have tinnitus.

Somerset in June. WSR Diesel Gala. That's it but you know I like an opportunity.

Phil, Any outings planned for this year? Bob

Blue, I think. It would give the impression of continuity behind the trees.

How about putting a screen on the other side if the hole and beyond the tracks, painted the same blue? With the trees and a blue screen to eliminate the through light, the hole will be all but invisible.

It is a risk but a good idea all the same. Maybe something I might try myself, when the coast is clear. And as for his lordship, he does seem to like life on the edge.

Hope she's not reading this.

You dare do that?

Not exactly signalling but Castle Junction is getting there. The check rail gap requirements for bog standard 00 gauge is a bit embarrassing. Hopefully, it won't be so obvious once the track is weathered.

As a post script, I've just clocked a photo of 5105 in September 1972 with plated doors. The Derby Sulzer site confirms it. Don't know when the work was done but that'll do me.

Thanks Mike and John. Judging by the painted patches under the cab side windows it was quick job of renumbering. I did see a photograph of 5111 on the Derby Sulzer site which I wasn't sure if it had been plated over. Anyhow, shame. It'll have to go if I can't justify the change. Thanks.

I have a question relating to the class 24s that operated the route. Does anyone know when the first of them had the front doors plated over? I have an SLW 24 in TOPS blue and wondered if it would be inappropriate to renumber it pre-TOPS.

I recall a distance signal removed at Croxdale which I fancied. When I got up close I thought, how am I going to get this home on the bus.

Interesting. Must have fallen off the post.

The first attempts. Yes, I'm running before I can walk but I have to do something interesting to do while I wait for the Spring and temperatures conducive to working in the shed. The scissor crossing immediately West of Castle Junction, between the up and down goods lines. And Castle Junction. Still very much a work on progress. With my limitations with Templot, I decided to enlarge a map (National Library of Scotland) to 4mm scale equivalent, tape it into one map and transfer the formation onto paper. Rough and ready but it should work. All timbering in place and ready for chairs and rail.

White on black, certainly in the period I'm modelling. The East end of the station was remodelled in 1983. I think that's when the fish dock and platforms were removed,

I started my response to the drawings of the cast components. It became quite lengthy and while referring to some reference pilot error crept in and I lost the lot. I didn’t go back to it for a while, but here I am. considering the 92 cast components, I’m pleased that my layout will be based on the 1983 remodelled junction. My layout is subject to some license. If you look at the last drawing of the cast components, post 1983 something similar remained. This being beyond my capability with the risk that electrical isolation would be a challenge too far, I decided to re-align the junction so that it doesn’t exist on my model.

Thanks John. I'm sure I'll get a bite from someone else. Sounds like you had a great weekend at the NEC. Well to the team.

Hello John, I've started laying timbers for Castle Junction which is quite therapeutic one you start. Once done, and before adding rails, I need to think about isolations. Had you given it any thought in your planning. I don't know if I might be over thinking it but I plan to isolate each diamond from each other, then have four isolated section in each diamond. Any thoughts? Anyone? The next conundrum will be operation.