railsquid

And an entry from Japan - the MicroAce N scale 0-series (original "Bullet Train") Shinkansen, catalogue number A-0259 (production year 2002, comes as a very nice wooden boxed set), which I acquired 2nd hand at a very nice price because: MicroAce 0 series Shinkansen - chassis issue by Rail Squid, on Flickr MicroAce 0 series Shinkansen - chassis issue by Rail Squid, on Flickr At this point in its life the chassis was only being held together by the plastic frame, and disintegrated into multiple shards: MicroAce 0 series Shinkansen - chassis issue by Rail Squid, on Flickr MicroAce 0 series chassis (2) by Rail Squid, on Flickr Known issue with this particular model. Fortunately MicroAce replacement chassis E0004 (actually for a 300 series Shinkansen) can be bodged to fit.

You won't find me complaining! Thanks again for the continuing stream of photos, always something of interest.

Part of my job involves on-call shift work for a very obscure area of IT, and live in a country where December 25th is not a public holiday, moreover from a work point of view it's very quiet around this time of year and I work from home and the little one is in kindergarten, and I basically was being paid to pootle on my layout, so overall no big deal

Those tilting Super Azusa trains (E351 series for anyone taking notes) are, as of earlier this year, a pile of scrap. Here's the last set I saw running: They've been replaced by a new generation of trains (E353) which AFAIK use more conventional suspension but which are just as comfortable (albeit stylistically boring). Those "old" E351s were introduced in the early 1990s. Oh, and those hyper-modern looking 500 series Shinkansens, introduced in the late 1990s, are eking out an existence on stopping services in the far west of Japan, occasionally decorated in Hello Kitty livery, and are unlikely to see the end of the decade.

When were you last in Japan, in the late 1980s?

You should have seen the expression on the face of my Japanese wife when we arrived at Hereford in 2014 (2014, not 1984 or even 1994) on an HST set and I explained how to open the door... I won't even mention the return journey, when we were turfed out at Worcester due to some failure in the quaint but antique signalling system, put onto a bus (fortunately I am wily to the ways of British railways and marched to the ticket office and demanded very precise details about where this bus would be actually picking people up from, because there were no clues otherwise), and we (well I) ended up directing fellow passengers... Said bus did a tour of Worcester's one-way system then dropped us right back off at the station (albeit on the opposite side of the road) where we were directed to wait for a larger bus, which did eventually turn up to take us on a scenic tour of the Cotswolds (actually not entirely unpleasant) before turfing us off at Oxford to pile (under our own initiative) onto a hopelessly overcrowded London-bound TurboSardineCan where we eventually arrived about 3 hours late. And I won't even start to talk about the sheer hopelessness and futility of attempting to purchase London Underground tickets with cash.

In Berlin, between Hackescher Markt and Friedrichstrasse stations (presumably heading west).

Looks like someone didn't rub the transfer sheet with the number on it firmly enough.

This is very likely the Tenshodo store, which has been there forever. On the ground floor you can buy expensive watches, the upper floors are dedicated to model railways, including their own very pricey Japanese HO and N gauge, and the top floor is second hand, and it is despite the swank surroundings it's one of the cheapest in the Tokyo area. Picked up a couple of Kato EMU coaches the other day there for about 3 quid each. They ofter have a smattering of British OO too. I've acquired a fair bit of British N gauge around Tokyo, some of it non-running Graham Farish locomotives at knock-down prices, which stay non-runners right up until the point I replace the split gears.

Methinks that might be this crossing on what's shown on the map as "Main St.": https://goo.gl/maps/8JdQuKaz6bw Haverigg Road itself goes over the railway line on a bridge: https://goo.gl/maps/nEwkJqYXHCN2 Both are geographically west of Millom, albeit off the north-bound coast road. I took the trouble to look this up because in August 1979 I was 6 years old and living on that side of Millom, and have vague memories of cycling to the beach at Haverigg that summer or the next summer (we moved away in late 1980), and the existence of a level crossing failed to ring any bells, and I'm sure I would have remembered.

Patting myself on the back here, I've been following this thread so long that I took one look at the photo and said to myself, "Squiddy, that might be a 101 at one end, but the 2 car unit has to be a 108 or 114".

Oooh, I still have my teenage OO repainting excrescences around somewhere, must dig them out and subject them to the unforgiving lense of modern digital photography. Fortunately I gave up interest before I could do too much damage.

DMU driver on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire (Steam) Railway, December 2015. DMU driver by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Personally I believe in the spirit of artistic reciprocity - talented (or otherwise) young feral vandals should be free to express their artistic skills (or lack thereof) wherever, provided the same freedom is extended to the general public to do the same on their property (or more likely that of their parents).

It's amusing to watch the faces of people in Japan when I tell them UK parcel delivery services will leave parcels in bins...

Platform staff at Mitaka Station, Tokyo waiting for an arriving train ready to assist a passenger.

You don't see coaches with brick chimneys like that these days

Why does the 83 have a large warning flash sign on the cab door? Class 89

Latest order placed on Tuesday 19th Dec during UK business day, packed a couple of hours later, arrived Tuesday 26th Dec in Tokyo. It helps that it's not yet holiday season here, but still good going for a pre-Christmas order.

Oooh, I learnt to drive in a white Citroen Visa, brings back memories.

I often post pictures to multiple forums and it's easier to upload them into one place (currently Flickr) rather than remember how to use/link the multitude of different forum gallery systems and which photo I've uploaded where... The downside is the risk of Flickr going all Photobucket, of course... BTW even on fast broadband, pages with lots of photos jump all over the place when loading. (And if I ever rub a bottle and the Forum Genie pops out, I'll request that he prevents people from quoting posts with dozens of photos, which makes the situation even worse).

Are these required to view that ad at the top of the page?

Going a bit further off-topic, I acquired a bunch of model railway stuff via auction from a 2nd hand retailer here in Japan a while back, all the boxes/cases had hand-written labels in the same hand, so obviously part someone's collection, whoever owned it, if you're reading this it's in good hands and will be well looked after and enjoyed.

You might find this thread interesting: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49015-ghosts-in-the-machine/

Order placed online in the middle of the UK night, just got the "Picking list packed" notification.