Jim15B

Found one, only two years late! June 1990, I hope it helps. Apologies for the quality.

There are certainly some sturdy structures there.

I've been in Tussauds a couple of times in the course of my work (not as a paying guest) and I'm amazed that anyone would fork out the small fortune required to get in. Bizarrely my sister-in-law and family love it and visit regularly throughout the year. I doubt anything changes enough to warrant more than one visit in a lifetime.

The silhouette of a dodo maybe? Or a pyramid?

Many of the mansion flats were built on the sites of successive slum clearances in the early 1800s that systematically wiped out much of the early city that was still directly linked to the post Great Fire period. Thousands of people were moved out with the result that even more crowded slums were created on the fringes of the new developments. There was a building craze in the early 1800s akin to the railway mania later in the century, and many investors lost everything as projects floundered and developments stagnated.

I'll try them with that next time - I don't think they've seen it before (and I haven't for years). Girls at 8 and 13 are a surprisingly easy crowd to please.

Amazingly in this world of fast paced action and CGI they have. I'm supposed to be studying for professional exams, but I've sat and watched attentively too.

My children wanted to watch a film this evening. They could have had any one they wanted - they chose "The Railway Children", entirely of their own volition.

I collect horse brasses and recently saw an image of a MOY brass, but can't recall where. They presumably undertook local (horse drawn) delivery as well as wagon loads.

I know it's been said a couple of times before - amazing work on the drill hall.

H2O?

I think that may be Lord Halifax in the top hat bearing down on him with a small stick.

Slow progress, but progress all the same. The carcass for the ironworks building is done and the end walls are covered with plasticard. I realised too late that I was using the wrong brick bond, but if I don't mention it no-one will notice. The front wall is just resting in place at the moment awaiting the next stage.

BBC 6 Music for me, but no television other than Question Time that I quite enjoy getting annoyed at.

Canals

The frontage is still there too. The railway features in the first book of Andrew Martin's Jim Stringer railway detective series (appropriately titled "The Necropolis Railway"), which I can highly recommend for those looking for some late Victorian/Edwardian atmosphere. Edited for inability to type.

Thank you for your thoughts. I think I'll have to find and compare some dimensions a bit more closely and see how much of a compromise it is. As you say, working in OO I'm happy to run with a few compromises and get the overall impression, but I'd still rather spend my money on something that's going to be accurate than a sows ear. I am slightly concerned that I'll find I'm not satisfied so I think I'll prioritise my money on the Andrew Barclays from Hattons (which will also require surgery or compromise but will at least be starting from the correct prototype) and do a bit more digging on the Peckett's measurements.

Thank you - the CSP one is a W4 as well but does have the correct shaped cab. Their Avonside is definitely on my list (I have the 7mm version) so if I'm doing a kit that one would brobably be first, along with a High Level Hawthorn Leslie. I will bear the Peckett in mind though.

Whilst slowly putting together the workshop building I am also considering some motive power options. I have my eye on a couple of kits and hopefully will have a Hattons 16" Barclay soon, but I just wanted to canvas opinion as to whether the Hornby Peckett W4 would be a feasable conversion to the R type "Rothwell". Being from that town I would rather like to have the loco running. Other than the cylinder size I'm not sure how great the dimensional differences between the classes were. Would I get away with moving the dome and making some minor adjustments to the cab?

Just come across this post. I think I took a couple of pictures in the late '80s/early '90s and if I can find them (and if they are any good) I'll post them.

Combining the two theories in Barnstaple, maybe rabbit fur for gloves.

Baskets were commonly used for textiles, so maybe gloves or lace in Barnstaple. The baskets in the attached image contain corsets from the factory in Desborough (still a going concern but not making many corsets now). The steam lorry is a Midland Railway owned Thorneycroft.

Provision for working if possible. Thank you for all your work on this. Jim

Regarding accessing the online records held by the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, have you tried looking at a web archive? I've just looked at the MOSI site from 1999. If you know where the links were you may still be able to access the database. I'm not sufficiently proficient with these things to say for certain that it would work but it might be worth a try. I'm sure someone here will be able to give more knowledgable advice. I searched on a site called Wayback Machine - web.archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20000520040118/http://www.msim.org.uk:80/nonshocked/index.html

I wonder if the manure works were connected with the import of marine guano from Peru.