Michael Hodgson

You don't need to be too particular about that - even if you fit the coach boards upside down, we wouldn't know!

No it's no. It's a carriageway. The Americans don't understand that because the don't have carriages. They think a coach is something that is drawn by several horses, has wheels that regularly fall off and needs a bloke riding on top with a shotgun shooting at what they now call Native Americans.

Interesting shot of Brigg. Two stationary trains waiting with the gates across the line. The bobby obviously has to hold the train in the foreground, but why on earth hasn't he opened the gates for the other train to clear the section?

How will the airlines know ? Will I get a certificate? If I do, can it be forged easily?

Only if they're in this country legally ... illegal immigrants aren't likely to turn up for the jab in case they are grassed up to Immigration. As that puts the rest of us at risk, it would be helpful if the NHS don't ask any awkward questions and make public announcements to that effect.

In my experience the best time to list is when ebay make one of their £1 max fees offers, at least if you're selling items that will sell for over £10. They do it by invitation usually about once a month for three or four days and for up to 100 listings, so get your listings all ready but click on Save as Draft. Wait for ebay to email you about the offer - you have to open the link and click on ACCEPT, and then you can submit the listings from Draft status. I list as Auctions, not Buy it Now, because those now automatically relist if unsold, and you could be clobbered for the higher fees that way when it sells on the second time around. So I wait until the offer comes round again before relisting. If you also have items worth less than a tenner, you might as well list those straight away. as you wouldn't save by listing under these offers. My feeling is that only paying ebay £1 in fees on a £100 loco and saving £9 is better than trying to second guess how many people out there want the item and happen to have to have some dosh at the moment. That is probably not true if you are selling some other things - seasonal goods for example. And you'll still incur paypal fees for your trouble. When I want something specific that doesn't come up often I set up a standing search so that I get notified when somebody lists one. Make sure you have a good description and spell it right, or searches may not find your item.

The problem at the moment is that Covid has resulted in copious amounts of beer ceasing to be available (unless served with a scotch egg). I think what puts ladies off preservation sites is general appearance of Steptoe's Yard (good name for a layout?) with lines of rolling stock all awaiting possible restoration and sharp bits of rusty metal lying about. Whilst they might be persuaded to see some beauty in Victorian engineering, the same can't be said for Victorian sanitary arrangements.

With so much of the network now worked under Track Circuit Block, there is nobody looking for tail lamps as the was the practice under Absolute Block. These days a train can easily travel 100 miles with no tail lamp (or light out) before reaching AB territory where a signalman will suddenly shout. Or a train showing an intermediate tail lamp , something seen all too often on models! I don't know whether any tail lamp proving circuitry is provided on modern EMUs & similar fixed formation sets as it is in many cars. I don't imagine anything like that is available for freight trains though.

At one time they featured a Soho and Winson Green on the line to Wolverhampton (Low Level). A Brummie friend once told me he always preferred the GWR route to Wolverhampton because it was in a cutting so you didn't see the surroundings.

Trading Standards aren't going to bother investigating half a tin of paint.

Floquil grimy black could have made it even less consipicuous.

You can find anything on ebay ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Festiniog-Railway-Vintage-Superheat-Can-of-Steam-Canned-with-Welsh-Cunning/224204777370?_trkparms=aid%3D1110009%26algo%3DSPLICE.COMPLISTINGS%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200220094952%26meid%3Df4102fdfad464143bd1efe81184e0b10%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D293927527345%26itm%3D224204777370%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3Ddefault&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

I read that as a pint of Tri-ang Brewery .... I really do need to go to my optician's appointment this afternoon.

Where there is evidence to prove a buyer is attempting to commit fraud it's a great pity that he's not prosecuted for it. And it should not be you that has to instigate criminal proceedings - ebay/the police should tackle this as a matter of policy. Neither organisation wants to know. Ebay claim to want a fair market, honest dealings etc, but they are simply taking the easy way out. The best you ever get out them is to ban somebody from their system, and even then all that happens is he opens another account in a new name. Most people are perfectly all right, but the system is not doing enough to protect decent people from both dishonest buyers and dishonest sellers. Bring back flogging!

That was probably a fairly accurate reflection of attitudes towards safety generally during WW2 - I very much doubt anybody would have made much of an issue of people in military uniform walking along the line, unless it was perhaps somewhere that interfered with the transport of materials required for the war effort or had other adverse impact on railway operations. Anybody doing so under orders (even if it was just the Home Guard) wouldn't be in trouble - it would the officer's reponsibility. They would probably have to do such patrols to investigate reports of suspicious activity, look for unexploded bombs etc. There were probably railwaymen in many Home Guard units, who would be used to walking along the line anyway, no hi-vis, just a few common sense rules in the company rules books.

A friend in the Isle of Man produced these items for his own layout but is also making them available for sale, they and other rolling stock are available in O & OO gauges, also some tramway and O scale narrow gauge stock and a few buildings in card. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0-Gauge-railway-card-kits-Babbedge-and-HInkley-coal-wagons-G-KER-salt-vans-O-kit/254464494217?hash=item3b3f440a89:g:uZkAAOSwdGFYu0kG

For prototype information, this is the recommended reference source... https://www.amazon.co.uk/GWR-Signal-Box-Cats-Allocations/dp/1906419868

Surely the interior detail is just a load of iron ore? Having said that, the real thing is really heavy - I have some I brought back from a trip down LKAB's mine in Kiruna.

Have you tried the LYR Society?

Indeed, but the problem of not having such clauses in employment contracts is if you have a brilliant idea in the bath for something that would be relevant to what you do when you're at work, can you really claim "all my own work" as maybe it's only your training and work experience that made you see its potential.

It wasn't just maintenance of the road/track. Mechanical signalling usually accompanied such crossings and it was important to be able to get access to any point rodding that had to run beyond the road and signal wires (usually run through pipes). The ground frame in the Oakworth photo above would have worked a signal in each direction. In the case of wheel operated gates (usually 4 gates not two) there was a complex linkage of cranks and rods to drive the gates and stops. The Airfix level crossing kit is a fairly good representation of what was there, including gates stops/catches that rose as the gates got close but otherwise disappeared into the road surface so as not to damages tyres - or trip up the motive power unit in the days of horse-drawn traffic.

Isn't a stop block with its big red buffer beam effectively a fixed stop signal, and fitted with lamps which can be proved? I love Yardman's call-on signal.

Don't see why they can't do it drive-through in a supermarket or park & ride car park like the ones they are using for Covid tests. Then you could wait in a car park space for a bit. My partner had a routine blood test done that way to minimise contact with others, meant she didn't have to go to the hospital for it.

Thank you. First time I heard of these. It sounds a bit like the digital plotter on an ICL mainframe which I last programmed in 1969 and had forgotten all about! Seems they're cheaper than decent 3D printers and I see there's an excellent thread here explaining them...

Can you speed him up a bit please. I wouldn't want him to miss his train.