Guius

Thanks for posting your progress with this build Dave, I've very much enjoyed following your interesting thread. Regards Guy

I tried to organise a 'Day of Rage' when Marathon bars became Snickers in 1990, it didn't get me very far. Guy

Sad news indeed, another paterfamilias of childhood television gone who meant a lot to us fifty something's. I believe he was suffering from Parkinson's disease. Guy

From my own experience Dave, you would surprised how shallow rooted some species of tree are, being able to surviving on very marginal land with poor tilth. Admittedly not thriving or attaining the proportions of better positioned cousins. Best Guy

Please. I was only wearing this outfit for a bet! It's not my fault I've got big bones.... If people are going to scoff I wont be going out in my mankini again also. Guy

Coming off one of those scooters at any sort of speed would be akin to taking an angle grinder to your hands/knees/legs etc. doesn't bare thinking about! Guy

Working horses usually were kept in stalls (Skell Boosin's -Lakeland Dialect) with a head collar being attached through a ring to a wooden 'Clog'(light wooden weight) with enough room to lay down. Sick or resting horses had a bit more room in a loose box (12'x12' or larger). Railway horses being generally well looked after but worked hard, an expensive asset generally more costly to replace than the men who worked with them. Many tens of thousands of prime stock horses were commandeered during the Great War only a handful ever returned, the Army so short of animals later in the war shipped mules from Peru which proved to be 'unshakable' in the hellish conditions of front line transport. Also after the war a great respect for the French Percheron saw there wide use in town and country. Best Guy

There has been a lot of criticism levelled against especially the BBC for the repeated mumbling during the historical drama based on the life of Thomas Cromwell recently, the response was to assure us that there was no problem with the recording or transmission of the programme it being purely a modern acting/directing 'style'. Modern or not I lost the thread of the plot and gave up, and the problem is still with us I fear. It's either 'Celebrity Voice Come Dancing in the Jungle Love Island' or a half decent historical drama you can't hear. Now were did I leave my ear trumpet! Best Guy

Language is fluid and not set in aspic I'm afraid. If we could hear how our forbears of say, 1900 hundred sounded, we would be surprised at the intonation, phonetics and pronunciation of a hundred years or so ago. During WW1 the German military built up a sound library of British accents (gleaned from POWs) for use in the occupation of Britain and this has become a valuable if not unique archive of our changing colloquialisms and highlights how much our mother tongue has diversified and evolved in that short time. But as for 'Management Speak' well that's another rant in the waiting! Best Guy

I agree John, the pre-eminence of things Great Western is a little annoying but a do think 'the rest of the world' is getting a 'look in' more so lately. Guy

All ways a tricky thing forming a compound curve like a saddle tank. Is the cab roof pre-rolled? Best Guy

It all ways amazes me what turns up, be it radio, film or television (thinking of the lost Steptoe & Sons etc.) recordings in private hands, the danger being when an individual dies their surviving relatives don't have the same appreciation of the historic value of such collections and promptly bin tapes bin the lot. Think how many railway related photographic collections have been thrown out because 'they are just black and white shots of old trains', sure on occasions some one in the know will retrieve it from them skip but not often. How much has been lost to us, the modern enthusiast thus. We all know of apocryphal tales about drawings, plans and the like being burned on demolition site bonfires only hours before rescue and storage could be arranged, but it has happened and still does I'm sad to say. Only a few years ago, I forget how many, the Mitchel and Kenyon archive was picked out of a builders skip out side of their original shop, thankfully someone recognised the value of the hoard and put them in his freezer at home for safe storage until they could be conserved by, I think, the BFI, what a loss that would have been. The moral of the story is make sure you leave proper instruction for the disposal of your valued (not necessarily valuable) collections for others yet to come. Best Guy

Hi John, Just as a point of interest and my own curiosity, did these tank waggons have baffle plates inside them to stop any surging of water occurring on braking and the like? Best Guy

Ahh so P M T is some thing to do with electrics then and not female plumbing?

Some nice modelling gone into that kit

Yes Don, not just bell foundries though, cores (the empty space represented by an independent 'plug' of sand) have many applications in founding and horse muck was used to 'bind' the green sand together for resilience against the stresses of pouring. Horse muck was valuable enough for independent cartage contractors to pay for the privilege of removing the stuff for resale to foundries. So as the old saying goes 'Where there's muck there's brass'. Guy

Stable block looks 'spot on' Mikkel, I can almost smell the horse pee! (quiet a nice smell in my book BTW). Some of the larger stables had two wheeled, one horse tumbrel type muck carts to carry away the manure for disposal about its yard, this might have included local foundries strangely enough. Best Guy

I think you do right Steve, 'not spread yourself too thin on the ground'. I've learned (the hard way sometimes) over the years to concentrate on one-thing-at-a-time, even though the temptation is to indulge, and dive straight into a new kit on arrival. Sometimes it takes a bit of discipline and control, but a systematic approach to a schedule of work will pay dividends in the long run, but I figure that anyway, looking at the high standard of your work. Best Guy

I wonder what was left of the 1865 machine after the 1916 rebuild? Amazing how long some of these locos lasted in industry and especially steel works. The current Furness Railway No.20 (built 1863 as 0-4-0 tender engine) worked at Barrow Iron and Steel Works up until 1960, all be it made into a saddle tank on acquisition by BISW. They certainly got their moneys worth out of both locos, and no notion of 'built in obsolescence' in those days Best Guy

Could the puffer be the 'Vital Spark' by any chance? or perhaps the 'Maggie'?

Every time I pass by this place a mental image pops into my head of racks full of pairs of severed ears neatly pierced and waiting for collection. Guy

I wonder if tattooists carry insurance for this type of mistake, apart from calling your first born R E G E R T S, or at a stretch referring the inquisitive to Great Eastern Railway Train Services, what would you do? Best Guy

If it goes together as well as your Bagnall did you should be a happy lad! I enjoyed following that build (though retrospectively) Keep us informed. Best Guy

It sounds like it could be the same person who operates a tattoo parlour in my home town, a hand written card in the window reads " Ears pierced while U weight" .... Bless Guy.

Even watching 'The Signalman' through modern eyes, it's still a very dark tail, and all done without a scrap of CGI. Recently I picked up a copy of 'Sixteen On' a compilation of short railway related short stories collated Charles Irving (1957), 'The Signalman' being number one in the contents. 'The Story of the Lost Special' by Conan Doyle is riveting, while Edgar Wallace and Rudyard Kipling are among the authors who put in an apperiance. A story, 'The Eighth Lamp' by Roy Vickers is also "disturbing" in an entertaining way. Well recommended if you can get a copy in my opinion. Best Guy