Lambton58

Guilty m'lud, I'm an habitual offender!! That said, there's a lot of nice stuff in there though I particularly like the look of the Ashover carriages. Likewise the Thompson full brakes. Ralph

Or St Albans Cathedral - it has the longest nave in England

I planned to go today and arrived just before 10am only to find the car parks full! The stewards were directing people to other areas but as I drove around to the other parking areas I saw lots of people coming in ahead of me. I reckoned then that the hall may be pretty crowded. I live not far from Bletchley so I took the decision to go back home rather than spend ages trying to find a space and then spend the day in a venue potentially more crowded than I might be comfortable with. I accept I may well have missed out on a good show, but that was my choice and I don't have too many regrets. It was a nice day and I spent some time in the garden and then on the allotments before watching the rugby. Parking seems to have been a bit of an issue in Milton Keynes this weekend. We went into town yesterday afternoon to the theatre only to find the main multistory full! We ended up parking at the canal end of Campbell Park (locals will know where I mean) so a nice walk before and after the play! Ralph Lambton58

Yes, it is crew training - our local rail user group posted this the other day on Facebook. Cheers Ralph

A couple of snaps from 25 July - things are progressing at Bletchley Station :-) Ralph

Happened to be in Wells this weekend and had some time to spare this afternoon so popped in to have a look. A very enjoyable show with some nice layouts and modelling and a very helpful chat with Roger Sawyer about soldering. Ralph

Thanks for sharing this. A fascinating insight. My Grandad and great-grandfather also worked for Lambton Collieries, but not on the railways. Both were miners at Harraton Colliery (Cotia Pit as it was known locally) and Grandad eventually became Overman Underground. The vague relevance of this is that the Lambton (and later NCB) trains used running powers over mainline to get the coal from Harraton to the Lambton Staiths at Sunderland.

Indeed, at least 5 Lambton 0-6-2Ts were from the Valleys; according to Colin Mountford (The Private Railways of County Durham) Nos 52, 53 & 54 were ex Taff Vale Railway and Nos 55 & 56 were ex Cardiff Railway and were bought around 1930/31. As you say, they were bought by the LH&JC not the NCB - vesting day was 1 Jan 1947!

Sorry to hear this news. Canada Street along with Canada Road before it, are two of my all time favourite layouts. Excellent modelling enhanced by the approachability and friendliness of Peter and his team at exhibitions.

Not just the UK - she's believed to be the only flying Vampire in the Northern Hemisphere according to the Vampire Preservation people's website .

That's a good point. It does have a tendency to flood around there and pretty well most of the way to Newport Pagnall. During periods of prolonged wet weather we'd often have the ring road and some of the car parks under water at the OU.

Thanks for that. I've long thought they'd need to put a bridge in for Brickhill Street. Given that it's a main route into Milton Keynes retaining the crossing will lead to a lot of delays and congestion. Of course it remains to be seen what will actually happen and when. I guess we might find out a bit more when the results of the consultation are released. I think that's supposed to be this May, though I've given up holding my breath as it tends to make one go an unpleasant shade of purple and look worse than a Porterbrook Deltic!! Ralph

Technically a little off topic as this relates to the Bletchley to Bedford bit of the EWR, but here's a couple of snaps taken yesterday at Caldecotte Lake, Milton Keynes which is between Fenny Stratford and Bow Brickhill. I'm not sure if this is work starting on upgrades for this section, general maintenance/repairs or something to do with the massive warehouse development on the other side of the line. Ralph

I like the look of that. Cheers Ralph

Oh, very nice!! Looks like an impressive amount of detail there too. Seriously though, that's a great choice. Well done! Ralph