ba14eagle

Catering has been on the downgrade on the HST routes out of Paddington, the moment the franchise holder was allowed to remove the original catering vehicles from their sets, IMHO.

It should never have been allowed

What a shame Plymouth Airport closed - the introduction of these sets should see plenty of passengers - sorry, "customers" - look for an alternative method of transport from London to West Devon and Cornwall.

Sad times.

Hopefully overall you felt it was worth visiting. The town hall can sadly get a bit hot, especially in the dove room, where it was even hotter in there last year I felt. On the whole it was hit, but a bit better than last year heat wise.

 

Hopefully things will be a bit better with the new venue next year.

Yes, it was well worth attending and, if work allows, I will be back next year.

Thanks to the organisers and the exhibitors for their hard work in putting the show on.

My first visit to this show. my observations were:

As some have said, a couple of rooms were a bit on the hot side and quite uncomfortable.

A few very good layouts that were operated proficiently and were very entertaining - 5 gold stars for Deadmans Lane, Oil Drum Lane, Alderford and Farmers Drove.

A few layouts were visually stunning, but suffered with varying combinations of that old dcc curse - endless shorts - or poor operation - perhaps through lack of familiarity.

Dare I risk saying anymore?

I travelled a fair distance and paid my admission fee - I think I should be able to have my say. 

Oh yes, the trade support was very good.

Dare I suggest that you may want to watch these videos I took.

Mendip exhibition at Doulting village hall next weekend - looking forward to it already

I'm pretty late to the party on this, but I would be interested in partaking in this meet. I'm not in a position to commit to a date, as I don't have next years rosters as yet.

Not being a skilled carpenter, I couldn't help by building a module, but would be interested in doing the scenery on 1 or 2, if someone else produced what was required? 

Other than that, If I can make it, I would be happy to pay to come and play and meet some fellow modellers - especially as it is only just across the plain from me.  

I was at Brockenhurst last Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed this layout - even when things didnt exactly go to plan

Thanks for showing the layout and I hope I get to see it again soon.

The humour of the VSOE generator van was appreciated

If you'd like to see my footage,here is a link to the video:

I get these too. Also, the email that shoves something under your nose that might be the same scale as something you've looked at, but have absolutely no interest in!

I get notifications telling me when something in my watch list is shortly ending - about 10 minutes after it has!!

Personally, you could never have too many EE locos of any class - especially 50's - when there were far too many 47's   

I will get my coat.

And a newspaper advert for 'Mobile Operations Managers' which said - 'no previous railway experience necessary'. (Something I can quite believe having come across one or two of them.)

Completely unbelievable, but sadly, very believable for anyone who has been employed in the industry recently

For my part, 28 years continuous service comes up at the end of July and I still think of myself as a youngster.

In all that time Ive always been into railways and modelling, despite not always being able to undertake any modelling, for whatever reason.

I know in the eyes of todays managers its slightly frowned upon, but Ive only worked in a handful of departments in my career - firstly, ticket office & travel centre, TOPS office, train / timetable planning, delay attribution / performance, and now, signalling.

Im dodging relocation to an IECC / ARS signalling centre, with no plans to retire yet - unless those 7 numbers come up on Friday!

Pointless exercise if they are going to suffer the scale creep that N and OO structures have

The current Mrs ba14eagle

"It would not surprise me to see GW150 models or even Telecom yellow ones at some point....."

These have been mentioned as limited editions by Kernow Model Centre

The Nick McCamley books give a great insight to a lot of the "underground cities" & former storage facilities that exist beneath our feet, in the UK.

My "Baker Wood Bunker" layout was inspired by reading these and seeing evidence of the former bases that are scattered around Wiltshire.

The Narrow Planet website may be worth a look for some rolling stock kits.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Odd wagons have been seen, in other train formations, whilst working too / from Marcroft at Stoke, for repainting or repair.

Dapol are producing a new class 59 model, which is due out soon.

The wagons don't run in fixed formations as such - Mendip Rail use a vast array of hopper wagons these days and they all get fairly mixed up.

From an operating perspective, this can be quite frustrating, as many of the newer wagons can operate at 60mph (or even 75mph when empty), whereas these wagons are limited to 45mph.

Ive just seen Ashley Young's tackle in Saturdays Manchester derby and am disappointed (but not surprised) to hear a) no penalty was given and b) he escaped any sort of card.

This man should have no place in the game - he is always looking to pull the wool over the referee's eyes (which because he plays for a top / big 6 club he gets away with) and lunges in with dangerous tackles such as that on Saturday. No doubt he will make Englands squad for the World Cup finals - if he does, thats good enough reason, for me, for us to get knocked out in the group stages.

As you can probably tell, I dont support a "top 6 club" 

I feel a set of namings coming on here:

 

Andrew Castle

Barbara Castle

Roy Castle

 

er...................

Not forgetting the Arsenal legend - David (Ro)Castle

There is still chat about 387' being used on stopping services to Swindon

Running season arrived yesterday - temporarily!

Anyway, there is plenty of maintenance to do, so roll on some more dry weather!

What, still no 33/1 in 70s / early 80s blue with no headlight and no orange cantrail?

Didnt the issue of 33117 fit this bill?

I have never really had an issue with the 33/0, but then, in the garden, I dont view them up cose & personal. I have created 33027 & 33056 from 33025 - I couldnt wait for Heljan to get around to it!!

https://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/index.php?/gallery/album/23-summer-hampton-railway-locomotives/

The last few class 50's tonight

50046 Laira 15th September 1991

Tenuous, but this is a bogie from 50048 on the Laira wheel lathe. 15th September 1991

And the rest of 50048 is up on the jacks!

50049 Salisbury 25th August 1989

50049 Laira scrapline 15th September 1991

50050 Laira 15th September 1991

50050 Exeter (with 50007) 24th May 1992

50050 Stafford (again with 007) 13th June 1992

Back to the scanning for me.

Iain

Vac bashers have been disappointed as 47500 is turned out on the down midnight 1C02 23:59 Padd-Penzance 

20180317_202849.jpg

20180317_202912.jpg

 

Cheers

Stu

Blasted loco controllers!!

Some more class 50's this morning and I will make no apologies for 50044 hogging the limelight - it was my favourite member of the class

50037 Laira scrapline 15th September 1991

50041 Salisbury 10th June 1989

50041 Taunton 21st August 1989. The loco had failed on that mornings Exeter to Paddington loco hauled service.

50042 Salisbury 28th November 1987

50043 Yeovil Jn 23rd February 1990

50044 Salisbury 10th June 1989

50044 Exeter 24th February 1990

50044 Plymouth 24th February 1990

50044 Salisbury 27th February 1990

50045 Sherborne 27th February 1990

Iain

According to some of the Westbury drivers and shunters, the green / yellow Bardons looked good in the car park, on occasion!

You need to do one with a squashed Skoda Estelle underneath it!

Unfortunately, I can't find a photo of said incident online

Some more class 50's from my collection

50029 is seen at Salisbury with a stopping service to Waterloo 23rd August 1989

50030 in the loco bay at Waterloo 10th June 1989

50031 runs around its train at Oxford 10th June 1989

50032 at Oxford August 1988

50032 at Plymouth 25th February 1990

50033 at Newquay 23rd November 1991

50034 arrives at Salisbury 28th November 1987

50035 (according to my notes) approaching Ruscombe April 1990 - I cant readily see a crest on the loco, so could it be another class member?

50036 at Ruscombe April 1990

50036 at Salisbury. 1991

The loco then ran round its stock, before working a stopping service to Waterloo. The loco failed prior to departure, requiring a couple of large cans of oil, being wheeled into the loco, I suppose raising the oil pressure in the engine. It didnt stop it reaching 3 figure speeds between Basingstoke and Woking!

Iain

Some more EE type 4's.

50017 Salisbury 23rd February 1990

50018 Exeter St Davids 21st August 1989

50018 Laira scrap line 15th September 1991

50019 Merehead 25th June 1989

50023 Westbury depot 10th May 1987

50023 Dawlish Warren 26th August 1989

50024 Reading 10th June 1989

50027 Salisbury 27th August 1989

50028 Salisbury 23rd August 1989

50028 Plymouth 26th August 1989

Iain