SteveyDee68

Would the welded-in plates be slightly proud of the windows, or slightly inset? If the latter, I guess that would be easier to model (or even inadvertently get correct) Steve S

You are quite right, it’s the U.K. National Anthem (not the English). I thought “Three Lions” had become the English national anthem? 🫢🤣 Steve S

The march of the same name was the very first brass band piece I ever played in a band! @J. S. Bach - I would expect you to play no less than the pipe organ with a user name like that! Interesting instrument, the pipe organ - multiple keyboards including a (foot) pedal board, and enough stop combinations to make operating a double track mainline junction mechanical signal box look like child’s play… there’s a theory that organists have a second brain located at the base of their spine to enable them to play the organ, a little like certain dinosaurs 🦕 @Dave Hunt - absolutely agree that the U.K. national anthem is a dirge; I often find myself supporting opposing teams to England just because I like their anthems more! @bbishop - the bassoon, a double reed instrument so immediately bl@@dy difficult to play, and then one of the least attractive (to youngsters and/or their parents) instruments to play and yet one of the most versatile of the orchestral wind instruments (not to mention busy). Shame you were discouraged - there is a national shortage of bassoonists in the U.K.! @Willie Whizz - you were warned! @New Haven Neil - the development of the five line stave and associated symbols representing pitches raised or lowered by a semitone in Western music developed over centuries (although Guido of Arezzo was the fellah who really kickstarted notation back in the 11th Century) and as a visual language conveys massive amounts of information in a succinct and efficient way that at the same time is still open to individual interpretation. At its heart is the idea of seven pitch names (A-G) which with the use of sharps/flats gives access to the full 12 notes of the chromatic scale over the octave. I think the biggest “problem” with learning to read music notation is (a) the perception that it is “hard” to do, (b) the fact that many (many) commercially successful (pop) performers don’t read music, and (c) that music can actually be made without being able to read notation! Take (c), mix in a bit of (a) and recognise that (b) demonstrates that you can be a successful musician without putting in the effort to learn to read notation and of course the majority of people can’t! Today, YouTube is full of videos showing how to play various songs on various instruments (usually keyboard, guitar or ukulele) without reference to notation (teaching by rote) and apps are available that do the same; but equally there are videos and apps that tie in learning to play the music with reading the notation at the same time. As human beings are predominantly visual in our means of communication, notation should actually be easier than learning, say, to write in proper English! After all, the alphabet has 26 letter names, music notation only seven basic pitch names! Time for bed said Zebedee!

If you click on the underlined this in the original post, it took you to the original eBay item. I normally also put the link text in bold, but somehow missed doing so in my last post. Meanwhile, this has now caught my attention. Is it just me, or does the seller studiously avoid showing the ends of the carriage (given the somewhat ‘melted’ appearance of the corridor connection). Description = “in good order” Hmmmm 🤔 Steve S PS Thanks to @petethemole for clarifying about the “Pullman” mk1 brake coach being a Bachmann Collector’s Club item - I guess that it must have been modelled on a real vehicle, then?

As someone whose second ever loco was a Triang Hornby Class 31, I welcome both these new entrants into the market as I simply daren’t risk investing in a Hornby model given its reputation as suffering from Mazak Rot to replace my childhood loco! Then again, I have lots of pre-ordered shunting locos to fund … Where did I put that credit card? Steve S

I missed this when reading before… When we hear ourselves speaking or singing, we actually hear our own voice mainly through bone transduction to our ears via our jaw bone and skull, with only a fraction being via our ears (which of course also modify the sound waves as the folds of our ears ‘scoop’ sound into the ear canal). When we listen to recordings of ourselves speaking (or singing) we hear our own voices differently, as now the sound reaches us almost entirely through the air to our ears. Most people cringe when they hear themselves. Remember, though, that even then we do not hear ourselves as others hear us, as the sound we receive has been modified and shaped by our own ears! If a recording of a live musical performance sounds okay, it would have sounded good in real life. If it sounds good, it would have sounded great, and if it sounds great it would have been absolutely amazing heard live! Because recordings are limited firstly by the microphone recording the sound and then by the speaker producing the sound and then by our own ears! (This also explains those performances on TV talent shows when the TV audience at home goes “meh” and the studio audience and judges go wild!) So in all likelihood @BR60103 your singing was/is better than you think! (Unless you are my ex-SiL, who really couldn’t carry a tune even in a galvanised bucket) HOURS OF MUSICAL FUN!

Very subtle, sir, very subtle! 😆 Can only imagine you are referencing the brass family of instruments, as most kids think players are “blowing raspberries” into the mouthpiece! 😉🤣 Although in Monsieur Pujol’s case, the embouchure was not ideally placed to actually play an instrument! 😉 HOURS OF F…..UN!

God forbid she played a rusty trombone*! 🫢 Hat, coat, exit stage left in shame… Steve S * A few years ago a trumpeter friend referenced this and when I didn’t get the joke suggested I looked it up on an ‘urban dictionary’. For those of a nervous disposition, don’t… you have been warned!

Now, this isn’t “madness” per se, but I am wondering if anyone can tell me if this is an actual Bachmann model or whether it has been adapted from a Bachmann model? Tellingly, the seller shows the box but not the end panel (which would give all the manufacturer provided model description details on a label). Also, is this a flight of fancy or did BR really paint up one of their Mk1 brake coaches to match Pullman coaches to provide ‘visual integrity’ to an all-Pullman train? If so, I imagine it might be for the later Mk1 Pullman coaches in use on the Eastern Region? Steve S

Well, that sounds like whole class learning (the same instrument) which I actually think is not a good way to teach anybody an instrument - and yet I do that as part of my day to day job! Go figure!! A colleague was able to change my mindset when he said he struggled with this type of teaching until someone said to him it wasn’t about training new musicians, it was about the children having the opportunity to work together as a team towards a common goal and it just happened to use music as the facilitator for that to happen. Also, assisting a colleague to teach clarinet to a Year 6 class was an eye opener - the clarinet is an absolute b*st*rd of an instrument to actually assemble, even if the playing bit is relatively easy! (Says he who cannot get a sound out of one; I did equally as badly with a flute!) Which should be some comfort to @Northmoor - I might be able to produce something approaching a good sound from most brass instruments, can strum four chords on a ukulele (just), and have learnt to fool most of the people some of the time with my self-taught piano playing, but nearly every other instrument is beyond my ability; I remember word for word what was said to me after a three hour lesson* on a cello from a friend who wanted to practice for her teaching diploma - “Steve, promise me to never - ever - try to play the cello again, please, for everyone’s sake?” My point is, everyone can actually play a musical instrument - the trick is discovering which one is your ‘natural fit’, but the process can be disheartening. I was lucky that my dad borrowed a cornet for me to try when I was finishing primary school; it was awful, I couldn’t get a sound from it properly, the mouthpiece was just too small. When offered the chance (with 29 others) to have cornet/trumpet lessons at secondary school, I declined (knowing I couldn’t play it) and instead volunteered myself to learn trombone (because it was bigger). By sheer coincidence I chose the best ‘natural fit’ brass instrument for me to play, as the trombone places the bell closest to my left ear - which is incredibly useful being totally deaf in my right! Meanwhile, as TNM is for discussing anything, I may as well “blow my own trumpet” (see what I did there?!) as tonight I dragged myself to the NODA Region 5 Awards evening, having been nominated for Best Musical Director for a swing revue I created last April; I may have been off work for the last two weeks, but I’d paid for the (expensive) meal in advance so was determined to attend, even if I needed power naps between courses! Long story short, I only went and won my category which means I am now in the running for Best Musical Director for the North West of England for 2023! Was pleased to have been nominated, but even more surprised (due to the other nominees) and utterly chuffed to have won. Meanwhile, my friend and colleague only went and won ‘Best Actress in A Drama’ against a field of well established actresses, after acting for the first time since qualifying as a teacher some 20 years previously! All in all a great night … Having had to drive there, I ended up as ‘designated driver’ and therefore unofficial (and unpaid!) Uber driver to several of our party tonight, so the adrenaline has kept me awake longer than expected hence this rambling post at silly o’clock in the morning! I’ll probably pay for it by being totally knackered tomorrow, but I have a half term holiday to finish recovering and be ready for the new term up to Easter, so all is good. Thank you, and a very good night to you all! Steve S * It was supposed to be half an hour, but I was so bad she tried every single teaching trick in her repertoire to try to help me make some kind of decent sound - but all to no effect! I may love the cello, but I am resigned to never being able to play it!

Not to mention a good few other plays, several of which were adapted into films. However, what I found most interesting about Arthur Ridley was his actual war service/experience … From Wikipedia - Ridley was a student teacher and had made his theatrical debut in Prunella at the Theatre Royal, Bristol when he volunteered for service with the British Army on the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He was initially rejected because of a hammer toe. In December 1915, he enlisted as a private with the Somerset Light Infantry, British Army. He saw active service in the war, sustaining several wounds in close-quarter battle. His left hand was left virtually useless by wounds sustained on the Somme; his legs were riddled with shrapnel; he received a bayonet wound in the groin; and the legacy of a blow to the head from a German soldier's rifle butt left him prone to blackouts after the war. He was medically discharged from the army with the rank of lance corporal in May 1917. He received the Silver War Badge having been honourably discharged from the army due to wounds received in the war, and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service. Ridley rejoined the army in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War. He was commissioned into the General List on 7 October 1939 as a second lieutenant. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France during the "Phoney War", employed as a "Conducting Officer" tasked with supervising journalists who were visiting the front line. In May 1940, Ridley returned to Britain on the overcrowded destroyer HMS Vimiera, which was the last British ship to escape from the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne. Shortly afterwards, he was discharged from the Armed Forces on health grounds. He relinquished his commission as a captain on 1 June 1940. He subsequently joined the Home Guard, in his home town of Caterham, and ENSA, with which he toured the country. He described his wartime experiences on Desert Island Discs in 1973. I was aware that several members of the Dad’s Army cast had actual experience of serving in WW2, not to mention WW1 and the home guard itself - I wonder how much the writers consulted with the actors, or whether they offered up memories from their service life that got incorporated into the scripts? Ian Lavender was superb as Pike in Dad’s Army - and how lucky was he to be part of such an ensemble of talented and experienced actors.

Oh my goodness! I find myself agreeing with @Captain Kernow but also with @Watto1990 and also @HExpressD As a self declared shunting loco addict, I can see a few “hits” already* in the images posted! And to think I’ve been manfully resisting the drip fed adverts and subliminal temptation of the NCB Port of Par loco! Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that RAPIDO haven’t inadvertently duplicated PLANET INDUSTRIAL’s next project! 🫢 Steve S * 965002 (quasi PLA livery), 965007 and 965010 - did I say a few?! 😆

Good luck with the guitar. I’m a trombonist by training, but find myself teaching ukulele to Primary School Year 2 and 4 classes for my day job. I’ve never even begun to be able to play the guitar, and four chords on a ukulele are my absolute limit, not helped by a dose of “trigger finger” in my left hand. However, what I’m actually here to suggest is what I’ve done for one or two left handed children who absolutely could not manage to play the instrument “the right way around” - turn the instrument the other way (so the neck is in their right hand) and re-tune the strings in reverse order (as turning the instrument over reverses the string order). For a guitar, I would suggest you would also need to re-string the guitar. Doing so would mean your left hand is then left to simply strum - your weaker ring and ‘pinky’ fingers would only show up should you want to do “classical” guitar pieces or finger picking type patterns. Just a thought should the finger exercises prove less successful. Steve S

Why? What can you do with it?! (Being serious - what can you do with something banana shaped and full of Mazak rot other than send it to landfill?) Oh, silly me, of course… You can put it up for sale on eBay for £16.00 a la Go$turd 🙄🤣 Steve S

I took a very relaxed wander through the local Swedish blue and yellow store in search of some items to allow my work space to be relocated from the loft to the dining room (these past weeks of recuperation enforcing a reevaluation of where my home “office” is located - the loft - and its effect upon my general health) and took a long, hard look at the shelves upon which Rob creates his miniature works of art (or ‘layouts’ as he calls them)… The longer I stared at it in its “virgin” state, the more I marvelled at what Rob creates upon them! I very nearly purchased one so I could push some medium radius Peco points around on it to see how it works ‘in the flesh’, but prudence told me to wait until next visit. (Focus is not my middle name.) Must admit to being a teeny bit (oh okay, a lot) jealous of @GMKAT7 acquiring Rob’s “Christmas Quicky” as I would have put an offer in had I not been so slow to see the post suggesting it might be available ill. Having the track already laid and wired (and tested!) in a Sheepbloke design … wow! What an auspicious beginning! Do remember, Nigel, to provide us with a link here to your new layout thread when you start/name it in due course. @Tortuga - “Ply Plank of Poor Progress” - I do like that, although to describe my own ‘workbench’ I would have to add an extra descriptive word - also beginning with ‘p’ - between “of” and “Poor” 🫢🤣 HOURS OF FUN!

Thanks for the instructions/hints about correcting the ride height/spacing of Triang mk1 coach bogies. Just purchased three more off eBay for my own use, although a book I picked up on Diesel Hydraulics in the West Country seem to show Warships with a minimum of 8 coaches behind, so I may end up adding them to the 6 coaches I’ve got for my mate already. As these are maroon livery, I really will have to master repainting into chocolate and cream! Having taken my first Triang mk1 apart, I now see why the separate sides make them ideal “chop shop” fodder! As a matter of interest, how do you go about cutting them up? Razor saw or many passes with a modelling knife? Is masking tape a good idea? Middle of Lidl the other week had “Japanese Saws”, which apparently cut in both directions (?) and I did wonder if they were fine enough for modelling work (as the packaging said they had more teeth than a normal saw) although I couldn’t tell how thick the blades were due to the packaging. Delighted to find in my late dad’s library of reference books Keith Parkin’s “British Railways Mark 1 Coaches” and the “Supplementary Volume” - being stuck in bed has given me plenty of time to read it cover to cover. It’s fascinating how many variations of mk1 carriage were produced, and yet all using standard ‘panels’ had such a unity of design. HOURS OF FUN!

Possibly Blue Pullman owners out there with the factory fitted chips might be able to answer me this… The instructions say F1 for table lamps and F2 for cab lights. Coach lights are on all the time. Is there a way to turn coach lighting off? Or does that require an upgraded chip/s from those supplied by Bachmann? Just picked up a set off eBay like new, but reading in the thread that the original cost was £280 means someone made a cool 50% markup (if that was what they paid!). In any case, I am very happy to have acquired it (thank you eBay credit!) There was a set for sale on eBay a few days ago at a reduced price of £375 (or best offer); it appeared literally minutes after I’d made my purchase, but has now sold so possibly somebody got themselves a real bargain - especially compared to some prices now being asked on eBay, or even for brand new sets. I have to say that I thought my Bachmann 4CEPs were difficult to link together, until that is I put the Blue Pullman together to test it! Definitely a model which you want to assemble and then leave ready to run on your layout rather than packing it away between operating sessions. On testing, I thought it was a superbly smooth runner and the close coupling is superb. It appeared to tilt (like a Pendolino) into curves, but maybe that was just the severity of the curves themselves (Radius 3). Steve S

I’ve visited Beer*, but never been to Cider! Steve S * Three times with my family to visit Pecorama and once, memorably, aged 17 when I went on my own travelling from Tipton St John using public transport - that turned out to be a long day out!

I’ve bought one short wheelbase Bachmann wagon at £31 - a cement wagon, to use as a “template” to ‘upgrade’ cheaper wagons that come into my hands! And it was the cheapest version I could find in my local model shop (not eBay), the next cheapest being £35! Likewise I have bought one Rapido ferry van, to act as a template to improve all those Triang Hornby examples I’ve picked up cheaply off eBay. I found myself a Bachmann ‘standard’ mineral wagon for £13 a couple of weeks ago at The Locoshed - that will be my template when building Airfix/Dapol kits of the same. I feel extremely itchy about paying £40 for a short wheelbase OO wagon - £5 more and I could buy the same in O gauge, and that seems better value for money in terms of what’s in your hands in exchange for the same number of cake tokens! Which was the argument my friend put forward when we attended the Barnsley Model Show and he looked at retail prices for models for the first time in around 10 years. Food for thought - if only O gauge didn’t take up so much room! Steve S

Looking for Bachmann FGA wagons on a general Google search, and ending up hitting these on eBay… Now, is it me or is that a touch overpriced? Steve S

Took my Bachmann Midland Pullman along to The Locoshed this afternoon in order to test run it (it is chipped, and I don’t have DCC - yet!) and Jim kindly let me run it around his test track. Assembly is a b*tch - not only are the connectors awkward, but the coaches must be connected the right way around or (a) they won’t light and (b) they cause an error on the controller! Beautiful smooth running, and the lighting functions respond exactly as expected. Disassembly and boxing up was as difficult as assembling it in the first place! Definitely one to store “on the layout”, so to speak. Also took along my new EFE Bulleid “Booster” loco for Jim to take a look at - ran sweet as a nut straight out of the box, and contrary to several reviews talking about dim lights I thought they were perfectly fine (under DC). The wand turned the can lights on and off as promised - although the DC controller had to have juice flowing for that to happen. Changing direction (with the Gaugemaster controller) turned the cab lights off. I assume this is expected behaviour. Meanwhile I have some images to restore to the thread, perhaps over the weekend. Steve S

Will No 34 be named at some point? She’s a handsome beast (all praise to her builder) and so seems eminently worthy of an appropriate name! Steve S

Many years ago, was driven over to Holmfirth (of Last of the Summer Wine fame) by a mate for a (late) Xmas Concert (in January!) at his church, taking “the scenic route” out via Greenfield. It was snowing, lightly, and his Volvo wasn’t exactly the fastest machine on the road, so we were passed at some speed by a red car* just literally outside of Greenfield as the road started upwards. A few minutes later and the “light snowfall” had become “way thicker snowfall” and as we climbed higher rapidly became “should we be taking this route in this kind of snowfall?” But Mike had arranged the concert, it had been postponed twice, and myself and three other friends from University had agreed to play for the concert and so he was determined to get us there. Just towards the top where there was a sharp turn to the left to negotiate, the snow had got ridiculously heavy and Mike was peering through the windscreen wipers as we continued forwards at about 10mph, when I spotted a red car lying upside down in the ditch at the side of the road. Moments later, it was lost in the flurries of snow, but I saw it long enough to see (imagine?) one of the wheels still turning. I remember saying to Mike that I thought I’d just seen a car on its roof but he was intent on (a) negotiating the road in almost zero visibility and (b) not have his car demand “a rest” - all of his vehicles were notorious for this “feature” and neither he nor I really fancied it doing so on the top of the moor with thick snow falling! Never found out if the red car that had flown past us ended up in that ditch. Got to the concert to find exactly three people present - the vicar, the church warden (who had opened up) and his wife. One of our members was stuck in snow somewhere in West Yorkshire and the concert never happened! Spent the night at my mate’s house near our old college before setting off at sparrow fart again with Mike as I needed to be back at 8am on Sunday morning to play in a brass band contest (of all things!) West Yorkshire was a winter wonderland so he decided it would be a bad idea to go over the hills again (phew) and instead headed north up the M1 joining near Barnsley and then the M62 to head back to Manchester. Conditions were ideal for skiers, probably less so for cars. We made our way in the slow lane of a deserted M1 and then an equally deserted M62. The snow started again and then the inevitable … Mike’s car needed a rest! We pulled onto the hard shoulder (how could we know?!) and sat for around 15 minutes whilst snow gradually piled up on the car, and I prayed nothing rear ended us! Setting off again in the snow, I couldn’t work out how Mike could tell where he was driving until he said he could just make out the white line at the edge of the motorway. Honestly, as I write this I can hear how ludicrous it sounds, but it’s all true! With snow falling really heavily again, I was trusting Mike’s driving abilities (I’d yet to learn to drive) but nevertheless sensed that we were veering left and downwards (even though I couldn’t see anything in the snow), before suddenly starting to rise up again, still veering left. Totally disorientated, I was about to say something when we suddenly pulled under the entrance canopy of a hotel! ”Oh” said Mike. Mike notoriously could fall asleep mid sentence. We’d worried about him in the first year, but as he didn’t seem too worried we just put it down to one of his idiosyncrasies! His reaction to this situation was typically laid back. Pulling out his AA roadmap, he worked out that he must have taken a slip road off the M62, then the first exit of a(n unseen) roundabout to end up at the hotel. He pulled the car into the car park, let it have another rest, the snow thinned a little and we resumed our journey over the Pennines. He dropped me home (just off the M66) just before 8am, declined breakfast and said he needed to get on his way as he was playing organ for a church service in Wolverhampton at 11am! He drove off, and I went in the opposite direction back to Rochdale to the band contest. In retrospect and from a distance of 33 years I think I can acknowledge (a) the foolhardiness of us both in undertaking either journey across the Pennines and (b) a lack of general citizenship in not checking that (what I thought was) a red car in a ditch did not contain injured persons. Of course, back then there was no internet, so finding out if there had been an accident would have meant scouring the local newspapers or hearing it on the local news (radio or TV) - neither of those things happened, and so to this day I have to ask myself “Did I really see a red car upside down in a ditch** with a wheel slowly turning through the falling snow, or did I imagine it?” Steve S * Couldn’t tell the make, it passed by so fast. ** If it was the red car that overtook us at stupid miles an hour … well, it served the driver right for being a silly @rse!

Some more photos (so I don’t forget I have them!): Blackford Bridge station building, which I think is modelled on plans of a station from the Settle & Carlisle. I remember him making the gas lamps - they are metal tube, with the heads assembled from pieces of clear plasticard and Mepak (?), assembled with much fumbling and cursing over many, many evenings. I seem to remember him finishing them and an article appearing shortly after in the Railway Modeller where somebody had done the same and put grain of wheat bulbs in them to light them up; I asked him whether he planned to do that and him replying “B*gger that for a game of soldiers” 🤣 Another view of the goods yard - office of the same era as the railway station, and his coal staithes can just be made out behind the wagons. The water tower at the rear is the only building I don’t recognise and think he may have bought that at an exhibition, as it is made of plaster. The bauxite van is one of four which I also think he bought, as I never knew him paint any of his kit built wagons in bauxite! In this view can be seen the weighbridge office (same age as the station building), the signal box and a provender store. The latter I knew he built after he retired, and if I build a diorama as mentioned earlier, that will be included (together with the weighbridge and office, the coal staithes and possibly the yard crane (not shown). The signal box was also built for his original layout, and I remember being intrigued by it as it was placed with its back towards the viewer! All that detail, and the only way to see it was to remove the roof! You can see there’s damage to the uprights on the stairs and a couple of the stanchions around the walkway need fixing, but the signalman is still at his post inside. I used to marvel at the little shed for the “facilities” too - hopefully that is in one of the boxes of “bits” to help complete the cameo. I hope that gives a gist of why I feel the urge to “show off” my dad’s modelling in his memory. Steve S

Just realised I took some photos of my dad’s layout before dismantling it, posing stock on it to get a flavour of what he wanted to achieve. Two coach local passenger service at the station, pulled by a 2-6-2 tank loco. Overbridge over the platform just out of shot to the right. Overview - the end of the passenger platform can be seen under the bridge. He had started a river in the last foot before the fiddle yard, but wasn’t happy with it scenically. Overview of the goods yard. The only building in position before I took this photo was the goods shed - I had to hazard a guess for the others, as he had them all lined up in order of size along the front edge of the baseboard, in front of the long siding. I placed the buildings where I thought they looked natural. In retrospect, I guess the front siding would most likely be for coal - he just needed more coal staithes to match those he built for his original layout. Closer view of his goods shed - which has 5mm thick ABS plastic at its core! The basic shape for the main body of the building was vacuum formed as a favour from the lads on the shop floor where he worked - he drew up the design for the mould, they built the mould, cast his building and disposed of the evidence without the bosses knowing anything about it! It is so strong you can stand on it (which I remember him doing when he first brought it home and before any holes were cut into it). It then has layers of plasticard glued on to form the relief, the whole lot then covered in brick paper. It used to have a basic platform inside but over the years he added more detail - the poor photo shows the interior I realise now that he must have worked on it upside down with it cradled somehow, as the roof was part of the ABS plastic moulding. It may not be perfect or hyper-detailed, but to me it is special because he spent time and effort on it, and he cared about modelling it to the best of his abilities. Steve S