Pete 75C

Sadly, I've taken to ignoring status updates as sometimes it's like scrolling through someone's photo gallery. I'm off to Benidorm for a week so I'll upload all my holiday snaps as a status update when I return. You have been warned. Prepare to be very, very bored. If this was 1975, I'd be round your house uninvited with a box of slides and a slide projector. There. I moaned. Lack of coffee this morning and a particularly naughty puppy hasn't helped.

Maybe it's just one of those things that will settle down in time? This version of RMWeb is very much in its infancy and it's obviously being tweaked and prodded beyond our control.

My "Followed Topics" sidebar contains only topics that I actually started, without exception. If that's a coincidence, it's an impressive one. Also, it doesn't change. Since it appeared, it's always been this way, nothing random about it. The suggestion that the "Followed Topics" sidebar should contain a random selection of topics that other people follow makes no sense to me - what would be the point?

I just noticed this thread has been dormant for over a year! Tut. There's no excuse for that, so I thought I'd attempt to kickstart it for 2019. Flickr images (authorised for reuse), not mine sadly.

Looks like the inflatable autopilot from the Airplane movie....

Great job on the track and track weathering. The whole thing looks very realistic. There is a hint of "Waddon Marsh" to it which was an early build of mine (now sold) but continues to haunt these pages, I think. Edit: Without wishing to divert from the modelling, in my time as a driver on the Southern Region/NSE/Connex, I had a couple of jumpers and the way I dealt with it was to come to terms (very quickly) that it was in no way my fault and there was absolutely nothing I could have done to change the outcome. What happened was their choice and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope everything's ok.

I was going to say don't worry about it as I'd hate to be the cause of any unintended consequences, such as Boris becoming human or the accidental return of the "disagree" button, but you've already done it. Brave man, and much appreciated, ta. I didn't really like being a newbie again...

Speed has not been an issue for me - no noticeable difference from the old version. Andy - I noticed the link in your signature - "Want a version of 'View New content'?" - that's really useful and was the only thing I was struggling with - thank you. One final thing - after sorting out my login issue which involved creating a new account, is there any way to get back my original "joined RMWeb date" of December 2012, rather than 'last week' as it's showing now? Also, a lot of my older posts are showing "Guest" rather than "Pete 75C". Neither of which are a huge issue and if it's a consequence of merging the two accounts to get me back on here, I can live with that! Thanks, Pete.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/barcelona-train-crash-leaves-one-dead-and-100-others-injured-a4062096.html

Yeah - pretty much exactly that. I want the road bridge to look virtually brand new, as in the photos above, and I think the odd spot of graffiti might make it look a little less stark and very contemporary. Graffiti being graffiti, it might make the road bridge look even more stark - I think I'll just have to try it and see what I think.

I think the tags are pretty common off the tourist trail, see below. These road bridges border the Finestrat - Benidorm section of the FGV tram line and aren't particularly accessible unless you have local knowledge. You're right about the slogans elsewhere though. I spotted a particularly poignant piece of graffiti on the wall of a residential complex at the back of Benidorm, something along the lines of "€50 reward to find who is killing our cats", written in English too. Not really a slogan, more of a statement. I guess graffiti has many faces.

I think he's hibernating Colin. I haven't seen him recently. I can imagine him curled up amongst a load of twigs and moss. It should be around April before he comes searching for fresh warm newbie flesh. In non-Boris related news, I'm pondering whether to add graffiti to the road bridge piers at the left-hand end of the layout. I've got some laser-cut transfers that look suitably European. I personally don't like it, but it is a fact of modern life. I might try one pier with and one pier without and then go with my gut instinct. A lot of Spanish rolling stock has suffered the graffiti-blight, but I've no intention of going that far...

Nothing to do with "The Plank", but rather a test post to confirm that my RMWeb identity is alive and kicking, but it had to be dragged back into existence kicking and screaming. Since the forum upgrade, which I have to say I rather like, I was unable to log-in as normal. Other users had the same issue, but sod's law dictates that my issue ran deeper and was not easy to sort. Huge thanks to Andy Y for getting everything sorted, which involved me having to sign up as a new user and him having to try and "merge" all my old content. Some of my posts show "Guest" rather than "Pete 75C" and even though my posting history goes back 6-odd years, I've only been a member since yesterday! Ah well, I'm just happy to be back. Work on The Plank or "Cap Llevant" will continue but I have a new distraction which is consuming 80% of my day, Meet Eleven Wong. Yes, that is her name. No Chinese jokes please... She's a 16-wk-old Swiss Shepherd and is a bit of a handful. A big dog she will be.

Has anyone attempted to model concrete slab or "ballastless" track? I am reasonably certain no proprietary track is available (HO scale 1:87) and I'm left wondering if anyone's attempted to adapt off-the-shelf components? Individual chairs and rail would seem to be the most realistic prospect but I'm curious if anyone's had a go. The first 3 photos below are the kind of effect I'm after (taken in a Spain a couple of years ago, metre gauge) but the last photo shows a similar generic type. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Bit of a long shot, this. Made in limited numbers and fairly quickly sold out to collectors, but if anyone has one they no longer need or want... Must be the version with rear doors, prefer route 77A Euston but others considered.

OK, so the dreaded lack of modelling mojo rears its head on here quite often. As one of the recently afflicted, I thought I'd try to develop a cure. Yeah, right... expecting to crash and burn as so many of my bright ideas usually do, I wasn't hopeful. Well I'll be damned, this one actually seemed to work. I'm lucky to have a modelling room. No-one else goes in. No-one else would want to. Last night, I dragged a bar stool up there from the kitchen (elevated height, so I could survey the partly finished layout and the stack of part-finished projects). Cue the music, which in my case happened to be one of those early Ibiza chill-out albums. Sit back (dangerous on a bar stool), favourite tipple etc etc and I just stared and stared. Ideas formed. Slowly, the willingness to actually pick up a steel rule returned. By the end of disc one, I'd figured out what needed to be done next. By the end of disc two, I'd actually painted something. The new day has dawned with a desire to actually crack on. Try it - it may work for you. If it doesn't, ignore the above...

One for any gas engineers on here, I think. We're finally getting round to replacing the ramshackle patchwork concrete at the back of the house with a decent patio and the entire area has to be lowered around 6 inches. Not a massive problem until I remembered back a few years ago when I demolished an old bay window to put in sliding patio doors. Around an inch below (what was then) the inside floor level I discovered the gas supply pipe cutting through the bay to reach the meter on the outside wall by the kitchen window. Now, to me, that is stupidly shallow and I was led to believe it should be much deeper. Knowing that the entire 40 sq m of concrete will have to be removed and whatever's underneath excavated down by 6 inches, I decided to carefully hand excavate along the route of the pipe. My thinking is that I know the route of the pipe and a landscaper with a mini JCB won't... The pipe itself is no deeper than 2 inches below the current surface level. The pipe would appear to be around an inch and a half in diameter, rigid, and wrapped in a yellow plastic(?) sleeve. As the pipe is rigid, there is no chance of any slack letting me lower the pipe in a deeper trench myself. I know I need to get someone in to cap off at either end and replace the pipe setting it at a lower level but who is that "someone"? All I can think of is giving National Grid (what used to be Transco) a call and they'll no doubt send someone round. Is this the best or only course of action? I'm pretty sure that the gas supply pipe outside of the house is beyond the remit of a Corgi/Gas Safe plumber. Advice appreciated. Pictures below for reference. The 90 degree branch in the second photo leads to a decomissioned 2nd meter that existed years ago when the property had been split into two flats. It is capped where the meter used to be and will need to be removed.

Google is not my friend today. Does anyone have any images (or links to images) of the exterior of railway station buffets? "Travellers Fare" era - 1970s and 1980s. I'm thinking along the lines of major stations, rather than kiosks. Searching the 'net reveals photos of sandwiches, menus, posters and a few cafeteria-type interior shots but that's about it. Thanks, Pete.

OK, here's the back story... My son's 19 next month and after a few lessons, he's booked an intensive course with that 5-day place in Norwich (the company with the annoying yet catchy radio jingle). So, assuming that in a couple of months, he'll be legally mobile, thoughts have turned to his first car. I'm getting a little bored with driving around in the little automatic Citroen C3 that my wife uses as a shopping trolley so I'm happy to buy something in my name and to insure it in my name. It need only be for a year, as our emigration date is looming (perfectly timed to coincide with the aftermath of Brexit). We've kinda agreed on a 2006 Seat Leon 1.6... engine size might be a bit bigger than a new driver needs, but it's a decent car with good visibility. It will never turn any heads, but hey - I don't care about that. My son is fussy and insists he wants to be a little bit different with car choice. Initially he fell in love with a 1999 Alfa GTV 2.0 TwinSpark (yeah, right... the perfect car for a new driver, not). Having lived in Spain and owned a couple of Ibizas, I have no issue with Seat, in fact I rather like them - they're a common car but not so common as a Corsa, Fiesta, <insert boring little hatchback here>, etc etc. My question is... if I give him the money, he buys the car, registers it in his name and gets an insurance quote soley in his name, it will cost at least two arms and half a leg (which will make the car impossible to drive). Now if I buy it, insure it in my name and add him as a named driver, the insurance takes a leap up from what I'd expect to pay as sole driver, but it is still much more affordable than scenario 1. Are there any small-print pitfalls to watch out for with "named driver" policies. Remember, I'll be using it more than him... he'll probably only take custody of it at weekends for trips to Acle to visit the girlfriend, etc etc.

Hi all. I've been trying to find a close match (it won't be a perfect match) for this kind of lamp style... I've cropped and reduced the size of the images so hopefully there won't be any copyright issues. The originals are (presumably) ex-LNER on the suburban side at Kings Cross and were still in existence up to the mid 1970s. Searching for "station" or "platform" lamps brings up countless designs and styles from a multitude of manufacturers, but I can't find anything that contains the shade inside of a hoop. I'm working in OO/4mm and these can either be working or non-working. I'm just curious if anyone knows of a make/supplier that I've missed? Thanks.

If anyone's thinning their stock... This is the blue, split-headcode, 21pin chassis. As new, no damage, no weathering please. Long shot, but worth a try.

No luck with the usual online spares outlets - everybody appears to be out of stock. If anyone has a set of these no longer required, do please let me know. Pete.

This isn't entirely railway-related, so apologies if it's in the wrong section... Does anyone have an approximate date that tobacco advertising in the form of roadside billboards and station advertising ceased? I well remember JPS, Rothmanns etc in the world of motorsport and "Marlboro man" on billboards, so it must have existed in the late 70s. I'm going to guess at some point during the 1980s but happy to be corrected. I have a "dead corner" to fill on a model and a couple of billboards would seem appropriate. It's easy enough to Google the adverts themselves, but I can't find anything related to the date they last appeared.

----Sorted, thanks---- If you're anything like me, you'll have a load of bits lying around that "might be useful one day". Problem is, you won't want to get rid of them! One thing that I'm using a lot of in my latest project is this sprue of parts to make up a brick wall pier/pillar. They can be found in Wills kits of bridge parapets, tunnel mouths, retaining walls etc etc. These can't be bought separately and buying full kits just for a couple of sprues would be financially crippling. If anyone has any leftovers that you can bear to part with, PM me. I hope it goes without saying that I'll pay a decent price for them + P&P. Thanks, Pete.

Edit: Having been adamant I wasn't going to call it "Kings Cross", guess what? Yep... I'll call it "Kings Cross" and worry about the differences later! Well, it's a while since I became an armchair modeller, blighted by a lack of space and, tbh, motivation. Back in October last year, the seed of an idea began to grow and I started this thread discussing anything and everything to do with Kings Cross suburban platforms, York Road and Hotel Curve. Fascinated by the photos and memories that appeared on that thread as it grew to 20 pages+, it became apparent that wood needed to be butchered and some kind of layout had to be built. About a month ago, I found myself with a small amount of available domestic space and a simple framework measuring around 7'6" x 22" was built. I've given no thought at all to fiddle yards but I imagine that one day this board could be incorporated into some kind of "roundie" featuring an approximation of York Road in the background. This is the plan... ...and it is immediately apparent that I've taken some lots of liberties with reality. There will be a road bridge stage left where none existed back in the 1970s. The closest nod to reality would be the bridge carrying Battle Bridge Road over Kings Cross station throat but that disappeared back in the early 20th century. You can see from the pictures below that the train shed wall is acting as a scenic break allowing me to incorporate a sneaky glimpse of some of the rest of the main line station. Once the overall roof is added, a glimpse is all it will be. Truth is, these are just stub tracks that serve no real purpose. The furthest from the front of the layout will just hold a couple of coaches and the other is a fair bit longer and will act as a kick-back from the (eventual) fiddle yard. Whatever the layout gets named, it can't be "Kings Cross" as although I hope to recreate the feel of the place, creating a believable carbon-copy is beyond my abilities. What you see below is the result of about an hour a day over the last two weeks as I find myself with other priorities. Next jobs are to clad the train shed wall and make a start on the wooden platforms at the very front of the layout. More soon.