Porkscratching

I've used careful application of lighter fuel, which has removed oil from, for instance, a Bachmann 37 diesel without damage to the finish.

No way I was letting any of mine go other than down my neck.! Can't say there was a particular gull problem when I was there, that said I only stayed a few hours really.. came in on the rattler in the afternoon, kipped the night, (totally winging it) at a very friendly little B+B place, then caught a boat in the morning to continue on my journey to the islands. Great times....

Best fish and chips I ever had in my life was in Mallaig, that was about 1990, no doubt it's changed a bit now.

Absolutely, I know nothing, nothing.....

Good job 👍 I do like trolley buses, I can just about remember them "for real" in Croydon, when I was a nipper living with my Gran. I seem to recall someone scratch built one in 1/32 scale or something some years back on the Britmodeller forum, which was very nicely done.

I love the way you said you bought yourself some locos for "research purposes".. Epic 😁

I seem to recall reading somewhere that French polish or button polish etc wasn't good for some reason, and the pukka shellac comes in reconstitutable flakes. Isn't it ground up bits of old insects or something? Tbh I'd rather do the polyurethane thing which is certainly spirit not water based.

I think CA is better for making paper (rather than card) into a hard material, maybe for roof tiles, signage, and the like. .. you'd likely need a fairly large ££ quantity of CA to impregnate a load of card I'd think! Your polyurethane varnish idea sounds a good plan, the initial layers could also be thinned down to assist soaking into the card.

For your amusement here's a thing I dabbled with in card (from amazon envelopes) just as a kind of rough try out "toile" of an idea to then make in metal of some sort (tin?) which I never did naturally. It's circa 10mm (easy to calculate!) to the foot so slightly bigger than O gauge, I simply printed some line drawing, front, top, sides etc, views of a Hunslet loco on paper, glued it to the card, cut the bits out, glued 'em together. It's been abandoned, dropped and knocked about on the floor by the cat etc etc, but was all fairly square when I made it, and I reckon the method of building would work as a "proper" model if you then impregnated the card with CA, varnish, or whatever to stiffen it. Pity it got bashed up I'd be almost tempted to rescue it and build it as a rough card model myself now 😁

Not sure what he'd have used but Halfords "Fiat Broom Yellow" was a popular choice for yellow ends..

I've still got a British Thornton in a drawer upstairs, the last time I used it was to try and convert various dimensions from 4mm Scale to something else for some experimental project, dammed if I can remember exactly what or how tbh.. The first digital-y calculator-y thing I came across in real life was this, nicked from work by my mum in the 70s, as I recall, the battery even still works 😁

Cool, does that work as a "hair growing tonic" then? 😁

Here's an LMS version I've got at home... Be interesting to know exactly what it was from.

I for some odd reason remember him playing a Russian army officer who sang "it's a long way to tipperary" whilst playing the ukulele (or something).... 95 is a bloody good innings anyway.

Of course if you grew a bit of hair on one side you could use some to do a classic Bobby Charlton / Arthur Scargill comb over😁

I suppose most model Railways, in practice or theory, are imaginary unless you're doing a strict architect's scale representation of an actual place. I've got a couple of ideas of small layouts, more dioramas really, that I'm going to make (another round tuit job)... that are imaginary in the sense they're not a replica of a real place, but have the "vibe" and impression of many railway sites I've seen, walked around, worked on, whatever. I've even got a daft name for one, that oddly enough I had a vivid dream about.. Must lay off the cheese near bedtime 😁

I tried one of those plastic pill popper tool things on one of ours, he just bit the end off the device and spat the whole lot out.. Then just scowled at me.

If its got poo in it the dog will likely eat it, especially if it's horse poo...

Front leg most effectively used as an arm.. Ye know what I mean! 😁

A place I worked had a brilliant rat killer cat, a skinny black and white one that just "turned up" and became a regular inhabitant. I watched him once in one of the shabby old 19th cent buildings, he was staring at a 3 or 4 inch hole in the wall where a pipe had been (the walls were about 18 ins thick), he suddenly shoved his arm in the hole, right up to the armpit, wriggled about a bit, and pulled out a huge rat from the depths of this aperture.. I was stunned at such an incredible and impressive piece of handballing.. He trotted off past me with this thing wriggling & hollering in his jaws, to despatch at his leisure no doubt.

Same here with a little fluffy "handbag dog" type fella.. I had custody of him "just for a week" which involved him being slung in the land rover and coming to work with me, getting filthy and generally being a "proper dog" and loving it. .. when he was handed back he was aparrently utterly miserable, moping about, wouldn't do anything, clearly suffering depression, soon as he was turned over to me again he was back to being jolly as anything, seems he made his choice.. he's snoozing beside me now age 13 😁

Reminds me of a Geiger alien skeleton type of thing! 😁

'Ere.. are you that George Michael?

Can you just turn up and pay on the door with this one ? I'm hoping to go but have a few things ongoing that might clash at short notice ....

Fair comment, though in the case I described it wasn't a layout, just general ornamental "stuff" on an overmantle. The gas fire was properly vented in a chimney/flue behind it too so no danger there. The metal heat shield was quite effective preventing the above getting too hot however . Obviously best keep something like a layout away from direct heat if at all possible, as you rightly say.