Porkscratching

I found some of the Bachmann engines have so many tiny parts sticking out, you very easily break bits off if you handle the damn thing at all...

I had stuff that was getting a bit too hot on a shelf above a gas fire, I simply scavenged a bit of sheet metal and made a "heat shield" mounted in the gap between the top of the fire and the shelf above. This absorbed the direct heat from the fire and worked quite adequately

It easy to get naffed off with something that's close by or you've had a lot to do with, from an outside observers point of view however, your layout looks bloody good👍 I'd just have a bit of a break with something completely different (ie not railway related at all ) , and return when appropriate hopefully refreshed...

If I was going to Brighton (or a stop on route) and saw that sign, I probably wouldn't have even noticed, my brain would've likely just assumed "Brighton.."

When I lived at the Elephant and Castle, this was early-mid 80s, I'd often jump on the bakerloo line from there and it was pretty much always 1938 stock, painted red all over (with the vivid green interior)

For Sale.. Muhammad Ali DVDs... George Foreman Grill.. Both Boxed

Reminiscent of the Irish station scene in The Quiet Man where someone's asking directions, one of the helpful replies being.. "Sure now, if I was wantin' to go there, I wouldn't be startin' from here"..

As teenagers in the 70s we used to do all kinds of jiggery-pokery to save some pennies, particularly useful was the fact you could get from BR main lines onto the LT Underground system , without going through any ticket barriers, by simply crossing the down platform at New Cross, which was also a terminus of the old spur that went thru Surrey Docks etc. There was usually a nice set ( R stock as I recall ) sitting there waiting for you 😉

That stuff's got to be worth getting to have a tube in hand anyway, by the sound of it 👍 The pipe weld stuff I've used is a solvent, a kind of gel, that is used on plastic water / waste pipe

Could certainly do with a lick of paint by the looks of it...

Didn't the RAF/USAF bomb Switzerland "by mistake" a few times?.. Possibly not helped by the fact Switzerland operated ME109s as I recall.

You beat me to it.. I'll just go and put mine on too.. 😁

Nah, you want the Shed of Light Entertainment

As a kid I lived in HW for a few years, from circa '65 so not far from your period. One of our main joys was exploring the railway and larking about thereon! There was a completely open foot crossing leading from a track between fields, we'd simply enter there and walk along the ballast. A little way up the track, heading towards HW station was some sidings where a selection of very ratty wagons could be found. These we would climb about on, the favourite were 20t brake vans, we'd spend an hour or so lounging about in the seats looking out of the duckets, playing "guards" etc, obviously the stove was "lit" with scraps of paper etc. I remember there seemed to be quite a few Sealion type wagons usually stashed there too in a rather rusty state, again fun to climb about on. There was of course the popular sport of putting pennies on the track and retrieving them after they'd been squashed by a passing train, some of these had been flattened multiple times and we're quite sought after "swaps" at school. The main passenger through traffic then was DMUs, which my main memory of was the horrible racket the engines made. Steam was still just about present, I quite often recall seeing very shabby rusty tank locos going through that section, always seemingly light engine, which stuck in my mind. Not much specific diagramming or whatever to help you there, but your question brought back some great memories of the fun we had "on the railway" round there.. ( and surprisingly no one got hit by a train 😁)

Pipe weld, now there's an idea👍 I've very likely got some of that left over from sticking actual pipes too ! In a worst case anyway I can use "mechanical" methods I suppose.

Schoolboy question probably.... I'm wanting to glue ordinary plastic card to the kind of placcy they use on Bachmann underframes, I'm wanting to overlay a couple of buffer beams on a diesel loco.. and on a different item fill in a large square cutout (that was intended for a power bogie) to bodge mount a plain bogie. Not sure if they use some kind of soapy plastic that'd reject most glues, or if it'd be OK with liquid poly or CA? Any thoughts most gratefully received.

Things to do in Denver 'in your Shed

When it's puffing a bit at the beginning, reminds me of a mate many years ago who was a champion at blowing smoke rings 😁

That's great, many thanks for the Intel 👍 .. it's another one that when I got it I just assumed it was circa 1950s, I've got a few of the similar but definitely post war 4 wheel locos but it's nice to have a couple of proper "old uns". Funnily enough the LNER one above runs better than any of the later ones I've got.

Good luck to 'em, Sounds like a smart move to me 😁

Interesting, I love the brown plastic seats! Out of interest, was Ghana one of the countries supplied with all manner of "stuff" by the Soviets back in the day ? I wondered as you say the coaches are East German.

Another one I have that I was curious about, it seems unusual in having no connecting rods,( or outside cylinders) and never has had. Can't 100% guarantee the mech is original to the body but I'd be fairly certain that it is. Wondering if the knowledgeable folk have any ideas?

I remember as a kid there was a "legend" going round at school that WW1 could have easily been stopped before it actually kicked off, but as the highly complex German Railway mobilisation plans had been set in motion it was too much agro to cancel, so they went ahead and "did it" anyway...

The chap with the big control panel set up looks to have been a likely regular at those funny little shops in Tottenham Court Road that used to flog lots of weird and interesting ex-WD gear..

Well I watched it at least !.. I reckon you should have a bloke muffled up in a big coat and balaclava pulling on point levers though. 😁