Malcolm 0-6-0

"And then this Dr Beecham bloke told us that we could keep the Gresley A3 but only if we made it a more economical size"

Not unrealistic - many pics I've seen show coal in very big lumps in the tenders and bunkers. The hard working fireman was forced to smash them into bits so that they could be shovelled into the firebox and spread around to achieve the desired even burning. A fireman's job really was a filthy grimy back breaking one.

Man on horse "Blasted unscheduled roadworks again!!" His wife "Now dear, I'm sure these things must be done" Man on horse "Now you're being reasonable again, harumpphh!!!"

I suspect that you will have to mix the colour and work by trial and error.

Well the name is derived from the Latin name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium because it was founded as a Roman colony. So in practical terms you have a colony named Colony.

I was wondering that myself.

Well given the nature of the footplate and the lack of a defined coal bunker on that loco then loading in sacks would seem to be a way of stopping it spreading out and getting under the crew's feet.

I am impressed by the packaging of the coal into bite size pieces Lovely little engine.

In the wikipedia article attached to Hroth's post is a reference to the 1954 visit of the Queen and Prince Phillip to Victoria. The entry for Monday March 1, 1954 mentions the royal couple's visit to Crib Point (a naval base at the entrance to Western Port Bay). At that time I lived in a street that ran down to the suburban network line on which the royal train made that trip, the line was electrified to Frankston but as the line from there to Crib Point wasn't, the royal train was hauled by a steam locomotive. So I remember seeing the train as it passed through. Prince Phillip was standing on the observation platform of the rear carriage waving to us devoted subjects and I am led to believe that my comment to my mother was "Why is he washing the window?". The use of steam on that line continued for another few years until VR introduced diesels and there was nothing like the sight of a big steam loco flying along at dusk on Fridays bringing the shore leave sailors from Crib Point up to Melbourne for the weekend. Steam and sparks flying and the wonderful sound.

I have given up trying to understand why these idiots do that sort of thing. I have often thought that the most effective form of punishment would be to find these kids' parents and make the parents do the clean up and restoration/restitution while making the kids stand and watch. I imagine after that that these little horrors would probably be grounded for life.

Not quite true about the effectiveness of the armour of the period. The first British tanks were armoured in what was first considered to be effective protection. However like many military advances their deployment revealed that while many projectiles from small arms and also small shrapnel did not penetrate the armour the tanks and their crews were casualties of the process of spalling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spall This occurs as that page shows when while the actual projectile does not penetrate the armour, the shock wave created by its impact does which causes flaking off of the internal surface resulting lethal sprays of high speed metal particles. This was such a problem that the tank crews had to be issued with forms of body armour especially around the face and eyes - https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30013368 This spalling was also sufficient at times to destroy engines etc. I imagine that this threat would have also applied to the crew cabins of armoured locomotives which would have therefore been quite sufficient to disable them. Also Edwardian is quite right when he cites the infrastructure as the principal weakness. All a determined enemy had to do was lift some track sections and set up an ambush and the armoured train would have been rendered impotent.

Now that was a fast paced veering off to the subject of tanks. The Tank Regiment would be proud of such manoeuvrability. However just to change the subject back to something previously mentioned which is armoured trains. I really have never seen the point of these. All one needed to render them useless was a well placed shell or two, or an aerial bomb on the track, or a well placed shot through the boiler and they then become just a conspicuous target with no chance of escape from destruction. I can understand the use of protection on a train if it is operating behind the lines for transport or supply but for any offensive or defensive purposes they are quite useless.

Well there are some religions and sects who seem to have developed a monopoly on the art of door bell ringing. Whether that is a useful trade or not is probably beyond any religious belief to properly answer.

That scene with the sand piles and the workmen examining the digger is very realistic. Well done.

Depends where you're working. Hi viz in some of the places I worked made you a good target. Of course if an excavation is unstable then shoring would be necessary however if it is unstable then perhaps the archaeologist is at fault given the need for accurate sections. However that doesn't mean that the extremes of H&S lunacy are acceptable in any form especially when it has become the prime means by which jobsworths cling to employment when better more intelligent people miss out. And donning hi-viz just to talk in a museum is really on the extreme side of silliness. However it might be a subtle as yet not fully understood evolutionary phenomenon in that hi-viz allows the ready identification of the less than intellectually gifted amongst us.

Wonderful and not a silly high viz vest or even sillier hard hat in sight. I really wish that someone, somewhere, would take all these H&S dweebs away where they can't further complicate our lives. I'm a retired archaeologist and every time I see pics of digs these days there's all these people in hi viz vests and hard hats, come to think of it every time a I see a pic of someone doing anything, anywhere, it's nothing but silly hard hats and silly hi-viz vests. Never bothered in my day and we didn't come to any harm and I worked in some quite dangerous places. I suspect that H&S regulations are proof positive that the C pass students (the vocationally inclined cough...) have finally taken over the world and all those years of the human race striving for excellence by getting 1st class honours degrees and the ensuing higher degrees has been rendered socially unacceptable. I know that as a caring society we have to find a place for the "vocationally" inclined but couldn't that be somewhere out of sight of the less intellectually challenged amongst us. Somewhere someone has made a financial killing (pun intended) by having a patent on this H&S paraphernalia. It's a pity it's of no use should you actually get run over by a train.

To my eye it needs some form of framing to support the sides, other than that a lovely job on the rusted iron.

That RC lorry really is great.

What? Steamy McSteamface instead ?

My earliest exposure to 19th century British history was in the form of the novels of G. A. Henty. This came about because as a child over 6 decades ago I seem to have a surfeit of elderly relatives willing to unload their childhood books on me. Needless to say the Hentian world view has long gone the way of the dinosaur however I maintain a very secret soft spot for these Victorian propaganda novels featuring young white chaps with a surfeit of pluck and derring do. In the Henty canon the title might have been With Fisher to Helsinki; a tale of the perils of paddle steamers. This early infatuation fuelled my love of history and my future interest and career, however it did mean that as I matured my world view needed a salutary overhaul. There is a pub in a suburb of Melbourne named the Sarah Sands which was built around the time of that event.

Satiated by a fresh orange she has drifted off to sleep. Her more studious sister is seeking improvement in the published sermons of the Rev. Jedidiah Outhwaite, in particular his comments on the over consumption of oranges.

When I've done it I first drilled small holes where the handrail knobs were which made positioning their replacements a little easier once I'd carved away the raised detail.

This is a familiar type (to the point of being almost a cliche) I built a couple of years ago. I used Evergreen plastic for the body and interior and a chassis from Nellie to power it. The sliding windows are clear styrene with the frames painted on. The chassis means its a bit noisy which the overall box shaped body somewhat enhances.

So is that another religious connection to the railways. The Trappists introduced the first express services? The vow of silence must have brought some confusion to their station announcements.

Thank you Compound - now I'm wondering how those two actually fitted through the door. Perhaps it was necessary to remove the side just to get them in.