Ben B

Love the bright yellow van, but the modeller should probably have weathered it before popping it on the layout :)

According to google translate, it's "how how!" and Corsican. Guessing it's some kind of witty tag for the 'artist' but damned if I know the context... still, lucky he didn't get zapped writing that high up on the nose of an electric unit...

I mentioned the other day about my BR red American tank loco. Finally found the box it was hiding in! Still not sure on manufacturer. And it's untested... but it's staying as it is, part of the collection. I have a spare body in plain black, as I fancy a very unlikely yellow/black chevron-liveried example for my Spon Lane layout, an industrial internal-user line in a 1970's West Mids engineering works. Why they'd even have a US switcher... is a problem for Future Ben to work out ;)

I'd been thinking something like a 101 for the views and big windows, as well as a heritage atmosphere which might attract some extra punters. To be honest, what the Conwy line actually, probably, needs are just more trains a day, as does the Coast. That would need Transport for (South) Wales to get their affairs in order though, and appreciate what exists north of the Heads of the Valley road. Given I read yesterday they are actually cutting some Cambrian Coast services, retiming others, and punting the summer-only hourly Shrews-Aber trains to 2026, it seems unlikely...

Yesterday was, apparently, Gerry Anderson Day 2024. As a massive fan, I wanted to do something, a build, a project, some photographs. My original plan had been to build a trio of Airfix Angel Interceptors which I picked up from Pennine Models over a decade ago, to accompany my Imai Cloudbase toy/kit I showed on here last year... but somewhere in the intervening years since purchase and starting them, I'd lost the canopies for the Angels. In the end, some eBay purchasing turned up a pair of Imai Angels; one smaller and a bit more toy-like, one larger and a little better quality (there was also an Imai SPV which was pretty horrendous to build and finish). Airfix Angels go for frankly stupid money at the moment. The Cloudbase; very toy-like in places, really nice in others, but quite enjoyable to build. I did a simple paint-job with some weathering, but the transfers were too old and dried-out to use, they fell to bits trying to apply them. I also lost one of the Angels which pinged off who knows where when testing the insanely-powerful catapult. I hasten to point out that the model-making isn't up to the standards seen elsewhere in this thread, I was more bothered about creating something to have a play with for photography purposes. My intention was to shoot outdoors, doing long-exposure pics whilst on holiday in Wales, and there was a good chance these models would get damaged shooting outdoors. The Angels had a waft of primer, then sprayed white, a minimum of detail painting and some weathering with Citadel 'Nuln Oil', then finally some rather poor transfers owing to the age of these kits. To capture the Angels in flight, I'd built a rig using a hand-held tripod, camera baseplate, two telescopic aerials, and a load of duct-tape. I wanted to do as much as possible in-camera, rather than messing with Photoshop, and had all sorts of ideas of sunsets, mountain backdrops, lakes... and then Storm Kathleen happened. Bang went the location shoot, and then the following week of work left no time for a re-shoot back in Yorkshire, so come the Saturday, I improvised these pics. Two boards with sky backdrops (that I usually use for miniatures shoots, created a few years ago for the Port Eden layout), a load of cotton wool, and a small camera tripod under Cloudbase. The shadows under the clouds are a bit annoying, though from certain angles could be being cast onto an ocean far below, and it was a bit of an improv at the last minute, but it was a fun little project to do. I deliberately used a slight fisheye effect to help make the pics a bit more dynamic, and the graininess and noise hopefully makes it look a little like 1960's film. In any case, it was a nice change from railway modelling for a bit :)

Maybe reviving and mainline-certifying a 101 would be the way to go. Maybe a two-train set for 6 cars, or even just three/four cars with a small buffet as a tourist train option. If Swanage can make one work on the mainline network, maybe TfW could as well. No need to worry about run-rounds or such, and if part of the TfW fleet it could always once a week run on to service at Holyhead. All wishful thinking though. Easier to coast along doing what they do now, and continue with the minimum...

The Conwy Valley feels like a criminally missed opportunity, and one NR have a contradictory attitude to. They spend a fortune on flood defences, but block upgrades to points to allow slate waste trains. TfW run a very sparse service which they'll frequently cancel to redistribute stock, but assign modern DMU's, far newer than those used on 'premier' services which often have 153's covering longer diagrams. I remember in the 1990's where the Conwy was home to the specially-repainted 101 set "Daisy". It feels ripe for a more tourist/heritage foccused service alongside the regular passenger diagram, the branch surely has capacity... maybe something like they did on a branch line in Brittany I visited about 15 years back, where SNCF had a railcar which ran the branch, and a heritage group ran a tank loco on tourist stock twice a day in the summer. Though I doubt the will, budget, insurance or organisation would be there for it here...

If I can get up there before the bats arrive back. Most spring/summer periods we end up with bats in the proverbial belfry, which I don't mind much... until I come to do some model making and realise the thing I need is stuck in a box in Dracula country ;)

0-4-2 with new splashers, for my money. I think it looks like it has potential! Is it one of the plastic Thomas toys, a magazine partwork issue one? I had a Boco and Daisy which were part-converted for 009 way back, might still have them up in the loft somewhere...

I've had the impression since ERTMS was bought in, and the railtours mostly stopped, all emphasis was aimed at trying to keep the basic day-to-day minimal timetable running, rather than the surroundings. I'd guess there was probably hesitation to spend on the stations in case the crumbling Barmouth Viaduct led to closure. Now that's been sorted, maybe TfW will throw some more effort at the line. As a premier seaside route tapping the West Midlands it ought to be a winner. ...but, it's near 4 hours on a two-car tired 158 from Wolvo to Barmouth, not exactly a nice day out at the seaside if you only get a few hours there, pending delays. The new trains, not in service yet, are also just 2 car and only enough for the minimal service, with no more train paths without relaying some passing loops. NR only have a couple of compatible ERTMS locomotives, no chance of occasional loco-hauled extra capacity ad-hoc workings, they seem to barely be able to operate the one regular weekly freight on the Aberystwyth section. I was told (rather bitterly) by family in the area that TfW don't seem massively fussed about cross-border travel, let alone in North or Mid Wales, so I'd personally expect it to be unlikely they'd shell out much to make it easier for Brummies to get to Towyn or Barmouth for the day... And of course, do you spend on upgrading a line which could be lost in a few decades to sea-level rise?

A little thread drift, but reminds me of a story told by my old Scout Leader when I was a kid. His Grandad lost a foot as a child, when crawling under wagons on the Earl of Dudley's railway; his foot got caught in the gap with a check-rail and the train was shunted, amputating his foot. He luckily recieved medical attention before he bled out.

I wasn't terrifically impressed by Minfford last week; nicely surfaced platform, new bright lights and signeage, they were good... but an old bus shelter. Many, many coats of green paint, a nice mural as an attempt to liven it up, but still very basic for what could be a decent spot, interchange with the Ffestiniog and hop-off point for Portmerion. Some of the halts have had newer shelters, but there's quite a lot of 70's BR cost-cutting scattered around. Minfford could maybe use something a little more heritage-looking, even if it has to be solid, brick, and bored-teenager-proof.

I rather like that tank loco design, it has enough design nods to make it look like an 'absorbed' GWR loco. You could picture maybe a light railway somewhere in mid-Wales with light axle loads, and Swindon bunged a few bits on an existing Edwardian/late-Victorian machine when it ended up at Oswestry or Swindon for a general overhaul :)

I've two of the plastic ones acquired years ago... but to be honest I quite like the chunky look. I know most UK ng stuff is fairly small, but I've always had a fondness for the massive, oversized monsters you sometimes see overseas. Perhaps TT gear would be better, for a 3ft gauge prototype. Something like an Arnold KoF might fit nicely in the metal body... I don't need another project, I don't need another project, I don't need... :)

I've always loved the Matchbox diesel shunter, I've had a plan to convert one into a particularly chunky 009 loco for many years. In terms of 00 though, what's the UE chassis like in terms of running and quality? Btw, whilst I know it's just stripped-down before repainting, I also really like that chrome finish, oddly suits the loco with it's US-inspired styling :)

I had a similar machine from Elaines Trains (not sure of the maker) but it's in red, with BR double arrows :)

I do rather like these as oddities in the Hornby range, feels like a holdover from the Triang Transcontinental days, and how they tried to dip a toe into the foreign markets :)

There's some interesting pics of it from 1994 on Disused Stations, wiring intact but masses of weeds everywhere. The sort of place any director of post-apocalyptic tv shows would have given their right-arms to film in :)

I'd reccomend the book "Walking the High Line" by Joel Sternfeld, a photographer who doccumented the high line in its derelict state, just prior to the conversion to a park. Lovely book, and some great pics with the abandoned line threading between the high-rise buildings.

Would it have worked over there as part of the British military/BAOR? I've read about the various railway units, but thought they only operated native stock or things like wagons designed for the train ferries.

The latest copy of the KWVR's house mag has an interesting article on the filming of the recent ITV drama "Platform 7", shot at Keighley. There's a lot about the conflict of what the director (with limited railway knowledge) expected in terms of how quickly stock moved, exact stopping points on platforms etc. versus the KWVR team who had to operate the trains. Things like production getting angry about why a class 50 was so noisy that it was drowning out recording of dialogue... they powered down the loco, then the director was angry it took so long to switch it back on and generate brake pressure etc. They had two goes at filming, given the original director ended up leaving the shoot, and it used an astonishing number of trains (two Pacers, a 20 on engineers stock, and two hired-in mainline rakes with a 37 in the original shoot, and a 50 for the reshoots) often operating together. Tons of very convincing set dressing too, you can see how it was so complicated and demanding to do for all concerned. A very interesting read :)

I have to wonder if that class would have faded into obscurity entirely were it not for Awdry- I certainly have an affection for the type based off the stories. Years ago I remember a writer of railway mag articles commenting on the irony that, to many foreign fans of the Thomas stories that he'd met, BoCo represented to them the absaloute modernity of British diesel locomotives thanks to the books/tv series :)

Just watched the first 10 minutes of an old Morecambe & Wise on ITV3, "The Magnificent Two", with the Longmoor Military Railway apparently relocated to South America :) some nice set dressing, a rather good composite shot of the train running through the scenery (unless Hampshire has a snow-capped mountain range I didn't know about), and the blue Austerity ("Brussels"?) looks rather good with a cow catcher. I'm away from home at the mo, but I think one of the Longmoor books has details on all the films shot there. St.Trinians is the favourite of course, but I always liked "Runaway Railway" and the cosmetically modified Austerity running as "Matilda". Must have been a nice little earner for the MoD before there were enough preserved lines to act as filming locations.

That looks a very nice layout, lots of really interesting scenes, and love that signal box! Loads of character.

I didn't think they'd done too bad of a job (the cgi tunnel was good) but why the one shot of a pannier going in to the tunnel, when they'd worked so hard on the rest of the continuity? Certainly seemed more attention to detail and effort than a lot of dramedy/sitcoms demonstrate mindyou...