Ben B

Out of interest, is the 'mystery 0-6-0' confirmed to be a tank engine, or even a steam loco at all? I genuinely can't remember. I'd be happy if it was something like a 4f. An 0-6-0 diesel does admittedly seem unlikely unless they were doing an 03/04 (firmly Bachmann territory in the parent scale, and would do the same jobs as the 08 anyway), though it does occur to me that Hornby has up to date cads for the Sentinel. Combined with the J94, it would open up a swathe of colourful and long-lived industrial prototypes...

Funnily enough, only this morning I took two bags of Faller playtrains and Newray Gauge One toy sets to the chaps at the Vintage Carriages Trust for them to re-sell, and the other week disposed of a lot of Bachmann Thomas G-gauge trains via the good offices of Elaines Trains. It's a little harrowing when you realise you're the one playing trains, whilst the teenage offspring are the ones worrying about qualifications, work, and acting grown up. Mindyou, my simulated kids ward at work is doing well for the sheer number of old clothes and cuddly toys that the youths have now decided they're too grown-up for at 12 and 14. I'd echo the comments about Playmobil radio-controlled trains for the little-uns, it's fun, very hard-wearing and well constructed, lots of play value and if you nose-around online you can find good-quality second hand sets for reasonable money.

Having passed the present station today, the semi-deserted BR incarnation seems a bit more characterful...

We were watching telly last weekend, and when we paused it, an advert for the RAF came up, boasting about how one could join up to 'help protect space'. Whilst I appreciate the thought, and it appeals to the SciFi part of me, it did make me wonder if we've secretly spent the defence budget on a Battlestar :) My eldest glanced at the advert it and said "Oh good, UNIT's recruiting" :)

Personally I assumed that the courtyard and much of the stable block at Penrhyn Castle will probably end up as an expanded cafe/retail operation; it occurred to me last time I was there (as an ex-NT Catering employee) that, with a bigger focus on commercial and retail, it would make more sense to have it as an eatery. There seemed to be a certain amount of conflict between the spreading tables and the inconveniently large 2ft gauge shunting-layout train set in the middle... Not saying it's the sort of thing I like to see, more what I expect to see happen. But if it helps the places stay open in these difficult times, I can't really knock an increased attention on retail/catering. It's interesting that apparently 1054, the Coal Tank, has been formerly handed over to the BLS, based at the Worth Valley. I don't mind that (it's my local line and I love the loco, and it's been based here for a while)... what always interested me was when I worked at East Rids in Keighley, a number of the managers were completely unaware the NT had a loco about 2 miles away, as it wasn't in our property portfolio. Personally I have NT membership because I go to Wales a lot (family on Anglesey), and the NT seem to control almost every decent car park in Gwynned, and an awful lot of very, very nice beaches, so it makes it the most convenient and cheapest way to access a lot of lovely countryside.

Feels like there's a micro layout there, looking over the platform and under the canopy, towards the bay :)

Some lovely builds here (really like the Bristol HC), following this thread with interest :)

Interesting- does the Western have white-walled tyres, or is it a trick of the light?

And a 00 scale Wiley Coyote figure painting it on? :)

It's interesting that it's still a bleak (if beautiful) spot now. Impressive remains of the railway visible from the road cut into the hillsides. You could still cross the viaduct by foot a few years back, the approach cutting, being sheltered, was insanely colourful, all heathers and wild flowers. A crazy amount of effort to capture the slate trade which was apparently in decline even as the railway opened. Always thought it interesting that had nature not intervened (flooding closing the Ruabon line) and the resovoir sinking the line above Bala, there were plans to maybe serve Trawsfynned power station this way, if the Conwy Valley line was to instead get the axe.

I hadn't seen that one before- I remember one shot on the NYMR with a red class 24 and KitKat branded van train, kitkat sleepers, and the driver leaning on the loco taking a break as there was a single leaf on the line :) I'm collecting my Rowntrees shunter on Sat, wanted one since a visit to the Derwent Valley a few years back, with theirs on a very modellable short passenger train :)

It does indeed run, the clockwork mechanism is a pretty decent example from a late-80's issue of the tank loco. I love the idea of shorty stock, inspired by the Japanese stuff in N and Z by the likes of Rokuhan and Tomix. I've a part-converted railbus with a Triang DMU cut-and-shut onto a Fleischmann 4 wheel loco chassis, but I also toyed with a mini 101 using Bachmann 'underground ernie' tube car underpinnings, but the chassis turned out to be quite poor quality.

Seaside excursion? Off to Blackpool, stop off at Crewe to collect the freezer van full of cornettos and a GUV full of inflatable unicorns :)

There's an easy way to get Leeds their trams though; "What's that? BRADFORD wants trams? that! Anything Bradford wants, Leeds gets first/instead!" :)

Or like in "Deep Trouble" where the innexperienced new Captain of the sub puts his coffee mug down on a console, and launches a torpedo :)

There was an impressive display on the Middleton in Leeds last year at their diesel gala... the Balm Road branch is very rarely used anyway thanks to the ungated level crossings (in suburbia too!). But I gather it hadn't been used for quite a while even up to the gala; the first train was accompanied by clouds of dust and rubble as it finished clearing all the detritus out of the flangeways. There was even a vol out with a strimmer cutting back the adjoining hedges between trains :)

I'm sorry, you seem to be confusing Leeds Council for a dynamic organisation. You're missing the preliminary steps of; Spend 40 years talking about it, decide to then spend a decade thinking about trolley buses, and spend 60 million quid on tea and biscuits for planning meetings... then the missing final step on your list, "sod it, buy a few more diesel buses" :)

I'm awful for seeing boxes, crates etc. and thinking "can I fit a micro layout in there" ;) I think the biggest difference with the layout is the tree backscene, it has terrific visual impact. Have you thought about having a few low-relief at the back? I'm trying some on a build I'm doing, to disguise the end of a flat industrial unit on the backscene. A couple more up front too, for 'peering through the trees at the railway' type shots, though I don't know if your layout has space for that at the front. I think you kind of nail that anyway with the view through the open gate onto the platform though :)

Substitute a 25 for the Hymek, it would definitely have the feel of a West Mids backwater in the late 1970's early 1980's :) Mindyou, the shot you posted recently with the Hymek and 03 put me in mind of the preserved East Lancs around Bury, so even with a small layout you're able to have a wide variety of possible settings! I'm so glad you're posting again, I really like this layout; shows you can have a fun, characterful continuous-run 00 layout in a tight space :)

Oh, pre-grouping. It's meant to be vomit for an upper-G.I bleed patient, so probably Midland Railway livery is the closest match ;) It's a funny old job!

I agree with the point about feeling like I needed permission to do hobbies... when I was on 'stay at home foster-dad duty' for a few years, I had to really justify doing model-making... mainly to myself, I must add. My family is supportive, wife especially, but the voice of negativity in my head is a powerful enemy. I found it hard to stop housework or DIY tasks, in favour of making things just for me. It helped, picking up a few bits printed in magazines, as I was able to justify time spent building a model or writing stuff, it had an appearance in print and some kind of financial reward at the end of it. Again, in hindsight it was more the voice in my head than my actual family holding the negative attitude, but it was hard to shift the feeling I was wasting time and money whilst everyone else was working hard and earning a proper crust. Ironically, now I'm back in full time work and earning a decent wage, I feel more relaxed about model making. Of course the problem is that I work for the NHS and my 7.5 hours a day technician job has a knack for turning into 11 hour days with no time or energy for hobbies, but thats the price of stupidly joining a dying business that's on its knees after a pandemic, so my own fault ;) Wierdly what's helped is that, whilst I've less time for making stuff outside the job, I've been able to use it as a way of shoe-horning creativity into the role instead. After explaining what I do, my boss let me improvise a workbench in the corner of the lab, and now when I get chance, I'm doing things like creating physical props, fake wounds and things for our training sessions, replacing the existing methods like print-outs and pictures. There's a surprising amount of carry-over of techniques! Who'd have thought the same methods of layered resin-casting we use for making ponds and rivers could be used for making bowls of bloody vomit, for example? :)

I wonder what the plan is? Have the three non-rostered crew on deck trying to pot incoming ordnance with their rifles? Hit three inbound ballistic missiles in a row, win a goldfish or a giant teddybear?

And massively changed again these days, with the siding and bay gone. Really liked it in the mid 90's (lived there 1996-1998 whilst Dad was stationed at the fire college), used to be great in the evenings, Networker in one platform, another in the siding, to let the pm HST through onto the single-track section. Lovely walk over the fields from the housing estate to the footbridge, see the signalbox. I gather the fields to the right are mostly under new houses, and the footbridge is a modern job too now. Streetview still shows the signal box and semaphores in place last April thpugh, so not all lost.

Is it the ex-Himley Model Village mover?

Maybe the Fleet needs to start press-ganging again, get galleries of oarsmen... the carrier won't get to the Red Sea very quickly, but without engines it'll at least meet environmental targets :) On a related note, maybe the RN can recruit out-of-work actors as deck crew... if they can realistically mime servicing planes, maybe we can trick Putin into thinking that -instead of being unable to afford a carrier air wing- we have in fact invented fighter-bombers with fully functional cloaking devices ;) Sorry for the thread drift... silly comments because the reality of a battle fleet with non-working ships and no air cover, on the verge of a 3rd world war, is nail-chewingly horrifying...