Ben B

If I'm not too bothered about matching specific colours (br blue, midland crimson etc) and just want 'general' colours, I go for citadel (games workshop) acrylics personally

Impressive bit of mass production, but I don't envy how big a filing/sanding job you've got there. Not tempted to leave it in Bertie Basset/ Liquorice Allsorts livery instead?

Having posted some pics a few weeks ago of the KWVR's cut-cab 08 "Ashburnham", it put in a surprise appearance a couple of weeks ago on the Valley. This was when the line were clearing the work site at the under-replacement "Bridge 11" and retrieving equipment for the lockdown... Height comparison with 20031 And lest I be accused of being selfish and going out to take photographs when I should have been staying at home, the shots were taken from my front and back gardens

I reckon a tinplate hst would look brilliant! Particularly in original blue/grey/yellow. I wonder if the more rounded shapes would be easier or harder to produce than a regular carriage?

Found these whilst hunting for some Keighley and Worth Valley Railway pics for the Class 25 and 31 prototype threads. Got a load of model locomotives from different eras, but want to run them all together? Preparations for the Small Engines gala back in 2017. Bachmann 25, Kernow Beattie Well Tank, DJM Austerity, but would need to scratchbuild the experimental/prototype EE shunter "Vulcan". Not the greatest shot, but I was out for a walk near Damems and the convoy slightly caught me by surprise. And a couple from when the railway went pleasantly eccentric with the loco roster on the last couple of days of the 2019 gala. Back at Damems again, and we have the forthcoming 2MT from Hornby, and a custom repainted Railroad 31... ...though this is my favourite, but would need a lot of scratchbuilding. S160 "Big Jim" with BR double-arrows no less, piloting the visiting Prototype High Speed Train with correct livery, and older Virgin, Mk3's. There's even a Class 50 on the rear!

Some shots of Keighley and Worth Valley Railway resident 25059 over the last few years. Lovely loco, sadly out of use at the moment; it was suffering some mechanical faults I think, but then got badly damaged when Haworth Shed flooded a couple of months ago. With a visiting Class 33 at Oxenhope at the 2014 diesel gala. Near Oxenhope, again 2014 gala. Between Ingrow and Keighley, again, 2014 gala. And a final 2014 gala shot, this time the token arty monochrome at Keighley Last two, the loco running with visiting Mk.3's from the prototype HST set, seen at Damems in 2019.

Some visiting class 31 action from the Keighley and Worth Valley... this would have been the 2014 diesel gala but I cannot remember which line it was visiting from. Leaving Oxenhope on the Friday I think (we had our middle-foster daughter off school with a broken leg, and took her up to Oxenhope for a picnic to watch the trains). It looked good in the experimental livery... but not nearly as good (in my opinion) as; Visiting from the Chinnor line for the 2019 gala. Seen as tail-end-Charlie on the very distinctive convoy; Class 50, class 47, prototype HST and carriages, and the 31. Bingley Station. Near Damems. I really took to this loco, having not really been a fan of 31's before, and would still quite like a model of it at some point. One final oddity; March 2010 at Ribblehead/Blea Moor I'm afraid I don't have any details on the working, as these were the days before RTT (not that there's internet signal up there anyway), I was just out for a walk one weekday and it tootled past out of the gloom.

The TV adverts aren't helping... our eldest pretty much screams abuse at the screen now. "Oh look, kids enjoying themselves with their mates! Can't do that!", "What a beautiful place... you can't flipping visit!", "Hey look a party, no ones social distancing!" Or my personal favourite she hollered at the screen last week; "Ooh a nice cruise liner... sign up for our medieval plague ship experience!"

Is that YEC shunter still at the end of the siding at Skinigrove? I was intrigued reading about it in Gordon Edgars book, it seems a right veteran loco being ex-Workington...

I do respect such people as a rule; I have living family who have served in the past, and some who are serving at the moment. And if I have caused you or anybody else offence, then I sincerely apologise, it was not my intention. My issue on the day was that there seemed to be a number of older people who were making loud comments in the queue, particularly about us younger shoppers, and our buying habits, and commenting about the positives of rationing, and so on when they were youngsters. Whilst I appreciate these are unusual times, I'm a regular shopper in that Morrisons, and you don't see people in there normally wearing quite so much regalia, especially in March... I admit it's my interpretation, but there did seem to be a certain amount of people out to make a point on the day. To get this back on-track, as a pleasant surprise I took delivery of some model-making bits and pieces about an hour ago. I wasn't expecting it, being an eBay sale won a little whilst ago, as I thought the seller wouldn't have posted until after the lockdown was lifted (and wouldn't have blamed them for waiting until it was safer to go to a post office). Cheered me up a bit

It's something of a legacy from about 10 years ago, the general atmosphere on my street... we had a lot of antisocial behaviour hereabouts from a group of kids who thought nothing of deliberately kicking footballs into windows, posting dog-muck through letterboxes, and climbing into back gardens to nick things. It ended about 5 years ago when they got old enough to spread their madness elsewhere in town, but the results were that a lot of neighbours invested heavily in CCTV and are still afraid to open their doors when you knock. Even before this mess, going across to some of the homes to collect a mis-delivered parcel would result in conversations through letterboxes along the lines of "my husband will bring it to you when he gets back from work, please go away"... if you were lucky, someone might open a door on the chain on the third or fourth attempt at knocking. So you can imagine the atmosphere of paranoia when you might think anyone at the door might be some sort of plague-bearer...

I went to Morrisons last week, and it was a horrible atmosphere... I went for food, but thought I might get a few non-essentials like a couple of films for the kids to watch, or get them a magazine each too. But the entry/exit system meant the people coming out of the shop had to pass the queue of frustrated, angry people waiting to go in, and that meant an awful lot of judgement was being passed on the contents of trollies, and the time it had taken people to shop for 'luxuries' which had made the queue outside longer. There was a definite impression that you ought to be in there for bread, milk, loo roll, and nothing else. The angry comments and glares if people tried to get more than the small-sized trollies ("Big trolly? One of them panic-buying tossers are yer?"), and the less said about if you paused in the magazine/DVD aisle, the better... In the end the peer pressure of it all meant I just got food. Were the 3 Easter Eggs in my trolley essential? In the sense that we wouldn't starve to death for not having them, no they weren't essential. As presents for the kids who are scared sh*tless by this mess, and who are upset they won't get to go to Wales and see their grandparents this Easter, or possibly at all this year? Yeah I'd say they're essential for raising morale, but I don't like having to stand and argue the toss with grumpy strangers. There were older people wearing poppy badges, old medals and things, loudly discussing about when they had rationing, people wouldn't be trying to buy so much unnecessary rubbish, etc. So in that atmosphere, ordering things which aren't food but which might make this isolation more bearable, particularly for youngsters? Mail Order is the only way, so I really hope it continues. As for the curtain-twitchers effect? Definitely in force round here. I've only been out once, for my 'allowed daily exercise'. I practised social distancing, I crossed the road to get away from people... but I was glared at from behind windows by what seemed like every person on my street, and a dad who was out with his son walking their dog was giving me evils because his child was screaming in fear that "there was another person! I'm going to get ill!!!" which led to even more people appearing at the windows staring at me. It was such an unpleasant experience I decided not to try again. As soon as you go outside to even get the bins or do some gardening on the front you get curtains flicking open and people watching you. Sorry for the slightly OT rant. Guess I need to order some model-making bits and calm down

It could be their office is unmanned at the mo too, which is why communications are tricky and you're still showing as processing... I suppose you're best waiting, you might find it tricky to get another supplier in these conditions. I can sympathise, we paid a deposit for new front and back doors before lockdown. They were meant to be fitted friday... hopefully they don't go bust. Would be nice to have guarrenteed new doors for when the starving mobs start kicking them down in a few weeks...

Brilliant, this cheered me up no end today

That looks amazing, the texture from the egg box is very effective

"The Signalman", it was filmed on the SVR in the approach cutting to the tunnel between Kiddy and Bewdley. A rather nice, prop-built signalbox from what I've read.

Is Fairbourne Station on the Cambrian Coast below sea level? I gather a lot of the village is, though I have hazy memories from childhood camping trips that the mainline might be on an embankment. The miniature railway station though must be at or below sea level. .

I found some pics, mostly from a few years back, of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway class 08's. The occasion was to celebrate the arrival and restoration of the ex-Burry Port cut-height 08933 "Ashburnham". For a line which puts so much effort into their general 50's look with the steam locos, passenger stock and stations, it's great that they have so many contemporary liveries on the diesel fleet; I didn't expect the cut-cab class 08 to appear in EWS livery, that's for certain! The older, full-height 08 also got a repaint, into grey for the occasion. The two spent a day trundling up and down the valley, though for a variety of reasons (mainly mechanical) these two locomotives haven't done a passenger timetable since. In fact, I can think of only one occasion where 08993 has run a full-line diagram, and that was a snow/ice clearing run a couple of years ago, light-engine. From what I understand both locomotives have mechanical issues which limit them to yard duties, but then again the KWVR have bigger locomotives like "Vulcan" that can match mainline speeds and fit in with the normal daily timetables. The contrast in the differing heights is pretty clear here. It's nice that the cut-cab loco survived into presentation, and keeps up the KWVR tradition of preserving oddball locomotives. A couple of more recent shots (last spring) with 08993 in it's normal habitat, as yard pilot at Haworth shed.

An interesting one... I'd have hoped that priority postage would be marked, and prioritised clearly. I'd hate to think that me getting a toy train means the box of facemasks for the local A&E is left at the depot, but I'd hope the system would be a bit more organised. My biggest concern is financial; I'd absolutely love to order a few bits and pieces for model-making, but my wife works in a school as a technician, I'm a foster carer (as well as a freelance photographer).... neither of us have received any guarantee about wages, and so we're twitchy about spending any money in case our income just stops, because we damned well know the bills won't... Right now my railway modelling is an excuse in using up what I've got, and sacrificing some stuff for the kids to build/use/play with.

Medal of Honor was my introduction to PS1 games; my best mate at Secondary had a PlayStation and I played a couple of levels and decided I wanted my own copy as soon as possible. My 15th Birthday, money and savings got me one of the first slimline Ps1's with Medal of Honor and a warplane game called "Eagle One: Harrier Attack" in a special offer from Electronics Boutique (remember them?). The first two Medal of Honor games (the original and "Underground") remain two of my favourite games ever, and the multiplayer mode was always fun. I decided to let my foster-kids play it too last year (it's nice knowing they can multiplay on something where there isn't a risk of them accidentally buying upgrades because the console is permanently online- God Bless the basic but reliable early playstations built in the pre-internet age). Elder Child gives me a good run for my money on the multiplayer now. One odd thing to look back on now is getting the PS1 chipped -completely illegal of course- so it could play copied games. Cannot remember now who did it for me, but I can remember walking home in the afternoons from school (three miles!) so I could save the bus fare and buy copied games off a mate who did a roaring trade in them. Not that the coppers cared; when his house got burgled, the police officers reportedly ignored the stacks of copies, but for the dozen or so they helped themselves to

My parents said they were in Lidl, Netherton yesterday, and it had been cleared out of a lot of stuff following that delightfully reassuring speech by the PM about how we're all going to lose lots of our loved ones (but don't panic, blitz spirit and all that, fwah etc). The cashier said they'd stopped a woman who'd filled her trolly with ALL of the pasta in the shop; when questioned, she snapped that because travel to Italy was closed, no more pasta would be coming out of the country so she was getting in as much as possible. The staff tried to point out that they don't get their pasta from Italy, but from elsewhere, but to no avail as she just wouldn't listen... The best explanation I've heard for the loo roll shortage so far is 'one person sneezes, a hundred people around him crap themselves'

I'm wondering if someone at Rockstar Games is a closet railway enthusiast, having been replaying GTA Vice City... I'd forgotten that there's a derelict narrow gauge line on the docks near the scrapyard, inset track and all. The other games have railway lines too; the elevated railway and subways in Liberty City of course in GTA 3 and the later titles, and the railway in San Andreas with regular passenger and freight trains. But there are other derelict railways in those too- in Liberty City the tunnel from the port to 8-Ball's Yard, and loads in some of the later Liberty City-set games.

I've been rediscovering the joys of Grand Theft Auto; Vice City. Sometimes you just need to race around in a Lambourgini listening to Blondie

I remember that layout from a 90's issue of BRM... I must have been about 10, I can remember reading it on a train whilst sat at New Street. Even then I appreciated what an atmospheric layout it was, and I loved the industrial, light-railway look of it.

My first layout was built for me, in conditions of great secrecy, as a Christmas present when I was three. Plan 2/6 from the Sixth edition of the Hornby trackplan booklet (as used my my parents to plan the build, and which I still have!) 6x4 sheet of unframed, unsupported chipboard. Lovely textured surface, road for driving toy cars, and a selection of buildings made and painted by my mum; all Airfix/Dapol kits, most of which I still have as well. This is the only photograph I have of the layout, which is surprising considering how much I loved playing with it. Stock was a selection of the early Hornby Thomas range, with my dads vintage Triang DMU (which made a passable, if faceless, Daisy) supplemented later by my first 'proper' loco, a Hornby spamcan ("Fighter Pilot"). The board rested against my bedroom wall, and was laid on the floor to be played with. It saw less use when some new bedroom furniture meant it could only be laid-out in the dining room (and thus needed shifting downstairs), and it was gradually replaced with interests in N gauge from when I was about 11. Considering it was unbraced, it survived all the lifting and moving around very well though, and two house moves, before it gave up the ghost. When the board finally succumbed to warping, I stripped the track off it and put everything I could salvage into storage. Felt a bit bad, but the majority of the trackwork has since been recycled onto my Foster Daughters first layout, so what comes around, goes around. In a way it lives on though; I needed a test-track for reviving some N models, and had some set-track; once I'd planned to nail it down to a board anyway, I decided to use it as an opportunity to recreate as faithfully as possible that first layout, in N- even down to the foam underlay and an attempt at replicating the textured surface