Jake The Rat

Happy new year from 'Rhye on Sea' ( & from Bremen, where I live) to all of you & especially to Annie!

Don't confuse Maglaw with Maglev, where giant toothpaste tubes fly mysteriously over magic (or was it magnetic?) fields, which has much more to do with witchcraft than with physics. 😱 In contrast to this hypermodern abomination Annie's railway looks even more beautiful.

I'm less an expert than anyone here, but how much sense would a vent make if the tank was not enclosed? 🤔

You're right. I forgot about the 'Typhoon' & only thought of 'Spitfire' & 'Hurricane'; & it definitely doesn't loke like the latter. I agree. The 'Panzer IV' had the hatch in the middle of the turret, whereas the 'Tiger' had it on the left side. As for the loco... I'm German, but not an expert on German railway. Since I renewed my interest in railways some 5 years ago, I have focused on Britain & North America. So I had no idea what loco this might be & looked at lots of pictures, but came to no conclusion. The 3 domes are quite distinctive. Maybe 'Baureihe 51' or '57' or something else... or maybe it isn't meant to represent a specific engine; after all it's a painting & not a photograph. 🤔

2 'Spitfires' & a 'Panzer Tiger' , if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure about the loco - Baureihe 51 maybe? 🤔

I always hated trams. Then I saw the GER C53/LNER Y70 & I said to myself, OK, maybe I only hate electric trams. Later I saw these old-fashioned double-decker trams, & I liked them so much that I built a layout for them. That was last year, & I almost had forgotten about it, until Annie mentioned trams. I started with this trackplan from 'Mike's Small Trackplans' http://www.cke1st.com/m_train2.htm ... which is originally American, but I don't mind. This is what I made of it: I replaced the oil dealer with a coal merchant & moved it a little to the east. The writing on the coal lorry reads 'J. Protheroe Ltd - Coal Merchants - Badgercombe', so I had a name for the town. Then I added a railway station... ... & an industrial area... ... & a few other gimmicks like a football field. It's not finished though (have I ever really finished anything? 🙄 ), for instance there are no overhead wires yet; & it has a few other problems, like the houses along this street, who look terribly American. 😳

Maybe it fell out of the sky, like the Mogul Hroth was referring to. 🙃

Wait... isn't a Mogul supposed to be a 2-6-0 loco? 🤔 😀

Rodents are always an interesting choice. 😀

There was also an SR version ('Milbourne James') & an LMS version ('Rhubarb Junction'). It's been some time ago that I had a look at them, & maybe tonight I'll dust off the LMS version & post a few pictures. Over the last few months I've been doing mostly American model railway stuff like Lionel 0-gauge layouts, & it would be nice to do something British in real scale for a change. It seems like RMWeb doesn't like Firefox any more. Last night I got a message "Ad-blocking software/plug-in detected" & was denied access. Problem is, a.f.a.i.k. I don't have any such thing installed. Instead of looking for a solution - in my experience, most of the times there is none - I went for a workaround & opened this page with Chrome.

Still pondering this 'Trinity Bible Society'... the Trinity is Churchward, Gresley & Stanier, I suppose. Or maybe Father & Son are George & Robert Stephenson, but who or what would be the Holy Ghost then? 🤔😇

So this 'Trinitarian Bible Society' considered broad gauge railway as sinful & approved of the conversion to standard gauge? 🤔😉

Not everyone is interested in fruits & jam...

I don't quite understand what a 'conductor guard converted coach' is. 🤔 Could you please explain?

... unless the rat is 10 times bigger than the terrier. Size does matter. 😏 Unfortunately not; they are just stationary models. Anyway, I use them a lot. On my layouts you can see trains, cars & cats, but hardly any people other than those on the platforms. I'm afraid that tells something about me... 😳

I know it's strange, but I like both. Dogs... not so much... (Sorry, Hroth, nothing against you.)

I like it, but I don't see any cats. 🤔

Potatoes! Am I invited to take a ride? & if yes, would I get a seat in the cab, or would I have to travel in one of the vans together with the other potato sacks? 🤔😁

Also, there is no way to describe an engine with no wheels at all in UIC. Every loco must have at least 1 driven axle, so they didn't bother to assign a letter to 'no driven axles'. I'd suggest 'Z', which would normally mean '26 driven axles', & not even the Americans ever built anything like that. 😀

At 1st glance it looks like one , but watching it closely it seems to me that the small front wheels are the driving wheels & the large rear wheels are just trailing wheels. So I guess it should be classified as an 0-2-2. 🤔 Has there ever been a real loco with driving wheels smaller than the non-powered ones?

An 0-2-0 engine - why not? Apparently there are even 0-0-0 locos. 😁

Interesting. A.f.a.I.k. it is unclear if City of Truro actually made it on that occasion, but not if it was capable of 100 mph. Maybe I'm wrong? 🤔 No problem. Proxies are available even in a digital 3rd world country like Schland (as we Germans like to call it). 😉

I doubt it. I guess, this engine smokes coal like all the others do. 😀

... & I have a Mind Rathole.

I saw this loco some time ago on Paul Lloyd's website greater-albion.com, along with a bunch of the same type. Here is one from Annie's favourite era... ... & this one is from mine.