papagolfjuliet

True, although to its credit for decades the NYMR has had one of the best funded and best equipped civil engineering departments in preservation, with the line's York Area Group dedicated to the department's support in terms of fundraising, volunteer manpower, and the purchase and maintenance of kit. There is very little running line on the NYMR which has not been relaid at least once. The NYMR's problem is bridges, five of which have had to be replaced in the past few years including one in a very inaccessible location. Big infastructure items such as bridges and tunnels are going to be a major problem for a lot of lines going forward. The NYMR is also very good at fundraising. It launches an appeal for Item X, raises the money, spends it on Item X, and then launches an appeal for Item Y. That goes down well with grant awarding bodies and with private donors. The WSR's habit of launching regular crisis appeals without ever explaining exactly where the money is going is rather less productive, and I can think of another line which recently raised a lot of cash for a shed in which to store its unrestored heritage carriages whose GM has now announced that he wants to use that shed for something else. That sort of thing tends to dissuade me from donating to that concern again.

I once saw it summed up as "Views, brews, and loos" and I think that's about right. Something nice to look at through the train windows (as opposed to rows of decomposing diesel shunters, say), a decent cup of tea for a reasonable price, and clean abundant toilets (no need to go as far as the very fancy loos on Weybourne station with their genuine Thomas Crapper crappers, but that's a good standard to aim for). Coming back to the main point there are two lines which I think are in danger of closure in the near-to-medium term - one in South Wales and one in the West Country - but in both cases that outcome would be the result of sustained mismanagement and infighting, and the present economic situation would be merely the final straw. The Llangollen's recent misfortunes can be placed in the same category.

The unit only has one ammeter, in the DMBS, so it makes sense for the driver to be able to monitor that on a sustained climb.

The Bluebell buys a Thumper: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-railway-press-releases/?fbclid=IwAR3wVkQqOJsJwkCtBvaJL-LTLtGpUpjY3B72toxA-w8uvCsP2hbKD38yWDc

It appears to have rolled away from or failed to stop in the car park on the right.

Taken just down the road from me today. This is one of those things that looks pretty bad until you zoom out and realise that it could on the whole have been a lot worse.

Queen Adelaide died in 1849, the L&B merged with the GJR and M&BR in 1845, and the GJR's 'Columbine' is preserved and indeed was displayed alongside Queen Adelaide's coach at the NRM for many years so...

Queen Adelaide's coach, while a pleasant surprise, is a rather odd choice. A London & Birmingham coach with nothing to pull it suggests that something else is in development which has not been announced this year. Hmmm.

The LMS sleepers were rotten and asbestos-ridden and have been replaced by Mk.IIIs. The Mk.1 SLC had been the subject of a conversion to a camping coach, but this had stalled with no prospect of resumption. The Maunsell TK was structurally unsound to the extent that the Bluebell's original disposal document advised that it would probably have to be 'flatpacked' before removal. The TPO's story is a sad one. It was fully restored forty years ago, but the paint supplied proved to be something of a Friday afternoon job and the paintwork fell off in huge flakes, sending the vehicle right back to the end of the overhaul 'queue' in a matter of months.

Well, that's the thing. They'd been on the market for 18 months, and the Bluebell didn't even want any money for the LMS sleepers, and yet there were no serious takers. The TPO had been on the market for thirty years (with luck it will yield spares for the TPO collection at Wansford). The 'linear scrapyard' is becoming a thing of the past; long lines of unrestored rotting rolling stock with no realistic prospect of overhaul and no dedicated support groups block the views for which passengers pay, they make for bad PR and unhappy neighbours, and they also provide playgrounds for vandals. Quite a few railways, not only the Bluebell but also the KESR and NYMR, have had major culls in recent years and it's a trend I'd expect to continue. Let this news serve as a warning and a wake up call.

Apparently the three LMS sleepers, Mk. 1 sleeper, Maunsell TPO and Maunsell TK which were on the Bluebell's disposal list and were removed from the line last month have all gone for scrap. The Night Ferry sleeping car has fared rather better and is heading to Belgium for restoration.

Well, the Metropolitan K Class also gives you the LNER L2 Class and the SECR River Class so that's a lively possibility, but it strikes me as more of a project for Rapido or KR or Model Rail Magazine.

The J21 is now undergoing a Lottery-funded overhaul by the Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust and upon completion will be based at Kirkby Stephen East. The Trust are overhauling an NER stores van and a pair of NER six wheel coaches to run with it. https://www.facebook.com/J2165033 http://www.lclt.org.uk/about-us.html#:~:text=The Locomotive Conservation and Learning,history and supporting traditional skills. https://www.kirkbystepheneast.co.uk/the-cumbrian-victorian-locomotive-experience-project.html

You only need a motorbike licence to drive a three wheeler, which opened up something of an untapped market. Another deathtrap was the original Mini. The engine was mounted in such a way that in a head on collision the brake pedal would chop your foot off. The externally secured door would then give way, the driver's seat would topple out, and the fuel line would rupture, leaving you with one foot, lying on the tarmac, on fire.

Absolutely. Between Palitoy shutting down Mainline and Bachmann entering the UK market there was a seven or eight year period when unless you were a modern image modeller, in which case Lima would supply you with a dozen new liveries every month, all you had in OO RTR was Hornby and the David Boyle era Dapol, which started well with some nice models but very quickly went downhill. Hornby itself, which had responded to the competition from Airfix and Mainline by producing a large range of new models over a fairly short period, reacted to the demise of those two marques by cutting new steam era toolings to the bare minimum. In the last half of the 80s all it produced was the 8F, the D Class 0-4-0T, and the Tri-ang Hall modified to look a bit like a Saint.

...resulting, of course, in the Milton crash.

Ninety notes for a Holden tank, two cheap wagons, and a shorty Mk.III: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225306593417?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20220920135554%26meid%3D5c0d5d58aee645059903d59717d9caeb%26pid%3D101197%26rk%3D11%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D225302831289%26itm%3D225306593417%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv9PairwiseWebMskuAspectsV202110NoVariantSeedKnnRecallV1%26brand%3DHornby&_trksid=p2047675.c101197.m1850&amdata=cksum%3A2253065934175c0d5d58aee645059903d59717d9caeb|enc%3AAQAHAAABIK6kjqEQMYM5Aq%2BOhcaIlwco9wYktoCXAP3D6Fo7POUdlJK1eqFqv5Y7huO6nLq7hjqYjs5sEMudJpf20WlRkR4rhx3QBNJKhpnBzvsWMJDrxZz%2BSaf6LNqDdZcuwGTpIaYKwN7MzDjDz8s%2Bh%2FLhUf7f7uvvYnE6ISI%2FvJNCMlgq1321MHGbU5jYduZPXX9JXyKW2Zu1aiQkw0h3n7a4ot3BOvyD3Ft5rOmKs4DmxgMHCP5O4vKDATY4g0H8O9dhFvrDo3Bs07RzoXQqwHJdYjmV%2FnOwVORx5Au7xg4XEJdMbQeXayQV1M4ZwHOucVQUo%2BAPBxKuy7HAJc%2BJyphNo5oeqbCJtOhMfq5oOwEKDt%2FDpUplNBheozr%2BG1xElOIINw%3D%3D|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2047675 That engine and wagons by the way are a bit of cheeky unlicenced Beatles merchandising: 'R. Starkey' open wagon and JPGR loco and van. John Paul George Ringo.

My attitude to Hornby's business practices has reached the point where if they made a model of my mum I wouldn't buy it, but trying to be dispassionate for a moment it seems to me that it wouldn't hurt for Hornby to raid its own and the Tri-ang and Dublo back catalogues for models which nobody else makes, and produce new versions of those models to current standards. Some of them are, to my mind, fairly obvious choices which someone is bound to produce sooner or later and so it might as well be Hornby: the D49, the Saint, the R1, the E2, the J83, the Caledonian/Neilson Pug, the Hawksworth County, the 2P, the 06/Barclay shunter, the Dean Single, even the Maunsell L1 if the much-mooted Night Ferry sleeping cars are to appear at some point. But they'll probably just copy what a smaller rival is doing instead.

I used to have this set, bought as a novelty and resold when the novelty very quickly worn off. It's about the only British outline model made by Bachmann between inheriting the Mainline toolings and entering the British market: the 'Flying Scot' train set, containing a bright orange and yellow rebuilt Scot with a rake of matching Fowler and Collett coaches. A snip at US$300. Sunglasses not included. "An English legend for the discerning collector." https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175185190800?hash=item28c9d9df90:g:n-0AAOSwBBZhPR0X&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoEVYzFt56Smvy2EvflD2nRhElp2VJ7ezbRMm8zHj4XtPaOc5sB7klo1wBtyEkJ%2BGKOHN7DvssQwzmyqSno9AhnfGQQcBzRZHMZFxr4WvhCRQnz8zJLxgT2nnszw%2BCoHbziD5xDQVe0jAo1l3RMnKtwxp%2FSmbl3OcLW8wG1TiF%2BVIOWXhU2RGVywSwYBunN4PaQ1C%2BtIYHbDhZsWUraPZz6E%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9Tw-ISmYQ

I have one, or rather the slightly larger D50. J83 body, Hornby Toy Story Wild West 4-4-0 chassis, plasticard running plate extension. I think I've shared a photo on this thread before but here it is again:

The last, and by all accounts the nicest. A proper railwayman of the old school.

Announced this morning that Vivarail's Adrian Shooter has passed away. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease for some time.

Not railway related, but incredible for its brass neck: a thousand pounds for a small quantity of ineradicable aquarium pests. And he's sold two already. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234073989394?hash=item367fe5a112:g:EIkAAOSwKQhg4Fbn

Aren't they at Tanfield? To my knowledge Beamish only has one NER designed 20T hopper whereas Tanfield has several, in varying states of repair.

Modified no doubt for working the Canterbury & Wittenburg Railway.