chris p bacon

7 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

I would caution that cats and overhead catenary are most definitely incompatible!

Do they run better on 3rd rail?

8 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Photoshop.

I still use a broker (A plan) as some of the company insurance is specialist.  They also handle our personal insurance as well (house & car) and every year give several options for renewal as they say that you’ll never get a competitive quote if you stay with the same company.  I’ve checked several of the quotes against what I am offered through various companies and comparison sites and they’ve always come out cheaper. 

On 18/03/2023 at 17:37, Chas Levin said:

Regarding those steps, may I please ask, where did you obtain the 1mm and 2mm NS strip - I'm having difficulty sourcing it?

10 minutes ago, 34016 said:

Hi Chas, It was all left overs from various etchings that have accumulated over the years. 

Chas, I've got a lot of 1mm and possibly 1.5mm & 2mm NS & Brass strip from my etches, I can pop some in the post if required. .....I know where you are...😄

2 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

The list:

 

Jeffrey archer

A few years ago my neighbour (a landscape gardener) was working at a neighbouring property to the Archers in Grantchester. During some tree works the tree surgeons (TS)  lit a bonfire to clear away the debris from the felling and as the bonfire got going Mary Archer appeared at a gate that joined the 2 gardens and called over one of the TS. she objected to the noise and asked for the fire to be extinguished. The TS said he was working on client instructions and that it would burn out within 30 minutes to an hour maximum and that trying to put it out would cause a lot of smoke.

At this point my neighbour said Mary Archer got very stroppy and insulting to the TS and made a few threats. The TS calmly looked at her through the barred gate and said "you look as good as your husband behind bars, you should have joined him" at this point she stormed off.

That evening the client called the TS and said that it would be better if he didn't speak to Mary Archer again if he saw her, but if he did he was to tell her the client had 'told him off'  He then said that it was the funniest thing he'd heard in ages and he wished he'd seen it as the pair of them were awful untrustworthy people.

7 hours ago, rue_d_etropal said:

All my designs have passed initial checking on Shapeways, so there should not be any big problems 

Anything can pass SW initial checking, I had a few items on there which passed checking but didn't print well. The fact you've stated "Should not be any big problems" means to me that you're not that confident they're bug free.

The reality is that you've got lots of STL's on SW, many of which have never been printed, aren't that accurate and are basically just an undetailed shell.  You don't give any idea to buyers about how, when you drew them, you intended to complete these models.

A couple of years ago you stated that the 'white strong & flexible' that you'd chosen to print your designs on could accept a glue, but when asked failed to actually provide one that would work (there were/are none).

You may have 'hundreds of designs' but there's no doubt that a very high proportion have never been test printed/purchased. You've always distanced yourself from the purchaser by using SW and have in the past stated that you didn't want to get caught up with customer refunds or complaints  when a print failed.  

8 hours ago, rue_d_etropal said:

Initially I thought a group could take over, but I have a feeling many in the hobby are either not prepared to take that on or not capable of doing so and want someone else to do the hard work.

Or the reality is that they're worthless.

7 hours ago, rue_d_etropal said:

Remember I want some financial renumeration

I'm reminded of the advice on how to become a 'millionaire model maker'  start off as a 'multi millionaire model maker' 

Model Railway Journal. 

3 hours ago, rue_d_etropal said:

 

Question is how much are people prepared to pay for an STL file? 

………..How much would you pay?

 

Nothing. There’s no guarantee it will print well and you can’t split the component parts, if you could you’d be drawing your own anyway. 

5 minutes ago, Chas Levin said:

Good evening Tony, I'm not 100% sure how you meant this........... I'd say 'please carry on'!

Good evening Chas, I'm to 100% sure how you meant this, did you mean 'please carry on' in the style of 'Carry On' ?...Oooohh missus show us your TT's....

Ok, it's been a long day digging footings .. 

15 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

My recollection is that the bars of the frames are at least 4” thick. 
 

Tim

Thanks Tim, I’ll look at them again.  without looking at my notes I suspect fitting a high level gearbox may have had a bearing on the thickness. 

51 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I assume it is a GN Baldwin Dave is building?

It is. 

There are some differences between the MR & GCR Locomotives but the main dimensions are essentially the same. I had a lot of help with drawings for the MR  build from @Dave Hunt which were used as a comparison to the GN version.

7 hours ago, CF MRC said:

Looks familiar…maybe the bar frames a bit thicker?

I did them as a 2 x 0.4mm lamination, I did think about x3 and including the firebox sides as part of the inner. I have some details to change on the etches and might include that.

17 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

You gone all American?

Sure have....The first cab roof in the shape of a Stetson.

I realised that 100 x 1000 = 100,000 but didn’t think you seriously thought they were worth that, hence my 10,000 figure which I thought might be nearer. 

the reality is you’re seriously deluded if you think that the CAD’s you have produced are worth 6 figures.  They are at best a ‘representation’ 

Re stocking a model shop. that would also include track, buildings, tools, scenery, glues, plastic/card as well as locomotives, coaches and wagons both rtr and kits across several scales and eras. So not something to base a figure on. 

11 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I was trying to make the point that modelling the ECML in 1957/8 may be fairly widespread but modelling it in something like 1911 is certainly not.

There are some that are daft enough to do it, although my timeframe for Sandy is loosely 1885-1915. (The track plan follows the 1911 GN plan) 

3 hours ago, rue_d_etropal said:

Given that many r2r oo and n gauge locos have broken the £200 mark, then 1000 modellers putting the equivalent of half that in the kitty, would be enough. Only thing then would be finding someone to organise it.

Without appearing to be rude, I suspect your maths is not correct. Or do you actually believe the designs you currently have on Shapeways etc are worth £10,000 ?  (Half the £200 for a RTR loco=£100 x 1000 modellers)

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

Sounds like 'politics' to mention former PM's of the UK.

Pitt the younger has always been a contentious character...

10 hours ago, SHGP Media said:

 

Thank you.  I can put them all into one video if that's of benefit to you?

No need, I'll link to a couple as well as put a profile link to your other videos as you've got Old warden, Nene valley railway etc. 👍

2 minutes ago, SHGP Media said:

I've been gradually working my way through these over the last couple of weeks, uploading a few a day, and today I finished the last upload.  

Thank you for those. I may link to (some of) them on the website.

4 minutes ago, SHGP Media said:

I look forward to attending again next year.

Thank you. 

10 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

I wasn’t really aiming to make a political point, more to set a historical scene - and of course the base rate was in the hands of politicians back then to manipulate as they wanted - it took Blair’s Government to place it completely in the hands of the now independent BoE.  

Irony?

10 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

However the point of this was simply to use one (of many pointers) to the need for grandiose PR exercises like the Old Dalby crash in that rather difficult period (for many although not all) in our history. 

You have either forgotten (or wasn't aware at the time) that there was a lot of feeling at the time that the arms race was getting out of hand. I remember several dramas on tv about how a nuclear war could easily start and just what conditions would be like in a nuclear winter. The PR exercise was to ease concerns a lot of people had, that should a flask be involved in an accident, it wouldn't create similar conditions. 

1 hour ago, rogerzilla said:

Mortgage rates, as opposed to base rates, were 15.4% for much of 1990

Having had my mortgage hit the heights of 15%+ at the time I certainly remember those times. I was just making the point that the quoted post was politically biased without understanding that rates had been just as high in the 70's under a previous administration.

2 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

the Thatcher Government dealing extremely unsympathetically with lots of social issues created by their actions (such as increasing interest base rates to 15%!!!)

And yet the Bank of England only have a 15% base rate for 3 weeks in October 1981. Of course to even the Politics up it also shows it being 15% for 7 weeks in October & November 1976 when Labour were in office.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp

I've not had any monies withheld, what reason are they giving for doing so.

Same goes for scammers, not had any issues there either.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat

On 15/02/2023 at 13:18, The Stationmaster said:

The ECML power supply upgrade was the last job to be finished - some time in late 1994/early '95 if my memory serves.

I realise this is OT, but looking for something else today jogged my memory about the power supply upgrade on the ECML.  Some 10+ years after works finished there were still several (4) transformers plus other kit in the former Down yard at Sandy. They were still there when I moved in late 2021 and I understand nothing has changed.

 https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.1238344,-0.2814062,3a,75y,75.18h,79.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4vMYwj3XqWdC9cbnW2PaMA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192