MarkC

Chapeau, ladies and gentlemen. Chapeau. Congratulations.

Hello Brian Yes, it was whitemetal.Not too many individual parts, iirc, and the inevitable solid whitemetal block chassis. We have, in the main, moved on from there... I too remember my first brass kits, for me that was back in the mid-70s - MPD 1F tank and 3F tender locomotives. Really nice to build. The 3F was actually a bit of a composite - there were some large whitemetal castings too. Also plastic axleboxes for the tender, if memory serves? Happy days! Mark

I feel better for that, Tony! Seriously, though, I do find it fascinating when little gems like this turn up. I wonder what other kits were produced by Acro? Does anyone know? I've had the odd little-known (to me, anyway) kit pass through my hands; a Magna Models MR 3F springs to mind. I think I sold it on still unbuilt, though, as it didn't fit the period I was modelling. That must be over 10 years ago, if memory serves. Mark

Shades of Jameson kits (or rather, 'scratch-aids') there, Tony! What a wonderful piece of modelling history that is - I wasn't aware of that kit maker until now. Mark

That sheila ROCKS! Definitely a chip off the old block

A pivotal person?

I flew to MPA in an RAF Tristar in early 1986. Forewarned being forearmed, I was off early when we landed at Ascension to refuel, in order to get a couple of beers before we continued our flight south

An old colleague of mine does some relieving work on the Ben, having been made to retire, due to age, from my outfit. As he says, it keeps him in drinking vouchers!

I remember a Barbados - Port of Spain flight in a BWIA Tristar that was, shall we say, 'experienced'. It shook, rattled and rolled its way into the air, creaked and groaned all the way to PoS, then on touchdown had pretty much all its cabin baggage lockers fly open too. What an old banger it was...

I joined her in Hamburg, where she was being restored to a mix of 20' and 40' container guides prior to going back onto the South Africa/Europe run, having been on charter to Zim Line for 2 years, trading from the Eastern Med to/from the Far East via East Coast Canada & USA, Panama Canal and West Coast USA, carrying only 40' boxes. She was called "Barcelona" during this period. She reverted to her original name of Table Bay during the refit period.

Ooh, that brings back memories of the 'box girder' on the Table Bay - and from memory she was only just over 200 metres in length...

Slight twisting of large structures under load is actually a good thing, and is allowed for by the designers. You can see this on aircraft wings as the ovvious connection. Tall buildings also deflect slightly in strong winds; I have stood at the top of Sydney Tower, watching instruments showing wind speed and deflection from the vertical... Then of course my own industry - stand on the deck of a large ship whilst in a seaway and you can see the ship bending and twisting slightly. Actually, the most obvious example of this phenomenon that I have seen was on a 131m long Ethylene carrier that was constructed from High Tensile Steel. When pushing into big seas, if you hit a wave too hard, from aft you could see (and feel) the bow vibrating as the impact forces were dissipated.

I flew to Hong Kong with BA a couple of years ago, on my way to Kaohsiung to join my ship. Aircraft was an A380. I had secured my aisle seat (my preference on long haul flights these days) in top deck cattle class, so was reasonably happy. On getting to the boarding gate, I was told I had been moved. Dark thoughts of being stuck in a middle seat crossed my mind at this point. However, I had been moved to Cattle Class Plus. Hmm. Still quite restricted, but at one point I glanced into where I was originally going to be seated, and I was seriously not impressed. 12 hours there would have been awful, imo.Talk about squeezing as many seats as possible in... *shudders*

Hats off to you all. Marvellous work. Pickering would be appropriate for the railcar, I think? Old stamping ground?

Big boys' toys!

In defence of the 4Fs, Essery, in his "Firing Days at Saltley", actually mentions that he was shown, and then did it himself, a firing technique that worked on them. So it could be done. As for their aesthetics, after Johnson's 700 class, Midland designs were never really the same, were they? The 4F was merely a natural progression of what followed.

Good day all I'm now looking for 3 pairs of DC Kits DMU bogies. Can anyone help please? Thanks Mark

Can I just take a moment here to recommend Durham Gin please?

Excellent work - and, apropos of nothing, love the use of the word "brew" in the reporter's narrative too

Fortunately I am presently on leave, so a visit was called for . I visited on Sunday at lunchtime. There seemed to be a steady flow of visitors, and the hall was comfortably busy, rather than packed. A good selection of layouts were present - good work on the part of the organisers. It was nice to meet up with some familiar faces too, particularly traders Dave Alexander and Peter Stanger, with whom I had very pleasant chats. It was nice to finally meet some FB friends in real life as well Traders - a reasonable selection, but as others have commented, little in the way of general fine scale purchasing opportunities. I think that this is a common issue these days, though. Catering - yes, limited, but already well explained by the Exhibition Manager. Car parking - I had no issues, but I can certainly see how one muppet abandoning their vehicle in an inappropriate place could cause mayhem. All in all, the show was well worth a visit. Thanks to all involved. Mark

Looking for a Class 108 driving vehicle, preferably unmade. Anyone with a roundtuit pile they want to reduce? Thanks in advance. Mark EDIT - all sorted out. Thanks

G'day, Doug! Ah yes, but I thought it was the Kiwi bird - arrives, roots, shoots and leaves... - perhaps another story I fear, though, that you forgot about this chap