rodent279

Can't help thinking that, assuming the Nazis had got ashore in sufficient numbers, and were able to maintain their supply routes, they would simply have been slowed down. After all, they simply avoided the Maginot line, and went straight through the Ardennes instead. I think if the Nazis really wanted to invade, they would have built a fleet of proper landing craft. That they never did says a lot. Given air superiority and U fleet support, I think the result would have been a short, intense battle, occupation of London, some sort of uneasy coming to terms, and probably years of guerilla warfare from the north of the country, until eventually the Americans and/or Soviets chose to liberate us. Whatever, it never happened. In some ways, Hitler and his refusal to listen to his generals was our best asset.

The old steam shed was certainly still there when we left Bedford in 2006.

Morning. Are there any good internet scratchbuilding websites? Something that would give me, as a beginner, a guide to techniques, materials, forming, shaping etc? Thanks.

Fascinating though the idea of a replica DP2 is, what would it prove? We have 50's, we have Deltics, there isn't really a massive gap in the story is there? Falcon, Lion, an NBL class 41 or 21/22, or LMS twins, or Bulleid trio-yes, those are gaps.

Would love to see this, I've never seen a photo of a BR ferry van of any sort on a mainland European railway. I have actually seen one for real though, a brief glimpse of one somewhere along the Rhine in 1981.

Thanks. Does your kit cover this loco?

I believe there were some very similar Brush-Bagnalls built for Sri Lanka (or possibly somewhere else in that part of the globe).

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, as there doesn't seem to be a forum for Industrials. I'm looking for details on Hunslet 0-6-0DH locos, for example, 6950 "Louise", at Elsecar Heritage Centre. I'm interested in technical details, numbers built, where used, numbers preserved. As an aside, perhaps there should be a separate forum for Industrial Locos & Railways?

Impressive stuff. I did think about scratch building a class 83. Never really had the guts to start though.

Good work, I'm impressed! How did you get the bottom bodyside edge profile to match a class 81? On an 85, it rolls inward, on an 81 it's almost a square profile.

Do you mean class 81? Good luck, big job.

Similar cabins are used for commercial mobile phone installations, but tend to be used more on rooftops, or with the larger towers and poles. Most streetworks type sites use outdoor BTS cabinets, much smaller than cabins, just containing the equipment.

Reckon the next time I see that bridge it'll be rebuilt. Assuming of course that work continues unabated.

Does that make it an A-1-A?

Not seen a photo with the grilles open before.

Mrs Rodent and I, having been through the whole of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, are now revisiting Good Omens. Sheen and Tennant are a perfect double act. I hope they make some more Maisel, it's so well filmed, and well written.

Green..... Or black? Not easy to tell is it!

For me, it needs Witte smoke deflectors. Otherwise a nice looking machine. Why not take one of the unrestored Merchant Navies or BoB/WC's and update it similarly?

Start off with a Britannia, with roller bearings throughout, including big ends and rods. All steel welded boiler and firebox. Add electric lighting, air brakes, either oil or pulverised coal firing, feedwater preheater, steam jacketing, streamlining the internal passages, and you're just about on a par with the German Rekoloks.

They only build what customers ask for/are prepared to pay for. To be fair, a number of British engine makes didn't exactly come out of the Modernisation plan covered in glory, either.

To be fair, even the BR standards were a good decade or so behind the later German and French standards. Some nods to modern practices, such as rocking grates, self-cleaning smokeboxes etc, but still wouldn't really have been out of place on the 1930's railway.

Ok, not quite an imaginary locomotive as an imaginary fleet for you-what if Stanier had been poached by the LNER in 1933? Say Gresley dies in office in 1933, or retires early due to ill health? Or what if Gresley himself had moved across to Crewe? Go figure. Let your Imaginations run wild. Edit: following on from this, Collet decides he's had enough in 1937, and wants to spend more time tending his roses. Either Hawksworth takes the chair 4 years earlier, or Bulleid gets parachuted in to Swindon.

Would be a brave man to try that now on those roads!

I've always thought that if any railway would be a useful reopening, it's Bedford-Northampton.

Not jealous. Not at all. Well maybe a little. Ok then, green with envy.