coachmann

Landscapes with & without trains. Virgin in the upper Lledr Valley..... Virgin at Deganwy Quay... Large Logo @ Conway Castle... Lull before the storm over the River Conwy... Early morning on the bird sanctuary, Llandudno Junction...

The sight of S.A.C.Martins picture prompted me to dig this one out. A more modern or older variation....? 24047 on Mk.I's and a 47 on Mk.II's standing in the rain at the carriage shed at Llandudno Junction in 1978. An ancient gas lamp contrasts with 'modern' motive power in the shape of 24 073 and 25 158 on shed at Llandudno Junction, 26 June 1977.

I still haven't a layout since cutting the old one up and demolishing the shed, so I have a feeling for what you are saying. In your shoes I would just continue building things for the proposed layout once you have extablished the scale/gauge.

There was just a lawn there at one time but I think there is a cycle path there now. If so, then one can also expect a 10 foot electrified fence as well!

I don't suppose you have offended anyone here, afterall, the notion that Labour has some god-given right to rule Britian is immature in a democracy. David Johnson (Labour) said it all this morning...."We have left the country in a better state than it was when we took office in 1997". Oh really? Tell that to the voters who heard Blair say in 1997 that he would not be touching the economy for the first two years of his regime, in other words, there was now't wrong with the economy. Tell that to those denied a NHS dental service. Tell that to people who have witnessed record levels of immigration into their towns and cities when the people already settled there have not been able to find employment (two and a half million people unemployed now). Labour has simply done what it did in 1951, 1970 and 1979...... It is leaving workers, not benefit claimants, to pay for their irresponsible ideology. This is simply a response from someone at the opposite end of the bar and who has also been roped into repay the national debt.

I particularly like the big Great Central 4-6-0s, which in life were a doomed species because of restricted ashpan and lack of primary air. Apart from that each class was built in very small numbers and as such were costly to maintain. So I thought an LMS 'Jubilee' boiler with cladding to look like a parallel boiler mounted on a slightly altered GCR chassis would produce a workable and an efficient 'Sir Sam Fay'. Never got around to building it though!

No one would believe today how hard it was to get rock 'n roll records from the USA in the 1950s. Thank goodness for Youtube then......Jerry Lee Lewis, the REAL King of rock, at a railway station near you? Pump up the volume and base for this.....he's a real character.

Two pictures close by Llanbourne! 33021 waiting to depart with the 15.40 to Crewe on 15 May 1985. The water pipes were for refilling the toilets. Another excuse for a 37..... 37/5 No.37503 in grey large logo livery running in on test train and curving off the Llandudno branch at Llandudno Junction on 28 February 1986.

Oldddudders : This is very close to my own thinking. Within this structure one could still introduce 'locos that never were' provided they fitted in with the rest of the loco fleet as regards livery. Or one could pretend the railway were never nationalised and model one of the Big Four companies as one thinks it might have developed in the 1950s and so on. But the topography and architecure wouldn't change although the nature of the traffic might.

Unless one is playing trains and running whetever takes their fancy (and I'm in no way a critic of this), once a modeller decides to construct a model of a railway then all sorts of things kick in. Architecture of the company that built the line for a start, and of course scenery. Even though a loco shed may be 'off stage', it is important to considers its function. A Motive Power Depot was a garage and servicing area for locomotives needed to work the principal passenger and goods services that the shed was responsible for. Straight away this dictates which type of locos would work on your layout, but of course there is also scope for visitors and foreighers for other sheds and districts. The types of freight worked in your chosen area determines the types of wagons that would feature in greater numbers than others. Same goes for passenger workings. Regardless of scale, gauge, electronics, steam or modern image, a successful layout should tell the visitor whereabouts in the country it is located by its brickwork/stonework and scenery, and the origins of the line by its architecture, locomotives and coaches, plus the nature of its principal traffic. By all means create an imaginarry world, but it still lies somewhere in Britain (probably) and not on another planet. Larry

Late 1985 to mid 1987 was indeed an exciting period but it was also a sad time too as the 'Peaks' dissapeared to make way for Class 150/2s. The 25s, 33s and 40s also dissapeared one way or another during this time. You chose what was probably the best period after the steam-era when more diesel classes operating down here than at any other period. But isn't it always the same with railway modelling that you model one period only to miss out on another. I refer to 1989 when the line was passed for steam again and the 1993 Class 37 invasion. LG

Even though the 42' LNWR coaches are far too early for my layout I am always keen to see coaches. Northstar Models has produced some LNW 57' non-corridors for me. The Precursor is coming on well. I love these machines, more so with extended smokebox and Belpaire firebox. It is tempting to have one with the excuse one was preserved...

This looks really good. Many thanks. Are the back corners of the Tender half-etched and does one have to punch out the adjacent rivets? Or are the side and back panels overlays?

I filmed it in the 1990s and it had a Thomson coach in the consist and the last coach had an outside observation platform. Didnt take any photo though.

I have a lot of old singles, EPs and LPs that I've not been able to play for over 20 years, so I've been listenning to my favourites on YouTube. Bands like 10cc remind me of what very good music we had in the 1970s.

When an inspector shouted up remove the wiring, one of those blokes enquired "how far, Piccadilly....?"

Diary notes for 10/3/81) Derailed at 11.30hrs but carried on until all train derailed. 47 290 arrived with breakedown crane.....Wigan MPD steam crane in attendance during lifting at night. DMU local servce put on at 15.05hrs. (Dinting). And the rain poured down relentlessly! (Larry Goddard Copyright).

Probably me...I'll dig 'em out!

Very intrigued to see your layout as we generally see locos and rolling stock. So full of character and I like those signals. I also note this is not a Blog. I wonder if I made the right move doing one..... If I missed it, whose etchings are the 'Silver Jubilee' coaches?

I tried to work it out while there. I suspect some wagons at the rear of the train derailed coming off the viaduct and ran up the platform ramp. The brakevan was partway up there too. The train carried on of course after the coulings snapped but some derailed wagons must have brought more wagons off the rails on the curve beyond the overbridge, then the driver applied the brakes and the lot just started to run amock across three tracks. This is only my view although I'de probably find the correct story in back issues of Railway Mag. (I don't thing Rail Enthusiast was about at the time). If wagons at the front of the train derailed and wrecked the track, this would also provide logical anwers too! I've got a full set of negs somewhere being priveleged to remain on the platform (try that today!!!)

Arriva buses drove around with headlights on last year as if people couldn't see the huge hulk of an approaching bus, and so a yellow front might have some appeal......

76022 & 76023 passing Crowden with westbound coal on 3rd July 1981.... Glossop-Manchester Class 506 crossing broadbottom Viaduct 2nd October 1981..... 25kv AC Class 303 306 on a Manchester-Hadfield working at the then new Godley station (opened 7th July 1986) on 15th October 1986.... Dinting station before the platform through which this train is passing was wrecked..... 76010 & 76016 passing Dinting with 6M50 from Rotherwood on final day of Woodhead 17th July 1981. 76028 & 76029 amid wreckage that stretched from here back to dinting Viaduct on 10th March 1981..... Larry

Ah well, had a go myself...... Ex-Arriva in Schenker red in Abergele. Larry

The Schenker red livery on that Unit looks better than Arriva's turquiose. They have two liveries on buses in this area so I wonder what the buses will look like in red....? Challenge....

What if diesels had been decked out to look like workmanlike machines instead of gaily coloured biscuit tins. This is how the earlier lined green livery might have sat on a 'Peak'.