Neil

Here's a rather fine thing from thirty odd years ago .....

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. I used to be on the organising committee for the York show and now I help out a bit with the Corris Railway's exhibition (August bank holiday, Machynlleth) and they're both very different in terms of what they can provide. However exhibitors and traders at both seem to appreciate those differences and tailor their expectations to match. The common theme is that bar a few grumbles, which usually have nothing to do with remuneration, a good time is had by all. I guess that those just in for the cash soon move on to more lucrative enterprises.

19 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

... I think NEC did not grasp the ageing profile and act suitably - ...

Ah yes; twenty years ago I'd be happy to be on my feet all day, these days I can manage it but it's not comfortable and in ten years time ..... ?

[pedant mode on] .... producing some of the UK's best model railway shows .... [pedant mode off]

This is good news. I could be tempted to take a day trip from home here on the Costa Cambria to the NEC particularly if some of the less agreeable features of the Warley show (I'm thinking insufficient seating, particularly at lunchtime) can be dialled out at the planning stage.  

23 minutes ago, rapidoTom said:

 

.... the alternative routing of the charge pipe - though looking at how it's constructed (scalloped sections of straight pipe with lots of joins) I'm not sure I'd want to be standing too close to it when it was under pressure! That might be a preservation thing as "in-service" photos of it show a thinner pipe.

 

Could what appears to be a thicker pipe actually be lagging and cover over the original thinner one?

I'd shorten the terrace, crop the gardens so that you can maintain the correct angle relative to the tracks (which will look more pleasing)  and keep the houses whole rather than sliced at an angle.

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Modelmaster/Jackson Evans do a brass nameplate if you want to superdetail that ...

 

https://modelmaster.uk/4mm-industrial-freelance-nameplates-plain-capitals/24228-nellie.html?search_query=nellie&results=2

Cripes, the nameplates would cost more than the loco!

1 hour ago, John B said:

..... and I must admit to being somewhat excited (and then terribly let down) on seeing the 2024 Hornby announcements and realising that the Nellie, Connie and Polly "reissues" were not to be the original 60's tooling. ..... 

Glad I'm not the only one to feel this way.

I do wonder what happened to the tooling. Some time ago I bought a cheap push along Nellie, Connie, Polly look alike. I'd swear that it was the same tool used (or a very good copy) but it was moulded in a sludge green shade in the sort of plastic that washing up bowls are made from and had plastic wheels without flanges.

A couple of days ago I posted this photo of my latest buy.

I bought it (for not much money) because it was the one thing in the Triang catalogue that I lusted after as a boy, the one thing that I never managed to own back in the day. Fifty and a bit years on I found one on ebay and succumbed to temptation.

Now given that this was one of the most liked posts in the thread I guess that many others of around my age also feel the draw of nostalgia and can understand and empathise with an impulse purchase that has nothing in common with my current plans.

If I'm right, and I think I am, then it poses a couple of interesting questions. The first is  simple, what model from the past would you like to own? The second a bit more difficult, what current model might have the same nostalgic pull in fifty years? 

8 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

 

Lilliput ? 

 

R

Yes, spot on. They also do a beefier six coupled version. I suppose this demonstrates that there should be a healthy market for a UK fireless loco.

Ahead of the game here ....

21 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

These were very common place on outrageously improbable light railways in the Mid Wales area.

 

Two a penny, in fact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If only that was how much they will cost...

 

Yes, I thought they would be. :)

Oh good grief, another good man gone. I have a vague memory from the days when we helped Bernard Richmond assemble the scaffolding barriers of Roger Ellis turning up in a pink and yellow paisley shirt and tie combo with a bunch of flowers for Cookie's mum.

This is a fantastically coherent and well presented piece about the artistic choices we make when designing and building models. Well worth the twenty three minutes of your time it will take to watch.

Oh dear, what have I started? My assessment of the survey is less doomsday than most of the above unless you happen to be one of the blue team in the seat of government. I take it to be a bit of kite flying to see how popular it might be with those party faithful who look like drifting off to the yellow team and those recently recruited to the reds who will in all likelihood return to the fold. How this correlates with chocolate biscuit preferences is uncertain but I'm sure there will be marketing specialists who can link choices to demographic groups; Foxes for preference but hob-nobs will do at a pinch.

Some time ago I signed up for You Gov surveys. As a confirmed pinko, leftie, right on, woke, socially liberal sort of chap the thought of influencing governments and world events appealed hugely. The reality is that most times you'll be asked for your opinions on more banal stuff, which reading between the lines is all about advertising cut through and market penetration for a range of products. Today I was asked on my thoughts about chocolate biscuits, yum. Sometimes single issue subjects get tacked onto the end of these product surveys; the last of any consequence was during Covid when I was asked several times about my attitude to lock-down and whether restrictions should be eased.

This morning I was slightly disconcerted as the add-on was about my attitude to conscription into the armed forces. Given that these sorts of questions tend to be asked when there's some thought by those in power that it might be an idea worth exploring I wonder what on earth they're thinking of and why?

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

I understand your point but if we as a country outsource all our industrial capabilities and rely on the friendliness of other countries to do business with us then what sort of future do our children have in a country that produces nothing.

 

Knowledge & financial services is great but it's vested in a small group of rich people, it's not something that helps the masses eat.

 

We've already demonstrated that we cannot even build a railway line from London to Manchester and it appears to be because we cannot afford to .

Moving to cleaner, greener ways of manufacturing isn't the same as advocating outsourcing all our industrial capabilities. Likewise smelting ore or for that matter coal mining, drilling for oil and their like are not the sum total of UK industrial activity.

Not building HS2 is a political choice rather than an economic one.

2 hours ago, APOLLO said:

 

Send that message to India, China, USA, Russia and Australia who supply both India and China with many millions of tons of Iron Ore & Coal (Russia and the USA have ample supplies of both, AND intend to use it).

 

I agree re recycling though I would not like to be on a HS2 train riding at 225mph on rails made by recycled Heinz bean tins though.

 

Ever warming world ? - Minus 6 this morning here in Wigan. I'm getting thoroughly sick of the green agenda being thrust down my throat while the rest of the world do next to nothing AND take all our industry etc with it's inherant CO2 etc emissions.

 

We in the UK will be industrially impotent very soon, and financially insolvent very soon after.

 

Think carefully.

 

Brit15

 

 

Well yes, I can see why you would be fed up with the rest of the world doing nothing to tackle climate change however that's not the case. For example the USA is now far more enthusiastic about getting to net zero than it was under Trump, China too is gearing up for green energy. Just because some other countries lag behind is that a good enough reason to not try ourselves. If we give up then we will be part of the global problem.

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

Yes, I do.

 

Horrible things that do horrible things to wheels.

 

Other opinions are available.

 

I'm not a fan either. I have a Peco track rubber sharpened to a chisel point which I use to clean wheels.

As I see it the principle downside to the closure of the blast furnaces and their replacement with an electric arc furnace is the lost jobs. We need to move to greater recycling of materials and this would take us a step in that direction. Unless we want to see an ever warming world for our children and grandchildren then we have to change how we do things; the old ways can't continue. It is magic thinking to imagine that tackling climate change can be done without change and that we should have some sort of special exemption for polluting industries that contribute to global warming. 

While Gordon gets his beautiful, historic images re-orientated I'll put up a few of my more recent ones from ten years ago.