jamie92208

Thanks for the comments Ian. I think we all regret not taking photos.As mentioned I grew up watching steam over the S & C and never took any photos. Such is life or Tant pis as my neighbours would say. Jamie

Good afternoon from a rather damp place. We are still in Northern Ireland, I think it was early December. This was further along the platform. On the left is the Motor generator brake van on the back of the loco hauled rake. On the right is what I think is a 450 class DEMU. Then off to Belfast central and an 80 class DEMU coming in. Another 450 class set entering the station. And another 450 with the corridor connector removed. An Enterprise set on the Dublin service was waiting powered by a CIE 201 class GM. IIRC the first of these was flown across the pond on board the gigantic Antonov freighter. And here it is No 229. All being well some more tomorrow. Jamie

Yes I remember them well from primary school. the joys of having to learn how to do long division of pounds shillings and pence (there I used the posh full name as lsd has acquired another meaning). Also tables had to be learnt. 1 to 12 times plus 14's and 16's. Jamie

ISTR being told that they were always installed in the same orientation so that gravity caused them to fail safe. Jamie

Good moaning from the rather Maritime part of the Charente. We certainly had a storm yesterday. Somevof the liquid sunshine even found it's way into the kitchen, so I've just rung the roofer. Apart from that yesterday went to plan. I bought the cordless drill and Beth made 19 jars of green tomato chutney. The apples ini it came from either our tree or those ofva couple of expat neighbours. As I am the only chutney eater in the house I am looking forward to sampling it in mid November. I even got some more of the shed floor cleared. My first winter task is to paint the rest of the floor in the main part of the shed. Today I may be sealing the cleared part with dilute pva. We had two good video chatscwith various offspring yesterday. Martin's future bil is still in hospital but wife and daughter seem to be doing OK. It's not actually raining at the moment so we are off to the market. I can here shoting outside so the Chasse is out. I saw two lots of hunters yesterday but also saw deer and the lovely site of a Hen Harrier quartering a field looking for dinner. Regards to all. Jamie

Thanks very much Chris for the comment. I hope that you don't feel you have wasted your day. Jamie

In another topic the subject of relay interlockings has come up. As some of you know I like relays as you can usually see what's happening and fault finding is easier than with semi conductors. I thought that I'd post a photo of the relays that control the entrance and exits from the Castle Branch and loco shed to the main line in the station. They are housed under the panel on the Castle Branch fiddle yard. As you can see most are in sets of three. The sets consist of 2 relays that latch when buttons are pressed and a third that resets the system and drops the latches when a movement had taken place. Each set control a series of LED's and traction power to a section of track that allows the handover of trains from the outer panel to/from the main panel. The two in the middle control the added complication that the loco shed and goods yard both feed out to the main line through one set of points. They transfer control of the shared section to either the Loco shed operator or the Good yard operator depending on the lie of the set of points. It does all work and I have enjoyed designing and building the logic. Jamie

I wonder whether this issue will affect the Caledonian sleeper mk5 stock as well. Jamie

Perhaps it was that experience that gave me a love of relays that I like to use on my layout. I won't take the us any further off topic but I will post a couple of pictures on my layout thread that's in my signature below. In the meantime I look forward to hearing positive news about the spread of the overhead wires. Jamie

I don't know. When old Dr Slop as he was known vaccinated us at school the line of boys with one cheek bared never seemed to stop moving. Jamie

I'm fairly sure that the splasher tops finish an inch or so from the boler. I think I took some detail photos of Green Arrow for a model engineet friend,. I will have a look. Jamie

The Constitution allows for Mike Pence to take over as President to fill out the existing term. That's the easy bit. Quite what would happen to the election I don't know but I suspect that a lot of Lawyers would make a lot of money. Jamie

In 1971 I had a tour of Trent Junction PSB. IIRC the relay room was at least twice the size of the control room upstairs. Whilst we were downstairs a route was set up from Nottingham Station to Loughborough. We saw the lights some on on the maintainers panel then heard the relays start clicking and could follow the route round the room by the sound as they were arranged geographically. Fabulous to see and listen to. Jamie

The Senior scale of course, 7mm. Jamie.

Good morning from a damp Charente. We are still in the autumn of 2003. These shots were taken on my way home from Oxenholme. I often stopped at Hellifield for a coffee. Here the loco hauled services that ran for a while were worth waiting for so this train came past. What a great way to see the Settle and Carlisle. Then a 144 in the new Metro livery headed past ready to follow the original North Western Railway route to Lancaster, but only as far as Wennington unfortunately. And now for something a bit different. During the troubles police officers from the mainland weren't allowed to visit Northern Ireland except in special circumstances. However by 2003 it was safe to go and Jet2 started a Leeds Belfast service, with an introductory fare of £1 each way. Keith and I obviously jumped at the chance though as we stepped off the plane Keith commented that he would have felt much safer in his armoured car with a Stirling in his hand. However we had a great day and got to ride a lot f trains. First a commuter service at Great Victoria Street with ex BR Mk2 stock. Next a Thumper coming in. And another of the DEMU's. All at Great Victoria Street. I'll dig my spotting book out for tomorrow with my notes so I can caption them better. Jamie

I've got two of them, both built from Slaters kits, one in black, 2716 and one in lined red. I should really paint it black but it looks so nice I haven't. I've also got a Kirtley 2-4-0 with outside cranks in lined red. When we were building the layout I ran it down the branch line into the station and then realised that I'd got the platforms too close to the line for the outside cranks. It kept going with the cranks on one side walking along the platform. Here's 2716. a Skipton allocated loco. Then 24, built by my late friend Tony Bond. That trumps any pannier any day. Jamie Must have had a senior moment last night I forgot to press the submit reply button.

Good moaning. It's not raining at the moment which means that it probably will be soon. However the morning will soon be brightened by a video chat with Emily and her Mum's. We almost brikecopen a bottle of champers yesterday as after 2 hours of effort Beth managed to submit her online application for a French driving licence. That is a real result. In the afternoon another result was achieved. For several months I've been trying to log onto the Orange website to check our phone and internet bills. I tookthe bull by the horns and rang the French speaking helpline. 45 minutes later and after 2 call backs from Irange thecproblem was sorted. I do however need to access the site from mynlaptop using Firefox but I got another result. In the evening I even managed some time in the shed with various small tools and bits of metal in my hands. i got another result as a scuffling noise was heard and mynold truncheon was used to despstch a mouse that was then put out to be recycled by the owls. Result 3. After the video call this morning I'm off shopping for a cordless drill, my first ever. On the Covid front my eldest's future brother in law has been admitted to Telford Hospital with The dreaded lurgi. He, his wife and daughter all tested positive after a holiday in Turkey. We are hoping for a good outcome. Regards to all. Jamie

Some modelling mojo has returned and I've just had a productive hour in the shed. A couple of days ago I started to re-assemble the crank axle for the 4F. Lot of filing involved as the bearings had to be reduced in size to fit now that the cranks are on the axle. Anyway I got both wheels fitted with the bearing tonight and trial fitted the wheelset in the frames. I went in well. I have also removed the two front frame stretchers so the frames are a little wobbly. Quite a bit of heat was needed and the araldite holding the front set of hornblocks on came adrift. Tonight the hornblocks got cleaned up. I worked out and marked where the dummy cylinder block is going to go and then put the frames back on the chassis jog and glued the hornblocks back in place. Small steps but at least a bit of progress. Jamie

Thanks for all the offers of help. Fortunately I don't need any 20T LMS brake vans though a Kirtley 0-6-0 would have been nice. You can never have enough Kirtley's, much nicer than panniers. So sorry to disappoint you all but the problem has been solved. I had to head for the shed whilst in the middle of a long conversation with the french Orange helpline, to retrieve a bill that had various reference numbers on it. I had decided by this time to rob Peter to pay Paul and was heading towards an unbuilt kit that is low on the priority list. (An 0-4-4T) However my little eye spied a Slaters wheel pack in an open box. I had already 'borrowed' the axle but saw a little packet of a dozen Slaters screws of the right type. I will return to the shed this evening. The afternoon then got better as After half an hour on the phone to Orange, I was able to access my online account. Having done it all in French, that's a result. Jamie

Thanks for all the replies. They are available from Slaters but there is a minimum order of £10.00. I might have to order something else as well. Would the boss notice another loco kit and swallow the story that it was the only way to get the screws I needed. Jamie

Possessions tended to be much shorter and there is a photo of a new bridge being connected at Lancaster Green Ayre in 1911 which entailed moving a double junction. There are about 50 workmen in the photo. I'm not sure about the copyright but hope it is of interest for illustrative purposes only. 1The tracks in the foreground are those onto the new bridge that had been constructed parallel to the old bridge. You can just see the start of the previous bridge in the lower left of the photo. the signal box had been moved about 20 yards a month previously. The OHLE structures were put in place in 1908 but the new bridge was already planned so you can see a temporary bracket bolted to the left hand end of the gantry that supported the wires over the old bridge. As an aside, this photo has given me all sorts of detail information for my model of the station. Jamie

Much as many of us are watching events across the pond with interest I suspect we need to be a bit careful about the no politics rule. Jamie

Good morning from a very damp Charente. Some more photos from Oxenholme. I suspect that they were taken over a period of a couple of months as I visited my dad about every fortnight. Here a Voyager enters the station heading north. A Pendelino heading south. And now for something completely different as the Pythons would have said 37229 heads south Light Engine. There must still have been older sets of stock in service, this was Autumn 2003. Here a 90 pushes it's train south. And another Voyager heads north. And finally an 87 heads North. Some 29 years since I first saw an electric Scot as we called them at Milnthorpe More tomorrow, all being well. Jamie

Thanks for that Russ. I hope that my reply didn't sound patronising and sorry if it did. Jamie

Do any post office clerks out there know the specification for the set screws that secure Slaters 0 gauge loco wheels please. I would like to buy a bag of spares. A retailer of said items would be useful information as well if anyone can assist. Jamie