Arthur

Paint samples which are now aged so how representative of the original colour are they? How consistent were the various batches of paint mixed by the LMS and BR? Were they absolutely consistent? As you say, scale colour adds a whole new range of opinion. These colour arguments rage on year after year for both models and for prototype restorations. The discussion already in this thread proves my point, there is considerable disagreement about what looks right. Whatever Hornby chose, some will say it's wrong. .

Comfy chairs, the seductive smell of new books, insidious competitions, the charming smile; the hallmarks of the master manipulator. Resistance is futile. The man is an evil genius and world domination his goal. .

The image of the pilot disembarking reminded me of a sad incident in October last year. Gordon Coates, a former neighbour of mine, a merchant mariner, and for many years a River Thames pilot, was killed last year at Gravesend Reach in an incident involving the MV Sunmi. I'm not sure of exactly what happened, I don't think the inquest has taken place yet, but I understand he was crushed between the vessel and the pilot launch. http://www.pilotmag.co.uk/2017/07/20/obituary-gordon-coates-1953-2016-london-pilot/ You would not meet a nicer guy, always cheerful. Just two years short of his retirement killed doing something he'd done thousands of times, transferring between vessels. A tragedy. .

Practice this in front of the mirror 'What, that old red thing?, I've had that for ages". .

Already, in the sinister world of the uber-rich, lizard Illuminati, wheels start to move....... .

So, (sorry about that) it's become increasingly frequently used over the past four or five years. I've been aware of it for a while now. I agree, it drives me nuts too, but it's become the fashionable way to start an answer to a question, particularly common on Radio 4 it seems. .

Hmm, MSC lined grey. Looks like I'll be adding another DJM austerity to the fleet. As a taster, here's my MSC liveried Dapol Austerity, no doubt Dave's will be even better. Don't suppose you could number yours as 86 Dave? Save me a renumbering job..... .

Living just 3 miles or so from Bream I'll be interested in following your progress with this Chris. There was a line/tramway serving mines and foundries, almost into Bream. It curved away from Marsh Wharf sidings, headed towards Bream from the north and skirted around the north west of the village. Some of the buildings of the former Flour Mill colliery, served by this tramway, today serve as railway restoration workshops; http://www.theflourmill.com/about.html It's not generally open to the public but I wandered down there last year and took a few photos, later posted here; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89344-somewhere-in-the-forest-of-dean/?p=2434174 Good luck with the plan. .

Indeed, I even indicated the spelling beneath my avatar As here <<<<<<

Solford, SOLFORD!, to where do you refer good sir! <<<<<<< I agree about the colour. It's clear nobody can be sure of the actual livery, it looked different with age, under different lighting, with different film. Colour memory is notoriously fickle. Hornby should just make it the most atttactive shade of the many that might look right. Nobody could say it was wrong, and they'll sell even more. (Well, whatever shade they choose some will say it's wrong, so best please the majority.) .

The following is taken and reworded from from 'Skinningrove Iron & Steel Works' Cliff Shepherd, IRS 2012. There are a couple of photos of the loco at work in the book. Skinningrove Iron purchased 'Jersey' from Bells of Doncaster (who presumably had acquired it from British Railways) on 21st March, 1949, for £1500.00. During it's move north it was noted on Leicester Central shed. On arrival at the works, the vacuum brake was removed as was the firebox brick arch. It was thought the latter wouldn't survive the rough and tumble of steelworks life. Later, the tank mounted toolbox was also removed. Low water and fuel capacities (10cwt coal and 600 gallons water) limited it's range so it worked sidings and operations close to shed facilities. It seems to have spent some time working bogies of scrap up onto the open hearth melting shop gantry. A driver commented that you could feel the loco's power. It was scrapped in April 1962, presumably at the works and fed to the furnaces it once served. It had been valued at £160.2s.6d. on 30/9/61 with a later scrap value, for internal accounting purposes, of £261.00. I wonder how much the Dapol model will cost?..... .

Photographs of Skinningrove's 'Jersey' and the Bilston B4s here, scroll on from the linked image; https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/BRITISH-INDUSTRIAL-LOCOMOTIVES/INDUSTRIAL-DIESEL-AND-ELECTRIC/i-z8gs4hj .

One was sold to the Skinningrove Iron Company at Skinningrove on the North Yorkshire coast. It was named Jersey and was, apparently, well regarded by the crews. I'll check the date but seem to recall it was bought by the company shortly after WW2. .

I beefed up the crank pin boss' with plasticard discs fitted behind the crankpin nuts as outlined part way down this post. It doesn't address the too slim rods but gives an improvement with the crankpin boss. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124596-golden-valley-janus-modifications-and-repaint/?p=2809804

Yes, planning to be there on Saturday. Always a top class event. .

Come back next year, it is planned that Severn Bridge Tolls will be scrapped at the end of 2018. .

Well that was a long tennis match.... Anyway, I apply wasp striping using strips of black decal paper over a gloss base coat. Here is the bonnet moulding with the striping completed, And the cab with homemade BSC logo and script on the side. I draw this up on desktop publishing software and laser print it on Crafty Computer Paper decal sheet. I have used inkjet printing for decals in the past however it isn't as crisp as laser printing and the decal needs coating with an acrylic varnish before use as it is not waterproof. I got a good deal on a laser printer, they expect to make money on the costly print cartridges. As I only use it for decals I'm not expecting to buy many. Home printing only really works with dark colours so black comes out well. I design the decal with a large background so that I can cut it out the size of the lower cab. That way I 'lose' the decal edges on the cab corners. The key to achieving a painted on finish with all of these decals is the use of a decal setting agent. I use Solvaset. It's aggressive, softens the decals so they snuggle down over the raised detail and dry out like a painted finish. Before reassembly I added a driver figure clad in a fluorescent orange jacket. The driver figure needed cutting off at waist level and required a bit of trimming and arm bending to fit. The figure was originally supplied with a Matchbox Diamond T tank transporter kit. The headlights fitted to the handrails are shallow lengths of styrene tube filled with Squadron body putty and a concave 'reflector' was put on one face by twisting the end of a coffee stirrer into it. Once dry the body was painted white and the reflector silver. The lens is created using a generous blob of PVA glue. This sets clear and gives a convex face to the headlight which is finished off with a coat of Johnsons Klear. I wanted to add a casting car buffer to each end of the locomotive. These were heavy steel castings and fabrications used to buffer and couple up to ingot casting cars. Quite a common feature on steelworks locomotives. As I want to add these to quite a few models I decided to cast them in resin. This involved making a pair for masters in styrene, and a mould taken from them in silicon rubber. With the mould I can now cast a pair in resin whenever I need them. The Big Boss. A notable feature of the Janus design is the large roller bearing crankpin boss. After a couple of false starts I came up with a modification. There's quite a bit of side play with the coupling rods on the crankpin. I punched out six 3.5mm discs from 20 thou styrene and then drilled out the centres so that they were a good fit over the crankpin bush. Before fitting, each face was rubbed over an emery stick to smooth it off. One sits on each bush, outside the coupling rod, and is retained by the hex headed retaining screw. There is sufficient sideplay to accommodate them comfortably and the running is not impaired. The casting car buffer and larger boss can be seen in this works photo. No Janus ever left the Yorkshire Engine Company works in British Steel Corporation livery. The last one left the works in 1965 and the BSC wasn't formed until 1967. Still, the photographer was handy when No. 14 was rolled out after a repaint. Finally, a rather too clean steelworks Janus at work hauling ingot cars out of the open hearth casting bay. I'll post a couple more when I've given it a little weathering. .

Oh I dunno, I read this on the interweb. Really, it's full of 'science'. "Other Sinister Reasons for Chemtrails It has been found that the plasma orbs that are carried on electromagnetic beams can even be used for mind control programming. The satellites can be programmed to track and monitor various frequencies on different parts of the body. These electromagnetic beams carrying the gas plasma orbs to people’s eyes, ears, temples, and…. other parts. It is hypothesized that it is actually possible for a beam with en-trained orbs to carry pictures in each orb just like frames in a movie. If that is so, that means it is also possible for the satellites to download holographic mind control movies, pictures, sounds, and sensations to people through this technology. The Air Force has stated in “Air Force 2025″, that their goal is to develop virtual and augmented reality mind control and depending on how the computer is programmed- or depending on the mood or intent of the person interfacing with the technology, one can be probed, frightened, manipulated, electronically raped, or tortured." Now, where's me tin foil hat.....

The grainy footage was used to identify and track him down. When found, he had the victims blood on his trousers and shoes, and his fingerprints were found on the camera when it was subsequently recovered. It's a fair cop guv'.

Learn to live with it. Sapiens has been around for 200,000 years, our immediate ancestors a couple of million before that. Two million years plus of evolution hard wiring our brains to work in small groups as competitive hunter gatherers. And we believe 2 or 3 thousand years of 'civilisation' is going to turn us into collaborative citizens of the world? I think not. In times of stress or threat we will always revert to tribalism, represented these days largely by nation, but other tribal allegiances can emerge even more strongly given appropriate circumstances. Rather than trying to beat everybody into some anodyne, multicultural, nothingness we should work with tribalism, recognising and accepting difference, and finding ways to move forward with it. If the forces of 'good' do not embrace and harness these energies and continue to ignore them, then the forces of 'evil' surely will. Edit; presumably you can work out the censored word above.... .

The British don't tip in restaurants? Really? I, and everybody I've ever been to a restaurant with, does. Typically 10%. When working, we could claim back a reasonable tip on restaurant bills. Same for any food establishment with table service. Taxis too, usually a couple of quid/keep the change kind of thing. .

I'm not aware that horses were ever banned from the streets of any UK city or town. Milkmen were still using them into the 60s, ours did when I was a kid in a northern town. Rag and bone men for even longer. Youngs brewery in London, and others elsewhere, had horse drawn drays up to about 2000. Horses, particularly the more phlegmatic breeds used as cab and dray horses, soon become used to a busy environment and photographs of the late Edwardian and later period show them happilycheek by jowl with motor transport in city streets. In the UK horses can be ridden, or draw a carriage, on any public road apart from motorways. These rights predate motorised vehicles. Nobody was forced to abandon horses for internal combustion, they did because it was a damn sight easier and more convenient. .

Blimey, he's been abducted by evil aliens.

Our school badge, essentially the Eccles Borough crest (of which Patricroft was part), included a steam hammer in recognition of Nasmyth's invention of said device at the Bridgwater Foundry. .

Templot. CAD design for model making (etching, 3D printing etc.) I've done one of the Missenden courses, track building with Norman Solomon, very good and very enjoyable. I'll be going back for one of the spring courses, hopefully next year. .