Arthur

Could well be 'Heaton Norris', a suburb of Stockport. The station there closed in 1959. .

He did introduce that as the 'killacycle', aptly named it would seem. .

Both the later style Guy cab; http://www.roadtransportimages.com/online-shop/item/214-guy-big-j-1966-motor-panels-cab and the ERF 'C' series cab; http://www.roadtransportimages.com/online-shop/item/183-erf-c-series-1981-day-cab are available as resin castings in 4mm from Road Transport Images. You buy the standardised components to assemble whatever prototype you want. The resin cabs can be bought individually and grafted onto suitable RTR chassis'. .

No apologies needed Bernard, I had to double check myself, as you say, it's very difficult to keep track of the diecast ranges. .

If the Good Lord wanted to burn the desert straddling a V8...... Amen. .

As late as 1970 the NCB fleet on the former Manchester Collieries line, though a bit grubby, still clearly displayed their lined maroon livery. The Yates & Duxbury paper mill near Bury had a couple of very clean 0-4-0STs, a Barclay and a Peckett, also working into the 70's. .

Very good Jeff , I understand he had a few Heralds too.... .

Might also have been available under the Corgi name Bernard but mine was packaged like this; .

I very much take the Old Testament view, .

And an AEC Militant MkII 6x6, presumably used as an off road tipper, very interesting. .

The Lledo Guy is a nice casting, it really captures the look of the prototype. I converted one to a BigJ4T tractor for the Black Country Blues project. Detailed in this thread if it's of any interest. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66145-black-country-blues-arthur-builds-yorkshire-engine-co-de2/ .

Let's leave party politics out it, eh. Otherwise somebody might mention, Labour/NHS/PFI...... .

Case recently of a mobile phone app/controller for garage doors. One chap had it installed and after several technical problems with it left a poor review on the suppliers website. Supplier was so incensed they disabled his account which denied him access to his own garage. http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/tech-news/garadget-apologises-lock-out-garage-block-11364171416531 Me? I used to think I was safe in my tin foil hat but then it occurred to me, What if THEY actually want you to wear a tin foil hat to contain the mind control waves!! OMG! .

I suspect that's true Dave. A lot will run on layouts but very few on industrial themed layouts, some on an industry cameo as part of a larger layout, most mixed in with whatever the owner fancies (not a criticism, just reality). Considering that industrial layouts particularly suit cramped sites it's perhaps surprising that they are not more popular with the space starved modeller. On the positive side, so far, Hornby have done well with sales of their Sentinels and Pecketts and I believe may be looking at further industrial prototypes. Golden Valley's Janus has been pretty well received, a few quality control glitches aside, and it'll be interesting to see how far they go with that. At least we may see half a dozen or so decent RTR industrials which is more than we might have expected a few years back and they make a change from the once ubiquitous Austerities and 'industrial' pugs. .

BTW, I note you've ordered some plates from Narrow Planet, are they a custom order? I couldn't find them on their website. .

Looking good. Pretty sure that I've still got some small white BSC logos that I had made up a while back, like this; I might have a couple of different sizes suitable for a cab side. I'll have a look tomorrow Dave and let you know. If I have got any you'll be more than welcome to have a few. .

Chassis now reassembled and back working. I added black edges to the tyres using a fine paintbrush held against the wheel edges whilst under power. The gaudy 'circus' livery will be condsiderably toned down under layers of weathering. The cab roof is devoid of rain strips which were certainly present on some prototypes. I added them with a shallow crescent of .33mm brass wire superglued on the cab roof shoulder. With small details requiring spraying I stick them onto a bit of card using double sided tape. This prevents them flying off when an airbrush or aerosol is brought to bear. The jacking brackets were such an item and, as they have a little mounting spigot on the rear face, I made a little hole with a scalpel tip to accommodate it. There has been some discussion about the handrails and whether, being slippery and flexible, they'd take and retain paint. Well I think that they might be painted as they come. I've made up wire handrails for the Judith Edge Janus locos and will do so for these should it prove necessary. However, I thought I'd persevere with those supplied to start with, giving them a coat of white. From the end handrails I removed a couple of sections to match the arrangement I wanted. Being made of that soft, slippery, plastic I presumed they'd be impervious to solvents so in a stroke of genius I thought I'd give them a damned good cleaning and degreasing by quickly dipping them in dichloromethane (Plastic Weld which I buy as it's chemical name in 1 litre bottles) prior to spraying them. Did I say genius? I dipped one in and within moments it looked like it was breaking up, bits coming off. AAaarrrghh.... I quickly lifted it out, the solvent flashes off rapidly, and left it to dry. I then went to clean it up and hopefully resurrect it, with a fibre glass brush. What seemed to happen is that a thin layer of paint (presumably) flaked off all surfaces leaving the basic handrail intact. They've all been sprayed with white Tamiya Fine Surface Primer and left to harden. Here's half a set, the changes made to the end hand rails will be evident if compared to the originals. I've flexed the sections, far more than they would ever flex fitted to the model without problems. We'll see how we get on as the paint hardens further. Progress tomorrow will depend on the weather, wet and I'll be applying striping and decals, dry and I'm playing in a tennis tournament followed by a BBQ. Life's tough, eh! .

They had a cracker a couple of weeks back; "JC is explaining to Diane Abbot that Labour have a pro Brexit policy for their traditional voters in the north and an anti Brexit policy for their southern metropolitan luvvies. But it's not possible to hold two diametrically opposite views at the same time says Abbot. Yes it is, we've consulted an expert, says JC. Who? Schrodinger, says JC, we can have a Brexit policy that is simultaneously both dead and alive." Brilliant. .

These two Hudswell Clarke locomotives, both designs used by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, are essentially the same. This is the original, a standard Hudswell design; The Ship Canal Co. then had some built with extended side tanks to better suit the longer runs on their system. The latter were known, not surprisingly, as the long tanks. A similar looking long tank from Kitson was also used on the system. .

Around 1980, travelling north one Friday evening on the A9, in a snowstorm, I spun my car off the road and down quite a steep grassy embankment somewhere in the wilds. Abandoning said car, I made my way to the nearest village, on a loop off the A9, and spent the night in a transport cafe with lodgings. The following morning, bright and sunny, I made my way to the local garage and explained my predictament. 'Would that pull it out?' asked the proprietor, pointing to a recovery equipped Land Rover. Hmmm, I said, not sure it would. 'Right then' and I followed him round the back. 'What about that?', 'Er....Yeah, that's definitely going to do it' We climbed into his recovery equipped AEC Matador and set off along the snow packed roads. We rattled along and as I've observed before about older military vehicles, it was bit like driving along in a greenhouse. Needless to say, the fortunately undamaged car was hoiked out effortlessly by the old girl and I continued my journey north to Tain, up on the east coast. The AEC Matador, very capable vehicle. .

On a lighter note, Radio 4's Dead Ringers 'impressions' based show this morning had an ongoing spoof of bitching between those BBC presenters well paid, and colleagues not featuring quite so highly. The latter being somewhat curmudgeonly and unhelpful to their wealthier presenters and to callers in. Skits along the lines of; chap calls Money Box for investment advice on his windfall, 'Oh, £70,000, bully for you, don't know why you're asking me, speak to Gary Lineker, he seems to have plenty to invest. .

Very well executed Dave. I admire your patience with the masking tape but the results have justified it. .

David, yes, it's easy enough to strip down and I would have thought it possible. In fact, it's already been done, here's a link to the relevant posting in the main Janus thread; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105523-oxford-diecastgolden-valley-ye-janus-0-6-0de/?p=2788434 .

Removing the wheels will be brave if I can rebuild it, stupid if I can't! Actually, it wasn't too difficult and has made painting the wheels that much quicker. The final livery will be a fictionalised take on one of the BSC liveries so I've just chosen to have yellow wheels, I am the works engineer after all. I've not yet decided whether to limit the wasp striping to the ends and valences or to take it over the bonnets like the Aldwarke locos. I've already got a Judith Edge Hunslet 75 ton DH in a variation of that livery so they'd kinda match. By the way Dave, thanks for all the Janus photos you've posting, a brilliant resource. .

That's very clear, thanks for that. Again, it shows that the model isn't quite right. I've made the appropriate changes so that there is no cover, just a thin edge around the recess. See the second photo down. The Judith Edge kits do have the right height profile here but the tops are plated over. I wonder if when new there was an access cover? Before spraying the body I masked the end nameplates. The Yorkshire plate with a rectangle of masking tape. For the circular BTH badge I stuck some tape onto a piece of 20thou styrene and punched out two 3mm discs using a leather punch. It's near impossible to punch out just plain masking tape. I peeled off the masking tape from the styrene disc and applied it over the printed badge. The shell was then primed with white Tamiya Fine Surface Primer followed by thin coats of Humbrol No. 69 yellow acrylic from a spray can. I never bother using an airbrush for yellow, I just use this Humbrol spray, it gives a surprisingly thin cover. The engine covers, the cab and buffers were sprayed at the same time. Here is one bonnet end with the masking tape removed and the plates revealed. The top one needs a bit of tidying around the edges. I wanted to paint the wheels too. I could have Brush painted them but decided to spray them. I removed the wheel retaining plate and removed the wheels and coupling rods as a single unit. I didn't unsolder the leads to the pick ups on the retaining plate, I just wiggled the wheelsets around until they were clear. The crankpin nuts were then unscrewed, the coupling rods removed and the crankpin bush pushed back until it was flush with the outer face of the boss. I crudely masked each wheelset with a wrapping of tape with a blob of grease over the crankpin bush. They were then primed white by lightly spraying in several directions across the faces, followed by similar applications of yellow. After drying for a while the tape was removed and the treads cleaned up using a cotton bud and IPA (Iso propyl alcohol). Cleaning them before the paint has fully hardened is much easier. I'll add a dark tyre rim with the wheels revolving once it's been re-assembled. Whilst the wheels were off I use the airbrush to give the masked frames a quick base coat of weathering. The cab inner, the control desk top and the 'wall' painted parts of the cab glazing were given a brush coat of duck egg blue and the whole lot is being left overnight to harden off. .