Arthur

Yes please! In the early 80's I worked for Road Express (part of TNT) based in Waterfoot goods. A magnificent building it was, inevitably, I never took any photographs.....

Interesting article by Gary Neville here on the subject of 'diving' which, ironically, appeared on Sunday morning before the Ashley Young incident. Contrasts his own football upbringing and his surprise at the ease at which continental players went over when, as a young teenager, he first played in Europe. His conversation with Ronaldo on the subject puts it in a different perspective, you might not agree but it's a different view. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2126567/Gary-Neville-Andy-Carrolls-dive-laugh--zero-tolerance-wont-ground.html

Well, a loss last year of £195 million (a record for a British club), the highest British club wage bill (which is £22 million more than their turnover) and a stadium sponsorship scam which might, or might not, get them round the UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, are not myths.

Yeah, the Skinto Shield, it could spend 364 days a year at the pawnbrokers.......

or a sewage tanker....

I'd second Jules' comments. For an industrial building look at 'George Roberts Printing' and for other urban buildings 'Worthington Hotel' and 'The Daily Examiner', all Walthers, can be readily anglicised.

So, Fat tyres, 4 wheel drive, BMW and snow, where's the problem?

Got up this morning to find some dick had blocked me in ,he made a right balls of it.....

If you are interested Ralph, and have not already seen them, there are a lot of iron & steel images, mostly from the 1950's/60's, in my gallery. http://www.rmweb.co....er/6861-arthur/ Edit; I should add that the site has reversed their original order, so the attached captions, which in some cases tell the story, are also reversed. It's because the site now lists them from latest added first.

Good question Brian and I cannot give a definitive answer. I was discussing this with John Cowburn of the Industrial Railway Society just before Christmas. Yes, Distington are no longer in business but John was telling me that a traditional, open topped, hot metal ladle and car was supplied by a U.K. based company to the former Stanton ironworks not long before it's closure in 2007. Of, course that would be a relatively small vehicle, maybe 25t capacity. The final Distington designs, those at Redcar, were designed in collaboration with DEMAG of Duisburg in Germany. DEMAG has since been broken up and parts sold off. The iron and steel division still operates as SMSDemag and they would be my best guess. Thyssenkrupp had a new No. 8 blast furnace built just a few years back at Duisburg and I guess somebody built torpedo ladles for them. I think these days the design would be farmed out for manufacturing and assembly to whoever had the facilities for such heavy fabrication work. Arthur

Years, those at Port Talbot have seen at least twenty years service and those at Redcar a little over thirty years. Not only are they massively constructed they have a hundred tonnes or so of refractory brick lining which is replaced every few months.

Thanks for the links, fascinating photographs.

Great photos, any more or anything else of interest? I believe that one of them is still full of cold iron. The traditional way of getting it out is to tap as much hot metal as is possible into the ladle, remelt the cold surface and quickly tip it out. Repeat the proceedure until empty. Of course, if you get it wrong, it just gets worse....

Amish family spend a day in the big city. They visit a department store and the father and son wander off. They become transfixed by this strange device. There are two silver doors in the wall, they swish open revealing a brightly lit metal cube. An ancient old crone shuffles in and the doors close behind her. There's a bit of clanking and whirring and above the doors a sequence of numbers light up in ascending order. They stop, then numbers light in descending order and the doors slide back. Out steps a curvaceous, pouting, 20 year old blonde. Without taking his eyes off her the father say's, "Quick Isaac, Go get your Mother"

Nice to see Tony back in this months (February) BRM reviewing the new Bachmann A4 and B1 chassis'.

Following Debs lead above, Roger Chapman, prompted me to put Family's 'Anyway' on today, fantastic album, great cover and sleeve too.

There is/was a Jidenco kit, later released by Falcon, not sure about current availability. Not a bad kit thought it had an error in the etching of the cab roof rear, lower, corner. Not insurmountable, I'll post a photo of a complete one when I get home.

That's looking really good Adam, lovely detail on the bogie sideframes. Arthur

Wish I could 12CSVT, sadly, I'm not aware of any more.

Interesting point Brian, they were rated at 45 tons so a good deal higher than any BR ore hopper. Even so, they do look a bit 'heaped'!!!

Thanks to John Cowburn of the Industrial Railway Soc. for leading me to this, a really evocative image from the 1960's. One of DL's Sentinel 0-4-0DH's pushes internal hoppers of ore from the South Bank Wharf, over the main road, and into the works. Once the job of Dorman Longs steeple cab electrics, the catenary can be seen just above the right hand hopper wagon.

Train of Events, Ealing drama from 1949 centered around Camden shed and passengers traveling on a train to Liverpool.

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman were sitting in a bar. The view was fantastic, the beer excellent, the food exceptional. "Y'ken," said the Scotsman, "I still prefer the pubs back hame. Why, in Glasgow there's a wee bar called McTavish's. Now, the landlord there goes out of his way for the locals so much that when you buy 4 drinks, he will buy the 5th drink for you." "Well," said the Englishman, "at my local, The Red Lion, the barman there will buy you your 3rd drink after you buy the first two." "Ahhh, that's nuttin," said the Irishman. "Back home in Dublin there's O'Driscoll's Bar. Now, the moment you set foot in the place they'll buy you a drink, then another, all the drinks you like. Then, when you've had enough drinks, they'll take you upstairs and see that you get laid. All on the house." "Wow," said the Englishman, "did this actually happen to you?" "Not me, myself, personally, no," said the Irishman "but it happened to me sister!"

Surely something you could say about any kit!?

I was hoping to open this thread and read of Tony's return to health. Sad to read otherwise. Hopefully Tony is making some progress if only slowly. Get well soon.