Phil Bullock

Was on the River Wye yesterday - glorious! A Clouded Yellow passed..... Then this evening whilst watering the garden I flushed a beautiful moth out of the Ceanothus - a yellow underwing. Perfect in wing and body, it chose me to land on for a few moments. Before I could fetch the camera off it flew - but it didn't get two yards before the local robin swooped past my face to grab it...he proceeded to pull the wings off before carrying off the carcass to feed to his young. So Lepidoptera are ephemeral too... Phil

This was our day at Erwood on the River Wye yesterday - in the company of kingfishers, salmon, trout and various wildlife including This Large Brook Dun spinner that seemed to think I was an attractive mate and This 3ft sea lamprey - waiting for a mate before building a substantial crater nest (redd) in the river My good pal Dave Nuttall was passing and recorded the day... There had obviously been some nefarious goings on too - James found this Spudulator... A day spent on the river fishing like this is a day added to lifes span, not deducted Phil

Entomology Etymology! Ubiquitousness appears in dictionaries - but could ubiquity save a few characters? Phil

Cracking job Jimbo is heading in the same direction but renumbering to D5007 GFYE - the stripes have to go but are proving recalcitrant.... Guess there are plentiful supplies of baby buds looming in the ELJ household! Phil

Chaz That's a stunning collection of photos - both content and quality Many thanks for sharing Phil

Was great to see this superb layout again at DEMU So evocative of Rotherwood....happy days Phil

Blame Dr Beeching ? Hee hee We missed you at the weekend fella - see PM Phil

Hee hee Have Oxford made one of those yet???? I don't usually have time for videos at a show - sorry Mike - and Pierre forgot his camera. Others may emerge however But fear not, plans are afoot for another weekend filming session Jimbo thinks we need to include every loco - will be longer than Ben Hur if we do And come back soon - Mr Hanson's leg pulls hurt much more than yours - literally ! See big Jims photo up the thread for explanation Phil

We were sufficiently relaxed yesterday for a bit of tinkering... But unfortunately Basil's car broke down again! Hee hee Phil

Thanks to all for the kind comments. It was a pleasure to be there despite the torrid journey up to Burton on Friday - 3 hours for what took one and a half on Sunday to get home. The layout behaved pretty well with one exception - when sorting out actuation the up main bracket had been installed too close to the up main line and most stock running past fouled it on Saturday - hence Jim's photo of the attempted fettling in progress. At least I was only two feet under at the time. A bit of adjustment on Saturday evening and likewise a repair to one of the cranks on the up loop bracket on Sunday morning meant that we were fully signalled for the first time on Sunday. Standing there watching the signals pull off certainly does it for me although with up and down routes being set at the same time the bobby must be pretty athletic to be leaping around the frame at that speed. We were so exhausted we didn't leave our accommodation in the evenings but the beer was still pretty good at the local grill house. John Guy and George kept an eye that we were all ok - and I must say thanks to the committee for inviting us, we had a great time. Also a special thanks to Steve and his partner for the help with unloading and shifting on Friday. Best purchase all weekend? A ten pound fan from Morrisons helped us keep our cool. Phil

Hi Andy Absolutely - please do! Just had a good lunch of sausage baps, loading van next then on the road - evening labours this week should mean all our main line signals are now operational and embedded in routes - no more SPADSs! Phil

A couple of cracking shots of Peaks in Early Blue Dave - thanks for sharing. Arrows of indecision conspicuous by their absence - perhaps they hadn't decided where to put them! Phil

Price is nothing like as bad as I feared it might be Hope the droopy couplings issue prevalent on some previous Heljan wagons has been sorted Cheers Phil

A rather more modern version at Glasgow Central We've seen this on other threads before but worth a repost perhaps - drivers had changed somewhat by the late 70s! Phil

Off to DEMU this weekend with Pierre and Jimbo - looking forwards to seeing friends as always, and some good beer hopefully... Red carded locos and stock from Stow should be good to go except D843 which needs a visit to Swindon for a new sound chip..... have lost a couple of Loksound V4s now, the amps seem to fail Phil

Just think Bara Brith - Theres lovely isn't it! Phil

That makes more sense! Cheers Phil

Thanks Brian Will get the WTTs out later... Phil

Thanks Chaz My photographic equipment is crude by comparison which is why I cant get decent photos Orange tips aplenty along the walks at Hampton Court Castle yesterday but no chance to photo Phil

Cheers Flood that's great gen RF in the Newton le Willows train....!!!! And Guvs will have to suffice for the TCVs for the moment - but that does look like a more sensible provision of flats on the last two , but what on earth was the path like for the 14.15 to Sutton Coldfiled if it needed sleepers? Via Scunthorpe perhaps? Phil

Interesting...looks like an overprovision of passenger accommodation there... was that train available for non motorail passengers too then I wonder? Also BCK.... Many thanks Phil

So in making up motorail trains... I reckon its two flats to one coach - 8 cars, but only 7 compartments per coach if FK so additional space needed in brake But what if sleepers? How many berths per compartment , if cars had 4 occupants ? was that two compartments? Heres another in non motorail traffic http://www.shelbrooke.co.uk/Hymek/89.jpg From the Brian Thomas collection Phil

Have always thought that was a given for Oxford! Brilliant news, but what am I going to do with those redundant Mk1s I was saving now? Oh yes.... BSO and BFK of course.... Both of which ran in Motorail trains IIRC Unless Oxford use this chassis to get there first of course.... Phil

Just look at this N gauge diesel depot! https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13265858_499623616905704_7099329671581459817_n.jpg?oh=e1411a2b77aa54746008bb8868383edd&oe=57E25283 Those locos need weathering - and they never all operated together - and who on earth resprayed that Class 50 in IC livery? Phil

¿Conducir borracho? Eso lo dejaré para conductores de tractor hee hee