BoD

Interesting thoughts, thank you. I appreciate the notion of gently leading and encouraging rather than ‘driving’ and then letting nature run its course. As soon as he has developed more manual dexterity we will try making things together. We do many other things too so I am not forcing it upon him. I just hope that if, after all the other distractions on the way, he does wish to pursue railway modelling, there is still a hobby there for him. As some have said, yes, I am probably being pessimistic but it’s not solely the Hattons situation that has prompted these thoughts.

Obviously the sad news from Hattons today has affected many in different ways. Personally it has got me thinking about encouraging my grandson into the hobby. He is very enthusiastic about trains (I wonder where he got that from) and he loved his Brio trains. He has some Hornby Playtrains and enjoys helping put layouts together and ‘playing trains’. At the moment it will probably be a year or two before we make the move, probably to settrack and more complex things. There are lots of other factors involved but today’s events have brought into focus something that has been in the back of my mind for a while. Am I doing the right thing or am I likely to be leading him down a dead end, encouraging him into a hobby where there isn’t much of a future? Should we cut our losses now or carry on hoping that there will be a model railway hobby in the years to come? We could argue that the future of the hobby depends on us encouraging youngsters into it but is it likely to be a futile exercise? Perhaps I am being over pessimistic about the future.

I haven’t attempted it but could you adapt Bachmann Commonwealth bogies? They are readily available as spares.

That explains a lot of the Mod’s posts.

But it didn’t need to be did it? Membership fees, bar takings, occasional grants and other activities covered running costs. Moving away from that, what about the idea that has been suggested, by whom and how seriously I know not, of a two division, ‘British Isles’ (for want of a better description) League? Any chance of that working and solving some of the issues?

is there a difference between selling on your own second hand pre owned items and trading for profit. It does say they don’t have to report under 30 items per annum which I guess would cover most selling of personal property. Although if I (or someone else) tried to list all of my rolling stock at once…

You too.

… and with the various powers that be over the years achieving those safety improvements by encouragement and partnership rather than by compulsion. By the time regulations were enacted most if not all railway companies had accepted them and were at least starting to comply. Perhaps someone should send copies to the management at Carnforth.

My brother-in-law gave me a great tip when talking about changing car light bulbs. He advised going in first with your mobile phone and taking lots of photographs so that you could actually see what was where, what needed to be done and how to do it. I’m not sure if there was any connection but he was a gynaecologist.

Too much Information.

The Peco 00 track sticks out like a sore thumb too.

Might it be worth grabbing a couple of screen shots so that you can show that the item was defective before seller sent it to you?

I bought my own cheap mister bottles example here although there are many other suppliers. Experiment with a pva/water mix until it does job. I found 50/50 works for me on slopes. Adding usual drop of washing up liquid helps too. Don’t forget to clean them and flush through several times after use.

Wasn’t that the case where people, despite being warned otherwise, went too close to her but it was she who was deemed to be a danger to the public and so shot? I know in which direction I would have pointed the rifle.

... or they just held on until a lineside fire needed extinguishing.

Fingers? Really? What a genteel set of prefects you must have been.

Yes, Gosforth was a decent club back in simpler times, supplying a few players to the England team. I had a quick chat with Roger Uttley on Carlisle station not that long ago. Because of today's circumstances the team is very much a young team under development. Last Sunday was both figuratively and literally men against boys. Some of the young players show great promise and I just hope that we can hang on to them as they develop. In the meantime it is all pretty painful.

Disappointing result (for me), relatively disappointing performance, we usually manage to hang out for a bit longer than that, but your boys were good. Boys? Dan Cole? Still, it was a great away day out at Welford Road. Home fans were very welcoming.

That's another £10 I've just won. 😉

If you are convinced it is the traction tyres then spares are available from eg, Peter’s Spares and others. Even if it is not them at fault it might not do any harm to replace traction tyres of that age. A quick google of ‘R305 traction tyres’ reveals the part number you need.

I did have a little bet with myself that somebody would. I've just won a tenner off myself... so, thank you.

I have just tried to log onto the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers website and ….

“Come on in, we’ve got plenty of room”. Thought I’d save time and just jump straight to the punchline.

Managed to get out of estate. Now on coach - let somebody else worry about driving. No point in waving at @Barry O really thick fog. Not even patchy.

Me too - but I’m fretting a little at the moment. A good 2 or 3 inches of snow overnight and it’s still belting it down. It has fallen upon the stuff that froze yesterday evening. Hopefully I will get beyond the front street and out of the estate.