mike morley

I have! A few years ago in the Isle of Man I was walking at the head of the Laxey valley, where beyond the remains of the Great Snaefell Mine is a poor-quality path that zig-zags up a steep stream that flows down from near the Les Graham Memorial on the Mountain Road. It's not marked on the map and at first I thought it was a sheep path. As I climbed higher it got worse and I was starting to think I had entered mountain goat territory when I encountered a sheep that I suspect had got a fair bit of Rottweiler in its DNA. I wanted to go up, it wanted to go down and it took a matter of seconds for it to establish which of us was going to give way! Staying in the Isle of Man but getting back on topic, the Manx Loughtan sheep are probably the most primitive in Europe and they are not significantly smaller than a typical modern sheep.

There still isn't a "groan" button?

If its me they're looking at, probably

Don't think much of yours . . . .

I have to say that I'm far from convinced by the suitability of most of these women. They might be appropriate for the era, but I'm far from convinced they'd be right for the area. The lady from the Plas, yes, and the doctor's wife and the wives of one or two of the more successful local merchants, perhaps - but the rest? Hmm . . . Rather too many uptown girls for somewhere like Traeth Mawr, to my way of thinking. Where is the late 19th Century version of Mrs Trellis?

Probably MRD

Glad it's not just me who struggles!

Chris Approach the works of Jim Russell with a degree of caution and always seek alternative confirmation of anything he claims. With things he didn't know or wasn't sure about he had a habit of guessing rather than finding out. He was particularly bad at that when it came to absorbed stock but I'm assured he wasn't much better with the GWR's own stuff.

Another day off that coincided with nice weather so I took a ride along Cycle Route 51 towards Winslow to see how much progress had been made since the Great Vegetation Clearance session of four months ago (posting #122) In a word - nothing! The view toward Bletchley from Salden Woods bridge. The view towards Bletchley from Swanbourne bridge. At this rate it won't be too long before nature reclaims the trackbed again and they'll be back to square one.

And just to prove that I don't only take long-distance pictures of steam in Wales . . . One of the Manx Electric's Winter Saloons and trailer cars southbound near Dreemskerry. Edited to add that from a modelling point of view I like the difference in the shades of green between the field beyond the line being grazed by sheep and the fields in front of the line lying fallow.

Found another one! Corris Number 3 on a Tywyn-bound train approaches Rhyd-y-ronen on an evening in late-August 2010.

A Black 5 as it coasted through Morfa Mawddach and half a mile further on. Both pictures taken from Barmouth's fabulous Panorama Walk.

K1 near Snowdon Ranger

Did The Icon offer any explanation as to why donkey carts were only found around the coast? As my layout is set in the uplands and the only road-going transport featured is donkey-powered this could be significant.

A bit of Googling suggests it is no longer available, but at one time the records from the village school at Cwm Belan (immediately south of Llanidloes) were available on line and a regular complaint was the way a high percentage of the pupils did not attend school during harvest time. The records covered several decades and several headmasters and the latters attitude varied from resignation to annoyance. Edit Found it! http://history.powys.org.uk/history/llani/belan1.html I'm a bit of a dunce with links, so if it doesn't work, Google "cwmbelan school". The mistake I was making was turning Cwmbelan into two words. The records cover the period 1872 to 1945.

I did that on a 7mm narrow gauge layout I built a few years ago and it was very useful. The only possible problem in Chris's case is that the need for it to be set into the baseboard really means it needs to be designed-in, and Traeth Mawr has already passed that stage. A possible alternative could be to have the cassettes surface mounted with an approach slope. The problem there might be whether there is enough room for both a sufficiently gentle gradient on the slope and a cassette long enough to make the undertaking worthwhile.

One of my former boss's variation on this theme was "The customer is always right - but remember, they are usually idiots"

Ooo! Greenscene and Jarvis are the two brands I avoid like the plague because of their improbably vivid, cartoonish colours. Noch is good (but at their prices, so it damned well ought to be!) while Woodland Scenics isn't bad and more readily available. Everyone who has used it states emphatically that Polak grass is the best you can get, but it's very difficult to source and I as I haven't yet done that all I can do is pass on the comments of others.

Thought; Are there any in the museum at Oswestry?

As it happens, I asked the gradient post question a few months ago. The nearest I got to a positive ID was two pictures on page 18 of Mike Lloyd/Wild Swan book about the Tanat Valley. The only question mark is that they are post-Grouping pictures, but, judging by the clothes being worn in one of the pictures, it's not long after the Grouping and I think it reasonable to assume that Swindon would not have got around to replacing trackside furniture that soon after the takeover. . . . And yes I have trawled all the books!

The only picture I know of is on page 101 of Rex Christiansen's book (the one with the Nasmyth Wilson 0-4-4T) and as the caption doesn't say where the picture was taken there's no way of being sure it is actually a Cambrian stop block. If it is, the Lanarkshire one will need a few modifications to make it accurate.

The upper edge of Abergynolwyn.

Are you absolutely certain the chassis would not be suitable for EM? I model in EM and every chassis I've ever built has used the P4 frame spacers plus varying quantities of axle washers as well. It might be an idea to try and build one in EM to make sure.

Surprised this one hasn't featured before. On the WLLR, a couple of hundred yards outside Llanfair Caereinion station