plarailfan

Yes, the white stripe indicated they were intended for the Manchester to Blackpool route, although this one strayed off its diagram and went to Clayton West,https://www.flickr.com/photos/41294071@N02/3869678327/in/photolist-6Pb63U-RBTbCa-9isvXN-9gRn8c-6TX7xR-6Nq4bX-6NqC8D-7BNVa6-7BNVsn-6U2W8G-6U32ab which subsequently closed and is now the Kirkleees light railway.

A few years ago, I was made redundant and while looking for work, I had a secondhand stall at Huddersfield market (Tuesdays & Saturdays) I soon found the hardest books to sell, were the "Railway world" annuals and such like, which have a mixture of UK steam & Diesel and continental / US articles. I did have some Eric Treacy books and even those took many weeks to clear, which was disappointing as they were extremely popular when first published. There is a somewhat cheerful side to all this, in that I have accumulated a nice collection of "Somerset & Dorset" railway books (Ivo Peters, etc) and the whole lot only ended up costing me about £10

Last time I went to the car boot sale at Otley cattle market, people could go in, at the 10am start, for a fiver, but go in at 12.00 and the entry fee was just £1 It happened to be a glorious summer day and needless to say, most people were prepared to wait until 12.00 by which time a lengthy queue had built up, which took around an hour to clear.

Looks as though there's every chance that before long, the market will be saturated with these reproduction models, which is pointless, as with many of the, Lledo and Matchbox "yesteryear" models, that end up struggling to sell, for £1 each !

DMU centre cars sometimes turn up on ebay mixed in a job lot of Tri-ang carriages and Hornby Pullman cars. Some sellers mix up a variety of carriages and wagons and so, if you have time to trawl through the listings, you might find the models you require, but then, you might be faced with having to buy items you don't need and then re-selling them at a later time. Try a search for "Hornby Dublo wagons" as, some sellers appear to think they are selling Dublo, rather than OO models and as a result, all sorts of unexpected items can turn up !

You can buy the kids / grandkids, etc, an under £20 "Flying Scotsman" for Christmas http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/77750-flying-scotsman-the-fisher-price-trackmaster-model-produced-in-2016/ to get them going with, a hobby that will, hopefully, last them, for many happy decades to come.

Ah well ! thankfully, the guy has been caught. He may or may not have learned a lesson from this experience, but will be processed through the justice system. A while ago, there was a layabout living in the house across the street from myself. He used to have his front door open while he stood to smoke weed. One Saturday morning I started to load a few, unboxed locomotives into my car to run on the exhibition layout at a local show. The layabout spotted a loco and said "I used to go spotting when I was a kid, is that a class 31" My heart sank, but I said (truthfully) oh it's just, an old Hornby class 47, which I re-painted, as it was a scruffy, secondhand purchase. Funny enough he vanished from the scene and then, a report in the local paper stated he had been locked up for a spate of local crimes, including burglaries involving lots of expensive damage to premises, just to end up with a few £ from some vending machines ! God knows where he is now, but the newspaper report, stated he would not be allowed to come back to the area !

The "Armstrong powerhouse" train simulator locomotive sounds, are one good example of excellence, but the DCC chip and speaker in the models, is often, just a tiny piece if kit compared to the electronics inside a computer and I guess there would probably be some issues with the DCC technology at the present time, but no doubt, in, say, ten or so years things will have improved. I love hearing the "windcutter" 16 tonners on the track joints at the Great Central and if DCC could replicate the sound of those, I would be absolutely delighted. (there's a few videos of the preserved, 16 tonners, on youtube for anyone not old enough to remember them in BR days)

I would say that modelling in the mid 1970's, was something of a toil of a pleasure ! My brand new, Farish N gauge Pannier tank, struggled to propel itself around the layout, all the while sparking like a firework. The Lima 0-4-0 Diesel shunter did run fairly well, but it produced a strange pong and when I picked it up to investigate, the plastic body warped, while at the same time, my thumb aquired a minor burn from the rather hot product..... One of the guys down the club turned up with a brand new Lima, N gauge Deltic and sent it hurtling along the layout, where it well and truly jammed itself under a bridge ! Fed up with N scale, I went back to OO gauge soon after the Hornby class 25 and Mainline Peak went on sale - the quality of these brought on a new era for modelling standards. I do think that the hobby itself has changed, as some modellers do have, the financial resources available to build exceptional layouts and also, pay for extra help with wiring, scenery or kitbuilding, etc, while other modellers simply struggle, to afford a home large enough for even a compact layout and so the high quality of some of the, recently built layouts, has surpassed anything produced in the past. In the old days, everyone just used to pool their skills at the club, but these days there can be a journey of over twenty miles in each direction to the "local" clubrooms and an expensive membership fee to boot !

I remember reading articles in a modelling magazine(s) years ago, written by "Trinity Hall" and so this issue is not really a new one. I chose the name "Plarailfan" because despite being an enthusiastic, but rather ham fisted modeller, everyone can glance at my avatar and instantly see what my hobby is about. If I was modelling Chad valley O gauge, for example, I would probably combine it and be known as Chav-O or similar ! I could imagine a politician or industry tycoon using their real name on here, might soon find themselves inundated with begging letters or hate mail and so, in many ways, I do think there is a place for user names, so we can share our interest and enthusiasm to mutually improve the hobby as a whole.

Historically, other than "bauxite" and grey wagons, liveries have changed fairly regularly on UK locomotives and stock (even the mainstream blue / grey era only lasted about 14 years - 1967 to 1981) Now, with open access and privatisation, many liveries have had very short lives indeed - thinking of National Power 59's and Jarvis 56's, Waterman Railways, Fragonset, etc. I expect in a few years, Drax will decide they need a fresh new livery on their biomass wagons, hopefully leading to a re-run of the Hornby models at a more realistic price....

Although these two didn't run on conventional track, they are quite fascinating as a "what might have been" The Chevilly track in France, was intended to be connected into the Paris to Orleans Aerotrain route. In the event, the French govt opted to progress the TGV concept and Aerotrain fell by the wayside as research moved onto the MAGLEV principle. This clip shows one of the aerotrains in action, along with pics of it, after it was destroyed in a fire some years after the idea was abandoned There was a similar idea near Cambridge, with the electric powered, RTV 31

I was made redundant some years ago and I soon discovered the jobseekers agreement, whereby the claimant has to look for work with a duration, of up to one hours travelling time to and from home. It's beyond me how the system expects people to find the money up front and for those on variable hours, it's quite possible to end up, sometimes spending an entire days wage on the travel costs. It made me very concerned that I might not be able to properly keep to the agreement I had signed, but thankfully, in the end, I did manage to find employment quite close to my home. The housing and council tax benefit people don't care if you spend £0 or £200 a week on travel costs, all they look at is your pay slip and work out your benefits from those figures and if you end up having to commute quite a distance to work, you can be left at serious risk, of being abandoned in financial chaos, so, I would like to see something along the lines of the "peoples republic of South Yorkshire" rolled out on a national scale, whereby you can go miles on public transport for hardly any £ Those (1970's) days were great in that respect !

This is a beautiful model. Is the layout in a permanent home, a bit like Pendon, so that it will be available for future generations of modellers to enjoy ? All the youtube videos seem to be the work of Dave Cooper. Is Dave the official photographer for the project ?

The story about a lady who bought food at McDonalds made me chuckle http://www.katebelgrave.com/2016/10/youre-on-benefits-how-dare-you-enjoy-a-hamburger-a-cigarette-a-drink-or-a-life/ but then, I realised that if some-one has a heart problem / stroke, etc, then hospital workers might interrogate the chip and conclude the health problem is self inflicted, caused by drinking / smoking / poor diet and they might want to charge for the treatment, provide a limited amount of treatment, or even, not treat the patient, at all ? I do have some concerns that technology is starting to go too far in some aspects.

This may well change the entire system that we are currently familiar with http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/uk-firms-should-follow-americas-lead-and-offer-staff-microchips-leading-scientist-kevin-warwick-a3595711.html Hop on a bus, jump on a plane, buy food in a supermarket all done by merely scanning your hand / head (wherever the chip is located) The "money" will be collected from your bank account without need for cash or cards. Taken to an extreme scenario, anyone who does not want a microchip, might not be able to buy food, shelter (housing) or find employment. Criminals might not need to go to jail - the chip could be invalidated, thus denying them a 'normal' life for a while ? Interesting times !! or not.....

Crikey, imagine if, in say thirty years from now (2047) enthusiasm for railway heritage and history has declined to the same extent in the UK ! The NRM in York and Shildon **might** hypothetically speaking, find they need the space to house such things as, HS2 items and equipment, a class 59/66, a 68 and an 88. There may potentially, not be quite as many heritage railways, as there are today, that are able to accept items deemed to be surplus from the National collection. I do feel very concerned. Our generation is currently looking after all sorts of interesting items and it is to be hoped that enthusiasm, time and money can be found for all these in the long term future. I do think it could be a big problem one day, eventually, maybe a site along the lines of the air museum at Duxford, might be deemed sufficient for a heritage site. The modern stuff that we are familiar with on the mainline, is ok, but the glory days probably ended around 2002, when the Virgin cross country services went over to voyagers and classic traction finally vanished from many parts of the UK overnight, so, I'm sorry, but I suspect, the clock is already ticking ! You only have to look at all the rusting relics scattered around heritage railways - no time, no money and no enthusiasm to get around to it !

Lost railways West Yorkshire has some fascinating photo's and there's this on flickr, showing the trackbed leading down into the short tunnel to Crossley's https://www.flickr.com/photos/49903268@N02/4581650841/in/pool-leedsrailways/

I almost forgot to add this gem ! On 19th July 1985, 45 148 expired while at Huddersfield, platform 1, waiting for the 'right away' on the 1248 to Holyhead, 56 084 was following on a tank train on the up main, this was quickly detached from the wagons, and put on the front of the express with only a short delay incurred.

The NHS already has enough problems without this further setback. I just hope that patients suffering from dementia, etc, will have enough medication to keep them going until the situation is finally resolved and the information stored on computers, is restored to the doctors and others, who need to access those records.

In one of the Railway Modeller magazines back in 1977, the was a large exhibition layout, called "Long Suffren" and they had an unpowered slip coach, with the uncoupling, being activated by a beam of light ! The article does say it was a test of the layout operators skill, getting it to stop in the correct position. Being a mere youth at that time, this slip coach concept was totally new to me and I still have the magazine somewhere today.

I was just, idly wondering, which type is generally considered to have better fuel consumption - a 66 or a 70 ?

Yes, I think if I was building this layout, I probably wouldn't bother with the canal scene. The layout appears to be built on a flat baseboard, with the railway track bed, seemingly at the same height as the canal, which disappears off out of sight, into the two, canal tunnels. It's not a perfect arrangement, but I suppose they don't want to risk, over facing people, with construction skills they may or may not have. I really like the track plan, as it is simple, yet entertaining and the layout looks do-able, particularly for people who want to get back into the hobby after a long break. The station looks to have a bay platform, which would allow the freight to pass by on the adjacent track. All in all, not perfect, but a good effort and an inspiration for those doing N gauge, as something similar to this, could be built using the Metcalfe models, card kits.

Are any of the Cuban class 47's still around, or have they all been scrapped years / decades ago ? Are there any interesting photo's and info on 'tinternet about them in service and after withdrawal ? Just curious to know what became of them, cheers