lapford34102

In case anyone is that interested in the virus vs virus idea here's a link to a page of results based on a pretty vague search. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=viruses+interfering+other+virus Stu

You're now making me feel homesick... :-) Stu

The Aussie's reported their winter flu season failed to really materialise, not surprising we're seeing little though with all the precautions. Flu jabs do see very variable depending on where you are. We had ours late Sept on a Sat when the the surgery had a walk-in -have-your-jab weekend in the car park under gazebo's.. I'm assuming flu vaccine was being made before they went over to Covid vaccine production. Imagine there's only a finite production capacity around the globe. As an aside there was some published resesarch on how having flu around and people catching it might reduce the chances of same people getting covid based on some biological "clear off, this immune system's full up" principle. Stu

Thanks for the comments Steve, I'll what I can do as I have all the original shots though doubt I can remember what goes exactly where though as we can now upload directly "should" be easier. Layout is sitting in study and have to put it up sometime as I'd like to check what does and doesn't run. Been giving a few bits of unused stock a makeover specifically using Drewry as an excuse so perhaps a few new shots. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/161062-lapford34102s-workbench-new-underframes-for-old/ Cheers Stu

Not a book I have - wonder if copies around - so thanks for that Brian. Have a soft spot for GW fruit as saw enough of them. On Adam EM's thread he mentions some Weymouth ones had footboards like the fruit D, never seen a pic though Cheers Stu

Since March when the mood has teken me I've been going through the stock boxes and seeing what needed repairing, improving or simply binning. Found and ordered Parkside chassis's for 4 old Mainline/early Bachmann wagons. A couple of 123/1 GW style Fruit vans though one's technically a Y8 as it has a "W" prefix, a Diag 1/040 Shoc Hybar and a GW plank bodied shocvan though I can't seem to find any reference to this so it may be ficticious, perhaps someone can enlighten me. Sp original chassis in the bin and made up the new ones. A certain amount of mucking around required to get bodies/chassis mated together but nothing I think would even bother even a beginner. The vans kept their original floors with the screw fixing locations removed to get them flat, the open simply needed the moulded on plastic screw mounts carved off the bottom. As the decoration was fine I kept that though one roof was repainted. Buffers on the shoc's from Lanarkshire Models Supplies and very helpful talking to the gent sourcing the right ones. Also dug out and hopefully next up a quartet of embarrasingly badly weathered Chivers PW wagons that must be somewhat old. Thanks for looking, Stu

In case it's of use to anyone The Hobby Shop, Faversham is now listing GNR, LNER and BR coaches https://hobb-e-mail.com/jan213-1235-c.asp Stu

Try http://www.precisionlabels.com/ Stu

I'll try that angle on SWMBO in the morning and see where it gets me :-) Stu

!!!!!!!!! Stu

Because the most likely origin was in the Swale district, probably on Sheppey and as there are 3 prisons on the island it is possible that's where the new variant started but investigations are ongoing. Equally Sheerness is a Ro-Ro port and it might have come in there if it's not home grown. Stu

Local nedia reporting R number in Kent now below 1. Even had one source wondering if kent variant "was burning itself out" in some communities. We'll see but hospital/deaths still going up.albeit more slowly. Wonder if anyone looking back on their xmas festivities and thinking OH! Stu

Well it appears it's the "Kent Variant" according to both Sky and BBC, gets poor old Ramsgate off the hook. Our local area, which seems to be some Gov defined space covering bits of Broadstairs and Ramsgate, has had steadily dropping numbers, now below national average. Hospitalisations+fatalities sadly still rising but that's to be expected in the short term. Looking at the graph of the local cases there does appear to have been a post Christmas spike but it was barely a week after the big day so maybe people were being sensible over the holiday. Hopefully we'll keep the downward trend going and the vaccine will reduce the pressure on hospitals. However with new variants appearing plus the news a small amount of re-infection has been identified it seems the landscape is constantly changing. Stu

Definitely, early lockdown work was replacing rtr chassis's with better and/or correct ones. Have yet to try doing an etched one so maybe I'll try one or two. Contrived to get this finished so here's a couple of so-so pics. Was hoping for a new camera from Santa but if hebrought me one it must have gone over the wrong sidegate! Quite happy with the result though none of my pots matched Hornby's version of bauxite so ended up with having to mix something, not perfectbut close. Weathered the body with something I'd never tried before, weathering powders mixed with water and happy with the result. Overall think it'll pass the 3ft test. Thanks for looking. Stu

Though it was about time I actually had a workbench thread rather than scattering things all over the place. So to begin a BR 20t Brakevan. Having found a cheap one in the Hornby factory sale found that I'd managed to end up with one with plated ends rather than planked veranda ends, a nice model but not appropriate for even the early 70's as far as I can ascertain. Moral - check what's actually in the box! Had no real idea of what to do but wading through Adam's amazing wagon thread, see here if you've never looked, https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37002-adams-em-workbench-trout-tickling-a-secr-ballast-hopper/ discovered he'd faced the same problem and then gone on to backdate it to a planked end. I wasn't sure I had the skill to what he had done in cutting hole in the veranda end and planking that so worked through my own solution. The photos are largely self explanatory and while it's hardly precision modelling if it passes the 3ft rule I'll be content. I used pre-scribed plastic sheet for the planking and while not exactly to the side planking spacing is very close but looking through Paul Bartlett's photos did note there seems to be some variation so while I doubt I'll end up with an eact replica it'll hopefully look the part. Cheers, any comments welcome and thanks for looking. Stu

As a retired teacher I generally support keeping education going in schools if possible but I hope someone somewhere is taking the age profile of school staff into consideration. A serving teacher in their 40's died of Covid over Xmas though no idea of the specific circumstances. Stu

No problem Kevin, just thought they'd dug up some info the local media wasn't aware of. Thanet and Medway followed very close behind Swale. Locally the rumour, and I stress rumour, mill quickly pointed to Sheppey's 3 prisons and I'm aware of one covid fatality amongst prison staff who lived in Thanet. Plus there was apparently increased traffic into Sheerness Port in the Xmas/B****t run up. Who knows...? But there does seem to be a clear correlation with spread and transport corridors. Stu

Where did "Ramsgate Strain" pop up from ?? If you look at a heat map showing the current spread it seems to start in Swale and on Sheppey in particular and ripple out from there up the M2/Kent Coast Line to London and over into Essex and now moving through the Home Counties north and West. There seems now also to be hotspots along the main corridors. https://lginform.local.gov.uk/reports/view/lga-research/covid-19-case-tracker Stu

Sun 20th Dec. We have 3 test sites, had one at Manston for some time. the spiking figures during Nov got us another swab test site at Dreamland with drive-in by appointment or walk-in on demand. There is now a lateral test site on Ramsgate Port for any key worker and a selected sample of the population to book a test. Whether it's the high level of testing or something else I don't know. The numbers were rising very sharply a while before the 20th and I think there was a certain amount of community response. Stu

Well I'm glad the Gov took my advice (!!!) and got the imperturbable Prof JVT to go through the changes to vaccine strategy. We've had a few comments on the local facebook group along the lines of 'ere, wots happened to my 2nd dose and was somewhat surprised at the similar comments of one of my neighbours when I had a socially distanced chat to them this morning, I did my best to explain but doubtful it's worked. On the good news Thanet seems to be getting somewhere. We've gone from being in the top 5 in the country for infections rates to being second from bottom in Kent. The rate is still high at nearly 500 per 100k but all the metrics on infections, hospitalisations and fatalities are showing a fall. Ok Christmas and New Year will have to work through but fingers crossed that it might not be as bad as they fear. As regards the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't that interested in either the US or EU. They have an affordable go-anywhere product that may well be in high demand but the priority market is here at the moment. Happy New Year to all Stu

AstraZeneca jab approved however there appears to be a change of delivery strategy with people getting one dose than another at a later date, 12 weeks, rather than the 3 weeks. (BBC News) Having read through the CDC docs on the Pfizer one it's clear from that the 3 weeks gap between doses is a minimum rather than a specific target and the 2nd dose can be longer and guessing Zeneca jab is same. Given the present situation can understand why they would want to get more people protected quickly. BUT I would hope this change is clearly explained by one of scientists, preferably Prof JVT who has done a good job so far, rather than a politician as there's likely an opportunity for the tinfoil hat brigade to have a field day with this and this change will need explaining very clearly. Stu

Absolutely right. No 2 daughter works at Uni that trains nurses, plenty of applicants and numbers applying were up this year but not enough places/funding. It should be one of the questions addressed when we get out of this and the whole training system probably needs a rethink. Also this is the first year they are running the medical school, 100 places, applications north of a 1000. Stu

Same here on the East Kent coast. Sea wall walk and beach very busy from Broadstairs to Ramsgate. |Whilst many were trying do their best social distance wise equally many didn't seem to have a clue plus there were some large groups, 11 in once case, not making it easy for others. Dumb and happy springs to mind but that's not very PC. Manston lorry park cleared before the weather went downhill Saturday night so a tremendous effort but still a backlog on the M20. Stu

Cotton bud and either white spirit or Tamiya acrylic thinners might well remove the weathering. It's worked for me on Bachmann and DJM but never tried on a Heljan. Word of warning though, do not get white spirit on Heljan glazing, it does it no good at all. HTH Stu

Always nice to see a pre-tops mix nicely done. Re the Humbrol weathering washes on the Warship assuming you used enamel based varnish then the enamel based weathering wash affected the varnish. If it was an acrylic varnish be curious to know which one. If you don't mind me commenting on this white spirit does work on some factory printing but if you can get it Tamiya Acrylic thinners will remove factory printing with a cotton bud and a bit of effort. Stu