lapford34102

That Sir required far too much thinking about for Boxing Day.........................! Stu

Still large numbers of lorries up at Manston and on A299 and it must have been a grim night with temps down to 1C. Does sound to be better organised now with more of everything including more testing. Reading the BBC report this small fact stuck out. Southeastern Railway and Network Rail arranged for food to be delivered to lorry drivers stuck in Operation Stack on the M20. Seven trains carrying crates of food for the hauliers have left London in the past 48 hours, with the Salvation Army distributing the items. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-55445809 Hopefully most will make it back for New Year but the forecast for Sat night is bleak and Manston is very exposed plus if it gets bad the ferries will have to stop. Anyhow Merry Christmas everyone :-) Stu

Absolutely, being stuck out in the wilds on the M20 must be awful. Sadly some in their frustration are making a bad situation worse. We've got them effectively blocking roads round Manston including the main artery in and out and Dover looks to be at a total standstill. It's going to take some sorting out and I doubt many will make it home for Christmas.

DCC Supplies do Dapol spares and I've had a pack of valances from them in past Worth checking their website Stu

Fair enough but with regard to the above comment the only explanation I've heard that might make sense in that it was awaiting a clear topcoat. The Type 1 appears to be on accommodation bogies and It looks quite matt compared to the Type 3. Stu

I've been searching for a photo taken the EE factory showing 3 new loco's, a D2000/class 20 in green, an AL6 in Rail Blue and a production ED in Rail Blue. It was probably this photo that led to the myth that the early production ED's were painted electric blue. They weren't, it's that simple. I saw enough of them next to Cromptons, REP's etc to know that. In the photo the ED and AL are the same colour. True the finishes could look varied depending on all sorts of factors. The Eastleigh finished Cromptons were brush painted and a tad glossy compared to the ED's but they were the same shade. HTH Stu

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/news/national/tier-4-restrictions-may-be-necessary-for-couple-of-months-hancock-19595/ Looks like we're going to be in Tier 4 till we get the jab. Time to reach for the magic plastic and go on an on-line spree? Stay safe. Stu

Well that was a fun few pages to wade through! The Lancet article was unremittingly pessimistic and it did occur to me that Arthur C Clarke's well know saying might be appropriate here. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Stu

That was admitted to by one of those doing the modelling in a BBC documentary not that long ago. As a retired teacher with contacts in a couple of local secondary schools I've had two points made to me. One was that prior to half term they were doing OK all things considered but after the pupils returned the situation started deteriorating amongst both pupils and staff. Also mentioned was school transport, particularly where multiple schools used the same service. A pupil using a bus in school A and testing positive also impacted pupils across year groups and also pupils from school B. Stu

There does appear to be an increasing interest in Pre-grouping and it's probably the last free fire zone where as a manufacturer you're less likely to end up head to head with another. Plus if you pick a longish lived prototype you could likely wring a range of liveries out of it. Hattons must think so to invest in their coaches and maybe they've got wind of something we haven't. Just my idle musing. Stu

Hi, Thank you for the replies and thumbs-ups. One thing about Drewry is that it is easy to change vehicles and people to move the times not that it's obvious in these shots. (Note to Santa - new camera... !) It would be nice if someone like Monty's Figures did some in "British Rail" uniform from the late 60's. There used to be someone, think they were called Phoenix who did some really good ones but believe they were taken on by another outfit and now seemed to have vanished. Cheers Stu

Hi, It started life as this, https://peco-uk.com/collections/4mm-oo/products/goods-shed a Wills Craftsman kit. I'd built a stone one on a previous layout and was going to use that and it appears in the pics on page one. However for reasons now long forgotten I got a brick built one and modified the plans to get something along the same lines but bit smaller. So sort-of scratch in a way. If you've never built one you get enough bits to play around and do your own thing. Cheers Stu

With the damage to fencing etc repaired and the buildings given a bit of attention it's now all gone back together plus there's been some tweaking of the groundwork so now it's looking reasonably respectable. I've been trying for a couple of days to get some half decent photo's but with limited success. Not exactly the most well lit room either natural or artificial and my phone camera and ancient digital one don't make the job any easier but so far...... A couple of Parkside Palvans await moving. Pannier does the honours Small Prairie shunting Bachmann Ivatt 2MT, this is one of two of the early split chassis version I have. Runs quite well considering it's age but the pick-ups on the front pony help. Had a few tweaks such as the AWS battery box and a rather unconvincing injector to fill the space under the cab and bunker. Most obvious change is the replacement the original moulded and rather unconvincing chimney with a stovepipe, the second having a BR style. Cheers Stu

A new full fat 14XX to fill the now obvious gap, new autocoach to go with it, maybe. Orca class 0-2-0 then :-) Stu

Hi, Pics mentioned above both early BR. Lamps on b'beam LH and centre from front. Did though find a pic of a 28XX with 30+ on being banked up Bincombe, lamps LH and top centre. Vans a right mix though not easy to identify, BR style (irrelevant for you) GW vent and fruit, SR style from roof shape, LNER fruit. Did notice there seemed to be a lot of LMS style sliding door with roof vents. The caveat is this is BR days. There's one shot in Gerry Beale's book on the Tramway showing a 43XX on a C class, lamps LH and top centre, hauling a Jersey Potatoes out of Weymouth in '35 with what looks to be a fully fitted with 4 tarp'ed opens in the line up. The vans look a pretty mongrel bunch but then I'm no expert. The above may be of some use. Stu

I'll have a look a bit later when Strictly's on and I can escape! Stu

The GWR and WR ran Perpot's, short for Perishable and Potatoes, trains. Out of Weymouth they were for the Channel Islands traffic, these were fully fitted van trains and length depended on the loco. From checking a couple of handy pics a Grange 25+Brake, 43XX 18+Brake. HTH Stu

Probably depends on who you think has got your back in all this. My deeply cynical brain cell wonders if the Christmas arrangements are more a nod to Mamon rather than any other notable diety. In other news a lovely day compared to the last few. Prom and beaches very busy with people enjoying the weather. High St pretty quiet with everyone seemingly keeping to the rules when we did our quick shop though one local "non essential" emporium seemed to have a interesting take on Click-and-Collect, more like Point through the Window and Collect. Stu

Well we're in the far-SE and now have second highest infection rate in the country with No1 just up the road. The numbers seem pretty evenly spread across the area with no obvious hotspots but places like the local, quite small, shopping mall were manic in the few days before this lockdown with traffic jams and the like. Whether there was a "leak" before time about this lockdown I don't know but if there was the fallout is feeding through. Head down and intend to keep it that way for a while. Christmas - Baa humbug! :-):-) Stu

Anyone noticed any panic buying of tinfoil ? Stu

This made me smile this morning https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55056570 I loved the line "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said." Stu

Thanks James and to those who have taken time to click something. A 7mm one would be worth the effort and I'd like to see one. Plenty of suitable stock around now. Have a go James, there's nothing exceptional about what I've done, just a collection of ideas shamelessly borrowed from others. More in the form of banter from an ad-hoc committee of three friends (I hope!), two of whom have clicked the like button for this. I took it more of a challenge than anything else, hence Sheepcroft. Like some I seem to suffer from serial layout builder syndrome but I found I wanted to hang to Drewry, I was out and about with it for 8 years at shows big and small so has some significance for me. Shelfe Street has now been moved on. It was done in a bit of a hurry and could have done with being a bit wider and a deal longer but the trackplan had a lot to commend it. The pics were in this thread but like a number from earlier on got Photobucket'ed. If pics would be any use let me know and I'll send some. This sort of stunt invariably causes some damage so that needs to be sorted plus I need to blend the track weathering in with what was already there. That'll take a bit of creativity and artistic flair so if you know anyone with those skills you'd better let me know ;-) Cheers Stu

Hi, Steve, the points are copperclad built the same way I did the Sheepcroft ones. Took the Templot Peco short rad template and played around with the sleeper spacing on the template, something I have managed to master. When I printed off the templates realised I could have done better so taped a bit of bullhead alongside to help with the sleeper spacing. There some obvious compromises if you look but ballasting up does help. The previous pics were from about 10 days ago so here's some recent ones. With less than 2 metres of plain track to lay that didn't tale too long. I used the original wiring and switches. No problem on 4 points, straight swop but one was about 5mm different in tiebar placing so a bit of work there. Then a lot of testing which can best be described as educational. Points are built to OO-SF. If doing this again I'd find some standard with looser tolerances as some stuff do not like it so there'll be some limits on what runs but that won't be a problem. Some stock will also need the back-to-backs adjusting. A few pics showing the laid track - must have had the shakes! - and then with ballasting. Stu

I'll take the 70% chance of it working against the unknown odds unvaccinated any day of the week and if they can tweak it so much the better. It also looks to be the only vaccine so far that would be practical in many "3rd world" countries. Stu

Hi, It was about two years ago Drewry was put out to grass though it feels a deal longer. Paul Wade generously stored it for me while I mulled over its future so I hmmm’d and haaa’d over what to do and did precisely nothing. In the meantime other projects took over and that was when I found I quite liked building track. I would class myself as amateur in this department as there are those far more proficient. But I did enjoy it and managed to even complete a single slip just to see if I could. I used Templot which is a powerful tool though I struggle to get my head round much more than creating a simple template but that’s me and certainly not Templot’s problem. Stumbling my way through various bits found that there were templates for Peco points on there and a somewhat crazy idea occurred to me. One comment Drewry got was “nice layout, shame about the track” and that eventually led to Sheepcroft but it stuck. Now you’re probably way in front on me now but the idea of replacing the Code 100 streamline with Code 75 bullhead using handbuilt points appealed as a project. It might be seen as a pointless (!) exercise but I was curious to see if I could pull it off. So here’s a couple of pics from the early stages showing the track removed and the points in their spaces. The grey bases are thin card to the rail heights to match the Peco bullhead which is to be used for the plain track. Cheers Stu