2E Sub Shed

And as a matter of routine, at Waterloo on an Exeter bound service, the on train staff well before departure, helpfully remind passengers, that they are as likely to see a catering trolley on the  service, as a live Dodo, and advise making a return visit to the station concourse vendors.  

Mention of "Whirlpool" white goods, reminds me of a photo in one of the books in my  collection of Ferry Wagons in Northampton Castle Station Goods shed in the 1960's captioned as containing washing machines from Italy. Philips had a large warehouse outside Northampton at the time.  

30 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Once listed items are sent to an off site warehouse for packaging so item specific questions cannot be answered.

 

That's a new one.

And six of these "pre-packed" items can be combined into a single P&P charge, one assumes into a single package. 

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

No. 78 is actually a very small house, and horribly claustrophobia-inducing due to the OTT decor, so they have knocked it together with no. 80, which is bigger, and are now adding an extra bit to that as well.

 

In 1926 B-L moved to a new build home in Northampton,  "New Ways"  the first "modernist" house in the UK,  where the main room was specified to the architect to be "large enough for dancing".

Never bought the magazines as I was a (very) armchair modeler for a number of years awaiting retirement and the great layout in the loft / spare room / shed, and was not aware of them.

It was buying a copy (and then several more), of the booklets that has brought me back into active modelling. Chris's coverage of small layouts showed me that I could actually complete something and get it working and not spend all my income, rather than build a large single interest layout that i might never finish. They & Chris's enthusiasm  are partly to blame inspired me to add North American HO and German HO to my range of interests.

Also now fortunate to have possession of one of the micro layouts featured in a MTI.

4 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Question - why would someone bid on items they are already leading with the exact same bid as two days ago?

 

Two different items, repeat bids two days apart?

eBay automatic bidding software ?

3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Ebay madness of my own making - I put 22 items up for sale last weekend - 13 have sold with 8 hours left and now I need to start wrapping them all in readiness.

 

I reckon I need at least 2 hours and the post office are gonna love me tomorrow when I rock up with a box full of packages.

My best eBay week so far resulted in 18 packages and a queue of 10 behind me at the Post Office.  Have to go into town with that many as I would overwhelm village post office's holding facility (sack). 

Been caught out with pre-wrapping before auction ends, when a bidder wins multiple items, not really fair to take two lots of P&P. 

If there is no transformer in the controller, then it will most likely be a 16 Volt AC input, possibly 12 volt DC.

DO NOT connect 240 V to the unit.  

9 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I would say the boxes are worth keeping as they are for the most part well designed for protecting the stock and they seem to make a difference to the value in the event of resale.  Resale eventually is likely for most of our rolling stock, whether that is bevause of a change  such as moving house or a decision to change scale, or of course by our executors after our death, since in most cases the relatives will have no interest in the models.  So it makes sense to keep the boxes, even if all we do is shove them in the loft.

As someone confronted by well over 2,000 items (so far) that require re-boxing, you may need to do a little more than shove them in the loft . Sorting this situation out for a family member who has no knowledge and has  a considerable amount of rolling stock to dispose of. Fortunately between Hattons web site and eBay have been able to match rolling stock to boxes. 

I seem to recall that the BBC 1 drama series (late 60'S) "First Lady"  with Thora Hird, had an episode where the "Beef" in a Indian restaurant was Cat.

1 hour ago, john new said:

We do at York (Scouts).

I have helped at a large, i.e. several thousand attendance, (non model railway or railway)  event where a youth organisation assisted with the Car Parking. Due to the aggressive behaviour of some of those being directed to parking by a young person, they withdrew from supporting the event.

A sad reflection on society.

14 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

And of course travel for airmen from one posting to another or on leave etc was also by rail using travel warrants (except when they could bum a lift on something that was flying direct)

 

Such was the use of railways to move airmen in the early post WW2 RAF mindset, that there is a story relating to a transfer of airmen from RAF Compton Bassett (or RAF Yatesbury which was next door)   to RAF Lyneham which was undertaken by  transfer to Calne Railway Station by lorry, train travel to Wootton Bassett Railway Station and onward transfer by another lorry to RAF Lyneham.

A look at a map of the area would show a more elegant solution.

 Bus companies used a range of ex-military vehicles as towing vehicles and other Engineering uses, some lasting in use into the 1970's .

Some Matadors became un-recognisable  having bus type coachwork bodies built on them. Although one company used a Gun Tractor.

See "National Bus Company Service Vehicles 1972-1986" by Michael Hitchen.

Re Cockley Brake Junction - Have located a photo on the web.  An original photo of the point work has been photo-shopped onto a 2018 view of the site.

Link to photo of Junction Pointwork

 A Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway Blog reports issues with the use of an alternative "Black stuff" to fuel locos on Saturday    GWSR C&W Blog 12th March

7 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I am sure there is a market for adult sized ones for model makers. All those little bits that the carpet monster eats could be saved as the descend into the unknown. 

 

Did not one of the guest workers on an episode of the Repair Shop TV programme have a special apron to catch the gold scraps from filing and cutting gold as he worked  ?

In the early 1990's there was a Reliant Van belonging to a local tyre company in Newbury that on the rear had a sticker stating it to be a "3 X 3" 

2 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

 

In my life time the energy industry has moved on from coin operated meters to meters that send data every 15 mins to the company. 

An the next step will be that the electricity distributor will be able to remotely cut your supply off when there is excess demand on a per household basis, so we will all end up drinking tea in the streets registered "at risk" person's house who still has a supply. 

Cockley Brake Junction -  Junction of the Northampton & Banbury  Railway and the LNWR Buckinghamshire Branch after 1872. 

The two single  lines converged via a scissors crossing to form a short double track section before becoming a single line to Banbury.

On 30/05/2021 at 10:48, KeithMacdonald said:

But something seems strange to me. It looks like any train arriving from Faringdon would sit straddling the points for the run-around loop. Or perhaps it would pull forward and then reverse into the loop?

 

 

In Adrian Vaughan's "The Faringdon Branch & Uffington Station", it includes a drawing of the station layout, in which the right hand point of the run round loop is shown further to right (i.e. towards London), than the OS map extract included.

There is also a description (on page 85) of the signalman's actions when a locomotive was running round a train (shown in one pictures as a 2-coach train), which does not mention the action of pulling forward or reversing the train.  However the description of the operation identifies that it required 21 lever movements to achieve this.

 Best use two servos and separate control boards as you can adjust them individually for travel, i.e the throw of the point.

If the control boards work by applying a ground to switch direction, i.e. move the servos, then a couple of diodes will combine this to a single switching point, e.g. Single Pole switch, however the servo travel of direction needs to be in sync, so they will each need to be mounted "the right way round" to operate together to switch the crossover.

Assume if you are using CBUS, you can get over the both moving the same way by using logic in CBUS.

Suggest you ask the question on the MERG Forum as suggested above.

I had some luck in finding a back issue of MTI from the Rother Valley Railway - Link to Back Issues Page .

Also there is the Vintage Carriage Trust who also sell back issues VCT Magazine Sales

On 01/03/2022 at 19:32, ianmacc said:

Does that leave you out of pocket for the postage though? 

Hi 

You d have the option of cancelling a postage label, which I did, just do not see the refund for a month while Royal Mail waits to see if you try to use it.

Had a buyer who within 5 mins of paying tried to cancel, however I did not see the message, and had already printed a postage label. 

eBay considered I had dispatched the item by buying postage, no way to reverse, so only way was to not send the item and then have the "buyer" request a refund as "item not delivered" after a few days. 

I did consider the reason I had been given for buyer wanting to cancel was false, as he quoted a word featured in both the title and the descriptive text and also visible on the photo as the reason, and in fact I think it was buyers remorse as he had paid 25% more then the new price for the item, but I did not want the hassle of dealing with it.

No idea what it did to my  seller reputation.

 Athearn also used sintered iron wheels on these Blue Box range loco's. 

A web search will find a number of "remedies" to improve them.