Black Marlin

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs (and a reminder: today's meeting of the church will be at 10am BST on BBC Radio 5Live) Today's excitement will be a half-hour spent with a work experiencer, who consistently comes into the office better dressed than anyone else in the building. It shall be my task to teach him what a Quality Engineer does. This could be interesting, as I have only the haziest notion myself; I just wanted a catch-all job title to cover me as I bestrode the twin worlds of Quality Control and Quality Assurance like a colossus. After that, I don't know what the day holds. I see the Maybot is off to my native Northern Ireland to explain how the Irish border is going to work, to which my response is "Good luck with that"; in Parliament the Conservatives can't trust their whips, Labour can't trust their leader and the Lib Dems can't trust their MPs to vote at all; and on the other side of the pond the 'Make America Great Again' hats (made in China, and now slightly more expensive due to tariffs) are being supplanted by 'Make America Part Of The Russian Federation For The First Time' ones. Every day feels like it ought to be, and in a kinder universe would be, a duvet day. *Sigh*... Kind regards shuffling embarrassedly up to the afflicted to offer awkward hugs; Tinkety-tonk, etc. Gavin

Sounds like he gave himself a nasty turn.

I'm trying to model the Tees-Tyne Pullman, and it appears to have been notably homogenous in its composition: http://www.semgonline.com/coach/coupe/coupe_se04.pdf As I said, I'm looking for help in matching a colour. I'm not looking for an excuse not to do so. Thanks, Gavin

Is your state one of the ones that disputes Darwin?

There are semaphores at Stonehaven just south of Aberdeen. Are they the last semaphores on the ECML used to control high-speed running?

I think, possibly, that your point - while entirely valid, and especially in the context of a discussion on the variation of shade caused by age, weathering, etc.- somewhat passes by my situation, which is that I have 4 Mk1 coaches whose roofs are very dark grey and one whose roof is white, and which therefore stands out like a very sore thumb... edit: the photos here demonstrate the homogeneity of roofs that I am trying to replicate: http://www.semgonline.com/coach/coupe/coupe_se04.pdf

Reminds me of a joke I came across yesterday, which as a drummer myself I found mightily amusing: How do drummers commit suicide? They throw themselves behind trains...

Greetings all, and blessings be upon all attendees of the church of wittertainment. Tender done and dusted. The usual amendments, though none as radical as those required by the the one I reviewed a few years ago, in which I discovered that the original author had accidentally drafted a service level agreement that would have had us providing support worth tens of thousands of pounds for free... Ribs are beginning to ease. Hurrah! Although this week hasn't exactly flown by on gilded wings, I'm still slightly surprised to find it's Thursday. I join Sandy Denny in wanting to know where the time goes. A B*chmann P*llman arrived for me yesterday. I'm now only one FK away from completing my Tees-T*ne P*llman. (I hope my cunning use of asterisks will protect me from Debs). Kind regards nonchalantly flipped like tiddlywinks towards the appropriate; Tnkety-tonk, etc. Gavin P.S. Hello to...

Very much Plan B! It's not that it's a bad idea, as such, it's just that a) it would take much longer and require a lot more paint, b) it would decimate the resale value of the stock, and c) it would require a lot of research that Bachmann has already done to get a shade that matches how these things appeared in service. Cheers, Gavin

A quick question for the enlightened: can anyone advise me on colour-matching the dark grey roof of a Bachmann BR Mk1 Pullman? I have a white-roofed version I'd like to repaint to match the rest of my dark-grey-roofed rake. Can anyone tell me where to get a matching colour? A close-enough Halfords rattlecan would be ideal, but any suggestion would be most gratefully received. Thanks, Gavin

A quick question for the enlightened: can anyone advise me on colour-matching the dark grey roof of a Bachmann BR Mk1 Pullman? I have a white-roofed version I'd like to repaint to match the rest of the dark-grey-roofed rake. Can anyone tell me where to get a matching colour? A close-enough Halfords rattlecan would be ideal, but any suggestion would be most gratefully received. Thanks, Gavin

A quick question for the enlightened: can anyone advise me on colour-matching the dark grey roof of a Bachmann Br Mk1 Pullman? I have a white-roofed version I'd like to repaint to match the rest of the dark-grey-roofed rake. Can anyone tell me where to get a matching colour? A close-enough Halfords rattlecan would be ideal, but any suggestion would be most gratefully received. Thanks, Gavin

I call that suspicious. Perfectly sensible - hearses drive much more slowly. Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs. After a very, very quiet day yesterday, today might be slightly enlivened by reviewing a tender. Sadly that's not a railway-related comment. Have become (slightly) addicted to Twitter of late. It's like getting a front-row seat to the end of the West. Between the implosion of British politics, the meltdown of their American equivalent and chaos in Europe, I've had to turn my attention to other parts of the globe just to try to restore some equilibrium to my sanity. So here's a good one: yesterday, a team researching Australian sea-snakes found a new snake (hilariously, they found it crossing the wharf in front of them after they'd finished their otherwise-fruitless expedition. I love the thought of some bloke going "hang on a minute - is it just me or does that snake look a bit different to you?"). They've called it the Cape York bandy-bandy. Naturally, being an example of Australian fauna, it's insanely venomous. (According to Terry Pratchett, a complete list of harmless Australian flora, fauna and fungi consists of the words "some of the sheep".) Kind regards foisted wildly upon the discomfited; Tinkety-tonk, etc. Gavin edited to include the name of the snake

Morning all, and hello to Jason Isaacs. Also, hello Debs. We haven't spoken, but I've been warned you're a dab hand with pointy objects. I'm all for keeping life interesting, so that should be fun. On today's agenda: having just about finished with the course I was reviewing (a 5-hr job that turned, in the end, into a 34-hr job) I am expecting a somewhat easier time of it; I'm just not sure what it is I'm meant to be doing. No doubt something will turn up. I've also noticed a slight easing of the ribs, which is great: quite apart from the pain they've caused, I've also been unimpressed at the celibacy they've enforced. Kind regards heaped with gleeful abandon on those unable to run away; Tinkety-tonk, etc. Gavin

At the end of the day, my freshly coaled, lamped and crewed Gay Crusader heads home across the Oykel Viaduct light engine. G'night all.

At the end of the day, my freshly coaled, crewed and lamped No. 108 passes light engine over the Oykel Viaduct:

At the end of the day, No.108 runs light engine across the Oykel Viaduct.

I did a significant amount of painting over the weekend. The three girder bridges have been sprayed with Volvo Dark Grey from Halfords, while the viaduct has had its stonework coloured (Revell #77 for the base colour; Revell #75 for the dry-brushed highlights). Behold: I'm frustrated by an Ebay seller at the minute. I ordered some brass hinges on the 4th of July; they still haven't arrived. They're only 30mm x 15mm - this should not be this difficult! I have also just finished detailing my A3 'Gay Crusader' with head lamps, coal and a crew. This is the kind of modelling job I really enjoy - small, simple, but makes a disproportionate difference to the look of the finished article. edited to add pictures and discuss LNER 108.

Always nice to see a fellow fan of the great Blackadder and the sublime John Finnemore (who I went to see a few weeks ago in Edinburgh. And he was very, very funny indeed.) (On a further side note, when I was the assistant manager of the Modelzone in Aberdeen, we had a regular customer who called me Douglas and my boss Martin. My boss, who'd never listened to Cabin Pressure, merely assumed that the customer wasn't quite with it. I chose not to tell him that not only was the customer fully compos mentis, he also had an acute grasp of the power dynamics at play in the shop's management team...) Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs. Back to work today. As with so many Sunday to Monday transitions, I go from Te Deum to tedium. Today is something to be endured rather than enjoyed, I fear. On the plus side, my LNER headlamps were on my desk and waiting for me when I got here, so I'll be able to finish off Gay Crusader when I get home. (If any of you can rewrite that sentiment to make it sound less euphemistic, I'd appreciate it...) Kind regards wagging their tails and bouncing up in an overexcited fashion to lick the faces of the smitten; Tinkety-tonk, etc. Gavin

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs. A busy-enough day so far. Off to church this morning, where I assumed my normal position behind the drumkit. (I know! And in a Church of Scotland Presbyterian church too!) This was fraught with difficulty and not a little discomfort, as my cracked ribs protested at my intentions. I managed, but I was a lot slower round the kit than I'm used to and I wound up doing a lot more footwork to fill out the rhythms. Playing anything with my left hand was not a fun experience. Thence to B&Homewickes, to buy a tarpaulin; onwards to Halford, to buy some Volvo Dark Grey paint (I don't own a Volvo, and the Volvo I don't own isn't Dark Grey) to spray-paint a girder bridge*; from there to Tesco, for vittels; and home. Kind regards hollered belligerently from the rooftops at those scurrying beneath; Tinkety-tonk, etc. Gavin *Apparently Debs will don her balaclava and kneecap my baseboards for mentioning such things. Since Debs has been regrettably absent for some time now, I am hoping that the provocation of my sheer effrontery will spur her to action (albeit vengeful). Tis a nobler thing I do now...

The tender and loco are correctly aligned. There is a slight bow in the central section of the bridge, which I have been unable to correct. Given that the difference is ~1mm, I can live with it. Regards, Gavin

You were warned...

Work on the Oykel Viaduct is nearly complete. The stone viaduct sections are Faller kits, as are the extended piers for them; the central section is made of laser-cut MDF. Now I just need to build the baseboard on which to install it... (As per Tony's insistence in such matters, I made very sure that the locomotive featured was crewed, coaled and carried the correct headcode for a train composed of XP-rated stock!) Regards, Gavin

Greetings all, and hello to Jason Isaacs. Having a quiet day in my little corner of Scotland. I believe certain august personages are in the country but I lost interest when I learned that Summerisle wasn't on his itinerary. A shame - they do a cracking folk festival / summer cookout. Great disappointment this morning: both local eateries were closed, which means that my weekly coffee-and-croissant-breakfast treat has been cancelled. Ya boo thrrrrrrp*, etc. So instead I have been painting my viaduct. It is now finished! Huzzah! The next task is to paint the various girder bridges. I may put up a photo of progress later, if anyone cares to see. Kind regards tiptoeing through the tulips to ambush the oblivious; Tinkety-tonk, etc; Gavin *the closest phonic approximation to a raspberry I can manage.

Despite the best efforts of life to get in the way, I have finished the major construction work required of the Oykel Viaduct. All it needs now is some filler and some paint before installation.