Bon Accord

John, Welcome from another Bank line veteran/refugee! After I left tankers (when insanity beckoned) I fell into a job with Weirs and spent a number of years with them in the various companies they managed etc including the last classes of Bank boat, e.g. Cora class and the ex Russian ships. It was all a bit of an education at the time and for the most part a good laugh too. I'm driving buses these days, or at least that's what it feels like sometimes (passenger ferries)!

Received 1646 in the post from Kernow this morning having ordered it on Thursday, excellent service. It really is a smashing little model and commendably heavy. The much mentioned bunker seam is hardly visible on mine, no doubt helped by the black livery and in all honesty if I hadn't read about it on here I doubt I would have noticed it. Well done Model Rail, Rapido and Kernow.

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All, I've been watching the arrival of this model with interest. The Hornby catalogue photographs place the livery as being the same as the previous LSWR 120 limited edition some years ago, however photographs on the likes of the Kernow website of the actual model show it to be a much lighter and brighter shade. The latter looks to me to be the shade of LSWR green that 120 carried during it's pre preservation sojourn on the Southern Region, for example when it ran the Bluebell excursion with CR 123. Can anyone confirm if that is the case? The Hornby descriptions/pictures etc seem notably unhelpful.

That photograph looks to be when 1649 was stored at Perth shed prior to and after withdrawal. I would imagine once the Dornoch branch closed and the loco was then working in Inverness/Dingwall etc the GWR lamp irons would have become something of an inconvenience and were then replaced, which would be a straightforward enough job. That would explain the discrepancy between the last train to Dornoch footage and the picture.

There is a possibility it's a diversion due to Winchburgh tunnel being closed, therefore the train wouldn't have been across the bridge. When such a closure occurs Eastbound trains turn off the E&G at Winchburgh Junction heading Northwards for Dalmeny. Once there they stop short of the station, reverse and then proceed South directly towards Edinburgh. Westbound trains do the same in reverse. In this image the train appears to be crossing from the down to the up line, which would fit in with just such a diversion.

I'd be very surprised if they're local. These kind of letters/rants are generally always from "white settler" types from the SE of England who've sold up, moved to some unsuspecting part of the country thinking it's some kind of picturesque yet static museum and then demand the locals stop actually living their lives just so their delusions of the locality aren't tarnished. So-called "community councils" the length and breadth of the country are filled with them, invariably to the disgust of real locals.

Interesting that the builders have chosen to include a BR AWS battery box on the running plate!

He's stood in that area in the past during local council elections - unsuccessfully.

Were any pre-production pictures or suchlike ever released, or perhaps prototypes show at an exhibition? I don't recall ever seeing any.

I'd forgotten I'd pre-ordered a couple of those loco kits and paid a deposit, as I'm sure have many others. I haven't seen any news about them at all since the initial announcement a year ago or so.

Wheeltappers were very much in use and witnessed by myself during my last visit to Poland in 2016.

That's the old Readheads.

Today marks 40 years since the loss of DERBYSHIRE in Typhoon Orchid. Whilst there have been a number of improvements in ship design and regulation in the intervening period, we still haven't fully learnt the lessons of that loss and many others.

Those alongside will have been down manned to the extent that they won't have enough men to go to sea or to anchor. The cruise ship companies rarely employ salaried staff in the traditional sense, effectively they're all agency/contract staff employed by a PO Box in Bermuda or Malta etc so they can be dispensed with quickly and usually without any redundancy terms, that includes most of the officers as well as all the ratings. The four in Rosyth are about to be joined by two ex Carnival vessels that Fred Olsens have purchased, accordingly the two ex Royal Viking ships there are for sale, most likely for scrap.

I suspect they're going to sea every so often for a day or two so as to make fresh water and pump over bilges/treated black water etc as well as giving everything a good run. Before the advent of onboard internet/TV, there was a favoured anchorage for RFAs and their like not far from Portland/Weymouth which was good holding ground, sheltered and was just outside the 12 mile limit. We always knew it at as the "Triple T" anchorage: Telephone/TV/Tax as you could received the first two from shore based masts and being just outside the 12 mile limit it counted as a tax day!

All of which were of course based on a design by J.L. Thompson of Sunderland.

It's interesting to note the absolutely enormous difference in recognition between VE and VJ day, both past and present. The latter did of course mark the end of a thoroughly awful war but it has always been the poor relation then and now, such that the forgotten army is still very much forgotten. Unfortunately far too many out there still have the mindset that the war ended on 8th May, The response to 15th August both in social media and elsewhere is an obvious testament to that.

The Duchesses weren't the only LM Pacific type to make it to Aberdeen having been borrowed - Duke of Gloucester also did so.

I see they're incorrectly flying courtesy flags for some reason - must be that passie boat mentality of putting on a show.

Mal-lig is the correct pronunciation, Mal-laig is generally only used by those from points south.

It's a summer-only service with the vessel laid up for the rest of the year so they don't have to worry about winter weather!

In the late 1960s the regular vessel to visit Tarbert pier would be MacBrayne's LOCHFYNE which ran the route from Gourock to Ardrishaig from 1958-1969, known as "The Royal Route". As far as I can remember no car ferries called at Tarbert at the time the layout would be set. See attached picture of the LOCHFYNE.

Great pics Adrian. The pictures of EOS were taken in Montreal. I take it your father was a Furness-Withy man? All so evocative of the era, especially the ships homeward bound with lumber stowed on deck (usually from the Pacific Northwest), decks and gear all immaculate after a major soogie and paint effort prior to arrival home and inspection by the Supterintendent who would always turn up to give the ship the once over at the end of a voyage. I wonder if that's one of the ABs balanced on the rails in the picture of the Pacific Stronghold, possibly attaching the shackle at the end of the inboard slewing guy to the derrick head which might mean they were only a day or two away from port - they were usually stripped at sea. He looks too young to be the Carpenter. Heavy ships on deck anyway, but still the days of real hands-on practical seamanship.

Taken in Montreal at the basin near Ville-Marie. That's the spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral in the right background.