Bon Accord

Some of the 6 wheelers in the Hattons and Hornby ranges are quite similar to the HR variety. The latter also has the benefit that plain unlined green is prototypical.

My preorder is already in! Well done Rapido. I do have a rather ancient DJH example but in plain HR green, so no need to retire it just yet.

The third picture isn't Stirling but is Gleneagles. The two mystery location pictures are Ladybank, just to the North of the junction and on the line to Perth.

I never did one back in the day, but about 15 years ago I was invited to attend a 5 day RN organised course in Portsmouth which was intended for MN deck officers. It officially was an acquaintance/familiarisation course to see how the other half live so to speak, but it also included quite a few briefings and lectures about current threats, what to do when and how the RN might assist etc. It was quite an interesting and at times fun week and culminated with a visit to those nice people at RM Poole to see their toys and also included a jolly down to Portland to take part in "Thursday War" aboard an RN frigate. There were people there from the tanker companies and the likes of P&O, Trinity House etc. Naturally it was also a very boozy week as we were billeted in the Officer's mess at HMS Collingwood. During my time working for Andrew Weirs I did a trip in Hebridean Princess - for which they did the technical management - and to which I was loaned for a few weeks as they were short of bodies. That was a real riot and great fun on what was a lovely old ship, but of course her history is that when built in the early 60s her secondary role (beyond that of car ferry for MacBraynes) was to be a floating bunker/command centre on the West Coast of Scotland in the event of major unpleasantness with the Soviets. Accordingly she and her two sisters were built like the proverbial brick outhouse and featured all sorts of onboard novelties like a full pre wetting system for the external decks, interior citadels, convoluted ventilation system to protect against fallout etc. They were owned (and nominally paid for) by the Scottish Office rather than MacBraynes and so were initially registered in Leith rather than Glasgow to reflect the location of their real owners. Calmac ownership and a change of port of registry came some years later. After that very pleasant jolly I was sent back to another rusty Bank boat, which ironically had originally been built for the Soviets with various other bells and whistles for use in the Arctic in time of war. Naturally Weirs ran them to the South Pacific!

As the old saying goes: you never meet a poor one!

That was finally sorted out but only for the duration of the war alas, postwar things technically reverted and companies weren't obliged to pay you should your ship be lost. The advent of company contracts and the general improvement in terms and conditions postwar thankfully superceeded that, but some outfits still stick to the letter of the law. The loss of the Pool Fisher in 1979 being a case in point - all crew (dead or alive) were taken off pay from the day she sank and the relatives of those lost received nothing from the company beyond voyage pay upto the day of her loss.

A large number of BP ships - together with a number of other companies which had vessels which could be regarded as strategic in wartime - were built with a Government subsidy in exchange for certain construction requirements to be met e.g. strengthened decks suitable for gun emplacements, degaussing gear fitted etc. A DEMS safe was also a standard fitting. As I remember the Valour and the Courage had a different boiler/turbine setup to their sisters and accordingly could develop a lot more shp so that they could be used as fast fleet oilers. This apparently required an annual trial for the benefit of the MOD which basically amounted to a full speed run in excess of their normal service speed. Later on, the 70's built River class 25k product tankers were designated to be suitable to be STUFT and quite a few of them did exercises with the RN/RFA to exercise their suitability to act as replenishment oilers. That led to modifications such as additional (higher) tank suctions being installed to permit the carriage of aviation fuel to be pumped over for immediate use, extra steel pads around strongpoints for RAS gear etc. This of course led to 8 of the class being taken up from trade and being sent south during the Falklands unpleasantness. With regard to the braid, the official term for the loops was "executive curle" and BP and a few other companies had it. There were many stories circulating with regard to why it was used (and I'm sure it was the same in the likes of the other companies which used it) and the common one was that it was something to do with wartime service, which I was never inclined to believe as many companies and their men suffered dreadfully and I think it would be somewhat callous to single out a few. Adoption of diamonds/curles etc was of course upto the company concerned and did not require any official sanction either way, but on that point it's worth remembering that most British companies used 3/8" braid rather than the RN standard of 1/2". Use of the latter braid in such a way that it could be confused for the RN variety was a criminal offence unless a warrant or an Order in Council from the Monarch was issued and that would of course be recorded somewhere. I've never seen or heard of such evidence for any company, even BPTC. Some companies adopted curles for the prestige factor, but with BPTC I'm more inclined to believe that we had them because the company was effectively Government owned and it was normal for those ships/crews in government service to use Curles instead of diamonds.

Regarding the Bismarck episode, I remember a Geordie fireman by the name of Bill Linskey mentioned it during his wartime reminisces. He was in SS Newbury at the time of the Bismarck action; Newbury was a nondescript, slow, coal burning tramp recently fitted with a single Bofors gun aft - her only defensive weapon. One day in 1941 the Master (retired RN) called all the crew together on deck and said "I have been informed that the German battleship Bismarck is in this vicinity. If we sight it, we shall engage it. I expect you to do your duty as British seamen". The mostly South Shields crew were unsurprisingly less than impressed to say the least by this speech and the donkeyman - an aged Scotsman who'd been sunk twice himself in the previous war - couldn't hear what was going on and asked Bill to repeat what the Master had said. On doing so, his reaction was to shout at the Master concerned in front of the rest of the crew "you stupid old ******, you'll get us all killed. We're ****** civilians". The Donkeyman concerned was subsequently logged and fined for his remark. A month or so later Bill and the Donkeyman got into bother during a run ashore in the Caribbean and went AWOL for a few days enjoying wine, women and song. On the ship's return to the UK they were both arrested and spent a few weeks in a converted Borstal, which he described as being akin to a holiday camp compared to being at sea at the time. They both therefore missed Newbury's next voyage. On his release and whilst awaiting another ship he discovered Newbury had been sunk with her entire crew of 45 only a couple of weeks previous. The aforementioned Master was one of those lost. Bill wasn't so lucky next time out as his next ship (SS Ashby) was sunk in the Atlantic with the loss of a quarter of the crew. He survived after spending a week in a lifeboat and then joined SS Empire Beaumont. She then went on to the Murmansk run on convoy PQ18 and was sunk on that voyage by air attack in the Arctic Circle. Again he survived this sinking, however about 2/3 of the crew did not. Firemen in coal burners were often hard cases due to the backbreaking work and awful working conditions and Bill was true to type. Even before the war he was constantly getting into bother through drink, however his wartime experiences put him on a downward spiral as he was haunted by what he had seen. After the war Bill joined Alcoholics Anonymous and becoming one of it's stalwarts in this country and was the first UK member to notch up 50 years sober. He passed away about 15 years ago, a few years after committing his wartime memories to print, of which I am fortunate to possess a copy. Just another ordinary man - a civilian - forced into an extraordinary and vicious situation.

Union Castle had the contract for the mail to/from South Africa and retained it until 1977, the ships used on the "Cape Mail" were accordingly all 20+ knot fliers particularly the final trio of ships used: Windsor Castle, Transvaal Castle and Pendennis Castle. The Cape Mail departed Southampton every Thursday at 4pm with a corresponding sailing northwards from Cape Town. Like many services of this type timetables were everything and delays were not tolerated. As well as passengers, the liners of old also carried significant quantities of mail and cargo and it was the latter which dictated the turnaround times in ports, that included Queen Mary/Elizabeth and the other Cunard passengerships. Most of the old British passenger ship companies relied on a Royal Mail subsidy to cover operating costs in leaner periods - Cunard being a high profile example. Dominion Monarch was a much bigger ship than Southern Cross but that was because she carried a huge amount of cargo - general/manufactured goods outward, refrigerated/frozen NZ foodstuffs homeward - and like a lot of the Shaw Savill ships she carried only first class passengers. Northern Star/Southern Cross was an attempt by SS&A to break into the second class market - or as it became known postwar, tourist class - which until then had been dominated by the New Zealand Shipping Co (part of the P&O empire) and also by lower cost ships specifically targeted at the emigrant market. N.B. Many modern day cruise ships are erroneously referred to as Cruise Liners, but that is not technically correct as they are not engaged in what is known in the industry as a "liner trade". The latter is basically a fixed, timetabled service in which many otherwise competing companies often co-operate in much the same way as the airline alliances of today do so. Liners in that sense do still exist, but the modern day examples are container ships and Ro-Ro vessels. The last real British passenger liner (and last real RMS) was RMS St Helena which lasted until 2018 on the St Helena/Ascension run, this of course being a government subsidised service initiated by the withdrawal of the last Union Castle mailships in the late 70s.

Except that if one pupil has it then basically the entire class and teachers are in reality close contacts because the kids aren't giving a toss, with all the consequent disruption that causes. My youngest cousin is a languages teacher at a secondary school and she was seeing entire yeargroups being wiped out every other week causing mayhem. Teachers and ancillary staff were in despair because they had no choice but to run with it due to Government instructions/indifference. In her school a number of older teachers simply gave up the job because they couldn't chance the (rampant) risk of infection due to their age/health, leaving the school further short staffed causing larger class sizes, more infections etc. Standby for it all to be repeated over the next month or so.

Except it will likely do little. I know a few people who teach in primary and secondary schools and they all say exactly the same thing about their respective schools: whilst the kids may behave in class, in corridors/playground/out of sight of staff it's a total free for all and they're acting as if Covid has never happened, interacting and socialising accordingly with carefree abandon.

It's max 100 for indoor standing events with 1m distancing, so Model Rail will be a non starter if those rules are still in force.

The problem there is the next batch is probably 2-3 years away. I was going to get the LNER version, but I won't now as the OTT valve gear, tyres and the aforementioned black mark have put me off entirely. The running plate still doesn't sit quite right with me either - I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's far more obvious on the LNER versions than the BR black/green types. I still have a 1995 Coldstreamer and 2000 Green Howards in LNER Doncaster and Darlington green respectively still running around like sewing machines after over two decades of use and I shall stick with them, particularly in the face of shelling out north of 200 notes for the new model. Some years back I did buy the most recent BR version (double chimney with the new chassis) and although the boiler still needed put right as well as a few other details it was nearly there as mass produced models go. Unfortunately Bachmann seem to have taken a couple of steps forward and a couple back. Just a pity it's taken nearly 4 years to get here.

I believe the Master of the Tug initially offered Lloyds Open Form (as is standard) which unsurprisingly the Master of the Union Star refused as was his right, pending instructions/developments from ashore as he didn't believe he was in imminent danger; LOF can of course prove expensive depending on how much effort is adjudged to have been undertaken on the part of the salvor. At that time the situation was not a "distress" incident, merely an "urgency" and it was up to the Union Star to escalate the situation. The Coastguard now have the power to do that themselves.

The Coxswain of the lifeboat doesn't have that authority, however the Coastguard themselves now do. That change went in hand in hand with the Braer wreck/oil spill in Shetland and the subsequent establishment of Coastguard rescue tugs, stationed at strategic points around the UK coast. This was copied in many other countries with a high density of high risk shipping around their coasts e.g. France, Spain, Norway etc. As well as emergency towing, these vessels were also fitted out for anti pollution work, seabed surveying and basic maritime patrolling. Unfortunately in 2010 the incoming government of the day decided that those rescue tugs weren't needed because in their view commercial towage would be available if required, totally ignoring the point that the commercial aspect of it and the complications caused thereby was exactly what led to having the state operated tugs in the first place. That was all to save a paltry £30 million. As an example of the costs incurred due to a major oil spill, the most recent large scale event in the UK was the Sea Empress spill in Milford Haven in 1996 and that is estimated to have cost £120 million in both cleanup costs and damage to the local economy. The French etc still maintain their tugs and they've since come to the rescue of vessels in the Channel when no towing vessels were available from the UK side. The Scottish Government made the point that the NW of Scotland should be a special case in view of it's remoteness and that it should retain a tug. After much lobbying agreement was reached and funding made to MCA to continue to provide such a vessel, however it's on a series of short term contracts at the end of which is a review as to whether it should carry on, there is then usually another spat between London/Edinburgh. The result is that the current tug is Italian owned/flagged with Eastern European crew, whereas the previous incarnations were British owned/flagged/crewed.

I recently rediscovered on Youtube the BBC documentary made to mark the 25th anniversary in 2006. For those who haven't seen it, it's certainly worth a watch. Brave men.

There were two shades of CR blue, light and dark as depicted on the models. Both 828 and 439 have carried both in preservation. 828 is of course currently sporting the darker shade whilst 439 wears the lighter variety have previously been in the darker blue for most of it's preservation life.

Just noticed that certain examples are now available to pre-order via their Ebay webshop. Link here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324938785435?hash=item4ba7dc629b:g:nA4AAOSwl4VhqnoZ

The three models of 828 lack the rear sandboxes abaft the centre driving wheel which is I believe prototypical for this particular engine through the ages. They should be present on 57565 (weathered, early BR crest) as that engine did have them.

The dark blue livery is authentic, but the model wearing it is not. When carrying CR colours (either light or dark) there are a number of detail differences compared to the loco in later life, e.g. fewer lamp irons, different safety valves, lack of vacuum ejector/brake etc. Hence how the dark CR liveried model as produced is only correct for the locomotive in it's preserved state. You can see a few of those detail differences in the pictures posted above.

It was a gradual transition over the decades with smoking compartments/areas being reduced and in turn eliminated. As I remember the last operator to permit smoking onboard was Caledonian Sleeper (then part of ScotRail) and that carried on nearly until the smoking ban in public places circa 2004. GNER still permitted smoking until around the same time, I think it was finally done away with upon the "Mallard" refurbishment programme. Coach B in standard was I think the smoking coach and about a third of coach M in First. The Mark 4s had a sort of compartment/gate setup for the smoking section in First.

Cellular ships don't use twistlocks within the cellguides, the boxes being simply stacked as you suggest slotting into the cells. Anything outside of a cell is locked together with twistlocks and doubled up with lashing bars. Twistlocks are installed and locked by hand and a steel bin of them is usually lifted onto an adjacent stack with the wharfies getting up there by way of a man basket. Spring loaded twistlocks are available which lock when another box lands on top and they can speed up the process. Despite automation and modern kit, loading/unloading a box boat is still a labour intensive operation.

Weren't they both 2019 announcements?

Only once did I ever have to break out our spare anchor after losing one, this in Singapore on a 120,000dwt tanker with the spare (like the other two) weighing in at 15 tonnes. The office was adamant we rig the spare despite knowing our otherwise lost anchor would be recovered in a day or two and we had to use our ship's own gear - thankfully the amidships derricks were rated to 15 tonnes. What a work up, even with a barge alongside. Unsurprisingly the spare took some serious persuasion and the best part of a day to shift, a combination of nearly 20 years worth of paint and rust holding it to the deck but we eventually managed to get it over the side and connected up to the port cable, then hauled home. Once our erstwhile port anchor had been recovered from the seabed we then received another message from HQ that we should swap them over again and return the spare to the deck. Bearing in mind the previous performance, the rather baffling order to change them over (the anchors were identical) and that London was a very long way away, we sent something of a fib via Telex that we'd actually done it, with a couple of cases of whisky written off the company accounts to the appropriate people ashore to buy their silence, e.g. agents, riggers etc. Where did you lose the anchor, out at Wandelaar?

Not often you see that! Is it the ring shackle that's gone or do you have a shackle above the swivel as well? So many different designs these days.