teaky

The weather probably explains it then. I hadn't realised. Quite mild down here. Mind you, someone who knows more will probably say there is a resident population of redwings now! I'm used to seeing them in small groups in late autumn as they hand around for a few days to grab what berries there are before moving on.

If you are confident about the size then it may be a redwing. Though, I'd have thought they would have moved north by now even where you are. If it was smaller then some of the finches come into the reckoning.

That pool doesn't look very deep Dave. Is the diving board going at the other end?

We have a carrion crow rookery less than 100m away with crows frequent visiting our garden early in the morning. The nearby farm fields are often full of rooks. At least four magpies and two jackdaws constantly on patrol around the neighbourhood - throw out some scraps and they arrive in minutes. There are jays too but they don't seem to venture into our garden very often. Kestrels regularly 50m away. Buzzards overhead most days. Sparrowhawk visits or flys nearby often. Not unusual to see a single heron slowly flying over or perched on a house roof (probably a house with a pond). Not at all unusual for any of the crow family to be seen mobbing a buzzard. The other morning a (male) blackbird was mobbing (assuming a single bird can mob) the (male) sparrowhawk. So, around here the mobbing behaviour seems to occur but not to the extent that any raptors are driven off for long.

"Sitting out in the garden yesterday having a coffee and watching the comings and goings at the birdtable when all hell broke lose. Then realised that a Sparrowhawk had landed on the fence, first we'd seen in the garden for a long time. Eyed the place up then cleared off." That's interesting. Our sparrowhawk produces an eerie silence amongst the prey birds.

Sounds like you have it well covered. So much so that I'm going to ask your advice. What ventilation method do you use for your spray booth? Does it result in any paint residue outside? It's the one thing I struggle to get my head around. It is all well and good people saying they stick a duct/hose out of the window but I always imagine there being a gradual build up of tiny paint particles down the wall or somewhere.

Peter is correct. If this danger did exist, then putting a boiler into a garage with petrol fumes wouldn't be a good idea. If you are concerned about the boiler getting paint on it then put it in a cheap kitchen unit. The boiler instalation handbook will give you details of the clearance needed around the sides. "... you should have an extractor anyway ..." - spot on, it isn't a good idea to breath any dust, even if you are using water-based paints. This topic has been covered several times on RMweb, so a search should bring up ideas. At the very least, wear a good mask, but remember if you can smell it, you're breathing it.

Just needs a few thousand rivets and you're done Allan.

We definitely need a groan button!

Evidently translated by the author of a certain Hungarian phrasebook.

Interesting. Hornby website still says August.

Yes, these are clearly the first views of the scan results prior to any cleaning up and division into build sequence, e.g. separating what will be moulded from individually fitted detail parts. I quite like the fact that Rapido have shown this step. It is interesting to see a model evolve.

Rapido have posted a few images from the 3D scanning. http://www.rapidotrains.com/single2.html

The common cause of foot deformaties in feral pigeons is a bacterial infection called staphylococcus. Pigeons easily pick it up from wounds getting infected with the bacteria from droppings. As you can imagine this is much more likely in urban environments where pigeon populations are (artificially) concentrated. The droppings also create a fine dust which can infect the lungs.

Finally! A pair of house martins have arrived across the road and are already busy building a nest.

They were probably looking for the Pirate party.

Don't know about the pecking bit because that's the first time I've heard that interesting snippet, but the different fathers bit applies to robins too. In all likelihood it applies to lots of birds since it seems a sensible strategy for passing on one's genes. (I'm sure someone will comment that it applies to humans too!)

One less house sparrow to breed after today but probably one more sparrow hawk. (I do wish ours would get bolder and realise there's more meat on a wood pigeon. There's loads of 'em!) Sad for the sparrow but the sparrow hawk looked in magnificent condition as it scattered feathers on the lawn.

Was it painted? The one from post #163 perhaps?

No, I couldn't find anything to match on Paul's site either, which is an astonishingly comprehensive collection that I have had bookmarked for years. Tatlow does say that the multi-doored version was the least common and the first batch to be built by the LNER, so it seems likely that later versions (wooden and steel) would dominate post war stock. At present I still think this is a model of an RCH wagon pretending to be a similar LNER one. I find it an acceptable compromise but everyone has their own standards.

Fortunately, setting aside the matter of whether the model is accurate or not, the Dapol wagon is modelled with an end door. According to Peter Tatlow, the first batch of LNER wagons had bottom, side and end doors. The other similar wagons shown in Tatlow do not appear to have end doors

Different livery but one of these.

Thanks. Nine planks too.

Mallard60022, I think you should ignore the GWR idea. I must have it mixed up with something else. Il Grifone is much more knowledgeable than I am about the GWR. I cannot find anything on the web with a wooden body. Apologies of you've wasted any time searching blind alleys. I am now convinced that 34theletterbetweenB&D has it correct and that this is an RCH design which is also what Iain Rice thinks in his RTR Wagons book. I only have the earlier Peter Tatlow LNER Wagons book and this shows a wagon (30987) that looks very similar (albeit 8 planks). There is also an ex-GNR wagon that has a wooden underframe and a 7-plank body. There is some variation in plank width. The ex-GNR wagon has only 7-planks but the accompanying drawing shows it as 9' 3 1/8" above rail height. A drawing for the similar LNER design but with cupboard doors shows 8' 9 7/8". All the Tatlow wagons are Loco coal though which may close that avenue off for a non-LNER layout. I wonder how protoypical the Charringtons wagons are?

I think the Airfix/Dapol/Hornby wagon is based on a GWR one and they just did the common RTR trick of rebadging it to get their money's worth. If you don't count the planks, I think it has the right look to get away with it but it all comes down to what level of inaccuracy you can tolerate.