leslie10646

Obviously I liked the GNR shots, but it was the photo at Inchicore which caught my eye - I hadn't realised that the Work's Platform was so long! When was it shortened / removed, or is it still there - I wouldn't know as it's on the non-milepost side and I'm always on the other side of the train!

Dapol couplings with NEM pocket: https://www.dapol.co.uk/products/coupnemoo-oo-gaugenem-couplings-pack-of-40 OR https://www.dapol.co.uk/products/4s-024-cpm-00-gauge-spares-h-l-040-coupling-and-mount-ea-r?variant=46055267139807 I knew Dapol sold them as we have them in our kits and Michael had to have a source! Obviously the pack listed first!

Looks Ok to me: 9 June 1957 Lance King Collection Copyright IRRS

Just a word from a supplier's viewpoint. I've sent stuff to both Addresspal and Parcel Motel and they seem to work very well. Getting stuff to John in the Canaries fell over when the last lot was returned after six weeks - more to do with local problems on the Island, it seems. These agencies rely too much on Artificial Intelligence at times and it's not THAT intelligent. I suspect that another issue is that people (when they exist at all) are poorly trained, or take the easiest option. Service? Don't make me laugh!

Thanks for the shot of No.207, Ernie. I immediately thought - Thursdays only tourist train for folk staying at the UTA's hotels. But the 26th was a TUESDAY! Also May is a bit early to be holidaying in Northern Ireland! Someone with a set of Weekly notices can sort this one out!

Like a Sunday School Saturday at Portrush, but with diesels!

Done! Thanks

Yes, one of each would be good, as I'm dual gauge!

Wow, @Galteemore, how right you are! Thanks Leslie

Ivan, she was restored with No.207's tender because the Society's hope was to run Belfast to Dublin, or vice versa, NON-STOP. Received wisdom was that you needed the 4,000 gallons of the Class VS tenders. It wasn't a happy marriage ans the coupling of loco to tender caused a rough ride - at least that was The Word in those days. She was reunited with a more appropriate tender later - certainly non later than 1975 or so.

A long way to go for a sarnie and quiche, but well done supporting a wonderful institution which is common to both islands. I was reminded of this when a RNLI crew from somewhere in South West Ireland were on the boat to Holyhead - heading for Poole to pick up their new boat!

I was very sorry to have had an e-mail to inform me of Ken's passing. I only had one opportunity to meet Ken when he picked up one of Bob Sankey's trains - see As others have related, his skill as an innovative modeller was impressive and we are lucky to have his thread to remind us of his Works. A privilege to have met him. Rest in Peace, Ken, you'll be missed.

Ah, Ernie, a Man of Taste. Young sounds as he did forty years ago! One of my favourite Neil Young tracks tells it all - "A Man needs a Maid". My Filipina Amah in HK thought that it said everything! You need a maid, then you can get on with the modelling, writing up logs, scanning lsides .......

Very nice, but as I asked before, where are the locos named after Belfast-built ships: Vide: 50 033 Glorious, 50 041 Bulwark , 50 043 Eagle, 50 050 Fearless? Call yourselves an Irish company? Tut, tut! Of course I don't want to buy one, but having a rant is fun!

Patrick, Yes, we'll miss the pics and videos - you were my best salesman All the best with the move and I hope that the caring goes as well as can be - good for you both, for doing it!

Brave man, Denis! Good luck!

It looks slightly out - but I hope it's an illusion as I heads-upped a pal who has bought it - surprise, surprise the Class U has gone too!

Interesting that - Richard McLachlan is always telling me that unich is the Centre of the Universe and that Utopia is well behind it! As for lack of loos, the Reading to Waterloo line is being run with 455 units which are loo-less - about an hour and a half's journey. Why? Because they are reducing five coach 458 things back to four coach units - they don't need the capacity now that British "workers" work from whatever beach they're on this week! Third World country would be an exaggeration!

I agree with the others about the Strabane shot, but it was the Clones one which is a real gem. Thanks, again, for letting us see them.

Quite probably, as they were scrapping perfectly good EMUS by the hundred then and we had a weekly visit from a Class 37, or some other rarity pulling them off to become razor blades ...... They could have electrified a few isolated lines for sixpence a mile, if they'd done it the Scotrail way and re-used them - the Newquay branch jumped to mind!

Didcot today to get a run behind a "new" loco. Ex-Lancashire and Yorkshire No. 752 as rebuilt by John Aspinall (of Inchicore fame), running at Great Western Society at Didcot. The new "livery is fake as she was never a BR loco! Then on the other Didcot line, the "Flying Banana"was performing - remember that this was the predecessor of the GNR(I) and CIE AEC railcars. A long sequence, so may take a minute to load! MVI_3186.MP4

No, I didn't say they would Bomb - obviously my bad English (second language!), they'll do very well. As for Dr Strangelove, great film, I pray that you guys never see The Bomb ever used again.

At long last! I stopped making the kit two plus years ago and had to chase people away with various cock and bull stories! The prototype looks splendid, so well done to your Chinese toolmakers. Regarding the @Flying Snail comment about "Bombs", this one won't bomb as they were very, very common for decades and every layout should have one - dozens in the case of @jhb171achill. That said, it was, most mysteriously, my kit was a poor seller - just 130 or so - compared with 370 corrugated wagons and over 270 9and counting "Double Beets"! Good luck with them lads - off now to decide which livery I want! Interesting that you chose "Hosanna" - all of the hymns in church today had "Alleluia" in the chorus .......

A special treat (as usual badly filmed) today - a DIFFERENT Class in heavy rain at Goring: The Branch Line Society's tour Return of the Shedi, proceeds to the Martin House Childrens' Hospice (catering by the Mos Eisley Cantina). The Star Wars theme continues with a May the Fourth be With You tour tomorrow. The trainset is the LT 4TC set (previously used on the Southern with the push-pull Class 33.1s (I cleared that class for haulage - did I really admit that?). D6515 in original BRCW Class 3 colours - a "Crompton" (referring to the electric motors, the diesel is a 1550hp Sulzer). She was shown as topping and tailing with a Class 66, but that obviously came on the back later. No less than FIVE diesels planned for use at some point during the day. Certainly a novelty for Goring - everything else ( I saw eight loco-hauled trains in an hour or so) was Class 66s. MAQ03962.MP4 Now, not to let the Container Anoraks down (are you awake in the Canaries, DJD?) - a Class 66 doing the work of forty lorries! MAQ03968.MP4

Thanks, George for the pointers to DECENT film of the train I tried to video on my "Stills" camera! Much better with a video thingy. Yes, an Accurascale all bells and whistles (and lights) version would be hard to resist. For younger viewers - the Bulleid Pacifics as built had lighting all round the motion and working parts so that the crew to see the motion at night when oiling round, or just checking that all was well. It was "all mod cons" in 1941. The story goes that as a Southern crew came into Exeter St Davids at night off the LSWR line to the West (SR used the same tracks as GWR for a couple of miles), they made a point of SWITCHING ON ALL THE LIGHTS to make the GWR men jealous! The GWR guys had to go round with an oil lamp!