leslie10646

It's very heartening to read David's reports regarding the Chatham Club - long may it continue. I was especially impressed by the "Social Media" comment. I have tended to sleep through the "Social Media Outreach" bit of IRRS committee meetings - I'll give it more attention! Last Monday, my favourite ITV newscaster, Tom Bradley, introduced an end-piece on the the enduring popularity of model railways, starring the Cheltenhamd Model Centre and Pete Waterman (who had a bid involvement with Warley for several years). Worth a minute of your time to cheer you all up? https://www.itv.com/watch/news/in-with-the-old-model-trains-see-a-resurgence-in-popularity/xw2nvdp

Gosh, John , you ARE a long way from home! Great images and of great interest to those of us who have crossed America or Canada by train. Keep it coming!

Not just that, but the UG still has its GNR number! The railcar shot is great to see - a bit of history as she is going under the "under construction" M1 overbridge. I remember experiencing an impressive blow-back from the open firebox door while going under that bridge on a tank engine! Thanks Ernie!

I remember The Syndicate going to IMREX - yes, we would just drive up to Central London, unload, park somewhere, sell all day and drive home again. No real hassle! Try THAT today. I'm saddened to hear about Warley and have written to the Club expressing the thanks of the iRRS for having us for over a quarter century. The Syndicate used to have a trade stand there, sometimes as well. It was hard work, but we raised a lot of money for the RPSI at that time. As luck would have it, the intricacies of the NEC worked well for us this year so that we were looking forward to the Show in November. It was always a great place to meet like-minded folk and it was the first exhibition where Provincial Wagons went on sale in 2007. Thanks to the Warley Club and all their willing helpers (and they DID help) for many happy memories (and a few less happy ones, mainly down to those intricacies of the NEC) over 25 odd years that we went. Now we'll have to meet people somewhere else! Leslie (for The Syndicate and the IRRS)

Hhmmm, started the same year I did! Look at my "Username". They clearly state Brexit as a reason - Well I marched against it and I hope to be a party to replacing one of the gentlemen who supported it with a good Liberal Democrat at the next election. Michael Gove, in case you're trying to guess!

Ah yes, EVENTUALLY! 2025/6!

TWO steam projects, Patrick? What have I missed? I was aware of one.

Well, you know where to come to for that! One of the nicest wagons Michael did for me. I've still got a few!

Yes, worth every penny! A health warning, though, you'll spend hours looking at them, but satisfaction guaranteed! Well done Ciaran! Another job for me this year is to add another two collections to this lot - a few thousand more!

What's wrong with John Mayne's or my brake vans? Mind you, you'd have to fit your own light! I'll wind up Patrick, Fran and Bosko by saying that they'd never do one as they sell SINGLY!!!! Not in threes! 2025 for a twin set of CIE brake vans - one with wood cladding and one with steel sheeting. You heard it first here - from me. Definite prediction - just in time for my eightieth! (DV). You know that it makes sense ......

Ah yes, but he certainly earns it!

Yes, Bob, but do they run STEAM - otherwise it doesn't really count (although Class 37s come close! I must give them a visit.

IMG_7729.mp4 Download the video (it'll take a while, then play it from the start! Diesel and steam - something for everyone! The second video doesn't exist - ignore it - I have no idea how to get rid of it!

2025 / 2026 before we "see" a RTR steam loco? I'll be EIGHTY (DV). At least let us know WHAT, so I have something to look forward to in my dotage!

Accurascale at Chinnor? Happy New Year, TWO new locomotives for me: First this Class 37 (37.227 NOT one which Accurascale did?) - it had hauled the train on the Chinnor to Princes Risborough line - seen at the destination. And then we were hauled back by this Didcot-based "Large Prairie". As you can see the weather was delightful! Still, the best possible way to start the New Year! HNY!!!!

The list of German preserved engines is long and the list of mainline tours offered is even longer - and seldom a diesel on the back - the curse of British tours now. I like pure steam haulage, so this year my steam miles totalled about 1,500 miles - 1,000 plus in Switzerland and Germany.

It's great what a bit of controversy leads to a good result. Never seen that photo of the "other" junction before. Heresy? I was talking about the unrelieved grey of goods wagons - MY bread containers brighten up a GN goods train!

Congratulations, Ernie on the December haul. As Patrick said, the view at "The Junction" was most unusual and seldom photographed, was the angle taken at Ballyhaise. Then, a rare sighting of a Brewster's Bread container at Strabane - still available from a certain model wagon company - they seem to have been a chocolate brown colour! Or at least, MINE are. The other Derry bakery won the prize with their light blue containers and white lettering. Very colourful on a railway which was mostly a bit grey! Always a delight to see your collection, so thanks again.

Patrick, I am sure that my videos have the same issue, but once you let them play through (with stops while the computer draws breath), I found that by restarting once it had downloaded they ran as one would hope they would! Yes, a painful process, but to see a good video ..... UPDATE. Tried again, NOTHING. I'm on a new iMac.

Yes and no. A load of smoke deflecting plates had to removed from footbridges (?) to get her under and she was towed, I think quite slowly. Now these have almost certainly have gone by now, but as the track has been fettled up, the track may have been raised, so that a tall loco would clobber bridges. A comparison of the heights of No.131 and 800 would answer this, of course, but I don't have my Locos of the GNR book to hand. Bearing in mind the colossal cost, why would anyone want to restore her to run on the Cork line for just a few runs a year? At least the GNR 4-4-0s can run almost anywhere? I know that Ken and Rob would love to take her for a spin down to Cork, but .........

On the fourth Day of Christmas, we got round to opening the pressies (after Family activity Days 1,2,3) So I gave my favourite train watcher: An Accurascale Rail Operations Group Class 37 - her favourite loco when train watching at never-boring Goring. Now, how do I get a scrap EMU set for it to pull ......... Note the locomotive is named after a lady in Greek mythology which is appropriate as the recipient is probably the only person on this forum, apart from @Galteemore who can read ancient Greek.

Wow, no new entries to this column. Some of you must have got a new trainset for Christmas! So here's mine! My Big Son kindly bought his Old Man this engine famous for its activities during The (second) Railway Race to the North (1895) Hattons do a suitable (ish) train. The Race train would have been bogies, but fairly like this! But I really got her to go with my LNWR corridor set (long after The Race) - see my entry of this set with a GNR Class PP masquerading as a DNGR Boat Train. MY REAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT HAS JUST ARRIVED AS I STOPPED TYPING THIS! The Postman has just delivered my new Three Year Driving Licence - you see I've got Glaucoma and just one eye, so Praise the Lord, I passed the eyesight test!

@Galteemore No use asking me, as a founder member of the RPSI, I still look on diesel preservation as for "other people" - that said, the generation who MAY keep the RPSI running after I'm gone remembers with affection the single ended Yankees etc, as do I, so some attention must be paid to that side. (A look in my display cabinet here shows a lot of unusual diesels!). That said, I'd like another run with No.171 before I discuss my sins with My Maker - plenty of OMMISSION as well as commision. @Blaine Sorry but you're wrong about "Sunday School Excursions on the Derry Road". The generation who founded the RPSI and ran it until recently were of the NCC Sunday School Brigade - in other words 2-6-4 tanks. I DID have one Sunday School excursion with a S Class which came over the GN Antrim Branch. Just as @Galteemore spend many wet afternoons in fields with his Dad raising money in what today are tiny quantities, I was attending similar events in England - the Syndicate did that for fifty years and is still raising a few bob now and again today. But back to your illustrious Dad - like it or not, his careful stewardship of the RPSI's finances in the early 1970s and the unending efforts to raise a few bob kept the money coming in in the days before mass market trains for the public offered more cashflow. In those days, it was the enthusiasts ("Derry Road excursionists"?) who paid for almost everything and with the Troubles reducing that market, it was my job to try and bring the odd couple of dozen extra passengers over from Britain. Without those efforts by John and his small band of fundraisers - no RPSI today and no preserved B134. It's over to you guys now, but let me have another few runs with "171"!

With Bangor looming, another of these vans seemed a good-ish idea? I promised another Broken Wheel, but I need some feedback. The wagon I planned to do was this one, without the IR "scrap this now" graffitti. The photo dates from 1977, so is usable on a layout up to mid 1970s? Now, it obviously has a simple white "Wheel". If you were going to buy one, which would you prefer - the prototypically correct all white, or the orange and white version - about a Euro dearer, but looks "nicer"? I expect the cost to be either €20 or €21, but as you'll be paying in "coins of the Realm" at Bangor , we're talking about £16/17. Over to you - I will, accept, "don't bother with more of them" ......

Nope! But an avid collector of model railways!