leslie10646

Happy Birthday, Young Man! I hope that you get as many nice birthday presents as you have helped provide to us all on this Forum! Leslie

To answer for JHB, except you are a centenarian, before your time ........ BUt, about to become "of your time" ........ There's a cryptic clue there somewhere - personally, I am looking forward to it. Happy St Stephen's Day, all. Put your toys away!

Back to my Christmas mail trains, carrying the cards which haven't reached any of you yet - The low winter sun catches Glover tank No.64 on the Down Special Mail which has been shunted at Portadown Junction into the through goods loop> The S Class which has brought the train from Dundalk has been replaced by the little tank for the remainder of the journey to Belfast. The M1 and M2 vans are 3D prints by Richard Ellis-Hobbs, followed by assorted six and four wheel vans by him and my own Y5s. But first, Class VS No.207 Boyne (built by Colm Flanagan) on the 9.15 semi-fast from Dublin rolls through to her stop at the Passenger station. Sorry about the lighting - one of my tubes has blown and I haven't got the dexterity back to shove in a new one! No Midnight communion in Frimley this year, so off to an early bed to read the next chapter of A Christmas Carol. Merry Christmas to you all. All the merrier as The Deal has been struck, without which I would have folded up Provincial Wagons. God Grant us all a healthier, happier 2021. Leslie

Just six months since I last posted on this thread. I have an enthusiasm for Christmas extra trains, so my railways always have a lot of passenger vans (even the earlier German layout - now Fleischmann did nice full brakes ....) So, the first extra this year was scraping the barrel a bit - no bogie vans! I hope to retrieve them tomorrow, when you'll get a really long parcels special. This is GNR S Class No.172 Slieve Donard (built by Daniel Wu in Hong Kong 25 years ago and recently modified by Alan Edgar) with the first postal special of the year - six wheel X Van (Richard Ellis-Hobbs), with a train of my Y5s (the brighter ones by Nelson Jackson and the darker ones by the late and revered Anthony McDonald). These vans were, of course, the forerunners of the Tin Van!

Well done, Broithe and JB - one of my favourite films. I seem to remember that the Irish Army did their stuff on both the Allied side and the German. Now, the film stars James Mason (as Ursula Andress's husband, no-less) in which film, in which he also co-stars is the main Star going downhill drinking "Bush" - ie the revered waters of my home county (after distilling)?????? The man drinking the Bushmills should have won an Oscar for his work on the film.

Super shots of Trinity, of course as well. Now, "The Keeper" used the RPSI's platform a couple of years ago - about the late great Bert Trautmann of Manchester City - well worth a watch!

Dear Friends IRRS London - Invitation to meeting by Zoom 7pm, 10 December 2020 Below is part of the notice sent to IRRS members for tomorrow night's meeting - given by yours truly. It is almost entirely about the GNR in steam days, but there are a few slides of CIE diesels North of the border. I can forward the whole e-mail to you if you e-mail me at lesliemcallister@aol.com (ONLINE) 19.00 Thursday 10 December 2020 “With Lance King in Ulster 1957-1965 – The Great Northern” by Leslie McAllister London Area Committee member, Leslie McAllister, pays a further tribute to our late founder Chairman, Lance King, with Lance’s colour photographs taken in the North of Ireland in the last years of steam. The 1960s saw a halving of Ulster’s railway mileage, but not before Lance faithfully recorded the Great Northern route to Derry; the Warrenpoint Branch; steam hauled passenger and goods trains on the GNR main lines; daily steam suburban trains into Belfast and the last vestiges of the Donegal narrow gauge lines. A heady mixture of nostalgia. I (our chairman speaking!) have seen some of the images and Lance’s photography is first-rate. Sit back and enjoy. COPYRIGHT Please note that copyright of the images in Leslie’s presentation lies elsewhere and you are requested not to copy or record any part of it. Doing so could lead to an infringement of Copyright Law. The Society has, in the past, taken action to protect copyright. ZOOM MEETING ACCESS CODES To access the meeting, click on this link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87087995244?pwd=alh0dkZ3M1VtSnNFaUNKYUpneXZtdz09 or open the Zoom app on your device and enter : Meeting ID: 870 8799 5244 Passcode: 737374 Alternatively, you can join the meeting by telephone (audio only, no images) by dialling in on one of the following numbers and keying in the Meeting ID and Passcode when requested : UK +44 203 051 2874 +44 203 481 5237 +44 203 481 5240 +44 203 901 7895 +44 131 460 1196 Republic of Ireland +353 6 163 9031 +353 1 240 8941 +353 1 536 9320 +353 1 653 3895 +353 1 653 3897 +353 1 653 3898 In any other country, you can find a local dial-in number from : https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbmd5vlN9I Please note that if you dial-in, you will incur a normal call charge for the duration of the call. There are many 'How to join a Zoom meeting' videos on YouTube – for a selection, take a look at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+join+a+zoom+meeting JOINING THE MEETING DISPLAYING YOUR NAME LEAVING THE MEETING ZOOM FAILURE Joining You can join the meeting any time from 18.30 onwards for a prompt start at 19.00 (although you can join later). The number of participants permitted by our software is 500, so there will be no problem in gaining access to the meeting. Your microphone and webcam will be turned off (by us) when you join. You will have control of both but we ask you to leave them switched off until instructed otherwise. On joining, you will be presented with (silent) images of Irish railways or other relevant information which will continue repeating until 19.00. Once signed in, you can go away and do something else until 19.00 (including working on your device provided you do not close Zoom down or try to use your microphone or webcam). Displaying your name When you sign in or once signed in, you can change your name shown on the Zoom screen. After sign-in, you can do that by clicking on your name in the list of Participants and then “Rename”, or if your name shows on your image, just click on that. Unless you wish to keep your ID confidential, please use a name that is identifiable. For the AGM (which follows my talk at 9pm), that is an absolute requirement as we need to have a record of attendees. Leaving the meeting You may permanently leave the meeting at any time but if you do so, please digitally leave Zoom by clicking on the red “Leave” button and do not just walk away. For those remaining once the AGM is concluded, there will be an opportunity for informal chat between you. Zoom failure Zoom has its quirks and if there is a software failure (not unknown) either before or during the meeting, I will e-mail everyone on our London Area e-mail list with an update – so keep an eye on your Inbox if the meeting does not start or fails part way through.

Thanks, Jim and Ernie, for the positive comments. Glad you are enjoying it. And thanks, too, for the support from a bunch of you - the pile I had has gone and I'm reordering! Like Ernie, I was relieved / surprised at how FEW of Henry Casserley's photos were in the book. Especially as Michael Whitehouse's Dad (Patrick of Railway Roundabout fame) would have known Henry well. God Bless A W Croughton for the wonderful images he took - they certainly were new. Still available from The Syndicate to the UK at £25 plus a token £1.50 towards post and packing - sorry to now move to charging a little for packing / posting a book which WEIGHS 1.4Kg and needs decent packing! As I reminded you above, if ordering kits from me, I can pack book and kits together and usually save on postage to you. Sneaked a couple of bread containers into one customer's book pack! Leslie

I remember the late lamented Drew Donaldson after a derailment on his famous "0" gauge line, involving cattle trucks, say quietly (unusual when something didn't go right) - "All still standing, Thank God"............ Actually, thinking about it, he may have uttered it in Irish first and then translated for we Northern Peasants?

Ref the "small envelopes" getting through - I send everything in boxes - I know a man in Hong Kong who supplies me with miles of bubble to fill them up!

Well, the simple fact is that my sales are miles below the threshold - that said, the paperwork exists - if only to prove that I really am making a loss!

Getting back to topic ...... Yawn....... There is a great pile of the Book in my hallway - I've been through it - I only recollect about half of the shots, I haven't bothered with the verbiage, but can attest that you will not have seen these photos so beautifully reproduced before. Rather too much on the Monorail (but gloriously reproduced Lawrence photos), but otherwise pretty good - and YES, Patrick the Co. Antrim narrow gauge is well represented. Plenty of nice stuff in Donegal, both CDRJC and LLSWR, over thirty pages of the C&L..... Available from The Syndicate (ie PM me!). Now that I've weighed the book (1.4Kg) and nearly had a heart attack - I must ask a little for postage and packing - say 5%, so £26.25 to UK addresses. If you've already paid me, I'll stick to my original deal. Obviously, if you're in the Republic (if THAT politically correct??), I will post to a relative, or friend in the UK and leave you to arrange a handover. If you're narrow-minded (pun definitely intended) this is the Irish book for you! Leslie

Well, I might as well say this now - PW is NOT VAT registered, being very much a hobby, so don't expect VAT-free prices from me, very sorry. Anything I've got in stock you can have now, before the World officially ends. If it gets too hard ....... When it comes to good modelling tools, "I know a man" as Mr Wrenn would say - he hardly buys a thing in Britain - Germany or Switzeralnd are his thing - and I can vouch for the quality of his modelling. He also swears by some some stuff like drill bits available at a fraction of UK prices from a certain Asiatic country - they might not last quite as long, but at the price, what's not to like (to quote him word for word).

Hhmm, Jon, it's not the First of April, is it? Get your slide rule out. Take any of those prices. Divide by 1.20 And you get the price EX(clusive) of VAT?

Dear friends At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, the next meeting of the IRRS London Area (by ZOOM) is on Thursday 10 December at 7pm. With Lance King in Ulster 1957 - 65: Part One - The Great Northern I shall be showing over 150 photographs in colour taken by the late Lance King between 1957 and the end of the Derry Road / Warrenpoint Branch in February 1965. I shall take you on a journey from Belfast to Derry (not a huge amount on the Derry Road - Lance never seemed to get great light when visiting - about 30 slides in all), but then returning to Portadown for some very fine shots on the main line to the Border and the Warrenpoint branch in some detail. Mostly GNR steam - perhaps a dozen LMS locos to illustrate a particular theme. Even a few B Class diesels on passenger and goods. Lance was a superb photographer, so even if the commentary isn't great, the pictures will be! Simply apply to get on our e-mail list (via irrslondon@hotmail.com) which means you will get codes for all future online meetings unless you unsubscribe. We will then automatically send you the Zoom code for the meeting. To tempt you: UTA No.66 (GNR 201 Meath) near Scarva. Lance King Collection, copyright IRRS

I'm not sure if my Class WT can pull sixteen of these - but I'll have a go ........... Running out of siding space!

Great stuff, Fp7. Wonder where you got the wagons from - they look familiar!

Post UK to the Republic seems pretty variable. Two recent parcels from me to customers got there is a week or less, yet my letter and card of condolence to Glover's family never arrived. Thank goodness phones work!

Happy Birthday, Dave. I hope that you got lots of nice pressies of collectable models!

To help the waverers on this book - the full contents. Note the misprint page number, but Co Antrim seems to get a good slice?

Great stuff, Patrick, the vans look super in the fictional livery. BUT, the real treats are the buildings - I'm very envious of your stationmaster's house - just terrific. Richhill needs one for Mr McDonald and his family. The very clever gent who built my goods shed, cabin and station building was supposed to do the house as well - then he got caught up in modelling modern wagons 'n things ........... Looking forward to seeing it progress. Leslie

I suspect that there will be a lot of stuff seen before, I'll be able to tell when I see the book - due on 26 November, by the way. The two views on the publisher's website are one old, one new - to me at least! The big difference will be in the way they are printed. Lightmoor are right at the top of today's publishers for quality - the dull prints of yesteryear are a thing of the past - these will delight, if I'm any judge.

Patrick There is a chapter entitled Narrow Gauge Compounds so we can assume the Ballycastle; and The Boat Train - Ballymena and Larne. Hope that makes the content clearer? Leslie

OR, for your 20ft flats I'll sell my CIE 20ft container flat kit (easiest kit in my range) - see http://www.provincialwagons.com/cie-wagons/ send me a PM if you want more info.

Yes, I have to agree that their spelling of Carndonagh was entertaining - made more amusing today as I have a young man who went to school in Buncrana fitting my new heating boiler! The perils of modern spell-checkers are probably to blame, I suspect. AOL regularly changes PETTIGO FAIR (house name, remember) to Pettifog Fair