leslie10646

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!

Sad news to hear of Neil's death. We in the London Area of the IRRS published his definitive history of the SLNCR in 1970 and then produced a second edition (in 1981) - not many Irish railway books have been accorded that honour? I only met Neil a few times, but he is omnipresent in my life, as a painting, based on one of Neil's photographs, of a VS climbing over the Bessbrook viaduct on a Dublin-bound express hangs on the wall at the end of my bed!

I thought I recognised these - I used two in Steaming in Three Centuries. The Islandbridge one was considered as a Frontispiece, but is in the colour section, along with the Athy shot. I've still got a few copies! And, no, Ernie, I am not going to pay you retrospective royalties!

Not to be outdone, I returned to the lineside tonight in POURING RAIN - you can hear the rain beating on my hood! Not every day a Bulleid Pacific passes within a mile of the house! Like @Galteemore, this is my "home line" - where I timed engine doing 97mph in 1967. A very grey scene, but not lacking in atmosphere - she was four minutes early with over 400 tons behind the tender. At least it shows that SMOKE DEFLECTORS REALLY DO WORK! MAQ03960 copy.m4v

Ten o'clock this morning saw me risking my life on the single lane bridge over the railway at the summit of the long climb to Mile Post 31 on the London and South Western Railway mainline. Why, well, the Engine of Engines, "Merchant Navy" Class 35028 was heading a VSOE Pullman to Bath. This is the last 20 seconds to the top - I filmed her for the previous minute as the line is straight here. You may wonder why I didn't show the whole train. I stopped videoing, hoping to get a "going away" shot, but when I turned round, the deep cutting was literally filled with steam from the hard-working loco!!! Enjoy, it's worth 20 seconds! MAQ03957 copy.m4v

Hear, hear! A lot of (interesting) wagon for your Bucks!

Under ones like these at Clara, I assume. The Ranks siding. IRRS St Pat's Day Tour 1963. Lance King Collection Copyright Irish Railway Record Society

Emm? Thinking out loud ......... This is a "H" Van with bits. I had thoughts of doing one as an easy win based on my H Van kit. BUT, I did the H van first! Have I missed an announcement? So, we know what's next ..... I wanted them, so: Order in, 9 minutes after announcement - am I the first? Good luck with them. Good choice.

Definitely! That was the non-stop schedule some years ago (might have been the 1980s when the track wasn't as good as now?). Then they added in all the stops! I footplated an 071 with the late Willie Graham, when, despite his reputation as a bit of a tearway, he drove with exemplary professionalism, even slowing where he knew there were bad bits of track. We did it easily. Bring back the 071s?

Indeed! An interloper in 1963! Lance King Colllection, Copyright IRRS

Thanks, Derek, for the good reference! The layout is coming on very well! Keep it up. Leslie

Thanks for these lovely views. John D saw things others ignored. Enjoy "Port" - my family spent endless holidays there when I had no money. Not sure about the caravan - we used a flat on South Harbour - 50 yards from breakfast table to the first coach of the 10am train! Happy (often very wet) days!