Mike 84C

Well,well Steve another East Midlander! Tugs, a rather more attractive loco than a certain American GE machine! I remember the railway at Stapleford Park rather good it was, is it still there? As I understand the hotel has filed for bankruptcy. I only discovered the railway when I delivered a load of heating oil to the hotel and had a mooch about because it was lunch time. I do hope the railway is not in any danger.

Hey!, Mol welcome to the forum I'm sure you will enjoy it here. And as Whizz said to me "thats a curve ball" !!

Using the slacker pipe was always a good plan but its difficult to avoid getting wet when running tender first, a sort of angled line of splash across the coal often worked. being hit in the face by fling slack or small coal is not pleasant. Going home as dirty as possible was not the name of the game and you did get a bit of derision/dark humour in the crew mess room, which was where you normally washed up. Or in a bucket on the engine. Writing this now it all seems so crude and with no regard for your employees but that's just the way it was. At least we did'nt have to sleep in damp beds and damp clothes in hostels. No lodging turns at our depot.

Tender first running was very unpleasant, NOTHING worse than any ex Western engine on a cold raining day. just nowhere to get away from the elements in those cabs. Even engines with high tenders were not much better as the wind would blow through the tender doors under the shovel like a gale. When I drove on the Festiniog there were some of the hair shirt brigade who thought it great fun to take the tender cab off Linda, I just thought they were playing trains.

Looks like you had a good weekend Ernie, not surprised your WHR journey took longer with K1 only two blow ups! I only drove it a couple of times and thought it a very poor tool. But its being asked to do much more than it was designed for. Best place for it is in a museum, Statfold will do! Nice to see the boiler tubes I donated to 30yrs ago used at last on 134.

Meanwhile here on Big Island. Advised yesterday delivered today! 12/10/24 at lunch time. Very pleased with my five coaches the detail is first class and all the wheels go round and the middle ones also go side to side, excellent! Wish I had bought more!!

House insurance also covers me, except if individual items have a value above £2.5k. There are specialist brokers who advertise in the hobby magazines, one I believe is based in Newark Notts; Magnet Insurance 01636-858249 www.modelrailwayinsurance.co.uk Info taken from Hornby Mag; March 24. I have no idea how it would work if you are not in the UK, a question to ask. Hope this helps.

JHB that could only be "hey yoof" Bunny Lewis! Now sadly passed away. He was a great bloke to work with and ex Marine.

Have a good time at the FR gala hope the weather is good for you. I have'nt been to FR gala for24yrs! Still a bit of a cloud there for me! I hope to see 134 running whilst I can still walk! But, not that I did much at FR galas in the past, much prefered to put things in place so the lads could have their moments of glory.

Paid for mine last week, not had a shipping date yet. As Metrovik says probably overwhelmed, just have to be chilled about it all.

Tractionman, you are so right and it does work well. We used Kaydee couplings which may have been a mistake. They worked fine but under baseboard magnets need to be quite powerful and the steel axles on the rolling stock just obeyed the laws of magnetism! At times I felt we needed non rolling stock!. seems daft to fit pinpoint axles and have a piece of foam rubbing said axle. Not that these are mountains for a new owner to climb.

Jim, be happy neither of us come with the layout as bogof's.

Sleaford Model Railway club has decided to sell its model of Bantry. I understand its on ebay and was /is on the facebook sales site. Just a heads up in case any of you want a ready built West Cork terminus. Its DCC wired with simple manual point control, powered signals scratch built and a powered turntable. there are always more details to add! But a general inertia has set in so its time for the layout to go. Any purchaser will have to supply their own control system and rolling stock. And these comments above are my own and posted to help the layout go to a good home. Please feel free to check out the club website.https://sites.google.com/site/sleafordmrc/ regards Mick

I would very much like a J5, a repainted LMS 4f just does not do it for me! Only fly in the ointment , is the chimney out, with the brass bar and the Uni-Mat.

Well Gibbo, I read your post several times but struggled a bit because I do not know the original premise which they are written about. I thought I had a good command of English but you lost me there mate! Is this book destined to be a best seller? Mick

But the Bantry oil depot seems to only have rail access, the oil was loaded for customer delivery from standpipes between the station buildings and the goods shed.

Went to the Nuremburg Toy Fair defo in the last century! But the auto train announcements on the U-Bahn had a very Germanic tone. I can hear it now!!

Gosh, those houses flashed me back to the North Oxfordshire village I lived in. Very 1960.

I also read that piece about unlagged backheads on GSR engines. I believe that amongst the last unlagged ones on BR were the ex LNW Super D's no experience of them! All that I went on were lagged.

Very rustic, love the grass effect almost good enough to mow! Looks like a little diversion into narrow gauge, enjoy!

Gibbo, I was aiming for a B2 from a B1! but it did'nt cut the mustard. If the boiler was higher the whole thing looked to stubby/short and lifting the boiler made the body a lot weaker. John, spot on with the 201 from the Hornby J 83? its the ex NBR model. Daft as it sounds the inspiration was the chimney I thought it looked very GSR'ish and I worked back from there! The cab roof was quite difficult to form with no wrinkles in it.

David, I'm 90% certain you are right about Halfords and acrylics. I have had some success with Games Workshop paints their Audubon Black in a rattle can is very good.

I have posted all these years ago!! but here's a couple more. The van is a tarted up Parkside PalVan and the last one is one that didnt make the transition and got filed in the parts bin!

Maybe there has to be a move away from pure cost benefit /will it make a profit? To a social benefit model this side of the water I'm not sure there's the political vision to make it happen.

Here's a couple of pictures of my three diesels. The B101 has moved more than the photo shows, its now got windows and is transfered up and just need window wipers and a good dose of oil, muck etc; over its body! Cutting the windows from plastic Ferro Rocher boxes was very tedious! But is better than the vac-formed windows of the Silverfox kits. The Sulzer kit is from that man Weshty! All run on Hornby motor bogies and chassis but no old pancake motors!