Broithe

This has appeared today.

It has got to the point now, where I don't like to induce him to go up there, just in case - but, if the opportunity presents itself, then I'll try to get some recent pictures. All I currently have is these few from ten years ago. The 'well' seen in the first three pictures is a sidetrack off the access tunnel.

A friend of mine has a layout in the large part of his loft, but the access is via the roof of a small extension, where the height is such that you have to flop sideways from the hatch, then proceed to crawl along a tunnel, about eight or ten feet long. It's all a bit "Great Escape". He is in his eighties now and only ventures up there for at least half a day at a time, it's too much effort to just nip up for a few minutes. We have gently mentioned what might happen if he ever has a 'turn' up there. We do have a cave rescue team about 30 miles away...

It might help to stop instances like this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-45144054 - and other ones where people are "suspected" of terrorism offences.

There seems to have been a failure at Greystones..?

Or August...?

Some organisations go through phases where, if something ends up in desperate need of some paint, it gets painted with whatever paint is in general use in the vicinity at the time.

Maybe have alternative backscenes? The effect was really rather depressing on that one..

I did come across a Welsh one, with glowering skies, rather than the usual fluffy clouds on a blue background.

I volunteered to try to find some B&Bs in a particular village in Wales, before the internet, etc. I rang the post office, on the basis that they would have a good idea of what was going on. "There's only two and neither of them do it all year" "That's OK, can I have the addresses?" "Jones, Main Street" "And the other one?" "Jones, Main Street" At which point I laughed - "You can laugh! I have to deliver the bloody mail round here..."

It did come with a bookmark insert suggesting several other Oakwood books, including one on the Launceston Branch - suggesting that you could be right and that this forgery may have originated in north/central Tasmania.

Well, I have finally obtained a copy of Rails to Achill. It arrived here just now and a quick look through it would suggest that some study periods may need to be allocated in a systematic manner. One thing that I quickly noticed, however, is that my copy may actually be just that - a counterfeit edition. I have had a good look through it now, and I can't find a single one of the pictures upside down.

Brick nerds have their uses... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/brick-fingerprint-builds-crime-case-steve-boggan-on-an-academic-breakthrough-that-helped-to-cement-1463848.html

This? http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,588882,739883,1,10

There are people with layouts on boards smaller than one of those floors.

Like this - each time the radius reduces as you move away from the straight, you move the centre up the radius line at the end of the preceding circle, and draw the new part of the curve - and then repeat, until you are happy.

The transition from straight to curved shouldn't be just straight into the final radius - it needs to be staged, or flared, in a 'French curve" manner - it looks and runs much better if you do that. You can create virtually the same effect by having a series of short circular curves running on from one another. Flexi-track can give you a much better arrangement than set-track will. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_curve

With flexi-track, you can largely do what you want, as long as your vehicles will cope with the radii that you end up with. It is worth, though, carefully 'flaring' things together.

I'm liking the filing cabinet - the shallow-drawer ones are so handy for tool storage - much easier than rummaging around in toolboxes. I have several, of various depths. I would be lost without them now. You can arrange things systematically and it's easy to locate the right drawer and then find the item required. And you can reorder the drawers, if there are changes or additions to your 'system'. Drawers can be subdivided, if necessary, too. Highly recommended. There were people selling similar paint-storage arrangements via the model magazines in the 1980s - I have a punched steel one, where the shelves with 16 tinlets on each could be removed from a cabinet that holds four shelves.

In the 70s, there wouldn't be many trucks go past before there was a Hino.

I'm not getting involved! This could be the start of a slippery slope.

As noted elsewhere just now - even the big boys hit the stops now and then...

They may be consubstantial, of course, but we may be straying towards religious territory here. If we are, then @murrayecstarted it.

Saint Eoin, the patron saint of collectors.

Mmm, it looks like somebody has possibly had a slight tap on the right-hand one there - the first few supplementary clamps have been 'nudged together'...