Broithe

'Royal' Mail is a commercial service, in the sense that it was privatised a decade ago. The UK government did retain a minority shareholding for a while, but I believe that they sold those entirely around 2015. It retains the use of the brand, although its real name is International Distribution Services plc.

The landing of Lady Agnes on a less-then-perfect runway, to go into retirement at the Museum in Stolin, takes some beating.

Whilst the two chauffeurs up front in a Vulcan had ejection seats, the three in the back didn't and were supposed to calmly exit via the hatch, in the traditional manner. Even in the early days, when high flying was still the norm, this was not easy and, when low-level, ground-following flights became the norm, it was basically impossible. Even if you did get out in time, the ground would not be very far away. There was an attempt at creating an ejection system for the back three. The centre seat would be fired first, then the outer two would be pulled, in sequence, to the central position, and then fired out. This test rig was built, but I doubt it got any further than that and was unlikely to have ever been fitted to an aircraft.

I've seen it before. Once when looking for a replacement door mirror glass. Initially both left-hand and right-hand ones were the same price, about a tenner. Then the left-hand one suddenly went up by a hundred quid. I asked the vendor if this was a mistake - No, that was the last left-handed one, and somebody might be desperate...

Mine are the ones for posh people.

The hinge issue had started before I 'inherited' them and I can live with it. If you look closely at the top picture above, you can see that one of the cable hooks (I presume?) has been knocked off (on the nearest trestle), but that is no issue at all.

Those Stanley plastic trestles are great things. I got a pair of the wider variety, from clearing out a friend's father's garage. They've turned out to be far more useful than I expected. Being plastic, they're much happier outside for extended periods than wooden or steel ones would be and the notches are very handy for an 'open table' set-up for sawing. Also, the slight gap at the top was a handy 'vice' for a job where I was using a lot of aluminium angle. The only issue I've had is that one of the centre hinges at the bottom is a little dodgy and opening that trestle requires a bit of care to avoid breaking things which have been bent, but won't stay back in the right place unless assisted.

A point to bear in mind, possibly - I've been 'watching' an item (not model or railway related) that I might get around to obtaining at some point. It was a 'Buy It Now' for £27:89. He's down to the last few and has nudged the price up to £127:89, possibly in the hope that the last few are snapped up by people who might not notice the 1..?

When Ford supplied Regan's iconic Consul for use in The Sweeney, there was an understanding that Transits would be the only Ford vehicles that were used by villains.

This has reminded me that I am putting great efforts into getting people to try this tactic for reducing fly activities. https://www.farmersjournal.ie/cows-painted-with-zebra-stripes-repel-flies-research-744389#:

Handy Tip. Use any spare scenic materials for carriage interiors.

You'll have seen this picture?

As if DARTs weren't hard enough to do already...

In my circles, although model railways were generally much less prevalent than in the general population, due to the annual migrations of RAF life, the likelihood of being in Germany for a while led to continental stuff having a much higher profile - although, Marklin products were generally associated with officers' kids.

https://www.facebook.com/thewandererphotos/posts/pfbid02LcjLhJsusQxuGBdaVoMawoeNdTFRdk2HZz2Lmr9pe11EAwaWGNDWbpCNPTN8hQpyl

Duty completed.

The Damned released an LP called Strawberries. The cover had a "scratch'n'sniff" facility - the released odour was described by the reviewer in NME, with 100% accuracy, as being like "a toddler had thrown up a whole packet of Opal Fruits".

'Personal' buildings can be a very attractive proposition. I did a layout for a housebound chap years ago and the Scenecraft bungalow was remarkably similar to his own place - so we attached a car port to make it more obvious and we also established a rule that he was required to put the bins out on the layout on the appropriate days.

He's actually been around for a while, but it was only today that I realised I hadn't seen him mentioned on here. I was distracted by thoughts of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Indeed, quality items, without a doubt. On an intercultural note, I suspect, though I could be wrong, that Gabor is his 'family name' - it is standard to present your name in the "family name, given name" order in the Hungarian world. But, of course, he may have reversed the order to 'fit in', much as some of us do over pronunciations when dealing with the natives on the Big Island.

He hasn't signed in on here in nearly two years, I think.