Broithe

You need secondary codenames, like Cheese Slice and Little Drummer Boy.

Turn the volume up to 11 for this -

I was unaware that I was under surveillance. I've been hiding in the Shed - and I generally have a rather lower profile in morning periods...

A difficult modelling prospect - the paint job on the piano would be hard enough, but getting a sound chip and a decent speaker into it would be much worse.

Does anybody here know..?

Bigger image -

Wikipedia says that they included the 'Saxby' name in their title until 1935, so after that, if true.

Combine two hobbies into one space? It's fairly high at the back, I wonder if they turned the mains off?

"Years ago", there was 'Metalskin', sort of adhesive foil, that did give a fine effect. I'm not sure if it's still around, Google comes up with all sorts of "matches" that aren't it - the aircraft boys may know? Humbrol also did some 'burnishable' paints, that were pretty good, but took some work to get right, especially on large areas.

A handy reference for those thinking of populating their carriages.

A common issue in the weeks after Christmas...

A friend walks past this in Birmingham most days, and finally knows what it is now. A building clearly inspired by Gerry Anderson. https://ichoosebirmingham.com/inside-new-street-signal-box?fbclid=IwAR2BWPTe70mwa-Pc39mQjFBAgXS5wZv8GgGa3qYS5vnJGbR-RK7Mr__w4O8

Talk elsewhere about supplying military bases by rail, has reminded me of an event in the 80s. The Stafford-Uttoxeter line was closed to 'public' traffic in the 50s, but a spur remained, connecting RAF Stafford to the main line, just north of Stafford station - this ran on into the mid-70s, and the station had a fairly extensive internal rail system. RAF Stafford was built in the 30s, just in time for the main event and was a supply site - amusingly, for an RAF Station, it had no runways, any air transport in or out was by helicopters only. This led to an amusing event at an air display there in the late 80s. Various aircraft performed their activities much as would be expected, except for one... A USAF KC-135 tanker was due to whizz by over the crowd a few times, but he didn't seem to be arriving on cue, then people realised that he could be seen, four or five miles away, beyond the top of the hill, performing his display, at the end of which he trundled off southwards, back to Fairford. It was clear what had happened, although there were very strenuous official denials of this. He had drifted up from Fairford, to where this Stafford place should be, but had then been misled by spotting the runways of ex-RAF Hixon, clearly visible below and in 'nearly the right place', this, plus the full car parks of the adjacent industrial estate had convinced him that this was the intended venue. I presume he got home alright...

"How have you sinned, my son?" "I painted the chassis of a wagon with black paint." "That is a mortal sin, for which you will burn in the fires of Hell for eternity. - but, at least you haven't posted photos upside down..."

And there would need to be the right number of stations on the layout.

The pictures were always better on the radio... https://www.rte.ie/archives/2022/1206/1340239-amiens-street-at-christmas/

Some people have started on the cake here, already.

A friend's father had an old Zephyr - old, even in the late 1970s, but he loved it. It needed some new sills and it was going to be done by a mate of his, who ran a back-street garage behind his house in Stoke on Trent. The work was dragging on and he decided to call in when he was passing, to chivvy things along a bit. As he entered the back gate, he saw his car being worked on, just at the moment that the torch went through the fuel line, and the whole thing escalated quickly... Rather than enter into any pointless discussions, he ran to a phone box to summon the fire brigade, as the yard was full of 'potential fuel', other cars, acetylene cylinders, etc. This was in the early days of computerisation and, as he described the location of the fire as 'a garage', he was asked "Is this a domestic garage or a commercial one?" As he was going to pay for the work he said "Commercial" This caused the system to identify the location as a Texaco petrol station a hundred yards away and despatched every appliance in the city, plus a couple for back-up from Chester...

Cars on lifts always reminds me of a friend's Escort van. It was a bit 'rough' and, when it went for its MOT, the chap refused to even stand under it... He took advantage of the local paper's cheap small ads promotion, to try to sell it for £50. It was a four-week run of adverts, but he had not a single call after three weeks. Almost as a joke, I suggested putting it in at £300 for the last advert, to see if there was a "you get what you pay for" customer out there. On the day the final advert appeared, the phone was ringing as he got home. "Is the van still available?:" "Yes." "Great, I'll be round in half an hour!" He arrived, had a quick look at the van - it was driveable, but it was clear that its days were numbered. "That doesn't matter, I've taken on a six week contract and it only needs to last that long", he said, as he handed over £300 in cash. "I'm glad I got here in time, I've been looking for a month, but there's only been rubbish for fifty quid."

There is a clock in Belgium that will take 25,800 years for one of the dials to rotate once. http://discoveringbelgium.blogspot.com/2012/06/zimmer-tower-in-lier-worlds-slowest.html

And Meccano, of course, although I had the Trix system - similar enough, but presumably metric...