Hroth

The EP model displayed in the original announcement 18 months ago (see post #5 in this thread!!!) was all over silver coloured and gave the impression that it might be diecast, but I recall reading elsewhere that its just the chassis and running plate thats diecast. We'll find out in a couple of weeks time...

When it breaks cover, I'm waiting for the slings and arrows....... sidles off, whistling nonchalantly

Yep Buy and rectify the errors or Buy and leave alone. You think there might be a third choice?

The Stephensons really didn't like ancient monuments getting in their way. The Chester and Holyhead/Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, after crossing the Dee on Robert Stephensons atrociously rubbish cast-iron bodge* ... umm ... BRIDGE, carved through the corner of the Chester city walls separating them from the Water Tower. *See coverage at the beginning of Rolts "Red For Danger". Or Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Bridge_disaster )

Of course, there is dispute about the Roman use of thumbs up/down. Its alleged that in the arena, DOWN meant to spare the loser, whilst UP meant despatch the poor devil. Soooooooooo..... You like the Dean Goods after all? (As we used to say in school - Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be. It killed the ancient Romans, and now it's killing ME!)

Coming up on the final two weeks in June and according to the BBC Weather app, its piddling down at Fort William and will continue mostly so until Monday, the prediction for the week is overcast, but it may well change quite rapidly.... Take your waterproofs! And Good Luck!

We were at the Henge in the late 60's (Last time I was there too!) Yes, then you could actually touch the stones, I've a pic of young me standing on one! I wonder how much they charge the Druids at Solstices?

Quietly, but not quite hush-hush. It had been announced that the first Goods would be delivered by the end of June, we're in the second half of the month (eeep!) and it looks like its about to happen. Batten down the hatches, tin hats on lads, etc....

Terrific stuff, its good to see such representative population of the district, especially the washerwomen who I identified immediately. The only thing against them is that they look too colourful! I don't know if you've seen the collections of Liverpool photographs published by the Bluecoat Press under the titles of "Looking Back", but in the first collection there are photos of washerwomen (pages 20, 21) from 1952 and they are invariably dressed in very "respectable" black overcoats. Page 19 shows the interior of a washhouse in 1956 where you can see that under those overcoats they wore much lighter coloured dresses. Page 18 of the collection shows women making Hornby "Princess Coronations" at Binns Road..... Thanks for sharing the ongoing work!

That would have been in Ministry of Works days, I suppose... When the MoW portfolio was "privatised" into English Heritage, the pricing structure was taken from The National Trust and has kept parallel with it ever since. There's been no change since the recent rebranding. The problem is that you get better value for money from visits to NT properties. Beeston Castle in Cheshire ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeston_Castle ) was like that, very cheap to enter (though not ever "free") but to get to the keep was a terrific climb from the gatehouse!

If it had been: "But we'll always have Carlisle..." We could have tapped into a proper railways meme!

And in the final scene, the two heros walk into the mist, to cross the moors into Lancashire. (after one has dropped a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale into a wastebin.....)

C'mon Andy, we NEED a "Groan" emoticon......

Men in sheds..... tbh most of my Bachmann locos are very ordinary green and blue 25s, 20s.and 08s. And a maroon Wickham trolley. And a green (1957 livery) 10001. Apart from that, I've an old wobbly 4-6-0 4MT, and the Coal Tank.

AND the Daily Mail, two rather politically separate newspapers today! The Mirror was originally published as a paper aimed at the female readership, hence the name.

My grandmother had a set, which I assume were originally owned by her father (who btw knew Frank Hornby) and I have them still. Everything you needed to know in 1906 England! I have the feeling that though they are huge bound volumes, they were originally published as partworks as you never get a complete treatment of any particular subject, but the breadth of subject covered is tremendous, including languages, various branches of shopkeeping, the different opportunities in the civil service, even building and operating railways... ANd thats what I can remember without popping downstairs to refer to a random volume. What I do regret is my parents chucking a complete, early, set of Arthur Mees Childrens Encyclopedia. One of the illustrations I recall is that of "Electricity in the Home", which included a maid ironing in the kitchen and children playing with an electric train set, both powered off ceiling light sockets. I don't think the train had a step-down transformer either...

But its PRETTY!!!! As for the popcorn, I'll stick to a crate of cider and we'll see how many bottles have to be consumed before it looks "acceptable" Hmmm... Perhaps all model railway magazine reviews should include a bottle index, the less the better....

Yes - the number on the cab side and early crest are still visible! (Unlike what you did to that poor Hall...)

Looking at the bottom of the box, under "Battery Operated" it says "Adult assembly required". Ok, this probably refers to the batteries, but it sends mixed messages to parents. Its been noted above that the Marklin offering is wireless controlled, but what you also have to factor in is that as well as the working headlight that Hornby offers, the Marklin train also has sound effects and magnetic coupling, rather than a fragile bit of plastic. Hornby wants £40 for this, its possible to find the Marklin set for about £15 more. If I were in the market for a starter train set, I think I'd gravitate towards the competition.... So. Apart from a P4 upgrade, who's going to be first to put decent couplings on one, and perhaps add some realistic weathering?

I'll put forward the Webb Coal Tank, a beautiful little loco!

Back to the trestle legs for a minute. The ebay legs I ordered last week finally arrived, they'd been Yodellised, so I suppose I was lucky to get them at all! For things that worked out at £11.20 each (inc delivery), they turned out better than I thought they might. They look reasonably similar to those stocked by B&Q, the main point that indicates lower quality being the brackets on the chromed cross-bar that steadies the top of the frame (Not the variable height trestle crossbar!). These are badly formed and the tack weld on one has already given way. On the B&Q example this is a much better piece of continuous welding along the whole seam! Apart from that, they are perfectly adequate for supporting model railways and I'll probably re-engineer the brackets myself in the fullness of time!

Bless you!

Nice church, as soon as I saw the remains of the round tower, I thought Saxon, and the Wikipedia entry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Nicholas%27_Church,_Feltwell ) does say the foundation was about 683, so Bingo!

Nice 52xx! And, umm the....... Whips out copy of EyeSpy Hun Kites nice AA recognition model of a Flying Pencil!

I have trouble too, and I'm ME!