SRman

Great videos Peter M. Wishing you, Leanne and Abbey a very Happy Christmas. Also Peter B and his family too. Awww, what the heck ... and to everyone else reading this too.

As if I need more rolling stock, I have been doing another quick kit-build, this time it's a Parkside BR/SR plywood sided CCT, which were actually built in BR days to the same basic design as the previous SECR and Southern Railway versions. I pre-painted the sides before assembly to allow easier adding of the window glazing and bars. The bars are just plastic micro-strip, although the thicker ones are actually a fraction too wide, but they were the closest I could get. The first pic shows it in a raw state, with a few bits still to add, while the second shows it in nearly complete form awaiting a few paint touch-ups and some transfers. This gives me yet another minor variation on the SECR/SR style CCTs and PMVs.

The hook turns work fairly well and keep the tram tracks clear. They take a little getting used to, but they are logical when you see how they work. The Harold Holt Memorial Pool is in East Malvern. The primary school in that suburb was my first school in Australia, in 1966, but only for a short spell while my family found more permanent accommodation.

That's sad. He did have quite a good singing voice.

Well, Porcy's is! Mine was hard-wired, so doesn't quite fill the criteria for being DCC-ready.

I pre-ordered each of those SECR C class variations, because they fitted with my pre-grouping southern area anyway, not for any collectability reasons. I also got this for nostalgic reasons with a little bit of collectability in mind as well. It doesn't necessarily have to be valuable to be collectable.

You might enjoy Eric Sykes mostly silent "Mr H is Late" - one copy of it is here on Youtube, but there are others of the same thing (quality may vary, so look around to find the best one): https://youtu.be/F48xci7h2PE

Already covered at length in this earlier topic "Why is sound so expensive?": http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121573-why-is-sound-so-expensive/?hl=%2Bwhy+%2Bdo+%2Bsound+%2Bchips+%2Bcost+%2Bso+%2Bmuch#entry2675847

Not quite a Hastings unit, but I do have a nearly completed 'tadpole class 206 unit from DC Kits (one-third of a Hastings unit plus an ex-EPB driving trailer!). The kit plastic used is ABS so needs a strong solvent to work properly when building. I have used a Black Beetle motor bogie to power the 3-car unit.

Strawberry Fields!

I'm not convinced by the 'lack of space' argument. I fitted a TCS M1 decoder, which is both smaller and better than Hornby's 4-pin decoder. I wired the TCS decoder to the 4-pin "blanking" plug, but the space reserved for the 4-pin plug and blank could fit a small 6-pin plug and decoder. I'm not sure if that would also fit in the space at the front of the motor reserved for the wired decoder. I would hasten to add, I know that not all 6-pin decoders would fit - some are too long - but at least it would give a wider choice of decoders rather than being captive to Hornby for the one and only 4-pin decoder on the market.

I always think Grimsby is such a lovely name for a place. "Where did you go for your holidays?" "Grimsby!" "Uh .. yeah, great!"

Reminds me of when i was still living in Brisbane. I was in the Falcon Hardtop and Landau Club, and a guy from South Oz moved up there with his XC Falcon Cobra. It had been lowered to within an inch of its life, and had an extra deep spoiler on the front. All us locals said "that spoiler is not going to last long on Brisbane's roads!". Sure enough, two weeks later he came to a meeting minus his front spoiler. One of Brisbane's 'spoon drains' had claimed another victim!

Melbourne's roads are better than many I have encountered in Australia. That's the only thing that (partly) saves us from our terrible drivers!

My Manor used to run well, once I loosened the baseplate screws slightly. I haven't tested or run this model for some years now, but it may be a candidate for conversion to DCC eventually.

Brossard, that's some serious underframe detailing. Superb work. Francoes, I have just yesterday started a PC47 kit myself. I am only sticking to the basic underframe detailing myself. Mine is in later BR(S) green, and I have pre-painted the sides to allow easier fitting of the window glazing. For all of my past such kits (planked versions), I have used plastic microstrip sections of two different widths to add the window bars. I have painted the interior a pale grey, although in earlier days it may have been a buff or pale brown colour. I'll look forward to seeing your finished models.

I put our Christmas tree up yesterday. It remains undecorated to allow the cats to get used to it (it's their very first Christmas), although SWMBO (against my advice!) put four new items she had bought on it. Sykes almost immediately took one off again, and later pulled another one off, then nearly had the tree over by pulling on the remaining string from that second decoration. Today, Hattie went over and investigated the tree, then lay under it for a spell. Note how her tail almost blends with our Danish pine cone Father Christmas. The two remaining gold snow flake shapes are just visible to the right below the tree. I'll decorate it properly and put the lights on it in the next day or two.

The new 'European' Holden Commodore doesn't look too bad, and the starting price is reasonable. I had to laugh at the press release, though: it said that Holden weren't just putting the European model on our market, they had made a few tweaks to the suspension to suit our "slightly rougher roads".

I won't get to see Season 2 until it hits the free-to-air channel. As such, I can expect a few spoilers along the way!

I disagree: it's a good reason to come over here, saddle one up and muster some cattle!

The tinnies are getting smaller!

As promised earlier, I took a file to the pipework under the cab of the DJ Models J94, slimming them down to good effect.

there are a couple of low bridges around Melbourne's rail system where there are frequent strikes. One is at Dynon. A friend tells the story of one such hit by a container lorry, which got wedged under the bridge. The driver swore that he had been under the bridges many times in the past with no incidents. the difference this particular time was that there were two C class diesel locomotives, each weighing approximately 135 tons, sitting on the bridge at the time! The deflection under their weight made all the difference.

That's just the all-stations version of the BP!

So that headline was written by Mrs Slocombe!