PhilJ W

Morning all from Estuary-Land. When I checked my Facebook messages this morning one of my friends was reminiscing about the works 'Beano', that pretty soon became a 'Bring back the beano' thread. The only misgiving I have about bringing back the beano is that with the same people today would require more P stops. You will always see a few of the extreme 'looney left' at most political/strike situations but far fewer than appears on TV and in the newspapers as much of the media goes out of their way to film and/or photograph them. At the other extreme some of the comments from the 'raving right' are sickening. IMHO the response of the authorities in the aftermath of this disaster was totally inadequate and there can be many reasons for that not all of them political. It looks like another scorcher today so I'm going to stay in the shade and do as little as possible.

And perhaps Hornby could do an E4, which was basically a 2-4-0 J15.

Some are rarer than others, the Rambler followed by the Cresta estate are the rarest, the Victor 101 is not at all common either but does pop up now and then. Other models in the range are a Simca and Thames 400E van and Hillman Imp, not common but not too rare either, and a Sunbeam Alpine which is very common. Also in the range is a caravan and a builders trailer. The caravan is a small one suitable for the smaller cars. The builders trailer which is quite rare utilised the caravan base. An odd item in the range is a single deck bus, its scale is somewhere between TT and N scale, probably because it uses the stamped alloy wheels of the cars. I have two of the 1100 models in unusual colours, one is in a deep maroon colour and the other is black, I have never seen any others in those colours in the range.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that the tool bar on my computer had disappeared, well it just as mysteriously reappeared a couple of days ago. No idea what happened but the reappearance coincided with an update from Windows 10. I've also gotten into the habit of switching off at the mains to prevent overcharging the battery. I examined the extension lead and found a build up of fluff under the switch that wouldn't switch off, its now apparently working perfectly and theres no sign of damage or burning but I'm having it checked out before using it again. Looks as if the weekend is going to be a scorcher so I hope all who can have a POETS day today. So long for now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Its about time there were some decent GER locomotives.

There used to be a lot of pavement parking near to my home, made worse by the worst offenders parking right opposite a T junction. Then it stopped quite suddenly. I heard though the grapevine that someone had 'keyed' the cars parked in that fashion and when one car owner reported it he got a ticket from the council for parking on the pavement.

Probably to complicated. Cars were made with the same suspension system as the model T Ford for over 50 years. If something broke it was easy to repair without sophisticated tools.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Got piles of stuff for the charity shop, mostly books and clothes. As you would expect very little good news coming out of the disaster in Kensington though a baby thrown from the ninth or tenth foor was caught by someone and only suffered a few bruises. Senior politicians of all colours visited the site today, even those who would not have had any responsibility over the affair were given short shrift by the residents. TM visited but did not speak to any survivors, probably in view of the reception other politicians got probably as advised by her security people. JC wasn't harranged as other members of his party were but I would describe his reception as cool.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I have just had the 'battery overcharged' warning flag up on my laptop again so I checked and the switch was 'off' on the socket. I pulled the plug out as apparently the socket must have a fault, not as bad as it sounds as the socket is on an extention lead as the computer lead will not reach the mains socket. I have an unused extention lead and that will be replacing the other one which will be scrapped. On the subject of landlords, I live on an ex public housing estate and almost every house that comes on the market is snatched up by one particular (overseas) landlord who fails to maintain the properties properly with things like broken fences and peeling paint being common. A similar two bedroom property to mine a short distance from me had no less than 3 families living in it. When I first went to work for the London Borough in 1970 I was initially in the housing rents department and we had a few bad tenants who left properties often in a terrible state. The problem for the council was that if there was young children in the family (as there usually was) the council was compelled to re-house them. One partial solution was to rehouse them together in a few blocks of maisonettes that was a bit run down. One result was that a lot of people on the housing list would turn down a property in T*****w Gardens as it had a bad reputation. This changed when the 'Right to buy' came into force as it was no longer compulsory for councils to rehouse tenants they had evicted whatever the circumstances. That change forced such people onto the private sector resulting in an increase the amount of bad tenants in that sector.

S and M models do a 1/76 plastic kit of the Alvis Stalwart that will make a suitable load http://www.sandmmodels.co.uk/shop/new-arrivals/ Similar in construction to the JB/Airfix Bedford MK (clear plastic cab) and with some etched components.

Goodnight all.

Indeed, try wrapping steel wool around a torch battery. You can't even use certain types of batteries in smoke alarms as they react with some of the elements in the smoke detector and catch fire.

Did you make sure that you used it when flying over the terminal?

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Appauling news from North Ken, and even more appauling if what the residents are reporting is true. Cheap plastic cladding, none working fire alarms and new (plastic?) gas pipes routed down the emergency stairs! The 'Stay put' instruction came into being because of this fire, supposedly because such buildings are designed to prevent the rapid spread of fire. EDIT. Some residents are also saying that the fire was started by a fridge exploding on the fourth floor.

Goodnight all.

Many years ago a rugby playing colleague found a Mini parked across his drive, he was with a few of his rugby team mates at the time. The owner of the Mini came back to find her car balanced on a couple of dustbins.

All you need is a matchstick cut into four pieces, remove cap, place quarter matchstick in each valve and replace caps. The tyres will then deflate very slowly. Chances are they will then not have the slightest idea where it happened.

I am looking for a suitable chassis for the 00 version. The crucial dimension is the bogie centres, on the prototype that is 18 feet, 72 mm in 00 scale. Fortunately the American Bachmann HO scale GE 44-tonner switcher has a BC measurement very near to that. Only problem is that the example that I have is an earlier model with two separate power bogies rather than the more usual central motor/flywheel/cardan shaft arrangement. The later models of the GE has the more usual arrangement so I'm on the lookout for one of those. The prototype has a bogie wheelbase of 7 feet which means that the Bachmann bogies at 24.5 mm will have to be changed, shouldn't be to difficult as there are plenty of 28 mm bogies that I could use.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Andy, there are places that just do MoT's, and if its just the tyres that its failed on go somewhere else for the (cheaper?) replacements as they only have to retest on the bit that failed. I was fortunate that my employer ran an MoT test station that just done Mot's, I even found that they done minor jobs such as adjusting the handbrake for free. Regretably the workshop were they were is now a block of flats. The locomotive that I intended as a donor for its chassis is apparently an early version and the later ones are more conventional so I'm now on the lookout for a Bachmann HO gauge GE 44-ton switcher. I have seen one on E-bay but its not possible to tell from the photographs if it is one of the later ones. I see that the Facebook friend who I mentioned yesterday has removed himself or been suspended from Facebook so no problems about whether or not to 'de-friend' him. Thats it for now, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The locomotive that I thought might provide the chassis for the 3D printed body is totally unsuited. I had assumed that it would be as most American outline models have a centrally mounted motor/flywheel with cardan shaft drive to gear towers on the bogies. Instead this one has a T shaped casting with two separate motor bogies suspended from the arms of the T. Each motor bogie has its own flywheel and gears and they are wired together to give eight wheel pick up. Not suitable for my locomotive but ideal for a model tramcar IMHO. So the search goes on for a suitable chassis, at least I know what to look for.

The LHD ones went the other way to the Ukraine.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I opened up my Facebook page earlier and I was surprised to learn that one of my Facebook friends has been prosecuted as a pervert. I might add that his joint interest has nothing to do with railways or modelling. His offence was encouraging adolescent girls to remove their shoes so that he could fondle their feet. Now I have to decide whether or not to 'unfriend' him.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. As others have said its nice to hear from Debs and I hope that Johns upcoming treatment is successful. I went to the toy fair yesterday specifically to look for a donor chassis for a 3D printed locomotive body but I was unsuccesful. The crucial dimension was the bogie centres, 72 mm, on arrival home I picked up an old model locomotive that appeared to small and decided to measure it, and it turned out to be 72mm bogie centres. The only drawback is the bogies are too short at 24.5 mm whereas I require 28 mm wheelbase but as the 'donor' is a Bachmann America product it shouldn't be difficult to find replacements. I will test it first to see if it will fit and what modifications are neccessary before changing the bogies. Thats it for now, be back later.