PhilJ W

Check out the 'On Track Plant' website. I think there was a similar narrow gauge crane in use at one time but today hydraulic cranes of the Atlas or Hymec types used on lorries are used.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny here this morning but heavy showers/thunderstorms predicted for later. When I first went to Germany in the 70's it was to the wine growing region between the Rhine and the Mosel. One of the favourite tipples of the locals was the local vino mixed with mineral water so I decided to give it a try. During the night however someone sneaked in and nailed my head to the pillow using six inch nails and I couldn't move it without it hurting, so I stuck to the beer after that. Now we know why Hippo's are the most dangerous animals in Africa.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Club night tonight and one of our long term members had found a pic of one of our meetings of about 19 years ago and there centre stage was yours truly, not a grey hair in sight and a lot more of it (except for the face as I was beardless back then). At the time we didn't have a clubroom and we were meeting in the club treasurers shed which was full of his layout which made it a bit cramped to say the least, if all the 16 members we had at the time showed up at the same time no one would be able to move.

In the UK we have an extra layer of protection in that any credit card losses due to third party fraud is down to the provider not the card holder, but only if its all within the UK and there is an upper limit.

Thanks Pete, I don't normally use my debit card on the internet but both of my two credit cards are due for renewal in the next month or so and I'm expecting the replacements any time now. As the silver plate had worn badly on the numbers of my credit card making it difficult to read them it took two attempts to enter the correct number. I don't even 'do' internet banking for security reasons.

AndyB's mentioning of the potatoes sprouting reminded me of the time when I was younger and living with my mum and dad, we had a wonderful crop of potatoes from the compost heap. My brother tended to hack potatoes rather than peel them, often reducing them to half their size, it was those peelings that had sprouted on the compost heap producing a bumper crop. The only slight problem was potato plants springing up in some flower beds where the compost had been used afterwards.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had a not very successful trip into town yesterday. The main reason for the trip was to go to WH Smiths for the latest edition of Railway Bylines that should have been on the shelves on the 31st of March, only there was no sign of it. I managed to locate an assistant who looked it up for me only to discover that WH Smiths head office had decided to no longer stock it at the local branch. This left me with a problem as the nearest other stockist would be another WH Smiths at either Southend or Lakeside. I decided then to take out a subscription which I did succeed in doing despite the website requiring you to sign in and giving details of education, birthmarks etc., I only want to take out a magazine subscription for chrissake, not seeking employment with MI5! Even then their system decided that my debit card that is not due to expire until 2020 had expired, I eventually got the subscription set up using a credit card. I then had to phone the magazine publishers (the subscriptions are handled by an agency) as the subscription will not start until next month to get the current copy, this at least went perfectly, the chap on the other end was extremely helpful when I told him my tale of woe, even sending the said copy post free. Still no news of Jock but I recall he said last time that he had said that even if the worse happened his family had instructions on how to let us know so its hopefully a case of no news is good news.

Goodnight all.

Modern marker lights flash hundreds of times a second and will sometimes appear to be unlit in photographs. This also has the effect of making them appear to flash in moving pictures.

It was indeed, though some of the rolling stock was modified/painted for the film as can be seen by the villains austerity locomotive with fake side tanks and the brake van marked 'BR' so it cannot be considered reliable.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Going to nip into town earlyish today before the predicted thunderstorms arrive. The lack of any news from Clacton is indeed a bit worrying and we can only hope for some good news soon. The mention of 'jingle-mail' reminded me of some people I know who are still suffering the effects of negative equity, I fortunately was able to make changes to my mortgage arrangements and just managed to escape that trap. Be back later.

Goodnight all.

I have seen an old copy (50's) of MRN that had a 00 scale drawing of one of these cranes.

There were at least two Sentinel crane locomotives but with a longer wheelbase and an even longer frame. These were LNER numbers 773044 and 773066. These had open sided cabs with lower roofs to accomodate the Jib. Another interesting version was a 2' 6" gauge 0-6-0 version that was virtually identical to the standard locomotive above the running plate. http://www.irfca.org/~shankie/nrm/ngsentinel.jpg

Looking at the Google view it looks as if the siding is still connected to the Up Goods Loop and the connection could still be there in the undergrowth.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Quite a good day yesterday, managed to fit in both a visit to the toy fair at Rayleigh and the exhibition at Canvey. At Canvey there was a second hand book dealer where I was able to buy a couple of books, he also had a pile of old maps from the (I think) the old BR estates office at Liverpool Street. These were the old Ordinance Survey 25 inch to the mile series with any railway property coloured in on most of the maps. As the price (£10) was a bit steep I only came away with one map, of the northern part of the Romford-Upminster line just showing Emerson Park Halt. Further study showed that my old school was also on the map as well as other places that are now long gone. Another surprising fact was that the Liverpool Street line was still shown as GER and only double track together with entire streets of houses that were built after the line was Quadrupled in 1930, and the map itself was used post nationalisation. Congratulations Sherry on becoming a gran (and to Ian on becoming a step-grandad) and I hope you get better soon. No news from Jock yet, we can only hope for good news and keep our fingers crossed now.

Goodnight all.

Just watched the weather forecast, a wacking great low pressure system was sitting over the Bristol Channel/South Wales so the weather is no surprise. Its now drifting north so it should be easing.

I was listening/not listening to the radio in the car this afternoon and I'm sure I heard a song about sleeping with sheep.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A quick hallo as I'm off out shortly, as others have said, hope to hear some (good) news from Jock soon.

Its definitely a Hawk, the Snipe has more chrome trim below the headlights. I'm not sure that it is a Westy parked behind the VW in the first pic. I think its one of the more 'up market' variations of the A55/A60 model, a Riley perhaps? The vehicle in front of the Zephyr on the left appears to be an FX4 taxi as can be seen in the distance on the same side.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Looks like an early night tonight as I'm going to the exhibition at the Canvey bus museum tomorrow. Best wishes to all those who are ailing and get well soon. Goodnight all.

Good morning from Estuary-Land. A bit damp and miserable here this morning but the forecast is that it will dry out, not a lot to report otherwise. I hope Sherry is feeling better and condolences GDB on the loss of your friends husband.

Goodnight all.