TheSignalEngineer

There have been issues reported to at least R3445 Camelford.

If there isn't a problem with the track have you checked the loco isn't distorted through Mazak rot? I haven't heard of that on a B1 as yet but several locos of the same era have fallen victim to this with the chassis block twisting or the bogie going out of shape or cracking.

One I remember having which doesn't appear on the list as far as I can see was the old Trix Western. I had D1001 built from one of their self assembly kits where the underframe completely disintegrated.

For a bit of retro fun with No.2 grandson my 1958 Christmas present came out to celebrate its 63rd birthday last December. My Hornby Dublo 2-6-4T will still haul 14 Dublo coaches with stub axles round an oval with 15" radius curves on a 6' 6" x 3' table.

My SiL has just taken delivery of an electric car which was ordered last July with an estimated October delivery

The bridge and platforms were rebuilt for the electrification of the low level line

Does anyone know how long the APCM wagons lasted on the Greaves traffic? The last photo I have seen is 1953, which is a few years too early for me although I probably have enough stock to backdate that far for a running session.

Hi Andy, I'm looking at getting a 1600 and was wondering what the current situation as to mods is. Are the ones at Kernow all updated? I am a DC no feedback dinosaur at the moment, not intending to chip about 80 locos. Eric

First digital camera I used at work held 8 photos on a floppy disk.

I'm a bit in the same mode. So far I went to Liverpool, a very early restarter, and Leeds last year. They were not that busy at the time I was there, possibly because I planned it that way. This year I went to Doncaster which was busy when I arrived but eased off as time went on. Last week I was at Macclesfield. I was a bit shall I, shan't I but as I already had to drive to Longsight and Stockport for other reasons I continued to the show as I wanted some supplies from Squires who were attending. I missed out on one I was intending to go to as I didn't want to drive and the train service was so bad that weekend that it just wasn't viable to use it. Generally the layout standard has been very good although some were having technical problems after two years off the road, along with a bit of rustiness from some of the operators. Some of the smaller traders don't seem to have come back yet, although I think some are fully occupied by having developed their mail order presence. It must be attractive to those who operate in a small way to not have to spend on stands, accommodation and transport. I have about six potential visits pencilled in for the rest of the year, but it will remain to be seen what clashes with other activities and whether I am motivated to go by what layouts and traders are on offer.

When we go on trips to North Yorkshire we do some quite long rides with a lot of climbs. Usually it is two days on then one day to somewhere like Scarborough or a trip on the NYMR. I can't do the rides we used to 30 years ago like camping around the battlefields in France where we did 1000 miles in 20 days on touring bikes with front and back panniers. Longest day we did was 83 miles due to the intended site at 60 miles being somewhat naff. Fortunately the extra 23 miles was on flat, straight roads with no traffic and the reward was we only had 30 miles to cover next day.

Performance seems to be good tonight, taking some getting used to as for the last month of the old server I could go to the coffee machine and get a brew whilst waiting for the next page to come up. Re-appeared as quickly as it went off, must have got notification that the DD had actually worked. All of the one of mine that have come back so far have been in one month blocks, for example in 2020 all images are missing except for those posted in May and December. Hopefully some more will gradually reappear, and I have only put up about 50 items since the most recent that are showing now which is the ones uploaded in May 2021.

The msingle line stretch between Gibbet Hill, Coventry and Kenilworth Junction was extended in 1972 to cover Coventry to Milverton with a passing loop at Kenilworth Junction. After the closure of Kenilworth Junction to Berkswell in 1969 the line had very little traffic. The singling and resignalling was paid for by the Kenilworth Bypass road scheme as it reduced the cost of the bridge and earthworks required dramatically. Some redoubling took place to Gibbet Hill when Coventry PSB was replaced but the remainder is as done in 1972 with a few signalling tweaks I added c1979 to improve performance.

My gold membership seems to have dropped off but I am assuming that is something unrelated as the payment was due today. It has been made by the bank and is showing as paid on WOR Plus.

When we first started office backups they were on tape. There were two sets of incremental updates done on separate tapes on alternate days and stored in different locations. That way even with a major problem we never lost more than a few hours of work.

What a strange week we've had. Covid positive as I reported a few days ago and no Rmweb so modelling had to be undertaken to pass the time in the isolation wing. Suddenly the isolation wing became the staff quarters as Anne tested positive just as I was recovering, so the modelling was somewhat curtailed as domestic duties increased. Fortunately both cases were mild so now both negative and back to slightly more normal life. Bit of a bu$$er about the photos. Seems to be very random as some of my stuff from when I first joined is missing but some 2021 stuff is still there. Some I can identify so will try to put back if I get the urge to do so. Meanwhile stay safe everyone, after all the forum isn't quite a matter of life or death but has been a big support to a lot of us during a trying time.

Thanks for all your hard work. Pity about the pictures as some very useful stuff has disappeared, although looking at my attachments it seems to be random. Personally I have never trusted cloud computing and anything of mine regarded as important or of potential future use is saved twice away from any of my computers. I appreciate that isn't always possible with something of the scale of Rmweb but some very salutary lessons were learned in the early days of office computing.

I've been experimenting with these on some push pull stock and they seem very good so far. I have put the screw on type on my old Ivatt tank and the clip socket type on Airfix bogies. 2nd radius in my fiddle yard seems no problem and I think with a bit of trial and error I can get down to the buffers almost touching using the shorter types.

Well done on the stats Jim. I was always around 11 - 12st when I first started work, but too many bacon sarnies and pub lunches put me up to about 15st when I was office bound. Being back on site got me back to 12st before I retired and I have managed to keep it that way through cycling, walking and the allotment. Just keep it up now, not overdoing it but making sure you you do enough to maintain your fitness level.

The coach is in BR post-1956 livery. It is not surprising that Bachmann have not done any in LMS livery as Porthole coaches were not built until 1949-50. Only the first batch of D2159 CKs to lot 1499 carried LMS Maroon with the double lining at the top but without the LMS branding. The number was in early BR style to the left end. (Source David Jenkinson and BR works photo). Jenkinson notes that all remaining lots of Portholes were outshopped in Crimson / Cream 1949 livery. I don't know if any actually got the experimental liveries nefore the adoption of Crimson / Cream.

A session of that may well be in order for me today. I intended to do some last night but when I examined the target there was a slight shiny patch where a decal had been fixed. Got out a container of matt varnish to do a touch-in but it looked rather milky so a test strip was done which confirmed my fears. Dried matt OK but more like matt white, so my fear was justified. When I checked the label it was the Humbrol China vintage, same as my matt black which will only dry to a full gloss finish. All was well when I resorted to an old bottle of Cryla Soluble Matt Varnish which was produced by Daler-Rowney for use over artists' acrylics. He left a bottle in my kit when he moved out over 20 years ago. I've used it (the same bottle) for brush painting as a base for powder weathering across about 10 years and not had a failure yet. It's still available crom art and craft shops although I think the label has changed about three times since this lot was made. Disclaimer - I don't know what the performance of the present lot is as this bottle appears to have been made in England.

When I first read that on my phone through my usual morning brain fog I thought Bear was turning political. I misread it as 'Revenge of the Conservative Donor'. Otherwise it could be the title for the next Jeffery Archer pulp machine fodder novel.

I read an article recently about a new Russian battlefield communication system which relied on what is basically a 3G/4G mobile phone system. It was supposed to be able to save setting up lots of gear when invading a country by effectively 'Roaming' on the local network. It seems that one problem has been that nobody told the mechanised artillery how it is supposed to function and they had been taking pot-shots at the mobile phone masts as they went along, then wondering why their Deliveroo service didn't bring their food and ammunition. The Americans tried that trick after 9/11. They dropped a 10 ton bomb on a mountain cave system and blew away half of the hillside. Meanwhile Osama bin Laden had changed to a new mobile phone before shifting base and leaving his old one switched on at the cave he had been hiding in.

Years ago I remember a drunk from the local pub causing trouble at the Midnight Mass. It was before Dad became an ordained minister, he was the 'People's Warden' nominated by the congregation. The Vicar's Warden and People's Warden sat on opposite sides of the aisle in the middle of the church symbolically there to keep the population in order. His 'Badge of Office' was a rather smart black wand about 4 feet long with a polished metal globe about the size of a cricket ball on the top. Dad picks up wand and approaches the drunk who started hurling abuse and threats of violence to all and sundry. The Verger had come across and he told the drunk that it would be better if he left quietly, as although he looked a perfect gentleman Dad's CV included proficiency at removing obstructions with a fireman's axe and policing sectarian riots in Calcutta.

In the days before craft beer popularity they test marketed VB at our then-local supermarket in Birmingham. They didn't make a repeat order.