The bridge over the River Kwai

Posted on November 13, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

In 1997, I was working in Thailand, and took a weekend visiting the bridge over the River Kwai and the surrounding countryside.  If I recall correctly, this is a rebuilt bridge, as the original that cost so many Allied soldiers’ lives, was bombed after completion.  The bridge and a section of the Death Railway towards Burma is still open, as evidenced by the multiple units.  The museum next to the bridge has some trains on display, as below.

My lasting memory of the visit was how it took about 3 hours by coach from Bangkok to get to the bridge.  In WWII, it took months and countless lives to get the railway there.

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Climbing Everest on the Tube

Posted on November 11, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

For you fitness fiends, here’s an idea that I, for one, will not be taking up, from the Daily Telegraph:

This Tube map shows you how you could climb Everest using the London Underground

The map tells you how many times you have to climb up and down the stairs at each tube station to climb the equivalent of the world’s most famous mountains

Could you climb Everest on your commute? Snow and Rock are encouraging Londoners to look at the world with slightly more optimism with this new map that turns the London Underground into an adventure.

They said on their website: “Just like us, we know that you see the world differently: through the lens of adventure. We’re currently taking a fresh look at the London Underground network and seeing what adventures we can find in some of its deepest stations.

“Over the coming weeks we will be sharing our #UrbanMountains series through our Facebook and Twitter pages, showing how the deepest stations stack up against some of the UK’s This means that if you often use the stairs instead of the lift you could chart how often you do so, and therefore how much of each mountain you have climbed on your commute. highest peaks and beyond.”

You could start with Ben Nevis (that I actually have walked up)….

stand alone mountains B

Then progress onwards and upwards to (literally) higher things…..

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Sorry, but as I heard in a talk recently, my idea of fitness is walking to the kebab van, not to the gym!

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ESNG meeting – PlayDay 8 November 2015

Posted on November 9, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Today’s PlayDay was a great success, numerically and for the projects completed and on view.  We had 11 members and 2 visitors present.  The Treasurer visited for 5 minutes to drop off some cables he had repaired, but we weren’t quick enough to catch him for his ‘subs’.  We had three layouts on display.

Duncan brought along his Nm modules to see how they went together, as there’s no room to set them up at home.  They are coming along well, although there are a lot more trees to plant to make nearly all the line in forest.  The modules are of an actual location, 2/3 scale size, and rise steadily on a 2% grade from one end to the other.  They are going to Stuttgart and will link up with other Nm boards.

e1 e2 e3

We put together an end-to-end N-mod layout, to test out the new end loop and transition boards to N-club (4 track to 2 track) that we will use in Stuttgart.  All worked OK, I’m pleased to say, and the N-club fiddle yard was packed into Duncan’s van for a early departure for Germany later this week.  A variety of trains took turns on the layout, ranging from Eurostar to a Dapol M7 and one coach (just about all it would haul) through a Japanese grain train.

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The church’s boxes of disposable cups came to the rescue to support the otherwise legless transition boards.  They will not be going to Stuttgart – Earlswood Baptist Church needs its coffee….

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Sean brought his new layout along.  It will be DCC with sound.  It’s only 5ft or so long, and built so that he can run trains at home, despite a lack of space and a surfeit of children!

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To finish, two short videos.  Firstly, Eurostar enters and exits Derek’s ‘banjo’ end loop:

And here we have a couple of trains navigating the new end loop:

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ESNG meeting – 5 November 2015

Posted on November 7, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

The pattern continues…..  11 members but no chairman!  Allan, we’re missing you, despite the thriving meetings.

Following the news that the police want to fine motorists even if they are only 1 mph over the speed limit, Derek (the At) brought along a stopwatch, table of scale speeds, and whistle.  He proceeded to let the operators just how fast their trains were running.  With little effect I hasten to act.  Graham’s yellow bullet train was overtaken by Bruno’s 0-6-0 Jinty and coaches at an alarming 275 mph.  Mallard, no chance!

Paul had a full length Kato Eurostar running to test all the couplings out ready for Stuttgart.  We’ll put our part of the proposed Stuttgart layout together on Sunday’s PlayDay, then it’s only a matter of trying to fit everything in the two vehicles..

 

 

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A prehistoric station?

Posted on November 5, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

If you’re a German modeller, how about this for a station name?  I suppose, obviously enough, they named the species after the place it was first found.  The plan comes from the Sporenplan site with lots of mainly continental track layouts.  The plan would make a good N-club module….

101_Neanderthal

I did a quick search for the station on the web and came up with the pictures below.  There is a most attractive station building and the 1980’s shot of the railcar is equally prehistoric.  In recent years, the station has become part of the Dusseldorf commuter system, and, just like the UK, all the siding have disappeared under a car park.  But perhaps that makes a simpler, modern image, N-club module?

A DB 515 class diesel railcar is seen on the line in 1988. (Helmut Brinker photo)

A DB 515 class diesel railcar is seen on the line in 1988. (Helmut Brinker photo)

Neanderthal_Trainstation_20060318_2

“Neanderthal Trainstation 20060318 2” by Cordula

Marcel Vorberg

Marcel Vorberg

Marcel Vorberg

Marcel Vorberg

neanderthal%20sign s-bahn-station-neanderthal

 

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Stuttgart N-Club meet is close….

Posted on November 3, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Only a couple of weeks and the ESNG visit to Stuttgart will be under way.

There is more to plan this time with two vehicles going to the show.  We’ve had to decide what will go in which vehicle, and organise the food for the social on the Thursday.  Fortunately Derek has completed the two new boards needed for the show!

There are two new ideas at the show this year.  Firstly, a ‘behind the scenes’ tour, where visitors can go behind the layouts and see how they are built and operated.  Nice idea that could be emulated at UK shows?  But I hope our visitors speak English!  Secondly there will be a section of the circuit with a procession of trains from various countries, together with a commentary and PowerPoint presentation.  We have come up with this for the UK and available stock:

  • Pre-grouping
    • Queen Victoria’s Jubilee train.  A flight of fancy by Derek behind an LBSC Terrier.
    • GWR 14xx 0-4-2 plus autocoach.
  • Grouping
    • LMS locomotive plus private owner goods train.
    • Southern N-Class 2-6-0 plus Maunsell coaches and luggage stock.
    • Southern goods train, plus Terrier.
  • Nationalisation
    • Battle of Britain 4-6-2 plus Bulleid coaches.
    • British Railways standard 2-6-4 tank plus goods train.
  • Modernisation
    • Class 33 diesel plus BR Mk1 coaches (in all 5 liveries carried by this design classic)
    • Blue Pullman
  • Privatisation
    • Virgin Voyager DMU
    • Class 60 diesel plus steel wagons
    • Eurostar EMU

Not entirely representative, but a flavour of British railway history.

ESNG will be well represented.  We have 5 members there for the whole time, and another 2 (plus my Michael, who appears out of the woodwork for ESNG shows) for part of it, and another 3 (plus the hon. auditor) doing a day trip on Friday.

Michael and I fly out on the Friday night, and have Saturday and Sunday there, flying home Sunday.  Saturday and Sunday are (naturally) the busiest days at the show, but the hall is big enough not to seem too crowded.  I am unlikely to have the Wi-Fi available to live-blog the show, but I suspect Allan will mail me pictures from the first two days (hint) and I’ll write it all up when we get home.

ESNG appears in the N-Club magazine, below, along with the show poster.

IMAG0429

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Abingdon & District MRC Exhibition 31 October 2015

Posted on November 1, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I’ve just had a week off work, and a morning at a model railway show to finish off the week seemed a good idea.  (I had aimed to get lots of modelling done, but I seemed to have spent more time socialising!)  Looking at the model press, the Abingdon show seemed to have over 50% 2mm and N gauge exhibits.  So off to Didcot – a slightly long but simple drive – to the Civic Centre, that is a very pleasant modern venue, and ideal for a model railway show.

I understand the theme of the show was to give ideas of ‘home sized’ layouts.  So there were plenty of – if not all – small layouts and N gauge, as noted, was represented by 6 layouts.  There were two layouts I especially liked.

City Basin Goods modelled a typical city freight station, once common in many large towns, but now totally extinct.  I’ve mentioned before my soft spot for passenger full brakes and luggage vans, so this layout was very much of interest.  The freight station combined the shunting found in a yard with station platforms – a good prototype to model.

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Barton Hill took up the well-worn theme of a diesel loco depot to good effect.  The main lines in the background were used effectively not only to feed engines into the yard from the local station, but also to run the occasional DMU between the fiddle yards at either end of the layout.

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And an honourable mention for ‘Dead End Yard’, a tiny ‘Inglenook’ shunting layout.  Operating a layout like this all day takes stamina!!

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2mm was represented by ‘Freshwater’ and ‘Burnham on Sea’, both inspiring examples of 2mm fine scale modelling.  But I forgot to take photos of them – too interested in the modelling I suspect!

Also of note was, Little Hister, an O gauge branch terminus.  Pretty standard in many ways, but some good modelling and nice rolling stock.  I suspect most O gauge layouts will soon have a Dapol ‘Terrier’ on display – what a lovely model (though I prefer the adjacent G6.)

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There were also representatives from OO, EM and Z gauge, and a few trade stands.  All in all a very nice small show in an excellent venue.  Well worth the drive!

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Off my trolley – Toronto 1995

Posted on October 30, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

As I carry on digitizing my slides and old family photographs, I continue to come across pictures I never knew I’d taken.  Not least these two very smart Toronto PCC cars, taken on a 1995 visit to Maxine’s family.  I’d forgotten I’d seen these fine looking trolleys, but there again I hadn’t caught the traction bug back then – I was soon to join ESNG (not quite in existence then) and start modelling in N gauge.

t1 t2

And a double-stack container train.  We had a long wait at the level crossing….

c1

Of poor quality, but with lots of interesting stock and details, are these two pictures of Norwich Thorpe shed and station around 1965.  It’s notable just how busy the station is, and there are plenty of new diesels and DMUs on display.

nt1 nt2

 

 

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Software malfunction?

Posted on October 28, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

This blog is not political or commercial.  But this picture deserves an audience!  Thanks to David (who sells VW campers) and was about to take this photo into the office when I borrowed it.

Anyway, I’ve decided that my next car will be a VW.  If they’re that clever…..

vw

 

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Not true – I prefer Thomas!

Posted on October 26, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Another Facebook contribution from Allan…..

FB_IMG_1444937645040 (1)

Actually, I don’t think this is true.  There’s nothing wrong with Thomas the Tank Engine and I might prefer an LBSCR E1 class and a 4-4-0 to an American monster.  I was brought up on Thomas, as was no. 1 son Michael (who wouldn’t eat dinner unless watching a Thomas video.)  Anyway, I bet the American ones don’t come with Ringo Starr and the original TV series had some excellent modelling to look at!

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