L1 Zeppelin progress report.

Sorry but having spent the best part of the day fiddling with the chassis you will have to look at the progress in pictures in the Pastures Flickr link,,, in the Work in Progress section.
We now have a working chassis, footplate with multitudinous S bends, buffer beams and buffer shanks.

As for a full blow by blow description sorry but:
 1: I can't be *rsed,, & don't forget a pictures worth a thousand words
2: T's ready.

But rest assured it is coming together,,,, like the rest of it's stablemates,,, "slowly"
Just don't get in it's way co's the brakes on these were hopeless,,,, but more on that later!!

SAD

Manchester Exhibition December 2016

For anyone interested in the Manchester show the full album of "westerners" photo's are now on the flickr link under Manchester 2016. Next time you wear that shirt Neville can you also provide sunglasses????
Roger is proudly presenting a new bottle of oil he has just purchased,,,, I know not why.

Where do we start with trying to explain how much we enjoyed this exhibition,, it's not easy.

We are all influenced by our parent's and I most certainly was by mine and from being 10 years old onwards one of the highlights of the year was to jump on a train with father at Sheffield Victoria station and be pulled by an EM2 to Manchester so we could pay our annual visit to Manchester  Club Xmas Exhibition,, it was an important event as that is where the Xmas present was usually purchased.

Memories come flooding back,,, watching Presson for hours,, how did they get them to run that slowly,, and the almost invisible couplings,,or visiting the K's stand to see this years new arrival,, how did they get them to run at all!!!  and one that never leaves me is watching Eric Laithwaite demonstrating his flying beer tray,,, the start of magnetic levitation that has developed into various worldwide trains now running at speeds once thought impossible.

This years show was just as good and we were a part of it,,, a weekend to remember,,, and I will.

Highlights,,,, 

Listening to a bunch of local modellers who had partisan views on all manner of subjects,, some were interested in the GC stock others in the LYR offerings and one poor soul admitted to being a GW fan,,, there was nothing for him to look at and oh dear did he get some stick,,, some things in modelling will never change!!! 

Meeting Mark of Grime Street fame,, not only a lovely modeller but a personality to match,, and his advice on all things TRAM will be remembered and incorporated at some time in the near future.

For me looking at the MMRC "History Board" is another one that will stick out,,,, these days we complain about delays from China,, prices,, liveries,, wish lists,,,, and forget that back in the late 40's if you wanted to take railway modelling seriously you had to make your own motors, wheels,, etc etc,, if your standards were high then non of the essentials were available commercially  and this board shows you early examples of what they could do and how they did it,,, fascinating and truly impressive.

I can now proudly say I have actually slept in Gorton,,,, not the Tank,,, that is now a fruit and veg market!!! but the hotel on the same site,, it was fine,, the accents of the lady's serving the "Boddies" brought back even more memories and the curry on the closing night was something else not to be treated casually.

Thankyou Manchester Model Railway Club,,,, to go out on a show like yours was a real honour.

That's yer lot

A time expired Salmon!!!!!!!

Crickey after a weekend like that we all need a bit of R&R,,,, even the poor old elephant.

It is dear readers with some considerable regret I have to announce that we have just completed the last exhibition with Salmon Pastures.

It is now over 10 years since the first show and that was a very low key affair to raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance,,, today we have just got back from doing Manchester exhibition and how things have change,,,, we have all got older,,,, I am convinced the layout has got heavier and it never was the easiest of things to hump into the back of a van so,,, "lets call it a day".

This does not necessarily mean the Salmon Pastures blog is going to finish as well,,, I KNOW I am going to need a vehicle for future rants & I also know there is a veritable plethora of crazy pictures hanging out there in the ether just waiting for future inclusion,,, things like this shot of the Pastures Infirmary "neuro anaesthetists away B team",,,, a likelier bunch a lads it is hard to imagine.

It has been a real pleasure,,,,if we have brought a little sunshine into your life then it has all been so worth while but on the exhibition front at least I have to say enuf's enuf,,, and not to mention the mehmsaab and myself intend heading off to sunnier climes in a last ditched attempt to avoid endless English winters.

But as has been said on several occasions over the past weekend,, never say never,, and so we won't mention it again.

We will however be offering a post Manchester show report just to let you know how we got on,,, and that will be a lot easier when I have the pictures back from the chemists!!!!

In short IT WAS A CRACKER,,,, the definite highlight in my personal modelling career,,, you just ain't lived till you have done the |Manchester Exhibition,,, truly wonderful,,,