Sunday Stuff

The Great Underpinning Debate

fbb's sons are patient with their old man and, at least, pretend to take an interest in  his modelling activity - if nothing else to encourage him to keep his mind active in the lockdown. Our interested reader will doubtless remember that the landform over the tunnel at Peterville was a slab of MDF which dissolved into a mush in the rain.

A replacement slab was created (with the able assistance of No 2 grandson) ...

... and, once the weather improved, it fell to your stubby fingered blogger to rebuild the scenery with improvements. Originally, the idea was to lift out the whole "lid" for development and maintenance; but soon fbb hit on the idea of separate plywood bases for each "module".

The finer weather coincided with lockdown so there was plenty of time to "develop". Then there was the impulse buy of the castle!

Thus it was that, on Thursday of last week, fbb assembled the complete set to see how it all looked.

"Not bad", the old un says, with some false modesty! It is not skilled modelling by any means but very satisfying none the less.

Sons, having been sent the above picture, began a debate as partially revealed yesterday. The nub of the matter was whether there was enough rock above the tunnel to support even a small mediaeval castle.

Of course there isn't but, who cares? fbb doesn't!

The four modules are therefore ...

The Castle

Church and Pub

"Front" terrace

"Rear" terrace

Further embellishments are due on all three "village" modules, but such tweaking involves the purchase of small quantities of stuff which will have to wait until Peco re-opens - as postage costs would be prohibitive for little bits and pieces.

And if you were wondering why one bit of wall looks pink and the other red ... Of course you were!

The walls are made of plywood with plastic "brick plating" (Slaters Plastikard, English Bond) ...

... added. This is a thin and intricately moulded, brown and shiny polystyrene sheet.

Generally, bricks are not shiny but when painted brick red you lose the brickiness; so give it a wipe over with a smidgen of cream paint on Mrs fbb's old bathroom sponge/scourer (with permission!) ...

... and the mortar courses magically appear.

From a distance and through an unadjustable phone camera, yes, it does look pink - but it isn't

Where Is This Bus Now?

Spot On was a bus brand in Blackburn. Older readers may remember the name was also a brand of Triang toys.

Spot-On models, was a brand name for a line of diecast toy cars made by Tri-ang from 1959 through to about 1967. They were manufactured in 1:42 scale in Belfast, Northern Ireland, of the United Kingdom. Competition for Spot-On in the British Isles were Corgi Toys and Dinky Toys.

The bus (YJ07 PCF) was rebranded ...

... and has now found its way into the fleet of Hulleys of Baslow.

It carries Hulley's latest logo ...

... adorned by Romanesque, nay imperial, laurel leaves.

Hail Hulley's!

Bad News For First Cymru ...

 ... as reported in their staff newsletter.

First Cymru's boss is right - there is no justification for running early and it is good to see a determination to stamp out the bad practice.

Well done First for working to sort it!

Good News from First South Yorkshire.

Yes, you did read it correctly. What is it that links Todwick, Flanderwell and Loxley?

From tomorrow, First will be INCREASING the frequency of many of its main services, from hourly to half hourly. Some would argue that the draconian redcution at the start of the crisis was too much, but First have recognised that workers need frequency as well as early morning trips. Not everyone finishes work at the same time each day.

So it is Good News - but not quite as good as it should be, as we shall see.

More tomorrow.

Coming To A Blog Near You

A commuting pigeon!

Coo!

More tomorrow.

VE Day Snippet ...

... from GoAhead East Yorkshire

 Next Load of Stuff blog : Monday 11th May