26 inch foil paper.

Design by Satoshi Kamiya.

Fold by Travis Nolan.

Neck twist done (impossible to do perfectly here, the paper is so thick). The body is probably 3/8th of an inch thick. Got a serviceable twist though, time to shape. Opted for a closed back, with it being so thick.

Some of the icons are just plain odd in this, what I've been calling the "pandemic era" décor package, but this icon is somewhat serviceable I guess :P Others have come up with somewhat harsher nickname(s) for this décor package, which was so unliked even Walmart kicked it to curb quite quickly (and for something super-cool at that)!

____________________________________

Walmart, 1998-built, Southcrest Pkwy near Goodman Rd., Southaven, MS

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) A1 Class is an English class of 0-6-0T steam locomotive. Designed by William Stroudley, 50 members of the class were built in 1872 and between 1874 and 1880, all at Brighton Works. The class has received several nicknames, initially being known as "Rooters" by their south London crews. However, the engines were more famously known as "Terriers" on account of the distinctive 'bark' of the exhaust beat.

A1 (Terrier) Class 0-6-0T No. 3 (70 ‘Poplar’, No.3 'Bodiam' & BR No.32570) designed by William Stroudley, built in 1872 at Brighton Works. Rebuilt to A1X in 1943 at St Leonards Works.

In May 1901 it was for £650 to Kent & East Sussex Railway and went into service K&ESR No. 3 ‘Bodiam’ where it stayed to 1931 when it was withdrawn from service and left to rusting on a siding at Rolvenden Yard until in 1932/33 it lost its name around 1935. It became serviceable when another Terrier (71 ‘Wapping’ then running as No.5 ‘Rolvenden’) was cannibalised for parts to restore ‘Bodiam’ back into service but without the nameplate.

It went to British Rail (S) in 1948 at nationalisation, when it was based at Rolvenden, moving to Ashford, then spent time at St Leonards from 1954 before moving to Brighton in 1957 and ended up working on the Hayling Island Branch, based at Eastleigh in 1963 being withdrawn in the same year. It was sold to Kent & East Sussex Preservation Society in April 1964 and then acquired by The Terrier Trust 1995 for use on the K&ESR now preserved as No. 3 ‘Bodiam’.

Photographer: unknown – taken at Brighton Works c1947.

British light bomber aircraft that was used in the early days of the Second World War.

Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th

The Bristol Blenheim is a truly unique British aircraft. As a type the aircrafts history is long and formative and an important milestone in the history of British aviation. Designed as a small airliner in the early 1930s by Frank Barnwell, Chief Designer of the Bristol Aircraft Company, it was funded by Lord Rothermere who named it ‘Britain First’. It proved much faster than the latest biplane fighters, with a speed of over 300mph, and Rothermere promptly donated it to the nation.

Barnwell then redesigned the aircraft as a bomber and it became the first stressed skin aircraft with hydraulic actuated undercarriage, flaps and turret to be accepted by the Royal Air Force. It was the fastest bomber of the day and it became the backbone of the RAFs light bomber force. At the start of WWII the RAF had 1089 Blenheim’s in service more than any other type.

The Blenheim bore the brunt of daylight operations during the early war years, whilst other bombers were switched to night operations, and the crews paid a heavy price. Many Blenheim’s were lost not only to fighters but to anti-aircraft fire especially when attacking ships. Even so it was well liked by its crews and Churchill paid homage to their bravery comparing them to the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’.

The Blenheim was pressed into many roles for which it was not primarily designed, such as long range and night fighter duties. It became the first radar equipped night fighter and got the first kill using that equipment.

The first Blenheim project a Canadian licensed built MKIV, which they called Bolingbroke, was recovered in a derelict state and restored to fly after a twelve year rebuild by a small dedicated team led by a licensed aircraft engineer. It made its debut in May 1987 only to be destroyed in an accident exactly one month later, suffice to say that the accident was not due to a mechanical fault.

Determined not to be without a Blenheim another airframe was found and the same team gave themselves five years to complete the project with the aircraft flying in May 1993, it became the only flying example of a Blenheim representing the light bombers of the early war years. Flying for ten years from Duxford on behalf of the late Graham Warner, the aircraft was well known on the air show circuit and flew with great success building an enviable serviceability record amongst the vintage aircraft fraternity.

In August 2003 the aircraft suffered an accident whilst landing at Duxford, again through no mechanical fault with the aircraft, and suffered significant damage. The aircraft was dismantled with the ownership subsequently transferring to Blenheim (Duxford) Ltd in December 2003.

It was decided that the aircraft could be repaired and work started with a team jointly made up of full time staff and the original and some new volunteers. Initially work concentrated on the centre section and fuselage and it was at this stage a feasibility study was carried out to see if the aircraft could be converted to Blenheim MkI status. A MkI nose had come into possession of the team and it was realised that the production break at the rear of the fuselage was the same for all marks of Blenheim so the decision was made to go ahead with the conversion. The conversion did cause some headaches in that although the main fling controls are in the same position in the British and Canadian variants it is in the positioning of the ancillary controls such as throttles, pitch, carburetor and hydraulic controls, the positioning of instruments and the rerouting of hydraulic and electrical lines that would take time.

The MkI nose had been donated to the team and had an interesting history in its own right; it had been obtained by a Bristol employee Ralph Nelson after WWII and converted to a car. He had mounted it on an Austin Seven chassis and with help of colleagues completed the conversion. The car was battery powered and he drove the vehicle around Bristol until 1957 when it was damaged by fire. The conversion necessitated the nose being modified to create doors and interior fittings so basically destroyed the stress skin construction, so after jigging to maintain its integrity a considerable amount of manufacture of new airframe parts had to be carried out including reskinning. Fortunately Ralph had kept a considerable amount of the interior fittings and most of the control systems including the seat and these were refurbished and refitted.

A data plate in the nose revealed its build number and that it had been built by AVRO. Contact with Avro’s heritage Centre showed that the aircraft serial was L6739 being issued to 23 Squadron on 2nd September 1939. It fought throughout the Battle of Britain as a night fighter before being struck off charge in December 1940 after being damaged. Further research revealed that it had carried the codes YP-Q and a photo was found of it ground running at Wittering in February 1940. This has enabled the aircraft to be painted in the authentic colours worn in 1939-1940 and fitted with the MKI(f) gun pack.

The Mercury engines were overhauled in house being stripped down to their component parts and checked for wear and damage and reassembled. All ancillary items such as magnetos, carburettors, pumps and the many items that make up the engines examined and checked for airworthiness before being fitted.

After 11 years of painstaking work, on the 20th November 2014 Chief Pilot John Romain and James Gilmour as Flight Engineer took Blenheim MkI(f) on its maiden flight at Duxford for a successful 26 minute test flight, following some minor adjustments a further two test flights were carried out.

The Blenheim received its full Permit to Fly at the end of 2014, enabling the aircraft to be ready for the 2015 season.

A bee on a wild flower by the Oxford canal at Somerton, Oxfordshire. Eight shots to get 2 serviceable. Ferociously shallow DOF.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The English Electric Skyspark was a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It remains the only UK-designed-and-built fighter capable of Mach 2. The Skyspark was designed, developed, and manufactured by English Electric, which was later merged into the newly-formed British Aircraft Corporation. Later the type was marketed as the BAC Skyspark.

The Skyspark's direct replacement was the Tornado F.3, an interceptor variant of the Panavia Tornado. The Tornado featured several advantages over the Skyspark, including far larger weapons load and considerably more advanced avionics. Skysparks were slowly phased out of service between 1974 and 1988, even though they lasted longer than expected because the definitive Tornado F.3 went through serious teething troubles and its service introduction was delayed several times. In their final years, the Skysparks’ airframes required considerable maintenance to keep them airworthy due to the sheer number of accumulated flight hours.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 51 ft 2 in (15,62 m) fuselage only

57 ft 3½ in (17,50 m) including pitot

Wingspan: 34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)

Height: 17 ft 6¾ in (5.36 m)

Wing area: 474.5 sq ft (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 31,068 lb (14,092 kg) with armament and no fuel

Gross weight: 41,076 lb (18,632 kg) with two Red Tops, ammunition, and internal fuel

Max. takeoff weight: 45,750 lb (20,752 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Rolls-Royce Avon 301R afterburning turbojet engines,

12,690 lbf (56.4 kN) thrust each dry, 16,360 lbf (72.8 kN) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2.27 (1,500 mph+ at 40,000 ft)

Range: 738 nmi (849 mi, 1,367 km)

Combat range: 135 nmi (155 mi, 250 km) supersonic intercept radius

Range: 800 nmi (920 mi, 1,500 km) with internal fuel

1,100 nmi (1,300 mi; 2,000 km) with external overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)

Zoom ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m)

Rate of climb: 20,000 ft/min (100 m/s) sustained to 30,000 ft (9,100 m)

Zoom climb: 50,000 ft/min

Time to altitude: 2.8 min to 36,000 ft (11,000 m)

Wing loading: 76 lb/sq ft (370 kg/m²) with two AIM-9 and 1/2 fuel

Thrust/weight: 0.78 (1.03 empty)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.181 in) ADEN cannon with 120 RPG in the lower fuselage

2× forward fuselage hardpoints for a single Firestreak or Red Top AAM each

2× overwing pylon stations for 2.000 lb (907 kg each)

for 260 imp gal (310 US gal; 1,200 l) ferry tanks

The kit and its assembly:

This build was a submission to the “Hunter, Lightning, Canberra” group build at whatifmodellers.com, and one of my personal ultimate challenges – a project that you think about very often, but the you put the thought back into its box when you realize that turning this idea into hardware will be a VERY tedious, complex and work-intensive task. But the thematic group build was the perfect occasion to eventually tackle the idea of a model of a “side-by-side engine BAC Lightning”, a.k.a. “Flatning”, as a rather conservative alternative to the real aircraft’s unique and unusual design with stacked engines in the fuselage, which brought a multitude of other design consequences that led to a really unique aircraft.

And it sound so simple: take a Lightning, just change the tail section. But it’s not that simple, because the whole fuselage shape would be different, resulting in less depth, the wings have to be attached somewhere and somehow, the landing gear might have to be adjusted/shortened, and how the fuselage diameter shape changes along the hull, so that you get a more or less smooth shape, was also totally uncertain!

Initially I considered a MiG Ye-152 as a body donor, but that was rejected due to the sheer price of the only available kit (ModelSvit). A Chinese Shenyang J-8I would also have been ideal – but there’s not 1:72 kit of this aircraft around, just of its successor with side intakes, a 1:72 J-8II from trumpeter.

I eventually decided to keep costs low, and I settled for the shaggy PM Model Su-15 (marketed as Su-21) “Flagon” as main body donor: it’s cheap, the engines have a good size for Avons and the pen nib fairing has a certain retro touch that goes well with the Lightning’s Fifties design.

The rest of this "Flatning" came from a Hasegawa 1:72 BAC Lightning F.6 (Revell re-boxing).

Massive modifications were necessary and lots of PSR. In an initial step the Flagon lost its lower wing halves, which are an integral part of the lower fuselage half. The cockpit section was cut away where the intake ducts begin. The Lightning had its belly tank removed (set aside for a potential later re-installation), and dry-fitting and crude measures suggested that only the cockpit section from the Lightning, its spine and the separate fin would make it onto the new fuselage.

Integrating the parts was tough, though! The problem that caused the biggest headaches: how to create a "smooth" fuselage from the Lightning's rounded front end with a single nose intake that originally develops into a narrow, vertical hull, combined with the boxy and rather wide Flagon fuselage with large Phantom-esque intakes? My solution: taking out deep wedges from all (rather massive) hull parts along the intake ducts, bend the leftover side walls inwards and glue them into place, so that the width becomes equal with the Lightning's cockpit section. VERY crude and massive body work!

However, the Lightning's cockpit section for the following hull with stacked engines is much deeper than the Flagon's side-by-side layout. My initial idea was to place the cockpit section higher, but I would have had to transplant a part of the Lightning's upper fuselage (with the spine on top, too!) onto the "flat" Flagon’s back. But this would have looked VERY weird, and I'd have had to bridge the round ventral shape of the Lightning into the boxy Flagon underside, too. This was no viable option, so that the cockpit section had to be further modified; I cut away the whole ventral cockpit section, at the height of the lower intake lip. Similar to my former Austrian Hasegawa Lightning, I also cut away the vertical bulkhead directly behind the intake opening - even though I did not improve the cockpit with a better tub with side consoles. At the back end, the Flagon's jet exhausts were opened and received afterburner dummies inside as a cosmetic upgrade.

Massive PSR work followed all around the hull. The now-open area under the cockpit was filled with lead beads to keep the front wheel down, and I implanted a landing gear well (IIRC, it's from an Xtrakit Swift). With the fuselage literally taking shape, the wings were glued together and the locator holes for the overwing tanks filled, because they would not be mounted.

To mount the wings to the new hull, crude measurements suggested that wedges had to be cut away from the Lightning's wing roots to match the weird fuselage shape. They were then glued to the shoulders, right behind the cockpit due to the reduced fuselage depth. At this stage, the Lightning’s stabilizer attachment points were transplanted, so that they end up in a similar low position on the rounded Su-15 tail. Again, lots of PSR…

At this stage I contemplated the next essential step: belly tank or not? The “Flatning” would have worked without it, but its profile would look rather un-Lightning-ish and rather “flat”. On the other side, a conformal tank would probably look quite strange on the new wide and flat ventral fuselage...? Only experiments could yield an answer, so I glued together the leftover belly bulge parts from the Hasegawa kit and played around with it. I considered a new, wider belly tank, but I guess that this would have looked too ugly. I eventually settled upon the narrow F.6 tank and also used the section behind it with the arrestor hook. I just reduced its depth by ~2 mm, with a slight slope towards the rear because I felt (righteously) that the higher wing position would lower the model’s stance. More massive PSR followed….

Due to the expected poor ground clearance, the Lightning’s stabilizing ventral fins were mounted directly under the fuselage edges rather than on the belly tank. Missile pylons for Red Tops were mounted to the lower front fuselage, similar to the real arrangement, and cable fairings, scratched from styrene profiles, were added to the lower flanks, stretching the hull optically and giving more structure to the hull.

To my surprise, I did not have to shorten the landing gear’s main legs! The wings ended up a little higher on the fuselage than on the original Lightning, and the front wheel sits a bit further back and deeper inside of its donor well, too, so that the fuselage comes probably 2 mm closer to the ground than an OOB Lightning model. Just like on the real aircraft, ground clearance is marginal, but when the main wheels were finally in place, the model turned out to have a low but proper stance, a little F8U-ish.

Painting and markings:

I was uncertain about the livery for a long time – I just had already settled upon an RAF aircraft. But the model would not receive a late low-viz scheme (the Levin, my mono-engine Lightning build already had one), and no NMF, either. I was torn between an RAF Germany all-green over NMF undersides livery, but eventually went for a pretty standard RAF livery in Dark Sea Grey/Dark Green over NMF undersides, with toned-down post-war roundels.

A factor that spoke in favor of this route was a complete set of markings for an RAF 11 Squadron Lightning F.6 in such a guise on an Xtradecal set, which also featured dayglo orange makings on fin, wings and stabilizers – quite unusual, and a nice contrast detail on the otherwise very conservative livery. All stencils were taken from the OOB Revell sheet for the Lightning. Just the tactical code “F” on the tail was procured elsewhere, it comes from a Matchbox BAC Lightning’s sheet.

After basic painting the model received the usual black ink washing, some post-panel-shading and also a light treatment with graphite to create soot strains around the jet exhausts and the gun ports, and to emphasize the raised panel lines on the Hasegawa parts.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and final bits and pieces like the landing gear and the Red Tops (taken OOB) were mounted.

A major effort, and I have seriously depleted my putty stocks for this build! However, the result looks less spectacular than it actually is: changing a Lightning from its literally original stacked engine layout into a more conservative side-by-side arrangement turned out to be possible, even though the outcome is not really pretty. But it works and is feasible!

XM655 is an Avro Vulcan B Mk2, and the youngest Vulcan in existence (the third to last produced; XM656 and XM657 have both been scrapped). Delivered to 9 squadron at RAF Cottesmore in November 1964, she tranferred to the Waddington Wing in January 1968. She then served with 101 and 44 squadrons, and was with 50 squadron when she was put up for disposal in late 1983. She was bought by businessman Roy Jacobsen who had hopes to fly her on the airshow circuit.

She was the first Vulcan “civilianised” and was flown in to Wellesbourne Mountford about a week after a Cat 3 Check, on the 11th of February 1984. Hundreds of people were there to watch her arrive. She had flown only 5,744 hours, making her a very viable proposition for taking to the air once more. However, the Civil Aviation Authority made it clear that the aircraft would not be flying again without stringent conditions being satisfied. While efforts at funding the work necessary were begun and the aircraft was put on the civil register as G-VULC, little real progress was made. A plan to fly the aircraft in America got as far as registering the aircraft on the American civil register as N655AV but no further. After two years Roy Jacobsen lost interest in XM655 and bought another Vulcan (XL426) which was delivered to Southend. Parking fees were mounting at Wellesbourne and after a number of years the airfield owners took Jacobsen to court to recover them. The result was that the ownership of the aircraft passed to Wellesbourne Airfield.

XM655 had stood without attention for so long that she was in quite poor condition. Ten years of neglect had finally put paid to any lingering hopes of her ever flying again. At one stage she had been broken into, the cockpit instrumentation vandalised and the co-pilot’s control column removed with a hacksaw. The wingtip panels were also damaged at some point. With the transfer of ownership however, the future began looking brighter.

The Delta Engineering Association was formed to look after XM655 and they made it clear from the outset that their intention was to get her into ground running condition only. The aircraft was gradually brought back to life – all the hydraulics were overhauled, the damage to the cockpit was repaired and a number of engine runs undertaken.

Delta moved from Wellesbourne to Kemble in March 1996, and after the brief and unhappy existence and demise of the XM655 Association, the volunteers remaining at Wellesbourne decided that the best way forward would be a properly constituted membership organisation to look after XM655. As a result the 655 Maintenance and Preservation Society (655MaPS) was formed in late 1998.

Thanks to the generosity of Wellesbourne Airfield and with funds provided by the society’s members and other donors, 655MaPS have been able to assemble an impressive collection of workshops, storage units and ground equipment to support and service XM655.

The rear spar has been inspected and found to be in excellent condition. XM655 now has fuel in her tanks at all times to keep the system and the seals ‘wet’. All the aircraft systems are powered up and exercised regularly.

The aircraft has been repainted several times to keep the inevitable corrosion of the more than 50 year old structure under control, the flying control surfaces (elevons and rudder) have been reskinned, the jet pipe end caps have been replaced and the three engines with the longest running hours have been removed, opened, inspected and re-installed.

Engine ground runs (EGRs) are carried out approximately every three months, together with slow taxi runs to ensure the steering and braking systems are functional. Once each year, usually in June, XM655 takes part in Wellesbourne Wings and Wheels, which is our major public event of the year. Reports of past events can be found on the Taxi Runs page, and details of the next event are on the Events page.

XM655 is virtually complete in terms of installed equipment, with the H2S Radar, the Terrain Following Radar (TFR) and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems all still in-place, as well as the complete suite of Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) equipment. The only notable item missing when XM655 left RAF service was the in-flight refuelling probe; not surprising considering the world-wide hunt for serviceable probes which had occurred during the Falklands conflict a couple of years earlier. Eventually, a replacement probe was obtained and installed, and XM655 regained her familiar profile.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The English Electric Skyspark was a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It remains the only UK-designed-and-built fighter capable of Mach 2. The Skyspark was designed, developed, and manufactured by English Electric, which was later merged into the newly-formed British Aircraft Corporation. Later the type was marketed as the BAC Skyspark.

The Skyspark's direct replacement was the Tornado F.3, an interceptor variant of the Panavia Tornado. The Tornado featured several advantages over the Skyspark, including far larger weapons load and considerably more advanced avionics. Skysparks were slowly phased out of service between 1974 and 1988, even though they lasted longer than expected because the definitive Tornado F.3 went through serious teething troubles and its service introduction was delayed several times. In their final years, the Skysparks’ airframes required considerable maintenance to keep them airworthy due to the sheer number of accumulated flight hours.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 51 ft 2 in (15,62 m) fuselage only

57 ft 3½ in (17,50 m) including pitot

Wingspan: 34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)

Height: 17 ft 6¾ in (5.36 m)

Wing area: 474.5 sq ft (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 31,068 lb (14,092 kg) with armament and no fuel

Gross weight: 41,076 lb (18,632 kg) with two Red Tops, ammunition, and internal fuel

Max. takeoff weight: 45,750 lb (20,752 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Rolls-Royce Avon 301R afterburning turbojet engines,

12,690 lbf (56.4 kN) thrust each dry, 16,360 lbf (72.8 kN) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2.27 (1,500 mph+ at 40,000 ft)

Range: 738 nmi (849 mi, 1,367 km)

Combat range: 135 nmi (155 mi, 250 km) supersonic intercept radius

Range: 800 nmi (920 mi, 1,500 km) with internal fuel

1,100 nmi (1,300 mi; 2,000 km) with external overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)

Zoom ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m)

Rate of climb: 20,000 ft/min (100 m/s) sustained to 30,000 ft (9,100 m)

Zoom climb: 50,000 ft/min

Time to altitude: 2.8 min to 36,000 ft (11,000 m)

Wing loading: 76 lb/sq ft (370 kg/m²) with two AIM-9 and 1/2 fuel

Thrust/weight: 0.78 (1.03 empty)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.181 in) ADEN cannon with 120 RPG in the lower fuselage

2× forward fuselage hardpoints for a single Firestreak or Red Top AAM each

2× overwing pylon stations for 2.000 lb (907 kg each)

for 260 imp gal (310 US gal; 1,200 l) ferry tanks

The kit and its assembly:

This build was a submission to the “Hunter, Lightning, Canberra” group build at whatifmodellers.com, and one of my personal ultimate challenges – a project that you think about very often, but the you put the thought back into its box when you realize that turning this idea into hardware will be a VERY tedious, complex and work-intensive task. But the thematic group build was the perfect occasion to eventually tackle the idea of a model of a “side-by-side engine BAC Lightning”, a.k.a. “Flatning”, as a rather conservative alternative to the real aircraft’s unique and unusual design with stacked engines in the fuselage, which brought a multitude of other design consequences that led to a really unique aircraft.

And it sound so simple: take a Lightning, just change the tail section. But it’s not that simple, because the whole fuselage shape would be different, resulting in less depth, the wings have to be attached somewhere and somehow, the landing gear might have to be adjusted/shortened, and how the fuselage diameter shape changes along the hull, so that you get a more or less smooth shape, was also totally uncertain!

Initially I considered a MiG Ye-152 as a body donor, but that was rejected due to the sheer price of the only available kit (ModelSvit). A Chinese Shenyang J-8I would also have been ideal – but there’s not 1:72 kit of this aircraft around, just of its successor with side intakes, a 1:72 J-8II from trumpeter.

I eventually decided to keep costs low, and I settled for the shaggy PM Model Su-15 (marketed as Su-21) “Flagon” as main body donor: it’s cheap, the engines have a good size for Avons and the pen nib fairing has a certain retro touch that goes well with the Lightning’s Fifties design.

The rest of this "Flatning" came from a Hasegawa 1:72 BAC Lightning F.6 (Revell re-boxing).

Massive modifications were necessary and lots of PSR. In an initial step the Flagon lost its lower wing halves, which are an integral part of the lower fuselage half. The cockpit section was cut away where the intake ducts begin. The Lightning had its belly tank removed (set aside for a potential later re-installation), and dry-fitting and crude measures suggested that only the cockpit section from the Lightning, its spine and the separate fin would make it onto the new fuselage.

Integrating the parts was tough, though! The problem that caused the biggest headaches: how to create a "smooth" fuselage from the Lightning's rounded front end with a single nose intake that originally develops into a narrow, vertical hull, combined with the boxy and rather wide Flagon fuselage with large Phantom-esque intakes? My solution: taking out deep wedges from all (rather massive) hull parts along the intake ducts, bend the leftover side walls inwards and glue them into place, so that the width becomes equal with the Lightning's cockpit section. VERY crude and massive body work!

However, the Lightning's cockpit section for the following hull with stacked engines is much deeper than the Flagon's side-by-side layout. My initial idea was to place the cockpit section higher, but I would have had to transplant a part of the Lightning's upper fuselage (with the spine on top, too!) onto the "flat" Flagon’s back. But this would have looked VERY weird, and I'd have had to bridge the round ventral shape of the Lightning into the boxy Flagon underside, too. This was no viable option, so that the cockpit section had to be further modified; I cut away the whole ventral cockpit section, at the height of the lower intake lip. Similar to my former Austrian Hasegawa Lightning, I also cut away the vertical bulkhead directly behind the intake opening - even though I did not improve the cockpit with a better tub with side consoles. At the back end, the Flagon's jet exhausts were opened and received afterburner dummies inside as a cosmetic upgrade.

Massive PSR work followed all around the hull. The now-open area under the cockpit was filled with lead beads to keep the front wheel down, and I implanted a landing gear well (IIRC, it's from an Xtrakit Swift). With the fuselage literally taking shape, the wings were glued together and the locator holes for the overwing tanks filled, because they would not be mounted.

To mount the wings to the new hull, crude measurements suggested that wedges had to be cut away from the Lightning's wing roots to match the weird fuselage shape. They were then glued to the shoulders, right behind the cockpit due to the reduced fuselage depth. At this stage, the Lightning’s stabilizer attachment points were transplanted, so that they end up in a similar low position on the rounded Su-15 tail. Again, lots of PSR…

At this stage I contemplated the next essential step: belly tank or not? The “Flatning” would have worked without it, but its profile would look rather un-Lightning-ish and rather “flat”. On the other side, a conformal tank would probably look quite strange on the new wide and flat ventral fuselage...? Only experiments could yield an answer, so I glued together the leftover belly bulge parts from the Hasegawa kit and played around with it. I considered a new, wider belly tank, but I guess that this would have looked too ugly. I eventually settled upon the narrow F.6 tank and also used the section behind it with the arrestor hook. I just reduced its depth by ~2 mm, with a slight slope towards the rear because I felt (righteously) that the higher wing position would lower the model’s stance. More massive PSR followed….

Due to the expected poor ground clearance, the Lightning’s stabilizing ventral fins were mounted directly under the fuselage edges rather than on the belly tank. Missile pylons for Red Tops were mounted to the lower front fuselage, similar to the real arrangement, and cable fairings, scratched from styrene profiles, were added to the lower flanks, stretching the hull optically and giving more structure to the hull.

To my surprise, I did not have to shorten the landing gear’s main legs! The wings ended up a little higher on the fuselage than on the original Lightning, and the front wheel sits a bit further back and deeper inside of its donor well, too, so that the fuselage comes probably 2 mm closer to the ground than an OOB Lightning model. Just like on the real aircraft, ground clearance is marginal, but when the main wheels were finally in place, the model turned out to have a low but proper stance, a little F8U-ish.

Painting and markings:

I was uncertain about the livery for a long time – I just had already settled upon an RAF aircraft. But the model would not receive a late low-viz scheme (the Levin, my mono-engine Lightning build already had one), and no NMF, either. I was torn between an RAF Germany all-green over NMF undersides livery, but eventually went for a pretty standard RAF livery in Dark Sea Grey/Dark Green over NMF undersides, with toned-down post-war roundels.

A factor that spoke in favor of this route was a complete set of markings for an RAF 11 Squadron Lightning F.6 in such a guise on an Xtradecal set, which also featured dayglo orange makings on fin, wings and stabilizers – quite unusual, and a nice contrast detail on the otherwise very conservative livery. All stencils were taken from the OOB Revell sheet for the Lightning. Just the tactical code “F” on the tail was procured elsewhere, it comes from a Matchbox BAC Lightning’s sheet.

After basic painting the model received the usual black ink washing, some post-panel-shading and also a light treatment with graphite to create soot strains around the jet exhausts and the gun ports, and to emphasize the raised panel lines on the Hasegawa parts.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and final bits and pieces like the landing gear and the Red Tops (taken OOB) were mounted.

A major effort, and I have seriously depleted my putty stocks for this build! However, the result looks less spectacular than it actually is: changing a Lightning from its literally original stacked engine layout into a more conservative side-by-side arrangement turned out to be possible, even though the outcome is not really pretty. But it works and is feasible!

Built in 1884 in the fashionable Fawkner Park district in what is the modern day Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, "Goodrest" is a large boom-style Italianate two-storey brick mansion designed by Walter Buckhurst for his parents William Parton Buckhurst and Anne Jane Faram. Walter was their eldest son.

The two-storey brick mansion standing proudly on Toorak Road West overlooking Fawkner Park from behind century old willow trees and Canary Island date palms has the typical Italianate massing with projecting canted bay wing, tower and two storey cast iron verandah. The tower is capped by a mansard dome. The facade is picked out in primrose yellow and white paintwork, highlighting its elaborate decoration. It is a fine example of the boom-style Italianate mansion popular amid wealthy pastoralists, developers and self-made Melbournian families eager to show off their wealth in the booming economic periods of 1880s and 1890s before the property crash of the late 1890s. The typical composition of the building with its central entranceway and L-shaped verandah is enhanced by the elaborate plaster work decoration and the splendid mansard dome on the tower. The stylised first floor cornice and window mouldings and the ground floor verandah with coupled columns and balustraded plinth are notable features of "Goodrest".

Originally, "Goodrest" was a typical large Victorian family home to the wealthy Buckhursts: William and Anne, their six children and a large retinue of indoor and outdoor servants. William was a developer and wool broker from Emerald Hill. The family were prominent members of Christ Church South Yarra, located only a short brougham ride or stroll from "Goodrest" on the corner of Toorak and Punt Roads. The Buckhursts were also important members of Melbourne's social elite and many a fine party was held at "Goodrest" which glittered like an ornately lit layer cake. However, by the time of the Second World War, the mansion's fortunes had changed. Crippled by taxes after the Great War and then hit by the Great Depression of 1929, the gilded age of the Buckhurts had long gone, so during hostilities, "Goodrest" served as the Far Eastern Liaison Office. With the restoration of peace in 1945, the property was no longer required by the War Office and it reverted to private ownership. However times had changed dramatically, as had the lives and fortunes of Melbournians. No-one wanted, nor could many afford, a crumbing Victorian edifice like "Goodrest" as their private home, and in the ensuing years it became the Avon Private Hotel. Situated on what was left of the originally large property, it was hedged in by an encroaching number of flats, and "Goodrest's" grand rooms were converted into smaller, more serviceable spaces. Whilst Coadjutor in the 1960s, Archbishop Justin Daniel Simonds was instrumental in strengthening the Catholic Education Department. After his death in 1967, the church purchased "Goodrest" to run conferences for Catholic teachers, restoring the rooms to their former grand proportions. "Goodrest" was renamed "Simonds Hall" in his honour. In 1971 "Simonds Hall" (formerly "Goodrest") was classified by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) as being of state significance as an outstanding feature of the South Yarra and Fawkner Park precincts as they once were. The mansion is today owned by Christ Church Grammar School, which sits alongside the church in which the Buckhursts used to worship. The small parcel of land upon which "Goodrest" stands, once neatly separated into paths and flowerbeds, is now a dusty carpark. Only the Canary Island palms and weeping willows remain. In 2016, the school put forth a suggestion to build an underground carpark and re-landscape and terrace the gardens to their former elegance. However the proposal was rejected because of the traffic difficulties it posed, its obstruction of this beautiful building from Toorak Road, and the possible structural damage it posed to "Goodrest". The matter continues to be a matter of discussion.

William Parton Buckhurst was born in Rochester, Kent in 1831, the son of John Buckhurst, a farmer. He was educated at local schools. At the age of seventeen he sailed to America and traveled through Canada before settling in Illinois where he was apprenticed to a miller. William became the manager of a flour mill in the Mississippi valley, before he caught ‘California fever’ in 1852. He sailed to Australia in 1857 where he landed in Melbourne. William purchased land in Napier Street, Emerald Hill and built four small cottages that proved to be very profitable when he sold them. He commenced business as an auctioneer and estate agent in the early 1860s. William married Anne Faram in 1860, and they had eight children, born between 1862 and 1872. He built elegant Rochester Terrace, a row of eight roomed terrace houses in St Vincent Place South in fashionable Albert Park between 1869 and 1871. After he returned from a ten month trip to India, the Middle East and Europe, William published "An Australian Abroad". Subsequently he took active steps from 1871 to have the Albert Park lagoon made into a permanent lake, the bowling green and croquet lawn in St Vincent Gardens in 1873, and in 1874 he proposed a canal from the Yarra River to the bay. In 1900 he married his second wife Agnes McCall. His original home was "Kent Villa", named for his native county, and later, "Windarra" in St Vincents Place Albert Park, and finally "Goodrest", Toorak Road, South Yarra, where he died in 1906.

Walter Buckhurst was born in Emerald Hill in 1863 to William Parton Buckhurst and his wife Anne Jane Faram. He became a very successful architect, not only designing "Goodrest", but many others. He owned sixty five mansion and villa sites facing the Botanic Gardens and Fawkner Park. He married Ada Jessie Gardiner. He died at his South Yarra home in 1897.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The MBR-04 series were the first combat-ready Destroids and the most successful land-combat weapon Destroids that were built with OverTechnology of Macross. The abbreviation MBR (Main Battle Robot) indicates the model was developed as a walking humanoid weapon emphasizing the heavy armor firepower of an artillery combat vehicle, designed to replace mainline battle tanks.

The Tomahawk operated as a core ground combat unit during the Great Stellar War (Space War I) and - when paired with the VF-1 variable fighter - achieved impressive military gains against the Zentraedi army.

General characteristics:

Equipment Type: main battle robot, series 04

Government: U.N. Spacy

Manufacturer: Viggers/Chrauler

Introduction: February 2007

Accommodation: 1 pilot plus space for a second crew member

Dimensions:

Height 12.7 meters (overall)

11.27 meters (up to head unit)

Length 5.1 meters

Width 7.9 meters

Mass: 31.3 metric tons

Power Plant:

Kranss-Maffai MT808 thermonuclear reactor, developing 2800 bhp output;

Auxiliary GE EM9G fuel generator, rated at 450 kW

Propulsion:

2x thrust nozzles mounted in the lower back region, allowing the capability to perform jumps,

plus several vernier nozzles around the hull for Zero-G manoeuvers

Performance:

Maximum speed: 180 km/h

Design features:

- Detachable weapons bay (attaches to the main body via two main locks);

- Extending/retractable periscope telescope (in weapon bay directly above the cockpit);

- Option pack featuring missiles or searchlight (can be mounted on either side of the weapon bay);

- Coolant tank (installed within the upper left side of the back torso);

- Capable of performing jumps via 2 x thrust nozzles (mounted in the lower back torso);

- Radiators with exhaust ports in the rear on the left and right hips

- Cockpit can be separated from the body in an emergency (only the cockpit block is recovered);

- Head unit equipped with 2 camera eyes, upper eye moving along a slit,

the lower protected by a polarized light shield

Armament:

1x Mauler PBG-07 liquid-cooled electrically-charged twin particle beam gun

2x Bifors close-in self-guided rocket launchers in the shoulders

with 12 rockets per launcher (24 rockets total)

2x Astra TZ-III gun clusters in the lower chest with each cluster featuring:

- 1x laser gun

- 1x 25 mm heavy machine gun

- 1x 180 mm grenade launcher

- 1 x flamethrower

2x Ramington M-89 12.7 mm air-cooled machine guns, mounted within the head unit

Option packs:

1x Erlikon anti-aircraft self-guided missile launcher with 6 missiles (shoulder mount)

1x Rheinstahl 35 mm automatic rapid-fire cannon (lower arm pod)

1x Stonewell 20 mm six-barrel gatling gun (lower arm pod)

The kit and its assembly:

After a long time, a Macross mecha kit again. The idea behind this modified Tomahawk was that I always wondered about the clumsy "cannon arms" of the Mk. VI variant, and what an earlier version - with complete arms and hands - could have looked like? When I delved through my Macross donor parts bank I came across two lower arms from former VF-1 conversions (from different kits, though...), and I tested them on my authentic 1:100 Tomahawk Mk. VI model that I have built about 20 years ago: they seemed to work in size and volume!

An extensive spare parts and sprues safari followed and yielded two complete hands/fists from a VF-1 Gerwalk Arii kit (these appear to be totally outsized!), as well as lower arms/elbow sections, so that a transplantation to the Tomahawk’s arm stumps, which would later even allow a lengthwise axis mobility. And with some extra vinyl caps the transformation experiment could begin.

The basis is a Bandai re-issues of Imai’s 1982 1:100 Tomahawk kit, in specific from Macross' 30th anniversary merchandise. They seem to pop up every five years!?

However, having built and re-built several of the Imai/Arii Destroid kits, I made some changes beyond the arm transplantation, since there’s a lot of space for improvement, even though the kit as such is decent for its age. But you have to expect PSR almost everywhere, and the kit’s vintage “Matryoshka” construction of the model (build one element from two halves, place it between two more halves, etc.) does not make the assembly process easy – but there are ways to evade this inherent problem, see below.

One important improvement measure was a completely now hip joint arrangement. OOB, the Tomahawk's posture is pretty stiff, with the legs and feet straight forward - it's supposed to just stand upright, and with the model’s OOB joint options it is really hard to create a vivid poise. Furthermore, the bolts that hold the legs are prone to break off, even more so because the Tomahawk kit is from the 1st generation of mecha kits, without vinyl caps and just very tight joint fit.

My solution was the implantation of a new hip “bone” made from plastic-coated steel, which is stiff in itself but can be bent in two dimensions. The thighs had to be modified accordingly, since the wire is much thinner than the original bolts. As a convenient trick, the receptor holes in the thighs were simply filled with small vinyl rings - their outer AND inner diameter fit perfectly for the new arrangement. With this trick, a much more dynamic and "natural" leg position could be achieved, also thanks to the Tomahawk’s large feet and their joints. This tuning measure improves the model considerably.

Another change is the Tomahawk's weaponry, which is OOB pretty impressive. Since my fictional Mk. III lost its main arm weapons, I decided to give it at least a major cannon on the shoulder. A convenient donor came from a Dorvack 1:24 PA-36K "Berlon" kit, placed on a scratched mount on the right shoulder,. Which allows the weapon to be moved up and down. To make place for the new twin gun, the OOB sextuple missile launcher was moved to the left side, necessitating a modification of its holder, too.

As mentioned above, the arms use donor parts from the Arii VF-1 Gerwalk kit, but there are also less obvious changes. While the shoulder mounts and the upper arms were taken OOB from the Tomahawk kit, I modified their attachment system. Instead of the "put the arms between the fuselage halves" solution, I modified the arms so that they can be stuck independently into their respective hull openings. This has the benefit that they are actually movable (remember the tight fit of the model’s joints, add some paint and nothing will ever move), and they can be built and painted separately from the rest of the model. In order to stabilize the arms when in place and prevent them from falling out too easily, I added an interlaced styrene tube axis arrangement between them. Very simple and effective, and it works well.

The VF-1 Gerwalk lower arms were taken OOB. Upon test-fitting I found that the bulky Tomahawk could even take some more muscle on its new arms, so I added a pair of FAST packs from a Super Valkyrie kit to them (also found in the spares box…). These would, however, not contain AAMs, as on the VF-1, but rather more guns. I went for a medium machine cannon in the left arm and a gatling gun (scratched from syringe needles, fiddly affair...) against soft and aerial targets in the right arm.

In order to provide the model with some more details and depth I added a lot of small styrene bits everywhere – this is actually only necessary on the front sides of the lower legs for an authentic improvement, but all those other tiny bits and pieces just underline the mecha’s sturdiness and provide visual detail for the later painting process.

The machine guns above the cockpit were replaced with hollow steel needles; since these are thinner than the OOB barrels, I filled the gaps with paper tissues drenched in thinned white glue. Flexible cables (elastic braid) were added to the twin beam cannon and to the legs/hip joints.

Painting and markings:

Basically a simple affair, because I wanted to stay true to the original look of a typical Macross Destroid. These tend to carry a uniform livery, esp. the Tomahawk/Defender/Phalanx family is kept in murky/dull tones of green, brown and ochre: unpretentious "mud movers". Anything else or even complex camouflage patterns are rare. The OOB MBR-04-Mk. VI carries a reddish-brown livery, and Yamato also did an 1:60 Tomahawk action figure in an overall olive drab tone, which appears canonical.

However, for a personal touch I chose a greyish dark green as basic overall tone, Field Grey (Tamiya XF-65). The missile launcher covers on the shoulders were painted in NATO olive green (RAL 6014, Gelboliv, Revell 46), but the different tone became, after weathering, harder and harder to tell, so that the Tomahawk ended up with a relatively uniform livery.

Otherwise there's hardly any other color on the Tomahawk’s hull. The hands/fists were painted with Polished Steel metallizer, the bellows in the knees became anthracite (Revell 06). The characteristic white trim on the lower legs that many Destroids carry was painted with white - unfortunately none of the Destroid kits offers them as a decal. However, due to the legs' uneven underground, these would be difficult to apply, anyway. The lower camera visor was created with simple clear red paint on top of a basic coat with silver. The other small camera windows at the top and back are small decal squares in dayglo orange.

The model was thoroughly weathered with a heavier black ink wash and a total of three dry brushing turns: the first, generous treatment with acrylic Revell 67 (Grüngrau, RAL 7009), followed by the second, moer careful turn around the edges and other details with acrylic Revell 45 (Helloliv, a yellowish variant of RLM 02). The decals followed next, mostly taken from the OOB sheet, just with a few extra stencils, new tactical codes and the "Trixie” nose art (it actually belongs to a P-40F, piloted by Joseph A Bloomer Jr of the 318th FS/325th FG in the MTO) on the lower left leg – a typical detail of many Destroids.

The third dry brushing turn followed, this time with acrylic Revell 75 (a yellowish light grey), esp. on the edges and concentrated around the lower areas of the Tomahawk, simulating wear and dust/mud residue.

Finally, the model received an overall coat with acrylic matt varnish from the rattle can. Some bare metal showing through at a few edges was added, too, again through dry-brushing with silver. After final assembly of the elements, some mineral pigments were dusted onto the model with a soft, big brush. Around the feet, pigments were also applied into small patches of wet matt acrylic varnish, forming stable mud crusts.

In the end, I am quite happy with the outcome, even though the Field Grey turned out to be darker/more murky than expected, even though the color itself suits the Tomahawk well. The transplanted arms also blend well into this mecha which bristles with weapons: this fictional (I had no reference material for earlier Tomahawk versions except the official short texts from the Macross publications) result looks pretty plausible and complements the 20-years-old Mk. VI in my collection well.

Arriva Kent & Surrey Ltd.:

Dennis Dart SLF SFD112 /

Alexander ALX200 (9.4m)

N29F - 5/2000

Ex-Arriva London North Ltd., Wood Green, London (ADL73) (7/2013)

New to Arriva East Herts & Essex Ltd., Harlow, Essex (3473)

The last remaining serviceable '33' Dart at TW. 3336/40/3 are all parked up withdrawn at Tonbridge due to unviable defects.

Arriva Bus Garage, Kingstanding Way, North Farm, Royal Tunbridge Wells

Saturday 6th January 2018

Dutch liveried Infrastructure Class 37/0 37054 was recorded near South Bank with what I guess was a local move of containers to Wilton Freightliner Terminal.

D6754 entered service in September 1962. During the 1980s it worked regularly on East Anglia passenger services based on Liverpool Street and in the 1990s worked in South Wales and the West Country. Initially stored serviceable in late 1993 it saw work on infrastructure services before being allocated for component recovery. It was scrapped at Motherwell in September 2003.

All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse

40137 (unofficially named Trojan), 40146 & D818 'Glory' stand outside the impressive backdrop of Swindon Works on Sun 16th August 1981.

40137 was withdrawn in January 1981 and was cut in December 1981, whilst sister loco 40146 was withdrawn in October 1980, but not cut until December 1983, after being stored as 'serviceable'.

The Warship had been withdrawn in November 1972 and was repainted from BR Blur to Green for a works open day. However, the loco was missing many parts and it's condition deteriorated until it was cut up in October 1985..

Recent MyTravel A330 flickr posts by Rob and Swire (see links below) prompted a search through the archives for any that I had taken at Ringway, Manchester.

I found this one, a photo of most dubious quality in so much as it isn't even vaguely sharp, but an interesting one nonetheless.

You'll immediately see that the aircraft doesn't even say "MyTravel" but "Garuda International" which is the airline of Indonesia. Why? Well some 18 months before this photo was taken, MyTravel agreed a merger with Tommy Cook. Carrying its MyTravel livery, this aircraft (can't see the registration) became part of Thomas Cook Scandinavia based in Denmark. However things took a twist when just a few months later Garuda were banned from Europe for not meeting EU safety standards. Now to be honest, I'm not sure if Tommy Cook leased "acceptable" planes such as this one to Garuda so they could continue some sort of European service until they were reinstated. They may simply have been for Hajj use, when pretty much every spare serviceable plane around the world is required to transport people to Mecca. Whichever, a hybrid livery appeared for a while which was effectively the old MyTravel with Garuda titles! Complicated eh?

Oak Park retiered engine#2 and the Hawthorne Cub scouts Pack 9 on a little outting back in 1961.

Mulwala Bridge was built in 1924 and provides a vital transport link across Lake Mulwala, between the twin towns of Mulwala in NSW and Yarrawonga in Victoria.

On average, more than 8500 vehicles use the bridge every day and it is essential that the structure is maintained in a safe and serviceable condition for the local community and visitors alike.

Source: Transport for NSW

Built as a post WW2 stop-gap for the Burma Railways were ten metre gauge 4-6-2s built by Vulcan Foundry to the IRS YC design. In the late 1970s the remaining active examples of the class were centred on Toungoo where YC630 was yard pilot on 25 February 1979.

In 2016 one example remains serviceable (at reduced boiler pressure) and may be used on tour trains in 2017.

V700_3_653

//What a disaster

William Saunderson-Meyer says the floods just another blow to a province that was already on its knees

KwaZulu-Natal has declared a provincial state of disaster to try to cope with the devastating floods of the past week.

This is normally a temporary mechanism of which the primary purpose is to facilitate speedy national government assistance to hard-pressed provincial and local authorities. It also triggers the release of emergency funds from the National Treasury.

But in KZN’s case, they might as well make it permanent. This is a province that has been on its knees for some time and it ain’t getting up any time soon.

After all, KZN hasn’t even staunched the bloodied nose it suffered nine months ago. That’s when one wing of the African National Congress government — the Radical Economic Transformation followers of former president Jacob Zuma — tried to bury the other — the so-called reformists led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

KZN hasn’t even properly tallied the body blows it suffered then. The official estimates for the insurrection were 45,000 businesses affected, R50bn in economic damage, 129,000 jobs lost, and 354 killed.

These estimates are probably on the low side. For example, the number of people who were killed in the mayhem doesn’t include the many whose bodies were simply never found and counted.

And the true economic cost is incalculable. There’s been substantially increased emigration of minorities, cancelled investment, and the loss of international confidence in KZN as a safe tourist destination. In at least a dozen small, country towns, all the business infrastructure was destroyed, paradoxically by the very people who worked and shopped in those buildings.

Now the floods. The death toll is over 300 and still rising. Some 6,000 homes have been destroyed and road, water sewage and electrical infrastructure uprooted. As I write this, roaming mobs are opportunistically plundering container depots, stranded trucks, abandoned homes and vulnerable businesses, reportedly unhindered — as was the case during last year’s riots — by the police and army.

Naturally, no disaster is complete without a scapegoat. Ramaphosa, as is his style, was quick off the mark to finger the culprit — climate change.

“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” Ramaphosa told reporters while inspecting a devastated Durban. “We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”

What balderdash. Whatever role climate change may or may not have played in the larger scheme of things, it’s nonsense to pin on it responsibility for the plight of KZN. That lies with the ANC government.

First, this was not an unforeseeable bolt from the heavens. The forecasters warned months back that this was likely to be an exceptionally wet summer because of the La Niña weather pattern that occurs every few years.

There are also historical precedents for extreme weather in KZN, which a prudent administration would have taken note of.

In 1984, Tropical Storm Domoina wreaked havoc in a swathe from Mozambique, through Swaziland to KZN. Although the current downpour is worse, the scale is nevertheless in the same ballpark.

This latest storm — as yet unnamed — dumped 450mm of rain on Durban in 48 hours. Domoina let loose 615mm in 24 hours on Swaziland and northern KZN.

But the true difference between those events, 38 years apart, lies in the lack of preparedness on the part of today’s authorities. In 1984 the SA Air Force deployed 25 helicopters to airlift people to safety. In the 2000 Mozambique floods, 17 SAAF helicopters rescued more than 14,000 people.

This time, according to a News24 report, the SA Police Service and the SAAF, combined, have been unable to put a single chopper in the air. The erosion of South Africa’s military means that of the SAAF’s 39 Oryx helicopters, only 17 are serviceable.

Durban-based 15 Squadron has not a single helicopter available for search and rescue — they are reportedly primarily used as VIP transport — but two SAAF choppers supposedly have been despatched from Gqeberha to help. The SAPS airwing has only one serviceable helicopter but “the pilot on duty has been booked off sick”.

Second, throughout the province, local government is also in a state of disaster and unable to do its job. The scale of the KZN impairment can be measured in the flood destruction of homes.

Some 4,000 shanties have been destroyed, many because officialdom was too lax to forbid building on the floodplain and against precariously unstable hillsides. Another 2,000 of the homes swept away were so-called RDP houses, shoddily built during the kickback-and-steal bonanza of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme of the late 1990s.

In Durban, the eThekwini metro is bloated and inert. It carries a rates and services debt of R17bn, of which R1bn is owed by the national government.

Durban is also infamously corrupt. Former mayor Zandile Gumede — along with 21 co-accused — is facing fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges in connection with a R320m municipal tender.

Yet at the weekend, even as the rain was bucketing down, she won the ANC’s regional leadership contest hands-down, despite the party’s supposed “step-aside when accused” rule.

The ANC-aligned Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has no illusions about the party it supports. It issued a statement calling on the government to ensure that unlike the plundering of Covid-19 emergency relief funds, the KZN disaster funds were not stolen or misused.

Fat chance. The ANC has already announced that its parliamentary constituency offices in KZN would become “hubs for humanitarian support” and appealed for the donation of relief supplies. Watch the trousering by the ANC’s public representatives of anything that the public is dumb enough to leave with them.

It’s in KZN where the ANC’s brazen indifference to the law and antipathy towards the Constitution is at its most obvious and most destructive.

On Monday, Zuma's corruption trial once again failed to take off in the Pietermaritzburg High Court when he successfully blocked the process with another round of delaying legal actions. His lawyers also had some carefully threatening words for the judiciary in a separate Supreme Court of Appeal action.

They urged SCA President Mandisa Maya to reconsider the dismissal of his latest corruption prosecution challenges. They warned that last year’s deadly July unrest was “in part, traceable to a perceived erroneous and unjust judicial outcome” that put Zuma briefly in prison for contempt of court.

“When such conceived mistakes are committed, the citizens (wrongly) feel entitled to resort to self-help…”

Floods, fires and locusts are devastating but at least happen relatively rarely. The ANC, alas, is a seemingly unending plague.

www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/kzn-what-a-disaster

08598, still carrying Potter Group bright yellow livery, is on site for repairs fresh from AV Dawsons, Middlesbrough. Another loco that is celebrating it's 60th this year, being introduced as D3765 way back in 1959. The locos first allocation was Manchester Longsight and stayed in the Manchester area for the first 15 years of it's life or so. Withdrawal from BR came early with less than 30 years service, laid up from Crewe Diesel in 1986. Sold in to private ownership, the loco had several owners before it's most notable time with the Potter Group at both it's Knowsley and Ely terminals. AV Dawson's purchased the pilot in 2017 and put it straight to use working alongside their 2 serviceable gronks 08600 and 08774. Of note the loco retains its Potter logo's on the cab sides but thankfully has lost the ghastly caging that was applied over the windows during its time with the group.

Here's a grand shot of Emil and Stanley near the coal-fired steam power plant at Hibbing, Minnesota. Emil was the senior man remaining on the east end of the Burlington Northern system and he was originally a Great Northern Railway man. His work mate, Stanley was the senior man remaining from Northern Pacific Railway. They worked the balance of their careers on the Kelly Lake Local train out of Kelly Lake, MN. and they were both fine gentlemen to know.

I invested a good deal of time with Emil to interview him and his remembrances about railroading on the Great Northern's Mesabi Division. He was born on February 28, 1923 inside of the GN's section house in Virginia, Minnesota. As Emil put it, he took one look around, and was hooked on railroading on the Mesabi Range from the first minute he landed there. He hired on to the GN on July 13, 1941 as a brakeman working out of Kelly Lake yard. That was his seniority date. He could bump anyone "younger" than him (with less seniority) and work any job his seniority would allow him to hold.

During the winter of that first year he worked as a brakeman on the Burlington to make ends meet. Railroading on the Mesabi Iron Range was seasonal so men traveled south to other roads to keep working until the spring thaw brought business back to the Range. In 1942 he worked Kelly Lake again during the summer then on the Milwaukee Road over the winter. From 1943 to mid-1946 Emil was off to the battlefields in Europe. On his return from the war he worked in Kelly Lake again, and on the Milwaukee again when it got cold. He was a seasoned traveler in just five years. But his travels were far from over. The post-war business years on the Range were slower than normal and for a younger man on the railroad that meant no work was available locally. So Emil traveled to Florida and worked on the Florida East Coast Railroad during 1947-48. Eventually things started to turn around up north again, first in Superior, so during 1949 so Emil came back to the GN and worked there as a brakeman before eventually returning to the place he enjoyed most—Kelly Lake.

Emil recollected that GN hired men in 1929, 1936, 1937, 1940 (switchmen only this year), 1941 and 1942. You couldn't hire on when you wanted to; it was up to the railroad always. Eventually he became a conductor for Great Northern and when that company became part of Burlington Northern he continued in the same role. Although the 1959 strike in Kelly Lake put him in Superior for a time, Kelly Lake was his railroad home for over 50 years. Emil lived in Virginia, MN. for most of his life but relocated to Hibbing, MN. with his wife in 1972.

Being a conductor Emil's work always centered around his caboose. GN's arguably-famous X-176 caboose was made in St. Cloud especially for him at his request for use on his regular train, the Kelly Lake Local. He got tired of the short little wood cabooses derailing under him when pushing cars into or out of the mines. That made for awefully long days getting his "office" back on the track again. So he asked for a big, heavy, steel car instead. They made him the X-176. Here's a shot of it in Hibbing. Emil was at lunch when this shot was snapped: www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/27285309713/in/album-721...

Emil enjoyed some of the locomotives at Kelly Lake too. He fondly remembered what good engines the GN's Class M-2 2-6-8-0s were for use gathering ore cars at the mines. The "Nineteen Hundreds (as Emil called them) were good workhorses and could easily handle 65 loaded ore cars up out of the tipple tracks" (where the ore was trans-loaded from the mine and into MTY ore cars). Emil remembered engines 1963, 1973, 1974, 1977 and 1980 which he worked with at Kelly Lake. Here's a picture of one of them: www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/27274610384/in/album-721...

According to Emil, after engineers were assigned to their various mine runs each morning there was a mad dash from the depot to the engine house to be sure nobody else took their beloved nineteen-hundred. Near the end of steam GN actually sent a few 4-6-2 "Pacifics" here for use on mine runs and transfers and none of the engineers wanted to get stuck with those things because the best they could pull from any mine track was four cars at a time. They were far too light and their driving wheels way too big. More than a half-dozen cars would get them spinning their drivers. Emil said he thought someone had a screw loose when they came up with that plan but since these old but still serviceable Pacifics weren't needed elsewhere they ran out of Kelly Lake until they were retired and scrapped. All of the dead steamers were stored at Kelly Lake for a while, before being moved to Superior to wait out their collective, ultimate fate.

Emil said that the fun went out of railroading for him when the foot boards were taken off of the locomotives. He said, "Everyone liked to ride the foot boards (on the front and rear of the engines, just above the rails) and when they came along and cut them off of our diesels it changed everything, it just wasn't the same riding on the engine after that."

If anyone knows what excitement those foot boards could provide, it was Emil. Early in his career he was riding the front foot board of a 2-6-8-0 down into a mine spur. The trip down was uneventful. But the return trip was some kind of surprise as apparently some mining equipment had crossed the tracks and left a large pile of ore debris over the rails that ran beneath the wooden foot board that Emil was standing on. Fortunately for him, being tall and lanky, he usually folded his arms behind him underneath the long grab iron that was immediately behind him, that ran across the top of the pilot beam from side to side.

When the engine reached the debris Emil's foot board was ripped clean off the pilot of the locomotive leaving Emil hanging from the grab iron with his legs dangling above the rails as the locomotive continued forward. He was screaming and shouting but to no avail. Nobody could hear him and as the engine was rounding a curve no one in the cab could see him either. Had he fallen off he'd have been killed by the wheels of his engine. Eventually the fireman and engineer realized they weren't receiving hand signs from Emil so they stopped their movement and no one was happier about that than Emil. So like I said already, nobody knew the adventure of riding locomotive foot boards better than Emil.

Long live the Great Northern, and Emil Blazina!

I don't think that it was in steam, but it looks serviceable.

Between 1963 and 1967, S. Morgan Ltd and R. Store Ltd took delivery of six Guy Arab V double deckers. They were fitted with 73-seat front-entrance bodies by Charles H. Roe of Crossgates, Leeds. The first was 891GWT and this also became the last, as it was the only serviceable Guy bus in the fleet at the time of take-over by SYPTE.

In order to serve new residential developments in the Hatfield and Dunscroft area, the local bus route from Doncaster was diverted in Dunscroft along Sheep Dip Lane (on certain journeys). Later, the diversion was extended to include Station Road and Crookes Broom Lane and eventually the service was extended along Station Road to a new terminus close to Hatfield Church, leaving out the Broadway and Ingram Road section altogether.

Perhaps 891GWT's destination blind had not been updated to reflect this service extension. On this occasion, the driver found "HATFIELD COLLIERY" and by carefully positioning the blind attempted but did not entirely succeed in hiding the "COLLIERY" line.

Hired by South Yorkshire PTE during a shortage of serviceable buses within its own fleet, Leicester City Transport 132 is operating service 52 in Sheffield. It is a Bristol RELL6L with dual-door bodywork by Eastern Coach Works, new in 1970.

Making a welcome return to the mainline after nearly 5 months out of service is Network Rail's last remaining serviceable Class 31 - 31233.

Here 31233 passes through the lightly used (88 punters last year) Elton and Orston station whilst leading 3Z01 12.30 Derby RTC to Dollands Moor test train on Thursday 17th December 2015.

027/365 - 27 January 2023 - Isetta. The replacement door on the left. Nathan did a bit of work on the original door, but it really needed something better.

I'll get the old one primed and sold. I'm sure that a home based clever soul will be able to put the time in making it serviceable again.

The replacement needs some fettling, but it's a good base.

A pair of Class 483 units run up Ryde Pier with a service from Shanklin on 27th July 2008. Unit 004 leads classmate 008 with car 228 nearest the camera which was built by Metro-Cammell, Birmingham in early 1940 and originally numbered 11255. It spent most of its years on London Undergrounds Bakerloo line and not withdrawn until the late 1980’s after a short spell on the Northern line. It was then sent to West Ruislip depot to wait its fate. Luckily it was chosen as one of the vehicles to replace the older Class 485's on the Isle Of Wight so dispatched to Eastleigh Works for overhaul in the late 1980's It officially became 228 in April 1990 and was seen on a test run to Winchester on 6th April 1990. It was sent to the island via the Portsmouth - Fishbourne car ferry and entered service from Ryde St Johns Road depot on 29th June 1990. After 80 years of service it's still in daily use in 2020 as one of two serviceable unit left on the island.

With less than a week to go before this scene is consigned to the history books 158 754 in the new Northern Livery arrives at the Lancashire coastal resort in better weather than was enjoyed during most of the "summer"!

The signal posts are weather beaten but still serviceable. Taken with permission, signed in, safety talk given and wearing hi-viz.

© Copyright Stephen Willetts - No unauthorised use

1977 Bristol 603E.

Anglia Car Auctions, King's Lynn -

"Our vendor informs us that this Bristol 603E, finished in metallic silver with grey leather upholstery has been regularly maintained. Described as being in serviceable condition and running order although infrequently used in recent years.

Some cosmetic restoration of the exterior paintwork and leather interior is required.

The car is a rare example of a Bristol 603E and is one of only eleven registered in the Bristol Owners Club Membership & Car List.

The car comes with a file containing the original instruction manual, some service records dating back over the cars history & a collection of back numbers of Bristol Owners Club magazines.

This example was sold new by the Bristol Motor Co in March 1977 to a Mr Gordon Tallis and was acquired by the present, second owner in July 2005.

The original sales invoice comes with the car £19,439.86 on the 25th march 1977.

V5 present

MoT October 2017

Recorded mileage 86,000

Estimate: £10,000 - 12,000

Result: £14,280."

History[edit]

From Queensland, Australia c. 1900, horse-drawn carriage built by A. E. E Roberts Carriage Works

Horse-drawn hearse, made at the Maine State Penitentiary in 1895, and used until the 1930s; displayed at the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor, Maine

Originally considered public transportation, an elaborate framework would be erected over a coffin or tomb to which memorial verses or epitaphs were attached. It was then put on the top of horse-drawn carriages, looking much like a luggage rack. Today, the original hearse remains acknowledged by the bit of scroll work or stretched-out "S" on the side of a funeral coach, called Landau bars.[1]

Hearses were originally horse-drawn, but silent electric motorised carts were introduced as horses began to be phased out as transportation. Examples that were used in Paris were reported in the pages of Scientific American May 1907 and petrol-driven hearses began to be produced from 1909 in the United States. Motorised hearses became more widely accepted in the 1920s.[citation needed] The vast majority of hearses since then have been based on larger, more powerful car chassis, generally retaining the front end up to and possibly including the front doors but with custom bodywork to the rear to contain the coffin. Some early hearses also served as ambulances, owing to the large cargo capacity in the rear of the vehicle. A few cities experimented with funeral trolley cars and/or subway cars to carry both the casket and mourners to cemeteries, but these were not popular. The only exception was Chicago, IL which operated 3 different funeral trolley cars over the elevated tracks in downtown Chicago to outlying cemeteries in the western suburbs. A special funeral bureau handled the funeral trains which sometimes operated 3-4 funeral trains a week over the 'L'.

North America and Europe[edit]

Coleman Milne Fairlane Range[clarification needed]

Normally more luxurious brands of car are used as a base; the vast majority of hearses in the United States and Canada are Cadillacs and Lincolns. In Europe, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler, Jaguar, Opel, Ford, Vauxhall Motors and Volvo are or were common contemporary bases, and in the past even used Rolls-Royce cars were converted, though their cost is generally considered prohibitive.

Cadillac produced what it termed a "commercial chassis". This was a strengthened version of the long-wheelbase Fleetwood limousine frame to carry the extra weight of bodywork, rear deck and cargo. Designed for professional car use, the rear of the Cadillac commercial chassis was considerably lower than the passenger car frame, thereby lowering the rear deck height as well for ease of loading and unloading. They were shipped as incomplete cars to coachbuilders for final assembly. A commercial chassis Cadillac was little more than a complete rolling chassis, front end sheet metal with lighting and trim, dashboard and controls. Rear quarter panels and sometimes the front door shells were shipped with the chassis for use in the finished coachwork. Today, most hearses are made from converted sedans on stretched wheelbases. The fleet division of Ford Motor Company sells a Lincoln Town Car with a special "hearse package" strictly to coachbuilders. Shipped without rear seat, rear interior trim, rear window or decklid, the hearse package also features a heavy-duty suspension, brakes, charging system and tires and was once offered on a modified Ford Expedition SUV chassis with the Triton V10 truck engine.

Hearses and other funeral service vehicles in the U.S. are often equipped with purple light bars and other flashing lights similar to those found in emergency vehicles in order to increase the visibility of the vehicle while in processions.[citation needed]

In Europe, most hearses are based on commercial vans. In the past, all medium-sized vans could be converted into hearses. Today, Mercedes-Benz vans are common in modern fleets. It is common to keep old fleets since they have little wear.

Since the working life of a hearse is generally one of light duty and short, sedate drives, hearses remain serviceable for a long time; hearses 30 years old or more may still be in service, although some funeral homes replace them at least once a decade. As of 2004, a new hearse in the USA usually costs in the range of $60,000 to $85,000.

Horse-drawn hearse, Manchester, UK, 2007.

Two styles of hearse bodywork are common. The older style is the limousine style; these have narrow pillars and lots of glass. These are more popular in the United Kingdom, among others. More popular in the United States is the landau style, with a heavily-padded leather or (later) vinyl roof, and long blind rear quarters, similarly covered, and decorated with large metal S-shaped bars designed to resemble those used to lower the tops on some horse-drawn coaches. It is common practice in the USA for the windows to be curtained, while in the UK the windows are normally left unobscured. Hearses resemble station wagons strictly because of the shape of the rear ends of conventional ones.

Until the late 1970s, it was common for hearses in the USA to be combination coaches which also could serve in the ambulance role; these were common in rural areas. Car-based ambulances and combination coaches were unable to meet stricter Federal specifications for such vehicles and were discontinued after 1979.

Due to the costs of owning an expensive custom vehicle that sits idle "80 to 90 percent of the week", individual funeral homes reduce costs by renting or utilizing a shared motor pool.[2][3]

Japan[edit]

Hearses in Japan

A Buddhist-style Japanese hearse built from a series 1 (1980 - 1985) Lincoln Town Car. In this example the wheelbase has not been stretched.

"Western"-style Toyota Crown hearse, with stretched wheelbase.

In Japan, hearses, called "reikyusha" (霊柩車), can come in two styles: "Foreign" style, which is similar in build and style to an American hearse, or a "Japanese" style, in which the rear area of the vehicle is modified to resemble a small, ornate Buddhist temple. This generally requires the rear of the vehicle to be extensively altered; commonly, the rear roof is cut away from the front windows back and all interior parts are removed from the rear as well. The ornate Buddhist-style rear area, generally constructed of wood and in which the casket or urn is placed, is built on top of this empty cavity and most often is wider than the base of the vehicle, so that it sticks out on the sides, over the rear body panels. Popular bases for these are not limited to large sedans, but also minivans and even pickup trucks by companies like Nissan and Toyota.

There are regional differences of ornaments. Nagoya style decorates not only the upper half of the body, but the lower half as well.[4] Kansai style has a relatively modest decorations unpainted.[5] Kanazawa style is known for having a red body (other styles mostly have black bodies) with gilded ornaments.[6] Tokyo style, found anywhere else in Japan, features painted/gilded ornaments on the upper half of the body.[7]

"Foreign" style hearses are mostly similar in appearance to their US counterparts, although their exterior dimensions and interiors reflect the Japanese preference for smaller, less ornate caskets (this in light of the national preference for cremation). This means that, in contrast to American hearses, the rear quarter panels require less, and sometimes no, alteration. These are generally built from station wagons such as the Nissan Stagea, or from executive sedans such as the Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS in the US) and Nissan Cima (Infiniti Q45 in the US). Interestingly, American market vehicles such as the Lincoln Town Car and Cadillac DeVille, which are otherwise fairly uncommon in Japan, are often converted to hearses in both styles.

Hong Kong[edit]

In Hong Kong, light goods vehicles of Isuzu, Volkswagen and Ford are used as hearses by most of the privately operated funeral homes.[8][9][10]

Others[edit]

A Motorcycle-style hearse.

The motorcycle hearse has become popular and is often used during the funeral of motorcycle enthusiasts.[11] This type of hearse is either a motorcycle with a special sidecar built to carry a casket or an urn at the side of the rider, or it is a trike that carries the casket behind the rider.

In recent decades, high capacity funeral homes have implemented designated "first-call" vehicles, used exclusively to transport the deceased to the funeral home. These vehicles are often converted full-size station wagons that may or may not feature a traditional landau roof and bars, although in recent years, following the end of the full-size station wagon era, the preference has shifted towards minivans with slide-over landau bar panels for the third row windows. Many first-call vehicles have the appearance of a hearse, but will not accommodate a full-sized casket in length or height. The blue Mercury in the gallery is a retired first-call vehicle (?).

Perhaps owing to the morbid nature of the hearse, its luxurious accommodations for the driver, or both, the hearse has a number of enthusiasts who own and drive retired hearses. There are several hearse clubs.[12]

Amongst enthusiasts, the 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor hearse is considered one of the most desirable due to its especially ornate styling and appearances in feature films, notably an ambulance version (Ecto-1) in the motion picture Ghostbusters.

In the 1971 film Harold and Maude the character Harold, played by Bud Cort, drives two hearses: originally a 1959 Cadillac Superior 3-way; and then later a custom hearse he makes from a 1971 Jaguar XK-E 4.2 Series II. The Cadillac hearse is now privately owned in central California and is preserved, looking essentially identical to the way it did in the film. Only one Jaguar "hearse" was built and was destroyed as part of the film's storyline. Several Harold and Maude fans have since built similar hearses from E-Types and photos of them can be found online. Jane Goldman, wife of British TV and radio personality Jonathan Ross, owns a similar style "hearse" built from a Jaguar XK8 convertible.

The Rogues prowl around in a graffitied 1955 Cadillac Hearse in the cult classic film, The Warriors. [13]

Celebrity hearse enthusiasts include rock singer Neil Young and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart, who had his hearse customised for a television show. Sam the Sham of the Pharaohs (known for Wooly Bully and Lil' Red Riding Hood) was known for transporting all his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse.

In the popular Canadian television program Degrassi, character Eli Goldsworthy, a 'death obsessed' 16-year-old, drives a 1960's era vintage hearse, affectionately nicknamed Morty. Cleve Hall, of the Syfy television show Monster Man, drives a 1980 Superior, with added coach lights on each side, in the 1st season of the show. He now drives a 1963 Miller Meteor named "Lucy".

Wikapedia

Class 37 number 37373 unofficially named "Lightning" cuts a lonely figure at Tinsley TMD on 6th March, 1993. The locomotive was stored un-serviceable by the end of March and withdrawn by the end of the year.

Leiden Centraal, 15 December 2024.

At the start of the concession Qbuzz didn't have enough serviceable buses, therefore a wide variety of buses were drafted in. An interesting example that operated for a brief period was this former Arriva Friesland Irisbus.

14 Stored Units sit in repose on the DP Lead at KCS Knoche Yard at sunset. In a gut wrenching sign of the times, it's never a good thing to see this many modern high horsepower units sitting around stored serviceable.

Taken on Railroads Illustrated Day In North America 2016.

Locomotives: KCS 4008, KCS 4001, KCS 3929, KCS 3921, KCS 4100, KCS 3999, KCS 3902, KCS 4029, KCS 4000, KCS 4690, KCS 4012, KCS 4701, KCS 3948, KCS 3932

4-16-16

Kansas City, MO

On 14th. May 2021 the Eastern Rail Services class 08 shunter 08870 arrived at the sidings of Gt. Yarmouth station following a major overhaul and repaint into Intercity livery, only a few shunters ever received this livery. The locomotive is serviceable and will be used to shunt vehicles at ERS' site. The driving cab will get a full refurbishment whilst on site.

The British Rail class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive built by British Railways (BR). As the standard BR general purpose diesel shunter, the class became a familiar sight at major stations and freight yards. Since their introduction in 1952 however, the nature of rail traffic in Britain has changed considerably. Freight trains are now mostly fixed rakes of wagons, and passenger trains are mostly multiple units, neither requiring the attention of a shunting locomotive. Consequently, a large proportion of the class has been withdrawn from mainline use and stored, scrapped, exported or sold to industrial or heritage railways.

As of 2020, around 100 locomotives remained working on industrial sidings and on the main British network.

Continuing in its designed-for role as a shunter, the class 08 has been found useful by numerous heritage railways in the UK. With over eighty examples preserved, including the first one built, they are the second most numerous class of preserved locomotive in the UK.

British Rail class 08

Power type: Diesel-electric

Builder: British Railways at -

Crewe Works

Darlington Works

Derby Works

Doncaster Works

Horwich Works

Build date: 1952–1962

Total produced: 996

Configuration:

​Whyte: 0-6-0

Wheel diameter: 4 ft. 6 in. (1.372 m)

Wheelbase: 11 ft. 6 in. (3.505 m)

Length: 29 ft. 3 in. (8.92 m)

Width: 8 ft. 6 in. (2.591 m)

Height: 12 ft. 9 in. (3.877 m)

Loco weight: 49.8 to 51.8 tons

Fuel capacity: 668 gal. (3,040 litres)

Engine: English Electric 6KT

Engine output: 350 hp (261 kW)

Traction motors: 2 x DC English Electric 506

Generator: DC

Maximum speed: 20 mph (32 km/h)

Disposition -

In service: 100

Preserved: 82

Converted to Class 09: 10

Converted to Class 13: 6

Exported to Liberia: 5

Remainder scrapped

I know some of my friends hate me for this, but I just simply couldn't turn down the deal. :p

I was at hayward camera show (used photo equipment buy/sell event). My camera bank was/is pretty much empty from my recent Leica commitment, so I was thinking of selling some stuff, then maybe buying some small parts, maybe the cheapest Oly Pen (not F or FT) if I was lucky enough to find one.

That said, I've been looking for a 6x6 SLR medium format camera for quite long time.

I have a strong affection with fully manual camera with mechanical shutter. I personally don't like the idea that a camera becomes a brick without battery. (nothing against AE cameras and such!) I also like the idea of camera built well and fully serviceable so I can use for my entire life and give it to my kids. :D Yeah, yeah nothing lasts forever, but that's kind of a big "feature" of mechanical cameras.

Bronica, Mamiya, Rollei, Voigtlander, Fuji, most of relatively easy to find / easy to service SLRs were with electronic shutter.

Quite naturally, Hasselblad would/should come in mind when you think about these preferences. But part of me was resisting this idea, kind of same way I was trying to avoid Leica. And because now I have and love my Leica, I was even more hesitating the idea of falling for Hassy. Many of you probably can understand this little silly straggle I was having.

Anyway, I was avoiding Hassy for many reasons although I knew that's the closest MF SLR camera to my preferences.

Then I was at the show, decided to sell some lens and such, time went by, not so-into-camera-as-toy friends were getting bord so I was about to leave the show empty handed.

That's the exact moment I found this guy sitting in the mountains of cameras. This was only 500 series hassy sold as complete camera kit in the entire show. I handled it a bit, let my Hassy savvy friend do some testing, then asked the price to the guy at the booth.

The price was too low to even feel comfortable. It looked, handled, moved a bit too nicely for the price he was asking. But as far as I and my friend could see, everything was working pretty good. Maybe the magazine is messed up and film advancing is a nightmare, then maybe it's a parade of light leaks going on in there. Then eventually, I made up my mind. Heck, even if it's a mess, this camera can be taken down to pieces and fix pretty much anything. I'll get this now, and fix/replace components over time.

I was too busy this week so he was quietly sitting in the cabinet. I just developed a quick test roll that Mug and I finally managed to get today, and guess what? No light leaks, no messed up frame spacing, no nothing! :DD

OK, now I'll scan some test frames. :D Dang, maybe I should go to sleep now...

And yes, I am officially done with both 35mm and Medium format camera hunt for the year 2009. May the G.A.S. be with you.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Upgraded from TA-4S and TA-4S-1 trainer.

The ST Aerospace A-4SU Super Skyhawk is a major upgrade project of the Douglas A-4S Skyhawk attack aircraft undertaken by Singapore Aircraft Industries (SAI, now ST Aerospace) in the 1980s. It was used exclusively by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), serving in the fighter-bomber role from 1989 until retirement from front line service in 2005. Since mid-1999, the A-4SU took on the additional role of being the designated advanced jet trainer (AJT) aircraft for the RSAF's AJT training program/detachment in Cazaux, France.

A-4S and TA-4S

Starting in 1973, the RSAF began to acquire Douglas A-4 Skyhawks. The first batch of over 50 airframes (ex-US Navy A-4Bs) was ordered and was subsequently requisitioned from the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC) at Davis–Monthan AFB, Arizona which was released to the Lockheed Aircraft Service (LAS) Company at Ontario, California, and its subsidiary Lockheed Aircraft Service Singapore (LASS) at Seletar Airfield, Singapore for a major overhaul and refurbishment.

These aircraft would later emerge as the A-4S single-seater (44 airframes) and the TA-4S two-seat trainer (three airframes), all having more than 100 changes incorporated (these included a slightly longer nose to house a new avionics package, five stores hardpoints instead of the usual three, a saddle-style Automatic Direction Finder dorsal hump, cockpit armour plating, spoilers, a cranked refuelling probe, AIM-9 Sidewinder capability, a brake parachute housing below the jetpipe into the standard A-4B airframes. As with the Israeli A-4Hs which were armed with a pair of 30 mm DEFA cannons, these were similarly armed with the 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons in place of the original 20 mm Colt Mk 12 cannons. A later order of four two-seat trainer airframes was placed in 1976, and these joined the RSAF in 1977.

The TA-4S trainers were not the standard TA-4 with a common cockpit for the student and instructor pilot, but were instead rebuilt by Lockheed with a 28-inch (710 mm) fuselage plug inserted into the front fuselage and a separate bulged cockpit (giving better all round visibility) for the instructor seated behind the student pilot. This arrangement was unique for the RSAF but was not the first by Lockheed (the Lockheed SR-71B and U-2CT/U-2RT/TR-1B/TU-2S trainers also used stepped cockpits). As such converted/rebuilt airframes, these TA-4S trainers were powered by the original Wright J65 turbojet engines as used in the B/C models instead of the Pratt & Whitney J52 used by the purpose-built TA-4E/Fs tandem-seaters from Douglas assembly line; this was the main reason why the RSAF decided to not procure the TA-4E/Fs (if indeed an order was placed) and then having to maintain two different engines to power essentially the same aircraft type (a scenario not unlike having a fleet within a fleet).

All of the single-seaters were later retired when the upgraded A-4SU began to enter service, the twin-seaters were upgraded instead and remained in service.

A-4S-1 and TA-4S-1

A second batch of 70 airframes was ordered (mix of ex-US Navy A-4Bs and A-4Cs) in 1980, these were shipped directly to Singapore for rebuilding with the A-4Cs being rebuilt as the A-4S-1s while the A-4Bs was to remain in storage for use as spares. Along with a small number of TA-4S-1s, these newer Skyhawks (characterised by its straight refuelling probe instead of the cranked refuelling probe found on the original A-4S/TA-4S) would join the RSAF as attrition replacements from 1982. However, these airframes retained the original 20 mm (0.787 in) Colt Mk 12 cannons of the A-4Cs.

In 1983, a third order of 8 TA-4S saw 16 stored A-4Bs from the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center being converted and rebuilt as the TA-4S-1 trainers (eight airframes).

A-4SU and TA-4SU Super Skyhawk

In 1985, as a result of four A-4S being written off in separate accidents, coupled with the low serviceability of the original batch of A-4S. Investigations conducted by RSAF reveal that although there was plenty of fuselage life left, the Wright J65 turbojet engines in use by the Skyhawks was too old and the associated spare parts were becoming both difficult and expensive to obtain. Consequently, the RSAF decided to upgrade the A-4S/TA-4S rather than to replace them.

With SAI contracted as the main contractor for the upgrading project and a non-afterburning General Electric F404-GE-100D turbofan engine selected as the new engine, the upgrading project would later be extended to cover the entire fleet of newer A-4S-1s as well as taking the opportunity to completely modernize the avionics package (newly installed equipment now included a Pave Penny laser seeker mounted in the nose, an Inertial navigation system (INS), a Tactical air navigation system (TACAN), fore & aft Radar warning receivers (RWR) and chaff/flare countermeasures) of the aircraft.

The modernized A-4SU and TA-4SU versions with its new F404 turbofan engine had 29% more thrust, which resulted in a 30% reduction in takeoff time as well as an increase in usable payload, range and maximum speed. The maximum speed now at sea level is 610 knots (1,130 km/h; 700 mph), and maximum cruise speed at 30,000 feet (9,100 m) is 446 knots (826 km/h; 513 mph).

Operational history

By 1974, the RSAF received enough refurbished A-4S to form the 142 Sqn and 143 Sqn, which were based at Tengah Air Base and Changi Air Base, respectively. In RSAF service, the A-4S/TA-4S were given 3-digit serials starting with 6 (e.g. 600, 651).

From 1982 A-4S-1 and TA-4S-1 Skyhawks would join the RSAF as attrition replacements with the balance being allocated in 1984 to form a new unit - 145 Sqn which was also based at Tengah Air Base. These were given 3-digit serial starting with 9 (e.g. 900, 929).

In total, approximately 150 airframes (all A-4Bs and Cs) were acquired by Singapore.

The modernized A-4SU Super Skyhawks were received by 143 Sqn first, followed by 142 Sqn and 145 Sqn of the RSAF from 1989 onwards. The type was also operated by the RSAF Black Knights aerobatic display team for precision aerial manoeuvers from 1990 to 2000.

End of front-line service

After 31 years of operations, the RSAF officially withdrew its fleet of A-4SU Super Skyhawks from operational combat service in Singapore on 31 March 2005. The A-4SU's achievements included flying directly from Singapore to the Philippines, incorporating the RSAF's first air-to-air refuelling mission in 1986,[10] as well as the aerobatic display of the 'red and white' Super Skyhawks flown by the RSAF Black Knights during Asian Aerospace 1990, 1994 and 2000, it was last used by the Black Knights during Singapore's National Day Parade held on 9 August 2000. A month before its retirement, the Skyhawk squadron (145 Sqn) won the top honours in a strike exercise against its more modern F-16 and F-5 counterparts and emerged as the Top combat squadron in the Singapore Armed Forces Best Unit Competition, an honour it has held since year 2000.

On 5 October 2005, one A-4SU Skyhawk was delivered to Singapore Polytechnic as a teaching aid. Subsequently, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University would each receive an A-4SU Skyhawk as well.

Two of the retired A-4SU Super Skyhawks were also donated to the French Air and Space Museum (Musée de l'Air) for static display. On 12 January 2006, a Certificate of Transfer and Acceptance signing ceremony took place between representatives of the RSAF and the French Aeronautics Museum at Cazaux Air Base in France. Since then, only 928 was put on display in the Rosette Hall of the museum while 941 was stored.

Secondary role

In 1998, the French government offered the use of facilities at Cazaux Air Base. A 25-year lease for basing rights of 18 A-4SU aircraft and approximately 250 RSAF personnel and their families was signed later that year. Back in Singapore, 143 Sqn was disbanded in 1997, and its aircraft were handed over to 150 Sqn, which had given up its SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 basic trainers.[3] The new squadron then took up the role of advanced jet training, using its aircraft as a lead-in fighter trainer for RSAF pilots. This made it the prime candidate for moving to France, and the first of 18 aircraft were "packed" and sent to France by ship in mid-1999 as part of the RSAF's Advanced Jet Training Program.[18] The 11 remaining training aircraft (4× A-4SU and 7× TA-4SU) were originally scheduled to retire in 2007 but remained in service until the delivery of their replacement, the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master, which was scheduled for 2012.

And so it begins. If rumours are proved to be true, this will be the final year of the 20s which will be withdrawn from service at the end of this years RHTT programme with worn wheelsets. DRS's serviceable class 20 numbers have been reducing year on year for the past few seasons. Last year's programme saw 66s and 68s slipped into the schedule when availability of the five remaining locos for two diagrams could not be maintained and this year only three serviceable locos appear to be available - 302, 303 and 305 and as far as can be told other than a trip to Gresty they have been laid up pretty much for 9 months since the end of last years service.

So it was worthy of a late lunch to catch 20302s first daylight arrival into Sheffield from the east, suitably in welcome sunshine. The locos parked up in a decent location - they have been known to wait half in sun, half shade, and not being able to wait for the 1 1/2 hours for their departure on my flying visit and look back towards the station to see the reason for their arrival which the leaves turning from green to yellow before (like the locos) their impending fall from grace and doom. The leaves (albeit different ones) will return next year, but what will be the traction. The sticking point for 66s is the tunnel north of Chapeltown through only which 20s, 37s (without roof horns) and Black 5s may pass. And 68s can't run Sheffield to Meadowhall due to gauge issues.

The Canadair CF-104 "Starfighter" (CF-111, CL-90) was a modified version of the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter" supersonic fighter aircraft built in Canada by Canadair under licence. It was primarily used as a ground attack aircraft, despite being designed as an interceptor. It served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and later the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) until it was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 "Hornet".

In the late 1950s, Canada redefined its role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with a commitment to a nuclear strike mission. At the same time, the RCAF began to consider a replacement for the Canadair F-86 "Sabre" series that had been utilized as a NATO day fighter. An international fighter competition involved current types in service as well as development, including the Blackburn "Buccaneer", Dassault "Mirage IIIC", Fiat G.91, Grumman "Super Tiger", Lockheed F-104G "Starfighter", Northrop N-156 and the Republic F-105 "Thunderchief". Although the RCAF had preferred the F-105 "Thunderchief" equipped with an Avro Canada Orenda Iroquois engine, eventually the choice for a strike-reconnaissance aircraft revolved around cost as well as capability.

A Canadian government requirement for a license manufacture also favoured the Lockheed proposal due to a collaboration with Canadair based in Montreal. On 14 August 1959, Canadair was selected to manufacture 200 aircraft for the RCAF under license from Lockheed. In addition, Canadair was contracted to manufacture wingsets, tail assemblies and rear fuselage sections for 66 Lockheed-built F-104Gs destined for the West German Air Force.

Design and development

internal designation was CL-90 while the RCAF's version was initially designated CF-111, then changed to CF-104. Although basically similar to the F-104G, the CF-104 was optimized for the nuclear strike/reconnaissance role, fitted with R-24A NASARR equipment dedicated to the air-to-ground mode only as well as having provision for a ventral reconnaissance pod equipped with four Vinten cameras. Other differences included retaining the removable refuelling probe, initial deletion of the fuselage-mounted 20 mm (.79 in) M61A1 cannon (replaced by an additional fuel cell) and the main undercarriage members being fitted with longer-stroke liquid springs and larger tires. The first flight of a Canadian-built CF-104 (s/n 12701) occurred on 26 May 1961. The Canadair CF-104 production was 200 aircraft with an additional 140 F-104Gs produced for Lockheed.

Operational history

The CF-104 entered Canadian service in March 1962. Originally designed as a supersonic interceptor aircraft, it was used primarily for low-level strike and reconnaissance by the RCAF. Eight CF-104 squadrons were originally stationed in Europe as part of Canada's NATO commitment. This was reduced to six in 1967, with a further reduction to three squadrons in 1970. Up to 1971, this included a nuclear strike role that would see Canadian aircraft armed with US-supplied nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict with Warsaw Pact forces. During its service life the CF-104 carried the B28, B43 and B57 nuclear weapons.

When the CAF later discontinued the strike/reconnaissance role for conventional attack, the M61A1 was refitted, along with U.S. Snakeye "iron" bombs, British BL755 cluster bombs and Canadian-designed CRV-7 rocket pods. Although Canadian pilots practiced air combat tactics, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles were never carried operationally by Canadian "Starfighters" (however, examples provided to other air forces, such as Norway and Denmark, did carry "Sidewinders" on a twin-rail centreline station and the wingtip rails). The CF-104D two-seater did not normally carry any armament except for a centreline practice-bomb dispenser.

There were 110 class A accidents in the 25 years that Canada operated the CF-104 resulting in 37 pilot fatalities. Most of these were in the early part of the program centering on teething problems. Of the 110 class A accidents 21 were attributed to foreign object damage (14 of which were birds), 14 were in flight engine failures, 6 were faulty maintenance, 9 were mid air collisions. 32 struck the ground flying at low level in poor weather conditions. Of the 37 fatalities 4 were clearly attributable to systems failures, all of the others were attributable to some form of pilot inattention.

The accident rate of the 104 compares favourably to its predecessor, the F-86 "Sabre". In only 12 years of operation the F-86 had 282 class A accidents with a loss of 112 pilots. The "Sabre" was also a simpler aircraft and was normally flown at higher altitude.

The CF-104 was nicknamed the "Widowmaker" by the press but not by the pilots and crews of the aircraft. David Bashow states on page 92 of his book "I never heard a pilot call it the Widowmaker". Sam Firth is quoted on page 93 in Bashow's book "I have never heard a single person who flew, maintained, controlled, or guarded that aircraft of any force (and that includes the Luftwaffe) call it the Widowmaker". The pilots did refer to it, in jest, as the "Aluminium Death Tube", "The Lawn Dart" and "The Flying Phallus" but generally called it the 104 (one oh four) or the "Starfighter".

Low level attack runs in the 104 were done visually at 100 feet AGL and at speeds up to 600 kn. Low level evasive maneuvers could increase speeds to supersonic.

The 104 was very difficult to attack owing to its small size, speed, and low altitude capability. Dave Jurkowski, former CF-104 and CF-18 pilot is quoted "Because of our speed, size and lower level operations, no Canadian Zipper driver was ever 'shot down' by either air or ground threats in the three Red Flag Exercises in which we participated."

The CF-104 was very successful in operational exercises held by NATO. The Canadians first took part in the AFCENT Tactical Weapons meet in 1964 and did so every year after that. This meet was a competition between squadrons from Belgium, France, Germany, USA, Britain, and the Netherlands. Scores were based on several factors. Bomb accuracy, time on target, navigation, mission planning and aircraft serviceability. Pilots were chosen at random from the various squadrons to accurately represent operational capabilities.

Preserved 507001 stands on display inside Derby Litchurch Lane after day 2 of the Greatest Gathering on 2nd Aug 25......Since leaving the Merseyrail system this unit has been based here maintaining its serviceable condition....but one day it is planned to move it to Tanet Light Railway for outside storage

I thought that I'd posted all my serviceable Brussels pics, but then I found a few more in another box. Just as well, as this is the only time that I saw one of the pre-war standard cars in action,

Dolgoch holds an important place in railway preservation history as it was the only serviceable locomotive on the Talyllyn Railway when it became the first ever preserved railway to be operated by volunteers in 1951, and largely single-handedly kept the railway going during this first season.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

After the Falklands War, Argentina was not only left with a much reduced aerial strike force – budget restraints, inner and external political pressure as well as delivery boycotts plagued the country for years in its efforts to rejuvenate the air force. Recent years were troublesome, too. In early 2005 the top seventeen brigadiers of the Air Force, including the Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Carlos Rohde, were sacked by President Néstor Kirchner following a scandal involving drug trafficking through Ezeiza International Airport. The primary concerns of the Air Force as of 2010 were the establishment of a radar network for control of the country's airspace, the replacement of its older combat aircraft (Mirage III, Mirage V) and the incorporation of new technologies. The possibility of purchasing surplus French Air Force Mirage 2000C fighters, like the option chosen by the Brazilian Air Force, had been considered.

If future budgets allow it, ten more IA-96A/Kfir C.9 might be ordered soon in order to replace the Argentinian Navy’s vintage Super Étendard fleet (which has been, since the decommissioning of ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in the late Eighties, land-based, anyway). The acquisition of four to six two-seaters, also modernized ex-IDF aircraft following the IA-96A pattern, with full attack capability and tentatively designated IA-96B, has been under consideration, too.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.65 m (51 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 8.22 m (27 ft 0 in)

Height: 4.55 m (14 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 34.8 m² (375 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,285 kg (16,061 lb)

Gross weight: 11,603 kg (25,580 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 16,200 kg (35,715 lb)

Powerplant:

1× SNECMA Atar 9K50C-11 afterburning turbojet engine,

49.2 kN (11,100 lbf) dry thrust and 70.6 kN (15,900 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,350 km/h (1,460 mph, 1,270 kn) / Mach 2.2 at high altitude

1,390 km/h (860 mph; 750 kn) at sea level

Combat range: 1,300 km (810 mi, 700 nmi), clean, with internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,600 km (1,600 mi, 1,400 nmi) w. three 1,300 l (340 US gal; 290 imp gal) drop tanks

Service ceiling: 17,000 m (56,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 233 m/s (45,900 ft/min)

Armament:

2× Rafael-built 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannon with 140 RPG

Nine external hardpoints for a maximum payload of 5,775 kg (12,732 lb) and a wide range of ordnance, including bombs such as the Mark 80 series, unguided air-to-ground rocket pods, Paveway and Griffin series of LGBs, guided air-to-ground missiles like the AGM-65 Maverick, and AIM-9 Sidewinders, Shafrir/Python/Derby-series AAMs

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was inspired by a short entry about the IAI Kfir I had found at Wikipedia: a proposed C.9 variant for Argentina, as a revamped and re-engined C.7, even though the entry lacked any further details and I was not able to dig anything about the C.9 up in the WWW. However, I tried to interpret this scarce basis and deduct a model from it, because the story was/is so good. Having recently read a lot about the Argentinian Mirage III/Nesher fleet and the Malvinas/Falklands conflict helped a lot, too. With many import limitations imposed by Great Britain and the USA as well as Argentina’s highly restricted budget, I eventually settled upon the idea of a rather simple, re-engined Kfir of C.7 standard, so that outwardly not much had to be changed – a better radar would have been desirable (Block 60 standard), but I’d assume that this would not have been possible with Argentina’s highly limited funds that already prevented updates to the existing and rather vintage (if not outdated) aircraft fleet.

The basis for the model is a Hasegawa Kfir, which I bought without box (and it turned it to lack the dashboard). The Hasegawa Kfir is a C.2 and the model is very similar to the Italeri kit (a C.7, but it is virtually identical), but it has a much better fit, goes together more easily and calls for considerably less PSR. As another bonus, the Hasegawa kit comes with a wider range of ordnance and also has the construction benefit of a connecting ventral “floor”, which makes the fuselage more stable and therefor suitable for my modification (see below).

The different engine for the C.9 variant was the biggest challenge – the Kfir’s rear fuselage is wider and shorter than the Mirage III’s with the Atar engine. These are just subtle differences at 1:72 scale, but not easy to realize: I needed a completely new rear fuselage! As a convenient solution, I dug out a PM Model Nesher (which is no Nesher at all, just a poor Mirage III at best) from the donor bank and let the saw sing. This kit is horrible in many ways (really, stay away!), but it’s tail section and the jet nozzle, pimped with an afterburner interior, were acceptable as conversion fodder.

Blending the (crappy!) Mirage III parts into the crisp Hasegawa Kfir took some serious PSR, though, including the need to fill 3mm wide gaps along the delta wing roots and bridging disparate fuselage shapes and diameters at the implant’s intersections. The Kfir’s fin was re-transplanted and lost its characteristic auxiliary air intake for the J79 engine, so that the profile became more Mirage III/V-esque. Due to the longer afterburner section, the brake parachute fairing had to be extended, too. The longer (just 3-4mm), more slender tail section and the cleaner fin change the Kfir’s look markedly – for the better, IMHO, and the model could also depict an Atlas Cheetah E!

Further minor mods include an in-flight refueling receptacle, scratched from wire and white glue for the tip, the modified windshield (the OOB part was simply sanded smooth and polished back again to transparency) and the ordnance; the Gabriel ASMs were created on the basis of a photograph, and they once were AIM-54 Phoenix AAMs from a Matchbox F-14, modified with new wings, a blunted tip and a pitot made from thin wire. Their pylons were once parts of F-14 wing root pylons from an Italeri F-14, with launch rails made from styrene profiles. The Derby AAMs are heavily modified Matchbox Sidewinders with an extended, pointed tip, mounted onto the OOB pylons. The ventral drop tank comes from the Hasegawa kit.

Painting and markings:

This was quite a challenge, because I wanted to apply something modern and plausible, yet avoid standard paint schemes. In fact, a realistic Argentinian Kfir C.9 from the late 2010s would probably have been painted in an overall pale grey or in two pale shades of grey with little contrast (as applied to the very late Mirage IIIs and the A-4ARs), with subdued low-viz markings and no roundels at all. I found this boring, but I also did not want to apply a retro SEA scheme, as used on the Nesher/Dagger/Finger during the Falklands War.

After turning over many options in my mind, I settled upon a two-tone grey livery, somewhat of a compromise between air superiority and attack operations, esp. over open water. The pattern was inspired by the livery of late Turkish RF-4Es, which were supposed to be painted in FS 36118 over an FS 36270 (or 36375, sources are contradictive and pictures inconclusive) overall base with a rising waterline towards the rear and the light undersides color spilling over to the wings’ upper surfaces. This scheme is simple, but looks pretty interesting, breaks up the aircraft’s outlines effectively, and it could be easily adapted to the delta-wing Kfir.

However, I changed two details in favor of an IMHO better camouflage effect at height. Firstly, the fin’s upper section was painted in the light grey (it’s all dark grey on the Turkish Phantoms), what IMHO reduces the strong contrast against the sky and the horizon. For a similar reason I secondly raised the underside’s light grey waterline towards the nose, so that the upper dark grey area became an integral anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen and the aircraft show less contrast from a frontal point of view. On the Turkish F-4s, the dark grey slopes downwards for a wrap-around area directly behind the radome.

I used Humbrol 125 (FS 36118, a pretty bluish interpretation of “Gunship Gray”) and 126 (FS 36270, US Medium Grey) as basic colors. The Gunship Gray was, after a light washing with black ink, post-shaded with FS 35164 (Humbrol 144), giving the dark grey an even more bluish hue, while the Medium Grey was treated with FS 36320.

The cockpit was painted in Camouflage Grey (Humbrol 156), the landing gear with the wells as well as the air intake ducts in standard gloss white (Humbrol 22). The Derby AAMs became light grey (Humbrol 127) with a beige radome tip, while the Gabriel ASM received a multi-color livery in black, white and light grey.

Decals and markings are purely fictional - as mentioned above, I’d assume that a real-world FAA Kfir would these days only carry minimal national markings in the form of a simple fin flash, no roundels at all and just a tiny tactical code (if at all), and everything toned-down or black. However, I wanted the model to be identified more easily, so I added some more markings, including small but full-color FAA roundels on fuselage and wings as well as full-color fin flashes, all procured from an Airfix Pucará sheet. The “Fuerza Aérea Argentina” inscription on the nose came from a Colorado Decals Mirage III/V sheet. The tactical code was taken from an Airfix sheet for an Argentinian Mirage III – it’s actually “I-016”, just turned upside down for a (much) higher/later number. 😉

After shading effects, the model only received little weathering in the form of graphite around the jet nozzle and the guns under the air intakes. Then it was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

In the end a rather subtle conversion – even though the different rear fuselage was a major PSR stunt! The most obvious modification is probably the intake-less fin? The transplanted, different rear fuselage is hard to recognize and only true Mirage/Kfir experts might tell the changes – or the model is directly mistaken for a Mirage V fighter bomber? And even though the model carries a grey-in-grey scheme which I originally wanted to avoid, I think that the bluish touch and the integral, wavy pattern still look interesting?

However, I also like the story behind this whif that has real life roots – the real Kfir C.9 just failed to materialize because of lack of funding, and its introduction would certainly have had severe consequences for the unstable Argentinian-British relationships, since this capable aircraft would certainly pose a serious threat to the shaky peace in the Southern Atlantic and have stirred up the more or less dormant Falklands/Malvinas conflict again.

Within a week this 36 years old locomotive 37153 in perfect working order was consigned to store and shortly after that dumped at Wigan-CRDC for component recovery. Mainly because the vindictive management at EWS was at that time hell bent on ruining perfectly serviceable locomotives to prevent rival companies acquiring them to use as competition for the dwindling freight business. So here is 'Transrail' 37153 on its last but one working day passing Pontlottyn with '2R42' the 17:05 from Cardiff-Central to Rhymney evening commuter train. Only a 200 mile round trip from home to here and return for just 3 shots if I was lucky.Transportation for this journey being my then regular motorcycle mount, a Yamaha FZR1000-exup.-Happy days!

----26 july 1999----

Try my main website tomcurtisrailgallery.weebly.com/

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 282. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

American actress Margaret O'Brien (1937) is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Beginning her career at age 4, O'Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and was best known for her natural, emotional style and her startling facility for tears. She received a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944. In her later career, she appeared on television, on stage, and in supporting film roles.

Margaret O'Brien was born Angela Maxine O'Brien in 1937. In 1941, she appeared in a WWII civil defence film and made a minor appearance in her first feature film, after which she became a contract player with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which changed her first name and cast her in the title role of the film Journey for Margaret. O'Brien's mother, Gladys Flores, was a flamenco dancer who often performed with her sister Marissa, who was also a dancer. O'Brien made her first film appearance with a one-minute shot in Babes on Broadway (Busby Berkeley, 1941) at the age of four under her birth name, Maxine O'Brien. Impressed by the child's expressiveness and emotional range, MGM signed her and changed her first name to Margaret. The following year, her first major role brought her widespread attention. As a five-year-old she played a terrified London war orphan who "adopts" reporter Robert Young in the war drama Journey for Margaret (W.S. Van Dyke, 1942), O'Brien won wide praise for her quite convincing acting style, unusual for a child of her age. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer (George Sidney, 1943). Also In 1943, at the age of seven, Margaret co-starred in You, John Jones (Mervyn LeRoy, 1943), a 'War Bond/Effort, short film, with James Cagney and Ann Sothern '. She played their daughter and dramatically recited President Lincoln's 'Gettysburg Address'. She played Adèle, a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent in Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1943) opposite Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

Margaret O'Brien's most memorable role was in the Christmas musical Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), opposite Judy Garland. As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point in a very good film, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbour. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar in 1944. Upon its release, Meet Me in St. Louis was both a critical and commercial success. It became the second-highest-grossing film of 1944, behind only Going My Way (Leo McCarey, 1944), and was also MGM's most successful musical of the 1940s. Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (Jules Dassin, 1944) starring Charles Laughton, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (Roy Rowland, 1945) with Edward G. Robinson, the Western Bad Bascomb (S. Sylvan Simon, 1946) with Wallace Beery, and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (Fred M. Wilcox, 1949). She played Beth in the 1949 MGM release of Little Women (Mervyn Le Roy, 1949) with June Allyson, but she could not transition to adult roles. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: " As she grew, her charm faded; by 1951's Her First Romance, she was just one of a multitude of Hollywood teen ingenues. A comeback attempt in the 1956 film Glory was serviceable, but the film was badly handled by its distributor RKO Radio and failed to re-establish the actress. A more fruitful role awaited her in a 1958 TV musical version of Little Women, in which O'Brien played Beth, the same role she'd essayed in the 1949 film version. In 1960, O'Brien had a strong supporting part in the period picture Heller in Pink Tights (1960), ironically playing a one-time child actress whose stage mother is trying to keep her in "kid" roles."

Margaret O'Brien shed her child star image, appearing on a 1958 cover of Life magazine with the caption "How the Girl's Grown", and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line? O'Brien's acting appearances as an adult have been sporadic, mostly in small independent films and occasional television roles. She has also given interviews, mainly for the Turner Classic Movies cable network. O'Brien gave credit to television for helping her reform and modify her public image. On Robert Montgomery Presents on TV, she co-starred with Cecil Parker in The Canterville Ghost (1950). She appeared as the mystery guest on What's My Line (1957) and starred in The Young Years (1957) on General Electric Theater. She appeared in episodes of the Western series Rawhide and Wagon Train (1958) and later made guest appearances on episodes of Perry Mason (1963), Combat! (1968). and Ironside (1968). Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D., reuniting O'Brien with her Journey for Margaret and The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young. In 1991, O'Brien appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury. In 1954, O'Brien's Juvenile Oscar and two other awards were stolen. Several years later, a miniature statuette bearing O'Brien's name surfaced in a catalogue for auction. The long-lost Oscar was found by two memorabilia collectors in a flea market in 1995 and, upon learning of the award's history, the two owners agreed to return the Oscar to O'Brien. Nearly 50 years after she had first received it, and nearly 40 years since it had been stolen, the Academy held a special ceremony in Beverly Hills to return the stolen award to O'Brien. Margaret O'Brien has been married twice, to Harold Allen, Jr. from 1959 to 1968, and in 1974 to steel-industry executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen. The later marriage produced her only child, Mara Tolene Thorsen, born in 1977. O'Brien continues to appear in such films as the horror film Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! (Jared Cohn, 2017) and the Sci-Fi film Impact Event (B. Luciano Barsuglia, 2018).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vietnamese 'Mikado' 2-8-2 no. 141 199 is seen catching the evening sunlight coupled to the rear of train S182 the 14.11 Hái Phòng Cang to Hànôi Ga in the loop at Pham Xá. This was an LCGB charter and is waiting to cross another train on this single track mainline while returning to Hànôi hauled by 141 182. At the time there were still four active diagrams for the class based in and around Hànôi which saw a number of locomotives kept serviceable hence the LCGB being able to arrange a week long itinerary covering lines in the north of the country using several different members of the class.

"Clean and Green New Zealand" so the often-used slogan goes. It is probably also the general perception held in other parts of the world, of this relatively small and sparsely-populated two-part country at the bottom of the world. Increasingly nowadays however, this noble claim is coming into question and maybe the country has "dined-out" on it on the international stage for a bit too long......

Transportation produces the bulk of NZ's greenhouse gases now, having risen dramatically in the last 20 years. Car ownership is the second highest per capita in the OECD and massive trucks of up to 58 tonnes in weight dominate the road-based transportation system, transporting goods and materials to and from all points of both Islands as well as inter-island.

How has the country's railway system fared in this period? An ill-conceived privatisation of the system in 1993 saw investment bankers/asset-strippers in charge, subsequent Australian owners unable to agree track-access charges and therefore not keeping their investment promises. Consequentially, the system was run-down until the Labour government of the time had little choice but to step-in and prevent threatened scrapping of assets and widespread closure.

KiwiRail Holdings Ltd was formed on 1st July 2008 as a state-funded enterprise. It responsibility was to manage all aspects of the remaining rail network and to operate the inter-island ferry service.

The central section of the North Island Main Trunk line was electrified at 25kV 50Hz AC and the scheme was completed in 1988. A fleet of 22 Tri-Bo locomotives were purchased from Brush Traction in the UK to operate trains on the line.

Two of the surviving operational Class 30 EF locomotives bring Train 390 across Killarney Road as they approach Frankton Junction in Hamilton.

The electrickery in the title refers to the situation that has developed since the KiwiRail board declared in 2016 that the NIMT electrification system was to be mothballed (but still energised, to prevent theft!) in 2018 and that during this interim period, the remaining serviceable electric loco fleet was to be run-down and ultimately put into storage.

More of that story anon........suffice to say that in 2021, the system still operates and EF locomotives still put in daily appearances.

25260 WA09KWS Stagecoach Southwest seen here in Okehampton working new service 75A to Atlantic Village Bideford. This service is normally in the hands of the smaller darts 35164 - 35168 owing to housing estates and Weare Giffard Village, but owing to not enough serviceable vehicles this beast made a rare appearance.

Quickly returning to the front half of the corridor, here's an angled, but still serviceable, shot of the storefront currently being used by the university bookstore. Remember, prior to B&N College this was an unaffiliated store known as Campus Book Mart, and before that, this was a restaurant known as Ole South Cafeteria. Ole South competed with Sadie's across the hall, which wasn't supposed to happen since Sadie's was promised to be the only restaurant in the mall when it opened. Ultimately, both restaurants would wind up closing. Thanks again to Albertsons Florida Blog for digging up all that info for us! In case you missed it, all that and more can be found at my blog post on the Oxford Mall.

(c) 2019 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

First passenger trip of tram GVB 465 plus Rotterdam 507 of the tram museum Amsterdam in 1975. The trip was cut short due to the derailment of the 465 further down the track. The Hague interurban HTM 58 were not serviceable at the time. © Henk Graalman 4947

Adelaide Metro 'Jumbo' railcars 2101/ 2001/2103 depart Gawler station with the 1608hrs Adelaide to Gawler Central service on 4 March 2015.

The 2000/2100 railcars were introduced 35 years ago and 2015 is expected to be their last year of service with 11 cars forming 3 sets currently serviceable (March 2015).

They are now limited to Gawler line morning and evening peak services, with the occasional morning peak hour foray to Outer Harbor.

EDIT. The last were withdrawn in August 2015 and all but 5 cars scrapped in June 2016.

Father O'Leary of St. Michael's Church in Oldham was looking for a bus to transport children to and from Catholic Schools in the Oldham area, and of all that was looked at, a certain Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlantean registered PNF941J was deemed the best of the bunch.

The bus in question was none other than the first prototype 'Standard' for the new Selnec PTE, EX1, and there is no doubt that Father O'Leary's new purchase safeguarded the vehicle to ensure it would eventually end up in preservation. Of course, he wouldn't have known this at the time, to him it was just the best of what was available.

Even before The SELNEC Preservation Society was formed on 11th January 1987, individuals who were to come together to form the society had expressed an interest in EX1, and made a number of visits to Father O'Leary in Oldham. Eventually, after the Society was formed and 7206 and 7185 had been acquired, more serious attention then turned to EX1, the Society's potential third preservation prospect. Clearly, the Father required a bus to transport the children to and from school daily, but the actual identity of that vehicle was not important, and in fact he did not realise the relevance of the vehicle he was using, until it was explained to him. Conversations with the Father indicated that should a vehicle in equal or better condition be provided to St. Michael's Church for their use, they would accept it in exchange for EX1, as all they required was a serviceable vehicle for their transportation functions.

Eventually, the Selnec group agreed with the PTE to purchase 7110 XJA501L, the first Park Royal production Standard delivered to the Southern Division. It was purchased and swapped with Father O'Leary in a ceremony outside Birchfields Depot, recorded by the Manchester Evening News on 6th April 1988.

The bus continued in the same role as EX1 before it, but was never repainted out of GMT livery, even retaining in house advertising for pre paid tickets!

It is seen here parked outside Father O'Leary's residence in the summer of 1994 looking pretty much the same as it did a decade earlier when running for the PTE.