Put last year’s plastic toy train around the tree, to the amusement of various small nephews and nieces. No 1 Son dismantled the loco, placed a scrap of draught excluder over the speaker... lost one side of the “motion” .. now we have another similar train among the presents....
I've just been thrown out of the living room.
My good wife has finally undergone what we hope to be the last round of the surgery resulting from the problems caused by lockdown, and she is sitting on the sofa catching up the weeks'-worth of soaps she missed
I simply couldn't keep a straight face. I havent seen anything so grotesquely absurd, so completely unfounded in any recognisable version of reality since... well, I can't remember.
I've left her to it...
So, the WFH is working out quite well, with important reservations. I was brought into this team for my particular experience, and I know most of the other members, I’ve worked with them in the past. The IT works, which wasn’t always the case at Werrington (some company servers can be a bit cranky about working through home WiFi systems).
However I had a laptop problem, which was eventually sorted out by a visit to the NW London office. Otherwise I’d have lost three days while they
Dropped into Morrison’s on the way home from work the other night, an educational experience.....
If you’d ever wondered who watches the Jeremy Kyle show, go to Morrison’s! It was an education... whole aisles completely stripped, with unkempt and occasionally, downright ragged people wandering the aisles like some sort of zombie plague. Curiously enough, white trainers seemed to be ubiquitous.. tinned fish doesn’t seem to be in vogue with the current panic-buyers. Unintelligible conv
Just spent the evening on the sofa in Bradenton, Fla. with a big bag of crisps, half a dozen Budweiser and the Super Bowl. My good wife has occupied herself with her customary clattering about with the dinner plates, wittering on about “is it finished yet” etc but I give her no heed at such times.
I wont post any spoilers for those watching on Monday...
I don’t pay American football much attention, in the U.K.; I simply don’t have the time. I don’t feel any particular at
Last night I was returning from Wet Welsh Wales, the Cross Hands area to be precise. I’d rather hoped that the M6/M42 area might be somewhat improved by now, but the general confounding of that area at night by closures, lengthy roadworks and incompletely worked-our or signposted diversions continues apace. That added an hour to my journey...
Then the trailer destroyed a wheelbearing (it was, in fact made in Derby, so possibly some sort of meta-connection there?). So I spent another
I’ve just finished a rather depressing read, from the Chairman of a club of which I’m a (mostly absentee) member. I dare say that quite a few readers will already have gathered that the 2019 Exhibition was cancelled due to severe vandalism the night before opening.
I can’t really add to any of this. People directly involved have taken action to progress the situation, the police are involved and I’m sure that long correspondences with insurance adjusters will ensue. Clubs and indivi
I’ve just signed a lease for a new (well, different) flat in Plymouth, as I’m still working there. I definitely wanted to escape the student areas... students are a blight on the accommodation market. I was also looking for a furnished let, which most owners don’t offer, and a “break clause” and automatic rollover to rolling status - this is supposedly legally guaranteed, but try to achieve it!
So, I move in a fortnight. The new landlords seem to have picked on the market for contra
Always a look-ahead date in my diary, and this year has got off to a great start!
Quite what France thought they were doing on Friday, is hard to say. I don’t believe that even Italy have managed to go in at half-time, 16-0 up at home, and still lose. I’d always expect a strong second half with a burst at the last from Wales, and that was what we got... going to be a disappointing year for Les Bleus, on that showing. They looked good at times but that just isn’t enough at that level
At Stansted, another place much changed since I last saw it, in no wise for the better.
However it DOES have a Witherspoon’s, who served a quite acceptable g&t WITHOUT the shovel full of ice in a half-pint balloon that so many places dispense, and even had some Angostura bitters.
I quite like ‘Spoons...
I really must get a dashcam.
Off to S Wales this weekend for my annual dose of Sportster racing. Actually not the only time I ride this bike but the only place it gets a “proper” outing on its natural habitat, a half-mile trotting track. Where’s Bruce Brown when you need him?
So I drove over the Avon Bridge heading West, with the evening sun glittering in the cables; absolutely glorious.
people have definitely woken up after Xmas, now. The phone has been ringing all over the place and I've just picked up a couple of months' work in 12' = 1' scale, Quality Engineer for platform doors on the CrossRail project. It's only a short job, closing out at the end of the project as the original team move on - but I don't doubt that it will be very busy, these end-of-project roles always are and it's rather satisfying to have done some work on the CrossRail project after all.
Heard from Paul Martin last week, seems that my MMI locos are currently on the workbench having sound and DCC fitted. I'm quite excited about this, looking forward to giving them a run on the club test track..
I mentioned the Bachmann 2-8-0 a little while ago. This is a very fine model and it runs as well as it looks.
However there seem to be three basic variants of US narrow gauge - 2ft gauge common carrier lines in the New England area, 3ft gauge logging lines using geared locos in the Pacific NW, and large mineral and common carrier lines using 8-coupled locos and bogie stock in the SW ( East Broad Top would fit this category, too). 20" gauge lines in the Nervada area using small four-coupled
Over to the Three Pickerels at Mepal, for a good evenings music. I've been working on Katyusha on the mandolin during my last rotation, a classic Russian ear worm immediately recognised when heard... nearly as good as Thunderbirds, or Match Of The Day. Easily followed and well suited to accordions (Russians rarely play the balalaika, in my experience, but accordions and guitars are ubiquitous) so a good bouncy pub session tune, without the deceptively difficult fast fingering of that Pugwash tun
Off to Florida in January, it seems. Started out by ringing BA to see what I could get for my quite enormous Avios (=Air Miles, basically) tally. Ended the day having booked a 16-day trip to Florida... well, the kids are all off skiing and snowboarding at Xmas / New Year so we thought we were due a trip.
Wasn't the plan for the day but sometimes you just have to go with the idea of the moment.
Had a spell at the clubroom this afternoon, fettling and experimenting.
Sorted out the unhappy running on the Bachmann 2-8-0 by closely examining the motion; located a couple of possible pinch points, tweaked them slightly with a jewellers screwdriver. Running like a good 'un now. Must have distorted them when handling the loco, or maybe not boxed it correctly (this loco doesn't have its original box but lives in a 1L plastic box)
After various experimentation, located one, or possibly
So, I collected two somewhat different procedures on here, plus another one from a website on how to control multiple locos from one controller.
Went along to the club room for Thursday afternoon and tried them out. None proved to be 100%, including the version in the manual but some experimentation soon worked it out.
The "Colorado style" Bachmann 2-8-0 and BLI 2-8-0 proved to be a good combination for the "helper loco" routine, based on a rake of 8 Bachmann coal hoppers. One has the c
Getting near the end of the project. I've done 90-odd days this year, done a couple of professional courses which I've been putting off for ages, dealt with an unexpected building job on the house and managed to do enough to steer No 1 Son through a reasonably successful first season of flat track racing. It's not been easy. A few more weeks work, No 1 Son gets married in October and then I think that's it for the year.
Looking forward to a long winter break again. Most of my long-delayed b
Back to work soon, so I took the opportunity of an afternoon club opening to use the test track
Loco #420, the modified "Colorado-style" Bachmann 2-8-0, pulled steadily away with the SJCC pipe train, 5 gondolas and 6 flats. This is a difficult train to get right, and I haven't quite managed it yet; the alternate light and heavy cars don't help its running. The flat cars are also rather sensitive to the sometimes less-than-perfect point work on the club test track. But, 11 bogie cars is a goo
A few Thursday afternoons over at the MDMRC test track, and I have the various Bachmann and BLI 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 DCC settings sufficiently weighed up to be able to start and stop them consistently and control the sound. Worked out a routine to run a train, then bring another loco up behind as a banker, all using one controller (because that's what is currently available there).
I've also bought an NCE controller socket so I can take THAT over and control two locos separately. The present con
..it occurs to me that I've taken to giving my name as Ben, when asked for a name. This is mostly because there is actually a trader in the hobby with the same name, albeit a slightly different spelling, and I don't wish there to be any implied connection or misunderstanding.
Any relationships involving transactions, I introduce myself by the name on my credit card, passport or any other documents which may be involved, because life's too short to do otherwise. Same goes for anything I write
Having (mostly) sorted out the couplers, I've turned my attention to the various rolling stock.
The Bachmann stock is really TOO mismatched in size, to coexist with the SJCC and AMS stock. Plus, I can't see any use for the logging bogies.
So, I've decided to clear out any remaining logging stuff, and the small Bachmann bogie tank cars. I have two AMS tank cars which can be fettled to serve with the Bachmann couplers, and a box of bits which started as a project to build Bachmann compat
I'm just having my first leave of any length for... Oh, a long while. My local club (Market Deeping MRC) have now got the DCC working on the test track, so I'm embarking on a winter project to get to grips with the whole subject, how it works and so forth.
The two MMI locos are scheduled to go to Paul Martin in the New Year to have DCC and sound fitted, these imposing models deserve it, I think.
