Came in from a day out and about around Lincolnshire, turned on tne tv and discovered Warren Gatland's lugubrious comments on the latest from the Lions... 12-3 defeat of Crusaders with no tries scored. Switched over and found the highly entertaining Argentina - England game.
Meanwhile my good wife (who I increasingly suspect of being even deafer than me) has the garden bay window door open, admitting loud and (to be charitable) enthusiastic music from a local festival-of-sorts, one of those
..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
Another long-delayed job has been sorting out the couplers. My stock having mostly come as three job lots from abandoned projects, I have every coupler and coupler height known to man amongst them.
To get round this I bought two AMS flat cars fitted with couplers to serve as "match trucks" to allow Bachmann locos to pull consists fitted with SJCC or other On3 couplers, these now seem to be reliable after a certain amount of fettling and track trials (the various Bachmann and Kaydee couplers
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.
Watching the start of the London Marathon, one of the wheelchair racers failed at the start due to a puncture.
That surprised me. I’d always imagined, insofar as I’d thought if it at all, that elite level wheelchair racing would be attended by support teams like cycle racing, but apparently not...
Life moves on, and I’ve now joined the ranks of the Working From Home. A directional drilling contractor I’ve worked for in the past approached me a while ago, about looking after the documentation for some new projects they expected in 2020. I was certainly open to suggestions; my attempts at re-entering civil engineering had rather turned out as a reminder of why I’d left the industry in the 90s, and we’d had a good relationship in our previous dealings.
I’d seen this as a possibl
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
Out in Plymouth for some beer and music, with my much-travelled tenor banjo.
Someone I haven’t seen before, stood up when the “turn” came to him, and in a strong, slightly toneless baritone sang “Jerusalem” a Capella. The whole group followed on, it was quite tremendous.
I've been starting on a new direction lately. I tend to have a reputation for "bull in a China shop" methods but these have their uses and reasons.. mainly that they are the outcome of many years of taking decisions based on totally inadequate information, or getting to grips with subjects where I don't have a starting point or a clearly envisaged outcome.
I'd come to conclude that it was time for me to move on from the oil and gas industry, or at least my present sector. The industry is in
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
So, the railway job ends next week, so that’s the end of working in 12”-1’ for the foreseeable future.
Time for a break I think, the refurbishment of the club room is now complete so perhaps it’s test track time!
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
No 1 Son came round yesterday with No 1 Grand-daughter, who certainly has a good set of lungs, on the evidence. She was apparently wearing her latest “Christmas outfit”, I’ve seen whole Third World relief appeals with less kit than this child .....
Cleared my desk at Vossloh Kiepe, having run out of budget and headcount. Ho hum. I’ve been to a couple of interviews but the recruitment process these days seems hopelessly dysfunctional, no results yet. There seems to be a general crisis in prog
Went along to Club Night last night, best one in a long time with quite a high turnout.
- a club exhibition layout I hadn't seen before, but obviously a long-established one, set up and running with a couple of younger relatives of one of the members, being guided through the complex "cab control" control system.
- the O gauge project which has caused more controversy than enough, now cut down to a workable space with a group around it working on whatever it's next incarnation is intend
Today’s venture is Peterborough to Plymouth, by way of Birmingham New St.
First leg, Peterborough to BNS with Cross Country. 3 car DMU, fairly new-looking. Seat backs sprinkled with accumulated reservations, some clearly for journeys in the opposite direction. Occupancy perhaps 20%, so no problems. Strong free WiFi, no charging sockets. Ticket check, no card check. Bought a pastie and coffee on the station, just as well as events turned out.
Unremarkable journey, good time.
Interest
Found this while looking for something else entirely. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/model-trains-that-are-model-worlds?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=1e4b4303fe-Newsletter_5_12_20165_11_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-1e4b4303fe-61415829&ct=t(Newsletter_5_12_20165_11_2016)&mc_cid=1e4b4303fe&mc_eid=529d3fd6f7
There was a thread a while ago, about "how big is a big layout" and I'd reckon that any of these would qualify...
After various delays I've now spent the past two weeks working in 12" to the Foot scale. QC for traction motor refurbishments, and related tasks on EMU sets, particularly type 321 ... which means nothing to me, except that they seem to produce an abundant crop of NCRs!
Seems slightly odd to be walking about in orange hivis and bump cap again...
Didn't see it myself, having better things to do, but my good wife informs me that the one-handed pirate(?) on Poldark had a Mummerset accent implausible even to her... praise indeed!
Just been into town on various odd errands, and had tea and cake in the Church in Cathedral Square.
Cup of tea, very nice piece of walnut and coffee cake, £1.90 including the rather glorious setting. No organ recital this morning, apparently. Why anyone goes in the Starbucks opposite, I have no idea.
Also found a new barber in Priestgate. My old place has changed to the point that there’s no real point going there any more, and this place does wet shaves with a hot towel! Didn’t have a
Christmas always includes something you would never have thought of but works out really well, and this year it was Radio 3... my good wife has a truly, deeply awful 1970s medley which she plays incessantly on "shuffle" in the kitchen, quite loud, when I'm away or when major projects like Xmas pud are in hand.
It used to be a CD but now it's on the iplayer and has become something of a menace, a long way up the "oh, FFS" scale; not quite level with blocked gutters on a rainy day when the 6N
Herself being out and about on her various retirement matters, left me in sole charge of the tv control for the evening. Usually I avoid the "babble box" between about 5 and 9pm, the early evening game shows followed by a protracted session of people she would cross the road to avoid in real life, yelling at each other...
But today, freedom beckoned! Watched Time Team, a well-worn favourite for its formulaic, knockabout quality. On to Michael Portillo in America, which seems to have stimula
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
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..
