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Radcliffe on Trent again today, mainly dmus of various classes in all sorts of weather. Radcliffe on Trent Class 101 Nottingham to Skegness Mar 75 J4194.jpg Radcliffe on Trent Class 114 E50021 Nottingham to Skegness Feb 78 J5919.jpg Radcliffe on Trent Class 56 56045 to Cotgrave Colliery Feb 78 J5927.jpg Radcliffe on Trent Class 114 E50031 Nottingham to Skegness Sept 78 J6341.jpg Radcliffe on Trent Class 105 Nottingham to Skegness Jan 80 J6766.jpg David

“That will be £539 up front now, sir, and my cousin will see you tomorrow.” The day has continued as Dawn suggested - clear and bright. If only the same could be said of certain customerwomble’s attitudes. 1. Why don’t you provide litter bins? Sir - you are standing right next to one. Yes but why don’t you provide them where they are needed? ........ 2. You made that train leave early. The train left right on time madam - have you seen our posters advising doors may close 30 seconds before departure? That’s irrelevant; I miss this train every day because it leaves on time. 3. You cancelled my train. We were unable to run that train because of a safety-critical fault; I made three announcements giving alternatives. Sorry - what? We announced the alternatives. Sorry - I’ll take off my headphones then I can hear you ....... 4. Good morning sir - would you please stand behind the yellow line? What the f*** for? For your safety and others’. Get out of my ****ing face you ignorant **** - I am a site safety officer and I will decide what’s safe and what isn’t; go back to your hole you orange-vested vermin. Thank you sir - have a safe day. (Body-cams can’t arrive soon enough sometimes) 5. I need go Torquay. Certainly sir - take the Reading train and change there. No no - I want go Torquay - Ishtanbull... It’s been a day. I have just received a delivery of bacon and tomatoes on toast with a muggacoffy. Reckon I deserve it today! Best wishes all.

Hat and coat time.....

More lovely sunshine to enjoy later, after quick photos before shopping. We now have another March B17 to look at, this one in the carriage siding, waiting to bring out the stock for the 5.13 departure to its home town. Then the reason for the demotion of the Scotch goods appears, Abbotsford at the head of the West Riding. A wholly unadulterated shot, no cropping or photoshopping at all. It shows the bulk of the bridge very well too.

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/sandys-chemo-day-62-of-126/

I might not pronounce the T in water and three might sound like free and I ain't no good at spelling even using foniks. I do enjoy having a go at model making. I recently motorised some old MTK kits I have had knocking about for years and a Cravens DMU made from cut and shut Tri-ang coaches I started 33 years ago. They have been put to one side as the past few days I have been working on a Edinburgh to Glasgow DMU, from Trix coaches and scratchbuilt Hastings unit. A Derby heavy weight long underframe unit. An eight car train formed of a Cravens (MTK), a Gloucester (MTK), a BRCW (MTK) and a Cravens (Tri-ang). From the other end. The chassis of the Cravens unit, the others are much the same design. I know it is the Hornby ringfield motor which many will regard as a bad power unit. It works, it runs well if looked after, and using the Honeby clip fit DMU bogies I have more DMUs which when finished will compliment those I already have on my layout. A Tri-ang coach underframe, again motorised using the Hornby power unit. This will be the model power car for the Edinburgh and Glasgow unit. The motor will be hidden in the buffet section of trailer first buffet car. placing it in the middle. The usual means of hiding the motor is to place it in the brake van portion of the MBS. If I do built the full six car train ( only three cars at present) it will place the motor bogie in the middle, less problems pushing 3 coaches than trying whizz five in front of the power car. I also got out my part done Pullman conversions , sadly Hornby have over taken me and now produce these types. Kitchen first Second Parlour Second kitchen. And for Andrew (Headstock) look what I found. Lastly from the spare bits of Tri-ang coaches I have made a diagram 1/552 inspection saloon. Not to bad for bits I was going to bin.

Hi Dave, Here's another shot now that the grass has received a bit of colour and has been cut back a bit.

Belurgied. Or is it Lurgified to the max? Whatever, I am, and I have come home to boil my head or something, I really do feel carp. Yes Mike, sinuses....Kleenex sales on the up, and coughing so much my solar plexus is in agony. Froat (see 'Wright Writes') feels like sandpaper too. Off to bed. Boing.

Aditi said perhaps we should all visit Rick’s station and be very nice passengers.

A little more progress with the central, clerestory ridge vent(!) now detailed and fixed in place. Was chatting with a modelling friend yesterday and saying how it had been a couple of years since I last did a substantial building in plasticard and how much I was enjoying it. Hopefully the momentum will keep going and see it finished before the warmer weather sees me returning to the workshop of an evening as opposed to whittling plastic on my knee in the front room. Jerry

Morning all Off to the tip shortly to dispose of some of the detritus from the bedroom switcheroo, and then it will be off to Lewes for the reason for today's day off - a job interview. Fingers crossed! Have a good day all.

Not had a travelogue for some time. Been lucky enough to encounter some near perfect sunshine last week to showcase the snow in some of Europe's most famous mountain scenery so, as some seem to appreciate such piccies, here goes: Any ideas? (no points for guessing 'Switzerland'!). This was arrival day last Tuesday, when we had a chance to have a quick look round the town where we based ourselves. Switzerland's most iconic mountain was within easy reach so, with the weather perfect, it was a no-brainer to head out there. Aha - a train! A service on the Gornergrat Railway negotiates the penultimate corner before the summit station at 10,000ft a.s.l. (give or take) Time to put the camera in panoramic mode. On the terrace, beer and chips were consumed whilst taking in the crystal clear conditions. No gloves, scarf or woolly hat required. It doesn't get much better than that. More gorgeous weather on Thursday for a trip to find an iconic figure by the lake. Who wants to live forever, anyway? Champion. The town's station is of course the terminus of the Golden Pass route through Gstaad and Zweisimmen to Spiez. Gone all arty-f$rty at the water front. The weather held for our last jaunt out on Friday to Grindelwald, the ski resort overlooked by the North face of the Eiger. On the rack - the Wengeralpbahn train makes a dramatic entry into Grindelwald station. Our train back awaits (sigh!) Last pic and we can reveal the identity of our base for the trip. Away into the left distance lies the route through the Rhone valley, overlooked by the BLS Lotschberg pass route climbing up the north side of the valley. Bottom right lies the mainline route to Italy through the Simplon tunnel, whilst the route of the Glacier Express heads eastwards toward Andermatt. Yes, from a viewpoint on a footpath into the foothills, we overlook the railway centre of .... Brig! But you'd worked that out by now ... hadn't you?

I've been conducting an insurance assessment for a friend today. Her car was involved in a crash (not her fault), and many models she was carrying were wrecked. The locos she brought represented a lifetime's work by a deceased modeller. Though not to the highest standards, they were built with ingenuity and self-reliance. Many were interesting RTR adaptations. Including this A2/1 derived from Hornby parts. Many were built from kits, including this D2 (WSM or Nu-Cast?). This might well be worth resurrecting because, fortunately, as it's turned out, he glued his kits together and the prang has 'reduced' them back to kits again. Some were just detailed/repainted RTR. Rather a shame, don't you think?

After a winter working on my 1990s layout, I have been doing some proper modelling over the past few days building the body of a Mitchel kit for a Manor class. Its been a fun build so far, although my soldering standard still leaves a lot to be desired and the model desperately needs cleaning (I have only been cleaning the area to be soldered). I have now got to the stage that I need to crack out my new rolling bars and roll my first boiler. To say I am nervous is an understatement! Inspired by this thread I have been trying to solder on as many of the small details as possible, whereas in the past I would have been tempted to resort to glue. So thanks again to Tony and this thread for the motivation provided, its so much more enjoyable than waiting for xyz to produce a decent manor. I now need to get a Comet chassis for it (given the Mitchell part is no longer available) and wheels/motor etc, I had quite forgotten just how expensive getting the parts for a chassis actually is. Hopefully this chassis build will run better than the county / 47xx both of which still leave a lot to be desired…

A delightful analogy Tony! I can wholeheartedly agree with you about MTK. I've built a Raworth SR electric loco which started out life as just an MTK brass wrapper. Fortunately I didn't acquire any of their notoriously lumpen whitemetal bits so had build my own front ends, chassis frame and all the many louvres. Although the wrapper body was pretty accurate when compared with all the known drawings it had a decided 'corkscrew' shape to it and was the very devil to straighten out. This led on to a further problem of soldering on the new front end panels, and anything else come to that. The wrapper was made from 20thou+ thick brass and I could only solder it with a gas flame as I didn't have any old fashioned high wattage iron. Linger with the flame for a mere fraction of a second too long and the whole front end fell apart and this happened more than once! The chassis that I used came from a Bachmann Class 37 with Ultrascales fitted and it purrs along. The pan is one of Micheal Edge's fine nickel-silver etches. There is still much to do like the replacement of the over large and thick headcode discs.

Morning Chaps, Over the weekend I completed the construction of the five compartment BTK from page 1291 and last night I started on the first of two compartment door thirds. The five compartment BTK makes for a rather interesting aspect compared to the other Gresley gangway brake thirds. The recessed portion of the van compartment is rather short, being identical to the 6 compartment BTK. Conversely, the full width portion is unusually long. This section more typically occupied a space of three or four panels and perhaps a single top light on other brake thirds. The remaining recessed portion then made up much the larger proportion of the van. Space could not be found for the two sets of double doors as seen in the three and four compartment brake thirds. The five compartment design was rather atypical despite being the second most common type of brake third built by the LNER.

Good morning all, Clear sky here and a fine, dry day is forecast. This is good as I'm due to help SiL Steve with creating a parking space for Abbie's car. He has appointed me Project Manager so I won't have to do much physical stuff which is just as well given the state of my back this morning. There is a fair bit of digging required which will be done by him and Joe. I'll be supplying all tools as he hasn't got any and wielding my trusty demolition hammer drill to remove some small concrete fence posts and possibly making and drinking tea. Some items of PPE are available and will be deployed so I don't burn myself whilst boiling the kettle. (Thought I'd get that in before anyone else does). Have a good one, F.D. Ibnah

Good Yawning all Dawn is breaking over the Hill as I await 2K03 for the House of Fun

I'm going with New Bryford for it's last show in my stewardship (it has been sold) Cheers, Mick

This is the third lot of garage door suppliers that we (four houses) have tried. We will get there in the end I suppose. Tony

Morning all, A nice bright sunny day and the last of the frost is only there because it's in the shade of next door's house and retaining wall. Kev and his mates will have to put up with leftover cat food today but they dined well on chicken bones yesterday giving us a sort on miniature Red Arrows display but with very deep diving in and careful navigation for the climb out - very impressive stuff. As the weather seems likely to stay reasonable we have decided to walk down to the town/pub as we're meeting a friend coming down from London on the train. after the pub lunch we'll stroll back up the hill to partake of the scones Mrs Stationmaster is assembling in the kitchen - they will go in the fridge ready to be cooked when we need them. Bang goes any sort of dietary thoughts yet again but it will be no alcohol for me as I have an INR test tomorrow and I don't want to foul up the numbers (again). Enjoy your day one and all and may those afflicted by the lurgi at least have a comfortable time if not starting to recover.

Here's a few NSE EMUs. They're scans so not the best quality and I hope I've not posted them before: G

Hmm.. Got the date for Brother in laws Funeral (middle of next week), now arranging time off of work.. Whilst reading through "activity" , found out the Scottish show is on the weekend after the funeral, it's only 45 minutes from my parents house.....can I? How many brownie points will it cost??? Edit got the wrong week end haven't I it's the weekend before the funeral now trying to rearrange...

Just back from a nice meal at son and daughter-in-law's, followed by a hot tub, under an almost full moon, with snow on the ground round about, and a couple of beers in hand. I should sleep well tonight.

Morning All, It is a reasonably mild morning in this part of the world. We are also seeing the first signs of Spring, which is nice. However, I am not sure that we have definitely seen the last of the snow - it is probably too early to count on that! Time for a coffee. Have a good day everyone...

Rick: I would like a "Good job, that man" button to click.

After a very busy few days of None Railway activity, I thought it might be a good idea to have a day off, and do some bits in TOPS working on BT. Having made and painted the Invertrains Station Building it was time for a test fit and also start on the Fencing and embankments behind the Buffers and the Bay Platform Line. Next job will be to blend in the Backscene properly and make up, paint and fit the Station Lamps and Benches etc.

And another thing or two. TheQ mentioned lorries and it jiggled my memory. One. In Stratford (East) a lorry pulls over, the driver’s mate leans from the cab and casually asks “Norwich is a Bess why acne?” Which translated reads “I say old chap. Are you able to tell me the best route to Hackney?” Two. In deepest Cornwall a delivery van stops up ahead, the driver hops out and accosts me in a thick South Wales accent with “Look you. Can you tell me the way to Ith-Logan, boyo?” I couldn’t fault his logic. The village of Illogan has a double L which he prounced as he would in Wales. Except in Cornwall it isn’t the same, and neither is the sound of the o; the locals would call the place “Lugg’n”

Just down the line, TfL has had to install signs and maps at Abbey Road DLR for lost tourists looking for a certain Zebra crossing. The bulk of lost people tend to be Chinese tourists.

Good morning from a bright and sunny south east corner. Received a nice email from TV Licensing this morning telling me that they are sorry to let me know that my TV Licence could not be automatically renewed. Not surprising really bearing in mind that I have not held a TV licence for many years. Think the last time was around 1976. Like the way they suggest that I set up a new direct debit by clicking on the "Setup direct debit now" button and pay using my debit or credit card ensuring that they have my correct bank details...….. Hopefully nobody clicks on the button. Keith

The advance batch of Minerva 0 Gauge RTR Manning Wardle locomotives is expected leave Hong Kong by air-freight on Saturday 23rd February 2019. We will post news about the progress of the shipping as it is received.

GDB have you alerted the local hospital you might be paying them a visit. Morning All On the move early today we are off to Alton for retail therapy SWMBO will no doubt be wanting me to drive all over Hampshire to find another bloody tin peacock for eldest daughters birthday, yes don't ask. Modelling supplies will be purchased and any new GWR coaches that might have arrived some of them are on Hornby's website to buy, Her no doubt will head for the frock shop and Boots as my powered tooth brush is on it's last legs we might even partake in having lunch out somewhere. must get on enjoy your day Parker

Morning all, a bit late on parade but I was up betimes this morning despite the mist that's still around. I set off to the mower place and he was open this morning. He's going to give it a service and clean the carb. The mower was one of many garden implements left behind by a 'lady' aka the poison dwarf, who had a pile of stuff stored in the shed when we bought the place. She was a serial liar and was somewhat erratic in paying the storage fees (60 cubic metres of stuff). After a lot of hassle she got most of the stuff out in September last year but I retained quite a bit in lieu of rent. The Honda rotary mower was one of these items so was essentially free to us. This is our first spring here and we are noticing all sorts of flowers coming up all over the garden near the house so do not want Eric to go over the area with his mini tractor. The Honda will enable us to cut that area with a little more discrimination. We could have a very good display of daffs. Anyway the car is now attached to the trailer and ready to pick some stuff up from a neighbours. After that it will be lunch and then an afternoon's trainspotting near Ruffec. Yippee. Beth has just set off for the supermarket so I'm home alone. I might well head for the shed and cut some mortices. Regards to all. Jamie

A bright and sunny land fit for hippos greets the eye here in N Salop this morning whilst Mug O'Coffee kick starts the still dozy system. We're off to see some friends today who may be familiar to some Webbers - Pete Kibble who some years back had a lovely little S7 layout called Severn Mill on the exhibition circuit and his wife Jackie who used to run Modellers' Mecca in Kingswinford. We'll probably have lunch in the old station at Codsall and at some stage SWMBO and Jackie may well go and do some of the retail therapy thing much loved by the fairer folk and disliked by my wallet. Have a good day everyone; thoughts and prayers for those in need. Dave

This was my office for most of this morning. A bit cleaner this time too! Southern Class 313/2 313211 Portsmouth & Southsea 19/2/19 by John Upton, on Flickr

Have you ever typed a mistake on here then tried to correct it prior to posting, it goes over the existing words and you end up giving up...……………..well I did after typing a lengthy tale.

Americans in London are sometimes misled by the destination “Oxford” on coaches which depart from outside Victoria “train station” and other places. Being accustomed to dropping the “Street” suffix and simply heading for “24th and 4th” quitr a number have been surprised at the fare and journey time to Oxford Street Not at all an urban myth. Tony might recall my references to having lived there for some years. Stratford (east London) even has its own Theatre Royal though that is always known as the Theatre Royal - Stratford East. But a regular stream of bemused visitors exits the “train” or “subway” station there trying to match their guide-books to reality. I was asked how to reach Anne Hathaway’s Cottage several times in a year. And invariably, it seems, by Americans.

greetings all from a fairly sunny LBG, a bit of cold wind out earlier as well. Still fairly spring-like and I noticed at the weekend that we had crocuses growing in the lawn. I would have pronounced eyot "eight". Probably picked up from the boat race coverage. And Tony S, Aditi was quite right in the derivation of "ey" meaning little island. Well known ones include Ely (originally El-ey), Athelney (where Alfred the Great hid after he had let the cakes burn), Romsey. The internet says that Swansea too derives its ending from this.

Tarmac your garage door, sir?

Good morning (yet again). What I thought were sparrows in the adjacent thorn bush have turned out to be coal tits. They are creating quite a racket, it only goes quiet when the magpies are around. The thorn bush is quite large, thick and is pretty much impregnable to anything larger than a small bird anyway.

Editor cleared.... Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, A poor nights Sleep, more like an extended doze with many interuptions... Ben the Border Collies Patrol was extremely well lit with a full moon, and the start of dawn arriving. Very chilly but not frosty, Having driven in the landrover I still need to warm up... According to the radiowomble, Dawn for us is actually 07:10, with a 4 minutes a day time change is won't be long before the great Fried egg is seen A.M. Part of last nights lack of sleep was brain decided to go into overdrive thinking on details of fitting the window. A stroll down the garden had found a choice of three windows 3ft by 2ft 6 inches each, one has been selected and is now by the Garage. The long thin windows (two of them) were in too poor a condition to use,, It has been held up to the wall to see the best place, I may well fit it sideways on, as 3ft is two breeze block long, and therefore more convienient to fit. Time to take a wander down the lab acuddle a hot instrument warm up..

Early morning at Littlehampton en route to Victoria due to this week’s Brighton line closure. Cheers Darius

Now we come to another first, as the Scotch goods swings under Crescent Bridge, but for the first time does so on the Down slow. Silver Fox waits in the Up bay. 60003 has the job yet again, and we can watch its progress towards signals before Spital Bridge. There it will halt, as something more important is approaching on the main.

After all that, back to some sense of reality - even if in model form?

Having noticed I’m on 666 posts, I felt the need to make that 667! So here’s a random shot of a capstan that I turned up out of a lump of Ali. It looked ok when I made it but now it’s planted it looks a bit short and stubby...I’ve got to route the rope properly as well.

Round here there is of course only one Milk man, when he dropped to every other day and not Sundays, we dropped him, you may as well go to the supermarket. As for building trades being in the top right hand corner of Norfolk 2/3rds of the area around me is water, so not many traders there. The nearest is not surprisingly Anglian windows or Homes as they call themselves now about 25 miles away. If the repaired garage door I have left fails, I'll make two conventional opening doors, I can't believe who thought that up and over doors were a good Idea, they have many more moving parts that fail than conventional doors, they reduce the height into the garage, and have sticky out corners just right for doing a GDB, Powerwashing my driveway would be interesting.... just where would the mud and gravel go? Power washing you roof to clear moss is a current fad around here...

Good evening everyone Another day in the workshop which has seen more progress made on the old L class loco. Today I cast a pair of tank filler caps, the kit’s filler caps were cast into the tank top and were located in the wrong place, so before I removed them, a made a mould of the original caps, which I used to cast the replacement ones from 2 part resin. There are now in place with a little added hinge detail. I then started work on making some frame extensions to go under the bunker, but these aren’t finished yet. That will probably be the last more work done in the workshop until weekend. Goodnight everyone

An interesting day, and Rick, I hope that your Mrs get's sorted. Beth had her Gall Bladder out a couple of years ago and it cured all sorts of problems but she does now need some specialist medication. Anyway I set off for the mower repair place and got there before 9am to find that it's shut on a Monday. back home and did various tasks. After lunch we set off to the danglies, bought a fridge Freezer, which will be delivered on Saturday, had a coffee and went to the hospital. There a very efficient eye Dr, with good English and a cracking sense of humour, examined Beth and told her that there was no longer a problem with blood from a previous floater and that she is now able to fly. That's rather good news as in 6 weeks time we are off on a rather long trip that will involve at least 9 flights, which has already been paid for. When we got home she went out for a walk with a friend and I went to the shed and have now done quite a bit of work on the workbench that I'm making. 5 more tenons cut and two mortices marked out. After tea it was back to the shed to wield a soldering iron for an hour. Regards to all. Jamie

My empathy is offered to anyone still enlurgied (is that a word? It is now) as I am yet to fully recover from mine. The cough has almost gone and the doctor was quite pleased with my progress when consulted today. But there remains some lung soreness and - at times - a deep hacking which can be difficult to stop until the puffer is deployed. This has been one nasty little gremlin. Thankfully amid the collection of medical issues SWMBO has been enjoying this has not been one. She has again today complained of constant abdominal pain and already awaits a consultation with the gall bladder removalist. I know she was suffering because she has been very tired and teary this evening and has admitted using Australian vernacular to a member of her staff today in a manner she would never normally do in this country. Suffice to say the answer to the question asked was along the lines of "Uctifino" We can but hope things will be easier in the future. For now we have to grin (if possible) and bear it. Which is taxing for both of us. I have put her to bed with a mug of camomile tea. It is now my turn to turn in in the hopes of a peaceful and rested night. G'night All.