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Coming up is a painful post. Crammed into a corner while crouched under a bookcase, contorted so as to see the viewfinder and still keep myself out of shot, and dealing with sun that kept popping in and out every few seconds, it's a wonder this got done at all. I realise a lot of you like this view, but now you know why you don't get it very often. The next one is an easier option for me, but still a pig to photoshop. The bent signal is on its way out before too long. Watch this space for details

HUMP Day - several days absence thanks to Mr. Gates infamous SNOTperating system Winblows 10 deciding to throw itself out of the pram. This requiring me spending Sunday (and most of Monday!!) reinstalling Win10 and every application I had on my main server/development PC - not a mean feat Yesterday spent recovering from that nightmare and getting work stuff organized Monday Jemma and her boyfriend headed to Europe for 10 days. VIa Amsterdam (best free seats ) they're off to Dublin, then Oxford, the south coast near Lewes (weekend with my brother and family) and then London before returning. We're having another "weather event" here; Currently snowing about 1" an hour and expected to get 6-8 inches today. Just another day in Minnesnowta, although we'll pass the record for February snowfall "ever" here today. Ah well Good thing I work from home, the commute up the stairs was brutal though I nearly spilled my orange juice Hope everyone survives the hump and heads for the weekend full speed ahead.

I've just had a splendid day in the company of four visiting friends from the Ely Club. Thank you gentlemen for your hospitality, banter and most-generous donations to CRUK. What really made my day was the work brought along by 14-year old Jamie Rands. He built this rather nice K2 using a Graeme King resin body and tender, fitting it on top of a modified Bachmann K3 chassis. It's all his own work. As is this scratch-built O1 on a modified Hornby 8F chassis. He also brought along this 3D-printed van running on a Mike Trice chassis. Maybe the hobby's future isn't as lugubrious as I make it out to be. This self-reliant, inventive and developing youngster could teach many an old-lag modeller a great deal. Especially those who don't seem inclined to even try. I've given him a simple white metal wagon to build (he's a solderer!), and when he finishes it (and shows it to me at the Ely Show), his birthday present from me will be a D&S etched-brass ex-NBR horse box. Good on you my young friend.

A few more photos on the Glasgow and South Western for this afternoon. They are presented in the order they were taken on a mostly very dull day. Barassie 9th May 87 C8424 Ayr Class 107 9th May 87 C8429 Girvan Class 47 Stranraer to Euston 9th May 87 C8431 Dunragit 9th May 87 C8437 Barassie Junction 9th May 87 C8470 David

Morning. I see we have infected Dave now too, sorry mate. Still feeling pretty awful myself, spent most of the morning in bed, which isn't me.

Thats the more well known one but nope. Must get ready for second trip down the coast in a week. Meeting a long time friend who I hadnt seen in a long time for the third time in as many weeks. Going ot check out how he has built his sheds. Beer and lunch in Havant.

There is a Bagdad in Tasmania. Luckily for them the US didn't know that a couple of years ago.. (The butcher got a bit of publicity in the local press at the time though)

There might be a number of legitimate reasons why you did not get a reply. The shop worker may not know what the stock level was. Not all shops use computerised stock keeping systems - they probably should but they don't. If they don't know you from Adam, it may be that they thought you were from a competitive shop doing a bit of spying. They may have thought that this was the prelude to a silly offer to buy. "Well if you've got 50 in stock I am sure you can do me a very special deal to get rid of a few." Perhaps you posed the question the wrong way. If you had said "I am looking to buy X of this model, do you have them in stock?", you might have got a more helpful answer. In my business we never disclosed our stock levels unless we were out of stock. The customer did not need to know the level, just whether we could fulfil the order.

EGood Dafter Noon Here I sit Quite disgrunted Booked a plumber Who hasn’t fronted If we had Delay Repay for no-show or late-running tradespersons the entire industry would probably go bankrupt overnight. I accept there are reasons for being late just as there are for trains to be delayed. But when they ask for, and you provide, a contact number it would be polite to make use of it at appropriate times. I didn’t need a hot tap in the kitchen anyway. I can carry pan-fulls of water through from the bathroom at medium risk levels. Rather better day at the House of Fun. The only interpretation required was from a group of Chinese visitors seeking “Kee-wah Garden”. Kew, of course. I’ll pop the early morning shot (non-posted) of the first open daff-upon-the-Hill in here again. Lit by one of our ornamental grounds lamps. And would you believe it as this post was submitted the telling-bone rang ....... guess who??? Mr. P. Lumber now expects to be here sometime after 3.30. For a midday appointment!

Good morning all. Clear skies and a dry mild day with sunny spells is forecast. After yesterday's exertions I am aching all over and moving rather slowly. I'm told that the main weekly shopping trip to Sainsbury's will take place today instead of tomorrow and that that should loosen me up a bit. We shall see. I had to notify my bank of attempted credit card fraud nearly 2 weeks ago and the offending items are still on my account despite me chasing them up last week, Time for another call I think. Have a good one, Bob.

Morning All, It is a reasonable morning in this part of the world. Somewhat chilly (around -1°C) but nothing out of the ordinary for the time of year. We did have a fairly heavy frost today. On the subject of keyboards, I almost exclusively use a German one - regardless of whether I am writing English or German. The most noticible difference being the swapping of the "Y" and "Z". Some of the characters are not as easily accessible as they are on a US/UK keyboard, but you tend to get used to it. (For example { is <Alt Gr>-7, @ is <Alt Gr>-q and € is <Alt Gr>-E) - This is primarily because of the addition of öäü and ß. I also have a key for grave and acute accents. Have a good day everyone...

I worked for a company that made typesetting equipment and we always referred to it as the pound key. While there I learned that the shop steward in a typesetting establishment is referred to as "the father of the chapel" (FoC for short). The term goes back to a time when monasteries had a bit of a monopoly on the printing business.

I will shortly be carrying out a 500 mile round trip.....

Well it's not her as I have just been up to check and there she is merrily fishing away..... For a messing about picture taken on the iPhone it came out rather effective. The phone was upside down with the lens close to the water and angled upwards. Had to pass it through the editing suite to brighten up and save it to stop thread trying to turn the correct way up when I posted on here. Even though I say it myself the reflection in the water looks the part.

I would have liked to see the Tornados yesterday and I've been wondering if Uncle T (Dave and I know who he is) managed to see them. He was heavily involved in their introduction into service as one of the lead Test Pilots and also flew them in Gulf War 1. I hope that he did manage to get out to see them. I managed to escape yesterday afternoon and went trainspotting with a mate. We went to our usual place where the Classic and TGV lines cross and had a very good 2 and a half hours. I managed to see my first class 186 and we saw a regular infrastructure train heading north with a 22XXX hauling 2 dead diesels and a 27XXX as well as its train. Lots of TGV's and a good call. This morning it's sunny and I've done some clearing in the woodshed, moved the trailer up there for rubbish collection and then cut 3 mortices and a tenon. A good morning's work. I now have two of my three bench leg units assembled. Regards to all. Jamie

"Learn him with a slipper on his b.t.m." Part of a line in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, 1954, - Welsh origin

Good morning everyone Thankfully the rain has stopped, but it’s a little cloudy. Breakfast has been consumed and I’ll shortly be heading off to the swimming pool, as the schools went back on Monday. This afternoon we have Ava, Evie and Max coming round for tea, which,, as you may well have guessed will be chicken curry, twice in one week, mmmmmmmm! back later

Greetings from the boring borough. A cool but mostly sunny morn. Bin day, so I'll be out to rescue the recycling tubs shortly. Last week's wind managed to see 2 of the 3 vanish without a trace. Luckily we had a spare set so didn't have to wait 6-8 weeks for the council to extract its head from its rectum and provide replacements. All change anyway as it looks like they will be going ahead with supplying 3 massive wheelie bins and only picking up waste every 3 weeks and recycling every 2. The foxes will be happy. Popped to a local purveyor of model railway supplies for a few items that their website showed as in stock. Nope, not a bit of it. Wasted journey. Not impressed. Looks like I'll have to order online instead of supporting a bricks & mortar shop once again. Meh. Good to see that John & Sandy have reached the half way point. Hopefully the second half will go smoothly and with a successful outcome. Anyone else notice RMweb has become a bit of a nostalgia trip lately? When looking at activity>content I posted in, there is sometimes a column on the right claiming to be commented content. These all seem to be 7-10 year old posts that haven't been touched in years. None of them I'd ever seen before. In some ways, annoying as it is yet more clutter on the page, in other ways kind of interesting to browse through them. Today I shall mostly be playing with DCC Powershield settings and getting to grips with the Roco WLANmaus. Coffee is calling. Enjoy the day.

There's one about ten miles from me - will that do? Pretty much all of them Good morning from a grey Salop borderland. During the night the dreaded lurgy struck and I now feel like sh mark 1 t - throat like sandpaper, head throbbing, nose like a tap and even the bits that don't usually ache in the morning these days do. SWMBO has rallied round, though, and is being quite solicitous, plying me with Lemsip and Mug O'Coffee. I'm due to go to the medical centre for a blood pressure check this morning but will call them in an hour and cancel. One bright spot - when we were seeing our friends yesterday the subject of the Kettering GOG show a week on Saturday came up (quite accidentally you understand) and I was granted leave to attend so may well see some Webbers there. Haven't managed to get much sleep during the night so I think I'll try and doze for a bit now. TTFN Dave

Our nearest Cla'ham is not far from St reatham and Bal'm and trains often run late Talking of keyboards I have a fair few US keyboards but set to UK option so the # and £ arent where the keyboards show (or dont show) them. One I boguht in UK for my Surface pro thinking it was a Uk one turned out to be a US one with no UK ones available in the stores at the time so kept it. I went to school in Whitchurch many moons ago - anyone guess which Whitchurch?

With just an hour in TOPS before Lunch today, I decided to do Phase 2 of the Station backscene area.

Howdy Hippo, No, I didn't see the GR4s yesterday but heard them when I was in the vicinity of Cosford. My own Tornado variety, the F3, disappeared a while ago of course. As you say, a pity they didn't pay a last visit to the Mach Loop - always an enjoyable ride and our preferred route to Anglesey when transiting from Coningsby to Valley providing the head shed would sanction low level. Thanks for the sympathy. Cheers Dave

Sorry to hear you are under the weather. I wanted to ask whether you managed to see any of the Tornadoes that were on yesterday's finale flight around Shropshire and North Wales. It was a pity it was all straight and level stuff: T'would have been nice to let them run through the Mach loop one last time.

A quick but rather later good morning to all. I ended up having a lie in till 0900 and am now girding my loins to go and start some sorting out in the shed. Not a lot else to report at the moment but generic C's & C's to all. By the way the 2nd episode of Shetland was a lot better than the first we enjoyed that last night. Jamie

Morning all Back to work today so just time for a quick catch up before I go. Interview seemed to go well yesterday, and should find out this afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed! Hope everyone's day goes well as can be hoped for.

Again in pre prat nav days a friend of mine was setting off on a journey with his SWMBO who queried why he had turned left at a particular road junction when she thought they should have turned right. "Because we need to go west," he said. "Well, I think we should be going the other way," she retorted. It was a bright, sunny morning and the sun was directly behind them. "Where does the sun rise?" he asked patiently. "Usually over next door's garden," came the reply. Dave

And there was little ole me think that it was something you made with corned beef. Jamie

"That'll larn him" is certainly very old Norfuk, many "Americanisms" are actually Old English like using "The Fall" for "Autumn" Keyboards, Working of an American company, we are blessed, with Dell, with £ above the three and $ above the four. We are also blessed with default American settings for languages, which reset themselves to US every time they do an Update.. Of Course Baldock has been lucky, over time it's name has corrupted from Bagdadh.. Mooring Awl, A bit late on Parade today,as I've been rewriting a section of spreadsheet to cope with a new calibration method. It needed much continous concentration for two hours... A reasonable nights sleep last night but not the best.. Trips to the Scottish show are not possible, SWMBO has a medical appointment on Monday, that has taken ages to come through.. Further considerations on the garage wall have made a few minor changes, and I've decided the new "plug into" will go on the inside of this wall under the new window, It also happens to be within 3 ft of the Garage distrubution box... As for inheritance of my Model Railway Stuff, the EM gauge Model of Ludgershall it it's ever near completion, will go the the Swindon and Cricklade railway. The rest to my MRC, with no children, and none of my brothers and sisters children now interested in Railways it seems the best thing.. Since my parents are still alive, with luck that will be many years hence... I've finished next weeks major system, that's now being cross checked at this moment, so I have time to type this while the new 1 gig Ohm resistor settles. Later I have a 20 Amp Shunt and some 1 ohm resisitors to do . Ah the resistance standard has settled, 1.0001682 GOhms Time to plug in the unit under test..

Does the Butcher of Bagdad offer a nice lamb kebab?

Indeed so. # = number sign, pound, hash (and sharp for musicos, though technically the sharp (♯) is a different angle, also geometrically equal and parallel). On my American English keyboard it appears over the number 3. On the ancient typewriter I once used I believe that space was occupied by the currency pound sign (£) - still a pound, as in British English keyboards. Australian typewriters offered both the $ and £, (like a UK keyboard) but I honestly don't remember exactly on which key they were placed. # was commonly referred to as pound even in tech circles until the last decade or so, and is still referred to as pound on a US telephone keypad, (where the asterisk is called "star").

Good evening everyone Well I’ve had quite a busy day today, Sainsbury’s Grand Prix was completed this morning and I also made a detour on the way home to pick up some chicken for tomorrow nights curry. Once I’d put all the shopping away, I finished off the cake that I’d left soaking last night, this nicely brought dinner. After dinner I made the curry sauce for tomorrow and I also made a white chocolate, vanilla and black currant cheesecake. the weather has been quite nice today, until around 9:00 this evening, when it started to chuckinitdarn, it’s still chuckinitdarn now. I think the phrase “that’ll learn him” comes from the Simpsons! Goodnight all

We continue to follow the West Riding, as it first passes the waiting A4.... and then a short while later, the B17 in the carriage siding and the D11 in the bay.

From Dave's response, I suggest that as ever, the correct way to handle a dispute is to talk to the retailer BEFORE heading to social media and prodding the "hang'em and flog'em" crowd. If your seller is any good, and Hattons are, they will resolve the issue. It's only polite to give them the opportunity to do this first.

Morning all, Whitchurch - 11 miles away and we pass through it on the way to the trainspotting branch of Waitrose, even has a toll bridge (season tickets save time and money). As for 'that'll learn/larn him' the phrase was in use among persons far older than me I when I was but a teenage lad which suggests it has probably been in common use among in some parts/among some people in England for a century or more. Thus it so is very unlikely to have been a US import as it was in use long before anybody, let alone the masses, acquired a tv set and thus saw US tv programmes. And I doubt very much that most people I know who used it years ago had ever read 'Huckleberry Finn'. So today I'm off to see the Good Count's daughter Natasha, a good sturdy lass of Russian origin who has considerable expertise at extracting the red liquid and the next stage will be to see what the INR clinic concludes from the sample - fortnightly event at present but hopefully the numbers will begin to stabilise. Do I dare return via the baker's - however their sausage rolls have now risen to the exhorbitant cost of £1.80 EACH so i doubt I'll be calling in. Have a good day one and all.

So if nobody guessed I’ve been working on the scenic stuff at the north end of Brighton Junction, I decided on trialing a different approach this time, the previous ones being timber forms with chicken wire and plaster bandage, expands foam with plaster bandage, now I’ve gone with foam sheets glued together and then cut and shaped, the plaster bandage will go on top again. Started it all on Saturday afternoon, it’s worked perfectly and exactly how I planned - I’m now worried, cause nothing ever goes to plan. I simply measured up the area and cut the blocks to size, glued them all to the correct height and then cut out the shape. When it came to cutting down to trackbed height I just measured out 150mm and then used a square (mines actually a triangle) and then got hacking with a saw and boom! PERFECT! Looking North at Peascliffe Tunnel, certain gaps will be filled in with plaster bandage and soaked paper kitchen towel. It still needs a bit of sanding. My ever suffering girlfriend, Rachel, waiting patiently (I hope). Looking south from Peascliffe tunnel, the bridge is complete only the small bits of brick sheet need to be added, as well as the wall, some weathering and she’ll be good to go. I think the embankments look rather good. My missus deciding now to photobomb...I am pretty sure I rolled my eyes and then had something thrown at me. Finally looking north at the whole set up! Pretty proud of myself on this, the next big task in a few months will be ballasting, still a tiny bit of wiring to do and double checking before taking that plundge. Everything runs fine, I think I’m just not in the mood for ballasting, where’s Baz when you need him!!!

You don't need a satnav to confuse some people. Someone asleep not far from me but who must remain nameless (And be obeyed) had to pick our eldest (Then aged 8) up from a party near Barnsley. She asked me how to get there in those pre prat nav days, and I said, just get off at Junction 36 and follow the signs for High Hoyland. I went to work and a couple of hours later she set off to pick the eldest up. It was when she went over a big high bridge over a big river and then saw the Humber Bridge to her right that she realised that the Junction 36 she was looking for was on the M1, not the M62. Of course this was all my fault. Jamie

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/sandys-chemo-day-63-of-126/\

Well, I didn't get the job (PA to NHS Deputy director), but I did get some really good feedback and considering I always dread interviews, it was nice to hear that I interviewed very well on this occasion. The job went to another candidate with more experience in the end, but I'm not too disheartened.

Thank you, Tony, for your hospitality today. We all had a great day and it is certainly one I'll remember well. Thanks also for the advice, compliments, answering my questions and of course the kits - I'll try not to make a mess of them! It was really inspirational to see the amazing layout that Little Bytham is and there are a few features I might steal for future layouts of mine. I managed a few snaps in between running trains There are also some videos but I'll put them here later. Thanks again, Jamie

We went into a bank today. Aditi always had her salary paid into her bank account and I had mine into mine (not the same bank company) . They are both joint accounts but it has been useful when one goes down with IT problems. We had to identify ourselves at Aditi’s bank with our bank cards. Aditi never uses the credit card issued by her bank, fortunately I knew the pin! Anyway we have shiny new current accounts and an extra 0.15% on another. I was careful not to accelerate too quickly on the way home in case I used up a whole year’s interest in petrol. Tony

Afternoon All At Chez Bob tonight it's Stir Fry Duck, I was doing Saffron Chicken but the kitchen porter (SWMBO) put the Chicken in the freezer and left it there. A fatal thing happened today the new credit cards turned up in the post one with Her name on it I will have to be vigilant with the spending on this card as she will get carried away with a new method of payment, the Pratt West cards have been cut up and we have washed our hands of the worse bank in the world. Today many hours have been spent on the brass coach sides going onto their donor coaches the third one will be finished today if it's warm enough outside tomorrow they may get splattered with primer & undercoat easy painting these ones, the two full brakes will be GWR all over brown and the Composite brake will be wartime GWR brown a further Airfix "B" set if there is time will also get the wartime treatment to see how they turn out I don't want to wreak two brand new one's just yet. R Stein

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday ChrisF, not that your likely to read this anyway. Last night was SEERS night, available on sale to members was a deceased members rolling stock at bargain prices. I managed to 'bag' an unused Hornby 'Shark' ballast plough/brake van for £3 as well as five other items a ridiculous prices, I spent £15 in all. It seems that the deceased member was a bit of a hoarder, like me. Made me think though what will become of my 'stuff' when its my turn to go, hopefully I will be able to distribute much of it before I go.

Ah, The Eddie. As a NELP graduate it was one of our (many) watering holes. Indeed, where we all celebrated getting our results after finals. That was, however, some years ago now! I'd not recognise the place now.

It didn't take anything close to 20 years. This isn't called the Wet Coast for nothing!

The phrase "that'l learn you " was around when I was a nipper, and that was a long time before the simpson's Night awl

Some further irksome phrases in everyday use: 'What was your name?' At the medical surgery, I usually reply that I hope it still will be. 'Did you have a loyalty card?' - No, I didn't, don't have nor ever will have! 'And how did you want to pay?' - well I didn't (don't), but ... 'Would you like to enter your PIN number?' - er no, but I suppose I should else you'll be chasing me down the High Street! On the subject of PIN numbers, this stems from an acronym for a Personal Identification Number number. PAT testing stems from an acronym for performing Portable Appliance Test testing. PCB board stems from an acronym for a Printed Circuit Board board. There is a term for this type of, for want of a better phrase, misuse of such TLA acronyms (Three Letter Acronym acronyms) which I can not recall. An exception is the MoT Test - the Ministry of Transport Test! Ain't our language wonderful? (innit, like!)

Hockey report from Sunday night. 2-7 loss to the Whitley Warriors. The score reflected the way the Hawks played. good for 2 minutes, not good for 7, throughout the game. Still severely depleted through injury but couldn't take away the clinical attacking and passing of the Warriors. At least we got to see one of the best goals in many a game, a powerplay slapshot from the blue line by one of ours (Ross Kennedy), that nearly broke the net. If anyone had got in the way of 4" of solid rubber, it would have hurt. MR club AGM safely negotiated earlier this evening - they've voted me in again as Chairman....... the fools....... Two text messages from my bank in the last two days warning of fraudulent activity in my card. I rang them up yesterday and again today. Looks like some low-life has got my card details and both transactions had been automatically declined. So someone now has a cancelled 3 mobile phone card and they're staying outside at a Premier Inn. Full marks to my bank for picking these up so quickly. Downside is having to wait a few days for a new card. The old one was due to expire next month anyway! Much wheel cleaning is still to be done for this weekend. Cotton buds and IPA of the non-drinkable kind to the rescue. Have a good HUMP day folks. Cheers, Mick

It refers to the vast majority of military equipment I've had the misfortune to wear or operate.

Further to my previous above....................... This is a DJH A1 from the wrecked collection. It had no motor and the painting is certainly grotty. However, my assessment of its value (before being damaged) was around the cost of the wheels (yes, I know the bogie wheels are ghastly). The motion was not DJH, but for any 'determined resurrectionist ' (Geoff West, please stand up!), a decent A1 would be the result - the kit parts being given, effectively, free! Speaking of decent DJH A1s................. This is from the same collection of a deceased modeller as the wee Ivatt seen yesterday. Most of it had been built, and I've just finished it off (why he painted the deflectors and cab roof beforehand, I have no idea). It ran, but the gearbox and motion were very stiff, and the motor had suffered accordingly. I've replaced the motor, sorted out the chassis stiffness, and the end result is a very nice, and very powerful A1. Needless to say, it's travelling no further than LB, and will eventually become 60119 PATRICK STIRLING. Another from the same collection was this Kitmaster/Airfix/Branchlines 76XXX. As with the A1, the running was really poor, with tight spots all round. I've dismantled most of the running gear, adjusted it, reassembled it and the end result is a really sweet runner (which I'll complete). Yes, there's a Bachmann equivalent, but that's not been 'made'. The more I see of locos/chassis built from kits, the more I'm convinced that most of them are 'almost there' with regard to running. I've heard far too many excuses along the lines of 'It'll run-in, and the tight spot will go' to know that's just self-delusion. Do some just tolerate stiff/poor running without investigating why, and curing it? I think my future career path in loco-doctoring means I'm never going to be redundant!

Aditi’s leaving do from Newham College was in the Eddie. It was an open mic band night. Very lively.