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OK, off down to the garage t0 pick a bike for todays run out to the old farts bike club. The little modern one today I think.

Some photos today mainly from the late 1980s between Newcastle and Hexham. Some of you may be noticing that the 1986/7 photos are not as "crisp" as those from other years. This is because I was using a different brand of slide film, which gave good results at the time but it did not keep well, over the years the colours changed and it became more contrasty and somehow less sharp. Riding Mill view west July 83 C6098 Dilston 143023 Newcastle to Hexham 5th July 87 C8601 Dilston West Country 34092 Hexham to Gateshead Metro Centre 1st Aug 87 C8721.jpg Hexham 143024 Hexham to Sunderland 24th Feb 87 C8214.jpg Hexham coal drops 2nd Feb 85 C6690 David

As the title suggests round the bend, some more pictures of the line as it rounds the bend and up the incline towards Ewer Street and the Grand Vittesse. All the best Adrian.

A'noon, A lovely sunny and warm day and it should stay that way. A bit late on parade here but I was up fairly early, not by my normal standards but it was before 8.00. Considering the amount of booze and food I took on board at the reunion yesterday this was no mean feat. Started about 12.40 and finished at around 8.30 and an extremely good time was had by all. Even TfL behaved although the Tube was rammed coming home. Attendance wasn't bad there , about 50 or so. This was helped by 6 or 7 youngsters turning up for the first time who'd been at the school when it closed. Amazingly a couple of them remembered me although I didn't have a clue who they were, they'd have been snotty 1st years when I left. I did know one of their brothers though who has unfortunately since died along with 3 or 4 others which is about par for the course. Very pleased to meet up with 3 old friends and rugby clubmates who I haven't seen for years. One of these is now the club president and was twisting my arm to visit the club in a couple of weeks. Have a good one, Bob.

My family house was mostly wired with Wylex plugs. Big round plugs with centre earth pin and live/neutral on either side. You could plug them in either way up.... Back seems fine. Currently testing it riding a 142 on jointed track with no ill effects. Off to visit Transport Models in Preston for supplies. I could have driven but have a cheap day ranger ticket courtesy of a railway friend. It's a 20 min walk from station to shop and the sun is shining Have a good rest of the day folks. Cheers Mick

Ey up! Off to moreasons after a mugatea. Had a great few days in Jersey with friends. I hope all went well for Gabe yesterday. I have a busy day in front of me so TTFN Baz

Survived the ride..... My brother's house in the UK had live gas pipes from lighting in the walls, he found this when hanging a picture....hissssss....... Really nice sunny day, but not as warm as it looks at 12c. Car needs washed, as the 'Manx Eagles' (aka shitehawks) have been using it for bombing practice.

POETS will be celebrated later with an early bu99er off. Been a long week.

POETS arrives, and is welcomed! Yesterday late afternoon we had the "discovery" that all the new/modified reports the client urgently wanted were not actually specced correctly - quelle surprise!!! Result is I have to redo most everything I've been doing the past 4+ days... their mistake, their money, so other than the fact I hate that sort of wasted effort, who cares, I guess. Will depart early afternoon for the dreaded JFK, weather both ends supposed to be fair/acceptable, so with luck we'll be on time. No firm plans for the weekend - YET - though I'm sure that'll change, especially since I'm hoping that a certain Hornby "Lord Nelson" will be awaiting some serious running in 7 and cloudy with some drizzle driving in so still no "top down" adventure. Expected to clear with a high of 13 time I depart JFK. Hope the weekend starts well for everyone...

Morning all, Nice and sunny and the visit yesterday from Mr Sparks sparks went well with only a limited amount of hole creation in the kitchen ceiling and the two new LED units lighting up the room (or rather one end of it) like Blackpool without all the pretty colours. Definitely an improvement on the previous low current (basically fluorescent) units although they still remain at the other end. And guess what - Brian the sparky is heavily involved at the GWS and happened to have known an old friend of mine who was involved there rather along time ago, in fact on the night before the event below he and I had been coaxing 6998 into steam as previous efforts t do that after its arrival at Didcot had been unsuccessful. That long ago - surely not? That chap is nowadays a volunteer Driver on the Ratty and we met again up there some years back when I was doing some stuff for them. https://www.flickr.com/photos/david_christie/6961278791/ Now back to earth and a trip today to see off my former work colleague who died a couple of weeks back so I shall be navigating the inner part of Uxbridge later today and hoping that the demo in London will not involve halfwits crawling along the M40 at near zero mph in order to encourage other folk to adopt their view on Breggsit. Have a good day one and all.

I bet you daren't reinstall the servant bell to inform Sheila that you want a muggertea.......

And that’s what’s happened! she is so placid and loving that we sat down and spoke to the adoption company and came up with the suggestion that we would like to keep her to act as a ‘host cat’ to other foster cats who will be staying with us while awaiting new homes so it looks like she is now ours and we will still get other cats on a temporary basis as for Odin, his funeral has been arranged and he will be being cremated next Tuesday and we get the ashes back the week after that we are going to spread under the tree he comically got stuck in a few weeks back that my wife had to climb to rescue him out of!

woohhooo.. might just have got a buyer for our "other" house.. fingers crossed..big time! 3 locos set up for sound, now to finish renumbering them and putting coal into them. Two are to be unweathered, 4 to weather.. that is my task for tomorrow! Baz

Been a busy bee today shopping..done Parcels made up... and posted Shelves removed from walls in bedroom....done Lawn mower serviced (ie cleaned plugs)... done SPROG.... fixed next up..mugadecaff.. Baz

Good morning everyone The sun is shining and and it’s quite warm outside. Breakfast has been consumed and shortly I’ll be heading off to the Trafford Centre for a few bits and pieces. I will be unaccompanied today, so it shouldn’t be a long trip, as usual I’ll call at the butchers on my way home and collect the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for dinner too. I wound do any work in the cellar now until Monday, as I find if I do too much scraping, my shoulders complain. So a quite afternoon is planned, doing what I’m not yet sure, but I’ll find something, I’m sure. Tonight we have James and Amelia owing for tea, which tonight will be fish and chips, yummy. Back later.

Another parcels train, this one destined for Leeds, and another relatively menial duty for a Thompson Pacific, Mons Meg this time. I had two goes at this, as I thought the camera might have shaken a little on the first one. Mind you, when you are hovering in the air like this it would hardly be surprising, would it? I was only going to process the second one, but of course by the time I got round to doing it I had forgotten that. Having done all the work, I wasn't going to bin this, so I did the second one as well, in widescreen mode, and au naturel. Which do you prefer?

Still messing with cropping and monochrome.

Good morning one and all For several reasons, yesterday was fraught. It began with the discovery of a note on my windscreen from Mrs Electric-Chair, left because I had parked across her gateway. Later she apologised for not having recognised the car. By then I had discovered the bulge in the wall of the driver's side front tyre. This called for immediate action, principally unloading the toolkit and makings of lunch before phoning the dealership. Yes, they had a suitable tyre, at a price of course. There followed a cautious journey across town, an unproductive time in the customer waiting area and the discovery that I didn't know how to answer my mobile phone when it rang - or, for that matter, how to switch it off when I didn't want it pinging at me. By 10 am the dodgy tyre had been replaced, my credit card charged and the car washed to remove the grime - weathering, camouflage, call it what you will. I wonder whether Mrs E-C will recognise it now? I got to Poorly Pal's place a creditable 30 minutes late. He has a rotten cold and my sympathy. I didn't do a lot of m*d*ll*ng bcause I could not get the top off the bottle of superglue. The contents are still liquid and can be heard sloshing around inside. How tantalising. I wonder if the ironmonger where I bought it has a suitable tool for removing lids from superglue bottles? Only one way to find out ... Best wishes to all Chris

I 'm sure you don't really coast in the Landrover, as the meaning of coasting is to either depress the clutch or select neutral at speed and free wheel. Braking and road holding can be seriously effected. I would like to see you engine breaking in the car! Mallet or lump hammer? As an aside, my presence here is not Early rising, it is middle of the night rising. A civilised start to the day only begins when the hour hand reaches double figures.

Good evening everyone My visit to the big orange DIY shed was uneventful, but did manage to get the paint I wanted. Then it was back home for muggertea No2 before starting work in the cellar, where more progress has been made. I’ve now done about 80% of the walls and I’ve even made a start on pulling down part of the ceiling. As the house is over 100 years old, that had the potential to be a very dirty and dusty job, so to keep the dust to a minimum I used a steam wallpaper stripper to make the air damp, which worked very well, although it did make for a very warm environment, but thankfully all the mess was kept in the cellar. During this process, I found evidence of the old servant bell system that was installed when the house was built. I’d found some of the old wiring on a number of occasions, I didn’t know what they were for, but I knew they weren’t big enough for any sort of power or lighting. However, Shiela knows someone who lived next door when she was a child and she remembers the bell system quite clearly. We actually remember her mum, as she still lived next door when we moved in here, 39 years ago. During the ceiling work, a few old items were revealed, an empty a 5 pack of Players Navy Cut and an old newspaper. The Daily Herald dated 1 July 1935, I suspect that was when the house was wired up first time round, as when originally built it had gas lighting throughout the house. I found most of the old pipework still in place when I retired the house some time ago. After tea tonight, I raised a glass and made a toast to Mal. Goodnight all

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/sandys-chemo-day-93-of-147/

Morning. Bits of old posts in this box again. My High-and-dry i30 has a 6 speed torque converter auto that does clever things in engine braking, it doesn't just release into freewheel mode. I presume its all computer controlled, you can feel it change down as you slow, and then release when speed is very low. It also locks up in top at 50 unless you're accelerating, which gives pretty good economy for a diseasel auto - 47 mpg. Mrs NHN has a manual 1.6 Diesel Picasso C3 in which she is training to do the IAM test (big day next month) so driving to 'system' now. This has reduced economy by 5mpg, from 60 to 55 due to barrelling up to speed signs then braking harder and changing down two rather than allowing speed to decay without braking hard etc.

Morning all from the Charente. A good day was had yesterday. In the morning various stacks of wood were reduced to burnable lengths. As the weather warms up hopefully we won't need any more till the late autumn. I then restarted work on my new workbench. By the end of the day a complete Mortice had been done, only 4 more to cut, then 6 tenons. I enjoyed the work and the result. Today I have to wait I for a delivery of I know not what, but it isn't due till after lunch. I will therefore head to the shed and pick up the mallet and chisel again. I raised a glass of some amber nectar in memory of Mal last night. Regards to all. Jamie

The house we moved into near Settle in the late 50's had been built sometime in the mid 30's. It had blanked off gas outlets next to each electric ceiling rose as well as a mix of 5 amp and 15 amp round pin sockets. IIt was a constant source of frustration when you had a 5 amp plug on something and only a 15 amp socket . When we end up with the wrong combination of French and English sockets it reminds me of those times. When we had an extension built some years later the house was re-wired with 13 amp sockets and the sparky's discovered that the whole gas distribution system was still live. Jamie

Actually I do, If I see a set of lights change to red ahead while at 30MPH , I'll push in the clutch and coast under braking only to a halt. Pushing in the clutch at 30MPH in a 1.5 ton Landrover in no way will affect the handling and the braking is improved as the engine is not fighting the braking.. I'm never near the handling limits in any car, let alone a 35 + year old landrover 1.5 ton 110 on tarmac.. driving on Ice/snow/mud/ gravel or extremely wet conditions is of course different.. There was a manual SAAB many years ago with a free wheel clutch on a manual gearbox, this and the above mentioned fact of the older Autoboxes going into free wheel always contradicted the old advice never not to be in a gear. Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, A better nights sleep in three pieces, initially helped by a touch of Amber liquid.. Ben was happy this morning charging around in the frost. It's extremely sunny this morning, and the wildlife must have been up early as there wasn't much around on the way in. As for the Chinese system, it looks lke one of the bits of test equipment developed a strange fault just before I left. The boss was left analysing the results. I finally got the new product system on the first part of it's cross check, because it's new we are having to run the cross check twice, once brfore the correction file change and once after to compare and see if there are any significant changes.. Meanwhile I have 7 Current Shunts from the USA to measure, just the highest 2 left to do 20A and 100A, that Will keep me going until the boss comes in and says what his opinion is on the above.. Time too.. check for company spam.. Oh according to the spam I was supposed to attend a meeting at 21:00 last night... at where those shunts came from..

As does RMWEB, RMWEBER and RMWEBUS....

Afternoon. Been a busy day so far. This morning I swapped a fence panel for one that has recently been treated. Some more weathering commission then off to a friend to help with his Swiss layout. Did platform edging for him. Hes got 4 weeks to get it completed for Rotarail. Back home after getting another container of wood preservative and next fence panel now drying ready for swapping tomorrow morning. Booked Caledonian sleeper - got last two solo berths but despite the payment confirmation arriving the e - tickets hadn't so went online then realised the berths are only valid with 1st class tickets so rang them and cancelled. Not at all clear that. back to original plans for our trip to Aberdeen / Inverness. Layout mover still not ready to be collected form garage after it failed MOT on Wednesday on rear brakes. Fingers crossed it will be by close of business tonight.

A nice bit of action at Colton.

Morning, earlier start, cars in for it's annual service, it's first trip to my proper mechanic as the warranty has now ended 63000 miles in 4 years, don't have to use the distinctly dodgy dealership who sold me the car any more(they couldn't fit the tow bar for me, no one knew how would you believe), wish my bank balance luck lol.

Brookfoot, CVMR, 1901. In my garage, about half an hour ago.

The Chinese system is finally on it's cross checks, it's clanking it's relays behind me at the moment, I might get rid of it on Monday. Our works toilets are to be rebuilt... as all cubicles.. so those who don't know what sex they are can hide.. Just had to fill in this years Objectives, with both me and my Boss being on the rundown to retirement it's more a conspiracy to get HR out of hair for another year.. (whats left of it we have). Not being in a mains gas area, I suspect until the early 1960's the house had parafin lamps, whch would explain the comparitively large ceiling roses hiding where the hooks were. In this area mains water wasn't until the early 1970's I believe..

Evening all, Ah, St Jude - we got married in his church (or one of his churches). Now if you can have such a thing the funeral was rather good. Alan was a long term member of the Boys Brigade from boy member right up to leader level so we had a fully uniformed turnout from them as a sort of guard of honour plus their standard coming in and leaving ahead of the coffin together with relevant hymns and a very good tribute from one of the local officers of the brigade. The church was packed out which is always a good sign and the singing was very good so all in all a good quality send-off with 11 of us former railway colleagues present among the congregation (and me the youngest of those from the former WR freight planning team). Not so good was having to drive home at c.16.15 from Uxbridge on a Friday afternoon; the M40 was distinctly solid no doubt with all the weekend Cotswold dwellers adding their SUVs and similar large vehicles to the mêlée which at times reduced to a dead stand due to nothing more than the volume of traffic. Not too many cockwombles apart from several who clearly hadn't got the faintest idea how to match speed when joining a motorway and preferred slowing down to a crawl instead of accelerating, very odd.

In 1991 we moved into an old farmhouse in Lincolnshire and I set about remodelling the kitchen, which according to some evidence I found had last been done in 1967, and reduced it to a shell before rebuilding. To my utter horror discovered that the numpty who had done the wiring had taken the lead for the cooker off a light circuit, simply substituting bigger fuses by forcing them in, and the junction box that was hidden on top of one of the old units was actually charred inside. How the house was still standing I don't know. Dave

Seen on the Hornby Engine Shed blog, early EP's of the large prairie. One entering Brent in the early '60s, copyright Colour Rail.

Afternoon All I think I'm married to a Nutter. Her what are you doing today , Me cleaning the car as it's like a tip and cleaning the BBQ as some one wrapped it up for winter covered in grease and bits of sausage. Her can I have the car, Me are you going into town no I'm going round the corner to visit a friend, Me take it by all means but it won't get washed till the end of May. Her I'll leave the car here then, Me OK I can wash it then . Her I thought you were washing the BBQ, Me I'm doing them both. Her I'll take the car as I promised to take friend for lunch Me where are you going for lunch. Her just over the back (200yds away) Me why don't you meet your friend there (she lives 200yds away) Her can I have the car then, Me, F##k off . Is it idiots day today or did I miss something , enjoy your day Tota L Disarseter.

With the matt coat on I glazed the cab and fitted some scale couplings (from the new Accurascale Cemflo) and brake pipes. It was now finished (or so I thought) so I took some photos of it with some related locos. Here it is alongside its LMWR cousin, basically the same design but with a different cab and splashers. And then with another WMR loco in the plainer goods livery. It was only I took these that I noticed I'd forgotten the reverser linkage, the hole in the cab front is the give away (doh!). After I've made and fitted that, from 0.4mm nickel silver, I'll take some more photos of it on its own.

Morning All, It is a nice bright morning in this part of the world. Now, it's time for coffee! Have a good one everybody...

As a former Tesco maintenance man In a very busy store, I noted at least once a month, some one of ancient years or occasionally a harrassed mother would take out a several cars... One thing about engine braking is that many modern cars with fuel injection fuel is cut off totally till engine speed matches throttle demand. So using engine braking saves fuel... However on ancient engines like my landrover it uses more fuel. So I use two totally different deceleration techniques depending on vehicle I'm driving. Coasting to a stop in the landrover, engine breaking in the car.

Damned right, I ain’t that stupid!

Welcome to the madhouse Brian. No need to worry about being early,-we are open all hours Night awl

I also remember adaptors. Fortunatley I never saw one that allowed you to plug a 15 amp appliance into a 5 amp socket. Maybe that's why I'm still here. I've a fairly good idea that our first house in Chesterfield had only 5 an 15 amp sockets and the first 13 amp ones were when the house at Giggleswick was rewired which would be in about 62. Jamie

That depends entirely on the specific subject and the depth of research being conducted. As one who regularly has to research railway equipment for reviews, the internet is of very limited use. Even basic dimensions, for instance, are often impossible to find and most historical information is superficial or requires cross-checking against books for accuracy. The internet is superficially useful but it certainly has not replaced books where serious, thorough and informed coverage is required. When it has been around for 600 years it might match books, of course! (CJL)

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Bright and sunny this morning but a bit nippy, got things to do so be back later.

Thanks! I suppose I could go with "ED4ZHLS" again. I had that in California, but the Fiat isn't exactly ideal for getting to the ski slopes. Actually it's practically useless for carrying anything. The boot can manage one carry-on size bag.

Thompson’s Warehouse

Had a similar experience a while ago heading down to Grasse in a '65 VW Variant with four people, roof rack and a lot of camping gear. Scared me stiff.

When I was at Uni the halls of residence had 2A round pin sockets in the rooms. They were tiny and by then the plugs were quite hard to come by. The majority were sold on by those leaving that year. Despite their size and rating it wasn't unknown for people to still try and wire kettles to them.

Nice one, but it probably wouldn't mean anything to the locals. Technically as I was born in Renfrew I'm not a Buddy. I see "DUMP 45" is available although I doubt if it would be allowed and if it were I'd probably develop lead poisoning.

One more... Pusscat, doing what they do best. A Leopard having a post-dinner snooze up a tree. Kruger national park.

Bit more progress with the OTA rake. 8 now built except for buffers and couplings. Hopefully get the last 2 done tomorrow then add all the buffers then set the couplings so to allow clearance for the return curves on Dallam. Will be sprayed either faded green and rust or faded red and rust! Posed them with 56070 on a empty working to Mossend. Cheers Simon