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The general election is hotting up with this major rally by one candidate and all his supporters.

Better than this set of comedians !! Brit15

Views along the Newcastle to Carlisle line for this afternoon's photos. Corbridge 143023 Sunderland to Hexham August 87 J9102.jpg Fourstones 156431 Newcastle to Carlisle 26th Aug 92 C17957.jpg Haltwhistle 60023 limestone Hardendale to Teesside 28th April 93 C18515.jpg Cowran Hills cutting 29th March 94 C19371.jpg Cowran Hills cutting 142037 down ecs 1st June 94 C19466 David

Domestic Engineering afternoon. The NHN household (being somewhat bijou) has one of those Dyson cordless vacuums which has served well for two or three years, but has recently shown signs of the battery having died. Did some you-toobing which suggested it was probably full of muck, and so the great strip down started. it was indeed clogged in places you didn't know existed. it was better, but not signed off for traffic by the boss, who reckoned it's duration was still nothing like it should be. (Steady at the back). So the powered head bit was also taken into the shops as it has its own motor andseemed tight, therefore consuming lots of the Q's amps, which initially frustrated the on-call fitter as he didn't have a Torx No,7 bit - we don't do such tiny things as a rule. So a trip into Royal Ramsey for a suitable device, and back to the bench (work type, not the other type I used to face weekly in old employ) and there was the culprit. Half a mile of Mrs NHN hair wrapped into every bearing, despite rubber seals etc to stop exactly that happening. Fixed. My reward? Vacuum the house to prove it works. #sigh#

I accepted a job in the US without even having been in the US but that wasn't a problem as we had extensive experience through watching Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, The Cisco Kid, The High Chaparral, Perry Mason and Kojak.

As the Colchester- Glasgow receded into the distance, someone decided to take these photos. By the time the second one was taken though, the train had come to a stand so that the guard could put on a rear lamp, which he did very shortly afterwards.

Good morning one and all Yesterday's lunch with a friend was at the Blue Bell in Helpston. We both had haddock and chips and, as we asked nicely, garden peas rather than the mushy version stipulated on the menu. Getting there was impeded by queuing at the notorious level crossing while three trains passed. On the return journey we had a clear run. Then the fun started. I took a wrong turning. It is easily done when one has not learned the road, when signposting is deficient and when ones passenger, who lives locally, does not get out much. The silly thing is that I have taken that wrong turning before, under cover of darkness. When I got home, eventually, I powered up Google Maps and now know where I went wrong. It was a roundabout too far. While all this was going on I was trying to enjoy the sounds of Le Vent Du Nord's CD "Territoires", which is one of my signed trophies from Sidmouth and had been in the hessian bag for four months. It's good foot-tapping stuff, which is not necessarily the best idea when one of your feet is resting on the gas pedal. Matters arising: Grandad Bob mentioned the Brampton Hut the other day. I doubt it looks much like the version where I worked in 1966 as a petrol pump attendant and may not even be in quite the same place. The coming of the A14 has caused much upheaval. For starters, it was the A604 then. I used to cycle to and from work, with a shift pattern not designed for beauty sleep - 3 pm to 10 pm one day, 8 am to 3 pm the next. My route included the very dangerous Nun's Bridge, in a dip near Hinchingbrooke House. There were a few near misses, especially in the heavy rain which would come on just as I was finishing work. Tomorrow I say farewell to Virgin Trains West Coast, who will take me to and from Manchester for the show. This means another purposeful stride to the bus station for the 07.30 X5 to MK and making breakfast before I set out as there is precious little chance of finding anything decent in voyage. In theory I could rise again on Sunday morning, fresh as a daisy recovering from a dose of weedkiller, and head for Peterborough. I've done two shows in two days before and it puts too great a strain on the superhuman qualities that some attribute to me. Best wishes to all Chris

Good morning all, A wet and windy night and more of the same forecast today. Still feeling rough so not doing much at the moment. Chris, ISTR from my childhood in the 50s that the Brampton Hut was a large white painted building. We stopped there for breakfast in September on the way to Beamish and today it looks just like any other Premier Inn. https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/cambridgeshire/huntingdon/huntingdon-a1a14.html Son Steve was working from home yesterday so popped in to collect a parcel and stayed for lunch so that broke the day up a bit. The Boss didn't get home from shopping till about 4.00pm laden with "stuff" and I was told not to pry. I didn't get to The Shed so haven't tested my new acquisition but intend to do so today. Time for some breakfast, Have a good one, K.I. Dwithnewtoy

Andy's manifesto just released. Nationalize Hornby Bachmann and Peco - Everything to be in a "Red" box though Free model railways for all - Model railways for the many, not the few Out of Europe with that pesky HO stuff and manufacturers with funny names. A new trade deal with the USA, but we keep our O gauge at 7mm to the foot and not 1/4" to the foot. Though the Yanks say they wouldn't touch our OO scale if it was handed to them on a platter !! A model railway tax to be paid by the higher earners and big on line sellers, Google & Amazon etc, though Hattons and Rails of Sheffield will be exempt And the big one - the environment. ALL model trains to be clockwork after 2020 - that will wind you all up !!! Analogue and DCC to be phased out by 2025 and banned outright by 2030 - a demanding target but Andy says "It's do-able" VOTE FOR ANDY - He's pure (rmweb) Gold !!!!

I am up far too early this morning! Fortunately, the Obergrumpenfuhrer has to attend 'book club', so I may be able to have a nap mid morning to compensate. Do I take the newly filled biscuit barrel with me, or do I empty it pre-snooze? The latter action would prevent the possibility of a great crumb scandal.

Morning all, Up early to finalise my draft of the breakdown procedures for the Stevenage exhibition, get my hair cut, then start on the Christmas cards. Bill

Morning all. Been in shed fettling the building and working out next stage for roof construction. Dropped other half off at station. Trian close to time today for a change. last night it was late but not quite enough for the Delay repay. I know many who don't like Virgin West Coast but I have found them Ok to deal with. Our local Southern / Govia were good but when DaFT changed the franchise it went very pear shaped although many of the problems are Notwork Rail. My other half often has a conversation with others also waiting for delayed services and no one is happy with the GW Worms. Tomorrows trip is by bus and Sundays partly by bus as no trains for us due to engineering works. Its raining hard here now but at least its warmer. back to shed with a cup of tea. A BLI loco has its main driver out ready for wheel pulling but so far not found a trader with a puller in stock. Its something that I really should have in my muddling tools. Luckily a friend has one so will go see him on Monday then I can replace the split gear and hopefully another happy customer. UPDATE Spoke too soon about my other halfs trip to work this morning. Underground up creek from Farringdon eastbound so she had to go back to City Thameslink and walk from there. Not one trip this week on time and shes getting really pee'd off with the journey these days. When am I going to find a lottery ticket that isn't faulty! Main PC froze this morning then wouldn't start so switched the power off at the wall and back on again, checked the power lead into the PC but in tight. Still wouldn't start. Just went back to it after looking at new one online. Pulled power lead out then back in and it started. So this 10 year old PC is still working and no new one required just yet.

Morning. Well I presume it is, its still dark and blowing a hoolie. Fridaaaay! Which is like an extra Saturday for me, as I work my full time over 4 days. Bike, er car club later, than maybe some mudelling, but have to get some new tyres on the car first, where did those 3 years go?

I've been trying to think of a pithy mash-up of those, but have given up after getting this far: That's another fine mess you've gotten me into Pancho. Time wounds all heels. Oh, Cisco! who loves ya baby?

The best (or worst I suppose) postal experience we ever had was a few years ago when a friend who lived in Spain rang us up and during the conversation said, " I didn't know you were going to Australia again." We told her that we hadn't been there for three years and asked why she thought we had been recently. "Because I've just received a postcard from you posted in Sydney", she said. It had indeed been posted in Sydney but three years earlier! Goodnight all. Dave

Got home this morning to find this card the youngest lad made, he’s gone to school as usual today but The eldest lad is sat in our bed crying, I’ve let him have the day off school

Morning, still dark outside but I know it's not raining...yet. Decided a couple of days ago it was time to change the pc given its age and other reasons, hmm it must know as yesterday it had in human terms a major heart attack,, followed by a stroke and various other complaints! Took me ages to fix it and get it behaving, the need to change has been reinforced and has moved up the priority list, Otherwise all is well or will be when we return from shopping , at least it's food shopping! Enjoy your day Alan

Morning all from a village that is a long way from Ikea. No sign of strikes/blockades etc and all the petrol stations seemed to be in action. The only effect on me 2as the diversion to Caen instead of St Malo. Much to be done today, putting stuff away and distributing ourchases to their various recipients. Our regular postie is excellent but I'm not sure about La Poste in general. Mail seems to get to the UK inb about 3 days max but takes anything up to 2 weeks in the other direction. Some of last years Christmas cards arrived mid January. Regards to all. Jamie

That reminds me of the time my boss and I flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles to "drop in" on a software outfit to collect something that they were supposed to be delivering to us "any day now". It's so long ago now I can't remember much of the details but the whole episode was pretty entertaining. There was another occasion when I was a member of a team who were evaluating a semi-conductor company as a possible acquisition. IIRC they were somewhere in Texas. We were looking into a clean room through windows. There were several "ball-bonding" machines operating in the clean room. (Ball bonding is the process of connecting the actual silicon chip to the external connections in the packaged device.) People were busily feeding the ball-bonders with more chips. I noticed that that the people who were feeding the machines appeared to be re-cycling devices from the end of the conveyor (reminiscent of the "I Love Lucy" sketch.) Charlie, my highly experienced senior IC Engineer, observed that there wasn't any actual wire in the ball-bonding machines! The deal did not go through.

Excellent preparation!

Another long meeting, but now I have only one more to chair, plus the AGM. This is very good, as I am now completely out of my depth. I need a course on acronyms. No more of that, let's watch Sir Walter on his way North. We've even gone back up onto the bridge again. A bit lopsided, but I thought you might like the full view,rather than a cropped version.

Greetings from a grey but now dry LBG> it certainly was very dark earlier when I set off from home. Today sees the annual Christmas Party at the office - all the women will glam themselves up and all the blokes will just go to the pub and then the venue. I am sure it will be OK. Not a lot planned for the weekend so hopefully a bit of time to relax. Have a good one.

To quote the Good Place. Thank Fork it's Friday. (If you haven't seen it, it is one of the better American comedies on at the moment. You can't swear in the good place so it is all fork, shirt, ash, beach) What a shirt week this has been. Still coughing up internal organs. No sign of relief. Run out of weapons grade codeine and can't get a refill without an actual appointment with the quack. Can't get one of those until next week as they are overrun with other plague victims. Bunch of ashholes. PH your experience with Canada Pest is far better than what we used to get in yyc. Rumour was the sorting office was overcapacity and mail often ended up in Vancouver or Edmonton for sorting. Never ever got anything in under 5 days. UK parcels averaged about 18 days as for some reason ours all came via Montreal instead of Vancouver. That in itself was a pain as "model" on the customs form got translated there as "art & sculpture" subject to heavy import duties. Spent many hours in the Harry Hays building in yyc with a box of trains trying to explain they are scale models and under the same no duty category as toys in order to get a refund. Our "home" parcel delivery went like this. Small > super box, Medium > local pickup post office. (in a 7-11 like you but the desk was only open mon-fri 9-5) larger > Purolater depot by the airport. (140km round trip for us) By comparison our Royal Mail depot is open 07:00-17:30 mon-fri, 08:00-16:00 on sat, and even open 08:00-13:00 on Sundays. enough beaching about the past. Time for coffee and more time wasting meetings with morons. Enjoy the day, have a great weekend.

And tell Mr. Mercedes you'll think very hard before buying one of their cars again. That should sort it.... I'd suggest a rapid and total Comms failure, else air traffic are sure to divert you onto other tasks not mentioned prior to departure....

I lied yesterday. The laundry wasn't finished until today. We have a collection of community post boxes in the Village. There's usually no problem except when the postie gets vacation. She told me once that when she has to cover another route, she does it early, in the light, as she feels safer in the Village than other places.

It wasn't unknown for Christmas cards to be delivered a year (or occasionally more than one year) late in the UK. With the huge increase in mail over the Christmas season, some mail sacks weren't used from one year to the next, and the odd card could lie in the bottom of stored sacks till the sacks were brought out again for use the next Christmas.

It's of the chuckinitdarn variety out there, which made the trip to the landrover garage hard work in the dark, down muddy country lanes. I don't think they use torx on a real landrover. But they used something... Heater rebuilt.... I actually had to turn it down I was getting too hot on the way back !!!!!!! Steering damper replaced. Gearbox support replaced with a galvanised one. Front tow ball and pin fitted.. MOT and service.. 842 muddling tokens ....ouch Muggacoffee then off to the MRC in 20 minutes.

You're lucky Chris, to avoid the possibility of having to race from the Southeastern platforms at St. Pancras to platform 2 at Kings Cross I've got to leave home at 05.45 to catch the 05:59 Highspeed to St. Pancras. Train (diesel hauled) is due depart Kings Cross at 08:15 and arrive at Manchester Victoria (no long platform available at Piccadilly) at 13:12 so hope to be at the Manchester Show by 13:45. Not sure what to have for breakfast on the train. Kippers or a Full English? Decisions! Keith

Ey up! Need to get ready to go to Peterborough. M7gatea drunk now i need asome breakfast. TTFN Baz

Mooring Awl, Inner temple Hare, 1094/684 An odd night sleep I fell asleep an hour early and woke up 2 hours early, so there were several periods of sleep on the sofa. The above is caused by a pain in the neck and my left arm (elbow to wrist) . I don't remember doing anything to annoy my left arm. Less head waggling today at work as I have 27, 1 G ohm resistances to measure, so they sit on the desk in front of me.. That's reference, two new resistors, reference, then deliver those two the section that wants them. then reference, 21 resistors in a box, reference, that one's my build up box so I can, next week, calibrate some 10 and 20 G Ohm resistors. That should keep me occupied. Not Driech this morning as it's too windy, it was however drizzly and warm ish. Ben the I'm Staying in Bed Collie didn't even look out of the door to decide if he wanted out.. The heater for future boat work has arrived, hopefully I'll give that a go tomorrow, It has been tested however and seems quite effective. Some thoughts on hinging the toolbox top Led me to decide on Pivot hinges (Knife hinge in the USA), So I started looking up buying some and then... I realised I was looking at some I've already got in stock, A search party will be sent out some time on Saturday.. It's almost time to head towards the forest of G Ohms, Time to Check the company Spam first.

Morning All, It is a chilly morning here - but nothing unusual for the time of year. There isn't a lot else to report, so I guess it is time for a coffee! Have a good day everyone...

I learned early on with these wonderful people not to rely on their e-mail abilities, and insisted that everything be done in the more traditional way, and I would call at their offices to collect and deliver if really urgent, or to have them sent by 1st class post - worked for me.

I think you're being a bit hard on Canada Post. I agree with you about the 'super mailboxes'. (One of my claims to infamy is that I worked for the guy who introduced them, after he'd moved on to pastures new.) However, to collect a parcel, we only have to go to our local '7 eleven'. While the post office counter isn't open for the 24 hours per day that the main store is, it's certainly open more than 'bankers hours'. And we have had mail sent from Canada to the UK (and reverse) in 4 days. In fact, when I worked across the road from the main PO in Vancouver, I could post in a box that dropped the mail on to the sorting floor. If I put something in the box in time for it to catch a 'red eye' to the UK that day, it might be delivered in 3 days.

Unfortunately we got the news we didn’t want earlier, the different meds hadn’t worked and Mike deteriorated over the afternoon and had a couple of further heart attacks so the kindest thing to do was have him put to sleep so as not to prolong his pain, my wife and kids managed to make it over to the vets to say goodbye, my eldest lad who like belonged to is absolutely devastated as can be imagined the vet said Mike was also very weak but my wife said he managed to shuffle himself over to his carry crate and try and get in it to come home with them but unfortunately it wasn’t an option with him being so ill rip big fella, hope the extra time you had with us was a happy one

I was quite impressed that MiL had a set of Torx drivers. I had to repair her drying rack and a torx bit was required. BiL Ian had left a tool kit at MiLs as she always asks for things to be repaired just as someone leaves.

A certain spaniel defeated our Dyson. With its Miele replacement the hair got trapped in the rotating brush long before it got to any motors or filters other than the dust bag. Aditi sheds her hair expensively at a salon in Brentwood. She had been today, Tony

The PH has just rung up asking if I will give him a hand to shift a sofa tomorrow. Having agreed, I now find the sofa is in Leamington Spa. Providing we get a reasonable start time, it will tie in nicely with a trip to Rodington (on the way back from PH Grange) to visit the Mince pie and Steam event.

We have rescued hedgehogs which for one reason or another can't go back to the wild. They are not caged all the time and are given the chance to run around the house and on an evening they sit on the sofa and believe it or not they are house trained. As they can't go back to the wild they still have a reasonably fulfilling life In the summer hetty a three year old every time I picked her up she would press her head under my right chin. I'd had cancer in this area four years ago but on having a check up it was found the cancer had returned, it seemed somehow she could sence it. I've had surgery which involved removing half my tongue and replacing it with skin from my wrist which has hopefully been successful in removing the cancer Anyway was in hospital over two weeks and on getting out hetty was so excited to see me but with having wounds I couldn't pinch her up which she couldn't really understand Two days later I got up to go to the loo and checked on her and she had died of what we suspect of a heart attack I was absolutely devastated as I would not have mentioned this problem on my tongue during the check up, basically she saved my life. We had her cremated and her ashes sit in a cabinet bless her

And with some of the buildings roughly and temporarily placed in their location this part of the cityscape is starting to look like this:

I've arranged to take my sailing compatriot to the SC just for a trip out on Sunday.. The chances of seeing sailing are...... Not a lot, minimum windspeed 23, top in excess of 50mph.. At least we can have bacon butties.. The second to last 1 G ohm measurement is just settling.. Toolbox design is now complete, glueing and screwing start tomorrow. I need to ring the Landrover garage when I get home to see hows it going. After that it's MRC Night, which may or may not require a diversion via the art group to drop SWMBO off. Now waiting for the last 1 G Ohm resistor to settle, then there are about 25 pages of spreadsheets to update..

We do have a Meile Cat & Dog vacuum Tony, which is superb but it is relegated to shed spare due to the inconvenience of a mains lead. Apparently. We no longer have a cat, and Mrs NHN having long hair is a recent thing, not sure why as it is better not to enquire too closely about such matters. My hair is seldom more than 10mm long! The convenience of short hair suits me nowadays, although it has been much longer in the past. The 70's for instance....

Yep, that'd be just the job for me!!

if you attach a Flowbee to the Dyson you won't have that problem again.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A tad wet last night but the rain has now departed and so has Arthur Itis. Must remember to stock up with modelling tokens for tomorrows toy fair. Other things to do so I'll be back later.

Yep, have already told that to the guy I was talking to. Just waiting for the Manager (or whatever) to call me tomorrow..... just in case he has some offer to make. If not, Aviva, here I come. Premium is less and that is without Aviva Shareholder discount! Keith

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I enjoyed Johns blog about Wodney the wiendeer, the comments about the human equivalent of WW brought back memories of before I retired and makes me so glad that I did. Can't be bothered to cook anything tonight so a trip down to the chippy shortly.

Found this in a review of a book on Manningtree Station from a few years back, which can be found on the EADT website.... “The other extraordinary thing is about how a stuffed giraffe once went through Manningtree. It was on its way to Ipswich Museum, and it's still there. The plaque says 'lent by John Hall of Broughton.' I hope he doesn't want it back!” It was some year, 1909. That's when the giraffe travelled from London to Ipswich - concealed under canvas, sadly. It wasn't an easy task. There were fears that, even when loaded onto the lowest rail truck and tilted semi-horizontal, the ears of the 16ft 10ins cloven-hoofed, cud-chewing quadruped would poke up too high. The lowest bridge on its route stood only 13 feet from the ground. Experts were consulted and trials conducted before they decided it would be all right - “ . . . but to guard against possibilities,” reported Great Eastern Magazine with levity, “the inspector was instructed to see the load through and the suggestion made that he should travel jockey fashion on the animal's neck. “The inspector, however, successfully pleaded age, weight and non-training against that method, and was therefore allowed to enjoy the usual need of comfort obtainable in the brake of a goods train”. So now you know..............

A prairie waits to leave the Forge sidings, heading for Truro.

It's a lot better than the funeerial dirge that we sang at Gildersome on Sunday to what was allegedly the same tune. The organist is so slow it's unbelievable. Anyway good evening all from France. Got home safely about 2pm. The first 160 miles in mist and freezing conditions (-2) but it was 10 degrees by the time I got home. No problem with tyre sensors the Volvo doesn't have any. Anyway here are a couple of pictures that I've been able to download. Firng the shotst of all the two carriers at Pompey last night. PoW nearest the camera. After taking the shot I repaired to the bar and a double of The Macallan helped prepare me for a short night in the cabin. Anyway this shows that I'm still practising the grumpy Grandpa bit. I might succeed one day. Nana is very jealous. Goodnight all. Jamie