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Thanks for the comments about Northumberland, it is a beautiful county. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Today we visit Scotland again to visit Leith and Garnqueen North Junction. Sorry about the colour balance - it's the best I could do. Leith Class 08 5th April 91 C15710.jpg Garnqueen North Junction Class 156 up 5th April 91 C15723.jpg Garnqueen North Junction 156453 down 5th April 91 C15724.jpg Garnqueen North Junction 156453 5th April 91 C15760.jpg Garnqueen North Junction 24th April 92 C16901.jpg David

Ooops. Just been reprimanded for trying to help. I was running my finger around the cake mixing bowl in order to clean it! Apparently that is not the way to do it.

Just don't do it round the toilet.....

It gets better! I knew Montparnasse Bienvenue Metro station was closed, so walked on to St Placide, where a packed platform said everyone else had done the same thing! Managed to squeeze onboard, and, several stations being closed, arrived at Gare du Nord in record time! Very lucky that Ligne 4 is one of few lines open - but only until 09.00.

Oh dear - just when it was all going rather well. My Eurostar, having been 17 late from Paris, managed to be no later at St Pancreas, thus giving me plenty of time to get to Padlington for the 14.03 to Newton Abbot. I boarded, and having yielded to a lady whose reservation I was sitting in - the little lights were on strike - I sat opposite. I was a bit surprised when I heard the diesel engines start up, but I don’t really know what makes a bi-mode tick, so ok. Then we were told there was a fault on the train, and a fitter had been called. An option was to nip round and catch the 114.15 to Bristol, and hope to pick up some XC service from there. But then came the good news that the train was now ok - hooray! Except, within seconds - a fatality at Maidenhead, nothing leaving Padlington for the foreseeable future. OK, sit tight and wait - not GWR’s fault, obviously. But then we were ordered off the train, to go and stand on a packed freezing concourse. Deal, eh? So now I’m on the 15.20 Waterloo to Salisbury. No doubt there will be train onwards, probably in an hour, to Exeter. There is a buffet to sit in. Anything is better than being in a crush on the poxy freezing Lawn.

N5 again, now about to detach from the stock and have another rest. and now the V2, very clean for a New England engine, has backed on.

I am doing a mite better than expected. My train has just left Versailles-Chantiers. I was up at 4, at Alison’s by 5.30, and she dropped me at the station for the 06.03 to Paris. Having got this far this early I must have a chance of catching my Eurostar at 11.13! Now to cross that city, when buses and Metro are thin on the ground. More anon.

I learnt a long time ago to make sure my handwriting was almost indecipherable which means that that is one task that I'm expressly forbidden to do.

Built for the railways by the government just before WW2. There is a long thread about this model in the Bachmann section. Hello Tony It might not be in the same class as the Bachmann model but for the cost of 3 sheets of plastic card, 8 sets of wheels and a sheet of transfers, it was far less than £250 and a lot of fun building it. It was also the right size of crane for my then loco depot layout. Here she is with her supporting train.

Fiddleyard track ordered yesterday has just arrived from the IOM and at a good time aswell as I was back in the house. It's wet out there but won't take long to get back to the shed

Only A trundle by this morning ( Naturally our N Hipposhire rep, Staffelfuhrer Hunt, would do a fly by) as cronies are arriving for an additional OFMC practical session. This will be held outside on the driveway and in the garage due to a moratorium on mess being made in the conservatory now that the festive decorations are up.

Don't you just hate it when things don't work properly? I moved the car onto the road so I can put out the recycling. As I walked up to the garage I pressed the car remote unlock button and the garage door didn't unlock... Quite damp here today, with a bit of a breeze too. Contemplating a lunchtime trip to KMRC for the work desk decorations, or sit in the dry and paint the Ruston a bit blue.

Morning, A rather loud crash, followed by two more of diminishing magnitude before dawn had cracked on the adjacent building site woke me from a doze and so it was time for muggertea. Since then what sounds like a sizeable air compressor has been running at constant speed to power some sort of pneumatic device on CowboysRUs’s site. I hope that my Meh-ness is abating and therefore I shall wander towards my local polling station later, even though this constituency is one that always returns politicians of the same primary colour. I am minded that a government earlier in this decade spent a LOT of money getting The Boundaries Commission to redraw parliamentary seats to match the population more equally to a target of 75,000 electors per MP. That exercise also resulted in a cull of some 35 seats from the levels house in Westminster and was suppose to come into effect from 2020. Meanwhile of course there have been significant increases in the number of appointments to the Upper Chamber at the end of the Parliaments in 2015, 2017 and one assumes that will be so for 2019. We have had three general elections since then using the previous (and somewhat unequal) distribution of seats. Could Cynical me be mistaken in a view that a December ‘19 election gives some of these people the absolute maximum duration of Westminster benefits before those seats are lost? There is much to do to recover from time lost due to recent indisposition, onwards and upwards. Best wishes to sufferers and carers and glad to note that a certain gentleman is making progress towards the southwest of England, where we assume his “loves lies waiting” to borrow a phrase from one of Simon and Garfunkel’s famous ballads. Later....

Good morning all, Dull and damp start but the frost I saw in the night has disappeared. Wind and rain forecast today. We were going to walk to the polling station but as it was raining I decided to drive and at 7.15 it was easy to park. Good to see a steady procession of people wending their way there. Apparently there is "still lots to do" with visitors due this afternoon. The Boss is busy in the kitchen and I have been asked to deal with one allocated one domestic cleaning task involving the dreaded Dyson. I will of course do as I'm asked told as I want to eat (and not wear) what she's cooking later! Have a good one, Bob.

Good morning one and all Today is polling day in the UK. It is the culmination of quite the worst outbreak of negative propaganda that I can recall. There is hardly a candidate who does not resort to dissing at least one of his or her opponents at every opportunity and scaremongering has reached epidemic proportions. This makes it extremely difficult for the hapless voter to make up his or her own mind about the key issues and the relative merits, if any, of the candidates. I can't help being reminded of the chant "four legs good, two legs bad" in George Orwell's "Animal Farm". What is important is that as many of us as possible take the opportunity to vote. The right to vote was won only after bloodshed and civil disobedience and it is precious. A 70% turnout means that three out of ten eligible to vote do not do so. If we do not vote, we have no business to criticise the government that we had the opportunity to help elect. Where to put our cross? This could be a problem. Do we vote for or against a particular candidate? Each approach has its merits. I will follow my conscience, safe in the knowledge that my vote is unlikely to affect the result in the constituency or the country. Only in the most marginal seats do individual votes count to that extent. Do not let that put you off. If you do not vote you cannot posssibly affect the outcome. May all voters be granted wisdom. Wishing the same for our politicians is perhaps too much to ask. Best wishes to all Chris

In fact it appears I may have connections from Salisbury that get me to Torquay at 20.24, only about three hours late, but without the embarrassment of occupying a seat on what will undoubtedly be a very overcrowded IEP. I can then catch a no 12 bus into the town centre, have a pint in Yates’s, and await rescue by Sherry, who should be off-stage soon after 2100. Honestly, worse things happen at sea, it says here.....

Afternoon, wet and miserable outside, spent yesterday setting the new computer up and transferring files and documents. All went well though it was a slow process as I have moved from Windows to Mac and it was a case of learning whilst doing! I went and voted this morning, doubt it will make a difference here, always surprises me that you just turn up and say your name and address and no identification needed. Time to tackle a couple of things in the shed. Enjoy your day folks Alan

Sorry Richard, no fly by today as the cloud base is too low. Whether this is a direct result of the amount of hot air and bluster that has been emitted by the political classes of late is open to discussion. I hope that you and the OFMC have an enjoyable and productive time. My only sortie will be to the polling booth but as others have indicated we are in a constituency where the incumbent party could field a monkey and it would still be elected. Of course, it could be said that......... (the rest of this sentence has been omitted as it was of a political nature and therefore not allowed). SWMBO has a lengthy appointment later this A.M. with the fang fixer so I am instructed to complete the writing of Christmas cards, which is right up there at the top of my pet hates list. Together with the probability that the airwaves will echo with the inanities and depressing events at the ballot boxes I can see me becoming Mr. Grumpy. And on that cheery note I will bid you all good day.

Morning all. No decorations to put up or sprouts to cook. I’m sure something else will be suggested though. Have you seen the price of the latest Apple Mac Pro and associated addy on bits? I know it’s aimed at ‘top end’ professionals but blimey. Have a good day.

Ey up! Today is buy foreign currency day.. better to buy now before other things deflate the purchasing power. I did one year of woodworking at Grammar School. I still have the pencil box I made. (Badly!). I dropped woodwork and Art and replaced them with German and Russian...perhaps I should have stuck with woodwork! Odd bits and bats to catch up with today. I need to pparcel and post a coach (of a size scaled at 4mm to the foot). I am cooking some brisket in the slow cooker for tea tonight. Yummy! But it won't cook unless I get on and get it in the slow cooker. Let us all get out there and make best use of our time on Planet Earth today! Positive thoughts to all who are missing and very positive thoughts to all who ail! Baz

My cousins found a vein of clay near their home, which was probably of pottery quality. We used it, dried in the sun and air, to make scenes for posing plastic models, plastic figures etc. About practical subjects at school - all the members of classes in our kids' junior high schools (mixed classes) did woodwork, metalwork, cookery and sewing. They also did a course where each of them was randomly allocated a biography (job, income, marital status, residence etc.) and had to work through an imaginary 'year', using information supplied about things like local rents and interest rates, plus costs of food, vehicles, transit etc. from local newspapers and flyers. Obviously, this can't really represent real life, but it introduced them to some of the concepts you have to deal with there. As a result, all three of my sons are immeasureably better cooks than I am! And one, who treated tailoring as an engineering discipline, could greatly impress girlfriends with handmade clothes as presents.

Evening, well it stayed dry and after dropping SWMBO off in town I went and sat and froze in a hide for a few hours with my camera, the clouds thickened and what bit of light vanished and that was the cue for a rather secretive Water Rail to appear, poor shot really, but the best I could manage under the circumstances.

After a few days over in the UK, it has been back to work on 5771. The brake gear is now finished and I won't be waving the soldering iron around anymore (I actually use an RSU), so there are just the sandboxes to be fitted to the chassis along with the mock up axle boxes in styrene and filling of unwanted holes before it goes off to the spray shop.

Using your tongue is much more efficient, although you have to bear Gordon's salient point about what you run (in this case) your tongue around.

At the nearest village polling station, if two people turn up at once it's rush hour, should be there about 19:00 which is late for me but i'm visiting my sailing friend after work. I don't know if he'll venture that far, his polling station is all of a hundred yards from the house.. His parents might give him a lift.. it's about to get soggy here according to the weather radar.

Yes Phil, polling duty was a good one and every station used to be manned all the time. A very good source of overtime. However that seemed to drop off in the 80's and now there is hardly any cover at all. I think that this is a retrogade step as it helped ensure that polling irregularities were kept to a minimum. We did however keep supervising the count. In one of the 74 elections I distinguished myself by threatening to lock the ruling party agent up for disorderly behaviour in a polling station when he started shouting his mouth off. He was rather surprised but did shut up. The polling clerk was amazed. Later at the count he was strutting around saying that his union owned the seat. He got his comeuppance 2 years later when he assaulted the husband of his mistress rather badly and drew a couple of years of porridge. Jamie

Mooring Awl, inner Temple Hare, A very good nights sleep, although I've woken with a painful neck, my head feels heavier than the neck wishes to support.. though it's managing it at the moment.. Driving into work was very Icy, the minor roads were frosted over, with me leaving the first tracks through the frost, the ninety degree sharp corners were definately down to 5mph and coast round them.. The wooden box I made at school still sits on my parent mantle piece, IIRC, it was made of pine with dove tailed joints and then the sides were veneered, with a mahogany like wood. In metal work I remember making a very dangerous knife that used a razor blade, I know I haven't thrown it away, but I haven't seen it for years.. In the RAF in workshop practices , you were given the choice of making a digital alarm clock from a kit, or a 12V PSU. Unlike most, I chose the PSU, because I had already made the clock a couple of years before, it was available in one of the electronics magazines.. Whereas the clock had all it's hardware pre made, so just requiring soldering and screwing together. The PSU required it's case cutting out of a sheet aluminum the top case and the bottom tray, folding, drilling and screwing, adding the Transformer, Bridge rectifier and capacitors plus of course the mains switch and wiring.. I got good marks.. The PSU is still available for use... As for Voting, the card is sitting in the car , it's easier with my name just to put it under their noses than stand there, trying to spell it out. I'll vote on the way home from work. Unfortunately we I don't think we have a declared monster raving loony on our list, though all the others may well come under that grouping.. This year has meant more political leaflets than ever before, great for generating heat in the stove.. Of hammers I have a wide variety, ranging from the newly delivered yesterday small craft hammer with a variety of tips, to a six inch diameter head, iron bound, wooden fencing Mallet, that may be over 100 years old. I think on a rough count there are 8 in all.. And so to work, a second major system, is being calibrated, this one had been residing in engineering for some time beinused to test out calibration programs and the prototype Units under test. It's now back with us and will shortly become a full calibration system once we have enough calibration history generated.. Time to take the next measurement, (190uA).

Morning from what was another icy one but rain drops appearing. Was number 6 in the queue at the polling station this morning waiting for the doors to open. As ChrisF says, our vote will very unlikely mean much as its not a marginal seat by a long way but you never know. Christmas officially commenced last night as we had our first Harveys Christmas Ale from the cask. We just had halves as its 7.5% but someone was on their second pint just after 6pm! I think that I have my first cold since packing in commuting 8 months ago so no visit to Mums till it clears up. No currency exchange for us this xmas as we will be staying put in the UK. Just deciding where to go new Years day. Might be Newcastle or Leeds then other places up North - all depends on hotel prices and we do need to stay in a Marriott before 5 Jan to keep our points active as we have enough for at least one free night aswell. Anyway back to the shed shortly to finish off fitting the alignment dowels then its cork laying and hopefully track aswell.

I did just that yesterday and brought two months worth of houskeeping over i got quite a few more euros per pound than I did 2 months ago. Good morning all . We are awaiting the nurse to visit for Beth then breakfast will be taken. A Trip out to the Dr's later then this afternoon we will be hanging decorations on trees and hedges round the village. Normally one of our neighbours organises this but she has had to spend the last couple of months in the UK. Whilst Beth was laid up she spent much time wrapping toilet roll centres in tin foil and adding ribbons. Good occupational therapy for her. Regards to all and good luck to Ian(OD). Jamie

Fingers and toes crossed that the trip goes well! Baz

We didn't have any shop in lower school (to grade 8). In high school there was a "choice" between shop and home ec' -- not really. And another choice between music and art. Shop was metal half the year then wood. The next year the choice was one of the four, I think because Latin was added in. Then I took German which displaced shop. I had two projects that involved bashing copper into a dish shape -- my least favorite projects. We were at a J D Salinger exhibit last month and I noted that he made the same small dish on a ring three decades before me.

Some years ago my Uncle had one knock on his door (Liberals?) - one of their policies at the time was getting people to transfer over to public transport. He engaged them in conversation, acting interested etc. etc. Then the conversation went something likes this: Uncle: "So whereabouts do you live?" Canvasser: " Er, Findon" Uncle: "So that'll be the Number 57 bus then?" Canvasser: "Er, I'm not sure" Uncle: " So how did you get here today?" Canvasser: "By Car" Lamb to the Slaughter......

Currently sitting at Yeovil Junction awaiting single line path. All will be well. Had I stood like a looby on the Lawn, I would have witnessed the 14.03 and the 15.03 Penzance services being cancelled. The 16.03 left 15 late, but was last heard of 45 late at Heywood Road - presumably with three trainloads of grumpy punters on board. I would not have felt good about being among those people.

Nicest thing anyone has said all day!

What's a local beat bobby...……………………………………………………………..something I remember from the dim and distant past

Been out for a walk in a damp and breezy village today and cast my vote for the least offensive party. This meant a change from my lifetime of voting for the same party. It will take a significant change of direction before I ever vote for them again. Now back at home in the warm with a muggacoffee.

Morning one and all, we have one of those can't make it's mind up sort of morning here, the sun did try to scramble over the horizon an hour or so ago, but it has vanished into a rather flat light grey sort of snow laden looking sky, not sure what today will bring, a bit of running of replica steam powered people moving on parallel rails happened yesterday and it might just happen again if the light doesn't improve for photography in the forest....toot toot

Good morning everyone Well I’ve just finished my breakfast, I’m late because I’ve already been out to to visit the dental hygienist. A rather pretty tall blonde, who is very pleasing to the eye. Upon my return, as it was raining, Sheila asked if she could have a lift to her Zumba class. Once back home, the window cleaners were here, so I had to go and unlock the back garden gate so they could do the windows at the back of the house. As for voting, she and I have had a postal vote now for a few years, as one year an election just happened to coincide with a short holiday we’d got booked. Funnily enough, ever since then, we’ve had no canvassers from any of the political parties ringing our doorbell! Every cloud and all that! I don’t think our vote will change the party of the local MP though. Although boundary changes a few years ago did and the local MP changed from blue to the red party. I remembered yesterday that I hadn’t put out the Christmas decorations at the front door this year, so they are the next job to do, other than that, there’s not a lot else planned for the day. Enjoy whatever you’ve got planned, back later.

Blimey is right , just looked. That won't be on my Christmas list then!

Murphy drops some buttered toast on the kitchen floor and it lands butter-side-up. He looks down in astonishment, for he knows that it’s a law of nature of the universe that buttered toast always falls butter-down. So he rushes round to the presbytery to fetch Father Flanagan. He tells the priest that a miracle has occurred in his kitchen. But he won't say what it is, so he asks Fr. Flanagan to come and see it with his own eyes. He leads Fr.Flanagan into the kitchen and asks him what he sees on the floor. "Well," says the priest, "it's pretty obvious. Someone has dropped some buttered toast on the floor and then, for some reason, they flipped it over so that the butter was on top." "No, Father, I dropped it and it landed like that!" exclaimed Murphy “Oh my Lord," says Farther Flanagan, “dropped toast never falls with the butter side up. ….It's a mir….Wait... it's not for me to say it's a miracle. I’ll have to report this matter to the Bishop and he'll have to deal with it. He’ll send some people round; to interview you, take photos and a statement etc.” A thorough investigation is conducted, not only by the archdiocese but by scientists sent over from the Curia in Rome Italy . No expense is spared. There is great excitement in the town as everyone knows that a miracle will bring in much need tourism revenue. Then, after 8 long weeks and with great fanfare, the Bishop announces the final ruling. “It is certain that some kind of an extraordinary event took place in Murphy's kitchen, (quite outside the natural laws of the universe). Yet the Holy See must be very cautious before ruling it a miracle. All other explanations must be ruled out. Unfortunately, in this case, it has been declared ‘No Miracle’ because they think that Murphy may have buttered the toast on the wrong side!"

Morning All, It's a chilly morning, but there is no sign of the snow that was mentioned on the radio. Although, there's probably some up in the hills. Time for a coffee! Have a good day everyone...

A 3F at Bleat Wharf. Rob.

Two for the price of one and seen before, 2884 class 3864 , again, passes with a down coal train as 8750 class pannier 3796 simmers with the branch train.

Afternoon all, Cor what a lot to catch up, serves me right for going to a pub yesterday. Our Christmas luncheon wasn't too bad albeit rather interestingly composed as the 'seasonal' choice was either roast turkey or roast beff (I had the latter) but the accompaniments were the same with either meat. While this no doubt makes for efficiency in the kitchen it creates interesting mixtures for those on the receiving end as they get a plate of roast turkey that comes with Yorkshire Pudding or roast beef with sage & onion stuffing, plus the Yorkshire Pud of course. The sprouts were rather variable one being delicious and the other being somewhat like a cannonball and completely uncuttable with anything short of a chainsaw, oddly the same thing happened at Portsmouth last week so it must be something in the genetic make-up of pub kitchens. All the other veg was fine as was my paté starter. Despite one death we were at the same number as last year but I fear that will shrink next year as one is 88 and lost g his wfe some months back although his daughters look after him very well so he might keep going. Another had clearly arrived at some state of dementia with an even stranger memory of what he had or hadn't ordered than the rest of us and a very obvious to now talk completely irrelevant rubbish at precisely the wrong moment instead of talking relevant rubbish at the right moment - very sad and I doubt he'll be fit enough to attend next year. On a different noter the pub car oark gave a good view of various aircraft parked at what is now known as 'Cotswold Airport'. (previously RAF Kemble). Trains to & fro ran punctually with one exception and the IETs were quite comfortable - maybe the seats are being worn a bit softer? Unlike OD we had no problems due to 'an incident' but apparently there had been one somewhere in the Maidenhead - Slough area on Wednesday as well. the only unpleasant bit was riding for 5 miles in a Crossrail Class 345 which was both extremely hard riding and transmitted just about every jarring movement of the bogies into the bodywork - maybe they'll soften up with wear? Unfortunately the Driver managed quite a good impression of having a somewhat limited idea of his whereabouts but at least managed to stop in the right place at Reading. Today has been less arduous but much, much wetter. This morning I visited the Good Count's daughter - the delightful Simone in this instance - to make my latest offering for the INR clinic while this evening I shall return for an anti-arthur-itis injection in the knee that missed out last time. The weather has been such that I have not yet got round to a visit to the Polling Station to spoil my ballot paper but I might possibly manage that later on in which case I shall even handedly express various levels of disgust against every name/party appearing on the ballot paper. This will make absolutely no difference to the outcome here but at least, so I understand, they get a chance to be told what has been written about them on spoilt ballot papers if they want to know - real democracy at work. Enjoy the rest of your day everybody.

I hear the old railwayman coming to the surface. In case of disruption get on any train going closer to home.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I voted over a week ago, by post. I have had a postal vote seemingly forever as I more often than not I worked as a poll clerk in a different constituency to where I lived. Interesting point re. what GDB said about how busy his polling station was. After the initial voters waiting for the poll to open it goes quiet until a mini rush between 7 and 8 as some people vote on the way to work. Then it goes quiet until lunchtime when there is a mini rush of people voting in their lunch hour. Then there is a small pause before 3-4 pm when the mums picking their kids up from school arrive, the most hectic time, not because of the number of voters but the number of little darlings running around. Then the next rush about 6 when people going home from work cast their votes. From about 8 there is very rarely a voter to be seen until after the soaps have finished and then the last rush. Its then pretty quiet until closing time when theres a few who wait until the last minute. I'm sure Jamie will confirm that as soon as the polling station is about to close the local beat bobby arrives to grab a last mug of tea and any cakes or biscuits left over.* *It is normal practice for the person in charge of the station to provide tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits for the clerks.

Given your skills with a camera, I would be fascinated to see an image of steam powered people

Preparations for the 7.25 slow to KX come next. The pilot is bringing in the stock. and the V2 that will take it to London is tucked away on the approach to the bay platform.