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Evening all..... A very cold and wet Winter league game today that had to be played. Only madmen would have gone out in those conditions, but we won 4-0, so all was well in the end. There seem to be a few misunderstandings that I want to put right. It would appear Andy Reichert has a big problem with 00-SF and has made comments in my thread before. Last November a situation was starting to develop again and whilst I have no problem with that, I do expect respect is shown for my choice of track standard, even if it's not what he would choose. I requested at that time that if Andy wanted to have that discussion, I would prefer it if it were not here but in its own thread elsewhere. He acknowledged that request and opened a new thread away from ET. Sadly he then returned with another similar posting re 00-SF again a few days ago and once again I asked he take his views away from this thread. The reason being is that I see all who contribute to this thread as friends and for me it has become almost a personal diary of events in my life. First and foremost the death of both my parents and then the various catastrophes and injuries I have gone through over the last 10 years. I have often said to my wife that I were to suddenly go, just open up my layout thread and a lot of my life is there, warts and all. Sometimes tragic, but always with humour and friendship from like minded individuals. The last thing I want is for the thread to be tarnished with endless arguments over pretty subjective material. I'm very happy with 00-SF and it doesn't matter how much proof is provided that it doesn't work, this is a free country and I will make my own choice, thank you. No amount of brain beating or willy waving will change that. None of my frustration was aimed at anyone other than Andy, as I know many of you on here have similar attitudes to my own. The support and help I've had from Martin and numerous others has been invaluable and I regard you all as good friends even though we've never met. There is no problem with any of the posts other than the ones that show no respect for my freedom of choice. Botton line is I asked he take his need for discussion elsewhere and he complied. End of story as far as I'm concerned, so let's get back to banter and laughter with a bit of questionable modelling thrown in from time to time. Nuff said.....

Most of you will be thinking that I am posting later than usual because of the RMWeb upgrade. I've only just found out about it - my reason is that I had to have a tooth extracted ths afternoon and it is only now that I feel like doing anything. Today's photos are betwen Trent and Loughborough on the Midland Main Line. Trent Lane crossing Class 101 Nottingham to Derby Dec 89 J10568.jpg Trent 150129 Lincoln to Birmingham 9th April 90 C14257.jpg Kegworth Class 254 up Sheffield to St Pancras May 84 J8145.jpg Loughborough 43105 Nottingham to St Pancras June 89 J10023.jpg Loughborough 43104 St Pancras to Sheffield 10th June 89 C12003.jpg David

Cheers, folks. Here’s some grindcore to get y‘all wakey-wakey! Our rail grinders 5092 and 5091 were out for whatever last night as I was waiting for my next turn. 5092, as I may have mentioned before, was converted from the NFTW4 prototype, which in turn was the forerunner to what became the NGT6 eventually. The pair of them can operate in a back-to-back multiple formation. The second pan on the rear end of 5092 is for OHLE de-icing, using a glycol applicator unit. 5091 with its observation dome can also perform OHLE inspection. Bit rainy ATM but not really cold today. Still got a few hours to kill before work, thankfully. Best wishes, congrats and commies as appropriate.

I mentioned some time ago that I still had three PO wagons on 10 foot steel underframes lurking at the back of my coal train. Here they are, two Evans & Bevan (old Lima bodies on Dapol underframes) and one Diamond Anthracite (early Bachmann, ex-Mainline). It was about time I replaced them with something better, but I did like the liveries. There are photos of the E & B wagons, with their distinctive heart-shaped logos in the GWR in the 30s albums and also in 'The big four in colour'. (The latter is in the LNER section. I was only looking, honest!) The Diamond wagon is a work of art, and provides a nice flash of red among all those black vehicles. So I ordered pre-printed kits from Powsides. They arrived after a long wait but well worth it, so no complaints. What's more, all are of the shorter Gloucester RC & W wagons (Slater's kits), adding a bit of variety to the usual RCH design from Bachmann, OR etc. Here they are before weathering. John C.

Once again a hailstorm has driven me back inside, with finger chilled to the bone after an hour outside. Visit to Sister Drac this morning turned out to be a visit to Brother Drac, but no less uncomfortable for that. Some people have the knack of inserting a needle with minimal discomfort, but others don’t. I always seem to get the latter!.

As it happens, our next arrival brings a Top Shed A4 which has had the full treatment before working the Yorkshire Pullman. We had a look through an arch as well.

Good morning one and all Today is Shrove Tuesday. Later I shall enjoy preparing a bowl full of batter and making however many pancakes I can with the contents. Each one will be garnished with granulated sweetener and a shake of Jif lemon juice, not to be confused with household cleaner. One of the many areas in my life where courage deserts me is turning over the pancake in the pan so that the other side may cook. Those with a gift for showing off toss the pancake but I gently flip it with a slice or spatula. Yes, gentle reader, I am not a t o s s e r and that’s official. After trudging round Bedford last night I am cautiously optimistic that I have found a new home for the six-monthly meetings of Area Group. It is a pub that served as the office local in those far-off days of the 70s, 80s and 90s and the venue for many half-remembered leaving dos. It appears to be suitable for half a dozen bods to gather and put the world to rights over a pint. Time will tell. Earlier I signed up for the Dublin Pride afterparty. The venue is a museum! I may turn out to be the oldest person there but what the heck! This is going to be one crazy trip. Will my rapidly disappearing fitness and stamina stand up to it? After last night’s trudging my knees ached but ache less after an application of Deep Heat. Poor old soul. Best wishes to all Chris PS: I hate the profanity filter!

Not nice whoever is at fault. I trust my oppo had all the level crossing checks up to date in case the men from the Ministry start asking questions and that all the whistle boards are in position still. Coming back to firearms I used to enjoy rifle shooting and was rather good at it although I preferred -303 to .22 (showing my age there). However I think I might somewhere have a couple of targets from an indoor range at Navy Days one year where the PO in charge looked at my targets before handing them to me and said 'I think you've done this before sir' - he was right l'd worn the .303 'Marksman' badge on my old CCF uniform. As well as my unofficially obtained proper Light Infantry stripes instead of the usual issue ones we were given from stores, at least mine went with our cap badge -

Continuing our run through the schedule, we're still in the classic 1950s steam era. I had to be quick to catch the Up Royal Scot accelerating down the bank with Tom's 46232 'Duchess of Montrose' in charge. At Greenholme bridge it meets the combined Glasgow / Edinburgh express. Here's the latter train in its wider view. This is the third of three full blood n custard rakes but note the difference with this one - not a MkI in sight. This was a less prestigious train so was not upgraded with MkI stock until the late 1950s. So that allows us free reign to make it a glorious mix of LMS stock, centred around a 12-wheeled restaurant car. As well as Stanier stock, earlier Period I and Period II vehicles can be seen, a mix of RTR and kit built, three of us contributing. Also of note is that this is the second banked train of the sequence. Nothing more than a Jubilee were usually allocated to these workings. A game crew would 'go for it' - but I've chosen this to be a banked train for a bit of variety as all other banked trains are goods / freight workings. Iain's renumbered Bachmann Jubilee 45584 'North West Frontier' is at the business end. We move forward a few years now to witness the Birmingham-Glasgow express tackle the bank unaided behind Barry's K's kit built 46210 'Lady Patricia'*. Now all but two coaches are in the newer maroon livery and the loco has the revised emblem. The core formation is an eight car set, with a Stanier 12-wheel restaurant car as the dining provision; the load is made up to ten with a full brake and a Period I all third strengthener behind the tender (*Lady Patricia was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, originally Princess Patricia of Connaught, relinquishing her royal title when she got married. I just googled that. Educational as well) Hard on its heels is the large Crewe-Carlisle parcels which is double-headed to tackle the incline. Iain's 70044 'Earl Haig' leads. This is a popular viewpoint, showing the full length of the incline. Reaching the so called 'bridge of sighs' (in the sense of 'almost there!' - someone told me that over the weekend), is the third banked train, my full van train. Banking assistance is provided by Barry's Fairburn tank, having just slackened off the pushing effort as the main train accelerates away ... into the fiddle yard. The way the schedule was working out, the previous Fowler banker (from the Glasgow / Edinburgh express) has recessed so this is a depiction of the time when the Fairburns finally usurped the Fowler bankers after their 30 year reign on Shap. And now we have another prestige train. None other than the Euston-Glasgow 'Caledonian' express, introduced by the LMR in 1957 as their response to the ER 'Talisman' service. This is VIRTUALLY the correct formation (we don't yet have the correct Stanier Brake First at the London end) but otherwise carries the correct roof boards etc. The 'star turn' is 'Sir's 46245 'City of London', a DJH kit build on account of the loco's appearance at Little Bytham on her 1963 ECML railtour. However, Camden's finest is kindly being made available for Shap exhibition outings and doesn't she just look the part? Within a few years, the magnificent Duchesses were regulated to freight workings and here is our last sighting of one, my No.46248 'City of Leeds' slipping down the bank and into history with the 'Maiden Lane' fast, perishables working. Coming the other way is 45736 'Phoenix' on the Perth Express, recreating the 1964 scene that my father captured on his cine camera (see BRM March 2020 digital edition!) Tomorrow night - the diesels appear!

We had a very good show in Tenterden at the weekend with our Czech layout and have bern invited to take another layout there next year.Good venueaand goid catering. They are hoping to improve the range of layouts in future but was a busy show. Yesterday was Working From Shed with more weathering underway and another project completed for some one else. After a few busy days it's time for a beer or two or three or..... A superb pub in Kingston on Thames.

Good morning all, Somewhat overcast here and rain is forecast along with the chance of hail and thunder. We had an early start as we went to Nicki's for a birthday breakfast for Abbie at 7.00am and spent a pleasant three hours there . Tonight we're off into The Smoke for a family meal out. This entails catching wheeled things that run on parallel strips of metal. That could be fun but at least it doesn't cost me anything. Something strange has happened to my screen here as the page has condensed to about two thirds normal width with a large space to the right containing a couple of blank boxes. There is probably a computerspeak term for this but I haven't gottaclue what it is or if I have done something myself to cause it. Can any of you clever chaps out there help? Have a good one, T.Echnophobe

Wine tour concluded. Loadsawine bought. Some delivered direct in the uk. Villa maria.. well their more expensive wines exceĺent..a bottle of reserve Syrah bought. Lawsondryhills Pink...not a normal pink..very nice and tasty Hunters..the Chase but their Resling was nice.. not sweet and syrupy! Bladen..pinot gris, sauv Blanc and Reisling...ordered for uk delivery Not a fan of Reisling but it is so good here. Some Germans on the trip agreed!! Time for some tea then..... Baz

I may have related this before but back in the 90s I had a client that ran a Dutch Pancake house in the Kings Road. When reviewing their fixed asset addition invoices, I noticed the invoices for the pancake pans had been raised by a company called Tossers Limited. The only museum I have been in Dublin is the Guinness museum. We played "see how many of the free half pints of Guinness you can cadge from American tourists who find they don't like it". The winner gained 8 halves (in addition to the 2 free ones as part of the admission price).

Morning, some of the "G" word has taken place in the greenhouse, onion and leek seeds have been sown and are now hardening off under glass and out of the propagator. We have a nice sunny day with little wind, not sure how long that will last, being taken out for lunch, this upcoming birthday is turning into a marathon, now running at over a week it seems lol(I'll pretend to enjoy the fuss). Going with my muddling chum, so some virtual muddling may take place....verbally...………………..

Good morning all Yes, it was something like that, whithout which the whole post (and your follow up comment) is rather meaningless. The whole business was strange. I made the post and got an error page saying the site had timed out. When the site was viewable again there were three copies of the post so I edited two of them and reported them. Andy Y, or another moderator, deleted the two extra posts and the original remained. A couple of hours later I looked back and the original image had disappeared too. It had also gone from my ‘gallery’ so I couldn’t replace it. Obviously some others had seen it and quoted it before this happened. Ah the joys of I.T. Have a good day.

Shunting 'em off at a bend is quite therapeutic I'm told...

W E L C O M E to the partially updated RWweb It might be the warmer weather (which isn't really warm at all) or it may be something else but I seem to have a "get things done" vibe for the time being. Perhaps the Round Tuit which I ordered many moons ago is about to arrive What ever it is I came back from the House of Fun and managed an hour of digging out the back path from mud and overgrowth before lunch. The pathway now looks much better; lunch was enjoyed. I now have an appointment with the Quack to determine the number of uric acid crystals slopping about in my foot and whether or not I am a candidate for some sort of perpetual preventive medication. I rather hope not in some ways; I would (perhaps in a painfully ironic way) rather manage pain on those rare occasions when it arises than medicate for life just in case. We shall see. I had better be off; the surgery doesn't like you being late and your appointment is void if you arrive over ten minutes late. Apparently it keeps the number of "no shows" down but takes little account of those who use means other than walking to arrive. Any means of wheeled transport may be held up by much more than ten minutes. However I am within walking distance and my only excuse would be loitering on ERs See you later. Best wishes to all.

You Abandoning North Hipposhire has created a modelling vacuum of infinitesimal proportions. This sucked RMweb into some sort of vortex where the pages are all squeezed up and any advertizing has disappeared into the RMWeb equivalent of room 101.

Currently having a muggocoffee at son and DiL's place in Leatherhead having had a reasonable trip down yesterday when even the M25 was more of a road than a car park. Some excitement when in short succession on the M40 a series of police cars doing about 120 mph with blues and twos going hurtled past heading south as well as a white van carrying the legend 'Royal Navy bomb disposal' , albeit probably sub-ton, also with flashing lights went by. A bit later we passed the police cars on the hard shoulder surrounding a black car but no sign of the van. Isn't life interesting darn sarf? Jill and DiL have taken granddaughter to school then son and DiL are off to Brighton for the day and to see The Lighthouse Family in concert tonight leaving the aged grandparents in charge. My contribution will be making pancakes this evening though like Chris I chicken out of tossing and settle for a gentle flip instead. Have the best day possible everyone and belated congrats to STH and GDB. Dave

Best wishes to Brian and Sheila for their respective checks! It is not chuckinitdarn here (yet?) and we have around 3/8s cloud. The singing of birds is being drowned by industrial ghetto blasters in the CowboysRUs site, occasionally interspersed with profanities. Here today brings a need to collect medication for the next four weeks that I failed to manage last Friday. The fresh fish man cometh, not singing ditties by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. Cribbage is planned for the evening but I shall need to wrap up against the elements before setting off on my way there. When in Marlborough, we didn’t order direct but, under strict instructions, I always seek the few wines of which SWMBO approves from that area. I liked the Giessen SB but I don’t know if Baz went there. Kiwi Pinot Noirs I preferred came from the North Island and were not cheap! Hoping that the national network of parallel strips operates smoothly for once so all users and staff can have a peaceful day, I will leave you with a comment I read that was made by a lady who was a mathematician for NASA and whose role was to check the calculation of early computers in terms of rocket trajectories and timings. She it was who confirmed the path of Alan Shepherd and John Glenn’s launches plus several of the early steps in the Gemini and Apollo programmes. The comment goes: ”My father taught us “You are as good as anybody in this town, but you’re no better.” I don’t have a feeling of inferiority, never had. I’m as good as anybody, no better”. Katherine Johnson, who was born into an African-American West Virginia family in1918. She was the subject of the film “Hidden Figures”. She died at the weekend, aged 101. Perhaps we should all remember that comment, it certainly would create more calmness!

Good morning everyone It’s chuckinitdarn again, who’d have thought eh? I’ve been up over an hour and I’m ready to leave, Sheila has been up just over 40 minutes and is running round like a headless chicken as usual! Who’d have thought eh? Back later.

1013 total days, 633 working days to go.. Mooring Awl, inner temple hare.. A better nights sleep, less hours in bed but more solid non awake time.. I'd been sailing nearly 15 years before the SuperNova was designed (1995), by that time I'd already moved up so something bigger and more relaxing.. A new one now, will knock an 8 grand hole in your pocket. Most of the Happy Hippos costs would not have been the sailing itself, but the travelling, accommodation etc required to go to the big open events. I suppose that's where I'm lucky in that there are around 30 clubs on the broads, So I could chose to go to many opens without living away, and when I was entering Nationals they were local too, I even organised some.. In support of My sailing I came home via the woodscrew supply company aka Screwfix, and bought various things electric to rewire the garage, I had been sketching out what I needed yesterday and realised I needed more stuff. During last nights awake periods, I did think of a way of reducing the amount of work cutting the keel beams to hydrodynamic shape. that will be implimented Saturday / Sunday. Pictures indicate they did go sailing at Snowflakes on Sunday... The rescue boats were busy... Ben the I'm going back to bed Collie didn't want out this morning , he was probably kept awake last night by the wind howling round the house.. It's dry practically no clouds out there and is now daylight, though when I got in the landrover lightness was only in the east. Coming to work I followed what appeared to be three new drivers in convoy... They slowed at every junction even if going past it. they indicated correctly at every turn. Unfortunately the lead one was doing 10mph below the limit whether it be 30, 40 50 or 60mph. I was glad when two turned off and I came up behind the slow lead one.. It's not often in the landrover I get to over take a car.. I had to wait for a long straight though... Yesterdays work went well , Time too.. go do some more... A Supernova A picture from Sunday @ Snowflake Sailing club https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/probablythebestclubintheworld?__cft__[0]=AZUKC_N9KK-2W9DQQ7JfsApS6LtpKBZZTCpMhPugk95isD_8Hh8X1VyTL7LPb3moaexGqvskYI1knDULLTKiqHlI_icTEux4JVxKjfA6OXi3hQ&__tn__=*NK-R

Second daughter was part of the team that produced a documentary on the life of the late Frieda Caplan (aka "The Queen Of Kiwi") This is the crew. Producer was Mark Brian Smith (third from left). Daughter is second from left. I suspect she came up with the title for the documentary but I have not confirmed that.

Another day of heavy rain, and closed golf course. I did remove some black mould though, which was quite satisfying. The first image tonight is from another recent dark and dismal day, when I know full well I won't get good results, especially at the North end. So why do I try? This is Abbotsford with the Queen of Scots. I know it looks as though there is loads of light, but there isn't. Its just that what little there is comes in horizontally, but I've had to open the blinds to let it in at all. Now, if someone is sensible, and waits a day for better conditions, shots like this can be obtained.

G'day all, There is an update later today so maybe the software is a sort of doing a preliminary 'dance' in anticipation for various folk (but not for me - yet). I appear to have acquired a lurgi of some sort but I haven't been on teh Coromna so assume it is no more than a cold of some sort - Beechams will be purchased shortly as our household supply was not replenished by he (not me) who last used it. Off to sunny(?) Tesco shortly. enjoy the rest of your day. Oh and I must tell that stuff that starts leeching out of seasoning fir logs after 3 or 4 years that it isn't resin (I'll tell the tree surgeon as well.)

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The RMweb pages seem to be acting strangely at the moment. There is a blank space on the right taking up a third of the page? Everything else seems to be OK except there is no ads. Bright sunshine earlier but a bit more cloud has drifted across recently. Just had a call from my brother, He's now recovering from the heart op and sounds pretty good in the circumstances.

We had a similar situation when we visited the Alaska Brewery in Juneau a few years back. Superb tour guide and we tried all the beers they had on tap in the gift shop bar. Most Americans off the cruise tours tried a bit of one beer and didn't like itas it wasn't Bud etc. One day we will go back there again.

I'm not sure what's going on but the page layout I'm getting here has changed and instead of the posts appearing in boxes that fill most of the page they are crammed into half a page width on the left-hand side whilst the right-hand half is taken up with a mixture of advertising and large blank spaces. Have I done something wrong? Dave I now see that Phil is having very similar issues.

Morning. Not a lot happening today. Tony

If ithe birthday plans are anything like mine, you will be absolutely cream crackered at the conclusion but enjoy being pandered to - it will be a while before it happens again.

Tempting... very Tempting...

Morning all from over here. Much to do this norning. Trailer to coupke up then off to collect a friend and her garden tractor. Then off to deluver it for a service. Then the fair Veronique will trim my locks, Grace and I will then head for the sawmill and pick up 2 stears of metre long oak offcuts. One for each household. The sawmill produces staves for Cognac barrels and sells off the waste. Then back home unload one stear, on to Grace and Jill's to offload to other stear before loading a hen house. Lunch prepared by Jill and Beth is then promised before getting home and unloading the hen house. I am then tasked with making a suitable enclosure for some chooks. Pancakes will no doubt be made and consumed later. Regards to all. Jamie

Running up the other end of the harbour wall got a snap off before 4550 moved into the shed.

Evening all. Still trying to finalise the positions of the buildings on Sheep Dip so there's no real progress at the moment. Much phaffing.............. ( more sub standard photos.....) Rob

We have only recently finished the pancakes we made last year. They freeze quite nicely. We have no need to eat up anything nice before fasting for Lent as it isn’t a requirement of any of our personal belief systems. We do like pancakes though (and waffles). Though as I like waffles with maple syrup and fruit this would make me persona non grata in Canada where I believe fruit should be replaced with bacon. For those of you with blank screens to one side, putting it in portrait mode seems to work.

Multi-tasking, just showing off or in another part of the domicile?

At the Glasgow Show, my 'proving' model of an A2/3 for Hornby was returned to me, with many thanks. It's built (obviously) from a DJH kit, and has been with Hornby for 18 months at least. It'd clearly 'been all over the place', because a few bent bits had to be straightened out, but it's served its purpose. I'm told that no matter how many computer simulations might be apparent, to actually have a 'physical' model to examine and handle is invaluable, even though the RTR example will be mainly plastic, not, like this, all-metal. I'm amused when folk ask me 'Did you know that Hornby are bringing out Thompson Pacifics?'. Clearly, the non-disclosure agreement I had (and have) with manufacturers has worked!

Baxter’s in Fochabers?

My Boss knew a guy with a Landie whose front bumper was a length of B/H Rail. Or was it a Sleeper....

Part of one of my sisters view every day... Guess where she works..

Good evening everyone My first task this morning was to complete the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix, this is a day early as Sheila has to be at Wythington Hospital for 9:20 tomorrow morning for the post-op check up and we I’ll have to get through some of the Manchester bound rush hour traffic. I would normally have postponed it until Wednesday, but I have a 9:30 appointment at The Christie on Wednesday for my blood test results, it’s all go here isn’t it? Well I eventually managed to get both of the faulty circuit boards working! One only took a few minutes, a quick check through the circuit with a multi-meter showed nothing amiss, so I replaced the switching transistor and it worked perfectly. The second one took a lot longer, checks with the multi-meter showed a resistor was short circuit, this was replaced, but it still didn’t work. I checked the resistor and it was fine, tested the newly fitted one and that was short circuit. So I removed all the components from the board. I then re-assembled them on my breadboard and it worked perfectly. Put them all back on the circuit and once again, no joy. So I removed everything from the circuit board. I then cut a new piece of veroboard and fitted everything from the first one on the new one, powered it up and it all worked first time. I did have to replace one of the snubber diodes as I broke one removing it from the first board, luckily I have lots of spares of these. Now that I finally had it working ok, I chucked the old circuit board in the bin! I then made a start checking the point control boards, of the 28 I’ve made, 8 had faults on, of which, 7 were that I’d cut the wrong track, luckily it was an unused track, so very easily rectified, the last was a missing link, which I’ll fit in place tomorrow. We’re having an early night as we need to be up early tomorrow, this is an easy task for me, but a lot more difficult for Sheila, I’ll no doubt have to give her a couple of wake up calls from the kitchen. Goodnight all

I thought I did enjoy my job, but it seems to be going downhill rapidly, after about two years. Unfortunately,, I think I don't suffer fools gladly, even less so ego-centric ones On that note, albeit not a reflection on the contributors here, I'll be wishing you all a goodnight and hoping that tomorrow is a little more agreeable.

Nice week off work last week, went into Manchester last night to see back to the future the musical which was absolutely brilliant, had to walk back to the car past the old goods depot on deansgate And also walked past the old midland hotel which has some lovely stonework back to work Tuesday, working out of london again on IM, out of Ferme park this time though, going to shoeburyness, Cambridge, Watford via the DC lines and oxford amongst other places

I'd just like to notify the members of the Parish Council that I've consulted my Medical Advisor this afternoon and have been prescribed a 7 day course of Amoxicillin for a belligerent chest infection. It's NOT the Chinese Lurgy but you might like to lay in some facemasks and hand sanitiser for whenever I drop in. I'm feeling pretty rotten. Its the reason I've been more or less absent from pleasurable discourse for the past week or so. Anyhow, I'll spend the next week coughing, choking and spitting, consuming quantities of fluids and paracetamol at the regulated dosages, plus the Amox (3 times a day, equally spaced), whilst reading detective novels (all priced at 99p when downloaded) on the Kindle app on my Tablet. Yep, the best bet is to Keep Taking The Tablet!!!

Training or osmosis?

You can go off some people More wet, cold and windy weather forecast for tomorrow. Even more flooding for the Severn notably predicting a record high inundation of Shrewsbury. Keep safe; try to be dry. G'night all.

OK, the first pictures are back from the developers... The sequence starts with a 'statement of intent', namely the 1930s LMS demo train - if Hornby's release date for the full Coronation Scot set of coaches come to pass then by this time next year this will be the full Blue n Silver apparition. Just gotta be done... For the time being, No.6225 'Duchess of Gloucester' crests the summit with a lightweight express. We now move to 1952(-ish) and here our 'new' train, the afternoon Carlisle-Oxenholme stopping train - formed from a NE Region set borrowed off a Newcastle-Carlisle service - heads down the bank. Coming the other way ... One of the 'star' trains (well, I think so), the early 1950s 'Royal Scot', a full MkI 'Festival of Britain' set, seen on the Shap Wells embankment, is headed by Polmadie Duchess 46224 'Princess Alexandra', heading for home. A quick sprint to the summit (ha!) for another view of the train. I must put on record the contribution of the 'hand of Wright' in relation to this train. 46224 has been repeatedly objecting to being asked to work this train (can't think why?), slipping and slithering about on the incline and then mangling her valve gear. Well, a visit to Tony's loco clinic resulted in a stern talking to and she then worked faultlessly all weekend. Thanks Tony! Another classic LMR WCML train, the Midday Scot is the most prestigious 'Up' train and was entrusted over the weekend to none other than 71000 'Duke of Gloucester'. The work of Roy Mears, this loco is on temporary loan and - unlike the prototype in the BR era - acquitted herself (himself?) very well. A more expansive view of the train, another 11 coach formation. Of note is the fifth vehicle, the D.1697 kitchen car, flanked by first and third opens. You might JUST be able to make out that the final vehicle is in a different livery, namely a WR Choc n Cream BCK representing the Glasgow-Plymouth through coaches that were conveyed on this service north of Crewe. Bit of an anomaly - should really be some ex-GWR stock in the standard blood n custard at this time. This set now just needs its roof boards and a headboard for the loco. And now our first banked train, a typical 1950s lengthy express goods train. The loco is - for now - an out-of-the-box Stanier 'crab' 2-6-0, high priority for individualising. Just dropping off the rear however is already personalised Fowler 2-6-4T banker No. 42424, a resident of Tebay shed for 30 years. This and most of these pictures were taken 'live' so this is an action shot, hence the blurred appearance of the wagons nearest the camera. You can just see the target board on the front of the loco - Tebay shed trip working No.92. Within minutes, the loco is freewheeling back down the bank towards Tebay. I panned on this to try and catch the loco in focus ... not displeased with the result. No.42424 now just needs a visit to the weathering shop and all will be well. Next train up the bank is a fully fitted, limited load, entrusted to a Patriot without banking assistance. Another loco in the queue for blinging... 45543 'Home Guard' ends this first set of pictures, taking her leave of us at the summit. Back with another clutch tomorrow, all being well.