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Another landscape shot to go with your elevenses. If you climb to the roof of the old engine shed, there are some flat places to stand, and get photos like this.

Definitely, and there's no more hours in a day (probably thankfully for some). I seem to be using up modelling materials at quite a rate and will need to mail order more or I might run out before the lockdown is lifted. Some more progress on my N/2mm scratch-built row/block. With this being a low relief model for the back of the layout there is no need to lavish too much attention and detail on it. I guess to some extent it can be considered a 'layout' building, much in the same way as some coaches and wagons have been called 'layout' ones in recent discussions. Today I'm hoping to tackle making the roof ridge tiles and remaining windows including, hopefully, the dormer windows in the central building mansard roof. And with RTV silicon rubber and resin casing chemicals having recently been delivered I can also start on the GRP panels for the station footbridge. So I've plenty to do.

other half is in the house working, I am in the shed working. All happy here unless I stray in when shes on a video call - I wish that I had a dinosaur costume I might be going African, Zulu shields just require painting. Left overs from curved boards

Well sausages and mash - a good choice to share via iPad with son and granddaughter ... never known a sausage and mash dinner take so long to finish but it was a good evening. Gardening looks a lot different than it did a week or two ago and to get to that state required rather a lot of physical exercise. There is one problem... normally the branches are stacked in the estate and taken to the local 'recycling tip' but at present we have a full bin and a full overflow ...we will see how it goes. Engine shed is still a tip from the hurried departure a month or two ago and the dumping of things 'that we (I a/c SWMBO) might need' but hoping to do something about it. Keep safe everybody ... our local hospitals have had over 100 deaths - the highest in the East Midlands - including medical and nursing staff. Our thoughts are with their families.

I think this is the quote you were looking for: I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. Moaning all from the borough that has become a boring black hole of boring. Still feel crap and spending around 12 hours a day in bed. The rest is either working or cooking. I just don't have the energy to do much else. I'd love to be playing trains prototypically operating a sophisticated scale model recreation. That ain't happening until I spend at least 8 or 9 hours clearing and finishing the new floor in the shed. Building works next door continues. Really getting on my t*ts now. Some of the roof tarp has been removed on what was supposed to be a small dormer section to a loft conversion. Nope, it is a full 2nd story 10m² extension as well as a loft conversion. Ball park guess is the whole thing will exceed 40m³ which would require planning permission. The roof overhang of the extension and dormer appears to extend beyond the property boundary and over my roof. The shared chimney stack has also vanished without a party wall notice being issued. Time to call building control methinks. Maybe UKBF as well as I'm not convinced the builders are completely kosher. Day 2 of SWMBO's furlough. Wishing now I had put a lock on the office door. Hard to concentrate when I'm so used to having the house to myself apart from the cats all day. Oh well. Enjoy the day. I need more coffee. Blatant promotion: with the lockdown my usual coffee pusher has closed. We've now found a local small roaster called TortoiseTom. Lovely coffee, decent price, and free shipping over £25.

Morning All, At the risk of sounding misanthropic (no, tell a lie, I am misanthropic) COVID-19 could have been an opportunity to “wash out the gene pool” - behaviour like this, by cockwombles like those, should be a prelude to the application of Darwinian principles to those *&£#@ (I hesitate to use the term “people” here) who - even in healthier times - are the grit and eggshell in the great cake-mix of humanity. Unfortunately, this strain of coronavirus has a motto akin to those of some of humanity’s more gung-ho military units: “kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out” All black humour aside, I think that the cosmos is deeply unfair - seemingly protecting the moronic/selfish/inconsiderate/criminally-inclined/anti-social from the consequences of their own actions, whilst the good, the innocent and the blameless get caught in the fallout of such £&*#@ actions. (I would not wish this disease upon anyone, but sometimes, sometimes.....) Mind you, I can see a solution here: (dons “Captain Misanthrope” spandex outfit, puts on black hat) why not allow these *&£#@ to ignore the lockdown - just have them obtain (with minimum fuss) a permit to do so and thus issue them with an ID card upon which, in big, bold, black letters it is written I AM ALLOWED TO VIOLATE THE LOCKDOWN AS I HAVE KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY AGREED THAT SHOULD I BECOME ILL DUE TO MY ACTIONS I WILL BE DENIED ANY AND ALL MEDICAL TREATMENT. Anyone violating the lockdown without the ID automatically gets 3 months in prison (given the number of *&£#@ out there, there would be good money to be made building prison camps ) And require that Goggle, farcebook and twatter to keep track of them for the authorities (they are already tracking us, might as well put the tech giants to good use) Anyway, on to less contentious matters. Thanks to some kind RMWebbers on the GWR section of the forum, I have solved the problems I had with my outside framed monster (which sounds vaguely obscene, but isn’t) and my “thin wash” approach to painting the GWR wagons I’ve just built seems to be paying off. I have a teleconference this afternoon to discuss a project for my company and my knee is starting to behave itself. In all, it’s turning out to be a good “hump day”. Off to unleash the Wolfpack Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Sane iD

Afternoon cuppa time, and a slightlly different angle on the last image taken from the roof of the old engine shed. That roof was over 100 years old, so I hope the cameraman was careful where he put his feet.

Today's photos are taken heading north from Darlington along the ECML. Darlington 47443 Liverpool to Newcastle 12th May 90 C14457.jpg Bradbury Classes 82/2 and 91 up 8th May 93 C18536.jpg Croxdale 37095 up p w 16th Oct 93 C19141.jpg Durham up HST Oct 86 J8717.jpg Low Fell 37516 up Alcan ingots 28th June 88 C9557.jpg David

Thanks. I'm not worried about the loss of the stack as it ends about 8' above my head, supported on my side by a steel beam that runs the length of the room in the loft space. We removed the breasts up to loft height 2 years ago so there is no chance of the stack ever being used for heating again. Going through BC now.

Another lovely morning, and lots to look forwards to. There will be a duvet cover struggle, more crud cleaning, even possibly some hoovering. What more could a man ask? Meanwhile, only 62 years ago, Kittiwake carries on. Two similar shots here, as I was judging the effect of putting white backscene over the top of the blue. I had hoped this would save me having to photoshop between all the segments of the bridge every time, but of course it does nothing of the sort, unless I'm content with a plain white background, which I'm not. Those bogie whells on the A1 are too small. TW has told me that no end of times, but I'm finally getting to the stage of doing something about it. The train features some Thompson catering cars, so our man decided he would like a shot of them.

Good morning all, Sunny start again here and a fine warm day is promised. Yesterday the pack of meat from Scotland arrived when promised and is now residing in the freezer. Today I will be visiting The Shed, not so much to enter it but to surround it and start painting it with preservative. This will involve using a stepladder at the gable ends, one end in particular hasn't got a lot of room so I'll need to be a bit extremely careful. The Boss has volunteered to help but I never let her anywhere near a paintbrush as the first (and only) time I let her assist many years ago she dunked the the brush into the paint right up over the handle. No, it wasn't deliberate, she really wanted to help and still does but I've only got a limited amount of white spirit (and patience ) She has decided to sit in the garden and watch. Have a good one, Bob.

Still on the monochrome theme The power Closer still...

Some from earlier crewe with the TFW MK4 set on test Light engine 67 passing it Colas 66 on a long marsden to Carlisle wagon move, new logos on it too Pendolino And later in the evening in Leamington spa my train back to crewe 66744 leading

The answer seems obvious then. No need for the customary handshake or this new fangled touching elbows thing ..... ….just touch balls at the end of your round.

"All quiet on the Western (Eastern)Front", nothing to report here in sunny Hull.

Morning all;, Bin day here too but the binmen haven't bin yet - probably overwhelmed with extra recycling (it's that week) from all the parcels folk are receiving. I must admit to being a bit confused about how social distancing works in golf. As all the players are aiming to get their balls into the same holes surely there is a risk of cross infection should you feel in the hole to make sure you've achieved your aim and also to extract your ball. Do you know how many other golfers have put their fingers in that hole - of course you don't. Could be even worse if you're playing away for home of course as you have even less idea about whose fingers have been in the hole. Or do golfers wear some sort of protection when they get to the holes? With that thoiught I wish you all an enjoyable day and please stay safe - especially if putting your fingers in a strange hole

Morning All Couldn't get on at all yesterday, due to site/internet/my PC running slowly, there is a fault locally which is affecting some broadband access, and of course there is also the fact that all the kids are now online, not at school, and lots more people who are online to work from home, or in some cases, not to work from home. And doing the fodder run which went well - too well as it cost a fortune with both of us having a trolley. Have had to skip two days posts, so I hope that all is well with all ERs. 30747 had a phone call from the TIA clinic at the hospital to advise that a consultant will call her this morning to carry out an initial assessment. She may need tests, but they will let us know ASAP. On a more jolly note - yes there are some, thank goodness, the tidy ups which we've carried out mean that there is a bit more room to put more railway books - good news indeed, as I have decided not to sell quite so many as and when the car boots resume. And round here (Lancaster and surroundings) there have been six cases of Covid19 reported, with two deaths both very elderly (89 and 90) with serious underlying health problems. Will try to get here tomorrow. Regards to All Stewart

A good few years ago I several times visited a pub/restaurant in St. Andrews (can't remember the name) that had an LGB track running round the place on shelves at about 8ft off the floor. We were having dinner there once and I remarked to the landlord that I hadn't seen the train running. "Oh," he said, "It's not working. It's stuck over there (pointing to a corner) and I can't get it to run." I offered to have a look at it for him and managed to fix things in about fifteen minutes. He was over the moon about it and gave me my dinner and a couple of pints of eighty bob free. Not a bad rate of pay I thought. Just had a delivery from Iceland, who are the only supermarket who could give me a slot sooner than the end of May, and have disinfected everything. Also a parcel just arrived from DJH that I ordered on Monday evening - as good as the Fraggle Rock guys. Hoping to get down to the workshop for a while this afternoon. Stay safe and well everyone. Regards Dave

Morning All over cast and not very inviting. Not much has happened here Ms Nosey made a beeline for my daughter who came to pick some tools up yesterday we did keep our distance it appears Nosey has appointed herself as god she now runs the complex, my daughter told her to keep her distance and then just ignored her and got in her car and left, Nosey looked at me and I laughed at her, the cupid stunt . One of my close friends reported on Facebook last night his mother has succumbed to Covid 19 she was a lovely woman I had met here on several occasions R I P and may her God be with her. My new Babe is Keeping me up all hours of the night on Teusday morning I watched sun rise through her window, it was 3am when she nodded off today, with nothing to do all day I've been passing the time with these video calls in the evening. Better do some cleaning and then lunch stay safe all we are all vulnerable Errol Flynn

Think the guy needs to upgrade to LGB (45mm track) as they have done at the place in Prague - wagons are big enough to transport a beer without it falling over.... Keith

Dyslexics of the world, untie!

Good Moaning to all, and of course sundry. Baz, glad to hear news of Kingzance, please pass on regards if you are in touch again. A good day was had yesterday and a small object propelled itself along two strips of metal using electrickery for the first time. Not a bad result. Here it is cloudy but warmish so I am girding my loins to go out and do battle with some Cottoneaster bushes that grow like weeds where they shouldn't. This afternoon may involve more time in the shed. So a good day ahead if I seize it. I will certainly not be trying to visit any golf courses. As to the brain dead who don't understand social distancing, it seems that a certain 'special one' doesn't seem to be able to understand it either. Regards to all. Jamie

Greetings one and all I found the missing socks. They were in the laundry basket and are now on the clothes horse having been laundered with lots of other stuff. That means, of course , that a less than jolly hour will be had later today wielding the steam iron. Also on the agenda for this morning is marinading some strips of pork, later to be stir-fried and embalmed with the last of the kung po sauce. This will be complemented with a detachment of black forest gateau. It may not be cordon bleu but I like it and that is what matters. After I had ventured out and bought the lottery ticket yesterday some time was spent rooting through books in search of photographs of trains long bygone. Technically it was research but of the most pleasurable kind. Long ago, gentle reader, when you and I were much, much younger, some of the most prestigious expresses were given names which they displayed proudly by means of headboards. A friend is taking an interest in the Red Dragon for reasons which will become apparent later in the year and I was able to find what I think he wanted. The process of placing bulky tomes on the scanner and capturing images for onward transmission was not without incident or bad language. It's all part of the fun. Some work was done last evening on the captions which I am charged with writing but there is more to be done. No progress was made on any of the m*d*ll*ng projects but they are still there and will demand my attention in their own indefinable way. I admire those who are able to focus long enough to get work done at home, as so many have been asked to do, but I am not of their number. I suppose that working at home has its attractions, not being in close proximity to irritating workmates being one. The line manager with whom I did not get on used to work at home two days a week. Boy did I relish the peace and quiet. Best wishes to all Chris

The big advantage we found with British Gas inefficiency was their total inability to charge us for the gas we were using - for just over a year and despite numerous reminders and pleas from us to them to charge us. When they finally got their 'puter sorted they said they couldn't charge us for the unpaid period because they didn't have any records - despite us giving them meter readings every months for a year and giving them the opening reading on the meter. all very odd but at least we had a year's worth of gas out of them.

Morning from an overcast Surrey. A good day in the shed yesterday building the high level line. All timber brackets fabricated and fixed in place. Today should see all the remaining timberwork completed, cork laid then continue laying the track received from Fraggle Rock. Really looking forward to running stock continuously round. We had our beer free day on Monday so the mini keg form the local brewery was opened yesterday evening and will be emptied today once I have finished using any power tools.

Ey up! This week is flying by! Sunshine with scattered clouds greeted me this morning ( while peeking through the curtains) Flavio, perhaps those who break the lockdown could "volunteer" as inoculation "testers" ..the UK Government did ask for some. Things todo today include mowing of grass, house super cleaning, a bit of muddling but first.. A mugatea! Thoughts are with all ERs , particularly those troubled by illness. Right Wednesday..lets be having you! Baz

Mooring awl, inner Temple Hare, 5 hours sleep so far, I'll try for more shortly. Sailing can also be self isolating, single handed or quite often family couples sailing together. Also on the broads most sailing boats fall. Into the six to eight ft width range so even with our close racing we would be roughly the right separation. The problem is the clubhouse and facilities.. We had a police siren a couple of days ago, most unusual for round here.. What was it? A big party. Due to the virus a family member came back from Spain, to their holiday home on our coast. So they had a party for 20 odd family members and neighbours!!!! Plans for today, Work for an hour. Useful spreadsheet time. While I've been semi dozing I've designed, roughly, the construction of the next board with the traverser on it. The wooden base may be glued and screwed this morning. The keel will get it's sanding. Some other work may happen.. Time to hit the snooze button...

I spent a few hours last weekend poring over drawings and photos, making measurements, and working out how best to give an impression of the top half of the Coal Tank's backhead. A few more hours last night and this evening, and I have something I'm happy with. It isn't 100% accurate, and there are plenty of pipes missing, but I hope it is sufficiently suggestive of the real thing. I built it up on paper. A few pencil lines for guidance (mostly obliterated by this stage), then a layer of Pritt Stick to hold things down while soldering. In the picture below, it is almost ready for peeling off the paper. I started with the vertical pipes (0.25mm n/s). deliberately made over-long so the ends could be stuck to the paper with Pritt to hold them in place, and soldered them to the main part of the backhead. Next, the upstand for the manifold (or whistle stand) was fixed to the top of the backhead centrally. On reflection, i think it ended up a bit too tall. The brass pipe (0.4mm) which trails off to the right came next, bent forward where it is soldered to the upstand - the forward protrusion being for the long handle pointing left. The handle is the driver's brake application handle. This was made from more 0.25mm n/s, wrapped round the brass a couple of times to represent the valve body. The valve in question controls the steam supply down the brass "pipe" to the vacuum ejector, which sits on top of the tank inside the cab on the fireman's side. 2 little curls of 0.2mm p/b make the valve bodies and handles sticking out below the manifold. In reality, these are the steam supply valves for the injectors - as they would have been in the latter part of the loco's life. The system of injectors and brakes were altered more than once. The manifold body itself is a 2.5mm length of 0.8mm brass tube. Probably a bit chunky. The reverse side was filed flat to sit on top of the vertical wires. It was lined up along the top of the upstand and the injector steam valves. A hole was drilled in the centre of the manifold body to take a length of 0.4mm wire sticking forward. A 1mm length of the 0.8mm tube was threaded over this, and then the handwheel. This wheel controls the steam heat I think. There should be another (thiner) pipe emerging from under that wheel, that curves down behind the ejector pipe, but sanity prevailed and I left that one off. Another bit of 0.4mm wire was soldered into the left had end of the manifold tube, and the tiny control wheel fixed over it. Last came the regulator. The regulator handle is a spare bit of old wagon chassis etch (actually a vacuum brake crank) mounted on a stub of wire, with a washer behind. After peeling the backhead off, the paper was left in a rather sorry state! After cleaning up (without breaking off any of the bits!!!), it doesn't look too shabby. The vertical wire on the left has been left long for now (to use as a handle). In reality, it takes steam up to the whistle. From an angle, it is pleasingly 3-dimensional. The brake and injector steam valves all operate by pulling/pushing. There is a little stem from the brake handle which operates the valve on the front of the cab to let air into the brake pipe. Unlike a GWR engine where you have separate handles to create and destroy vacuum, this lever does both depending which way you move it. I would say it was clever, but the bakes on coal tanks were notoriously rubbish! With the wires further trimmed, I have tried it for size in the cab. It is held in place temporarily with blu-tack. Eventually it will be epoxied, but there are some more soldering jobs to do in the cab first - pipes etc. along the tank tops. You can see how it fits above the rear end of the motor. With the roof loosely held in place, you can't really see much inside the cab. You'll see even less when the driver is in the way! This is the first time I've bothered with any backhead detail. I was convinced I ought to try and put something there, however, after taking the photo below last summer. I'd lit up Jessie (an 18" Hunslet) about 3 hours earlier at Embsay, and had just finished polishing her. I don't think a coal tank in 1950 would have the same shine...

Good evening everyone Ive had quite a productive day today, my first task was to flip over the cellar door and give the reverse side a coat of paint, that was easily achieved. I then printed off the recipe for the scones I mentioned earlier. I then went to the workshop and sanded down and painted a pair of finials for the balustrade on the workshop decking, that I’d picked up from the big orange DIY shed last year. I then cut a piece of veroboard and cleaned the track area ready to start making the control circuit for the turntable. I also made a temporary bridge for the motor and gearbox so that I can test the limit switches (Hall effect switches) I want to use. The motor runs a bit too fast, even on 5 volts so I think I’ll have to gear it down even further, but I have plenty of gears etc to hand. After dinner I gave the cellar door a second coat of paint and hopefully I’ll be able to refit it to the door frame tomorrow morning. I then came back upstairs and changed before making a start on the scones, the6 didn’t take long to make and I’d finished in about an hour or so. I only made a half batch just to see how they went, but they went down very well, Sheila says that we’re not buying scones anymore! After I’d finished baking them I made a start on the circuit board and managed to get in all the links before tea. Goodnight all

' afternoon all. Sunny and warm. 15 min stationary bike ride undertaken in garden. Pot plants and plants recently re-planted are watered, dandelions deadheaded and a bit of weeding done. M*d*ll*ing project tests carried out and posted on GWRd. I really appreciate having the time, though the reason for it is not good but we have to try and make the best of things when we can and take the opportunities as they come along. Fitt and Elfie doing their best. Take care, everyone, and keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Our intrepid photographer has found the Bridport Harbour Tramway's one-and-only brake van parked in the yard at Bridport.

HUMP day... Nothing to report overall - walk with Whitney resulted in her rolling in "something" before we had a chance to stop her, result was she had to have a bath, which she hates but a nice fresh smelling doggie now No real chance to get a decent shot of the moon, but here's what I managed, at least it's something to report ; Nothing planned for today - so far the Mrs and I have managed to avoid murdering each other, and we're considering that a win 9 and cloudy expected to reach 12... and remain cloudy <yawn> Stay safe.

Don't they know lead is poisonous? Hump Day. It started cold and has become warm but not sunny. The First Waitrose Grand Prix of the Borisocene was tackled and was not enjoyed. The queue went around the block. There were arguments among those queueing over how far 2m was (many were more like 5m apart) and there was obvious frustration at waiting. At the head of the queue was a thoroughly disinterested person ("Partner" as Waitrose now like to call them) nodding people in without making eye contact. I waited about 25 minutes. There was no sanitising of trolleys or baskets. There was no public sanitising point at all. There was no marking of distance and, thankfully, no one-way system which simply would not work given the geography of our somewhat oddly-shaped store. There were a few empty shelves but by and large everything missing could be reasonably substituted except for fresh herbs - the dry herb shelves were also empty of anything commonly used. There were p.a. announcements urging us to hurry up and allow others in which only served to drive the frustration among some shoppers. And there was no attempt at the impossible - namely 2m separation while trying to access shelves and pass each other in the aisles. There was informal spacing at the tills but no taped separators. That task should not be required again until the end of the month. SWMBO commences her furlough in around five minutes and somewhat earlier than planned (it was to be Tuesday) because she has simply run out of work she can do from home. We shall mark that small fact by enjoying a Corona each outside on the lawn. Conversing loudly with neighbours so as to be heard at the required distance. Best wishes to all. Stay well.

IIRC the property owners are liable for the costs involved regarding you having your own independent Structural Engineer/Architect/Surveyor (delete whichever one is b0llox) overseeing any works which affect the party wall. Not to mention the occupants of the house if things go badly wrong.... The loss ot the chimney stack also limits your options in the future regarding choice of heating/fire etc. Edit: Personally, I'd be onto B.C. today, sharpish....

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is shining and the sky is blue with high cloud. I shall go for my daily walk in an hour or so Work continues to be slow; there and needs doing but motivation is not too high! All the talk of bins makes me vaguely jealous. The Boring Borough decided to scale back collectiosn and our plastic/bottles bin has not been collected for nearly 6 weeks now. Don't they realise beer and wine bottles get very heavy?! They're due to be collected after the weekend but there was talk they would do an extra collection this eek so all our street has bins out in hope! Have a good day all and stay well

Morning all. Greetings from sunny Essex. Forecast to be 23C or thereabouts later. A lovely day for a trip to the patio. A friend rang yesterday. He had just returned from New Zealand. They had arrived at Auckland airport, checked in their hire car and it was the day the lockdown began. Their flight was cancelled and they had accommodation in a small hotel provided by the airline. It was nine days rather than the “could be a month “. Today is bin day. I know our garden waste bin will have been topped up by neighbours and I suspect the bottle box will be too. Parcels are due to arrive. Amazon have despatched our printer cartridge by RM special delivery from Dunfermline rather than their own courier network. Other packages seem to be due today too. I think we only get post on alternate days now. Tony

Thanks for that. It was hiding in the remote dark squishy parts of my memory, but I knew it was there. The Salmon of Doubt if I'm not mistaken. Brain usually goes first to the HHGTTG canon for Adams references. It always reminds me of Jerome K. Jerome "Procrastinators of the world unite! Tomorrow."

Generally, I think that we are over-regulated with regard to building work. So it is odd that people get away with such monstrosities when it comes to loft conversions/extensions. The London skyline is being completely ruined. Taking down a shared chimney stack puts both properties at risk if not done properly. So you are more than within your rights to involve Building Control.

I think you have done the right thing, Tony. The M&GN as is, appears to offer much more potential than a static line would, it has been the source of many excellent photographs over many posts on here. The tightening curves are invaluable, as I have also found: At the risk of teaching people to suck eggs, I had a similar problem with my own layout which is just six feet wide but because of wide platforms along one length it has restricted the radius across the ends of the layout to 24 inches, with similar issues that you have recounted re: tightness and overhang. Initially I built the curves as a simple 24 inch radius leading directly into a straight section of scenic track, the original thinking being that I wanted to maximise the straight length along the longer sides of the layout: But for the reasons that you describe it just didn't look right, so I decided to create a transition curve to ease the approach to the curve and improve its visual appearance. I used progressively larger radii tracksetta curves to form the transition: This shows the difference between the outer line on the new transition curve, compared with the inner track on the original constant radius: And finally the realigned track work, both tracks along the transition curve. I have been pleased with the visual improvement, especially seeing as how little extra distance the track swings out towards the outer baseboard edge. This simple change has dramatically improved both running and the visual impact of the tight curve, as the eye is mislead by the easier radius at the start of the curve, the realigned section has yet to be ballasted here. Trackwork is PECO code 75 bullhead, with DCC concepts sleepers soldered/pinned/glued at the baseboard joins for extra strength: As luck would have it, I am now delighted to be in a position to widen the layout by another two feet, so this curve will be re-engineered yet again to a minimum 33 inch radius, again with transition curves, to improve things further. Then, fingers crossed, scenification can begin in earnest. Some of us have to learn things the hard way!

Nothing worse than having dirty balls; it plays havoc with their aerodynamics! Even more so if their dimples are compacted with mud!

By our usual relaxed, retired-persons standards, we were up before the sparrows had even eaten the beans this morning to attend the old peoples' hour at the local Safeway. Quite a few people wearing masks (which is new), careful distancing being well observed, and a new one-way system to deal with. No garlic, perogies or the 'regular' brands of a couple of other things, but overall well-stocked. We did notice that there was no yeast available - our decision to buy 'just the small jar' three weeks ago may turn out to have been a mistake.

The Izaak Walton Hotel in Montana has an O scale model of the Empire Builder that runs around the walls of the restaurant. It is set to a timer mechanism and starts on the hour with a hoot, then runs around for a couple of minutes.

An LGB tank wagon probably big enough to deliver the beer.

Good morning everyone The sun is shining and the sky is blue, breakfast has been consumed and I will shortly head down to the cellar and refit the door furniture to the inner door and then refit the door in the frame. I started working on the door in October last year and work was suspended firstly when Ava had her accident (losing a tooth) and then because of Sheila’s eye operations, so it will be nice to be able to actually close the door between the 2 rooms again! After that the plan is to give the workshop balustrade a good clean and then give it a repaint along with giving the new finials a second coat. After that some pottering in the workshop to mock up a temporary fascia for the turntable control panel. Stay safe, enjoy the day, back later.

Morning, cooler and a bit more cloud, but the fierce wind that made yesterdays bike ride less than comfortable has subsided, hoping for postie to deliver more plants for the garden pond so the G word may well come to the fore, have a good one all...………...

Very chuffed with myself. Last night I got my very ancient Sutherland/Cotsworld Models Stanier class 3 tank chassis running reasonably well. There were the normal issues of pick problems, tight spots and reversed polarity. I think there is still a minor tight spot by the sound it is making when running. Now to attempt soldering a white metal kit. With this lockdown I was unable to attend a dentist with my broken tooth. I spoke with one on Monday and he suggested I buy a temporary filling kit from a chemist. The lady in Boots didn't have one on Monday, so I had to wait to yesterday. Thank goodness I have had some experience with Milliput, well it is like model filler. I applied it to the broken tooth just before going to bed, the instructions (yes I read them for a change) stated not to eat for 3 hours. I only wanted to fix my broken tooth not go on a diet. It appears to be a success.

I always make sure my balls are clean......

This afternoon I have been cleaning accumulated crud from the wheels of one eleven car train, and one was quite enough. While I did that a track cleaning train was circling the main lines, so there should be less crud for them to pick up for a while at least. Tonight's train is the 7.50 from Leeds, another Copley Hill turn, which Kittiwake is performing this time. Another one in need of Timming, and too clean for 56C really.