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A move to York for today with photos from 1987 and 1992. York 142074 Leeds to York via Harrogate July 87 J9048.jpg York 43048 down 13th July 87 C8693.jpg York 47363 up ICI tanks July 87 J9074.jpg York 141106 York Harrogate Leeds 3rd June 92 C16891.jpg York 13th Oct 92 C18110.jpg David

More LB buildings......... Definitely one of the 'signature' buildings on LB; The Willoughby Arms public house (how I miss going to it right now!). Beautifully-made by Bob Dawson, it still stands, not much-altered, though the water tower (to the right) was demolished a few years ago. The island platforms buildings were also beautifully-built by Bob Dawson, with help from his grandson, Scott Waterfield. The square structure on the roof line was a water tank, supplying the station and the adjacent railway properties. Mains water was not universal in 1958, especially in rural areas. The GNR posters have lasted well! A further view of the stationmaster's house. I found building that raked retaining wall, complete with curve, a bit of a puzzle. I think one of the appeals of Little Bytham as a prototype to model is the rising and falling topography around the railway formation. And to finish for now with one of the more-humble buildings; one of the S&T huts. It was built by Ian Wilson using the original plans and his own photographs. More later.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A bit of sad news this evening, one of our MRC members passed away last month. Its unlikely to be CV19 related as he was 90 and had terminal bone cancer. RIP Dennis.

The last of today's photographs.......... Looking into the goods yard from the entrance. The goods office was built by Ian Wilson. This site is now occupied by four detached houses. The stable (Little Bytham had a horse for shunting at various times - how does one model that?). Built by Ian Wilson, this was originally Lord Willougby's engine house. The black structure to the left was a coal bunker (presumably for station use?). The goods shed - the prototype Prototype Models structure - the very first one, built by Ian Wilson (Prototype Models' original proprietor). The prototype survived the closure of the goods yard and lifting of the track by many years, but was itself demolished in 2008. The station cottages (the real things occupied by the signalman and a booking clerk and their families respectively) were built by Bob Dawson. Little Bytham's main line signal box; only afforded the name of 'Bytham'. It was built by Bob Dawson and Scott Waterfield. Wooden dwellings in Witham Road, the originals erected by the Midland Railway when the joint line was built in 1897. They were homes of railway labourers and lasted until the early-'60s. I built these from Wills plastic sheets, using some etched brass windows (from where, I've forgotten). A photograph provided by the Willoughby helped in the making. I think my architectural modelling capabilities just about stretch to something like these. Sorry Archie, I couldn't resist putting a train in the picture! And the dwellings at the north end of Station Road before reaching the MR/M&GNR overbridge. I built the nearest one by modifying a Scenic Route laser-cut kit, and also the wooden labourers' cottages. Bob Dawson built the pair of ex-GN semis. And yes, the same train....... Looking from the main line embankment, we can look into Ellen Sparkes' lovely little gardens. The two GN semis still exist, but have been altered/extended considerably since 1958, necessitating guesstimation based on anecdotal evidence. I must say I've thoroughly enjoyed taking and processing these building pictures today. They certainly give a different perspective from my normal concentration on the trains, and are a tribute to the guys/girl (abstracting myself) whose work is so important to Little Bytham. Isolation has enabled me (given me the time) to participate in what is really self-indulgence, though the pictures seem to please quite a few observers. I really must get down to building again..........

Greetings one and all Yesterday there was laundry and today there will be ironing. Such is the way of the world. I may even dip into my exercise quota and stroll to the convenience store on Castle Road to buy my donation to charity, I mean lottery ticket. That will get me out of the house for at most ten minutes but it will be a pleasant change from being herded around a well-known supermarket. All those markings on the floor are beginning to make me think that I am a car. The current situation has brought one unexpected benefit, which is that when I do drive to the supermarket I have a fair chance of parking where I began my journey. When it is all over the interlopers will be back so I must make the most of it. I was really touched by what BoD posted yesterday. To be associated with “some sense of normality” is indeed a compliment, especially when that commodity is all too absent from our daily lives. If gentle readers enjoy what I enjoy writing then it is all worthwhile. All being well I plan to carry on! Some will recall that eighteen months ago I grabbed the ER headlines with a personal announcement. I was humbled by the kindness shown to me. At its finest ERs is a wonderful community and it’s good to be here. Best wishes to all Chris

Some pictures from our walk in the local woods today. A nice example of a nurse stump - a seed implants and starts to grow on the decaying remains of a previous tree. In this case, the first tree was cut down. The new roots grow down the outside of the stump. Eventually, the nurse stump rots away, and the new tree can be left with space between the roots. Some big trees. Hard to get scale - I should probably get a person in the shot: Nice sun rays:

As promised, some 'building' shots on Little Bytham. These are the first. There are several more to be processed. The stationmaster's house, built by Ian Wilson from card using his own computer-generated designs. The garage is from Scenic Route Models. In reality this building is now a private house. The booking office, also built by Ian Wilson. Amazingly, it still survives but is in a poor state. The two concrete posts supporting the nameboard are also still extant. Seen from the other side, a view not normally available to visitors. And seen from the station platforms. This also shows the relationship of the Willoughby Arms (built by Bob Dawson) to the station, and the direct access to the platforms via the footbridge. The footbridge itself; again, built by Ian Wilson from his own designs (generated from the original drawings). I detailed it. Seen from Marsh Bridge (the south end scenic break), we have Tom Couling's lovely little rustic barn and some of the half-relief cottages on the east side of Station Road (built by me). More to follow........

Another beautiful sunny morning, so more early photography is likely. I have a feeling though that dust more than half an inch thick should be dealt with, so that may take priority. OK, slight exaggeration there. As always though, start the day with pictures. We commence with a J6 bringing a trip working along the Down slow. with a nice view of a Gresley FK thrown in. Then it is time for the Flying Scotsman, which today has one of those new fangled diesel things. A bonus picture shows that these EE type 4s did have a certain presence to them.

Good evening everyone Well, after lots of testing with the multimeter I eventually found what was wrong with the turntable control board. There were actually 2 faults, the first was a small link in the wrong place, which effectively isolated one of the relays. The second fault was also to do with a link, but this this time it was missing. Both faults were easily rectified and as soon I’d they were both done I had the control circuit working well. These tasks took me most of the morning and at this stage, it seemed a good time to take a break and get something to eat. After dinner I then connected up the motor supply and the motor and continued to do further tests. Again things didn’t work straight away, but it turned out to be that the control circuit didn’t like sharing its supply with the Hall effect switch. I’d built an interface into the circuit board, which I could isolate, but even that didn’t work, removing the transistor was the key. But even using a separate interface, it still didn’t work, so I used 2 individual 12v supplies and did the trick, I now had everything working as planned. So, once I’d got it working, my first task was to record the time it took to complete a single revolution in each direction, this turned out to be 1 minute each way. I’m very pleased with that result as not only is it quiet, it is also very smooth and no jerkiness at all. The next thing to test was the accuracy of stopping position, for both clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation. After several tests with the Hall effect switch in different positions, the best results I could get was a 2mm difference in the final position when it turned either clockwise or anti-clockwise. It stopped in the same position time after time, but always with the 2mm difference between to 2 different rotations. Without the cone fitted this went to 6mm, so 2mm was a big improvement, but I still think this is too much of a difference and a loco would be liable to derail when entering or leaving the turntable. So I now have to find an alternative method for stopping the turntable. I’ve already started sketching a few ideas down, some are as a simple as a grove filled into a disc that the operating button drops into, another is a spring loader plunger with a wheel attached on the end to drop into the grove, or a slight variation, instead of the plunger, a spring loaded arm with a wheel attached. So a bit more time will be spent in the workshop trying out these ideas to workout which is best. At this point, with all the testing completed, I packed everything away and removed all the components on the control board that were connected to the Hall effect switch. This was only a few resistors and an opto-coupler and a couple of links. The evening was rounded off with a nice bottle of Goliath, whilst Sheila had a glass of Pepsi. Goodnight all

Despite the covid-19 lockdown, modelling output has slowed this month. However, I have been slowly working on the station building and feel like the to-do list is getting shorter. Canopies have been fixed in place, the south side one is removable in case I can’t get it into its travelling case. Rain water pipes have been added from the rather nice Modelu range and this weekend’s job has been to make the roof trussing. I made a cradle from foam so I could invert the roof and work on it separately. Main spars were cyanoed into the rafters and various cross rods and struts soldered on based on the photos I have. Once complete they were painted with a mixture of grey and gunmetal Vallejo acrylic. The photos show the effect I wanted to achieve.

This is my favourite time of the year, helped by having the most beautiful cherry tree outside the kitchen window so I thought I'd share it, although it's not yet in full bloom. There's lots more yet just waiting to burst open. Good to have something nice to share. Dave

Afternoon Awl, The keel work didn't go to well, First I carved the holes for the keel bolts that went OK. Then after installing the foam on the keel I started carving the foam.... And broke it across the middle. So after gluing it together, I wandered down to the radar station. After plastering Bheinn Ghott,, I started making the radar building, the radar building there was built for a Type 80 radar, I'm building a type 84 radar. The two buildings have the same dimensions, but windows and doors change due to different equipment inside. So here is what's left in real life. And here is what I've built so far, Note, the big white box will be sunk into the hill, that will have the motor in it. The mini is there for scale, behind that you'll notice the deleted window and door, because the other side of the wall would be the transmitter cabinet. And finally the inkle loom,.. And Ben the unhappy at being disturbed Collie.

Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare, 3 hours plus 4.5 hours sleep very good for me. The Boss sent me an email after my " no " response to the company "offering " me the chance to go back to work.. "That’s fine, I’d much rather do without you in the short term than have to do without you long term!" Sniffles and sore throat have gone away, with the wind from over the north sea, no pollen, no hay fever. Facemask time again, today as once the foam for the keel is carved it will need sanding . Whilst Polyisocyanurate is non toxic, it is an irritant to the lungs not a good idea at anytime, but especially now. Ah its just after 06:00 and brown eyes is giving me the stare.. Time to put my boots on.

Everyone likes some leftovers.

Vision back to normal but migraine headache kicked in and can’t sleep so thought I’d make a visit here. heartening to hear that jobs are getting done and modelling as well in these times. Can’t seem to move forward with either my jobs or modelling but I suppose what can expect it’s duties at work. At least work is taking my mind of things. Must try to get some sleep. Hopefully be back later. Robert

Afternoon All Caloo Calay, hallelujah, and other expressions of joy - my Broadband's finally back to 12mbs speed after three days at 2, then two at 4, and four at 5/6. However, late on parade, as once it came back, various background but essential services, like my anti-virus and my firewall all needed to update, and it was a bit of a fight, and when each finally updated itself, the laptop had to do a complete restart, so I am just getting to the stage of all posts since last night read and rated. I did see an Openreach engineer working at the cabinet. and I suspect that this was the final stage on the rectification - but no matter, I am back working, and I can now, hopefully, get all the rest of my followed content caught up, as I have been missing out on a lot of the pages that I normally enjoy. So generic greetings are again on offer, and hopes that we are all only suffering slightly with the forced stay at home. Today was fodder run, and we were first in the queue at Lidl, and managed to get everything that we needed, ot almost everything. As this included many eggs, bacon, ham, mushrooms, and red pepper, I think that one of my special five egg omelettes is called for for dinner. Back tomorrow Regards to All Stewart

Good morning from a sunny place. Yes Baz, and others, I like mornings. Especially if there has been some rain in the night you seem to get a better kind of light then. Here the birds are singing away and the bird scarer is booming out every 4 minutes. Last night we had some entertainment. No not the broadcast by El Presidente but a thunderstorm. With the first clap of thunder the lights went out and stayed out. Candles were found and I lit my old pit lamp. Much safer than candles. I must give it a polish. It dates from pre WW2 and was given to me, havily rusted by a retired pit deputy who I was lodging with back in 74. I cleaned it up and got it working. The remaining wick wasn't much good but I managed to get a new one from Prince of Wales Colliery, when I worked in Pontefract. I also got a coffee jar full of washed and graded Ponty Prince coal in 4 to 5mm size. That is now used to fill the tenders of brass assemblages. I spent much of yesterday re organising our domestic filing system. I even discovered that the filing cabinet and the cupboard next to it, have flat tops! A bin liner full of waste paper has also been filled. As well as finding the aforesaid tops I also discovered various bits of paperwork that I will need this spring. Various tasks to do today. I will probably hang some lights in the workshop area of the shed and then tidy up that area. We now have another 4 weeks of house arrest to come so no doubt I will spend more time in the shed. Regards to all. Jamie

Apparently the transverse aisle after the checkouts at my supermarket is now a 'one way street', with one door (the one I use for both ingress and egress) designated as an entrance only and the other as the exit. I was gently instructed to make a U turn and proceed in the opposite direction. I had decided to wear a jury-rigged mask (from a bandana and rubber bands) today. I found this greatly restricted my peripheral vision downwards and I did not notice the arrows on the floor. Every day there is something different to negotiate.

Well the Facebook virtual running day at Llandrinio is going well. My Hymek has been out for a video run and there's been various show and tells including a workshop tour. Buffer books attended and we were tempted with cakes, the big advantage of virtual cake being they are calory free. As you can imagine I've pigged out big time.

I was envisioning a 3-pipped man of military bearing watching squaddies attempting to pull out apple tree stakes (see recent posts) until I remembered there are few apple trees on Lulworth ranges so I then thought about why would our man be re-enacting something from Salem, amongst the singing pipits and skylarks prevalent on those heaths? Ah, the penny dropped, Y is adjacent to T on the keyboard . Good morning, and it is decidedly cool here. Yesterday I returned to long trousers and wore more supportive footwear for my approved walk for the first time in a few months (footwear, not trousers) and consequently suffered a decent sized blister on the back of my heel. It will not result in a medical trip to a pharmacy even though we do not have a box of GDB requisites. That was a surprise as I have had these boots for years and walked at least a hundred miles in them before. I only swapped from the soft, feet-hugging Skechers as the terrain was a little more uneven, oh well. Photography and unmentionable may take up some time, particularly as a reduction gearbox purchased to slowly rotate a small platform on inverted girders within a brick-lined pit is not meshing to my satisfaction and needs resolving before I can move on to the control matters being investigated by our correspondent from Manchester. Today is the fourth Tuesday of official lockdown and no fresh fish, nor is there cribbage in the pub. How routine my life had become when such things are now missed! I wish you and yours well and freedom from the virus .

This is an effort to see what Affinity makes of selecting what is in focus and what isn't. As you will be aware Post Focus runs a short MP.4 video of focusing points from close to infinity (and beyond....sorry couldn't resist that been watching Toy Story!!) When using Affinity you can select what you want to use, in most pictures I use all that the camera produces and then it is merged into one focused picture. Some cases not which is normally the background but is this case I've not used the foreground and made that blurred. See what you think

Aft'noon all. Checking in from the Hill of Strawberries which is rather chilly despite clear blue and sunny skies. The House of Fun has even less fun about it this week as the suburban timetable has been stepped down another notch. Many routes are now blessed with hourly services only although Bookham, which was only being served by a bus replacement, has regained a train service. It would be hard to say whether more people are about or whether the reduction in service levels means more people area waiting for longer and the trains are a little busier in consequence. Either way we commented among ourselves that it may prove to be a unique moment in time at Britain's Busiest Railway Station when at 08.25 on a weekday morning not a single passenger alighted, nor was anyone waiting to board, when the train called. Staff out-numbered passengers by a ratio of 1 : ∞ I was nearly asleep last night when a thought arose to check the Ocado website. I was able to enter immediately without even the queue page, found a slot on Saturday week and promptly placed the order. It's mostly staples again since we don't know for sure what we might need that far ahead. But when we have been able to get a slot almost everything arrives. Meaning I can limit my foraging to a few short-life consumables such as milk. For those playing at home who might be entertained by the folkier side of rock music here's a link to some tracks from a band I followed and promoted in Cornwall c/o the responsible individual, a friend of mine, who managed to save them from a well-worn tape. The "Temporary" cover is actually my own and proved to be a permanent one since no other was ever produced. http://moco.davethebusker.uk/Bates_Motel-Anorak.html Minor Drama of the Day occurred preparing lunch. Half the electrics abruptly ceased to work. The half including kettle, toaster, microwave, cooker hood and - for good measure - the electric ignition on the gas hobs! All was swiftly resolved by means of a furtle into the meter cupboard and re-setting the trip. All of that lot together should have been well within its safety limit but perhaps I turned on all the high-draw items more or less together creating a surge. Now it's off to play with the multimeter which I am instructed must be set to ohms and placed between pairs of metal strips to see if there is a problem preventing motion. Be good, play nice, stay well.

Today in North Hipposhire starts bright and sunny but not as warm as of late. Denizens of the Muddy Hollow region should note that the likelihood of squelchy conditions is remote and dust baths are more the order of the day. End of bulletin. The turntable on my layout has an extremely hi-tech control system working on the KISS principle; it is driven by a Gaugemaster controller so I can adjust the speed and direction of rotation by a switch and rotary knob and the alignment of tracks is by eye. Possibly antediluvian and no doubt frowned on by the more knowledgeable of the wiggly amp brethren but it works. The only sop to automation, sort of, is that when power is selected to operate the table it is removed from the track so even I can't drive a locomotive into the boondocks whilst it is revolving. The blossom on the cherry tree in the front garden is in full bloom and absolutely glorious. I'll try to remember to post a photograph of it in due course. Muggocoffee has been consumed and Jill is currently manufacturing a large bowl of porridge so time to go. Baz the day people but stay safe and well. Dave

Good morning everyone The sun is shining and the sky is blue with very few clouds to be seen. I do like mornings, but Sheila likes a bit of a lie-in so she’s still in bed at moment. Were as I’m up and breakfast has been consumed and shortly I’ll be heading off to the workshop to play around with a few ideas for the indexing method of the turntable. More sketches were made last night as the TV was on and I’ve decided to focus on a plunger and roller method which operates a micro switch for now. This should be relatively easy to build and set up. Hopefully by end of the afternoon I’ll be a lot see if the theory an the practical coincide. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later.

Good morning all, Sunny but chilly start with a mainly blue sky and it should be a fine dry day but temperatures only likely to reach 11°C. Tony, the only waffle here is what I type on a daily basis. For some reason I slept solidly all night and didn't wake at my usual time and the first I knew The Boss was bringing me tea at 8.00am. Shocking! No plans made at the moment for today although there is a large shed in the garden containing things that need dealing with however breakfast is the first item on the agenda. Have a good one, W.A. Fflingditherer

Evening. Catching up. The Midland loco on the turntable has no connecting rod - hit by the naughty one? Yes, Spanish bluebells. Invasive and take over from proper british ones. C*ntcon 3 at work? Oh yes. One I'd love to relate but can't, GDPR etc. But some people.....you couldn't write it. Some folk should not be allowed on the interweb. No train photos tonight, too tired to fight off any incoming awls.

exciting day.. 3 laps around the cricket field ( in total only about a mile and a tadge) tomorrow.. the world a longer walk. Still got problems with my right hip..Pah! Just heard something which we, the Brits could do. A friend has become a retained fireman. He lives in North Yorkshire so did their NVQ to become a qualified fireman. He like being a fireman so applies for a full time job in a station 2 miles away. He doesn't get that - they bring a guy over from Ireland - new to being a Fireman.. what a waste. But he, meanwhile has taken it on the chin and is now training in Newcastle for 14 weeks with the Tyne and Wear Service. Why so long? well he has to do their NVQ to prove he can be a proper fireman... Bureaucracy gone nuts! Time we had a national Fire Service, a National Police Service ... and a NHS which does what it says on the tin.. "National".. as its common to ask people to retrain if moving to a new hospital apparently! Rant over... go in peace everyone! Baz

Evening A good morning breaking out tree stumps behind and to the side of the shed. one now completely removed but the others will take some time doing a little bit each day. Then it was into the shed to work on the Nimrod. Fuselage is now ready to be stuck together. After my other half completed her work form home we headed into town to do the weekly shop for us and Mum but there was no queue at all so they soon realised we were together and at first wouldn't let both of us in till eventually they relented after telling them I was shopping for my 87 year old Mum. However we were told that we both must be 2M apart. We were many metres apart as I had to wait outside for 15 minutes for her, otherwise she wouldnt know that I had gone back to the car. Not had this issue before during the lockdown. Also, we can no longer use the underground car park as its shuttered so its a bit of a walk with heavy bags to the car parked on a yellow line in a side street. Its just seems to be making things more difficult for the sake of it as it was all fine last week. Whilst waiting for my other half stood away form the thoroughfare but the number of people then came and stopped near to me is amazing despite it not being busy. I was also reading emails form a fellow friend / modeller / rmwebber who lost his job today with just one weeks notice, so he's not at all happy as it he only started late last year. Time for a nice strong beer or two or more as we didn't have any yesterday. EDIT <rant mode on> That orange 1diot who called the virus a hoax now blames WHO and suspended payments to them which will not help the world get over the virus. Grrrrrr , <rant mode off>

G'day all. Yes, those blue flowers are definitely bluebells - agapanthus have a very different shape to the flower and ours finished a little while back although the bluebells are going great guns at present. On a more strenuous note 5 barrowloads of logs were relocated to the woodshed yesterday and the semi-collapsed outdoor log pile will be further attacked today. Unfortunately freshly cut trees don't necessarily come with neat logs when chopped up and split and i'm not prepared to dump perfectly good bits of cherry, sycamore, and hazel when they'll all do nicely in the log burner in due course. Apart from a Hornby Dublo one a long time ago my only experience with turntable was with the real thing and based on that any which which rely on some sort of mechanical bolt to hold them in position is likely to cause trouble. However no doubt railway modellers will take greater care with their turntable than my footplate staff did with mine as many of them relied on the bolt as a sort of 'fine control' mechanism to ensure that the table was lined up when it stopped. But in the end that was the least of things as it got distinctly poorly when the centre casting broke and spare parts weren't exactly easy to find in the 1980s. i understand that it went to preservationist but I can't find any record of them getting it into commission as yet. Another sunny day but a little chilly out of the sun although it will probably warm up later. As I'm out of mushrooms it looks like I'll be on baked beans and sausages for lunch. Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

For the first time in weeks I've just spent an hour in The Shed looking at my attempts at muddling. Muddle is exactly what it is and I seem to have made a complete pig's ear of it. Now going back to rip up some track and will try again but I think I'm fighting a losing battle. I suspect I'll have to scale down my expectations and just settle for something simpler. The main thing is for me to be able to play with the trains which I can't do at the moment. Bob Bodge the Builder.

Morning all. Sunny and chilly start to the day. Day 6 of the Easter break. Much progress on the scaled-down vignette of a vapour driven transport methodology. I suspect I may get dragged sideways today to do some consultancy for a company doing anti-virology work. So best head out to the garage and do some landscaping! Warm wishes to all.

Bet that when it happened that, in the ensuing silence, the first words to be heard were something like "Oh sh1t!"

I'm sure I could if I tried hard enough Stephen. When I put my mind to it I can be the GDB of layout operation and can usually be counted on to overcome most failsafe systems. Dave

Unprototypical. Means you cant replicate this: NRM DY 1012, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum. I saw a beautiful bit of video recently of a fully automated, servo-controlled, P4 turntable. It had everything except the man pushing...

Back to work. Commute OK, avoided the coffee table. Remembering it's Tuesday is a little difficult.

Good morning Went into the shed earlier, switched on the TV and number 45 was calling a reporter a fake in his usual manner. At least the day can only get better if i can avoid hearing it again on the news. Still having issues trying ot get my Digikeijs / JMRI to see the accessory decodoer or even monitor the system yet will operate the accessory decoder and drive locos fine. Need it to see the activity so I can set up the layout panel to view th turnout control. And I cant get rid of the quote box below as the clear cache option isnt showing at present. Had this happen quite a few times of recent despite actually making the post a previous day. Normally I have not posted till it clears or use a different PC.

I was poking around trying to determine the power consumed by a toaster in the UK when I came across this article. Quote: "Power: the more watts (power) your model has, the faster it toasts, although the type of bread will also impact this. The optimum level for two-slice toasters is 1200kW and for four-slice toasters is 1800kW or more." That should toast your bread PDQ although the lights might dim a bit

I did some IT support for Aditi’s brother yesterday. He has been frustrated by the poor WiFi in his house so decided he would connect his lap top with an Ethernet cable. It didn’t work. After asking a few questions I asked if he had another cable ( one was found) and it connected immediately. I could definitely sense the reduction in tension even from afar (Northamptonshire). He isn’t using his broadband for entertainment but processing a lot of stuff from home as isn’t permitted to be at work at present. Tony

Look on my layout thread tonight. I will post some photos. I live in fear and dread of the awl as I think that her harp is just a super strong bow in disguise. Jamie

I wish I could claim to be as prolific as some on here, though I have been spending quite a bit of time over the last week. I started these not so long ago (by my standards that is) and today I managed to complete them apart from painting. I have 7 GWR open wagons to the painting stage but ideally I would like to make it a dozen and then spend some time painting. These are Coopercraft O4 open wagons, although only the sides and ends are used. The underframe is by Morgan Design with a few other bits and pieces thrown in. I have enjoyed the time building things, the time seems to fly by, Hopefully I can keep this up for the next 2 weeks before I go back to work. Craig Warton

Good morning all. It is sunny but quite cold so far. There may be waffles for breakfast today. Tony

The turntable drive I saw made used a relay that operated a latch which engaged into a slot on a circular disc beneath the baseboard. The latch was sprung so that he latch dropped into the slot whilst a micro switch then cut the power, whilst the latch held the turntable firmly in place. Pressing a button energised the relay which lifted, and powered up the drive motor on the turntable. It was very simple because there was only a single entry and a corresponding single exit 180 degrees away. The table was biased so that it only turned in one direction. You just pressed the button and when the table started to turn you could leave it knowing it would stop automatically 180 degrees later. I am now awaiting the Met Officer at Market Drayton to report on what sort of weather I should be experiencing today.

This is a picture of my patio. It is tinted brown concrete and was stamped with texturing when laid. Everything yellow is pollen - probably mostly from Douglas Firs, though my Dogwoods may have contributed. Every Spring I need to hose down the patio and scrub the mould off the furniture, with is kept under the patio roof. Being a very splashy task, I usually do this when it is a little warmer.

Cold chilly overcast, Ben the happy Collie enjoyed his patrol. One thing I noticed, normally we get the bluebells flowering in the garden just before the daffodils go over. But just about all daffs are now shriveled and no sign of a bluebell stalk let alone a flower so far. The daffodil heads won't go to waste, SWMBO collects them as they are used in natural dying of wool. Its been decided that the next garden task is to trim two internal to the garden hedges of berberis purpura. One was given a heavy chop last year and is looking straggly, the other is due it's heavy chop. The question is where to set up the next bonfire of twiggy burnables , we tend to move it around to destroy something we don't want. Time to eat my porridge... Ah the gas man has arrived, so the tank is getting topped up..

Afternoon Evening All Sunny but chilly Housework day today laundry, cleaning I give up on the painting and have a break from that its taking its toll on the bad back. I feel poxed been in bed most of the day I started to post at 12pm and gave up back now still poxed but awake, I've received the very last paperwork regarding the divorce 3 weeks time Absolute should be the post. I've met a very nice lady GDB has see her photo and she is on my Facebook page so I don't have to hide that fact now we have been video chatting for over a month so I have spent more time with her than a normal contact relationship fingers crossed we might be on the move in 3 weeks. Stay Safe all I.M. Swoonin.

Little "black & white" theme from colmore east depot...

I changed CV19 on a loco the other day and it stopped working. I believe it has self-isolated.

Just to demonstrate that it's not all about Pecketts..........