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Well, you asked for non GoG member’s views... My father was a member of the GoG for many years, and used to read the magazine from front to back, but in particular the articles describing how to do things. He also pored over adverts, highlighting anything he particularly wanted (and keeping said lists out of sight of my mum!) He used to attend a regular GoG meeting in order to talk to like minded enthusiasts and give his locos a run on the test track. My father was always a quiet man, quick to listen but slower to contribute. I took him to several meetings when he had stopped driving. I immediately noticed that there were some more ‘forceful’ characters among the membership. Usually the ones with the big 4-6-2 express engines, I should add. Explaining to all and sundry the “ins and outs of a cat’s arse“ (as my father in law would put it) and extolling the virtues of their models. There was a “waiting” system for track time. My father placed his 4F 0-6-0 tender loco in the queue ... eventually he got to hook it up to some dozen wagons, and ran it two or three times around the track ... before it was lifted off and replaced by one of those aforementioned 4-6-2 monsters, which had vacated the loops only a few minutes before. I remember commenting about that to him on the way home. He said that there were those that hogged the time and that was the way it was. On another occasion, I took along his Ivatt 2-6-0 tender loco to run - it had turned up in its box at the back of the sideboard in the dining room! (As my dad was living with Dementia, I think he had forgotten it was there!). This was a brass Bachmann offering so I was interested to see what this new (to me!) loco could do. Eventually it got put on the loops with eight or so heavy etched brass and white-metal coaches behind it. It set off smoothly but came to a halt on the (quite sharp) curves, suffering wheel spin. A couple of the self appointed “experts” hoisted it off the track to check underneath, returned it to the tracks and ran it again where it performed well on the straight but simply could not manage to drag the coaches around the curves. (I didn’t get to check them, but I suspect they were not as free running as they might have been.) Again his loco was removed and he was told to his face not to waste his money on cheap Chinese rubbish! Rude?! I’ll say!! (I have had it looked over by another modeller who has suggested it simply needs weight to aid traction but otherwise thought it an excellent model) On that occasion I noticed that a lot of time was being given to a 4-6-2 chassis (no body) running around the tracks. As soon as any other loco had done a couple of circuits, off it came and back on went the chassis, with much loud extolling of the virtues of its gearbox and motor combination. I realise this is anecdotal, but perhaps paints the picture I was seeing as an outsider? I was, at 48 years old, most definitely the youngest adult present! And the female of the species were in the kitchen brewing up and chatting over cake, no sign of them as modellers! I am a more confident person than my father, used to speaking to strangers, and I tried striking up conversations with various members present. Anybody with a “finescale” model seemed to mumble into their chest, whereas the chattiest person present was the chap with the coarse scale tinplate set up! And he mostly wanted to say how rare something was, how much he had bought it for, how much it was worth, and how you really had to know what you were doing to “get into this game” (by which I think he meant collecting!) Downstairs were the live steam crowd, sullen, often-bearded fellows, many of whom had pipes steaming away sticking out of their faces like the chimneys of their miniature engines. Surrounding them as they stoked their marvels of miniature engineering were silent witnesses, leaning in to peer at them and marvelling at the technical prowess displayed... this was REAL, this was actual STEAM... nothing was being said, odd mumblings between the operators. On one occasion - one, mind - I asked a question about a loco. I didn’t get an answer ... I got a sense from the onlookers that I had broken some unwritten rule about not speaking unless I had a live steam engine to run, and simply got disdainful silence from the person I asked the question of! Back upstairs I went, quick as you like!! I know where I’m not wanted!! So - generally unwelcoming, a clique, out of touch (not a single non-steam loco in sight), disdainful of anything other than what they perceived as being good, rude, and last but not least, old. The overriding impression was of a room full of old men. Maybe that was just the branch I happened to visit, but going on several occasions it was always the same. One time, I took my dad along and nobody spoke to him and he didn’t get to run his loco. And he was a GoG member who had been going for years! He had to go into a care home at Easter 2019, but had stopped attending meetings before that - I’d say to him about going and he’d say he couldn’t be bothered. A telling comment by my mum has been that not one of the GoG group have ever telephoned to see how he is since he stopped attending, or to find out why; as she says, as far as they know he could be dead, but perhaps that is how the Guild at a local level view drop off in numbers - natural “wastage” due to death among the membership? I took him to Guildex at Telford a few years ago, and there was much more of a “buzz” with so many modellers in attendance. But many of the exhibitors seemed very, very serious. I felt like the odd man out because I had questions to ask about everything I saw - so many simply seemed to stand in awe, an attitude that seemed to be encouraged by the exhibitors! (Or were they just concentrating?!) A few did happily chat, but that seemed to be the exception. Traders, however, were happy to talk! I wish I could remember the name of the coach kit company who gave me a CD-ROM of pdfs of all their kits, after I explained that I had found that my father had over a half dozen of their kits but I couldn’t find instructions ... and also that he had sorted out all the different components into boxes ... all the bogies, wheels etc in one box, all the sides in another, underframe details in yet another, roofs together, white metal castings etc etc you get the idea! (Dementia can manifest in so many ways) Build them? I can’t even identify half the parts as he had removed them from their sprues! Also had a long chat with plaster/resin casting and laser cutting traders - they all seemed enthusiastic about the future possibilities of the scale. What I didn’t see were any stalls with manufacturers like Heljan or Dapol - or perhaps I just missed them? So overall, not a great impression made upon an outsider who has an interest in modelling!! One point already raised is the use of the word “Guild” - that does have connotations of “closed shop” and also that only “master craftsmen” (and the genderisation I’ve used is deliberate) can be members. It is an old fashioned and somewhat outdated word - the only “guild” most teenagers will associate with is the Guild of Assassins from Assassins Creed. (If in reading that you don’t understand the reference, I’d suggest a Google search! My impression of Guild membership is that for many members such a suggestion might take them down to the local (closed) library to look up the reference!) It is, however, also the case that the phrase “Gauge O Guild” has a ring to it due to alliteration ... likewise in the name “Seven Mil Society” ... Similar language techniques are used elsewhere - the use of a silent “G” in the name of the “Gnatterbox” forum ties in with the scale Gn15 to which it is dedicated, and members repeatedly use the same pun/trick - “That’s a Gnice loco” “It might be prototypical, but it’s Gnot for me” etc. (I don’t get the impression that there much in the way of humour amongst Guild members, unless it is laughing at (perceived) lesser efforts ...) So maybe the name stays? Or not? A name change? A rebrand? A vibrant website with lots of freely available information would be a “way in” for non-members ... nothing infuriates more than “goodies” locked behind a paywall! I don’t know if it already exists, but a downloadable and searchable archive of past magazines/articles including scale drawings would be the kind of thing that adds value to a membership. Arranging some kind of membership discounts for when purchasing amongst all affiliated traders might be another way forward to encourage membership. I applaud any attempts to drag the Guild into the present day! In my local model shop, I hear mention of “the old boys” passing and of relatives of the deceased bringing in O gauge locos and stock to sell, rather than them being passed down to younger generations. Why is O gauge associated with “the old boys”? What is the general impression being given out? Sorry to go on at length - I had time to fill before the next lot of eye drops for the dog! Steve S Modelling in OO (But holding onto all his dad’s O gauge models for sentimental reasons...)

Good morning all. This is actually a rather special day, as it marks the 10th anniversary of this thread. An awful lot has happened during those ten years, and I would certainly never have anticipated that it would be viewed getting on for two million times by now. A lot of people have been with me on this for most if not at all of those ten years, and I thank you all for your support and encouragement, which has helped greatly in getting to where we are now. Some extremely talented people are largely responsible for what I now have, and so special thanks go to them. They know who they are. We lost Dave Skakespeare, which for me at least has left a hole that cannot be filled, but in general it has been a lot of fun, which is all that matters really. So, the next ten years, I hope, start here. How will/can the layout develop from here? That is going to take some serious thought, but even if the answer is not much, I still have plenty of pleasure to look forward to. And some cursing, it wouldn't be the same without that. When I looked for a picture to accompany this , I found that the next one ready was perhaps the most appropriate that it could have been, for if there is any view of PN which shows it at its best, and sums up all I was looking for, this is it. Norman Saunders' track work, Peter Leyland's superb buildings, and Tim Easter's brilliant bringing to life of RTR locos are all here, as, I like to think, is the spirit of 1958. I could not have asked or hoped for more.

Morning chaps... How things going, or in your case not as you wait for that signal to change!

Photo of the last two completed jobs. 47003 built from one of our kits in P4, this is the one which worked in Swansea, unusually it had a right facing crest, the electrification flashes must have been left over from its earlier home. View from underneath shows that this is possible in P4 with Gibson wheels without any cheating in cylinder position but clearance behind the crosshead is minimal. The Craftsman 02 is a very good kit as I've said before but it is complicated to paint, the Yorkshire plates aren't in the kit but we can supply them. The engine air intakes are our mouldings as well, the white metal ones in the kit are a bit weedy.

Some photos taken at Newcastle for this afternoon. Nothing special, just ordinary everyday trains. Newcastle Class 101 Sunderland to Hexham Feb 89 J9785.jpg Newcastle Class 108 ecs 17th Feb 89 C11669.jpg Newcastle Class 31 up mail 8th May 90 C15466.jpg now known to be 31252 Newcastle Central 47705 22nd Feb 94 C19299.jpg Newcastle Central 60087 up coal 22nd Feb 94 C19301.jpg David

I mentioned a few days back that I was planning on starting my Dave Bradwell kit for a BR 13ton hopper. I was so worried about getting the hopper body folded and soldered correctly that I did that first, just incase i made a pig's ear of it. Lo and behold, it went together like a treat! I've never made a shape this complex from brass etches before, so it's been a nice little confidence boost for me, i must admit. Once this one is out of the way, I might even *gulp* test my skills on a loco kit next...

It's been a while......... .............since we updated this topic. The Lockdown has constrained our activities somewhat, and we missed the Bristol Show of course. The big thing that we are all missing is the chance to meet and run the railway. However, some things can still be progressed and John has been very busy on the groundworks. He is continuing the "elephant task" of ballasting and point rodding along the platforms and in the station throat. Where the track is plain along the platforms this is fairly straight forward. Its the rodding which complicates things. This takes several distinct phases to achieve the required result. First the route of the rodding between the point and the Signal Box has to be planned and marked out on the bare baseboards. The necessary stools are the installed: Some of this work will never be seen once the layout is running. WHY? you might ask. The team motto "'Cos we can" applies. Any track crossings are excavated and rodding installed. This is as far as John has got at present. The ballasting will progress once individual baseboards can be removed to the workbench to give better access. And that rodding already installed will be removed for the ballast to be laid, painted, weathered etc. before being permanently fixed, painted and weathered. More reports as progress is made.............. Steve.

A long time ago it was suggested that I post a pic of my Arbroath North signal cabin at night on this thread - Here it is then......... Quite a big file, but there is a fair bit of detail.

Recipe for chicken and mushroom pie (adapt as necessary) Chicken Mushroom Pastry Other stuff to taste Is that sufficiently detailed?

One from Sunday, possession in Leicester 66788 Locomotion15 on a train of salmons and autoballasters

Good evening everyone Well today has been a bit of a re-run of last Sunday, in that we overslept, probably down to the fact that we got in bed late last night and the heating coming on, making us nice a cosy! Needless to say, by the time we actually got out of bed it was gone 10 o’clock, so after a quick breakfast and before I went to the workshop, I fitted the 2 new shelves in the wine rack and then re-stacked them. As can be seen, it’s looking better organised now, the top shelf is for white wines, next down is for rosé wines and the bottom 2 are red wines. As can be seen, my beers are stored on the next rack. However, there is 1 less bottle on the top shelf now! All 3 of the uprights for the wine/beer rack are bolted to the wall with 6mm rail bolts, I don’t want that collapsing, that would be catastrophic! I then set off to the workshop, where work continued on the turntable, the operating arm was finished and then fitted and adjusted. Once the adjustments had been completed, tests were successfully carried out, IN THE WORKSHOP no less. I discovered that the problem I was having with the lighting was due to the fact I was working near the window and as it’s been very sunny, the natural UV light was affecting the UV sensor. So once I’d closed the workshop door and pulled the blinds down I was able to get everything working as it should and give everything a thorough test. The operating pin from above, the large screw allows the arm to slide back and forth. The The side view shows the threaded pin which allows the side bars ensure no sideways movement. height to be adjusted, the nut locks it in place when set. The fix I carried out yesterday to cure the play in the main drive shaft was successful and has removed the indexing error. Resulting in the turntable bridge stopping in exactly the same place, whether it’s rotating in the clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, so I’m very pleased with that. As I mentioned the other day, it’s now very quiet and a lot smoother when operating! So now the final details can be fitted to the bridge and then painting and weathering can be completed. Goodnight all

Evening all, Not much to say other than the pies were much better than last time. Not my mashed potatoes either. Unfortunately I didn’t get to make them since I was otherwise engaged with the fan, so mom did. Stay healthy, Douglas

These might help. Apologies to everyone else.

Ey up! Today could end up being complicated. I need to buy some wood, screws, fixing corner plates and try and get my hair cut. Not complex you say..well looks like I will be visiting at least two if not 3 sales emporia (nowhere has everything "available" and the woodyard has stopped cutting wood to order no idea why). Time to drink my mugate..TTFN Baz

Brisbane International Airport apparently added additional runway capacity. Mum let me know that a restored Spitfire was the first aeroplane to land on the new runway mentioning that "it remembered the beginning of the airport as a wartime runway". A nice commemoration, but I suspect a Spitfire never landed at Eagle Farm aerodrome during the war and nor did the airport begin during the war. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith landed at Eagle Farm aerodrome in 1928 after crossing the Pacific. His Fokker aircraft remains on display in a special building at the airport. This has long been a source of pride in aviation matters in Brisbane. Incidentally the Spitfire (restored in British livery) was obtained from a Texas museum and then restored. More authentically the flight included a P47 and a CAC Wirraway which were much more likely to have flown at Eagle Farm during the war which at that time was actually a US Army Air Forces base. I did not know this but during the war it hosted the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit where captured Japanese aircraft were rebuilt and tested. Ironically it would have been more representative to land a Zero, Zeke or Oscar at BNE than a Spitfire. The USAAF had a squadron of P-39s there in 1942. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters were in Brisbane from 1942 to 1944.

Be warned folks - lots of photo's ahead again. I do try and be concise at times but the camera just runs away with me. Extinguishers. That's what we were doing last time around, so I may as well continue. The "boxes" were made up and painted and I decided I wasn't really to keen on them. However, when I placed just the extinguisher by itself in the car, it didn't look right, so out came the boxes again. In it's final resting place it doesn't look too bad, and I could believe something like this could be used. (Look, you can finally see the 'hot' & 'cold' taps in the bathroom!) Okay, fire extinguishers dealt with and on to the next bit of detail that takes forever. Steps. I could put these off no longer so I shaped some styrene and fired up the airbrush with Alclad black primer. Now, I love their grey primer, but I had issues with the black primer on my Wessex build and I wasn't too impressed with it. Things didn't go any better this time around but in a rare moment of fortuitousness (isata word?), the 'disaster' actually worked in my favor. The black primer spluttered and coughed and flatulated all over the place, with the result of the finish you can see here. Normally, I would have been not a happy camper when this happened, but on the steps.... it's non-slip paint isn't it? Works for me. The black alclad is now at the back of the shelf again and I'm going to stick to the grey primer in future. Anyone else aware of quality problems with Alclad paints? When the pebble-dash finish finally dried it was time to add the white edging - that really tested my patience. With such stark contrast between the two colors any, and I mean ANY deviation from a perfectly straight line looks like doo-doo. When it came time to fit them, I realized that it was going to be a butt joint onto painted brass - nope. That'll never work. That's prime candidates for knocking off just be glancing at them. I had no choice but to drill the chassis and pin the steps in place. Worrying and dangerous, having to drill into the chassis at this point, but I had no alternative here. Luckily the gods were smiling on me this day. While I was looking at photo's again (I really need to stop doing that!) I spotted more steps. Logical really - how do you get into the car when it's in the depot and there's no platform handy eh? I went with styrene again for these steps. Then painted up and fitted. I'm liking that, even though the white paint is a bit dodgy. Steps complete. Another job scored off the list. What's next? Urgghhhhh... more emergency equipment I'm afraid. This time the Passcomm bits. The original drawings have a nice curved brass plate for mounting the pull handles, but in the two photos I have showing these, it appears the brass was never used and instead they were mounted in a wooden surround - sort of an inverted "U". I'm not over the moon with these but I think I'm at the limits of what can be done with this material. 6mm wide x 3mm high and the 'legs' are just over 1 mm wide. When you get down to these sizes, the wood just kept breaking off, so I did my best and produced 4 barely acceptable parts. Not my finest work, but there it is. I considered plastic and painting them brown, but the color difference was too drastic, so wood it is. I also made up some 1mm wide brackets for the emergency hammers, and they got fixed in place. My oh my, these jobs are just flying off the list.. aren't they? At this rate I could be finished by Xmas... this year!!! Now, the light at the end of the tunnel starts to shine brighter, and get larger - if you ignore the fact I still have to build a completely separate roof and order a display case. Soft furnishings - time to fit the comfy chairs! Since the base of the legs is just over 1mm2 I wasn't comfortable with that as a fixing surface. When this thing is closed up I'm never going back in - so the chairs need to be secure! After toying with a few different ideas I settled on using a block underneath the chair, the same height as the legs, with the block glued to the chair and in turn glued to the floor. I turned a bunch of aluminum cores on the lathe and these were glued to the underside of each chair. There was a chance you could see the aluminum under the chair when peering through the windows, so these were painted brown so they kind of 'disappear' in the overall scheme of things. First up was the dinette. Cosy eh? And here's where things start getting awkward. The chairs had to go in before the table as there was no room to phennargle them into place afterwards, but once the chairs were in there was no room for my fat digits to get in there with the table. Emergency operation commenced... Ladies and gentlemen, the operation was a success! (eventually!) I have to admit that my camera really is not up to the task here when things start getting so detailed. I had to use flash here to capture anything other than a bluish brownish blur. Or was that a brownish bluish blur? Once I get this all to a decent stage, I shall endeavor to take the whole shebang outside and get some photos taken in natural sunlight. Production line started From these photo's you'd be forgiven for thinking that this all went together pretty quickly. Sadly, that was not the case. Each chair had to be positioned, and I had to use a glue that allowed me time to jiggle and joggle things into place - then I had to wait for it to dry sufficiently in order to be able to fit the table, without the danger of dislodging aforementioned chair, and like the dinette, I have to fit everything in turn. Once chair... one table ... one chair. I need the table in place to get the correct spacing. Nothing's ever easy is it? At the end of today's playtime we got this far. Another session, maybe two should see all the chairs and tables in place and then I can think about fitting the rest of the carlines. I have to say that I am really enjoying the build once again now that I see it all coming together. For a while there, it seemed as if there was never any progress, just a never ending stream of making bits and putting them away in a safe place. Then the painting and decals - That was such a mojo killer I really had to force myself to continue at times. Anyway, folks - stay safe and have a great whatever's left of the weekend!

Morning all (just!) I finally gave up waiting for the dentist to get back to me about refitting my crown onto the implant and called them this morning. They didn’t say as much, but had clearly forgotten about me. Appointment arranged for three weeks time, so I will have to put up with the metal stub sticking up for that time. Part of the morning has been spent repairing the toilet that I tried to repair a few weeks ago. The syphon needed a new diaphragm and when I fitted it before, it seems I cut it too precisely when trimming it to size. Job has been redone, and this time it has but trimmed with some overlap on the piston part of the syphon. On first use, it seems fine this time, so here’s hoping! Weather is carp this morning, hence doing the toilet job, rather than anything outside. It is forecast to improve later, so we will get out then with a bit of luck.

Indeed. The G0G is the only club I know where the members proudly display their membership number as a symbol of their seniority. A four-figure membership number seems to denote a demi-god status deserving the genuflection of the callow youths in their 60s.

That's not quite what I said. Thinking sometimes that I am a technophobe is not the same as being one. Chris

Morning all, Firstly, I wonder how The Lurker managed with his Chorizo and Lentil Tagine? I know that fenugreek is an acquired taste, but used in very small quantities (as in this dish) it does add an interesting new flavour. All these posts about railways in Japan make me remember fondly my one (and so far only) trip to Japan. Although it was for business, I did manage to see a little bit of the country and, after having used both the Tokyo underground and the Shinkansen, I remain incredibly impressed by the Japanese public transport infrastructure. In fact, one of the programs I watch on a regular basis is “Japan Railway Journal“ from NHK (the Japanese equivalent of the BBC World Service). The seriousness and dedication that the Japanese put into the railways is eye-opening and at the same time mind-boggling. One of the most “mind-boggling“ episodes of the program was the one that featured the training that the Tokyo underground train drivers have to go through - specifically the test they had to do of driving the train to each station to the nearest one or two seconds on the timetable just by looking at the visual cues within the tunnels and without instrumentation. I think very few underground railway systems can match that. Another thing that impresses me about Japanese Railways is their ability to marry the very latest technology with passenger comfort and economy for the railway operators. Some of these newly introduced rolling stock look very elegant as well as high-tech. Additionally, many of the second and third sector railways are being very innovative in their ways of raising funds and increasing railway income. Everything from rail tours of Tokyo’s dedicated freight lines to special tourist trains with on-board catering and stops at points of great beauty for photo opportunities. Not to mention the very high end, very luxurious and very expensive hotel trains (a number of which are booked out for the next few years, despite tours costing a few thousand pounds or more). As a poster opined on another forum (his web name was ASLEF1234 [I don’t recall the number exactly]) “Japan privatised the railways the right way, unlike Britain“. I think that ChrisF is among a dwindling minority of technophobes as the PC Revolution, and all its’ spinoffs and sequelae, continues to gather steam. A number of years ago, I think it was in the early 2000s, someone observed that the PC revolution will be as impactful on the world as the industrial revolution - harnessing the power of steam - was a few hundred years earlier. They have not been proved wrong. For my line of work, the PC/Computer Chip Revolution has completely and totally changed the entire landscape; analyses that formerly would have taken months by a team of people, can now be done by a push of a button by one person and so on. Of course one of the problems with modern computer based technology is how competently it is applied. When it is applied well (as with the on-line banking of my bank) it is a great boon; when it is incompetently or sloppily applied (and I’m sure that you can come up with plenty of examples) then it can be a nightmare. As to resisting the march of technology, the old fable of the mighty oak and the humble reed is most illuminating in this context. AI (artificial intelligence) will be, I think, the next quantum leap forward for technology users. But, again, a lot will depend on how this technology is applied - for good or for ill (actually, come to think of it, with all the various sensor technology available, if this was married to AI couldn’t that result a wearable device to replace Guide Dogs for the Blind?) Well, I’m off to study for my Turing Test and to find a decent recipe for a chicken and mushroom pie Cheers iD

Good morning from a dullish North Salopshire. Just finishing muggocoffee before tackling today's routine orders and setting about my bathroom cleaning duties. On the subject of maritime rules, when we were in San Diego on the 80s, Jill went sailing with an American friend in the harbour area and while he was below and she was steering the boat she drifted across the bows of the USS Vincent, then I think the largest warship afloat. When the boat's owner came back up on deck and took in the situation at a glance he rapidly took the helm and got out of the way. "But," said Jill, "I thought steam has to give way to sail." It was later explained to her that for a start they were in the Navy channel and in any case something like 80,000 tons or more of aircraft carrier doing about five knots is not the most manoeuvrable of objects. As it slid past Dave, the owner (not me) ducked down out of sight and someone came out onto the Vincent's flying bridge (if that's the correct term) and through a bullhorn yelled, " Get out of the f*****g way d******d," then, seeing Jill by the wheel added, "Sorry ma'am, please obey the rules." Chivalry obviously still ruled in the USN. Have a good week people. Dave

Cheerio everyone. Still caffeinating, so not a lot happening here yet! I just noticed I have some paperwork to file which has been accumulating on my desk. Then, probably get some bark chips and perhaps something or other else for the garden, after the GP, that is. Sounds menial, but hey, a it might just be what I need right now! Later...

Interesting colision on the Welland canal although having delved out the navigation rules I'm surprised they don't have more because you need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to make sense of them. If anything it could well be the case that the officer of the watch was too busy looking at the rules to apply them or find out what the signals meant although it could equally be that one vessel or the other didn't obey them. The normal navigation rule of passing port side to port side is replaced (if i read the rules correctly) by a rule giving the vessel going with the current or tide priority and it should then signal to the other vessel what latter should do to avoid a collision. Judging by the bow waves/lack of them the red vessel would appear to be the one which thought it had the decision and the black one ('Florence Spirit') should have complied with its signals and then passed as directed. Judging by its late turn to port and its subsequent the erratic course the 'Florence Spirit' was attempting to comply and pass starboard side to starboard side but got it seriously wrong, twice. Although it might just having been trying, unsuccessfully, to get out of the way of the 'Alamis' Somebody not keeping a proper lookout perhaps, or maybe two somebodies?

The Up Queen of Scots tonight. Two views of Copley Hill A1 Abbotsford.

Ey up! What a morning! Went to woodyard to be met by a man wheeling out a pile of 2" by !" (nominal) planed wood.. yep he had bought all their stock! Guy at the counter said he had done that twice in the last two weeks and is no longer regarded as a "trade" customer - they found out he has a little shop selling hardware - he told them he was a "house improver". Got the wood at Homebase (which said it had none!) after trying another wood yard who also had no 2" by 1"... Off to Barber "no appointments necessary" well mine is for next Monday. Our Pharmacy can order repeat prescriptions. I ring them up (but I could also email them apparently) takes about 3 or 4 days. I can also order them direct from the surgery by email or phone call. Time to get on with the rest of Monday... Baz

Do you have a problem with the trailer half of your DMU? Broken coupling perhaps, or derailing bogie? Fear not, just run the powered car on its own.

I used to lock folk up for that. Possession of a length ofvpipe and a can was classed as "Going Equipped", Jamie

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my request about photo indexing. I spent some time last night googling various products. Then found that there is a builtbin database function in ACDSee that I have already got. I now need to learn how to get the most out of it. I also need to start adding Metadata to the images that I'm scanning, 4500 so far and counting. At the moment these are all shown as having been created in 2020. Thanks again to everyone. Jamie

I don't know about 12% in thecUK but Church Bank on Bradford's system was 10% And my mother hated being in the top deck coming down there. I believe that there are some very steep sections on Sheffield Supertram. AndyY, where's that groan button. Morning all from down here. It's sunny again and last night the boss decreed another day of doing not a lot. I will continue getting water to drain from the pool liner. It's nearly done, just about 1 sq metre of water that's about 6cm's deep. This is draining out of the original hole as I keep rolling up the liner. I don't want to cut a larger hole in case of garuntee problems. The Guinea Fowl was sacrificed and slow roasted to a good cause last night and thevplum crumble went down very well. A friendvwas with us and the subject if medical receptionists came up. Chris's Checkpoint Charlene was mentioned to much amusement. However the main conversation was about the excellent service by a receptionist at the Pain Clinic in Niort. No this is not some reinvention of the Inquisition, nobody expects that, but a service that Beth needs badly after Leeds NHS abandoned her 5 years ago. Our GP had done a sort if back door referral after meeting the specialist at a conference. All I had to get an appointment was a scribbled note with a phone number on it. Initially the receptionist said it was most iregular in and I had to go back to the GP. However I told her the history and she has been brilliant. She rang the GP whilst I was there, Fax's have now been exchanged and Beth now has an appointment for August. Initially I was told that it would be November at the earliest. All in all very good service. At the end of the conversation Beth happenned to mention that she had been the secretsry and receptionist to a well known surgeon and then told us how, in the days of card index's, people would mysteriously move up or down the waiting list depending in whether or not they were rude to her on the phone. Regards to all. Jamie

I have done a bit more testing and it appears that bunging (apologies for the techno-jargon) tags on the images allows the search to work rather well. With a solid state drive the relevant icons appear instantaneously. It's also possible to select multiple image files (press shift or control) and apply a particular tag to all of them e.g california, year, etc. Then you can add more tags like people's names, location, etc, etc. The only snag is that Windows prefers that you put all the photo folders under "Pictures" which doesn't seem too unreasonable. I tried searching on folders that were in a USB attached drive and Boolean operators won't work. I suspect it won't work with a mapped network drive either but I have not tried that yet.

I was held hostage by ran a project for DHL and had to spend a lot of time in Pixburd. Some of the roads there are very steep. Oddly enough when MrsID's father was quite young he spent some time in Pittsburgh with MrsID's grandfather. We're not quite sure why grandfather was there but it was probably because of some engineering work. MrsID's father ended up living with his maiden aunts in Bexhill of all places. "Sit up straight George!" In her later years (in her 90's) one of the maiden aunts was no longer supposed to be driving. But she still did. "What are they going to do? Lock me up?"

Evening all, gardening, walk up to mils bit of modelling and watched the GP. Pleasant day weather wise. No pasties up here, salad for tea. Nothing else to report tonight so I will bid you all Goodnight Robert

The other side, towards Bala.

I am trying to build a nanoblock kit of a wombat (those nice cuddly australian marsupials).. The blocks are tiny and my patience is being tested.. alot! Baz

C11669.jpg - i thought you said 'nothing special'?

I have ridden the Monongahela but the Duquesne was out-of-service at that time and just barely escaped demolition. I have also ridden the Victoria Peak Tram in Hong Kong; very nice ride with a spectacular view.

As about as detailed as my recipe for beer (water, hops, malt, etc). But the kind thought is appreciated. The three recent posts about experiences with their GP in regards to prescription renewal is so completely at odds with my experiences with the health services here in Switzerland. My new GP (who took over from my friend, who was at one point also my GP) is extremely approachable. If I need an appointment, I call the receptionist and there and then we agree on a mutually acceptable date and time (fortunately, so far, I have not needed to see him very urgently). Should I need a refill of my NSAID prescription, I call the GP’s receptionist, state what is needed and in a day or so I can drop by and pick up the medication (yes, the medication, not a paper prescription). My interactions with my orthopaedic surgeons’ practice are equally smooth going. For my Yuletide knee surgery last year, a date and time was mutually agreed upon (and due to my circumstances I had to postpone the surgery by a short while – which was not a problem and did not impact on having the operation). A consultation with the anaesthesiologist occurred a few days before surgery (again at a mutually acceptable date and time) and on the day of surgery I turned up, disrobed and laid back to enjoy the drugs.... I don’t think I could return to having medical care doled out to me by a monolithic and inflexible organisation (don’t get me wrong, I have worked with colleagues within the NHS and they have all been extremely top-notch clinicians, sadly they are too often let down by the institution they are working for). Interestingly, what I found when I moved to Switzerland was the seemingly all pervasive attitude towards taking exercise: it was (is) something you just did (do) with what seemed (and seems) the entire population of the country perambulating through the countryside every weekend. Many walks and parks also have something called a fitness parkour on the side of the walk or the park. These are a series of frames and equipment where you can interrupt your healthy walk with even more healthy exercise-such as pullups, walking along balance beams, etc. Cycling is ubiquitous (although not yet to NL levels) and the local swimming pools always busy. Compared to what I have observed in the UK, the Swiss seem to be both fitter and healthier. And it is only now that we are starting to see chubby (not obese) teenagers, probably due to the fact that even Switzerland has not been immune to the inrush of Mickey D, Burger K and the like (although Dominos Pizza didn’t last long around here and KFC is unknown).

That is how it used to be at my practce. I quote from the latest renewal form: "The Practice is working to reduce the amount of paper that is handled by our staff. Therefore we would ask that your request is made via Online Services or emailed to [blahblahblah]. Paper requests will be quarantined for 72 HOURS therefore increasing the processing time to 6 working days." The e-mail that was promised for 11 am at 8.45 has yet to materialise. He who expects nothing ... Chris

' morning all from red dragon land. Wet and murky, drying up by lunch time. Sun most of the day, yesterday, but rather breezy but toot on the flute, bike ride on the terrace and some shrub pruning ready to fill the garden waste bin after today's collection took place. There followed some cutting with scalpel and sticking, self-adhesive this time but still fiddly. More of the same planned for today, except the G stuff. The day will be busy with other stuff, anyway. Waste collection tomorrow so recycling bins will be seen to and the chicken carcass will be detached from the rest of the meat and binned ready to go. Then it will be making a yummy chicken pie. Fitt and Elfie getting by. Take care and play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare, 6.5 hours sleep then some unspecified dozing.. That ship collision is something I've seen on the broads quite often but that's by unqualified tourist who may have been at the help for less, than half an hour.. During our regatta some of our rescue boats have boards to show to the tourists, "Keep right" boards and "slow down" Boards, something the black ship was not doing. Unless there was a hidden obstruction behind the Red ship , the black ship should have just kept right. The red ship, seems a little far out in the channel, but may have (as in our regs words) Been constrained by their size or draft and unable to come closer to the near bank. As for our Regatta It's off.. The club could not find a way round the virus regulation no more that 30 people on the premises at once.. At a normal regatta there's about 100 boats with the mix of single handers and 2 or more handers that's around 200 people+ 3 line crew, + 8 rescue boat crew morning and 8 afternoon + 12 galley crew in shifts through the day + parents of minors. That's without the traditional visits by old members and just curious visitors. So the club will restart sailing this weekend with up to 30 boats up on the broad, that's people arriving and leaving at different times, plus locals with boats sailing from their own houses, all entries all pre booked by email.. Talking of which ChriS F just tell the surgery you don't have a computer... Both married quarters and the Single Accommodation at all the camps I was stationed at (6 of them, plus 4 I visited ) all accommodation and work places was painted magnolia . Often old, crumbling, paint pealing etc. Time to.... go get started on this weeks system..

Then there are the funicular railways across the Monongahela River from downtown - the Duquesne Incline and the Monongahela Incline (35°35').

Probably not if they want it done quickly. Going round the Wrekin was used to describe not using a direct route. Well it was when I was living in the Midlands. I left about 50 years ago so perhaps they go round something else now?

Czech out some of the grades on Pittsburgh's former trolley system. When they got some new (read really ugly) cars to replace the old PCCs, 12% was specified; the manufacturer questiooned that as they thought it was a typo for 1.2%. No said PAT, we really do mean 12%.

The 4.21 from KX brings Wolf of Badenoch back home. and the 5.21 from Cambridge follows, and that brings us a lovely well cleaned B12.

G0G has clearly had a hugely beneficial affect in terms of helping to popularise 7mm/ft modelling, certainly to keeping the flame alive during the lean years, although the current surge in popularity probably owes as much to manufacturers/commissioners “taking a punt” as it does to anything else. It’s magazine is now very good and a fairly broad church; some of the other publications are also excellent, the small layouts books for instance. But, I’ve never felt moved to join G0G, despite being into old-fashioned 0 for quite a while now. Why? Hard to put a finger on, but it gives out a vibe of being full of grumpy, often argumentative, old men with axes to grind, and an inflated opinions of themselves. The very name, “guild”, speaks of exclusiveness not inclusiveness, even if it is actually trying a bit to be inclusive. Nothing wrong with a closed guild for craftspersons, with entry standards etc, to represent a particular type of model maker. Nothing wrong with a broad-church, scale-centric society with inclusive objectives. Where the G0G might be going wrong is in mixing its image, message, and attitudes, with some of the membership thinking its meant to be the former, and others the latter. Overall, seems to take itself and the hobby seriously enough to squash the fun out of it. I’ve no idea what the average age of the members of the governing body is, but it feels from a distance as if it’s c80, when it needs to be c45.