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Spotlight on Melton this morning, and why not, little compares with a clean single chimney A3. I don't know how the stuff the other side of the roof mamaged to come out so nicely. Then we have a side on view.

All HSTs in their original livery for today at Dry Doddington, between Grantham and Newark. Dry Doddington Class 254 up Feb 81 C5281.jpg Dry Doddington Class 254 up June 82 J7650.jpg Dry Doddington Class 254 up May 82 J7661.jpg Dry Doddington Class 254 up July 83 J8036.jpg Dry Doddington Class 254 up Aug 83 C6162.jpg David

My eldest granddaughter has now had her second Covid virus test. She's four! Started school in September. The family live in Reading: The first test a fortnight after she started school was in Slough. This weeks' test was in Swindon. Fortunately, they have the means to get to wherever the testing is taking place, but I am not convinced that testing children every time they get a cough or sniffle is the best approach. After all, small children seen to be in a perpetual state of snotty noses and coughs and sneezes from September through to August.

Yep

We are pleased to reveal the first decorated sample shots of our exclusive Bachmann McIntosh 812 Class Locomotives. Pre-ordering is highly recommended to secure yours as the order book is filling up fast. CLICK HERE Please note: These are first decorated samples and not final production models. Various amendments and alterations will be implemented on final production models. As with many ongoing projects throughout the industry, Covid-19 has caused and is continuing to cause delays. As a result the release date is slipped slightly on this project. Currently they are now expected early Q2 2021. Although frustrating, looking at the sample images, I am sure you will agree they will be well worth the wait!

GWR 6ton Crane and Match Truck by: Cambrian model rail Ref: C5 The purpose of these pictures is to show how I built the crane as the instructions are minimal with some unclear pictures included. Most of the instructions are written with the pieces not identified on the sprues, perhaps here numbering them on the sprues and referring to that would help considerably during the build. This is my interpretation of the construction, pictures and information is very sparse on this model so built using a bit of builders license is needed at times. Starting No wheels come with the model so I brought some from Cambrian. Next all the bits laid out, minimal flash but quite a few bits with mould lines where the two halves haven't quite lined up - fiddly but sortable Next after the wagon builds these are all the pieces for the crane cleaned up. The match truck and crane underframe where simple builds so I will just include some pictures for guidance Now for the crane itself I shan't describe a blow for blow build rather show each sub stage as I progressed and hopefully you can work out the pieces needed Just would like to point out on the last two pictures that the 'T' support was only glued on one side of the T so I could pull the sides apart to get the cross rods in easier. The crane assembly stood on the underframe only Unfortunately at this point if was difficult to take pictures of the jib construction because you had to hold, glue, line up, setting of glue which left no hands to take a pictures. The following one is all I have showing lining up wasn't easy Filing and filler needed..... Jib in place once ready to check alignment. Crane hook fixing lug copied from Chuffinghell (Warren Branch) (white bit) as I thought - that's a good idea. Happy, now fixed. And ready to be fitted, mine is fixed in place so it was glued to the underframe Hope this helps any one planning to build this rather unusual by lovely model. Not sure if this is the right place to poste this as only the people following LM will see it, any ideas where this could also be posted? More pictures to follow in the next day or two of the competed model, might even be seen behind a loco somewhere!!!!

A week or two ago I promised to try to post some photos of how I paint my coaches, so here goes... The initial point of course is the priming. I use an etching primer from Halfords. As can be seen my preference is to solder the door handles and grab rails in place before any painting is commenced - I scrape these back to bare brass before the final coat of varnish is applied. Having masked the roof and brown bits with masking tape, the cream is applied. Once that's had a chance to thoroughly dry (I generally leave it for a couple of days at least), I then cover the cream area with Humbrol Maskol fluid (I apply this quite thickly with a couple of coats as it becomes much easier to peel off that way). The mouldings help to keep the Maskol roughly where I want it, but occasionally it does stray into what should be a chocolate panel, I try to rectify these indiscretions if I spot them with a cocktail stick but invariably miss one or two places, not that it matters too much as there will almost certainly be some touching up to do later anyway! The chocolate is then applied and once it's dry the Maskol can be peeled off. The centre door panel shows one of my "indiscretions" with the Maskol!! After another couple of days of drying time, it's now time to apply the black lining on the moulding. I do this with a 0.01mm Rotring pen and their black ink. Above can be seen the tools used at this stage - a really important piece of the equipment (for me) is the "clamping frame" which holds the model securely while the lining is drawn. This is made from 3 bits of 3/4" MDF, a base, a hand rest (glued to base) and a sliding clamp piece. The depth of the clamp is just right for 2mm scale models. The coach is clamped in the "clamping frame" in a bed of kitchen roll to protect the model, and the moulding lines picked out with the Rotring pen and a straight edge. The curved corners of the mouldings are touched in freehand afterwards. Again the odd mistake is bound to be made where the pen slips into a cream panel, and this will need to be touched up later with a fine brush and two or three coats of well thinned cream paint. With the moulding lines drawn, the next stage is to paint the mahogany bolections. The paint is thinned to a consistency where it will flow under capillary action and gravity around the windows - it might be possible to see that when I designed the artwork for this coach that a narrow trough was etched around the window to delineate the bolection which aids the painting of the window surrounds as it acts as a "stop line". The above image is simply to illustrate the bolection and door droplight painting. Good light and magnification, a pringle lid palette, and a puddle of paint that is regularly topped up with thinners to obtain a consistency that flows around the bolections. The door droplights don't have the luxury (on my etched coaches) of a "stop line", so thicker paint, a steady hand and a fair bit of cleaning up afterwards is required to get these neat!! The final image in this post shows the coach side after "iteration 1" of the process. I have started to clean up the cream paintwork around the door droplights with a very fine sable brush moistened with thinners to lift off most of the errant mahogany paint. It will be necessary to touch up the cream further into the process!! It is now a "simple" case of repeating most of the above to obtain a neat finish that I am satisfied with. All being well in a few weeks the coach will be ready to add to the rest of the train : What I'm aiming for! Thanks for looking, Ian

Good evening everyone When I went to the butchers this morning I ended up chatting to my cousin again, she was already in the queue when I got there. This morning’s second outing to The was uneventful, I managed to get all the items that Sheila had put on the extensive list. On my way there I noticed there was a few parking spaces outside our local independent DIY store, so I called in there and picked up a few small items I needed. The shop has been open 56 years and is now the only one left in the area. This afternoons phone call from the doctors didn’t happen, instead I was phoned this morning by a different doctor, luckily I’d just got in from the butchers, as he used the landline and not my mobile, despite my saying the mobile is the best number to get me on as I have it with all the time! Anyway, he’s the most senior doctor at the practice and has been following my case with interest, so it’s probably a good thing. He told me he was a bit aggrieved with ‘The Christie’ as what they had initially proposed goes against the normal protocol, in that the hospital provides the first injection and the surgery carries on with all subsequent treatments. He also wanted some clarification with regard to pre-injection medication, so he said he would write to them immediately after our conversation had ended. He must have been as good as his word as ‘The Christie’ phoned me this afternoon about my treatment. The end result is that I now have some idea of when my hormone treatment will start. My first injection will now take place at ‘The Christie’ and all subsequent injections being done at the surgery. I’ll get a letter sometime next week giving me a date, this could be next week, but I suspect it will be the week after next, but it’s looking like it will definitely be this month. After tea I popped round to Vickie’s and dropped off Ian’s birthday card and present, as well as some presents for the kids for Halloween. I had a chat with Vickie for about 20 minutes and Ava, Evie and Max all came to the door to say hello. It was really nice to see and talk to them all, something that I’ve not been able to do since March! They all seem to have grown a lot in that 7 month period, boy has the time flown by. Goodnight all.

The only Facebook group I have had suggested recently was “The Old Layout”. It wasn’t about trains. I have multiple departments in three separate hospitals communicating with my GP. The changes in medication and test results get acted on promptly and efficiently. So it can be done.

So I have a bit of news too.. Since the Covid crisis doesn’t seem to be going away soon, the plan is to begin live streaming footage from HLJ towards the end of the year. This live streaming will initially replace the layout going out to the public until things return to some semblance of normality. All streaming will be high quality, with multiple cameras at various locations. This will include a ‘Come trainspotting at Heaton Lodge Junction’ series with the fixed camera locations at multiple points and will live stream for 4/5hrs on particular dates. Additionally there will also be a ‘How to’ series on the scenic techniques I’ve learnt, to cover static grass, realistic road construction, with the emphasis on speed but producing ultra realistic results. Other episodes will cover ‘speed’ weathering, constructing wagon loads and much more. As some may know Heljan is sponsoring Heaton Lodge Junction and as such all new Heljan O gauge models will be featured on the layout (before they hit the shops) pulling heavy trains, being reviewed and tips on weathering them. All this will be scheduled in advance so it’s possible to pick and choose what you wish to see. I’ll keep those interested posted on here. Back to the present and I mentioned earlier the Dive Under tunnel progress. This video ‘Lights at the end of the Tunnel’ was created by software specialist Jonathan and gives a taste of what’s to come. Enjoy

Ey up! Where did my "sleep time" go? A walk to the Post Office and to our local Pharmacy is scheduled for today. Question is..... have the inhabitants at the Marie Celeste signed off my prescription for more "guinea pig" drugs?? I shall find out later. Mugatea is here to be drunk so... Enjoy your day! Baz

Good morning all, I slept a bit better last night, so today I am posting a little bit later than the usual 04:30 CET. I am quite enjoying the various posts on trams and trolleybuses, there is something appealing about them (although I do find collecting destination blinds a little bit weird, but each to his own, I suppose). I read something interesting about the value of adding either a tramline, a trolley bus line or a bus line to an area within a city or town. If you go through the expense of putting in a tramline, which of course is a permanent fixture, the area through which the tramline passes will go up in value, become more desirable and end up with better services and facilities. Whereas adding a new bus line does nothing of the sort. The reason that was given for the difference, is that a tramline is permanent and therefore something dependable to build around, whereas a bus line exists at the whim of either the bus operator and/or the local authority for its existence and it cannot be depended upon to be there in, say, 10 years time. I am quite spoilt, I have a superb network of trams and buses (and in a small corner of Basel there are [were] also trolleybuses) to depend on. They are clean, modern, comfortable and reliable. Should an idiot try and outrun a tram across a level crossing and lose, within 10 minutes there is a replacement bus service in operation whilst the police and BLT/BVB clear up the mess. And unless the accident has caused major damage to the infrastructure (very rarely happens, but it does) everything is back to normal within an hour or so. On the topic of “damage“ that brings me nicely to what was posted earlier about replacement parts for Kenwood and Magimix (I have a Kenwood). I would argue that the reason spares of all kinds are available for these is because they are also used by professional kitchens. I have noticed that it is very seldom that you can easily find spares for “domestic only“ appliances, whereas items dedicated to “the trade“ almost nearly always come with a full panoply of available spares. A good example would be my ice cream maker from Nisbet’s: every single part of the ice cream maker (which has an integrated refrigeration unit) is available as a spare; whereas a similar machine, from a Swiss company serving just the domestic market (Betty Bossi), has no spares available, at all (I checked, because I want to have a second machine as sometimes – especially in summer - I make a lot of ice cream and sorbets and two machines would be handy). Curiously enough, and supporting what I have always claimed: that professional equipment is frequently no more expensive than domestic, the Nisbet’s machine is somewhat cheaper than the Betty Bossi machine. One thing I have noted about professional equipment (and this seems to go across the board and is applicable to almost any endeavour) is that professional equipment tends to be quite “simple“. Inasmuch as professional gear tends not to have the plethora of lights, knobs and “bells and whistles” found on items for the domestic items. Very much a case of “form follows function” And now I am off to “function“ in the kitchen, as Mrs ID is returning from the Holiday Hovel today and is expecting a three course dinner to fine dining standards. Have a great Saturday iD

Greetings one and all I forgot to include St Gallen in the list of Swiss trolleybus systems. Tut, tut. It must be eight years ago now that I enjoyed the trolleybus network in Vancouver. On one journey the driver stopped to make a purchase at a convenience store. Boy did the traction motors scream as he put his foot down to make up time! Hilly cities such as Vancouver are ideal for trolleybuses. This is possibly why they are popular in Switzerland. Having been used to the relatively simple overhead wiring in London it struck me just how obtrusive it is on present-day systems. Not for us the power switching of the points. The conductor used to pull on a handle affixed to a pole annd hang on to it until the poles had passed over the junction. Some of the busier junctions had push buttons in a box on the pole or a device that was pulled down by the conductor and reset by a skate on the overhead. Retriever cables were unknown in the UK , where conductors had to go fishing with a long bamboo pole that was kept in a tunnel underneath the trolleybus or hung on a nearby pole at locations where dewirements were common. There is a story of a retriever cable which I would like to think is true but it does have the air of legend. It is said that one day in Lausanne a cable came loose, wrapped itself round a traffic light and yanked it out of the ground This is so much more interesting than my daily doings! Best wishes to all Chris

60700 has come to a stand, and with 12 on, that means it is well off the end of Platform 6. So, here we have a blue sky. I just feel that it lacks character and atmosphere. This was a morning for plonking, rather than running trains, and here's the first result. North box in a starrring close up role.

Morning all, Rain has been, and gone, with no more forecast. Flavio was I reckon spot on about the impermanence of 'bus routes. When we lived in Tilehurst we had a 'bus route at the bottom of our road (or via a short footpath from near our house at the top end of the road) and during the time we lived there it was almost impossible to keep up with the way the routes ket changing and which route didn't pack up for the day at around 18.00 in the evening or which stop they went from in the centre of Reading. The problem was that not only did Reading Transport have an innovative and dynamic GM (and he brought in some very good ideas over the years) but the Labour Party member for transport on Reading Council, which controlled Reading Buses applied a lot of his own, sometimes daft, ideas every time his lot were in power despite the strong opposition of a former colleague of mine who was the Tory transport expert and knew a heck of a lot more about what public transport should be doing than his Labour opposite number. So it was like musical chairs on the ;buses at one time as route numbers changed even if the route didn't change. The best time was when the independent operator (RM = Reading Mainline) using Routemasters was going because they gradually expanded their services and then were fairly reliable, and because they used conductors their journey times were also shorter. Talking of which our local 'bus service here has just changed from a contract operated by ReadingTtransport (who threw in the towel) to another operator who was apparently selected by a Councillor who sits next to me at the dining table. Said Councillor has thos morning gone for a photo shoot with the new operator's minibus to highlight his role in the selection process. While it might do his image as a Councillor a bit of good by bringing him to wider public attention I have advised him that it might not be the best idea in the world to be too closely associated with a fivefold reduction in the number of trips per day the new service makes compared with the old. I also wonder if he will return home on the 'bus which goes up the hill just round the corner from us but doesn't have any official stops there? Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

Parcel posted, prescription.. well sort of collected .. In another Marie Celeste Master Stroke they have failed to up the dose of my "guinea pig" clinical trials drug.. flipping wonderful.. the GP who set this up all wrong has a lot to explain... If the nHS ever manage to learn to communicate our lives would benefit greatly! Baz

Morning all. Back from our drive around the North before further restrictions were introduced. Wednesday night was Lancaster before they went into tier 3. The riverside walk from the hotel into town where Green Ayer station was is closed for flood relief works so we made use of the canal. Most pubs were very much deserted. From there we drove via Hellifield station as it’s been a while since our last visit. We stayed in Lincoln on Thursday with a short trip to Newark but some of our favourite drinking places have closed but luckily one was still open. The owner said that his taking were down 50% even before They went into tier 2 and he didn’t know how he as going to continue with this and his other bars. Back in Lincoln many restaurants were closed and those open busy with students.most were insisting you use your smartphone to register so we just walked away as my glasses just mister up with the face mask on. My brothers son in college in Essex has a big issue as they will kick him out of the boarding section at half term but as Essex is in tier 2 he’s not allowed to stay with anyone and most hotels won’t let an under 18 stay by themselves. Th college is being unresponsive and unhelpful. I have hind that they must have a duty of care. Today we are on our way to the Isle of Wight whilst we still can but we have had to book the ferry separate today train ticket in order to get reservations on the ferry but it’s a lot dearer than booking a combined ticket. Our last trip to see the old tube stock on the island.

Nice walk this morning, there's something about the weekends, the air seems fresher, probably though less traffic, and the people I meet and say good morning to, seem happier, friendlier, and in less of a hurry, probably because their not going to work, or just have more time. It was also a lot warmer than I expected, but according to my Phone, we have about a Months worth of rain coming next week, so I definitely won't be venturing out in that. Have a good weekend one and all, and most of all, stay safe and well.

Bear had an email invite from Britannia Hotels a few days ago, inviting me to come and see the Blackpool illuminations. This was about the same time as the scottish first minister mentioned 200 cases of C-19 had been tracked back to....Blackpool. I declined the very kind offer..... I'll swear that most domestic kit is designed by a bunch of inbred twats whose primary mission is "to make it nigh on impossible to take this thing to bits, and if you do so there'll be so many broken plastic clips the thing will never go back together again properly, and will need to be held together with superglue and/or insulating tape". And that's assuming you have a set of bits to suit the vast array of security screws now in use. My last fix involved such screws - "no problem", says I....until I realised that the screws were so deeply recessed the holder for the security screw bit was too fat to fit down the recess. B'stards. The designers still failed though, as Bear did get in quite happily as it turned out - but it took practically my entire toolbox to do it.

Mooring Awl. Inner Temple Hare, 5.5 hours solid sleep so far, more later I hope, Yesterday's work at the MRC was acting as a ganger wrestling two things that change direction on to 6 bits of parallel metal. Work not completed as I had left various tools behind, I thought they were in the tool box, but no. So I hope this weekend to go to the MhRC empty the toolbox collect all the tools up and do a proper sort out. Hopefully I'll go next week with a pinning tool, and an Archimedes drill. I too use a track ball, and have since the 1970s, they were old then, invented and patented in 1947 in the UK for radar, the ones I used the 70s had been installed in the early 60s. I'm used to using either hand as the radar had one track ball between two consoles, also SWMBO is sinister, so I leave it in her preference. Hmm I'm Getting huffed at by brown eyes.. Cool, dry overcast, dark, cockerel crowing in the distance Ben the happy Collie has had a good sniff around, nothing to chase, I illuminated with the landrover headlights, several rabbits and a couple of deer in the garden last night when I returned from ganging... I fear further snoozing will now not happen, so thoughts of breakfast and a Muggacoffee come to mind. Time to head for the kitchen...

Evening all, been a while I know.. So the last week has seen some feverish activity on the Dive Under tunnels and the scenic triangle mentioned previously. The other two thirds of the river has been poured with 5kg of casting resin with a mucky tint. The two upper Huddersfield lines are now ballasted and for the first time ever all tracks are now operational. Thanks to my good friends Rob & Jonathan the automation side of things is becoming a reality. Seeing a long freight pulling up at a red signal awaiting a passing Inter City is superb. Once passed, the signal changes to yellow and the freight starts to plod away once more. Here’s a few pictures of progress this week.. Regarding ballasting, if it’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s absolutely critical to soak the ballast through with PVA mixture.

Afternoon awl, First job turn the power off and move the external power socket left by six inches. Power back on. Drill out the last two screws holding the door to its old frame in the alleyway. Then place the door on a thin board in the new door frame . Screw hinges to frame. Push door off board, check door swings OK.. Place door in closed position, fit door frame post to other side, which happens to be covering where the power socket formerly lived. Cut to size and fit top door frame beam. Fill gap above top door frame with more wood. Seal / fill, any tiny gaps all round the frame, with just like nails.. It won't be moving again. Cut slot to door catch, and fit.. Plan further work, which is to move the outside tap and drain away from the door, to give more clearance. Move onto tiling, this is a small extension to the BBq servery, which will just fill up an unused corner, under will be a cupboard. 7.5 white tiles, and numerous blue mosaic tile borders later and I've run out of suitable gue.. Sort tool Box, my pin pusher is missing, I need to check in and under the layout next time I'm at the MRC. Find Archimedes screw drill, but the big one is also missing, with the pin pusher? Time I think for an eyelid inspection..

Mawnin‘ awl. Dull and grey outside, unsurprisingly! I forgot trimming the ivy around two windows during my gardening session last week, so I just corrected this oversight. Tangly stuff even with an electric hedge trimmer! Woke up several times during the night and felt agitated somehow, but couldn’t explain why exactly. Maybe moving to a remote island isn’t such a bad idea after all! Food shopping needs to be carried out later today, too. I’d better double-check that the list is complete, because what I forget writing down I also forgot to buy with high regularity. Later.

Good morning all, Very dull and overcast here with showers, sunny spells and "abundant" cloud forecast. More Shed time yesterday resulted in track being lifted, relaid and an extra siding added to the goods yard. The soldering iron was deployed and I remembered to pick it up at the correct end so no burns ensued. An order has been placed with a Sheffield emporium for one of their "deals of the day" (at the behest of The Boss) for a certain celebration in December. When it arrives I will be allowed to test it and then it will have to be put away until the day and I will then be expected to look surprised when I open it. This morning may see me starting to lay ballast and later on there are two rugby matches to watch. One was last night but I completely forgot about it so will have to watch the highlights. Have a good one, Bob.

Shouldn't that be 4' 8 1/2"? Hat...

Everything about that photo is just wonderful. The loco, the carriage, the signal and signalbox, all the little details like lamps, the hut and the retaining wall and tunnel mouth all shouting "model me!".

Good moaning from a cool Charente. Much discussion of trolleybuses. Bradford certainly had automatic point changers on the overhead. They were activated by taki g or not taking power some 50 yards ahead of the point. Perhaps an early form of frog juicer. The only pull points were in the depot and in the city centre where buses could swap routes. There were enough auto changers so that the through routes didn't need to change any points manually as they crossed the city centre. There were of course manual points to access the few stretches of non revenud overhead that were used to get buses from and to depots. Anyway yesterday went well, the tax office was sorted for our friend then an excellent lunch and natter with model railway friends. Nurse Dominique has just been to give us our flue jabs and take a blood sample from Beth. We are shortly due to have our weekly xhat with Rachel, Laura and Emily so life is as good as it gets. Regards to all. Jamie

... and completing the book, but the blog is ongoing. https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/10/17/a-year/

Useful stuff is earwax if you want to find a dead whale's age. Apparently it has layers of a different colour for each summer and winter, like tree rings so they just count the layers. Jamie

For reasons which I’m struggling to explain yet, Facebook suggested I join a group about near-death experiences last night...

And this morning, from several sources: How to clear earwax.

A nice pair of 20's parked in the Centre Road this morning.

Morning, Will find out later what today will bring after a little more eyelid inspection. I've used one since the mid 80s at home and at work since the early 90s. It amuses me that our IT support team have difficulty in adapting to it and often, after a period of annual leave, I return to find a mouse attached as they've had a need to use the computer!

Falsgrave tunnel.

A'noon, missed morning again. Various trips around the rock (come over Dom, it's lovely.....!) this morning, all messages completed, and lunch down at the Sound (Lands End), where it was actually sunny. Dull here 'down north' though. Indicators on Trams/Trolleybuses? Not BMW or Audi made then! I also have a Kenwood, but in this case it is our AV amplifier, which is old, rather powerful (much more so than the proper hifi amp), and built like a brick outhouse. Must be 25 years old or so, if not more, it owes us nothing. A superb bit of kit, I would buy the brand again should we need to.

I'm guessing this was a French innovation? Afternoon all. Eye test this morning and a new prescription. It's a bit stronger this time. Well, actually it's a 3ft long stick which they suggested I paint white. That said the cornea thickness measurement was fine. They did a peripheral vision check too, although I didn't see the large bill coming. Meanwhile whilst rooting through a pile of old documents ton use in this week's lecture I found a brochure for the MoD rail system over at Bicester along with the track plan they provided. Somethereal very photoss of when we took a one of the shunters for a spin round the system. That must be 20 years ago now. How time flies!

I've also got something of a lamp factory going on today. More lamps from Dave at Lanarkshire Models, a mix of LNER and ex-LMS versions, the quality I agree is superb. Just a small moulding 'pip' to remove from the base of a few of them, and then straight into the spray booth. It was quite a surprise when I calculated how many I'd need to 'top and tail' the balance of my Loco fleet and rakes of rolling stock!

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit dull and overcast here this morning but at least its dry and even Arthur Itis is sleeping. As Jamie said automatic frogs were quite common even here in the UK. Trolley retrievers were not used so much because the wires were at a greater height above the road. Twenty feet was the legal minimum except in special incidences such as under bridges. Also the ropes could interfere with the emergency exit on double deckers which was usually at the rear. As always there was exceptions such as Kingston-Upon-Hull that fitted retrievers to much of their fleet I have never had a problem with ear wax and I put that down to never having used soap to wash my ears just a flannel and warm water. My teacher in infants school told us never to use soap to wash our ears and somehow that stuck.

What did he say?

Morning suns out, so if I can find a non crowded place, I might just go and find some rays.

Actually from what I've recently it was 4ft 8 inches initially for both Stockton and Darlington and the Liverpool and Manchester. The half inch was added after as it was found to be too tight on the wheels, and they found it easier to ease the track that change axles and chassis arrangements on rolling stock.

Today I fitted the new signal power supply unit. I needed to mount it on a backboard with connectors before mounting it on the layout. Next I converted all the existing signal power modules to just relay modules. These are a lot simpler and tidier now. The only trouble was that some of the signals still didn't work. That's when I discovered that the jack plugs and sockets are only a loose fit to each other and therefore only making intermittent contact. I'll have to replace them with something else, possibly a miniature connector as used by radio control modellers. I'll see what I can find. A bit annoying really.

Afternoon all, had my flu jab yesterday, now got a numb shoulder.............................went out with my camera and everywhere was mobbed with folk with similar ideas to me, so back home without taking a single shot, I'll try again on Monday when folks are back at work and the kids will be back at school as "tattie fortnight" is over.

Good afternoon Andy, I've had gummed-up Portescaps brought to me at shows. I've always been able to release them by moving the driving wheels by hand (with some force!) and then let the motor do the rest using crocodile clips. It would appear to be the fault of the original red lubricant. Some proper oil after that and they were fine........... I like your description 'rescuing' kits from various sources. Unless they're effectively 'given away', I'd never touch them. Why not? Because every one I've had through my hands has taken me longer to undo and put right than it would if starting with a virgin kit. And, the end result (despite that extra time) rarely (if ever) matches the 'standard' I set myself when building a pristine loco kit. I say 'given away', and by that I mean considerably less than the component parts' original cost. That way, in the same way that car enthusiasts use the term 'spares or repairs', I might well recover things like wheels and motor and use any recoverable body bits as spares. However, all the above said, on occasions, I have 'resurrected' locos built by others............ Cases in point..... This DJH A1 was largely-built when I acquired it from the estate of a deceased modeller. It didn't go very well, but the cure was relatively simple (just some minor tweaking to pick-ups, motor/gearbox mount and coupling rods - like your list). I completed it and Geoff Haynes painted it. Initial cost £50.00. Worth it? Another DJH A1, this time with the bodywork built by a good friend. I built the chassis, adding the cost of the motor/gearbox. This one was painted by Ian Rathbone. Initial cost £100.00. Worth it? Built from a virgin DJH kit by me; painted by Ian Rathbone. And another from the same source. Viewers might draw their own conclusions..................... Regards, Tony.

My bread maker is like that. After many years service, the drive belt failed, so I called the manufacturers (Morphy Richards), who could only offer to sell me a new machine, and when I didnt want that, they tried to sell me a bread cook book for my non-working machine! A spare belt was procured online, then I tried to fit it. Taking the machine apart was just about impossible, and as the belt drive system was underneath and protected by a plastic surround, I just took a small grinder to the plastic. Old belt duly removed and new one fitted. As the belt is underneath and hidden from view, I now just run it without the plastic surround in place. Early start this morning, so we had completed the Morrisons and Aldi Grand Prix by 8.30, so it was home for a late breakfast. Since then, the lawn egdes have been strimmed in advance of hopefully the last lawnmower cut of the year.

Greetings all from Sidcup- the week has been busy and I have missed a working week’s worth of updates- I hope all are well and coping with the latest vagaries of lockdown. I was speaking with a colleague who was seconded to the Czech Republic or Czechia as they seem to want to call it and they having shut down early and aggressively the first time around and had very few infections are now locking down fully again with the second wave far worse. So pain seems relative. in other news SiL has caught mumps so she and family are isolating for very different reasons- the photo suggests that she looks terrible and she feels terrible; she has no idea where it came from and she like I guess most on here is from the pre-MMR generation (1988 in the UK apparently). Her boys should be fine as they are fully vaccinated but we don’t know if the BiL has had it. year end work is going slowly so it is good news that it is the weekend take care all

Quick update time, with lots of help from Russel, cheers mate, I now have a stormy cloudy backscene and am rather pleased with it, what do you guys think? There will be another large warehouse style structure this end with a track leading into it for loading/unloading (accessible through the backscene) which should help hide the access trackwork as well. oops, little blurry, sorry! Now I notice the missing chimney in the corner which will hide the corner brace. More to follow. Best wishes Simon