Leaderboard

The Blyth and Tyne again today bwteen Winning and North Blyth over about 24 years. Winning 56127 coal to Blyth Power station Sept 87 J9298.jpg Winning 56120 up empties 21st August 89 C13717.jpg Winning 37410 down empties with brake van 26th Oct 92 C18079.jpg Blyth West staithes being demolished 4th Sept 95 C20511.jpg They were cut down to a few feet above the level of high tide. Alcan North Blyth 55022 Royal Scots Grey propelling wagons to be loaded 11th Apr 2011.jpg David

No coal or crew as yet , especially noticeable with that Churchward cab but I thought you might like to see some mogul action and here she is on a down stopping train. It really is a photogenic model and I'm very pleased with it. All credit is due to Dapol. More anon.

The K1 got its portrait took. I'd have got a clip round the ear if I'd said that at home when I was a kid. Anyway, it did. Handsome engine, and the GN heritage shines through. And while it rests, one of its ancestors runs through with a Boston to East Class F, minerals marshalled at the front for a change.

All this talk of bombs... her indoors gas not been right today.. its a anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings. She was a student at the Birmingham School of music at the time and has some very unpleasant memories of that night. Baz

OK, before we get too serious, here we have...just a plonk at twilight. Not an area with great architectural merit, but you see the layout warts and all. Sorry about the detritus. I like that word.

Well the morning flew by. I managed to obtain 3 out 4 of the requested magazines so all is well in that department. Final decorations have been put up and all empty boxes etc now put back in the loft until the New Year. A case of wine has been ordered, just as a precaution you understand. Precautionary beers will also be ordered in the next few days. I've been told not to order any spirits yet as I have a birthday fast approaching so that sounds promising. Soon be time for lunch and then I can settle down to watch some rugby. Before I go I'll leave you with this that a friend kindly sent me: He noticed these Acronyms for Pensioners in yesterdays newspaper which you may find amusing . WYWH: Will you want Horlicks . MYOB: Make your own Bovril . BFF : Bedpan frighteningly full IMHO : It’s my hip operation . POV : Please order Viagra . OAP : On a promise . ASAP : Asleep after pill . WTF : Wig tilted forward . OMG : Oh me Gout ! TBC : To be cremated You may notice I didn’t say useful . Take care Bob.

In the case of the LNER: Turnunder:

When I joined the RAF in 1966 it seemed that the only duty for a gate guard on a base in the UK (should there actually be one) was to direct visitors to SHQ or wherever else they wanted to go. Even in Singapore when I was posted there in 1968 the security was less than the average Boy Scout could have dealt with but after the riots of 1969 things were tightened up a bit. In Germany in the early 1970s things were very different and base security was taken very seriously but back in UK there were still situations such as at Coningsby where the main gate was guarded but a few hundred yards up the road the side entrance to the Mess was wide open and offered access to the whole place. Then came the IRA and things began to change but as Q, HH and others have described it took quite a while before we reached the state of security that exists today. Regarding the carrying of personal weapons, back in the early 1960s aircrew used to be issued with Smith & Wesson .38s carried in shoulder holsters under the lifejackets, which was bulky and quite uncomfortable, then someone pointed out that during an ejection the inertia of the gun would probably tear it off and do considerable damage to the person (whether this was ever proved or disproved I don't know). After a while we were issued with Browning 9mm automatics but the only time we ever got to fire them was during annual Ground Defence Training when it usually became apparent that the safest place to be if faced by a pilot with a gun was directly in front. Much later we got some sort of little pop guns - possibly Berettas but I can't be sure - but by then the whole idea of aircrew carrying personal weapons had begun to seem faintly ridiculous and I didn't take much notice of them. I was much more at home with Aden cannons, 20mm Gatling guns and various types of missile. The best fun I ever had firing land based weapons was the 120mm job in a Chieftain tank - quite an experience. Enjoy Saturday everyone. Dave

Good evening everyone The weather has been rather meh today, dull and cold, but dry at first, although as I mentioned this morning, there was evidence of overnight rain about. On my way back from the butchers this morning, it started to rain, luckily it wasn’t heavy and I was wearing my coat and hat. I was also successful in obtaining a pastie, the first time in a couple of weeks! However, the alternatives that I’ve had to make have rather nice! Good evening everyone This morning I forgot to mention that I was going round to Vickie’s to drop off birthday presents for Ava, (which is on Monday) Evie and Max (both a week on Tuesday). I went round whilst they were all at school, so that Vickie could hide them from the kids. I dropped placed them all on her door step, then sent her a text once I was back in the car, so she could take them in. When I was single, I loved shift working, particularly afternoons and nights and to some extent early’s. They worked well enough when we were first married, although Sheila never liked afternoons as it meant I saw a lot of the children when they were young. But once the children started school, as I saw a lot less of them. So I switched jobs to one where I only worked Monday to Friday days. On the subject of bomb threats/scares, the company I used to work for had several very high profile security sites, one in particular in the Lake District, had electric fencing and was linked to the police armed response squad. Several former work mates have had to answer questions to armed police when attempting to lock or unlock the site and have been a bit too slow to deactivate the alarm or contact grid control to inform them your entering the site! On one occasion, the police and army organised a security test, which involved a small army team attempting to gain access to the site and pretend to ‘blow up’ the one of the control rooms. A date was set for the exercise to take place overnight, the evening came and went and nothing happened, no site alarms, no fence trips or building alarm activations were detected. The following day the police contacted the army and asked why they hadn’t tried to get on the site and what went wrong. The army replied, nothing went wrong, it went exactly to plan and the bomb’s in a small bag beside the door of control room 3. Sure enough, when a site check was made, there was indeed a bag outside the door of control 3! there were a few red faces after that I can tell you.

Morning all. Of guns, security and being fried by radar I know nothing, so onto more dangerous things, my bedtime reading. I prefer light reading in bed mostly because these days I fall asleep and can't remember the last few sentences I'd read. My reading of choice then is non fiction that can be read in small chunks. Usually biographical or travel orientated. My last book was about a bloke cycling the length of Scotland and my current read is 'A Walk Along the Tracks' by Hunter Davies in which he describes walks along closed railway lines. Enjoy your weekend and bedtime reading folks.

Vicks, Fisherman's Friend, Hall's soothers - all the things I grew up with - to help out on the 3month recovery from summer irritations from just one spot of the G word (chopping down overgrown shrubs without my bandana face mask on). The only way I could get any sleep! ' morning all from red dragon land. Raining...sun later. Sun = bright workbench dining table... The M word comes to mind...my first attempt go at waterslide transfers. Never mind Fitt n Elfie, I may need a confidence booster! Time for a mugadecaf. Take care and play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

Good morning everyone A dull, dry but windy day here in the northwest of England. Breakfast is now but a distant memory and I’ll shortly be heading off to the workshop to continue working on turntable control panel, more wiring is to be added to the turntable control switches, then I’ll be able to re-test its functionality. Once happy it still works ok, a start made on connecting up all the switches and LEDs, I don’t expect to get it finished this weekend. Poly Bear, you’re quite right to be confused, I’m afraid it was poor grammar on my part, it was a good thing to be able to see the children when they were very young. I was late when I wrote that post! Well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian.

I believe that was a regular occurrence in the UK forces during the Cold War (and may still be these days - I don't know). I think one of the easy tricks was to drive into a base after dark (showing some high level security pass at the guardroom) and then park the unmarked vehicle in the space reserved for the Commanding Officer. The vehicle would be left unlocked and sometimes with keys in the ignition. I gather it caught out a few COs who drove onto the base the following morning and were enraged to see some oik had parked in 'their' space. They would stride over to the offending vehicle and try the door, only to be greeted by a piece of paper, with "bomb" written on it, falling to the ground as they opened it.

Try that today and you'll probably end up with a stream of claims for PTSD..... Groan.... I would've thought that seeing a lot of the children when they were young would be classed as a good thing? Confused..... I worked with a couple of guys that used to do a lot of work at RAF Boulmer, which uses Radar to monitor all aircraft in and around UK airspace - including Ruskie Bears (not of the fluffy variety) trying to sneak in. They told of a story whereby a (UK Special Forces?) guy sneaked in one night and spent time placing small packages marked "bomb" in various strategic locations around the site without being detected. In the morning he presented himself at the guardhouse and asked to see the C.O., who he then told what he'd managed to do, after which he spent all night (on the roof of a building?) asleep. A somewhat embarrassed C.O. was quiet for a moment, but then asked which building he'd been on. It was one with a radar dish on top....which had been on all night.... The C.O. advised the individual to go see the M.O. as a matter of priority. I ask Alexa to read me BBC News, often using the "Alexa, tell me more" option to stretch it out a bit. If that doesn't send me to sleep then it's "Alexa, read me "A Bear called Paddington" which does the trick - which is absolutely no criticism of the book you understand (it's a literary great in my eyes), but more my ability to snooze. Works a treat. In other news: How do you get ER'ers names to highlight in little boxes in posts? I've yet to discover that trick? All the talk about bomb scares made me think of this man, who was from Cornwall - there was a TV programme about him several years ago and certainly brings a tear (or several) to the eye: https://americamatters.com/rick-rescorla-saved-2687-lives-on-september-11/ From memory he was trouble by the memory of the guys he commanded in Vietnam that never came back, so when the Twin Towers happened he had to keep going back in to find those missing from the headcount. Nearly 2700 Morgan Stanley employees owe their life to him, with all but eleven not escaping. First Class honours due.

Ey up! To assuage @chrisf hunger for info.. At the moment I have just finished re-reading Thud! By Terry Pratchett. The latest HMRS Journal is now ready for reading on my bedside cabinet... Good morning ERs! Yes @Erichill16 not as many ERs appear early (uk time) every day. A few lurk..talking of which.. I hope @Natalie and @Kelly are ok. We haven't heard from them for a while. others are also missing.. not just from ERs but from RMWeb... @Kingzance and @trisonic being two examples.. just hope they are ok. blowing a hoolie here at the moment. Not sure what I have on my slop chit today but her indoors has delivered my mugatea so ..TTFN! stay safe, carpe diem! baz

Greetings one and all It looks as though the NHS is preparing for my CT scan already. Yesterday I received a letter telling me all about the process. It is most informative and I rather wish that I had been sent one when I had a scan five years ago to determine the extent of my cancer. With it came a leaflet about low residue diets, telling me to avoid high fibre foods among other things. This would have been so, so helpful prior to the colonoscopies that went wrong. “Please avoid any red or purple foods or drinks” it says. Oh well, that’s Ribena off the menu for a while. More of a shock is the prohibition of porridge. It does recommend crumpet. Say no more. I have been reading in bed. It can be most effective at sending me off to sleep and I hope that the authors of what I have been reading lately are not offended. Some nights I catch up with the comics – sorry, magazines – to which I subscribe. On others I choose a book, whether to check a fact or several related to m*d*ll*ng or purely for pleasure. In the latter category I have just finished “Give Me Ten Seconds”, the entertaining autobiography of John Sergeant, former chief political correspondent of the BBC. I remember buying it in 2002 when I was working in Cambridge and being most irked to learn that the man himself had been signing copies in the shop where I bought it the previous day. It could be interesting to learn what if anything others read in bed. Hint, hint. Best wishes to all Chris

While waiting for my Dapol mogul I've been revisiting my recent E95 brake compo. build. I was a bit dissatisfied with one or two aspects, especially the roof/sides join. I'd tried to disguise this with a false cantrail from microstrip but it came out rather less than straight! I decided it needed something more rigid so ordered some 1mm square brass strip from Eileen's. (Would have used nickel silver but n/s was o/s.) This has done the trick. I also found out that my plastikard representation of the roof board brackets had been fouling the cantrail, so I remove them and added new ones afterwards. Also took the opportunity of fettling new roof boards using thinner plastikard to match my other stock. I'm much happier with this coach now and glad I made the effort. Meanwhile a pair of Slater's toplight thirds are under construction - a first attempt at batch building. But of course I'm now tempted to start messing with the mogul! John C.

Afternoon Awl, On Salisbury plain it's often hard to work out what's military areas and what's public. Tidworth / Bulford had many through public roads through the camp. On many RAF stations much of it was unsecure. For instance RAF Boulmer, again, when I was there, Married quarters, no security. Not even a fence. Airmans , SNCOs and Officers single Quarter sites, no security, though there was a 3ft boundary fence / hedge. Round most of each site. Admin site a man on the gate, well in the guard room anyway, but a 3ft hedge fence round most of it.. Technical Radar site some security a 6ft fence and some barbed wire.. A Man on the gate. The sealing of the workshop yesterday meant the workshop warmed up a lot quicker this morning. The ceiling was about half finished with the remaining osb, that was insulated with the fibreglass. On opening the roll it was found to be part cut into 4 different width strips which was handy, 2/3 of one roll was used so far. There are 3.. The mains ring was completed except for one small move of a cable, which will require all supplies off so that will wait till later. Ben then turned up along with SWMBO and a muggacoffee. After which Ben took me for the long walk , breezy but sunny mostly, it's dry but the field furrows still have water in them. i the returned to wiring , this time the lighting circuit, a LED lighting batten was fixed to the section of ceiling completed and wired to the switch, I then started connect to the supplies, but realised I was making mistakes, I was also knocking off stuff from benches.. time to give up for the day. Left with power off for tomorrow. The house of strong ladies has just delivered, including the radio aerial and the bar for the lifting assembly, so as well as the light wiring to complete, I have those to install.. Gammon, chips mushrooms and peas are on the way, to accompany the bottle of red just opened.. Bye for now

I’m inclined to agree! But I think they make a terrific base for modifying though. I have done heaps – the most I have forked out for a second hand one on ebay is about 5GBP, I’m not too fussed how damaged they are or what bits are missing – as long as the roofs are in a reasonable condition. I did buy some new ones at the Bristol show in about 2001 for 7GBP each. Very little survives from the original. I do reuse the ends but detail them substantially. Pretty much everything else is replaced. All the sides I've used are from Comet/Wizard. I bought myself an airbrush a few years back to assist in painting them. Despite having a good selection of quality bow / lining pens I still use HMRS transfers. I have had a dabble (and watched the videos on here by the likes on Mike Trice) but there’s still something I can’t seem to get right. The plan, over Christmas, is to dedicate a day or two to having another go. Anyway here’s a few of my modified ones - don't worry about the sticky up corridor connectors / gangways - they flatten when formed in the rake! Stanier D2119 TK: Stanier D2161 BSK: Stanier D2170 TK: Stanier D1915 TO: Don’t mention the roof ribs….. Kind regards and good night, Iain

More on the transfers, those on the wagons are part way through the weathering process and it'll be several days before they're finished. However I can show you those which I designed to re-brand the ice cream van. Please bear in mind you'll be seeing them about four times larger than they really are.

Reminds me of my time in Hong Kong in 1966/67 when I was a Constable in the Marine Division of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police. Back then there were problems with the Red Guards over the border in China and it was decided that if things got bad the auxiliary police would take over policing the harbour allowing the regular police to on come on land and form another riot platoon. One late Saturday morning at work I got a phone call advising that there was trouble up on the border and that I should get down to the Marine Police Headquarters pronto, don't bother about uniform, just turn up. We did not normally carry arms whilst on duty on the harbour and had minimal arms training but as the problem up on the border was looking ugly we were told that we were being armed.... and each of us were given a pistol and five rounds of ammunition. To put it bluntly I was dead scared about carrying an armed weapon in my pocket so the pistol went in one pocket and the bullets went in another pocket...... We got six boats out on the harbour in just over 30 minutes but after a few hours bobbing about in the harbour we were recalled and life returned to normal. The Red Guards didn't make it over the border. Keith

That reminds me, a little, of, some years ago, reading an article on a research project in the Antarctic. The comment that came to light was that, with loadsa money having been spent on the ship to get them there, the science in the ice was basically done with knife, fork and a piece of string.

The Wilts & Dorset (now Damory) Salisbury - Blandford bus route runs through the Signals Corp Camp to the east of Blandford, a sensitive site as a lot of Intelligence work goes on there. Armed sentries get on the bus for its trip along the Camp roads. Some US tourists were most concerned (Gee! Are those guns real?) which surprised me given the gun habits in the US.

Excuse me can I moor here please.... I say, can I moor by the steps? Pardon? Sure but I don't have time for one of your yarns first!!!!! Can I tie up here please? You know what, I give up. Sorry to bother you but I shall try somewhere else.......

And the pile of paperwork afterwards if you came back with less ammunition than you went out with! What you describe about doing the absolute minimum does nothing to help the individual become skilled with their personal weapon. They are not used to it and, for want of a better word for it, scared by it's presence. I can't remember when it finally became policy to start arming sentries on a regular basis, but it was probably in the 1980's. On a more light hearted note I used to drive for the Paymaster on the weekly bank run when I was based at Ashford, Kent. After a dispute with the local police about the sentries carrying pick axe handles in the high street, we agreed this looked too aggressive, so the two guys going into the bank started to carry a Browning Hi Power instead. As the designated driver I got the luxury of a Sterling. Plod was a bit cross and came over to the car to admonish the Paymaster. But left rather quickly after seeing my offering peeping up at him. A week later and we were back to the pick axes!

Ahoy there...... Ahoy? Anybody on deck, can I come alongside? Can you take my line......! Ahoy??? Anyone.....

One of the guys at our place had a picture of Winston Churchill on his security pass, neatly pasted over his own fizzog. Used it for years, by all accounts - until he eventually got rumbled when he flashed it at an external establishment. Then the sh1t hit the fan.... The same happens to me, until I'm woken up by the sound of the book falling off the bed and hitting the floor, thus spoiling a good book - literally. I hate it when the corners of a book get bashed in I did some work at Foulness back in the early 90's; at that time there was still a pub on the island, as well as a primary school and post office/small shop. Not sure about the P.O/shop, but the other two are gone AFAIK (unless they've been re-opened since). By all accounts you could phone the pub landlord (a MOG by all accounts) and ask to visit - he'd give your name to the gatehouse and you could then drive right in. There's also at least one public landing jetty for boats, as well as a fair few public footpaths so it wasn't a difficult place to legally access.

I must confess to have been surprised by this diagram in that it would seem that, to scale the tu(mblehome)urnunder is only 1mm. I attach below a (rough) experimental picture i have taken this morning of a Hornby (left) and a Kirk Gresley coach with a straight edge placed between them. Interestingly the gap at the bottom of the Hornby coach looks closer to 1mm than the Kirk which most seems to agree has the better "look" (Sorry, I have nothing better to gauge these by). I have to agree, though, that the Hornby coach side looks flat. Interesting?

It used to do so for many years but no longer does. The bus now remains on the main road through Pimperne. Those quartered at Blandford Camp now have their own arrangements I believe. I travelled on that bus several times and discovered it was seldom used by anyone to or from the camp meaning the 20 minutes it took to circumnavigate and return to the main road was largely wasted time and fuel. Plus it required an armed guard to be available to travel on the bus for that time which used to run every 1 or 2 hours each way. It is now just four trips. There are other places in the UK where armed sentries board "public" buses. Foulness is one and here they escort anyone not holding a pass off the bus outside the gate as it terminates within MoD land. Thorney Island was another but that route was abandoned some years ago as unremunerative and the local council declined to offer revenue support on the grounds that it was run almost solely for the benefit of families based at RAF Thorney. It too terminated within MoD land meaning you were escorted off at the gate. However a friend and myself were unaware of this at the time and explained ourselves as enthusiasts to the sentry who, after a quick word of admonishment to the driver (for not checking our passes as we boarded) allowed us to remain on board to the terminus and come straight back without taking photos. Those guns are very real. And loaded. And would be used in anger if anyone tried to breach gate security. RNAS Culdrose near Helston once had a public road through its land and even crossing a main runway. That road was diverted to the south and outside the perimeter of the site meaning public buses on the Helston - Gweek routes no longer cross MoD land nor an active runway. As that was a public B-road rather than a private MoD one no guard was required. I also recall that buses between Fareham and Lee-on-Solent were greeted by armed guards as they pulled into the private lay-by at HMS Collingwood on Newgate Lane; only naval personnel were permitted to board or alight but the guards did not board the buses.

That’s good news, although it still means you have to undergo a bowel prep - though it’s slightly different to that required for a colonoscopy. The bad news is that it will require a low residue diet for a while, the good news is real ale is low residue.... Although I am a fully paid up member of the Congregation of Brunel, I do have a soft spot for one or two of British Rail’s diesels. The Deltic is, of course, iconic, but the one diesel I have a particular fondness for is the Class 50. Many, many, decades ago when I lived in Andover, Hampshire, I would travel to London by train and return from Waterloo on the last possible passenger service (which, if I recall correctly, left between midnight and 1 am and was composed mostly of old Mark 1 [?] compartment coaching stock with a rake of equally old BGs). Not only was there something of the “romance of travel“ about travelling in these - by today’s standards – dimly lit compartments, but also invariably they were hauled by a Class 50 with its unforgettable growl. Needless to say, that although my locomotive stock is 99.9% steam, I was most chuffed to win a Hornby Class 50 model from a British railway modelling magazine for writing a “letter of the month” It’s good that you get a proper information sheet, rather than to have to look it up on Google or guess from what they are saying what they actually mean. An awful lot of clinics and hospitals either have no or very poor information sheets for their patients. I am lucky, inasmuch as I don’t need those things, but they are important for most people who are not “in the trade“. In my line of work we spend an awful lot of time writing information sheets and informed consent forms for our studies. They are quite fun to write as you have to strike a happy balance between the very technical (such as “combining a CD137-specific Anticalin with a HER2-targeting antibody in a bispecific compound with the intent of trafficking an anti-CD137 therapeutic protein to the tumor microenvironment”) and medicine-for-the-under-fives (such as “The person in a white coat is a D-O-C-T-O-R. Can you say doctor? Yes? Gosh, you’re clever”). I think many people on ER would be appalled to learn how low the average reading age of the population is. This, in turn, is now leading to information sheets and informed consent forms being written in the form of comic book strips. You couldn’t make it up! Now you must excuse me. I have just finished baking a Turkish Quince cake (made with tahina and it is amazingly more-ish) as I have to activate the anti-bear traps around the Alpine Redoubt (tm). If Mr Bear does actually manage to circumvent the coffee cream pits, the walnut piece shrapnel and the exploding Black Forest Gateaux minefield, he should bear in mind that my minions have been authorised to use any means necessary to stop him: up to and including lethal force. And, unlike in the Bond films, if and when captured alive I will not tell Mr Bear my evil plans, nor will I have an “emergency self destruct button“ which is big, red, highly visible and prominently placed. Furthermore, all headwear used by my minions is transparent so that we can see who is in the uniform; nor do I execute minions who displease me - for any incompetent minion a fate worse than death awaits: a three day on-site learning awareness seminar conducted by my notoriously sadistic and cruelly evil HR department (oh, and I forgot to mention, minions who displease me also lose their profit sharing bonus for the calendar year). Cheers iD

Lucky you, mine are for Ladies under garments and frocks. Off to READ the adverts now.

When I first joined Royal Ordnance at Barnbow in 1989 modplod carried guns..much to the annoyance of the local constabulary... Scared me rigid ..especially if you turned up before 6am to collect a pool car, having an SA80 or similar pointed at you for no good reason was not good... At least they didn't go off on their own.. not like the Heckler and Koch ones used later by West Yorkshire Police... Baz

When No 2 son was a Coldstreamer in 2005/6 he used to enjoy working the Tower detail. At 10pm they changed out of their dress uniform into 95'(IIRC) then patrolled the boundaries with Bayonets fixed on their SA80's. Apparently the end of a bayonet was very good at persuading drunks out of the ditch by the traitors gate. Jamie

By shots that almost sounds up to date, they were still fighting Spencerism (think 1926) when I worked in South Kirkby. Morning all. We have ground frost herebut it's sunny and the log burner is going well. The Ash that we are burning at the moment is lovely, one log an hour. As to bedtime reading, I've just finished An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, an excellent novel based round the Dreyfus affair. However I often have various comics as Chrus would call them. In planning the new bathroom I have a very serious design issue. The task is to make some sort of shelf near the throne, for reading matter. This is a serious project. Does it need to be paperback sized, or to take a magazine. Anyway Beth seems to be adapting well to the CPAP machine. I managed to repkenish stocksvof essential red liquids yesterday and at the monent there are no firm plans for today apart from our usual video call to the girls. Jamie

Mooring Awl, 5.50 hours plus 1 hour not too bad a night's sleep. Dry overcast and quite breezy out there, and considerably warmer than yesterday morning. As I found out when summoned by Ben the hunting Collie. There was definitely something out there he was following the trail of, and at one point he was going round the car looking under it. I always have a book to read before sleep..I've just read another on the Roman empire, which in respect of leaders, has remarkable parallels in places, to the orange one.. This was followed last night by a book on olive green kettles from a headquarters on Academy street in Inverness.. As for site security my 12 years in the RAF, we patrolled secure sites with a pick axe handle and a torch.. and most of the time without the pick axe handle.. Getting arms out would have taken some time. Obtaining authorisation to get the keys, getting the key to the key cupboard and signing for it, going to the key cupboard getting the keys to the armoury and signing for them. Going to the armoury opening up, signing again of course, unlocking the weapon racks, the ammunition cupboards , sorting and issuing weapons everyone signing for everything of course... Other than thirty rounds a year at the range, we were never actually issued with weapons except for parades.. Plans for today, first demolish the last sheet of osb into smaller panels for the ceiling, . Then it's insulation time, so facemasks, gloves, hat, overalls etc, the rolls of fibreglass are 4ft wide, so will have to be unrolled outside and cut into sections... Then retreat inside before the expected rain. Time I think to consider food, and a muggacoffee..

6 years! Don was one of the reasons I started reading ERs, along with Olddudders and a few others. Just the way he posted... I have a glass that I shall raise to him and to Mal; it’s been and still is a busy time so I have missed the day itself. Still , Mrs Lurker is out of self isolation and mightily relieved (as are the walls she was climbing), although another two year bubbles were turned away today; the school’s attempt to keep virus levels in the boring borough from going berserk. take care all, the Islay needs finishing

Sad news today that Roy Link has passed away. A quiet but very influential modeller, illustrator and writer for the narrow gauge and industrial genres, he’ll be missed, but not forgotton. https://m.facebook.com/narrowgaugeandindustrial.co.uk/

Even better if you get a tripround in a Challenger Tank. The local Sika deer are unconcerned by vehicles. Seeing the sun coming up while motoring down the ranges in a warm Autumn day is fantastic! The land is well cared for (as is any MoD training land in Britain..the bits the farmers took over on Salisbury Plain are now a mess... Baz

One day a child in my science class removed what looked remarkably like a mortar round from his bag and started waving it about. His big brother had found it while near Foulness. His “logic” had been it must be safe as it hadn’t exploded! The headteacher’s first response was tell the boy to take it home and not bring it to school again. Less senior staff suggested more sensible actions. It turned out that it was a test projectile(not explosive) and someone came to collect it.

@Barry O Has just taught me how to put names/links in posts Thanks Barry

In the 1980s at least there was an 01.40 Waterloo - Yeovil Junction which may have been intended for newspapers when these still travelled by train. There were sufficient Mk 1 compartment vehicles in the formation for a somewhat indifferent night's sleep to be had. I used it for joy-riding at the very beginning of one of those wonderful Network Days that Chris Green invented. My introduction to it was by a then friend, Jason, who was an inveterate 50 basher. Their purpose in life was to notch up as many miles as possible with Class 50 haulage. Network South East extended as far as Exeter so there was plenty of scope! One night Jason and I were savouring the delights of having a compartment to ourselves when we were invaded. I'm not sure at this distance in time how it happened but the invader ended up on one of the luggage racks. If imperfect memory serves, he was bound for Gillingham but got off at Templecombe. Oh, happy daze. Chris

My adverts on here at the moment are for printers and a "life-changing chicken" gift card... Baz

That reminds me of a story from my late Dad, who was with the British Military Liaison Mission to South Africa in WW2. As there was a lot of anti-British activity they were concerned about the security of General Smuts' HQ. The General was confident his security was adequate, so one night Dad and another guy broke into the HQ udetected, opened the safe in Smuts' private office, planted a 'bomb' and escaped. Following a phone call the next morning Smuts agreed to take advice on improved security.

I’m not a prolific poster on RMWeb nor am I ever likely to be. I’m reasonably displaced from the subject railway that interests me and I use this forum to keep the fire alive. I like to make models of trains as a release from work where I continually interact with dogmatic people with heavily entrenched views, therefore, online, I don’t get involved in disagreements. I have read the previous two pages with such disappointment and it makes me wonder why I should continue to come here. And for those that think this type of debate is healthy and constructive criticism? Its not. Thank you to Phil Brighton, a few posts above, for showing us his work and trying to remind us of what we are really here for. Kind regards, Iain

Aside from wagon projects, the lockdown has given some extra time to tackle other long-outstanding projects, including these two Duffs! 47712 and 47785 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Long-term readers may remember these, they aren't new-to-fleet, I repainted both of these back in 2013 from the Bachmann model, and they've been working away earning their keep on Worthing MRC's Loftus Road for the past seven years. However, I've been meaning to put in better coupling hoops for some time and had been putting off for so long, so lockdown proved the ideal time to just get on with it! 47712 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr In line with all my locos, I put in wire hoops from 0.6mm wire, but the trouble with the original hoops is that they were a bit too narrow so caused challenges derailing longer wagons and coaches navigating the curves in the Loftus Road fiddle yard. So, out with the old and in with the new! 47712 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Nowadays I have found a hoop that is as wide as the buffers, is ideal for the curves and stock, so this will now run happily ever after..! I also took the opportunity to strip down the loco, give it a good clean and reassemble. 47712 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Although only a quick maintenance job, I thought I'd give the locos a 'modern' photoshoot, my old pics back in 2013 had terrible backgrounds and had also been deleted by Flickr over the years as they imposed the 1,000 pic hosting limit to force you to upgrade (or be a cheapskate and do like what I have done and create multiple accounts..!) - any excuse to feature a splash of glorious Fragonset black again too! 47785 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 47785 Fiona Castle was the second of the locos given a quick spruce up, again just a new coupling hoop and strip down & clean to remove 7 years of exhibition grime. 47785 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr The EWS livery does sit very well on a '47'! I would like to do more - either a repaint like this one or some customisation of the more recent Bachmann Collectors Club version, though it's not as cheap as this bargain - it must've cost me all of about £60 second-hand back in the good days! 47785 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr I always liked 47785 as I'd had the original Lima release of the late '90s and wanted a modern version, plus the combination of full bufferbeam cowling was unusual on a 47/7, so it's a nice contrast to the other former Res fleet members. 47712 and 47785 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr It's been a nice quick fun project to get these going again and they'll be back out on Loftus Road as soon as the shows pick up, hopefully next year, but who knows! Cheers, James

I have no idea either. My Mum used to give us French Toast which was toast that was only toasted on one side. I have no idea if that bears any resemblance to other versions of French toast.

The South West Coast Path passes through the Lulworth Ranges. Plenty of ordnance there much of it having been propelled from the business end of tanks. In fairness the Range Walks are only open when the ranges are closed, are well marked and signposted ("Do Not Leave The Path" signs with a skull and crossbones plus exploding thing symbols) and the area is checked before the gates are opened. One may normally walk through on weekends although a few each year are reserved for firing; one may also walk through daily during the summer holiday "no-firing" period approximating to the local school holidays. A magnificent walk it is too from Kimmeridge to Lulworth or back and very taxing with some severe climbs. You are rewarded with spectacular views on clear days however and the the knowledge that the names of Arish Mell, Bindon Hill and Worbarrow Down (which start by being Worbarrow Up) may be indelibly ingrained in your memory.

Panic over - no beyond the bounds confidence required after all. Not today, anyway. 1) The sun was late coming out and it was still dark! 2) OH thought it a good idea to tidy up potential layout area for some experimental m*d*ll*ng. Mostly stuff connected with the M word while the baseboards are being re-evaluated for length...(um...shorter so as to fit home space rather than expanse of exhibition hall...) Back to tidying up...

Arternoon awl, Things have been a bit hectic lately, so ER post reviews, comments etc. have been rather patchy. And when I have been on RMW, I've been a bit distracted by Kevin's Little Muddle. Mea culpa. Security is difficult, you have to be lucky 100%, the 'bad guys' only have to be lucky once. Having played a few 'wake-up games' myself, I can sympathise with the 'troops' who have to stay alert year in year out. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance... And anyone who thinks carrying a pistol makes them James Bond, I'd like to see them put a couple of live rounds into one and stick it into their waistband (or pocket) and carry it around for 24 hours. Even without the worry of a 'ND' (how reliable is that safety catch again?) then even 'small' pistols are big lumps of metal and are uncomfortable things to cart around in everyday clothing. I will say facing armed guards does make you choose your words carefully. No jokes or flippant comments! Unless you know them of course, in which case, game on. Back to less dramatic matters, it's not been great weather-wise, cold, windy and wet. Tomorrow should see the last crop of this year's carrots - it's been a good year for carrots, though the onions haven't done as well as usual. They should go well in a 'Pot au feu'. And I'll have to review my anti-Bear/Hippo defences, I've decided it's time to bake a chocolate cake. Purely on health grounds, the expiry date on some ingredients is coming up soon and using out of date ingredients would be a health hazard - wouldn't it? Sadly, the main reason for the cake-cooking delay is due to both parents being in hospital. Together with a couple of other things which are best not mentioned, it's not been a good month for me and I'm feeling that there's coincidence and there's enemy action. Even without the pestilence, 2020 has been a rather challenging year. So I'm sorry if some days I'm a bit grumpy.