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Yesterday I woke with no sense of taste or smell. I booked a test for later yesterday afternoon and a couple of hours ago the result came back positive. Que sera, sera.

An afternoon view of Sheep Dip.

A Sentinel.

First the ones I didn't get posted this morning, taken at the Tanfield Railway. Marley Hill Hudswell Clarke Irwell 16th April 90 C14353.jpg Marley Hill Hawthorn Leslie 2 goods Sunniside to Andrews House 28th Aug 89 C13739.jpg Marley Hill 16th April 90 C14359.jpg Andrews House RSH Cochrane 28th Aug 89 C13729.jpg Andrews House Hawthorn Leslie 2 28th Aug 89 C13726.jpg Causey Arch Tanfield Railway 22nd Oct 86 C8119.jpg David

Now for this afternoon's photos, taken on the Newcastle to Middlesbrough line . I do know there are only four photos this afternoon. When I sorted them out for today a few weeks ago there was a reason - but I can't remember it now. Boldon Colliery/Brockley Whins Class 143 Newcastle to Sunderland April 86 J8521.jpg Brockley Whins 142022 Newcastle to Sunderland 25th March 95 C20020.jpg Brockley Whins 143617 Newcastle to Sunderland 28th March 92 C16746.jpg Easington Class 143 Middlesbrough to Newcastle 14th Feb 89 C11643.jpg The weather was a bit dull! David

As promised we see ROD class 3005 on a westbound mixed freight train running under H lamps. Also seen is a LMS three plank which has the RAF liveried Willy's jeep as a load, hopefully roped correctly. The Bachmann ROD has an adjustable screw on the tender which really allows close coupling between the loco depending on your curves.

Now, I like this picture, though the same set up as the previous one the camera is resting on the corner of the roof to the harbour office lowering the viewing angle It seems to have a bit more 'balance' and draws your eye to the wagons on their outing....even though they are deep in the picture.

Safely arrived...

We wish you and yours well. Please keep us up to date. I have always adopted the "Que sera sera" attitude throughout this crisis and others. Having survived the other Big C and by all accounts "breezed through" treatment and recovery (it wasn't a breeze, I can assure you) it certainly helped then. The Hill of Strawberries sends positive vibes.

Oh Wow, Really sorry to hear that, I hope you recover quickly and without extra treatment.

Morning all Thank you for the good wishes. It's a strange thing the human mind. Up until Friday we could go out but didn't. We are still not going out, nothing has changed, but because now we can't go out it seems a whole lot worse. Forgive my ramblings - you have only another 11 days to suffer them. I suppose I could do some muddling.

There's another WD on the way to London. I tried to get a different angle on it, but the low sun has had some fun with it, I'm afraid.

Just looking back at the discussion regarding tumblehomes, I found the easiest way is to build straight sided stock. This is one of the GN American built Pullmans. This isn't finished yet as it has some more underframe detail to add as well as bogie sides and roof vents, but it's new owner will be doing that as he is a whizz with 3D and has his own printer. I've also only just ordered some more screws from Phil at Hobby Holidays to fix the roof down, hence the gap. After building 4 of my own I said 'never again' ..... the things you do for mates....

On the subject of sheds, here's another one. I have spent a couple of hours weathering the corrugated shed on Sheep Dip.........and here it is.. Apologies for the odd angle. Its a tad tricky to get in to take the photo. Rob.

Some from today, sold a car in the week and delivered it to seaford this morning, set off at 6am for the 250 mile trip then got the train back funny how you never go to a certain area now this is the 3rd time I’ve been to seaford, twice with network rail test trains and once on my day off today! seaford 313 unit one from the train, noticed since I was last down here in feb the station at newhaven marine has finally been demolished i absolutely love the station at lewes, had seen it at night but first time in the day, a fantastic layout with an old platform filled and used as a planter! concourse bridge Panorama old signal box And filled platform Nice bridge And my train to london victoria Then over to euston for a train to crewe in all not a bad trip, only 3 trains (and the underground), 4 hours 10 mins door to door back in tomorrow, bescot to EMG then EMG to crewe

Morning all, What a grey day. The sky is a 100% uniform shade of pale grey overcast and there's neither promise, nor indication above us, of any rain likely to arrive in our vicinity today with teh wind speed down to very little. Ah well, mustn't complain because at least it isn't foggy either. Right no daily orders have yet been distributed except for a managerial requirement for me to produce the relevant piece of embossed plastic in order to pay my credit card bill which she does online - hopefully she won't look too closely at the details of who have recently relieved me of money as I might have to show her a pretty little item in a fetching shade of 'improved green' which will no doubt set a Precedent for something else in the future. There is far more amusement in the wider world where the front page of yesterday's 'Daily Telegraph' proclaimed that a 'Christmas transport tsar' in the person of Sir Peter Hendy will 'force' train operators 'to lay on extra carriages' to meet the Christmas travel demand which is expected to be high due to the short period of the Christmas un-lock down. Now this might be a typical media misrepresentation of the facts and they have not said quite how and where all these 'extra carriages' will be magically built in a mere 4 weeks or from where staff will be conjured up to work them and so on. Sorry sunshine (various) but in terms of planning in 4 weeks for something extra to happen train service wise around what amounts to a major holiday you are a good 6 months behind the curve. Don't forget that not so long back 'somebody' was moaning about Christmas train service details not being published when they should have been - which is officially 16 weeks in advance although generally the UK accepts a reduction to 12 weeks for reservation systems etc. It would appear that as all too often certain people in certain places are massively detached from not only reality but the consequences of various actions by politicos of all hues over the past 30 years. I don't doubt transport operators and their staff will do their best but appointing a tsar will have no impact at all apart from wasting time which has to be spent planning the job in an extremely compressed timescale. And if any trains have been stored or have gone off lease it will be even more difficult. Rant over. Now to do what needs to be done or what I'm informed needs to be done. Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

It was nice to see that the new theft deterrent for my shed arrived today..

And here are the buildings...........just the three.

I thought the diabetic offender in bread was probably a reference to the carbs in the flour rather than the sugar. However, I do agree though that US bread tastes sweet compared to bread in the UK. When we make bread in a bread maker there is 1 teaspoon of sugar to 500 g of flour. Just enough to feed the yeast.

Greetings one and all I was delighted to see Rick refer to the late great Adge Cutler yesterday. In my final year at university I was introduced to his work by the fellow student in the next room. I liked what I heard. Adge had a posthumous single of “Little Darlin’” which I had difficulty obtaining. In desperation I rang the record librarian at Radio Bristol. The guy was most helpful and, I suspect, a little amused. When “Drink Up Thy Zider” was issued as a single it made no. 49 in the charts purely on the strength of its sales in and around Bristol. In recent years that fine minstrel and entertainer, Dr Busker, has been performing it. When he sang it at my local beer festival I joined in lustily. Busker must have marvelled that anyone in that part of the world had even heard of it! The folk process has taken its toll on the song: the bit in the chorus which goes “We’ll knock the milk churns over and roll ‘em in the clover” now refers to milk maids. As for “Thee’s got’un …”, I’m sure I recall Fred Wedlock doing it. A few years ago there was a Wurzels tribute band in one of the pubs in Sidmouth and I enjoyed joining in the chorus of that song. Swipe me, how cultural. I never thought the day would come but I bought some tinned custard yesterday. In normal circumstances I prefer to make it properly with own-brand custard powder and milk added to taste. The substitute should get me through the run-up to the CT scan, when my food input needs to be as lacking in lumps as possible. This rules out porridge for a few days but I’ll get over it. Best wishes to all Chris

A nice walk round the stubble field in the afternoon foggy sun, we get some lovely weather at times.

BoD.. I hope it goes well for you and Mrs BoD.. we thought it was just awful wine in Margaret River as it tasted ..tasteless.. no one mentioned losing you sense of smell and taste in February.. Baz

Best wishes for a Speedy recovery BoD

I entirely agree, However, having a loco made of one material and a tender from another can 'work'. This is a much-modified Bachmann A4. Its body is made of plastic and its tender (Crownline) is made of etched brass. The whole thing has been painted by Ian Rathbone to represent a typically-grubby 52A 'Streak'. Granted, this quality of painting doesn't come cheap and it certainly wasn't a case of matching the Bachmann paint finish (which was a bit garish, with its 'wasp-like' lining), so it's hardly typical. That said, I've seen some pretty decent 'amateur' combinations as well. It can 'work' the other way, too. I built the nearer 4F from a SE Finecast kit (the farther one is modified Bachmann) and, for time-expediency, fitted a modified Bachmann Fowler tender. Both were then painted/numbered/lettered/weathered together. I concede that this isn't the same as matching a lined loco/tender, and, in both cases, complete paints/repaints have been undertaken. As for the potential for 'devaluing' RTR items by 'improving' them, my personal point of view on this is that the greatest value I put on my own 'modelling' (however its derived) is how much pleasure/enjoyment/fun I get from it. I'm not saying I don't consider what the finished thing might be 'worth' (whatever its origins) but if it's worth less than when it was 'unmolested', it's really not important to me. Regards, Tony.

On my workbench earlier today was this pile of 100 Mod 0.4 18T spur gears, having been de-burred and tested. They are now winging their way to Shop 3 for sale to members. For anyone interested in how these gears are produced from blanks, I have made a little video showing the Association's machine in action.

I've been thinking that railway modelling needs a better public image. People seem to think the hobby is a bit weird and nerdy, when really we’re a bunch of smooth adrenaline junkies. Here are some examples from my own awesome life. Firstly, we railway modellers have really cool gear. These DIY tamping and scribing tools were made from coffee stirrers and my wife’s discarded sock knitting needles. Max bling! The top three are for smoothing DAS between sleepers and under rails. I use Latex gloves to help seal glue containers. After years of doing this, I’m now wondering if they are in fact permeable. But never mind, it adds a bit of style. I keep the bottles on the back stairs where our neighbours can admire them. Recycled kitchen sponge, used as a stop block. Works quite well I find. If you’re lucky, there are old bits of food left in there. "So what do you in your spare time?”. Oh, I like to put on latex gloves and scrub things with a toothbrush. The stuff I use for paint stripping is some serious sh*t. Not sure what the proper English term is, it's called "brown soap" in Danish. Used for cleaning floors. Wild, man. At weekends, I really let my hair down. In one recent highlight, I spent an hour painting sewing thread. Then there’s our risk-taking mindset. For example, I recently sorted the kitchen cupboards. This revealed more spices than we’ll never need, so I decided to experiment: Would spices work as weathering powders? For improved adhesion, I mixed in some baby powder. Feeling reckless, I also tried ground ginger. The verdict? Well it works OK in a pinch, but proper weathering powders are better. The layout smells great though. Makes for a good pick-up line. Speaking of pick-up lines, I like to experiment with dung. These are lumps of weathering powder on PVA. I think it could work for horse droppings, though more testing is needed. It also seems to work when brushed into setts. Horse dung would be trampled and distributed pretty much like that, I reckon. Ordinary people don’t reflect on such things. I guess they just lack vision. So there’s railway modelling for you: Living on the edge, every day. Anyway, I‘m off to grab a Red Bull before I tackle those couplings. Hang loose, dudes.

My cousins had the no sense of taste/smell symptom before it was an accepted symptom. Subsequent antibody tests were positive. MiL forgot we had discussed Christmas yesterday (we will be at home). In any Christmas bubbles we would be fourth family so we will be quite content to be at home. Over the last couple of Christmas holidays it has been a quiet time for us to recall previous ones, “do you remember when....”. So Aditi had to explain again why we wouldn’t be visiting at Christmas. MiL was concerned I hadn’t been consulted, Aditi assured her that I had.

Hi Guys, thanks for all the kind comments. Hi Mike, I might still be in the local paper yes, got to get a new mugshot done. Had another productive day today: Made the sloped ends to the platform and flashed the whole thing over in grey primer. Cut the first bit of fencing to length. Added more grass matting around the cattle dock, coal store and lamp shed. More matting added behind the engine shed loop. Done some more weathering to the track. Painted the station approach road down the goods shed in grey. Also started to put together the sloped plywood control panel. Looking forwards to getting more done tomorrow. Cheers, Ade.

Oh dear, not good news. I hope that you will be amongst those with minimal symptoms and an event free recovery Gute Besserung, as they say ‘round here. iD

Afternoon All Hope you're OK BoD - can't say more than that - just go with the flow. Sorry for prolonged absence, mainly due to no mojo for almost anything, and that includes most if not all social media sites, including here and FB but I was delighted to see that her Debship posted there a few days ago. And of course, generic greetings are proferred, along with a hope that all is as well as can be expected, as I really have been skipping so many pages. New boiler a bit more difficult to control than I'd like, due to the programmer supplied, which is a bit more complex than the wheel on the old boiler and the on off switch, but I'm sure I'll get there - one advantage is that the new one is portable, so I can switch everything on and off from wherever I am - provided I remember to take the controls with me. Other than that, Regards to All Stewart

Isn't that what Early Risers is for?

I've often heard the phrase "he's a bit Dagenham East" to describe someone strange (4 stops beyond Barking) For strange place name pronunciations I give you a small Canadian example: Okotoks Wetaskiwin Ponoka Nunavut Iqaluit Legal oops almost missed this one: Tsuutʼina

Good morning all. It looks as if it's going to be another fine day. First of all best wishes to BoD and hope that you both stay safe. Yesterday I had an abortive shopping trip in the morning trying to get a smallish upright freezer. In the afternoon I progressed with demolition in the bathroom. One obstacle was the wall heater which had no visible method of turning off the electrical supply. I very carefully dismantled it and did discover a chocolate block type connector inside. I was able to get my meter probes on that and yes, it was live. Experimentation with various circuit breakers took place and I now know which breaker feeds it. Once dead, the heater was removed and the lead made safe. The supply will have a fused spur fitted which has a switch on it, and then be reused for a heated towel rail. After that careful work I bashed and lifted 2 sq metres of floor tiles. In the evening we watched a documentary called The Last Breath, on Netflix. Well worth watching. This morning we are off to the market and then there will be more floor tile removal. Regards to all. Jamie

Good evening everyone Well the C*******s tree is up and all the decorations are on, but as we won’t be having any visitors over the festive season, that’s all we’re doing for this year! I got the lights on before dinner, then made a start on the rest of the decorations. They were all finished before I packed up for a mid afternoon muggertea. Whilst drinking that I read a couple of articles in the latest MERG magazine, which dropped on the door mat yesterday. Once I’d finished my tea, I finished making the fruit tea loaf and put that in the oven then made a start on tonight tea, chicken jalfrezi, the whole process from preparing the vegetables to playing up took just over an hour and there’s enough sauce left over for another meal too. The evening was rounded off with a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Goodnight all

Yeah, adding my thoughts to your positive test, @BoD Although out of 2 parents, 4 kids, 8 grandkids on my side, it's amazing none of us has tested positive (or haven't told the family!). Had a lovely beef casserole last night. Got that down to a T now. I do cheat and use a pre-mix for the sauce but everything else (roasts, dumplings ) all home made. Someone has put a Christmas tree up in our office. My household one will be staying downstairs until next weekend but then have to get a shift on as we want to take a family photo in front of it to send out as cards to people. While some people rate them as a waste of time/money, I really rate receiving cards from people who I wouldn't send a gift to but nice to see they are still thinking of us.

You could be right, my Captain.

Kingston Bag-pews, apparently Haven't heard that version but it figures. What's a milk churn? The lines "We'm off to Barrow Gurney for to see my Cousin Ernie" also mean nothing to anyone unfamiliar with a hospital for the insane something like 60 years ago. Fred was a regular performer at our Student Union and I can therefore confirm that, yes, he did sometimes include this song in his set. Seasonal illuminations are up. A tad early but this is 2020 so what? We are by no means the first Upon the Hill of Strawberries to do such a thing this year. It seems our local council is not providing a decorated tree for our community this year, nor are we expecting the Salvation Army band. Carol Singers will also be staying at home as she hasn't managed to socially isolate correctly.

Please ramble as much as you want! I missed your first post about Valerie’s test and had to search back having seen others comments. Tony

Good morning, A very grey and dismal morning in this part of Switzerland, turning my ennui into a full blown procrastination on quite a few things. It’s turning out to be one of those days where nothing short of a gallon of coffee, a handful of amphetamines and a fistful of “uppers“ could stimulate me to be anything as energetic as apathetic. Regarding English; i’ve heard it said that English is like chess: very easy to learn the basics, but it takes a lifetime of practice and ability to fully master the language. Certainly, in my opinion, there are many supposedly native English speakers who have still yet to master the English language themselves. Indeed, it has been said that anyone who can speak flawless, grammatically perfect, perfectly parsed and coherent accent-less English must be a foreigner. Regarding Mr Bear’s Tomato Sauce on Toast, after studying the photographic evidence I can only conclude that the same comments that Mr Pepys made about cucumber could also apply in this context... I’m all for life’s little guilty pleasures, but quite frankly tomato ketchup on toast is more like one of life‘s slightly embarrassing pleasantries. At least Mr Bear can point to his Lemon Drizzle Cake addiction as a reference to his ability to “push the boat out”. Whilst on the subject of “cake“, I have done a (very unscientific) study of patisserie in the various countries of Europe and I have come to the conclusion that the most luxurious, calorific and sinful cakes come from those areas where for centuries Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion; whereas cakes from formerly Protestant areas tend to be somewhat dryer, less ostentatious and less self-indulgent. My theory is that the difference is down to whether or not your religion allowed for absolution of sins. If you knew that by going to confession one could gain absolution for eating a whole Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte with an entire bottle of schnapps, then you could quite happily go ahead and “sin“. In comparison, if you knew that your sin would forever be staining your soul, you would think twice about reaching for the chocolate cream eclair and perhaps settle for a less sinful slice of Madeira cake. Well, it’s a theory. All this talk of cake has made me somewhat hungry, so I’m off to prepare lunch which will be Turkey Mole with home-made cornbread, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Enjoy your Sunday!

7°C NE 8kt, gusting 14kt The sunny spells forecast haven't materialised and so another walk of Wakehurst, Ardingly will be under grey, overcast skies. A further COVID-19 test beckons this evening and so plans to settle-down and watch the football are scuppered. The week started in Rennes, however the French lockdown prevented any hopes of exploring the city. Understandably the hotel restaurant was closed therefore found myself confined to in-room dining for the duration. My only takeaway from Rennes was seeing the trees below my hotel window each individually wrapped in netting to prevent leaves falling to the ground! Highlight of the week was on Friday when Q Class No C1 arrived courtesy of UPS from Locomotion - an early Christmas present after weeks of dithering. One of those rare occasions of luck as looking back on the Locomotion website yesterday it's now sold-out. Talk of sausages last week and tomato ketchup this, a pattern seems to be emerging! Stay safe.

Fist and mog, dull and grey. That's the weather and me done.

By chance that's where swmbo lived when we met. I didn't dare ask if we could have a ducking stool when she moved down south. Her place in Leominster (Lemster) was a sprawling townhouse with Tudor beams and questionable plaster. You could see the lights on next door through gaps in the plaster. You could also tell when they were smoking!

Mooring Awl, inner Temple hare, 6 hours sleep so far just one wake up to turn over. Upper back still complaining due to yesterday's above head work. Never had much tomato sauce on my food always found it too sweet and these days tomato ketchup sarnies would be a diabetic disaster..much like the sandwiches my little sister used to like..sugar sandwiches..bread thick layer of butter on each piece of bread, sugar thickly between. She's short and dumpy, how she's avoided diabetes I don't know... Cheese on toast / toastie with wooster sauce was my go to snack, preferably with added bacon. Plans for today, some keel work, some trolley work, once I've extracted the table saw from its current home. Time to hit the snooze button...

Leeds have the street "Christmas) lights in place .. a Virtual Switch on is due on.. 2nd December.. our rates are still going down.. first review should (fingers crossed) see Leeds back into Tier 2.. Stew and dumplings for tea! Yippppeeeedddddooo! baz

Have survived the train journey to and from the local metropolis and now have provisions for tomorrow. Must now go and prepare the car for tomorrow's journey; headlights, windows, external mirrors and rear number plate are a tad grubby! Apparently, it's useful to see where you're going and illegal not to be identifiable!! Would love to fit a Fresnel Lens over the number plates though! Interesting: poor car doesn't know what's hit it! 2017 to 2018 MoT, just shy of 900 miles 2018 to 2019 MoT, just shy of 700 miles 2019 to 2020 MoT, more than 2,500 miles (mostly since March)!

Regarding what's not available RTR (and thankfully no moans on here because of it - unlike elsewhere in some cases), there used to be (is there still?) a whole 'industry' of different parts/kits/adaptations/bits and pieces/etc., enabling the 'modeller' to change, say, a tender, or make a different sub-class of loco and so on. I recall grafting-on cast metal extensions to make a BR Standard high-sided tender from one off a WR 9F. Yes, the joints showed (slightly, but disappeared after weathering) but it was the done thing way back then. I know Crownline's 'postcard-turning' display at shows was packed with all sorts of most-useful bits (I still have some). The sort of stuff that encouraged 'personal', creative and inventive modelling. 'The RTR boys don't make exactly what I want/need, but no matter, I'll change it myself'. Granted, much in the way of adaptation long ago was needed to, say, change a Tri-ang B12/3 into a B12/3, but it did allow the development of modelling skills all round. I wonder if we're (the generic 'we're') in (collective) danger of becoming so RTR-dependent that the likes of suggesting making a different tender (a smaller Stanier one for a 'Jubilee'?) is met will howls of anguish from some quarters because it would be far too difficult. Regarding tenders, I know that SE Finecast will sell all the range of tenders as separate items; as used to Crownline, and, I assume, now PDK. There were many diesel adaptation kits as well. Have most of these disappeared now because of the increase in RTR options? Just some thoughts on a very dull Sunday morning........................

Another dull day in North Somerset, but not as damp as yesterday as the humidity has fallen a few percentage points. Usual fry-up about to be consumed, and then more slide scanning. One or two spring bulbs are beginning to poke shoots through the soil, which is a positive sign for next year. East Ham has been a rather derogatory term for me, ever since hearing a comment by the late great Bob Willis on TV. When asked why he referred to someone a bit weird as being "East Ham", he replied "Because it is one stop short of Barking". RIP Bob.