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Morning all. Another view or three of the Pesky Peckett.....

Time for bed....

A final view........honest. Rob.

A few more photos at Sawyfield for this aternoon. Swayfield Class 47 08.20 Kings X to Leeds April 70 J2086.jpg Swayfield Class 47 down 12.20 Kings X to Cleethorpes July 74 J3757.jpg Swayfield Class 47 down July 74 J3758.jpg Swayfield 254008 up July 81 C5449.jpg Swayfield DVT and Class 91 Kings X to Glasgow C 10th June 95 C20278.jpg David

Shared with permission from the SLW Facebook page: COOKING-UP SOMETHING SPECIAL Following the food preparation theme (yesterday's grille detail) - or is it a reference to the film 'Trainspotting', which premiered 25 years ago? – we show off more of our new Class 25... Here is some of the intricate work that has gone into the No. 2 end cab interior bulkhead... (mostly never to be seen again!) In a step-up from our earlier Class 24 bulkheads (which we thought were good), we are delighted to provide discerning modellers with the ultimate in SEPERATELY-APPLIED diesel locomotive detailing - a crew stove/hotplate to keep your brew warm! We have even made sure the painting includes picking out the bakelite multi-position control knob. And yes, conversations are already being had about producing a billy can and enamel mugs as extras... Note also the fine conduit detail and even the repair book holder (bottom right) with the BR.33071 issue pad neatly positioned inside! You could pick this out in manilla paint and weather with oily fingerprints if you really wanted to. This little feature is only 2mm wide. The whole image side-to-side measures approx. 30mm (just over an inch). Feel free to share the love - we need all the support we can get! Get on the blower to us tomorrow on 01780 470086. Whoever suggested launching a brand new webshop at the same time as getting a new hosting package is currently getting both barrels!

The destination of today's afternoon walk - Jug Island. It's only 7 Km from our house in a straight line, but we reckon it's over 25 years since we were last there.

Morning all, Sorry I haven’t been around lately, but I collapsed at my desk with a severe attack of GAS* and was rushed to the company’s medical centre. Things were looking grim, then they called in a DoB** specialist who prescribed me this: A few bars and licks later I was discharged without sequalae. A full recovery is expected. Expect commentary on posts later today iD * GAS = Gear Acquisition Syndrome ** DoB = Doctor of Blues

All this photographing layouts outdoors, it'll never catch on you know... Al.

Mons Meg now gets the signal to depart, and we watch the stock go by as it leaves. This takes a while.

Bear saw that too, though hid behind a cushion at the exploits of certain individuals standing on the tops of very high structures. Nuts. Not sure it's a place I'd want to go to - if "The Big C" were to arrive some years later I'd be wondering if it was due to that visit. Not sure how much confidence I'd have in those dust masks being used, nor the Radiation Monitors (when were they last calibrated?). Bear cringed when the presenter mentioned that boots were to be left outside the hotel room door as they would no doubt be contaminated with radioactive dust; too late, matey - you've just walked into the room, sat on the bed, taken your boots off and then put them outside.... No cake. Bear recalls going to work one day in the early 1990's to be confronted by numerous (15+) p.c's with lids removed - someone had helped themselves to the memory chips apparently. This was in a place where such things shouldn't have been possible.... I never heard any reports of guilty parties being identified. Bear has an appointment with a paint brush and door frame, then some paint stripper and copper pipework, and then some walls and primer-sealer. Must get little furry ar5e into gear - tiler's due in 11 days....

A priest, a minister and a rabbit go to give blood. The rabbit says "I think I might be a type o".

Evening all. Another late check in with generic good wishes, congrats and commiserations as appropriate. Sadly, as outlined in earlier posts, the search for Sony’s much sought after games console again proved fruitless. I note the comments of some on here about “marketing”. I have been involved with buying consoles for over 30 years. There are always issues with supplies of any brand new games console. They simply cannot make enough for the demand. The pandemic has certainly made things worse in terms of supply and the ability for customers to order them. The websites simply cannot cope with the traffic. It has produced a much more difficult situation, probably increased by some wanting them sooner than normal because of the lockdowns. I usually hold off for at least six months to let the demand ease, usually not purchasing until May or a June. The lockdown and Sarah offering to buy it for Christmas has meant I am amongst those looking to purchase early. The chances are it could well be May and June before I do get my hands on one. Back to things which many more ER’s will relate to, I have heard from the advertising team of Hornby Magazine. As expected, they were full of apologies for their error and have refunded the price of the advert. They have managed to change it to the correct ad for the digital version of the magazine. That is as much as they could have done. It is another cause of frustration however because it does reduce the publicity of the special offer. Back at home, Amber has started to make an effort to make up for her actions yesterday. She has accepted that she did the wrong thing. Home schooling was completed in good time and to a good standard. She has made a start on the tidying up too. Long may it continue. Stay safe. Andy

A Peckett at Sheep Dip. A study by Norman Lockhart. Rob

Morning all, Captain DPD has just delivered a full set of Quail track maps. That's my reading for the next few days. See you anon

Morning all. Overcast with showers here so far. Fortunately I am not going anywhere. My toothache needed something slightly stronger than paracetamol last night but it isn’t too bad this morning, perhaps the antibiotics are working already. I will be in charge of receiving the shopping delivery today. Aditi will be attending via Zoom a post-funeral prayer for her Aunt who died earlier this week. The cremation happened the next day. Tony

Morning, dull and grey again, both sides of the great divide, and 5c outside of it. Pfizering is reduced to the sore joints, arm now OK - like Q, forepaws are in some distress but in my case the warm soak has helped. Computer talk of course leads me to dust off the photo of the Ferranti Pegasus we had at school, and bad memories of trying to write Basic on 5 hole tape. The pen slips off..... There are probably still bits of this in my electronics bits box, diodes and stuff, it had a lot of thermionic valves too, old fashioned pull of out boards with three on the end of each. It was dismantled IIRC in my second year at the grammar skool, the local electricity board sighed with relief probably. The lad with the quiff was a couple of years ahead of me, I think he's a railway modeller still! I too watched the Ben (Fogle not Collie) in Chernobyl prog (from behind the sofa) , and agree soundly with Poly that I was shouting at the TV about the boots he had just walked across the floor in! No idea....and Russian dosimeters...no ta, I'll take my own. I read the book about the disaster recently, incredible reading, and wild horses would not get me anywhere near that place. Some very brave folk though, not that some had a choice, but many were fatalistic and went back in again and again when not required to as they thought they were booked anyway. they were, mostly of course, but odd ones lived, and they still don't know why.

Greetings one and all Today I must stride purposefully into town, print a bank statement from the self-service terminal in that endangered species, the town centre branch of the bank. I will then take it home and reconcile my budget. Stride purposefully? Who am I kidding? There are four buses an hour from one end of the road and two from the other. I’ve got a bus pass and I’m going to use it! Winslow Boy, I should clarify what I wrote about the tea in the hotel, which to name and shame the guilty was the Premier Inn at Cribbs Causeway. I stayed there in connection with a family party in March 2014. It was then that the poor state of the tea came to light. The other time I stayed there was in July 2019. It was not until three days later when a friend who lives locally sent me a clip of the fire from BBC News. I am flattered, and perhaps inspired, by what you say about getting on the wrong side of me! Barry, I have been free of SAP for 15 years and glad I am of it. When I was in my last job, a finance manager in the Civil Service, I was in daily contact with it and at times almost hourly contact with the help desk in Hemel Hempstead. I found it more counter-intuitive than any other software that I have used. Strangely enough, SAP was not the reason that I longed for early retirement, which I was eventually awarded. My line manager, with whom I just did not get on, was even more clueless about it than I was. Best wishes to all Chris

That'll ruin the taste, should stick to dairy based ingredients

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple hare, 5 hours, long awake 1.5 hours , 45 minutes, rush around to the amusement of Ben as I was now late.. Ben the reluctant Collie decided to add to the delay by having a very slow snuffle round the garden, at one point he suddenly stood bolt up right and started looking around ignoring my calls to him.. We've had a large amount of precipitation overnight as my forepaws tell me, normally they get better after a plunge in the hot sink of water, but today they got increasingly worse especially as I drove to work.. Various other joints have decided to join in. My forepaws were very very cold when I got to work even though I was wearing gloves in the car with the heater on.. So I've just taken some pink pills, now, is this the weather?, Is this a hangover from the weekends work? or is it a delayed reaction to the jab a week ago? I don't know.. At work the asbestos strippers have finished the main area, they just have some side rooms to do.. So a lot of the partitions have been removed.. Next week the new ceiling should get put in after some cable trays. So... The carpet baggers have arrived , all putting in claims, to land grab areas.. Luckily for the desk area of Calibration we are being left out of this, because our area is too small for anyone else. The current proposal puts design engineering in the middle of the noisy production area with 1/3 less space than they had. It would require a major rewiring for IT, as there currently isn't the amount of fast intranet required for the design teams in the other building.. (We are two large buildings joined by the T bar in the middle). Engineering are not happy.. I'm just finishing this weeks second major system, another hour or so And I'll know whether it's OK. Time to sit and wait, hands tucked into my armpits to warm them up..

Ey up! Bit damp outside but never mind. Her indoors is off to moreasons to do the weekly shop. @jamie92208 news from yesterday. Wakefield is no longer a city.. it has had some dosh sent from the "towns" fund....obviously whover was dolling out the cash knows nowt about where places are (Morley received dosh too). Seems like the Indians are intent in killing off Test cricket.. another spinners paradise.. nothing will be done as between India and the Australians cricket is run by one small group of people. Pah! During my employment at a big rocket factory in St Evenage a lot of money was spent develiping a "hybrids" facility. It was all state of the art then. Time to.. finish my mugatea, beat Thursday into submission and host a zoom meeting about a model of Wentworth Junction later today. Stay safe! Positive thoughts to all ERs! Baz

Good moaning from a still dark Charente. Much work was done 8n the shed yesterday and the second gate is coming along nicely. I also got about 180 slides scanned. However the afternoon was interupted by a shout of " Come and look at this, I daren't look" from Beth. I duly went to look in the old aviary at the side of the shed and found a rather dead, but large Fox. I now need to talk to one of our neighbours about how to dispose of it. This morning we are off to The Danglies for Beth to have an Xray on her elbow, which is giving her some serious grief. In the afternoon I'm off to buy bolts for the gate. The emporium might just be the one near a railway line. Not a lot else happenning so regards to all. Jamie

Afternoon All, A bit busy so just a quick visit. With regard to dental preparations, basically there are two types of ingredient, one that kill the pain and those that ‘fight’ the infection that’s causing the pain. Bonjela has two ingredients, one of each type. Corsodyl has just one, chlorhexidine which is an antimicrobial. Anbesol Adult Strength and Orajel Extra Strength are what we regularly prescribe in our pharmacy and they contain both types of ingredient. If anyone is going to act on this info, just consult the pharmacist or leaflet as they are not suitable for everyone. Back to work, Robert

Well, No one is going to land grab for a while, it seems when the asbestos removal men were up in the roof space, one lent on an RSJ... it moved!!!! So there have to be inspections, fixes, repairs and they've already used the contingency money. So all work in that area is at a halt until further notice.. It could take months for more monies to be authorised...

Greetings all from a damp and grey Sidcup. The budget was pretty much as predicted, although the rise in the rate of corporation tax was a bit of a surprise. My experience of computer programming is limited to a little bit of basic when doing an O level in Computer Studies during lower 6th. I think we mainly did the following: 10 LPRINT Rude message 20 GOTO 10 Early work years were the transition from having 3 computers for the department of 40 odd, all kept in a separate room, at least one of which got too much info on its tape drive, which then had to be extracted by tape, to everyone having a computer on their desk, and a national internal e-mail system, all within 3 1/2 years. The next employer was just switching to windows from Novell green screen type stuff, and here we are fast forwarded another 30 years and we have multiple devices all connected to the internet. Who'd've thought that the phone could do all this stuff 30 years ago?

Sony cannot source enough of a processor chip from AMD designed for the PS5. The AMD CEO is on the record saying that she expects shortages through the first half of the year. See this news item. Today, AMD is a fabless semiconductor company, meaning it uses wafer fabrication from suppliers like TSMC. There is a global shortage of semiconductors, including in the smallest (most dense) geometries like AMD is using for the PS5 chip. The shortage has also hit the global automotive industry (even though, generally speaking, automotive electronics don't rely on the latest wafer fabrication nodes) and many automobile manufacturers are limiting production because they can't procure enough electronics devices. It's not just demand. Wafer manufacturing has become incredibly consolidated. There used to be dozens of companies doing "leading edge" manufacturing. Now the list of truly leading edge fabs is down to TSMC and Samsung* and few others. A number of things are driving this: It is staggeringly expensive to set up the newest high density nodes It's also technically difficult (Intel, which still does manufacturing and was at one point the world leader is struggling to keep up, even though it is still number one in revenue) Market-driven M&A activity is also driving consolidation * Combined, TSMC and Samsung represented 72% of the global semiconductor foundry market in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Evening all. A touch of Peckettry this evening.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I heard the sirens going about twenty minutes ago but when I went to the front of the house just now I could see the flashing blue lights. It was an ambulance and paramedic and police cars outside. I spoke to my neighbour and he told me that his son had been attacked with a knife. He'd managed to make it to my neighbour who dialled 999. He has a stab wound in the neck, fortunately not serious enough to cause any worries (he managed to make the half mile or so to his fathers house). The incident happened in a small park that is sometimes a hangout for drug addicts.

Morning al, As usual a bit misty but not too bad as the palace is visible. Lots and lots of rain yesterday afternoon/evening/into the night but some paving slabs have already dried out. No big plans for today so it will be a matter of take it as it comes I expect - which currently seems to be mainly folk asking obtuse questions about various bits of Great Westernry for commercial purposes although that does allow the dropping of subtle(ish) hints to hopefully stop X pursuing the same course that N is already well along or R might be thinking about. Now without, I hope, being political can anybody explain to me the thought abroad in many areas that once you're at your life time pension pot allowance you have to retire? Surely all you and your employer) need to do is stop paying into the fund although as a decent fund should continue to grow (and thus expose you to taxation on it) there might ultimately come a time to cease earning. Have a good day one al all

Zoom has been a great help during the pandemic. My ex-wife's 50th yesterday. A friend arranged an online cocktail party on Zoom.

Another dull and grey morning in North Somerset. A couple of parcels arrived yesterday, containing summer bulbs, but the showery nature of the day kept me inside. Even after 6 weeks of wood pigeon plastic spikes around bird food, one idiot bird is still trying its luck thinking something might have changed overnight and the food suddenly is reachable. Every time it is frustrated and then goes and sits on the hanging feeder pole which discourages smaller birds. Is there any wonder that wood pigeon is now top of the BTO garden bird list, as the one reported in the most number of gardens?

Morning. Just passing by.

I remember in the early '90's memory chip prices doubled due to a fire in a Japanese factory that supplied the glue needed in memory chip production. An extract from The NYT of August 1993, prices and memory sizes would seem quaint to the kids of today with their phones full of 8GB of RAM... (I remember paying around $700 for 16MB of RAM at an NEC auction here around that time): HERE we go again. Prices for computer memory chips have doubled in the past month, touching off a panic among computer makers and raising the possibility that computer prices will rise -- or at least stop falling for a while. Sharp price swings are nothing new to the memory chip business, perhaps the most volatile of computer component industries. Prices more than quadrupled in the late 1980's and then reversed direction to become cheaper than ever in the early 1990's. "We're back in those wild times," said Mike Frost, chief executive of Tech Works, one of the leading vendors of dynamic random access memory chips. A few months ago, the cost of a 4-megabit memory chip was $10.50 or $11 on the spot market, Mr. Frost said. Last week, it was about $20 and heading north. So computer owners who had become accustomed to inexpensive upgrades, often as little as $150 for 4MB of additional memory, may soon see prices climb to $250 or $300. The episodes are reminiscent of the last chip panic, in the late 1980's, when a 4MB upgrade might cost $2,500 and it was not uncommon for companies to remove memory chips from inactive machines and lock them in a safe. The catalyst for the recent panic was the July explosion at an obscure but important factory operated that is the world's leading supplier of a kind of epoxy used in the packaging of memory chips. Some 60 percent of the world supply of this esoteric goop was produced at the plant, which Japan has vowed to rebuild quickly. The panic was easy to set off because demand for memory chips had been drifting upward before the explosion. As computer prices plunged in the summer of 1992 through the first half of 1993, PC customers chose not to pocket the savings, but rather to set their sights higher: on powerful Intel i486-based systems that could run Microsoft Windows, I.B.M.'s OS/2 and other so-called graphical operating systems. Those require at least 4MB of system memory. So the PC makers raised the base configuration to 4MB. (A megabyte is approximately 1,000 kilobytes, or the equivalent of a million alphanumeric characters.) Lately, some personal computers have been introduced with 8MB or even 16MB of base system memory.

Tea made with loose leaves in a pre-warmed pot is far better than bagged tea made in a mug. But, as you say, horses for courses and I'm not going to get up 15 minutes earlier every day just to brew up in a pot for one. I'll stick with the routine which is kettle on - toast in - kettle boils - pour into pre-bagged mug - toast pops - spread toast - de-bag tea and insert milk. Aussies don't seem to drink a lot of tea but squeezing out the bag on the spoon is definitely a thing there. Which reminds me. It's a good couple of hours since my last mugger. Time to excite the water in the blue device

BIN day The BIN truck chorus started surprisingly later than usual, hard to keep up with whatever they laughingly use as a schedule! Mind-numbing struggle with client reports yesterday, attempting to get some "dusty ones" that are annual year-over-year types updated for all that has happen in 2020, and then match the current reports - total snooze-fest Evening was an enjoyable one, delayed gratification by ordering the Indian meal originally planned for birthday - tasted as good no matter what day Expecting Jemma today, staying for a few days. She has a break in her instructor schedule so decided to come and visit, also the Mrs supposedly has to "shop for clothes" and that takes the likes of Jemma rather than me to get it right, apparently Car died - well, not quite, but had a sever issue, while returning from picking up the Indian meal, looks like the right rear spring/strut may have taken leave of its anchor point Car deposited at local service garage, they may not be able to get to it until Friday. Having Jemma rent a car at the airport for the weekend, so we have transport for her and Mrs. -2 and sunny, headed for +5. Snow far receding. Tally ho.

Yes. Absolutely, especially if CAKE or CAKE-LIKE substances were involved. In fact, I suspect that P Bear would make a trusty minion for Captain Cynical were sufficient CAKE on offer.... Thats an understatement along the lines of Noah saying "it might rain a little, later" I certainly am. If by "snob" you mean one who has high and exacting standards for his coffee, tea, wine........ I use a Bialetti to make coffee in the morning and for the quick cup during the day, I use a Nespresso machine and the capules. (and before anyone asks I do know how to make tea properly and I have an earthenware teapot for casual and one or two porcelain ones for entertaining. Swiss friends have remarked how "tea-ey" my tea is). Not only diabetes but mammoth obesity as well (pun intended) before I lost 35Kg, I would enjoy going to the States cos I got to feel Twiggy-thin in comparison with the locals (especially in Florida - where I would go fairly often for work [congresses and meetings]). Recent data peg the average US male at 90Kg, the average UK male at 82Kg and the average Euro male at 70kg. Gargantuan portions, sugar and salt in everything (don't believe me? check the labels), no wonder the heaviest man that ever lived (at 635Kg) was an American. Good ole "socio-cultural implications". I read a claim, somewhere, that the social difference in tea drinking (basically tea in first [supposedly "upper class"] or milk in first [supposedly "working class"]) was down to the quality of the cups the tea was/is drunk in. Very expensive bone china (at the time the preserve of the aristocracy) can take heat shock without shattering, whereas cheaper tableware (often earthenware) would shatter from heat shock if very hot tea were poured into it, so putting in milk first would reduce shattering by heat shock. Interesting theory. And - if I may be so bold - it's the snobbism of those who really don't know anything about the subject they are being snobbish about. They are just jumping on a bandwagon (so, for example, should a Celebrity Chef rhapsodise about grilled rat's testicles - before you know it the glossies would be full of articles by the usual subjects on where to buy "authentic" rat's testicles or whether or not Rattus rattus balls taste better than Rattus norvegicus balls. [and, yes, rats are edible]) Enjoy the day iD

Next prank --- Brit15

I must admit I am struggling a little bit with the Arduino's C++ but then I've only had a couple of sessions 'playing'. Having said that I managed to simulate a four signal section of automatic signalling last night using LEDs for the signals and push buttons to represent track sensors. It's how C++ structures its programs that is taking some getting my head round but it worked. I'm not convinced that it's the most efficient piece of coding but that will come as I learn new aspects of the language. As Eric once nearly said 'all the right bits are there but not necessarily in the right order'

Absolutely. If I may crave your indulgence for one quick postscript, here are some pictures I should really have posted yesterday. From 2009, thus prior to the more recent improvements which have opened up the remaining tunnels for walkers and cyclists. There's a great triangular(-ish!) walk that can be accomplished from the A6 road (there's a pub we started and finished at - can't remember its name), walk down from there to Millers Dale... The remaining station building is now a visitor centre - I think you might be able to hire bikes from there these days? As I say, in 2009 the longer of the two Chee Tor tunnels hadn't yet been reopened, so it was the Chee Dale walk for us. Absolutely gorgeous and included this rather exciting trail of stepping stones, showing just how vertiginous the cliffs are around here. The railway is just around the corner ... Here! This is the bridge which separates the two tunnels at Chee Tor. In the day, you had a split second in which to take in the dramatic view down the dale. Back on the trackbed, this is a view similar to that from the remarkable 1898 film I posted earlier, approaching Millers Dale junction. After exploring the Midland workers cottages and the site of the country's smallest station (probably?) at Blackwell Mill (also seen in the 1898 film), there's a steep path out of the gorge, taking in this classic viewpoint showing the old line, together with the Buxton branch, nearer the camera. Looking the other way, centre stage are said cottages and beyond the still extant railway curving in sharply from the left (the surviving link, keeping the A6 company down attractive Ashwood Dale to Buxton), with evidence of the giant Tunstead quarry workings that still keep the railway beyond here busy to this day. Back to the A6 and said pub for a well-earned refreshment.

Good morning everyone A dull but dry start to the day, but it’s not much warmer than yesterday, it’s only 4C at the moment. I’ve no firm plans of what I’m doing today, possibly a day of doing not a lot and taking stuff to and fro between the cellar and workshop, but I’m sure I’ll find something to occupy the day. I’ve never been involved with computers, although i did do a little programming as part of my HNC back in the day. But that’s so far back in time it’s all gone now, much like the maths I learned as well, such as differentiation, integration etc. I’ve used computers as a tool whilst working, but that’s about all. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Of what? Fruit and nut?

Well half an hour into being awake, and although a bit gloomy outside, all is fine inside. A great day yesterday doing some more Videoing on my M.... R.......... L.... which I will only talk about on my M.........ing Thread so as NOT to upset the Awl injector. Life is good and no complaints from me. Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

For many years DRAM was used as a sort of 'barometer' for the semiconductor industry and it was usually the first application for new technology nodes since increased density led to cheaper memories. The memory market was always volatile. Perhaps 40 years ago, Intel shifted it's focus from DRAMs to microprocessors to lessen the impact of memory-related business volatility to the company. Today there is less emphasis on DRAMs in proving new processes. FPGAs are more likely to be the class of device for proving out new nodes. AMD announced that they would acquire Xilinx, (the largest FPGA company) in 2020. This acquisition surprised many and is not yet complete.

I wonder if that is the ERP system our organisation was using when I retired 13 years ago. I would give you the name of it, but it caused me such grief that my mind has genuinely suppressed it! We had so many 'bolt ons' (processes written by ourselves to handle all our users' peculiar 'needs') that any new release of the ERP required massive amounts of testing on our part - so much for easy migrations. But at least it wasn't SAP.

I was a Fortran programmer for my working life. It suited our pension calculations and the actuaries could follow it. I could never get Basic programs to work. COBOL looked like wriring an essay. I tried learning C but I kept getting stuck with "C can't do that; you need to write a subroutine." and that would be just something like input/output.

Good evening everyone I managed to sort out the bathroom light pull without resorting to replacing the cord. It wasn’t as simple as re-threading the cord though. The light pull had 2 rubber washers, one at each end, these had perished and it took quite a while to remove the last traces of the old rubber. However, the threaded rod that passes through the handle was too long, so I needed some new washers, luckily I was able to get away with making only one from placticard. I then re-fitted the light pull, re-threaded the old cord, tied a knot at the end and it was job done. I then spent the rest of the day playing with my DCC controller and an accessory decoder. I’d originally planned to use these to operate all the points. But with such a big layout, remembering all the point numbers would have been a nightmare. They wouldn’t work with servos either, so I changed direction, but ended up with a dozen or so decoders with nothing to use them with. So I’ve been experimenting with LEDs and small DC motors. By making adjustments to some of the CVs I can switch LEDs on or off and run a DC motor, either continuously (not very practical) or from anything from 20 milliseconds to 5 seconds, infinitely more useful. I can also change the direction in which the motor runs too. So, if I design and build a small gearbox I could possibly open and close loco shed doors, crossing gates etc, something to think about.

A last look at 61190. Monday to Thursday, this was just a Grimsby to Peterborough local, but on Fridays it was extended both in distance, to Kings Cross, and in length, eleven cars plus a BG in all. Not the most interesting formation, as it was made up of two BSKs and eight MK1 TSOs, split into fours with a non MK1 FK sandwiched in between. The formation returned bright and early on Saturday mornings as a KX-Skegness train. One does wonder how many of the carriages were well occupied on the southbound journey, but it was probably pretty full on its way to Skeggy.

Locomotives at rest A4 and J36 sit idle at the entrance to the Caledonian style engine shed at Braeside.