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Whilst still fresh in the mind, some more Pullman images........................ The Up 'Tees-Tyne Pullman' on Stoke Summit; loco SE Finecast/Wright/Rathbone and the train a mixture of modified (older) Hornby cars and Southern Pride kit-built ones. The same train (though, apart from the brakes, not the same models) on Little Bytham; loco scratch/SE Finecast/Haynes and the train mainly modified Bachmann cars. Including the attractive 'Hadrian Bar'. A 'layout loco' hauling a 'layout train' in a complete layout-setting, I think. The Up 'Yorkshire Pullman' on Stoke Summit; loco DJH/Wright/Rathbone and the train as previously described. And the same set (including the same loco, but now with headboard) on Little Bytham. Point rodding as yet incomplete in this view. The Down 'Queen of Scots' on Stoke Summit (loco and train previously described). Two Pullmans passing during Little Bytham's early days. Either one is very late and/or the other very early, because the 'Up 'QoS' and the Down 'TTP' would not have passed at LB, but I think it makes a 'pretty' picture. At least the much-modified Hornby A4 (painted by Ian Rathbone) has no trouble hauling only eight cars.

Newcastle again today. The first three photos show work to build a new island platform on the south side and associated p.w. work. Newcastle 7th March 89 C11784.jpg Newcastle 29th June 89 C12092.jpg Newcastle 13th March 90 C15457.jpg Newcastle 43159 Kings X to Edinburgh via High Level Bridge 17th Feb 89 C11670.jpg Newcastle 43198 Bristol to Newcastle and 56114 up l eAug 91 J12986.jpg David

Need I say more!

Mobile Phone Etiquette After a long, tiring day, a commuter settled down in his seat and closed his eyes. As the train rolled out of the station, a woman sitting next to him pulled out her mobile phone. She started talking in a loud voice, "Hi sweetheart, it's Sue. I'm on the train. Yes, I know it's the six thirty and not the four thirty, but I had a long meeting. No honey, not with that Kevin from the accounting office. It was with the boss. No sweetheart, you're the only one in my life. Yes, I'm sure, cross my heart!" Fifteen minutes later, she was still talking loudly. When the man sitting next to her had enough, he leaned over and said into the phone, "Sue, hang up the phone and come back to bed." Sue doesn't use her mobile phone in public any longer.

I've spent the last couple of days working on the inside of the area behind the booking hall, much reduced in size but hopefully still recognisable. Does anyone know what the building on the right was used for? I'd like to add some signs. This building is going to be outside the train shed joining onto the portico. Finally some of the smaller bits and pieces are also ready to be put in place. The clock goes above the footbridge steps in front of the signal box. All these models will be fixed in place on Saturday, so more pictures then. Peter

Geoff Haynes dropped off a couple of locos for photography this morning............................ I built this for one of his customers from an MPD kit, and Geoff got it to work (I don't touch friction-fit drivers) and painted it. I set the frames for EM. This is a Hatton's RTR 14XX (ex-DJ Models). It had been factory-weathered almost to obliteration, so Geoff's repainted it. I think they're both rather attractive.

Morning all, I haven’t posted for a while as we have been away visiting our new granddaughter in a childcare bubble, and I don’t like to advertise our absence from home on any social media. It has been an absolute delight to see our granddaughter and to see just how much she developed in our stay and it was a hard task to drag ourselves away and return home yesterday morning. At least we had the consolation of meeting up with no 2 son for the first time in nearly 18 months for a very pleasant pub meal in the sun (mostly!) as a way of breaking our journey home from Cambridgeshire. I now just want to get back down there again to see her again and Mrs G thinks the same. In our absence the weeds have made a major bid to take over the garden, so weeding has commenced in the sun this morning. Half the strawberry bed has been weeded, and now it is coffee time, followed by lawn mowing. Looking out of the living room window tells me that the task of hedge trimming is nearly due, as there was significant growth while we were away.

The flow of late afternoon departures from KX is now over, and the evening shift hasn't started, so this 02 gets to run through on the main. Destination is New England as usual, as the signal shows.

Re the possibility of tampering, however remote, I did make sure to ask for an alarm device to be fitted to The Replacement. This’ll monitor the engine bonnet as well. Unfortunately, car theft and burglaries in order to lift items such as sat navs, steering wheels or airbags is a fact of big city life as well, so that, too, is certainly worth spending a bit of extra money on. There also was a case where somebody kicked off the passenger side mirror on FiL‘s car a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, last year, some fooker had spiked a tyre on the Prius with a screw to the sidewall, so maybe a car alarm will go some way to discouraging such vandalism.

Good moaning all from the boring borough. Work is still a bucket of yak excrement. Dealing with sh*tgibbons, c*ckwombles, asshats, and all around c*ntpuffins on a daily basis is wearing me out. Mangler has decided that I get to do the exit interview for the very disgruntled person who handed in their notice last week. No doubt the mangler is lacking in testicular fortitude and doesn't want an hour of home truths. Second interview today for another potential escape. Wish me some sort of luck. I will now make a confession. I'm not a fan of pies, cakes, or other baked goods. Meat pies included. I try to limit my carbs as much as possible so apart from the occasional home spun pizza over a wood fire, I avoid such floury things. I guess that not being so keen on them makes avoidance easier. Just noticed Dom's signature line. Mylène Farmer is a favourite. Which brings me to a gripe around Apple music. Up until the other day I had in my digital library her Greatest pt1 & pt2 album. Went to play it, "permission denied". WTF I say or words to that effect. Turns out it has been removed from Apple, so it is no longer available to either stream, or play even if you've already down loaded it. Not the first time I've had music vanish. P!sses me off royally. I found another album but it is mostly live versions. <sigh> The real kicker is I bought the double CD for MiL a few years ago and it seems to have vanished off the planet. Can't find it anywhere. enough for the day. Coffee calls, need to look human(ish) as well for the Zoom interview in 3 hours.

Well today's the day. What's that I hear you shout from the back. Why its grass cutting day and quite a bit of it soi shall be away for some time. No cheering please. Well its official. The NhS have decided to retain the triage system introduced at the height of the pandemic. So pupers I don't think your desire of seeing a human being when you are ill is going to be fullfilled. I think our surgery staff will be cheering as now they will have an excuse when they don't answer the telephone- well we've been told to direct you to the website. There is though a slight flaw with this though in that they only allow a set number of queries and what does the partially sighted ninety two year old do as a) she cannot see the screen and b) nor operate a computer. Oh hum all to make the staffs job easier and the patients life more difficult. What was it they are supposed to be doing? Oh yes looking after poorly people.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis was going hammer and tongs this morning so much so that I could barely move. Almost certainly due to the change in the weather its cooler and damper than the last few days. Second jab today, first was back in February, I was told that I would be contacted re. my second jab but I had to call and fix it myself. Now time to run a bath be back later.

Afternoon all, A couple of things - in the railway industry unless it has been drastically changed a Form 1 (actually Form DP1 in old money) is nota please explain?' although for sohe reason various folk seem to have got that idea over the years. a 'please'explain?' is either amemo stating what needs to be explained, ora. multiple tick sheet where you ticked the relavant answer, or at an interview to establish facts. A Form 1 is a disciplinary charge (hence DP1 = Disciplinary Purposes Form No 1) on which someone is charged with whatever misdemeanour etc they are alleged to have committed. There is space to return you answer or you can reserve your defence for the Disciplinary Hearing which would usually folow. If the charge is withdrawn you should be advised accordingly in writing (that procedure was copied into UK industrial relations law direct from the BR system). As for managing sickness all these fancy systems have long struck me as nothing more than an excuse mechanism for p*ss poor management of your people. Back in my TLF days some 'admin preson' (sorry NHN) called me from Islington to ask me if I had noticed the amount of time one of my staff had been off sick over the previous few months and wanted to know what I was doing about it. i explained to her, as politely as I could manage, taht it was blinf dingly obvious to me that he wasn't preseent in the office and because i was nota brain surgeon I had absolutely no intention whatsoever of doing anything about. In response to her rather stroppy reply about the brain surgeon bit I made it very clear to her that I did not consider myself qualified or equipped o carry out surgery on someone suffering from a brain tumour which was g taking its time to kill him.. if her call had started along different lines she might have got a different response but asking a bl**dy daft question about somebody I had known and worked with for over 20 years and was watching gradually going down hill on the days he managed to struggle in to work made me see red. fortunately she never again dared to call me about sickness among any of my staff. She did complain to my boss about my 'rudeness' and he too gave her a piece of his mind - and we got no more calls about staff sickness. Back to earth and some interesting news. Today we underwent our diabolic eye exam - very well handled by a lovely lass who we've not met before. The exam includes an eyesight test as other 'participants will know - and I was able to read two lines further down the chart than I could at last year's test. I had thought that my long sight was improving and the proof of the pudding was in today's test, fascinating stuff. I see' alas, elsewhere on the forum that another village has despatched its idiot to join RMweb - these things are sent to try us. Havea good day one and all and stay safe. Quiche - if it gets made - for dinner tonight and the last of yesterday's pasties were today's lunch. BTW a couple of these appear to have moved back into our garden as one was out and about tyesterday evening. might well be the breeding season as we do seem to be a popular spot for introducing their new borns to the world - time will tell

Happy Lunchtime all, welcome to Thor's Day, BIN Day and the wettest day for quite some time. The House of Fun welcomed both Mr and Mrs @Chris116 with the former greeting me from an adjacent platform and "introducing" the latter at a very social distance across two tracks of railway and some. Speaking of railway some of the old hands here will recognise the level of paperwork which seems to achieve nothing but "must be done". Today I was obliged to have a 30-minute interview with the Duty Manager. Why? Because 18 months ago I took a day sick leave which in turn triggered a "disciplinary stage" due to absence. Only on the railway, surely, is being unwell and staying home considered a disciplinary offence. So today's interview was to confirm that as it has been 18 months since my previous absence I was no longer "under review" and I was duly presented with not one but two letters the sum of which confirms the fact. One confirmed that I am no longer subject to "Stage 1" because it has been over 12 months since my last sickness and the other confirmed the meeting today had agreed that. A waste of everyone's time and resources. Multiply that across perhaps 200 staff station-wide and the number of sicknesses in any given period even allowing for the railway to still have generally low levels of sickness and absenteeism. Ho hum. I used to be qualified to lead Form 1 hearings. Form 1 is basically the "Please explain" form still used by at least some rail businesses. It is also a first, and can be the first-and-final, stage in termination of employment depending on the severity of the alleged offence. On two occasions I dismissed the hearing knowing my staff were sufficiently reprimanded just to have received Form 1 and needed "No further action taken". In truth there was an element of paperwork avoidance too because the hearings would have achieved nothing positive but could have taken hours to achieve precisely than much. A case, perhaps, of the man knowing his men. Females were not involved. Dr. SWMBO is engaged with the BBC as I speak as a pre-interview session with the presenter. I remain none the wiser as to the reason nor the program other than that it is for Radio 3. In other news the Children's Garden we have suggested for the Hill of Strawberries is to go ahead with immediate effect and as a part of the new arrangements children are no longer permitted to play unsupervised on the front lawns; they must play in the designated play area which is the large back lawn. Probably a positive move and clearly one the landlord was keen on. They also seem to be amenable to tenant-led initiatives for improvements generally. It's time to put the Gwiwer in the shower. If no-one throws the soap in I may be some time

I always assumed ChrisF’s former comment was a reference to experts as used in the English legal system. Aditi’s brother is a GP and like all GPs have regular training update sessions. He said the definition of an expert is someone who has travelled over 50 miles and had a PowerPoint presentation to show you. Just to reassure iD I don’t think British people generally hold experts in low esteem. However some of those who are clever enough to succeed in politics seem to. Also “too clever by half” is probably used really to describe people who think they are clever, tell everyone how clever they are but actually are not. Alternatively affectionately about someone who perhaps who neglects ordinary tasks due to making use of their expert skills. Tony

Morning all. I've had to invoke the "Pupper's Patented 'ppointment Procuring Procedure" with the GP for the 4th time in recent weeks this morning. I'm pleased to say it worked again although the 10 minutes on hold when I did get through did have me twitching! I was feeling quite reasonable when I awoke this morning but it's all gone downhill since playing the Appointment Lottery but I won't bore you with the details of my afflictions. Anyway, whilst awaiting the telephone call from the doctor (wouldn't a face to face appointment and examination be good for a change!) I feel I may have a crack at downloading and building the code for the DCC++ EX system as it basically involves sitting in my chair and barely moving. I can also do the mods to the hardware which looks to be the removal of the two jumpers which were part of the original hardware configuration whilst sitting on my rear. Enjoy your day folks!

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 4.5 hours +1.5 hours plus some not sleeping.. Ben the Alarm clock Collie was half an hour early today, which didn't help.. Dry but mostly cloudy out there many of the clouds looking exceedingly dark and thunderous.. which won't please Ben, He was hiding in his cage yesterday evening as we got some thunder but no rain.. I have spent sometime working on the handicap spreadsheets. Dinghies added in didn't work, they are just too different.. So I switched to Keelboats raced locally. The Rebel, Reedling, Yeoman, Yare and Bure one Design, the Broads One design and the International Star. The results suddenly looked more reliable... One dinghy survived the cull, the Norfolk Dinghy, it's heavy Clinker built has a steel plate, copper and Brass buoyancy tanks. The overall effect of that, is it's somewhere between a keelboat and dinghy in performance.. The thinking behind the switch is Blue Moon is a miniature Keel boat, at 16ft LOA bigger than the Mini 12M equivalents, which are 12 to 14ft. The Local Keelboats are 19 to 25ft. so with Blue Moon sitting between the Commercial mini 12M, it should and has produced a better range of results.. The next thing is to produce graphs of the results, The first hopefully a straight ish line with Blue Moon sitting somewhere near to the line produced by the known handicap boats.. The other graph will be a conversion chart between the known RYA Portsmouth Yardstick handicaps and the Norfolk broads Handicap.. I think yesterdays major system is OK, So I'll hand it back when the operators turn up.. there are spare systems at the moment due to shortage of parts.. So it's shrapnel time this morning Little odd resistors etc. Just waiting for a 1 G Ohm to settle. Time to.. wait..

Good moaning. It's not raining.....at the moment. Various tasks got completed yesterday and hopefully more will today. Today is, like in Dom land, a bank holiday, the 3rd in a fortnight. It looks as if many people will make tomorrow a bridge day and make a 4 day weekend out of it. In the meantime we've got a guy arriving to start pointing a stretch of the wall at the front of the garden. A few stones fell out of it after the frosts in January, and crumbing mortar combined with the removal of Ivy, means that work needs to be done. I have some work to do in the shed so the day will be seized one way or another. Regards to all. Jamie

Moanin‘ awl. Yeah, it’s rainy here all right, too! At least this bodes well, or so I hope, for a quiet shift as it’s a bank holiday here. From the „sod it“ category, a replacement car will need to be obtained because of something which certainly seems strange! I had recently done an oil change myself, mainly because I needed something to do and because I felt it couldn’t hurt to do this a bit more frequently on a 12 year old car. However, last week, I got an oil pressure warning and noted the engine sounded increasingly rough. After having it towed to our dealer, they were mystified to find particles of an almost waxy composition in the lubrication circuit, which seems to have clogged most of the oil conduits. There’s no easy way of fixing that except by way of a total engine rebuild or replacement, so I’m sorry to say, that’ll be it for the good old Prius. I’m not prepared to spend 5,000ish on a car which I believe will be worth no more than that as a whole after all those years - even with meticulous care. The question remains how this contaminant could have gotten into the engine to begin with. They hadn’t noticed anything untoward when it had been in for a steering rack replacement recently, and I had carried out the oil change with materials strictly to OEM specs. I suppose any guess will be as good as any other. Could‘ve been the new oil filter, could‘ve been the oil itself, maybe even deliberate tampering by some unknown rectal orifice…however this should have occurred. Though I suppose in a big city, there’s all sorts of scrotes with mindsets not worthy of appreciation, so… But, fear not, suitable replacement - even more so for a family with two kids - is in the process of being secured. I stand by my preference for Toyota hybrids, but I’ll just say, stay tuned. We’ve an appointment with the dealer on Saturday in any case. Thinking of Gordon and anyone else under the weather. Other than that, well, enjoy whatever you’re up to!

Good evening all. I hope everyone's well. I see one and all have been busy producing some lovely models. I'm just getting back up to speed. It must be the jabs. I think they put some illegal performance enhancing stuff in mine. I know I've got a bit of thing about O4s.. and sorry for being a bit wordy and windbaggy, but bear with me if you've got the patience... The Bachmann O4 is basically a very good model of the O4/1, but like so many RTR models, though basically accurate, it has a few niggling little errors and some compromises. One of the most notable errors is the running plate shape around the cylinders. It widens out for a length over the cylinders like the original but on the model it widens out for a significantly longer section than it should. Probably, the most annoying thing is that they retooled the footplate getting it correct for the GWR ROD but kept the original tooling on the LNER based locos. Other 'little' errors include the reversing rod which is far too short when compared to the real thing. Also the cylinders, slide bars and piston don't line up with the centres of the driven wheels. As well as this, the driving wheel wheelbase is shortened compared with the prototype and the distance between the leading driving axle and the pony axle is lengthened. This last discrepancy is more a compromise than error to enable the model negotiate very tight curves with the pony fouling the cylinders.Similarly the area between the frames is filled to fit in with the model's motor as designed. I run my locos on a DC layout being an old fashioned stick-in-the-mud luddite (a bit like Tony) and I use Stewart Hine's Pentrollers which are still, to my way of thinking, one of the best controllers performance-wise that I've witnessed. (You have to be very careful with them though, they easily burn out with a prolonged short). I have converted a few of the Bachmann O4s using the Bachmann chassis and when pulling a longish train, they perform well enough. However, if light engine, they seem to have a tendency to hunt slightly with a kick every so often giving them a bit of jerky characteristic. When compared to my K's O4s, they can't hold a candle to the k's locos smooth running. So for a while I've been of correcting some of the models errors, and trying out a scratch built sprung chassis for it. On top of that I've chosen one of the much more numerous O4/3s rather than an O4/1 for the prototype, Colwick's 63829. This entailed removing the ejector pipe. Anyway, here is a video of the first run of the completed model. I've re-profiled the running plate and opened out the frames and on the chassis I've made the wheelbase much more accurate to the prototype.I've attempted also to get the piston rods to line up correctly. All in all I think the changes have improved the look of the model and it certainly runs well (early days.. touch wood). I must give massive thanks to Andrew (Headstock) whose brilliant model of an O4/8 was modified similarly and was the inspiration for this little project. I'll post a few photos of the different stages of the project if anyone's interested. Clem

No - it is the dark coloured casting, like so: The whole thing I've outlined in red is the yaw damper bracket. Its role is to transfer the load from the yaw damper into the body structure, thereby dissipating the load. The load I'm talking about is that which comes about from rapid oscillation of the bogie as it reacts to forces whilst travelling along. It shouldn't happen - but it does. Although it's designed to run in a perfect straight line (using the opposed cones effect of the wheelsets - conicity), it's actually reacting all the time to tiny variations in track geometry and can oscillate rotationally slightly (as both flanges of a wheelset are never simultaneously in contact with both rails) even though it's nominally running in a straight line. If it hits a natural frequency (resonance) then it becomes unstable and - without the yaw damper - it's away, rapidly alternating between clockwise and anticlockwise rotations (about a vertical axis) causing high frequency shaking and vibration, known colloquially as 'hunting'. It was a phenomenon fully investigated by BR's research department as part of the APT programme. As with all dampers (shock absorbers) the yaw damper will effectively lock up when subject to such rapid movement and thus minimise the vibrations - but at the expense of transmitting that high frequency load into the vehicle body via the yaw damper bracket. There you go. Apologies to any on here who already know all that. For those who have experience of design loads in other fields may be of interest? I've labelled up all the other basic suspension elements - it's a 'trailing arm' suspension system. There also looks to be some form of torsion bar arrangement but I'll have to confess I don't have so much experience of them in railway applications.

That sounds a bit like an incident when my sister was wrongly arrested for alleged use of a stolen credit card in Solihull. The description was a bit vague, short young woman, light hair, child in pushchair. During questioning the detective asked her about a previous use of the same card, to which she said she was in Devon at the time. When asked for details of a witness who could confirm it she replied "The Reverend ..... St Mary Vicarage ..... Phone no. .... Case didn't get any further.

Just been weathering mine; don't intend (or need) to do much else to it. Gave some of the windows a wipe over with a cotton bud before the paint was completely dry.

Overcast and wet in North Somerset. 9mm so far today; to add to the 14 we had yesterday and 7 on Tuesday. It would seem flood, drought, flood, drought is back. As for recipe books, I count them as a complete waste of money; mainly because most authors just make a few minor changes to someone else's recipes and then add those to their book. My goldfish arrived in the post yesterday. They were a bit stressed by the ordeal, but calmed down once they were tipped into the new home and could hide amongst the water lilies. Unfortunately, it has rained for much of the time and they have taken to the depths out of the bad weather. So now I have two ponds, the goldfish one and the frog one. I don't want the two combined because the fish would scoff any wildlife in the frog pond.

When I was a nipper in the mid '50s there was frequently a molasses tanker parked near my primary school. Us kids would scoop up the residue around the outlet nozzle with our fingers and lick it off, which we thought was yummy. Probably enough to send a 21st century H&S person into orbit but as far as I am aware, none of us ever suffered any ill effects. Dave

Morning, looks like we have the Haar for the day, gentle breeze coming off a very cold North Sea, no idea what will happen today, some parallel bits of metal could do with having a few volts run through it as none has for a couple of weeks, going to look for my mojo. Take care all.

Good morning everyone It looks like the weather can’t make its mind up at the moment, one minute it’s dull, then the sun comes out, then it’s dull, then it’s sunny again........... Anyway, I’d best get downstairs and make room for a dozen sheets of plasterboard, as that’s what I plan to pick up if it’s all in stock. I’ll also get a few other items whilst I’m there, I think I’ll need more nails for fitting the ceiling sheets, more jointing tape and some metal plaster edging too. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

A summer evening on the coal quay. Number 16 hauls the last load as the sun sets.

Another one finished. 14-inch Hunslet.

When my previous employer was taken over by a German group, the tax department in Dusseldorf were astounded to learn that I had not done a degree in accountancy before training to become one, but had done one in history. They were even more surprised when i pointed out that I had qualified more quickly than those in my particular office who had read accountancy in university, despite the exemption from the first level of exams it gave them!

@Gwiwer your sickness procedure sounds similar to that of the Council where i used to work. Reporting sick did get silly at times i had to go for an operation i had to be at the hospital for 6am i was first on the list so i told them a week before oh that wasnt good enough i had to ring them at 7am on the day bit difficult when your anesthetized My wife was with me there is no mobile signal there i had to get my mum to ring in sick for me just like school

Aditi made a lot recently when I was unwell. She has no problem with the consistency but I do tease her that what she makes is a bit bland for most British people. She, like her Dad, is not a fan of very hot spicy food. Her Mum is though. There will be Punjabi food tonight, not sure what but it will feature matar paneer. Tony

They didn’t mention any signs of coolant leakage. I had bought the oil filter from a retailer I had no reason to think of as being shady, and it had come sealed in original packaging. Like I said, very odd, but on The Replacement, I will stick with having the workshop do such jobs for at least the next several years! But, yeah, I did find myself wondering if I might have done anything wrong during the oil change, even though I had done precisely what I knew the garage would have done.

Small Heath job yesterday started with the driver I was relieving saying he’s been asked to rescue a failed freightliner that was blocking the mainline from landor st, I got to small Heath station just as he was moving off to rescue it, he is a new driver, only been out for about a month so I left him to it to get a bit of experience in! northbound freightliner passing by the closed new st bound platforms after protecting his train the driver waited at his protection point with a red flag the rescue loco then ran over his detonators and headed toward the stricken trains and coupled up it then dragged it forward to small Heath where it was detached and ran into Tyseley to head back to small Heath but not before a GBRf 47 passed on the goods loop heading to Eastleigh I’ll be seeing more of this loco later today! back in small Heath I thought I go for an arty shot of a class 70 through the signal gantry then low and behold another one went in the opposite direction! being unloaded Being as we had lost 2 hours unloading time rescuing the freightliner I was asked to stay on to get the train unloaded which I agreed to as it was only going to bescot, or so I thought, turned out it was actually going to crewe gresty lane! Normally I’d be happy to be working a train there as it’s only a couple of miles from home but I’d driven my car to bescot so that’s now stuck there until the weekend to add to the problems the train was so late that it was going to head toward a possession at penkridge which would have scuppered it going north but thankfully I sign all round Birmingham and the Midlands so I left bordesley and went via new st to soho, over to Perry Barr through bescot, over to Walsall and over the chase line to rugeley and onward to Stafford and crewe, I finally got there 90 mins late (but 2 1/2 hours later than I thought I was due to get to bescot!) in after rest today now but thankfully my train has been rescheduled to run 3 hours later than planned so it’s not off crewe until about 15:30 so it all works out nicely but it may make tomorrow’s job late as a knock on effect!

The group I work for supply it widely. However it is used in making animal feed (liquid and dried pellet form), as feedstock for distilling, fertiliser, coating charcoal briquettes, and as an alternative to salt in the grit put down on roads. As far as I know, none of the molasses brought into the UK is used directly in the human food chain

Greetings one and all After far too long an absence there is live music on the horizon. The first concert that I shall attend since March last year will be on Tuesday of next week. The Hut People are due to appear in St Neots. Who they? Sam Pirt plays accordion and Gary Hammond a bewildering array of percussion instruments, including a pair of plastic squeaky pigs! The next gig that I know about is in the grounds of Hatfield House in July. It will be a cut-down version of what the organisers intended thanks to social distancing but now includes the Young’uns. Their appearance three years ago was the first time I heard “Be The Man”, a song which as some know means a great deal to me. How I have missed my fix of live music! I see that there is disagreement in the ranks about certain potential ingredients of breakfast. I invite warring factions not to march forward together but to accept that we do not all have the same taste. If I had to choose between baked beans and black pudding I would choose the former but do not entirely dislike the latter. It is a long time since I have had either with breakfast. It is, come to that, a long time since I have eaten breakfast outside the home, because it has not been possible thanks to that ruddy virus. Some establishments attempt to serve breakfast that can be taken away. They are on a hiding to nothing. The normal size bap cannot come close to accommodating the ingredients of a full English, there being room for at most three of the essential components. The alternative is a polystyrene container as unappetising as its contents. I like my breakfast to be presented on a plate - that’s a round or oval thing made of china. Never mind, gentle readers: one day life will return to normal. That will be after a squadron of airborne pigs has bombed Downing Street. I see that my hitherto esteemed friend and colleague regards the statement that he quotes as “moronic”. It used to appear as part of my signature. Please tell him that I take exception to that view. Monkeysarefun, the clock seems to have stopped on the koala thing live from Brisbane. JohnDMJ, I wish you had not mentioned Jimmy Young. It’s a long story which will have to wait until tomorrow. Continuing warm thoughts to Gordon and family and anyone else who is poorly. Best wishes to all. Chris

Today was the weekly game of Covid roulette at Tesco (not so bad now I'm fully vaccinated) followed by a reasonably brisk walk getting in just before the rain (again) . The afternoon was fairly productive and I've got far less still to do on the current job than I've done so far. Goodnight all

Your traditional steam hauled parcel train with your traditional blue/grey BSKs in the mix. Milnthorpe June 1967

I've been on leave this week, so I've had time to catch up with some stock building for Yelverton. Another 45xx has joined the stud. This one will be 4568. Its weathered Bachmann - I changed the small crests for large, painted the safety valve cover, and removed the moulded plastic coal. Otherwise its pretty much as it comes. It still needs numberplates,, the fireman's pep pie, and some lamps. Here is 4568 leaving Yelverton with an Up freight. A toad. This ones a weathered Hornby AA15. Another Toad, this time an AA20 using a detailed Bachmann one. Another view of the Up freight leaving Yelverton Finally, a Lowfit (Mainline on a modified Parkside chassis) and a Conflat A (Parkside body, Red Panda chassis). Transfers on the Conflat A are Woodhead (remember them?) - Does any one know of a source of Lowfit transfers? I thought I had some, and when I went to my box of transfers this morning, found I didn't. Cheers for now - three days leave to go Alex

No, but I was thinking along similar lines as you seem to have done. I couldn’t rule out the possibility of residues from the older oil, plus possible residue from the flush agent, having interacted in an unforeseeable way either. But, to be honest, after everything‘s said and done, I’m looking forward to The Replacement. Be nice to enjoy some up to date tech in particular, me being certainly savvy for that!

We had a cassoulet last week with “French style” sausage and bacon using haricot beans. I will suggest perhaps the addition of black pudding next time. We eat loads of pea/bean/lentil based meals. I still like baked beans on toast though. Nowadays we have the reduced salt and sugar Heinz version. Tony

The Hairy Bikers in their book One Pot Wonders have bastardised the shakshuka and turned it into a full English shakshuka. I have not made it but the recipe does of course contain sausage, bacon, black puddings, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, haricot beans, and of course eggs. Edit - I found a link to the recipe online: https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/full-english-shakshuka

We had a telephone session with our financial advsor yesterday and had to fill out a spreadsheet today on our current situation -- which is, of course, out of whack due to you know what. Walked in the Arboretum today. Passed another couple who were looking into the trees. There was a distinctive red-headed bird up there poking his head into a hole and then another appeared on the other side. Pixillated pileated woodpeckers.

Good evening everyone I set off the surgery a few minutes after 8:45 and arrived just before 9 o’clock. I then followed the instructions fixed to the door and knocked once and waited. A minute or so later someone came to the door and after answering a few questions I was allowed into the waiting area and booked in. I was seen at exactly 9:10 and the procedure took place, after which I booked my next appointment, which is August 4 at the same time, so that’s it now for another 12 weeks. I then left and was back home just before 9:30. Once home, I got changed into my working cloths, made myself a muggertea in my thermos mug and headed downstairs to the cellar. I had a few more smaller offcuts of plasterboard, which were offcuts from the ceiling in the office, so aren’t waterproof plasterboard. Ive use these to clad the wooden beam which is above the cellar window and door, the remainder was used on another wall, but at just below ceiling height. If water gets that high in the cellar then I’m in big trouble. After dinner I moved the bookcase so that I can get to the wall behind it. Tomorrow when I go to the big orange DIY shed, I’ll get some more waterproof plasterboard and fit the second skin to the wall on worked on yesterday, I’ll also double skin the wall behind the bookcase. Any offcuts will then be used on the remaining wall that has electrical sockets fitted.

It appears I may have inadvertently forgotten to post this morning, I do apologise, and so I say to one and all, Have a good what's left of the day, and stay safe for the reminder of it.

@polybear it wasnt hr or occupational health that were the problem it was the buffoons in our office. Hr and occy health were very understanding and helpful last year when i had my second breakdown i was able to bang out on full pension at 43. Another example of their buffoonery was my only involvment in the disciplinary proceedings. An incident had occoured when i was off for a couple of days i knew roughly what had gone off through hearsay i got dragged in to the office because one of my team members was involved. I was asked what i saw i said nothing i wasnt allowed to say anything else. 2 months later i had to go to County Hall in Wakefield for the inquiry i thought it was for a character witness. First question i was asked was i aware of incident yes. Second question was a beauty where was i when it happened answer Scarborough sea front. Well that went down a treat i was dying to laugh. Unfortunately the relationship between staff and management was poor in our depot due to the way they treat us certainly onnthe cleansing side

By the time Aditi worked her way up to her final post in higher education a doctorate was just another vocational qualification, as was the masters she had got earlier for what she was doing in further education. When representing her employer she used her Doctor title but doesn’t when we are on holiday as she said engaging in a bit of Foucauldian analysis was not going help someone who had fallen over.

To those of a level below that of Doctor, there is no legal status. You could be sent an "engineer" from Currys to see to your TV and he's had a couple of hours training on how to plug it in . But me as a mere technician, has a degree, and an additional 3 years + electronics training.. I'm now at home having a muggacoffee, in a half hour we're off to get Bill Gates chip 2. The handicap spreadsheet now has two graphs. They look OK, I'm happy with the results. There's just prettying it up, and a review of data . I'll also have another search for anymore boats to add to the data, more data can only help.

You are taking a very unfair view. These trains were found to have cracks. Initially, nobody knew how serious or extensive the problem was so, as a precaution, the entire fleet was stopped for investigation. After a herculean effort which has involved engineers from Hitachi, the TOCs and Ricardo Rail (as independent overseers) an understanding has been reached as to what is and is not safe allowing trains to be returned to service subject to close and regular examination. Nobody is being "told that they have insufficient knowledge of the subject matter", far from it. Some of the most experienced engineers in the field here and in Japan are on the case. Please stop posting such negative comments as you have over the last couple of days which only show you have little understanding of the problem or how today's railway works. At the end of the day, nobody is going to sign off an unfit unit for service and lay themselves open to criminal charges should something go wrong.

Greetings all from Sidcup which is wet and grey although currently not actually raining. Today is LDC and Autosport day, which will intersperse work! I would tend to agree with iD that there is an undercurrent in British society that disdains "experts" in many fields. We sneer at people who use "Doctor" in their title, unless they are medical, whereas in some places such as Germany in seems almost de rigeur to have one or two Doctors in your title with possibly a professor too. Even the term "Boffin", as beloved by the redtops, is not really a compliment. However I do think that this has been/will change slightly, certainly in favour of the medical sciences experts, because of the success in producing the vaccines.