andyram

Definitely prefer toasted current buns.

There will be a halt type station around "Meerkat Wood". This will be called "Sasha's Halt", named after a deceased family pet who is buried in this part of the garden. The "grave" is currently marked by the large ceramic "duck" which can be seen in some pictures. As for a carriage containing meerkat passengers - that is unlikely.

Evening all. Firstly my thoughts and wishes to Mick and family. I would also like to mention Dave (TG). Have I missed any posts from him recently? I know I have only skimmed through these pages recently but I have not seen any of his usual offerings. I do hope he is ok. It was nice to see Jock remembered in a recent post. I do miss his daily summaries and good wishes. I am sure he will be dispensing his words of wisdom to those up there in heaven, whilst looking down upon his friends and family. I hope his wife and family are well. Today has been a warm and sunny day in Derbyshire. More steam miles today after a visit to Butterley for their model exhibition. I got to ride behind the Prairie 5542, currently hiding in LT livery as L150. It was the highlight of the visit as the show was underwhelming. The theme of Network South East 30 was well represented with some decent layouts from this era / region. Sadly there was little else and the whole show seemed much smaller than some of those in the past. I was ready to leave after less than two hours and only the train ride padded out my visit. On the positive side I caught up with an old colleague and had a nice chat with him. In the afternoon I took Sarah over to a craft fair at our local garden centre. A nice hour spent and we came away with some flavoured coffee beans - one of the flavours tasted very nice this afternoon when I sat down to sample it. Sadly Sarah has started with a migraine so our usual evening meal together probably won't happen as she will need to go and sleep it off. I hope she feels better soon. Enjoy your evening. Summer Steam hauled miles now over 185.

Not fashion, but plenty of leg!

An hour's work session yesterday saw a small amount of progress made. One section of lawn edging has been removed and enough grass cleared to allow another concrete block to be laid and two more sections of track to be added to the line. This has been ballasted too. The track has now started to progress through the South West corner on a falling gradient towards the Western side of the site. The empty block towards the front of the picture shows where the line will curve again. This area still needs digging out and this is on the job list for the week ahead. Today has seen delivery of ten more straight sections of track. This now gives me enough track to lay the whole length of the West straight. Hopefully I can report more progress soon.

Considering the changing nature of the name plates on his diesels the next Pencarne visitor will be a green liveried 9F carrying "Cock of the North" nameplates, no wait he will have changed them to 'Cromwell" then "Central Star", then "Evening Star", then "Leicester City".

Fashion show of Helen Skelton's latest outfits must be starting soon.

I'm sick to death of Nigel Pearson already. Once again picked the wrong team and system for the players in the squad. He has been with us since May so surely should know the strengths of the team by now. Not good enough!

Aha but I am going to spot trains not the cars by the level crossing.

Morning all. Best wishes to Andrew who has had a rough week off. My sympathies sir. Great to hear Tony's news about the success of Robbie's operation. It is always worrying when you take a pet to the vets. We have just got back home from an early morning appointment at our local vets. A check up for cat number three who was almost 10kg in weight when we adopted him from the Cats Protection. Goodness knows what his previous owner was feeding him on. The vet has put him on a strict and special diet. The result has been a 400g loss of weight in the last 4-5 weeks. Great news. As he is a Siamese breed the nurse thinks he could live into his 20's if well looked after, he is 11 now. Hopefully we can help him stay healthy as he has a lovely nature. A lovely sunny day here. Enjoy what you do.

I hope we see a steamer and not one of those new fangled diesel things!

LE I Definitely prefer watching the Olympic woman's beach volleyball. They would have put up a better fight in the Rugby 7's

Evening all and generic greetings and wishes as appropriate. On the subject of cockwombles I had a close encounter with a young female variety today. She decided to pull out of a side road across the front of me as I was accelerating from a previous junction. I slammed the brakes on, the car skidded on loose stones and I missed ploughing into her driver's door by inches as I leaned on the horn. All she managed was a sweet smile and a mouthed "sorry". She is lucky she could manage it!! The above incident occurred on the way home from a second successive day on the Great Central. This time a working stint as a ticket inspector again. Today seemed more tiring somehow and I am feeling exhausted right now. I did end up with a longer day as the other TTI wanted to work the early finishing set that also carried the griddle car. This would have left me with a long wait so I rode the train to Leicester and back to Rothley before picking up my train there. I consumed a bacon cob from the griddle, and a good job too as the buffet was closed on my set. The day was busy with numbers holding around 200 per train until late in the day. Most families were pleasant, but there were a couple of families on the last departure who let their children race up and down the carriages and climb on the tables, and were surprised when I spoke to them. On the final set were one loud family whose daughter had one setting "transmit loudly". She did not talking garbage all journey. A small drama was the arrival of the local constabulary to search the surrounding embankments around Leicester North after an "incident" in the early hours. They were quite excited when they found some spent ammunition cartridges until the stationmaster identified them as left overs from. War weekend! Summer steam mileage now over 177. Here are some stolen internet pictures of our two locos from today.

Yes I Sky plussed the whole series.

Yes. Welcome back Polly

Don't see leopard on here much at all, missing from ER's too.

Evening all. Generic best wishes to all. A quick check in at the end of a busy day. Sarah, Amber and I had an enjoyable visit to the Great Central Railway for their Teddy Bear's picnic event. A very nice day. Sarah and I both had an all day breakfast from the griddle car on the 12.15 service from Loughborough. Amber got very excited by the sight of the teddy bear and the basket of sweets. After a run to Leicester behind the 8F we dropped off at Rothley on the return journey so she could visit the fair ground. We then picked up the 9F on its run to Leicester and then back to Loughborough. A nice bottle of real ale consumed too. Summer steam miles now up to just over 125. Back there tomorrow in a working capacity. Enjoy your Thursday.

Yes I am aware they had put these plates on a few weeks ago. Personally (and I am not a Leicester fan), I think if the railway wants to name this locomotive then its current identify is more appropriate than the other dreadful plates it has carried.

The Great Central's Teddy Bear's picnic finishes tomorrow. The two locomotives in service are the 8F and 9F. The 8F was working the griddle car set today with departures at 10.15, 12.15 and 2.15 from Loughborough. The 9F worked the other set, containing the RVP group's teak buffet, departing Loughborough at 11.15, 1.15, 3.15. The 9F has suffered another identity change and now sports Leicester City name plates.

A Million Love Songs - Take That

A little less conversation - Elvis

Trebor strong mints

Just read a nice piece in our local paper. It appears that Shaun Barker is close to agreeing a contract with Burton Albion. He has been training with them to prove his fitness after we released him a year ago. He has not played a first team game for three years since a horrific knee injury sustained whilst playing for Derby against Forest. He was granted a testimonial by the club last season which attracted a decent crowd. Having met the man himself I can honestly say he is a true gent. His hard work to battle back from several operations and the charity work he did in the intervening years is a mark of a man who always remained positive. It was a shame that he never played for our first team again, having had a few games in the under 21's. I really hope he wins that contract, even if he only manages a handful of minutes in the Championship it would complete a heroic return.

Yes the "name" that appears with each message changed regularly.

I noticed it was our ex defender who got a red card.