Chris116

Not a problem with the time taken to reply, you have far more important things to do. Very pleased with the GNR set of Genesis coaches and very sorry I had to cancel my BR Crimson set but Met 1 and coaches to go with it are more important.

Are you riveted to this thread?

Agreed, but we should reach 900 jokes fairly soon!

I visited the Tattersall Castle last Tuesday for a comedy show. Disappointed that it is permanently moored and there is no trip on the Thames.

The lessons you have learnt the hard way are much appreciated as hopefully I will be able to follow the instructions you have given us. ALL helpful tips are always welcome.

A year later and on 9th September 2023 I had a very nice day riding the 1938 tube stock on two journeys. The same set of journeys as in 2022 were made and I was on the second Amersham to Watford return journey plus the final trip of the day from Amersham to Harrow on the Hill. The unit at Amersham. Inside the 1938 stock. Another view of the inside. The ride on both trips was very good with some fast running at some points. Very enjoyable and I look forward to my next chance to ride on LUL Heritage Stock.

Going back to children being very restricted in what they are allowed to do these days, I always remember that from the age of 9 I spent a day or two each year during school holidays on the Underground using a Twin Rover ticket (I only ever used the Underground and never the buses). On such trips my mother always supplied suitable food and drink for the day and gave me some money in case of need I could use a phone box to call her. I used to meet lots of other kids doing exactly the same as me and we all had a very enjoyable time. Having done such a day during my last half term holiday at primary school I was extremely cross on the last day of a week long school trip to the Isle of Wight to be stopped from spending the 'free' afternoon on the Steam trains from Ventnor to Ryde, Newport and Cowes. The teacher who caught me at Sandown station buying the tickets I needed insisted that I would get lost and was unmoved by being told I had spent a day two weeks earlier on the London Underground and had not got lost on eight lines so why I questioned would I get lost on two lines? About 25 years later my parents meet her at a concert in the Royal Festival Hall and invited her for a meal two weeks later. Although I by then lived in Basildon I happened to be home the evening she came for the meal and I gave her a very hard time as I have never forgiven her for stopping me going on the whole of the steam operated IOW lines before electrification of the Shanklin line and closure of the line to Newport and Cowes. After she left my father said that I should not have been as hard on her but he agreed with every word I said! Happy days when children learnt not to do stupid things by finding that it hurt so you took care of yourself but did not get smothered by cotton wool.

I collected two small bottles of tablets last week using click and collect. The box they came in would have held at least twelve of your Canadian Pacific loco in its box! Opened box put two bottles in my jacket pocket and gave the box and packaging back to the store.

Please put the photo back. I think such fakes are totally acceptable provided the caption notes the fact it is a fake.

A swift kick in the signalman's butt should solve the problem.

They will arrive in the UK when the boat gets here and they will arrive on your layout at some point in the future over which none of us have any control so there is no point in worrying about it.

The meter does not send billing information as it should and sometimes says we have used ten times as much energy as we normally do in a day. The supplier says the information is wrong and since they are not receiving it we have not been charged. When I said that as it was not providing us with the promised information and asked for one that worked correctly I was told that it was not policy to exchange failed units only to supply new ones to new customers.

Smart meters are great IF THEY WORK. Mine failed two years ago but my electric and gas supplier won't replace it as they get government money for new smart meters but nothing for replacing failed ones!

The only Lima N gauge locomotive I ever owned was the 0-4-0 diesel shunter which was about twice as wide as any other N gauge item I have ever seen. As I was building a 009 layout it made a very useful and cheap 009 locomotive once I had removed the roof from the drivers cab and put a new cab that was the same height as the Eggerbahn and Lilliput stock I had.

Sounds like an excellent excuse to build a UK layout!

@Hattons Dave do you have any idea on when the batch three coaches will become available for pre order? Having just ordered a Met 1 from Hattons I am very keen to get the planned Metropolitan coaches.

Be careful not to take to Currys, Carphone Warehouse, Dixon's or whatever they are calling themselves this week! I got a new phone from them a couple of years ago and was informed that for data protection reasons any computer or phone left with them was automatically wiped of all data. I pointed out that I wanted the data moved from one to the other but they insisted it was not allowed so I went to my local Vodafone shop and they sorted it out very quickly. They were so efficient I even moved my broadband account to them joining my wife's and my phone accounts which got me a nice discount!

When London Underground closed all their ticket offices they made a lot out of there being more staff to help passengers around the station. This was true for about a year during which time all the ticket office staff spent their shift outside the now bricked up ticket office helping passengers to buy their tickets. Personally, I found it took twice as long to serve such passengers as it would have done when I was in the ticket office! Then around a year after the ticket offices had closed most of us took voluntary severance and that meant my station went from having two or three staff for 90% of the day to having one member of staff. So much for more staff to help passengers. In my view what happened on London Underground is exactly what DfT are planning on National Rail. DfT stands for Disastrous for Transport.

If the sandbank cannot be saved then maybe they should move the railway to start at Morfa Mawddach and then run inland along the old line to Dolgellau. I know there is a walking path on the old trackbed but there should still be room for the railway in much the same way as the Bure Valley Railway shares the old trackbed with a path for walkers.

I wish my wife understood that!

Resist the model shop? Whatever for, you know you don't want to, so don't.

Two trains at the same time. Must be the rush hour!

Work finally recommenced with the wiring being completed yesterday so the plan for today was to run a ceremonial first train. The honour was given to the British incarnation of the layout, Elmstone, but the plan then was for the stock and station to be changed to allow a Wisconsin Central loco haul a train into the loop and shunt the yard. Sadly the direction switch of my Gaugemaster Combi controller disintegrated before the first British train could depart. The first Wisconsin Central service will now have to wait for a new Combi controller being purchased and delivered. The first British train in the station. The sadly empty Depot still awaiting the first Wisconsin Central service.

Wiring now completed so a running session seemed the best way forward. One of my J70's, 68223, hauled the four GNR Genesis coaches into the station from the fiddle yard as a ceremonial first train with the Ivatt 2MT 41304 ready to couple onto the back of the train to take the first train back to the fiddle yard but at that point things went wrong. The direction switch on my Combi controller appears to have disintegrated when I tried to move the Ivatt off the loop line to join the train. So it looks like any celebration will have to wait for delivery of a new Combi controller.

Sorry, I have just checked the other photos I took and none of them show the headboard.