Philou

Hmmmmmm ....... brain-fart alert! Yesterday's tomorrow is Sunday, the fibre isn't until Monday which is now tomorrow - d'oh! :))

We..e..e..ell yes but no but ...... apparently France Telecom as an entity doesn't really exist - it's all Orange. In this département, the overseeing cable backbone provider (the physical bit) is Orange and the fibre here was laid outside the door 4 years ago and we were expecting great things then - but we are the very last district to be physically connected to it. To break up the Orange monopoly as a provider it was specified that once the backbone was laid ANY provider could have access and do the final connection. We've gone with SFR as they're the only ones that bothered to call and sell their wares. The département also specified that the connection to the fibre from a private dwelling should be free - as in free beer whether 4m or 400m away. The downside is that our final bit of the connection from the house to the main will be aerial despite the fact that the conduit is outside the door and the draw-cable was put in place last summer. The whole shebang has cost the département €200M in cable laying and final connection to the box inside the house. As ever the optimist, it should all be done tomorrow, but in case there's no message on here tomorrow night, you'll guess that we have had a problem! If the technician cuts us adrift from Orange and doesn't reconnect us, then we're stuffed as there'll be no phone - fixed or mobile and therefore no t'intertubes either! Fingers crossed. Cheers, Philip PS: I did say rather flippantly yesterday that today was our third Christmas meal - wrong! Mrs Philou did the maths at table today - the seventh!

Well tomorrow came and went and became today with nothing done except putting some wrappers around the buttress caps and then wrapping up parcels for our second (or is it third) Christmas lunch. Bit of a house clean too as with three cats and the hairy Lump, there tends to be a collection of tumbleweed sized hairballs that chase each other around the floors .............. So that is it for a few days - Christmas lunch, then a Sunday birthday party lunch and Monday fibre is being connected from the street to the house - yay! However, I have to get the club's financial report ready for the AGM a week tomorrow so there'll be much getting paperwork up to date - another day I think. So just maybe Wednesday I can get back to 'work' :))) . Cheers everyone - enjoy the weekend as it's just begun! Philip

Hello everyone, It was a start ...... and that was about it, really. I did go into the barn and it wasn't as cold as I thought and retrieved the wall that I had nearly finished before the holidays, made some slight adjustments to the fit and grabbed all my materials to continue cutting and papering. Unfortunately Mrs Philou's friend (and mine) called around and an exchange of holiday notes ensued - that was modelling time down the pan before lunch. After lunch it was walkies and I hadn't been in long when our Dutch neighbour called by for a further exchange of holiday notes and to say they were off tomorrow - so most of the afternoon disappeared too. I did manage however to get the third pilaster made up and all the copings cut ready to finish off. This led me to have altercations with the printer as I couldn't do what I wanted to do directly from the laptop and had to use the titchy tiny screen on the printer to enable an enlargement of a copy of some stonework to be printed. Hoorah! you'll all be saying - but no - Mrs Philou has lost her Hotmail account password and she can't access her Gmail one either (incorrect password) so the last of the afternoon was spent trying to sort that out - but I'm none the wiser despite having sent my inside leg measurements and the promise of a kidney from my first born to Microsoft so we can recover the account - I'm not holding out much hope!! I might get a little done tomorrow morning before we head off to Big town to buy enough food for Christmas lunch on Saturday (yes another Christmas lunch - this time with my daughter, partner, grandson and his other grandmother plus world and dog :)) ) I think I may have over estimated the amount of work I felt I should have got done today. Never mind, it'll come together - eventually! More tomorrow - maybe. Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Well the New Year has definitely begun, so welcome back! I'm home and so is Mrs Philou plus dog. Rain, rain, and more rain for 500miles! Oh, and the strong cross-winds on the motorway today - not much fun at all - but we got back a little before nightfall to a very cold house but three happy cats who were pleased to see us - awww. No modelling today - can't think why though. Restart tomorrow even if for only a short time as I expect the barn will have cooled right down as well. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Today's the day! I'm doing this now as it'll be hectic later and likely to be rather jolly to, so ........... Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your thumbs up and support in my endeavour. Hopefully progress will continue at a good pace through 2024 - real life notwithstanding! Good luck too with your particular layouts/constructions. Best wishes, Philip

Mmmmm ..... sounds like you all had a good Christmas. Beef Wellington, curried goat, beef rib, c(h)apon (we had that), pud ...... mmmmmm. I do have a hankering for a good UK style Xmas dinner despite having been here 21 years - pigs in blanket, devil on horseback, the little trimmings that just make it so - British - yes and even the humble Brussels sprout tossed in the frying pan with finely cut bacon - even the kids eat that! Have a good day, Philip

I understand that it's probably not a good thing to wait that long anyway - something to do with warranties, or somesuch ......... How are you all? Fed up or just fedup? Hope you've had some plum pud - none here unfortunately :( .

Ooh, I forgot to say that Mrs Philou came up trumps as she had got from my fave emporium Lord & Butler, a Rapido 15XX with sound, no less, and without any hints my end! Nice looking loco in lined black and early crest, but I may have to wait until 2157 to run it in (2157 is a date mentioned in the accompanying notes).

Oh the journey's not yet done as in two days time we're off to Porn ic sans dog for New Year's Eve and then back here on the 1st and then home with dog on the 2nd. Stay safe and enjoy Boxing Day, Philip

I'm still about - outskirts of Paris. Made it with the dog in one piece and all the presents plus suitcases - downside is that the dog is car sick! How do I know this 8/ ? Anyway, all is well and the festivities start this evening. Cheers everyone and stay safe. Philip

Hello chums and chumesses and hello to all those that may pop in from time to time. Christmas seems to have arrived as today was gift wrapping and suitcase filling and major angst as to whether 'The Lump' will be able to get into the car - a rather high sill and she isn't quite as agile as she may have been (35kg). I did suggest to Mrs Philou that we could attach the lead to the rear bumper and let her run behind - plenty of exercise I thought over the 200 mile dap. The idea wasn't well received and I can't think why. On a more serious note, all the above meant that there was very little progress on the latest retaining wall, so I'll hold it over until we get back after the New Year. As I shall be unlikely to be in communication with the outside world until early January (c'mon, no tears - it's only 10 days), it just remains for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or Season's Greetings) and very Happy New Year. I sincerely hope that you'll all have reasonable health and a little wealth in 2024. Oh, and the weekend has arrived! Cheers, Philip

When the Met. Office was the Met. Office and they provided the weather forecast I remember Ian MacAskill used to make a point that for a few days after the solstice (winter/summer) there was an imbalance in the gain/loss of daylight and it wasn't evenly spread - to do with the earth's 'wobble' IIRC. The third retaining wall is under way and I'm partway through putting the building papers on it - no photo at the mo', but maybe one later - if not, tomorrow as there will be the pilaster, cappings and corbels to make and attach. Cheers, Philip

I don't suppose it will matter much as I shall be tucked up in bed at that time! I never knew that the leap years affected the solstice - do they also affect the summer ones as well? I note in France that their meteorological service count the start of winter as on the 1st of December - furriners .... mumble mumble ....... Cheers, Philip

I use 5mm fibre underlay (the green stuff) used under laminate flooring - ruins your cutter blades though!

@lezz01 Are you trying to make me spend some money? The right angled driver looks just right especially with a 6mm hex end. I've done what I needed to do so it'll be a straight-forward vertical drive to fix the wall in it's final position. Nice loco - but will the wheels cost more than the loco? Just asking for a friend ;)). Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Finally Mrs Philou decided to go to Big town on her own and I was left to my own devices - so into the barn I went. The latest retaining wall was dusted in dark pastel colours as appropriate then wafted over with a couple of coats of matt varnish. It was all fixed in place before Mrs Philou returned for lunch - and I have a photo of the wall in place: ^ Two shots of the wall in place - I'm quite happy with the result, though the camera is showing it slightly more yellow with the flash than in natural light. It sort of went downhill afterwards as I wanted to set up the retaining wall alongside the branchline parallel to the mainline. Using my way of glue blocks screwed to the retaining wall and the underside of the trackbed, I found there wasn't enough room to get a screwdriver between the wall and the rockface and I wasted an hour looking for a mini ratchet set that I thought I could use at right angles with an adapter for the Torx screws that I use - nada, nyet, nein, nothing. In the end I just unscrewed the trackbed and attached the retaining wall to it to check the glueblock alignments and that was it - 10mins and it was done - should have done it that way in the first instance! I'm underway with the next piece of wall - it'll be of a similar construction and finish to the two others. I'm not sure how much time I'll be allowed tomorrow but hopefully enough to get the card faces cut, papered and glued in place. Cheers everyone - tomorrow is the shortest day and we should then be rushing headlong into summer - yay! More tomorrow, Philip

No update today as council business ate my time - the only thing I will note is that I forgot to put in some weep-holes along the bottom of the brickwork - and I have a small punch with which I could have done it :( . I'll try and remember next time. Mrs Philou is away tomorrow going to Big town to do some last minute bits and bobs and I might be spared the trip so there's a good chance that the wall will be weathered and fixed in place. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Hello @Cliff M and welcome to the RMWeb collective! You've just asked a question to which you will have a million (OK not quite) answers. Thumbs up for Scalescenes buildings - they take a while to build but you can print off as many copies as you like and alter them too. Another thumbs up for SCARM - my under construction layout was designed with it. If you like computers and can do 3D, SketchUp is quite good too and I created the final layout in that to get a feel of what it should look like. You've asked about DCC - I can only comment on what I bought as I decided that I would go DCC from the off on retirement, despite having amassed a huge amount of stock over the years. I went for the ESU ECoS II, wasnt cheap but not the most expensive (apparently) out there. It has all the bells and whistles and will control two trains at once on individual controls plus all your accessories. Oh and it has a large touch-sensitive screen for ease of control. You can also use hand-held controllers via wiffy but not Bluetooth. However, being a bit of a Luddite AND seeing how big the layout will actually be, I've decided to divide the layout into zones and each area will have a mimic board with good ol' fashioned mini-DPDTs and LEDs for the point control in each zone. Good to see that you're going for Peco streamline (with some set track) and electrofrogs. You haven't as yet posted a plan to show your proposal and I don't know if you've thought of gradients but the shallower the better avoiding anything steeper than 1:50 (if you can) as some locos can hardly pull the skin of a rice pudding once faced with a gradient. You should be fine with Bachmann not the cheapest, but don't discount other makes. There's a whole load of good locos and stock out there (some poor of course), but even Hornby turns out good stuff. Good luck, Cheers, Philip PS: If you want to have a look at the layout (WiP), type 'Dymented' (without the '') in the search bar above.

Hello chaps and chapesses, Good news - Christmas at the Philou household is cancelled! No it isn't, but Santa came twice today. Firstly, a nice parcel arrived by the postlady from the UK. @lezz01 kindly sent me some bridge chairs and six pieces of Exactoscale bullhead rail so I can do the timber baulks on my bridge. What a good chap he is - thanks Lez, it was very much appreciated. Secondly, my BiL called in with my sister and brought me my two pieces of pointwork all the way from Cardiff - another good chap. I did also note that surreptitiously (but ol' eagle eyes saw) a Rapido box changed hands between him and Mrs Philou. I looked away and I haven't tried to find out what it was, so it'll be a big surprise - yay! Buoyed up by all of this, I did some overtime this evening (hence the late update) and completed this bit of retaining wall, and I have a photo: ^ It will need to be weathered and given a waft of varnish - perhaps tomorrow, but I've got council business to attend to - and then fixed into place. The fixing will be done via the tongue under the wall. Two glue blocks are to be screwed to it and then the blocks fixed onto the underside of the trackbed. Bit of a faff, but it'll be secure and I can't glue it as there's nowhere to get any purchase with mini-clamps while it's drying. All being well, it'll be fixed by Wednesday. Definitely more tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Sanity Clause got waisted! Yeah, I dressed up as Santa and did my Ho! Ho! Ho! bit and gave out the one (symbolic) hamper to the oldest citizen of the village (there wouldn't have been enough room in our tiny council room for them to be given all at once). I got waisted because I had to stuff cushions around my mid-riff to make me look like Santa - I tell you what, he must be a really big fat rotund person! It all went well. I have started on the one retaining wall - half done and it ought to be finished tomorrow - I'll show a picture then. That's it! Sorry, not much more to tell - no joke, nothing, nada. :) Less tomorrow (only joking!). Cheers, Philip

A really small update as I had an hour to spare before getting ready to go to a funeral after lunch. I have measured up for the retaining walls that form the continuation of the rock-face behind the mainline at Dymented and the one that will be the separation between the mainline and the branch back up to Ledbury. Over the next couple of evenings I'll shall have them covered in card and papered as appropriate with some buttresses - can't have a wall without a buttress ;). It's in the bag!! Tomorrow is the giving out of the municipal Christmas hampers to the oldies of the village (over 70s). No prizes, but guess who is having to dress up as Santa? Ho! Bah! Ho! Humbug! Ho! I dunno how I'm going to give a parcel to myself. Perhaps I'll become a Schrödinger's Santa for the day :). More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Unfortunately real life came knocking at the door asking for its day back - so nothing happened in the railway room and there won't be anything much tomorrow either :( . Sunday may be my best day to get on as after that we're heading straight into Christmas and we're going to celebrate at others' this year - so parcels to wrap, cats'n'dog to sort out, suitcases to fill etc., etc! Just hope my mojo won't stay on holiday when I get back. Hopefully an update anyway tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, Work restarted slowly as it was rather cool in the barn and I had a fit of the yawns this afternoon - found it a little hard to concentrate. Nonetheless, having been satisfied that the rest of the bark had stuck to the polystyrene behind the Dymented platforms, I went back to the branchline cutting to try and fathom out what happens at the interface of an embankment and a cutting. I decided that normally there ought to be a retaining wall either at the foot of the cutting rising to max height at the start of the overbridge with the embankment reducing to zero at the bridge abutment, or a wall alongside the mainline increasing in depth on approach to the overbridge, with the cutting below running out at the abutment. In the end I decided on neither because I considered it geologically near-impossible (and even allowing for Rule 1) to have a rock faced cutting one side and no rock the other. So I shall amuse myself with a bit more bark in the cut, but less than on the other side (the rock outcrop is on a tilt, innit) and the lack of depth will be the reason why it's a cutting and not a tunnel. As there was a bit of time, I also backfillled the gaps between the rock face and the plywood trackbed so I'll have a near-level surface right across when it comes to ballasting and doing the cess (won't be any 'mind the gap') and losing material down the black holes. Here's the photo of Tuesday's work: ^ The rock cutting has continued behind the mainline and peters out a little way before the end of the retaining wall. Here I shall continue with a brick or sandstone wall until that too runs out (just about on the edge of the photo). I'm glad I haven't decided to go OTT with the rock faces as you need to give a reasonable reason why it's there in that particular form (outcrop in this instance) - bit like tunnels that appear on layouts - just because ;) . More tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

I use sieved builders' sand - looks similar in colour to the brown parts of your photographs. I 'borrowed' ordinary kitchen sieves of varying mesh sizes to give me the grades I need. I don't know if prototype continental ballast is different to that in the UK, but in the 60s the UK sizes were specified as 1/2" to 2 1/2". This would give you at 4mm scale 0.17mm to 0.84mm and at H0 from 0.15mm to 0.73mm grain sizes - reasonably achieved with different meshes. After sieving I had larger grains that I gave to an 0 gauge modeller, the fine stuff to another modelling in n and the dust I used in the cess and as surfacing for roads - suitably coloured. For UK ballast, I found that it was a bit too brown for my liking (but I'd been used to a uniform grey colour), but it does take paint as mentioned by @shipbadger . I have been advised that ballast does vary with local quarries anyway and it doesn't always have to be grey - so nothing to say 'brown' isn't right and as @roythebus1 has said, whether it was all ballasted at the same time. Cheers, Philip