sixoh8sixoh

Many thanks, that’s very much appreciated! I’ve managed to get hold of both K books second hand (expecting the second in the post shortly) but will definitely order from Book Law in future. Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. Most of my day today has been accompanied by the Sound of Sturgeon. I did manage to finish at a reasonable time tonight, and after dinner took Charlie the Labrador for a walk on the beach. I’m for the most part a really drinker (Yorkshire Tea or Ringtons), but do usually have one cup of coffee a day. Usually it’s a Nespresso capsule latte using the frother, but sometimes it’s cafetière coffee or very occasionally a coffee from one of the stovetop metal pots that produces coffee like tar. I’m not a fan of Starbucks coffee, always find it a bit burnt tasting, but I’m happy enough with Costa. My preferred coffee is from a little independent coffee shop halfway between home and the office. The owner and his main staff member are lovely and I’m missing getting to call in frequently during lockdown.

I can always singalongadentist with mine as he goes “7,6,5,4missingspaceclosed,3,2,1,1,2,3,4missingspaceclosed,5,6,7” on both my upper and lower jaw. Or at least I would if he didn’t have his fingers in my mouth... Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall. Anyone who’s following the Scottish pollyticks will be able to guess the kind of day I’ve had. I’m still on call but think I’m unlikely to be asked anything at this hour... hopefully! A largeish box arrived with the second post today, roughly 12” x 12” x 9”. I couldn’t think what I’d ordered that would be that big, and when I picked it off the doormat, I felt sure it must be an empty box. I opened it and within was the single Accurascale OO gauge buffer stop I’d ordered last week (along with a pre-order of a rake of Mk5 Caledonian Sleeper coaches... don’t tell the OH, my finger slipped on the buy button, honest guv...). One buffer stop in nearly a cubic foot of box!! Mind you it’s a lovely light-up buffer stop. Very pleased with it! Happy birthday to @Ian Abel and great news that you’re jabbed @New Haven Neil. Best wishes to all and I’m off to rest ready for tomorrow’s mayhem - FM in front of the committee and an architect coming to our house (at the same time, rubbish planning) to size up the feasibility of extending up and out.

I’m not sure that ever (dis)graced the West Highland Line!

Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall... Very long working day for me so haven’t been on ERs until now, and caught up on the action. I’m looking forward to getting my vaccination whenever that may be. Best guess is April/May as I’m in the 40-50 category. OH is watching more Phil and Kirstie so will be getting even more ideas. Architect is coming on Wednesday to do a feasibility study/consultation on going up into the loft and extending the ground floor by a couple of metres at the back. I remember seeing tables at exhibitions overflowing with every volume of Yeadon’s Register not so long ago, but they seem to be far rarer now. I managed to pick up a K3/K4 volume and have reserved a K1/K2 which I need to pay for tomorrow. I presume they’re now out of print. I’m wondering if either of Hornby or Bachmann might bring out a K4 soon. Would especially like a model of 61998 MacLeod of MacLeod as I knew The MacLeod of MacLeod since I was knee high to a haggis. He taught my father at Durham School and was still lurking around when I was a pupil, looking after the herd of Highland Cattle that he’d somehow persuaded a headmaster of the school to take on. The cattle were sold off in the early 2000s but thankfully to one of my contemporaries at school, who still has the bloodline in his stock. As a side note, the cow byre at the school was always visited by a large gathering on Christmas Eve/early Christmas Day following the midnight mass at the school chapel. Many of us went on to the byre to sing Away In A Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem to the highland cows. On one occasion (not a Christmas midnight mass) the school chaplain parked his Land Rover in the byre, and the hot exhaust set light to the hay. Thankfully it was caught before too much damage was done and no cattle were harmed, but the chaplain did afterwards earn the nickname of The Arson Parson...

How are the supplies of stotties on the Rock? You mustn't have had your whippet and flat cap with you on those trips...

Evening all from the Wilds beyond the Wall. I’d booked Friday off earlier in the week when it looked like Salmond would give evidence on Wednesday so didn’t watch his evidence session (probably the right decision for my blood pressure!). Hired a van for 48 hours, drove down to Durham and filled it with boxes from my parents’ house, then drove back and unloaded yesterday evening. Half are now in my house, half in mum’s new flat here in Edinburgh. Moving date proper for her is 15th so at least we’re part way there. In the meantime the dog’s been ill and has been producing poo soup... he’s off to the vets again tomorrow. I was meant to be having a relaxing Sunday after dropping the van back at the rental firm but then got a text at 1 asking me to work, so ended up doing 5 1/2 hours of overtime today. As I’m sure you can imagine, things are a bit busy with us as FM is due to attend the committee on Wednesday to give evidence. In the boxes I brought up from Durham I found the last of the missing model railway stock, including Dad’s Hornby 08 shunter. It’s DCC chipped and of course I sold his Dynamis not thinking to check what addresses are on there. My Dynamis isn’t working either as I didn’t realise I’d left batteries in it and they’ve leaked, jamming the battery compartment shut. I’ve got a Lenz 100 unit but struggle to use it. I long for a simple DCC interface!! I need to work out how to read the address of the chip in the 08 or else factory reset the chip.

Evening all from the wilds beyond the Wall (and it has been wild today!). OH is watching Posh Kirstie and Smug Phil, and getting ideas... she’s already been talking about swapping the kitchen into the downstairs lounge and extending that into the (minute) garden. We have made contact with an architect. I still can’t see me getting a model railway room out of this though. I’ve started a cardboard build of my parents’ old house in OO now, first section’s shell is done. That’s probably the easiest bit though. Where does one buy OO gauge conservatories?? Doggy has been to the v-e-t for a consultation today, he has conjunctivitis. He’s not keen on eye drops but he’ll have to put up with them. Today started with the Fishy One being due to appear before the Holyrood committee tomorrow, then by lunchtime he might not attend tomorrow. By teatime he’s not attending tomorrow. By mid-evening it’s “I won’t come tomorrow but I’m free Friday...”. It’s keeping us busy anyway...

Evening all from the wilds beyond the wall... Busy day split between IT support for home schooling daughter, attempts to work, bandwidth problems, zoom call for daughter’s 6-monthly hospital appointment, 100 mile round trip taxi service back to her mum’s... No word yet on whether Scotland will follow suit on the lockdown lifting plans. At the moment the earliest date for all restrictions on contact ending is 21st June (from Boris’s plans). OH and I have wedding date set for 3rd July. Our preference is to delay but the venue (understandably) is keen for us to go ahead if possible. It all looks a bit too close to call just now, but if it does go ahead, we’ll need to speed up the planning as having booked venue, caterer, band and photographer, COVID hit and we didn’t think it was worth booking anything else (including a priest/vicar/registrar/Elvis impersonator to perform the ceremony)... so with 4 and a half months to go, about the same amount of weight to lose in stones and a shed load of planning to do, it’s going to be a rollercoaster! Time for bed as last night was a rather disturbed sleep as I found the house too stuffy. Vents have been opened. Night all!

No, don’t think so... I did meet the minister at the time, who I believe is now the Chief Minister.

I worked with Cath as part of a British-Irish Council group on social inclusion, and know Jo from cricket and twitter, met her at the Ashes game in Durham and then again when I was in Douglas.

Sounds like we need @Tony_S to take a shelfie!

Very pleased to see the first hints of spring here too! First snowdrops and daffs flowering.

Neil, I can't remember if I've asked you before, but does Mrs NHN know Jo Overty or Cath Hayhow, both at one time in IOM DHSC?

Nice to see so many of you this evening, especially as such an irregular contributor these days! Life has rather got in the way over the last couple of years, with various house moves and other events limiting my free time... I now have all my railway models in one place (rather than split between Durham and Edinburgh) and since Dad passed away in 2019, I've sold some of his models that don't fit my requirements, plus some of my older non-DCC stock. I'm in the process of selling my parents' house (as administrator of the estate) and my Mum is due to move to Edinburgh at some point in the next couple of months. I've started drawing up bits of my parents' house in 4mm/foot but I'm no good with CAD or drawing programs so at the moment I'm trying to hand draw it onto paper with a steel ruler but I'm perhaps not as accurate as I could be with more practice. The intention is to have a OO scale replica of the old house to remember it by when we no longer have it. I'm keeping my OH awake as I type this so better wish you all a goodnight for now!

Good luck with the treatment, sounds like you’re in the best possible hands!

I've been delaying getting a Bachmann 9F for a while, so I'll be interested to see how the Hornby one turns out. I've just ordered a rake of the KR Models Consett Iron Ore wagons so I'm hoping that one of the manufacturers will do a Tyne Dock to Consett 9F in 2022...

Sorry to read this but it does sound like a positive prognosis, just definitely not the sort of thing you want to go through (and especially not at this time of the year)! Definitely take solace in the fact it’s over the rubbish golfing weather. Best wishes to you for a speedy recovery once they get you into surgery.

Gordon, sorry to hear about Archie. Now's definitely not the time to get a new one, though - from what I've heard, pedigree dog (or designer dog, like Cockapoo etc) prices have sky-rocketed during lockdown - some are selling at three times the pre-Covid19 prices. My Mac has Gill Sans included in its software as standard (Pages etc) - worth checking your Mac out (I seem to remember you had a Mac too?)

I’m shocked, you’re selling me!

That mill is a work of art. Beautiful!

Somewhere for a snowplough to sit too? ;-)

This one popped up completely randomly on YouTube earlier while I was looking for something completely different. Obviously you might need to wait a week or two to be able to get the supplies for this one...

Just as an afterthought, I went to look in my bookcase. Julian Holland’s Discovering Scotland’s Lost Railways has a section on the line between Connel Ferry and Ballachulish including a nice shot of Kentallen, as well as the terminus at Ballachulish.

Hi Warren, great to see things progressing and some beautiful buildings there! I popped up to Loch Linnhe last weekend - we’d planned to ski at Glencoe on Saturday but the weather put paid to that. We stayed at the Holly Tree Inn at Kentallen, which my fiancée had booked without realising it was a former station on the Ballachulish spur of the Callander and Oban railway. I only realised when I walked down the hotel’s main corridor and noticed two large bay windows similar to the architecture of stations like Arrochar and Tarbet. Kentallen station had a steamer pier too. Sadly the building doesn’t look that photogenic now but it could definitely fit for the station name and location for your Loch Linnhe fisheries...

I think my love of the A3 came from spending holidays at my great aunt's in Deal and riding on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway behind Green Goddess!