37114

Looks a great setup you have, it doesn't help me resist doing a garden layout though!

I think we will see new flat and house design evolve to create more flexible space to enable people to home work more easily. I am one of the lucky ones in that I use our 4th Bedroom as an office but with my wife returning to work we really need a second office. My choices are to ; Return to old way of working which means 1.5 hour commute to one of the 2 UK offices I can use Or Build a garden office so we have a second office for my wife or I to use. I am choosing the latter as in the long run it will save me money, time and hassle and we can use the Garden room for other things (eg a layout !) if I do end up in a more office based role. From a family point of view I see more of my wife and Kids and can use the time I used to commute to in the morning to do work (helpful to speak to colleagues in Eastern Europe/Asia) and in the evening to exercise.

I am in the same boat as you, I used to use Eurostar once or twice a month over to our offices near Lille, and used to fly to Eastern Europe countries 3 - 4 times a year, and was in hotels 1-2 nights per week. Our travel expenses as a company were huge but since March I have not even been to our UK offices and we have been as productive as ever while the business is saving a load of money. One of my colleagues lives 10 mins from Ashford so if we were travelling the news would be bad news for her but the reality is it will probably have no difference as since Covid any travel expeniture has to be signed off at senior level and has to be essential. I am aware the Government is desperate to get people back into inner city offices for the coffee shops, fast food sellers and local shops for employment but for me that is like saying we should keep burning coal to keep the coal miners employed. The reality is the world has shown you don't need to travel everywhere to be productive and instead we should instead be looking at how do we adapt offices to be housing/co working space so people who want the city life can live it and in doing so bring people back into inner cities for the right reasons and support the local bars in the right way...

A bit of a sort out in the garage yesterday prompted by the reality that we will need 2 home offices as I am likely to continue working from home much more and my wife fully returns to work next week. The plan is to replace our 10 x 8 shed with a Garden room. The problem is the shed currently houses quite a few Land Rover body parts which need to come into the garage which wasn't possible with the layout in the way. It was never planned to have 2 layouts on the go but we are where we are. Thankfully building the layouts as a box and the same dimensions means they can be stacked on top of each other. They just fit under a shelf and I can still work on P7Y although not at a great height. The cover propped up below the layout temporarily screws on to protect the layout.

It is one of the bang up to date versions Grahame

The problem will be finding a decent cab for it, they used to rust pretty badly and this one is no exception having read the description

Not much visible progress of late, mostly been working on raw materials to grow the scrap pile. The local DPD driver visited today with a rather heavy parcel which contained this beast... Split box class 37s weren't really common in Bristol and certainly never came down the Avon Street branch beyond the waste terminal so this is very much a case of rule 1. As my user name implies I am a big class 37 fan and have wanted to own an O gauge class 37 since I saw one at a show when I was 12. The Heljan model is only really suitable for 37006 to 37068 without roof modifications so the plan is to model this as 37029 which visited Lawrence Hill on a couple of occasions. Some detailing is planned on the chassis which is short on detail especially around the front end and bogies while the roof fan grille is not great so will be replaced. The headcodes need converting to 00 00 for 37029 but this is not really a problem as I don't like how Heljan has printed the dominos anyway.

I think I will have to, needs probably to be etched brass so hope Pete Harvey might do them eventually.

Very nice Dave, the layout is looking excellent. Your pic has reminded me I need to make some similar loads for the 7mm 16-tonners I bought from you.

Look great Lee, I guess you will have a few coming in. I have one on order and going to add some details but to date I have drawn a blank on the source of some guard irons for the front of the bogies, is there a source you can recommend please?

I haven't seen any but there were some photos on the wnxx news site a month or 2 ago of 69001 and you could see that broadly it will look very much class 56 like but with a 66 roof. The lights have also been replaced with the black WIPAC lights used on the later class 66s (albeit placed vertically)

Apparently Tower models had their batch this morning.

My parents lived less than 1 mile from Lulsgate until I was 10. They attended a public meeting with local officials in the mid 1970s when the extension of the runway was being floated (even at this stage Lulsgate was still tiny) and my dad asked the reasonable question as why was Lulsgate being considered for extension when Filton had a long runway, was better located etc. The meeting chair put his pen down sat back in his chair and basically said that it was 15 to 20 years to late to consider Filton due to the proximity of housing and politely asked all future questions be focussed on Lulsgate. Shame really as my ex home city is all the worse for it and seems to continually manage to make abysmal transport planning decisions to this day.

It is a lovely kit but not a cheap one, £91 for the base model and £30 for the backhoe means as much as I would love one, I can't justify it at that price sadly.

37038 was though