Barry O

@iL Dottore authentic meals.. although the Goan "Vindaloo" is pork based don't expect much pork elsewhere in India. Pork (apart from some in Kochi) was definitely infrequently seen on menus there, and not seen in a "vindaloo" .. but then again there were very few of those on offer... Chicken Madras was very good but the best curry I had was a Mutton Rogan Josh in Shimla.. you needed the curry as it was so flipping cold... The Bolognaise sauces I have tried in Italy were, how can I say it delicately, very varied in flavour, taste and texture. One or two were too bitter for my taste buds. I may just go wild and make some panacalty for lunch.. proper North East English food.... baz

Ey up! A tad chilly here but..hey ho I have lots of things to do today. Mugate drunk, next up breakfast, fitting a new belt to the scarifier, using wcarifier, tidying up resulting moss bits, cutting the grass where we have scarified, muddling and..well anything else her indoors decides I need to do. Use your time well today as all time is precious beyond wealth. Positive thoughts to all! Baz

my head is done in .. and hour and a half looking at Family Trees is more than enough! goodnight all! baz

Operation In the early stages with trains shuttling to and from the traverser operation was quite intense. We "borrowed" some of Mike Coles stock and diesels from Sundown and Sprawling. A full Pullman train with a Deltic looked very impressive. (The Deltic had cast lead noses and two Q Kits bogies each with a flywheel) In addition a number of members chipped in stock - not always of the correct prototype... Intersepersed with mainline trains the Blue Pullman made appearances along with DMUs and freight trains for the yard. One 2 car unit was unpowered. If left in a platform on its own it could cause angst to operators who couldn't get it to move. A typical sequence was Passenger train leaves Traverser. Station operator would set the incoming route (after checking with his fellow operator that this wouldn't cause a problems. Using the lInk switch the station operator would then drive the train in, uncouple at the platform end and turn the train loco off. The train could then be taken to the carriage sidings..or..more likely another train loco would be put on the other end of the train. (with banked trains the banker would be dropped off once the incoming train had got back on the "flat". When a passenger train was ready to leave the driver would set the route (making sure he explained this to his colleague) warn the traverser operator that a train was coming and then set off. As the train moved down the platform the original train engine would be following out of the platform up to the starter signal where it would be held until it could be worked across to the loco yard. Train were cycled through to make sure there was always something on the move. While this was going on the Goods yard would be being shunted (a favourite shunting engine on this task fro me was a Ks LMS Outside frames Kirtley 0-6-0. The other station operator may have been moving stock from/to the carriage sidings, returning the banker to the bottom of the hill, turning train engines, sending trains or any other minor task (parcel trains/dmu shunting etc.). As shown below..Steve Noble is operating the Station. In this shot you can see a Mike Cole Deltic (with its Pullman train behind), a English Electric Type 3, a set of Graham Farish suburbans with an unidentified tank loco on the buffers. A set of Trix Mark 1 coaches (not quite OO but these ran very well) with a Lima King (coaches and locos from St Enodoc), another set of suburbans and the aforementioned Kirtley owned by Nicktoix. Nichtoix also provided a Ks Black 5 - but in those days it was in LMS black...I have "updated it for use on Capel en le Frith and other layouts. Baz

Prawn Risotto made..and eaten.. Her indoors said it was "good"..lummy ! Now off to do some family research Baz

I mentioned Port Wynnstay model kits on a thread on here. I then had a PM from Phil Traxxon (owner of said kits).. In it he asked if I would mind raising a note on RMWeb regarding the restart in production of his kits (I have to say I have used some of these on Cwmfyddl my Fathers old layout). While a link has been advertised in the 7MM Narrow Gauge Association magazine and Newsletetr due to EDM being closed due to Pauls' illness no updates have yet taken place on the EDM website. I add below some of the PM. Due to serious illness (and eventual death) of his wife Phil has been through hell and back - I wish him all the best for the future. He has now completed his house move and set the new manufacturing facility to work... "As house moves do, it was not all plain sailing, but I've had worse. Eventually I set up a new workshop i.e. converted the garage, and am slowly ramping up production, although I still have occasional down days and, like many others, the present circumstances are not helping. At the moment I have no web presence at all until Paul at EDM is back in good health again, so the only way of communicating is by e-mail or "snail mail". An A5 sae will bring any one who wants one a price list, most of the contents are available but at present I'm short of bought in parts for some of the 7mm standard gauge wagon kits and there is a question mark over the Festiniog England Engine kits as supplies of the chassis are, at best, intermittent. There may be one or two more hiccups yet as during the prolonged break my supplier of brass chassis for Fr quarrymens coaches has also succumbed to the dreaded big C and the plastic "Parkside" chassis I use for these and other kits has been sold to "Peco" and although I have some in stock I have not yet approached them about supplies of these, and they too are playing catch up after their shut down and I don't think now is the time to bother them. The overall aim is to keep the business going for the forseeable future. My contact address is Port Wynnstay Models Y Gilfach 4, The Crescent Porthmadog Gwynedd LL49 9PB e-mail is phil@portwynnstay.co.uk any web address on advertising is redundant until further notice. The price list does have some illustrations in it, plus things like sizes of 7 mm house and factory windows that I produce and basic dimensions of freelance narrow gauge stock. My address and e-mail are in the public domain so are available for use too." So if you are a Narrow Gauge Modeller working at 7mm to the foot please contact Phil direct. Best regards Baz

can anyone explain to me why I can't go and visit my son at his home..but can go to the house next door to him for a "viewing"... distinct lack of a holistic approach .. but SM.. yes they must be on here too! Ba

Submarines hulls (or the ones I was involved in) are made of a variety of metals...In the trial dive they do have people on board to check for leaks...mind you before my time they did a test dive and opened the torpedo outer doors.. didn't check that the inners were sealed shut.. ooops! In reality if you dive deep then "caulking" a leak might work but they do other things to sort these out. They are generally found fitting gaskets to "things" and getting in the way of painters/fitters/pipe stranglers/wire stranglers... Baz

hoovering completed! Floors which can be washed..washed... Her indoors now preparing list II.. Pah! Me I am off to the workroom.. Baz

sounds a good idea. I have sent you a plastic sheet of 14 I found, I can't find my etched brass ones though.. the search continues! baz

Ey up! Andrew P..now you can lehally move (did you have access to the Government's "think tank or crystal ball??" Good luck with the move! Woooooppppiiiidddoooo! I won on the Eurodollars.....but don't get too carried away, the win was £3.60 Now, as it is Wednesday/hump day I am preparing prawn Risotto for tea. Shouldnt take long..but I await further orders as it is also cleaning the house day. Humph! (Next layer up from pah!l Enjoy Wednesday..make every second count. Positive thoughts to all ERs! Baz

They still have "caulkers" in shipyards. Never checked out what they do but they will have a devil of a job caulking the metal hulls and decks on modern warships... Baz

It said.."watch out for that iceberg!" Plum Porter from the Titanic Brewery. Baz

There are a few fish and chip shops who do gluten free Fish and Chips. Our local one has a special mini frier to ensure the gluten free fried items aren't getting near and gluten based products. Wold Top do a very nice gluten free beer..not Newkie Brown..but it is organic and not full of chemicals. Baz

strange sort of day today. Bits of modelling completed, some more tidying up done...had to drive to the Post Office as her indoors had noted it was chuckinitdarn. Video chat with Dr Eldest Herbert.. he is OK and has things to get on with. We have had sun/rain/sun/rain/sun but overall a very cold lazy wind. Pah! TTFN, a beer is calling me... Baz

some of my coach building is finally coming to an end (I have been busy with a few other things as well as the coaches) First up the Period II resided Pd III BCK and a Period I Open First - complete with Stones Ventilators I have also finished the Pd III First Corridor Brake,, but missed its photograph.. Baz

Other controllers have a red or green light which tells you you have turned the power output from the controller on...as you say fairly useless unless you want to know the controller outputs should be live. Baz

Ey up! Cold here but hey ho! (Means I can't do some painting of windowsills and doors in our conservatory.). Relying on people to "use their common sense" makes some interesting assumptions. An old Mathematics teacher always said "you can 'teach'most things apart from common sense"..he was right.. i forsee lots of Darwin award candidates driving around britain. (They already are in Leeds). We have friends who have no in house based hobbies. Lockdown is proving to be very trying for them mentally. While they used to have a laugh at my "Toy Trains" they can now see the benfits of having one or two in door hobbies. If you let cold Bud up it tastes awful..if you let Craft beer warm up it generally tastes better than when its cold (especially in Oz and NZ. This statement is based on a reasonable level of testing undertaken by myself... And so to Tuesday. (My medication tells me what day it is) i will give it a shake and make sure I get the best from it. Stay safe..stay at home (unless you are desperate to go out)..... Positive thoughts to all ERs.. Baz

Well.. been an exciting day..seems like the good people of Leeds thought today was Wednesday as the ring Road was back to heavy traffic when we went for our health walk. I can see chaos later this week as the temperatures rise.. Her indoors has read the Idiots Guide 50 page (err there are more pages but they are, mercifully, blank. I have a bet on with someone that it can be condensed down to one side of a piece of A4.. lots of politicibabble..less reality. AK47s.. yes the gun that shoots "tumbling ammunition. If it hits you it causes a lot of damage. We found a few tucked away in the winch area on Recovery vehicles returned from the Army after use in Gulf War 1. Meanwhile I have been putting pictures up..repairing nail holes in plaster work, trying to keep warm..that wind is freezing! and generally causing chaos and mayhem. Sleep well everyone! Positive thoughts to all ERs. Baz

Been busy detailing, renumbering/renaming a few locomotives. Two Duchesses.. City of London.. rename, renumber, fit details weather The photo for this one shows where they painted over the "LMS" on the tender. and the boiler top Next up Duchess of Buccleuch again rename, renumber etc. Very light weathering applied Then one of the "Saltley Ladies" 44919. New numbers, details added an a new smokebox plate. and, finally a Rebuilt Patriot Prestatyn Baz

Control Panels and electrical systems There was a very large control panel for the station and its environs. A smaller, separate one was fitted for the Goods Yard. These panels had a wooden frame and had a formica top with the track plan painted on. Each Section was a different colour and each section had a 3 way switch ...left controller, off, right hand controller - classic Cab control. This was very helpful as every piece of track could be controlled by either controller. The switches came from a variety of sources - war surplus, GPO and "unknown". They were tough and I can't remember one failing. @Michael Edge has explained the use of "Black Sections" on the layout. Hopefully he can copy that in here as it is a very useful system Point control made use of H&M SM3 point motors. These were fired using a probe being touched onto a stud on the control panel. each stud being placed on the track plan in the location of the point on the layout. A large Capacitor was fitted in the "power box" to allow you to move the probe down route of the next train with now worries about the motors not firing - it really was one flowing movement. We also had a set of "link" switches.. in this case these linked each of the mainlines to the fiddle yard. These allowed you to drive straight from the fiddle yard into the station. Similarly the fiddle yard could drive trains in..it also meant you could drive freight trains on to the freight line ready for the next available path into the goods yard. These are still in use on a number of layouts. If you forgot to turn the link off...well all sorts could start happening..trains moving unannounced.. generally resulting in the cry of "turn you flipping Links off!!" followed by all operators making a dive to check their link switches had been reset. Despite testing and adjusting the point motors we had a number of problems at our first Show at Leeds. The major problem was the switch fitted to the top plate of each motor used to change the polarity of the point frog, We tried turning the plates over..in the end we fitted separate microswitches. I think the first ones were from Whistons.. along lost provider of ..well just about everything. We also found that the most recent H&Ms had plastic coil formers... these didn't always operate as well as the older metal frames coils. The newer ones have white coil formers... While the layout and panels on Victoria were wired by @Nicktoix and Mike Cole later stations were wired by Nick. Mike Cole fitted a train detection system. While we never got it to work we could give anyone putting their hand on the track a big whack of electricity. Our controllers were all prototype "Q Drivers". The hand set was made from a GRP moulding taken from a Heinz salad spread jar, It was fitted with a reversing switch and a logarithmic slider. A large lump of rod was also included for sue as the point probe. The hand set was permanently linked by cable to the control box. This had a red lamp (lit when a short was detected) and a green lamp ( which lit when the controller "detected" a train) the detection circuit was interesting as @St Enodoc knows...his Lima King had a little trip of its own. All the baseboards and control panels were wired together using large connectors and cables. Lesson learnt..single bell wire is not ideal for wiring exhibition layouts! Baz

The people buying items from specialists know what they want and know where to get it. If it costs less to stay at home and sell items ( as in they dont have a physical shop than attending an exhibition they may not venture out unles it is a specialist show. Not sure that lots of visitors have a list at shows... Baz

Yes as when we got to Dewsbury we could shuttle trains around..but didn't have a roundie roundie bit. Baz

Having talked to a couple of "small" traders they are still very busy. The lack of shows seems to be having the opposite effect on them to some of the theories stated by some... I wonder if they will decide not to bother going to shows any more? Baz

Any gathering of people is unhygienic..how do you think the virus spread in the first place?