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After many years of waiting I've finally succumbed and purchased a couple of the Skytrex platform water cranes. Initially I found them to look too tall but a chat with the retailer informed me the column was adjustable as the height varied over the system. Picking the brains of GWR guru @Miss Prism he suggested a height of 46mm from the platform or 58mm from rail to the centre of the beam was needed. I've built the up platform one and here it is as the groundwork and grass dries. I plan to renew the down platform one next and replace those aging Mike's Models versions. The kit is multimedia and has a resin base. You get a straight and cranked beam in the kit. https://skytrexmodelrailways.com/water-cranes/89-4ls-004-gwr-platform-mounted-water-crane.html Prototype photo courtesy of R Saunders.

One thing I'm always investigating is the notion of finding new angles from which to photograph Little Bytham. The following shots show some shunting activity in the goods yard........ Geoff West's little porter and PMP's little shunter are working as hard as ever! And the eventual departure of the short freight. I usually take pictures of the locos I've made (pomposity?), but (as is well known) I haven't built every one. This deliciously-mucky K1 was built/painted/weathered by John Houlden and used to run on East Ranford and Gamston Bank. I'm delighted to say I now own it. Apart from a couple of vehicles, none of the freight stock in these pictures is my work. My intention is to take a group of pictures each day of the layout and post them on here. Any requests?

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A lot cooler this morning and the wind is a bit noisy (no not that wind!) but at least the hay fever has abated. I have done a bit of m*d*l*ng this morning. The other day I found a 'forgotten' item, a large sheet of stickyback printed with a road with markings and parking bays, IIRC it was given to me many moons ago. I looked at it and then I looked at a piece of MDF in my offcuts box that was similar in length and width. A quick check revealed that the stickyback would fit on the MDF with a few millimetres to spare. The stickyback is now firmly stuck to the MDF which is quite thick, about 20mm so no problems with warpage. Now all I have to do is some scenics. A word of warning for ChrisF, if your going to use the radio times as loo paper don't forget to remove the staples first.

What's better than a 48xx.... two of them!!! See old Duncan Bisketts is still hanging around on the platform

Funnily enough I was responsible for Elf n Safety at the various branches I managed and had a pretty good record. My personal record is not quite as bad as it seems but because of a couple or 3 head banging and bleeding incidents it's been blown up out of all proportion. Nobody here will ever believe that of course.

… and a bit more. John C.

Since I appear to have beaten Dave to the Shropshire weather report, I can report that Telfland Central is currently enjoying sunshine and blue sky. The Obergrumpenfuhrer put down lawn treatment yesterday, as it was supposed to rain. Of course since she did it, the rain arrived during the evening and gave the required soaking. However, If I'd attempted such coordinated planning, we wold now been facing a week of drought like conditions. Yesterday seemed to go past in somewhat of a blur as I was busy stripping down some lengths of electrical cable to get the solid copper wire out. Normally I use it for track droppers, but this lot was being stripped to make up flexible wire inserts for home made face masks. I used copper because it was both available and has reported oligodynamic properties. My daughter rang to say that her husband, a GP, cannot get them from the usual sources, so we have been tasked with manufacturing a couple of sets of re usable one to tide him over. Some of our neighbours are also lending a hand with this, so we'll probably end up with enough to equip a couple of gangs of outlaws. My sister who runs a care home, is reporting similar problems. Her complaint is that the 'emergency planners' might be good for a natural disaster or an aircrash, but they are totally out of their depth when it comes to an issue that is spread over a vast area and not concentrated in one place. Certainly they have no concept of how PPE is used and how much is actually required.

Morning all! Today marks the first day of no gardening. As temperatures are dipping a little, it means the grass can grow properly. Re-seeded some parts, over seeded elsewhere and fed. So happy to go out for walks rather than garden. Just need to keep an eye on the veg in the greenhouse - excited my Broccoli is growing! And should have Brussel Sprouts in time for Christmas! It also marks the day I've told the Station Manager about the new job. Still not quite ready to share it here (until the transfer is taking place) but hopefully now it's one step closer!

Morning all. Caught up and now that I’ve read Chris’s daily missive I can get on with the rest of the day. Which will be pretty much like yesterday. and the day before and the .... As long as Chris is posting, Baz greets us and Q tells us how he has slept I feel that there is still some sense of normality left in the world. Missing Robert’s reports in though.

Back to the Tyne and Wear Metro for this aftrenoon. Ouseburn viaduct Metro Dec 82 J7763.jpg Ouseburn viaduct T&W Metro Dec 82 J7765.jpg Howdon viaduct Metro Dec 82 J7779.jpg Shiremoor Metro 4073 Pelaw to St James Jan 89 J9730.jpg Monkseaton 4069 and 4007 St James to Pelaw 4th Jan 92 C16668.jpg David

Whole lotta shunting goin' on! John C.

Not to be put off by the Hippo stealing my weather report slot, I can confirm that 15 miles north of the muddy hollow is the same as he described. Nothing else of note to report but I think that SWMBO has ideas about group housework today. Unfortunately I can't these days invent some urgent need to be away from the house. Bu**er! Stay safe and well people. Back later. Dave

Morning. Sunny but cool here, forecast was dull and cooler. I reckon a day at home will be had somehow, although Mrs NHN is working the morning volunteering at the local cottage hospital, releasing other staff that can be used at the general hospital in the big city. Typical NHS, she was told that the time she spent learning the admissions admin system had to be in her own time....although she was told if she wishes she could be paid for today - she isn't, it is purely voluntary. Right hand, left hand. Also told annual leave was cancelled....errr, where could we go do you think? No ferries, no planes.....d'oh. Ah yes, I recall why I left now!

Prior to 1974 when the 55 limit came in there were no day time limits. In 1995 after the repeal of 55, “reasonable and prudent” speeds returned until 1999. Mostly due to issues around the existing Reasonable and Prudent law that was deemed too vague in court. Moaning all from the boring borough. Little happening. Who turned off the heat? Stayed in bed too long this morning. Knee has seized up somewhat. Hot soak in the jetted tub is called for, along with a fork ton of coffee. Enjoy the day.

So it seems Tony. A nice collection of Dub-dees you have there. There is one on my work bench now getting quite close to being finished. A few jobs still to do on the chassis and a variety of pipe work. I’m not looking forward to the AWS conduit and brackets along the edge of the running plate. I’ve also fabricated a couple of items to “lift” the finished model that aren’t in the basic DJH kit. This loco will be 90012 in early 1960s condition. Smoke box door handle Vacuum pipe grease trap Cheers...Morgan

Evenin' all. Been absent for a while; just needed some time out from life and this strange situation in which we all find ourselves. Hope all are well, but I'll be honest and say that I'm unlikely to catch up on everything since my last posting. Well wishes to all.

The stake would have remained where it was, the tree would have been uprooted and the jack damaged beyond repair!

I was having a tidy up of... No, correct that: I was attempting to tidy up part of the workshop and came across some gear just so totally appropriate for these times... I reckon this should see me OK when I venture out amongst the disease riddled streets of Switzerland (Ha Ha!). Definitely Zombie Apocalypse grade protection! It's the most protective of a number of different types of masks I bought for when I spray enamel in the workshop (which, despite having a filtration unit in the workshop, the place still stinks of paint and solvent after I spray, so I've taken to spraying outdoors in nice-ish weathr [best after rain, so the dust has been damped down]). Totally an "I'm An Old [semi-] retired Git" day: wandered around the internet, baked a french apple cake, made a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich for Mrs iD, did some muddling and killed zombies on the playstation, now off to play a little geetar, do my PT exercises and then prep for dinner (potato, pea and mushroom curry, roti). Have a splendid day iD

Morning all, And as forecast (honest) sunshine and v blue skies are now rapidly replacing the earlier north wind and 10 10ths cloud cover. Like Polly I have some rhubarb crumble to make my way through although yesterday evening it was not further attacked became some profiteroles were to hand, and into my tum. I was definitely looking forward to the best of the Indiana Jones films yesterday afternoon and duly alighted on BBC1 at the appointed hour to hear yet more about the viral lurgi. Was somebody trying to impress us with an 'I work on Sundays' message (I did that years ago mate - so I was not impressed) and while I didn't bother to watch more than 10 seconds of it when will the idiot journos actually ask some intelligent questions about PPE and pin the b*ggers with detail questions they can't slide out of with dumb platitudes? End of rant. Today I might look at some log sorting and relocation from the outdoor store to the woodshed and I might even go beyond looking at it and actually do something about it - decisions, decisions. And finally taking once more about the big yellow taxi it was very helprful that it sent down a chap to collect the luggage but nobody seemed very interested at the time (probably because the ship was searching for something completely different so all the crew effort was concentrated on looking over the sharp end instead of the blunt end). Enjoy your day one and all and stay safe. And here that nice chap looking for the luggage. The land in the background is Hartland Point should anyone be interested.

Another week under way, but at PN it is still Friday.Probably. The engine change on the Birmingham-Ely has taken place, and Champion Lodge is heading away towards final destination. Another view that works much better in the morning light. This, of course, is a very familiar angle, and reminds me that yet another job that needs doing is to get more crews in the cabs of the locos.

Alas no, but it was dark blue and on one occasion a state trooper mistook it for an unmarked police car and waved at me. That was before he realized his mistake, did a swift U turn and gave me a speeding ticket. I put ski racks on the roof and it had a CB radio. I used to hear the truckers warning each other about an approaching Smokey. Some of the comments when they realized what it was were pretty funny.

Good morning all, Dull, dismal, dry and draughty start today. Quite a bit cooler than yesterday. Considerable backache this morning but at least I got all the plants in yesterday so can have a break from gardening. The Boss has declared that she is very pleased with my efforts so some Brownie points have been accrued. Today's major excitement will centre around the delivery from Sainsbury's due after lunch and wondering which items will be missing. I also need to read the meters and make an online prescription request. The request is easy, getting it delivered may be a bigger problem. Just how much more excitement I can take today I'm not sure. Have a good one, Blob. (Not a mistook, that's how I feel at the moment)

Afternoon so far spent cleaning wheels of the Heart of Midlothian and Elizabethan stock. 21 coaches in all. I won't say it was enjoyable doing it, but the knowledge that it has been done certainly is. Eight express rakes now completed. Cup of tea time, and another image to go with it. I think a train should feature this time, in the form of the Cleethorpes-KX, Immingham B1 hauled of course, as always.

Afternoon All I have had to skip a few pages, so not all posts read and rated - there is still a very real slowness to my internet, but primarily on this site where I can wait minutes between pages - however, as usual, checking in and offering the usual generic greetings and hope that all are well. More painting today, the back patio was looking a bit tatty in places, even though it was stone painted only a few months ago, and the patio floor was also looking very very jaded - unfortunately, we have tins and tins of stone paint, as I bought two for one at Homebase, then picked up three for a tenner at the A6 car boot last year - so we had five, but we got our builder to repaint the gable end, which used up about three of them, also and more unfortunate, 30747 "found" the "missing" floor paint. We are currently accessing the back garden by going round the front and through the side gate while the floor paint dries - it takes about four hours. My back is now aching, so a nice bath has been had. Dinner is going to be pork loin chops with stuffing and roast potatoes - how do I know - I'm making some of it. Back tomorrow, internet permitting. Regards to All Stewart

Slightly late elevenses infrastructure image. The parcels office end of the main Up side buildings.

Poor lad. Our late (and much missed) "Hairy Houseguest" Jordi was also petrified by loud noises. Given that there is a shooting range (for all men of military age in the services to do their gun practice) near us, it would sometime result in poor Jordi shooting down to the cellar - where he felt safe. Once, as we were crossing a road, there was a bang (backfire?) and Jordi froze and I couldn't get to move at all. So, much to the bemusement of the waiting motorists I ended up carrying Jordi out of the road (all 26Kg of him) - fortunately the road was/is near our house, so I managed to carry him home and, once home, he shot to the safety of the cellar. The Wolfpack aren't too keen on Thunderstorms either, especially Lucy - which I assume is a residue from being a street dog.

Good moaning from the Charente. Now nearing the end of day 27 of our current sentence. Becausecwe are surrounded by active farms large parts of life have gone on as normal. I suppose i could do a census of the various types of agricultural implements that drive past the house. At the moment morning traffic is mainly sprayers, obviously with the arms folded. Later in the day the various harrows, disc and other types predominate. Later in the year this will no doubt change to harvesters and tractirs with trailers. The fields are also rapidly changing to various shades of green from brown. The rape is already in flower in places. One that that has changed is that one farmer close to us has installed a bird scarer that goes bang at regular intervals in daylight hours. The lawn, aka the weedpatch got cut yesterday and some shed time ensued. The quack bird (to paraphrase Rick) was sacrificed and consumed along with cherry sauce and trimmings. This was followed with cherry crumble using the last bag of last years crop. As to today, no firm plans yet but I may try and sort out our domestic filing system. Regards to all. Jamie

Ey up! Late on parade and yet "we" were awake early. Mogatea drunk then tried to read an article on a non railway related item. Plan for today A stay warm B avoid gardening C take part in another Boggle Zoom meet up ( including a boggler currently in New Zealand working. Hope you can make a better fist of making monday work for you than I am. Positive thoughts to all! Baz

' evening all from red dragon land. Toot on the flute and bike ride on the spot. More dandelion heads removed and plants watered. Began tidying a raised bed in need of some TLC and discovered the dead roots I removed from the struggling tree fern had jumped back into life in the form of some new roots, and several small fronds. Saw to the rescue (remove dead roots) and a new small tree fern is sitting in a pot to be nurtured into tree fern no.2. Amazingly, I even got some m*d*ll*ng finished which I did not expect. Followed by Sunday roast and well co-ordinated rhubarb crumble and custard for pudding with no fuss, no mess up! But for now, it is ' night all and nos da. __________ Best wishes Polly

The evening images once again, and Knight of Thistle is still rolling through. But by the time our man on the bridge has taken this the A3 will be getting worked hard again. I'm pleased with this, as it is the closest I've yet got to the prototype angle which gets the stock in the Midland sidings in the right place.

Chris, Think tactical! Get her to push you around in the wheelchair. It would give her some support, twice as much exercise and you'd get a nice rest. All you'd need would be a nice green blanket, a thermos of tea and(of course) a large small tin of cake Between slurps and munches you could make suitable noises and pretend you were a GWR liveried pannier tank. 'No vicar, my husband does not suffer from flatulence, it's his vacuum pump.'

Afternoon all, just in for another rest after completing lawn mowing. In the last day, I have tried two new ideas, one successful and one not. The failure was to try to speed up the boot time on my ageing desktop PC. I had downloaded Microsoft Autoruns, and it seemed to give me a long list of items that loaded during the boot up. I went down the list to disable many of the program based ones, but carefully (I thought) leaving system ones. Net result was that the PC failed to start Windows on reboot. Fortunately I had planned for this eventuality as have a second hard disk in the PC that is a clone of the first. Disks swapped, system booted off the old one, and the system re-cloned back onto the non working one. System now back to where it was before I messed it up! The successful item was to remove the support stake from an Apple tree in the garden. It is long past being needed to support the tree, but It just couldn’t pull it out. Even violently wiggling it about didn’t loosen it much. To finally shift it, I got an old car jack from the garage, a brick, a piece of rope and a hammer and nail. These were combined to Jack the stake up out of the ground. As the stake was about 50cm into the ground, I had to remove the nail and reposition it lower down , but the job was done with great ease in the end. Photo of arrangement:

ps - 30747's consultant didn't phone, and we were very surprised when it was suggested that he might, as she only had the tests starting at 11.15 on Thursday, then there was Good Friday, the weekend, and today is Easter Monday, so there is a pretty strong chance that the lab is working on a lot of other people's tests, and anyway when the bloods were done, the sister said "sometime on Monday", and the MRI people said Tuesday at the earliest.

I'd have stopped and refused to go further as it sounds idyllic. Only lots of special cake would tempt me to move on from such luxury!

I leave the dandelions – they’re early food for the bees. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. And it just happenes to be true.

Did you have flashing lights on the top I have a few of them with such lights, all HO scale though.

Good evening everyone Like yesterday, we both need up getting out of bed late again this morning, so once up I went straight outside and did a little bit of gardening, mainly weeding but I did plant a peony that had been in a pot since last year. After dinner I spent the afternoon in the workshop making an adjustable bracket for the Hall effect switch and a platform so that it could fitted to the temporary turntable. Initial tests have been very good, the line on the table lining up with line on the bracket almost exactly. But the turntable isn’t powered up yet and I was rotating it by hand so that may well have given results that will differ from when it is powered. So, I then turned my attention to the control board and put power to it, nothing. After a bit of investigative work I discovered a faulty diode, once that was changed I was able to the main control relay to operate. I then added to 2 rotational relays and was able to get the clockwise rotation control working ok, but not the anti-clockwise rotation. So further work is needed there, which I will do tomorrow, as I’m having a day off from the garden. Initial tests show it to be wired and connected correctly, so I’m hoping it’s just a bad solder joint somewhere. Goodnight all

Stiil a huge surplus of images, so here's another one to see what you think. A bit of an experiment with something more widescreen. I quite like it.

Help me Father, for I have sinned...... Either I need to stop converting loco's to DCC or build a loco shed. Loco's parked on platforms is not a good look.... What else can you do in lock down?

Weeds = unwanted plants. I want all of my plants; therefore, I have no weeds!

Breakfast was enjoyed, my wife went for her walk that she has to do twice a day after her hip replacement. I follow her with the wheelchair so if she goes further than she should I can get her back home. VERY noticeable how much colder it is today compared to yesterday. Now back home going to have a hot coffee to drink and make an iced coffee for SWMBO. Then washing up and a visit to the local supermarket for some supplies. Already have a tomato cheese pasta in the fridge ready to heat for this evenings meal. Stay safe everyone. For those who don't like Pannier Tanks, just send them to me and I will give them a good home!

I was very interested in the "reverse" landward view. Hartland Point marked, quite literally, a turning point in my walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path. Upon reaching said location from Bucks Mills (between Westward Ho! and Clovelly) I had completed the entire north coast section of the walk from Minehead to Lands End. Not in consecutive sections of course. What I hadn't done was complete the day's walking. Hartland Point lies a few miles from the village of Hartland itself. I had another hour-and-a-bit to go up the valley to reach the chippy, the bus stop and finally my transport back to base for that trip which was a holiday let near Holsworthy. That was a testing day's walk. Some of it was extremely muddy and slippery. And it was cold. But it completed the north coast and not too long afterwards I completed the south coast and the entire 630 miles. My completion certificates and T-shirt are tangible reminders; the memories and the friends made over the years of walking are the lasting benefits.

Good moaning awl. It is bright. It is definitely cool. The wind rose to stiff breeze and has remained thus. I shall inspect the seedlings momentarily. Daisies and dandelions carpet our lawns and look beautiful. In previous years the garden maintenance people have mowed the lot every week but since the change of landlord we no longer enjoy that. The grass gets cut at intervals but the wild flowers within it have a chance to grow, feed insects and be admired. We spotted at least four species of bee yesterday, for example. The agenda for today is as empty as it has been all weekend. This is getting boring. Let’s hope the House of Fun still requires my services tomorrow. Stay well. Avoid yellow snow and helicopters.

I love the French for weed which translates as "bad grass" which could have all sorts of meanings. Jamie

Greetings one and all Sunday lunch was accompanied by a sense of achievement. What a long time it has been since I roasted a chicken, with the obligatory trimmings of stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips. I washed it down with a rather fine but inexpensive hock. Oh, such decadence. The carcase has been dismantled and the pickings should yield a couple of meals. One will be risotto if I can remember how to make it. I took the precaution of making lots of gravy which will be a good start. I felt suitably replete whilst watching "Death on the Nile", nowhere near as escapist as the scheduled Indiana Jones movie that got pulled to make way for the daily virus update. If all those remarkable people who panic-bought bog roll had only realised, they could have used the Radio Times. I have had some e-correspondence with my friend Rob in Theydon Bois. We both enjoy the Ffestiniog Travel trip to Switzerland at C*****mas and New Year, which is how we met, and discussed contingency plans to escape the traditional British C*****mas if the Swiss trip does not go ahead. Maybe I am crying before I am hurt but the prospect of the festive season home alone does not appeal after everything else this year. If last year be a guide the prospectus should arrive ere long but these are troubled times. I am still smarting at losing my trip to Dublin, which all the determination in the world could not have made happen. In those far-off days when the world was normal, this would have been the time for the forward look. Against all odds, something nice is due to happen on Wednesday. It should have been Area Group lunch but this has been transmuted into a Zoom hook-up, in the evening and without the food and drink. I had better do a bit more m*d*ll*ng so as to have something to show the webcam. Best wishes to all Chris

Somebody rang for a yellow taxi?

A little more progress on the Dean Goods... The splashers : Initially, because I needed an outside diameter of 12mm and I only had use of a 3 Jaw chuck to hold the work piece (the ER16 collets only go up to 10mm), I felt that Richard Brummitt's suggestion above would be impossible with the equipment I had. I therefore experimented a little and turned up 3 vertical sided dishes from which I intended to cut the splashers from. The intention was to solder rings of wire around the outside face of the dish which could then be filed back to provide the raised bead around the splasher face. Although I managed to do this, it was a bit of a faff, and I felt that when it came to securing the splashers to the footplate that the beading was bound to become unsoldered anyway (I had used 188 degree solder to secure the beading). The Mk II version was to do it properly!! For this I needed some way of holding short lengths of 12mm bar, so before any material could be cut in anger I first had to make myself a stepped chuck. This was relatively easy to make from a length of 20mm brass bar (although I think that the material I used was actually a similar alloy that my brother had given me years ago - he's an engineer and regularly gives me 2"-3" offcuts of brass and other materials from work). I turned one end of the bar down to 9mm in the 3 jaw chuck (so that I could mount it in a 9mm ER16 collet). Once mounted in the ER16 collet, the bar was drilled and bored 7mm for its whole length, and then the steps of the collet were bored out at 10mm, 11mm and 12mm steps each 1.25mm deep (I only needed a 12mm step for this project but decided to make the collet a little more flexible). To finish the collet it was necessary to make saw cuts in it so that it could tighten around the material it is to hold. The ready-to-use stepped collet The collet in use, a splasher "blank" in the process of being formed into a dish For the splashers themselves I now needed some 12mm bar, so with the 3 jaw chuck mounted on the headstock again I mounted some brass bar a little larger than 12mm and turned an ample length down to 12mm. The bar end was faced off and a raised bead turned into the end of the bar, and then a piece about 3.5mm cut from the end of the bar. This was repeated until I had 3 splasher blanks all 12mm diameter each with a raised bead on one face. The 3 jaw chuck was replaced with the ER16 9mm collet, and the stepped chuck and a splasher blank was mounted with the bead face in the chuck. The inside of the dish was then bored out until the rim was about 0.008" thick and the bottom of the dish was about 0.010" thick (regular removal of the embryonic dish was necessary so that I could check the thickness of the base (or splasher face) with a micrometer). The depth of the dish was turned down to 0.100" (2.5mm). A splasher "blank" and a finished dish The finished turned dishes ready for cutting chords off for the splashers It was then a simple matter of cutting chords off each dish to make the splashers (2 splashers from each dish). Obviously these were cut off over size then filed down to size on a needle file held flat on the bench. Once I was happy with one this was used to make sure the other 5 were all exactly the same size. Filing down a segment of the dish to for a splasher The 6 completed splashers Thanks for looking Ian

Talking of weeds I was horrified to find two dandelions growing in my artificial grass! Can't believe they've grown through as I know what's underneath so can only assume they're from wind borne seed. Email received earlier from Sainsburys' telling us we're getting everything we've ordered apart from four substitutions. These have already been deemed acceptable by Management. Time for elevenses and we have a couple of leftover Hot Cross Buns to dispose of. Good Oh.