Leaderboard

Morning all, off to golf soon, so rain forecast. Your morning photos are a bit of a contrast. 60123 on the West Riding is no more than ten years old, and in its prime. Whereas D11 Marne, pressed into service on the 5.03 to Grimsby is very much on its last legs. They did look very decrepit by 1958, as I recall.

Next stages................... Comet's crossheads are not handed and cater for both left- and right-hand sides, with the little end of the connecting rod running a pocket. This must be completely clear, with the assembly broached for clearance. Without modification, the little end will jam. Note how I've enlarged the bearing holes in both the big and little ends. The latter will be anathema to proper engineers, but remember that the rod will be driven by the wheels, not, as on the prototype, it driving them. Plenty of clearance means fewer chances of tight spots. The little end is held in place by a 16BA screw, secured with a 14BA nut, soldered securely in place. These are not supplied in the chassis kit. The piston rods are too long as supplied; better than their being too short! They must be shortened to fit. I do it by nibbling bits off with the Xurons. They mustn't be shortened too much, however. This is perfect. The crossheads (which are lost wax brass?) needed some cleaning up before they'd fit into the etched slidebars, but the fit was finally snug. Don't arrange the slidebars according to the drawing, otherwise they won't fit into the slots in the cylinder rears. The inner one needs shortening to remove the lug, otherwise the slidebars will end up too far back. More later................

Photos from visits to Grantham today. For some reason the weather was poor on each of these visits, my memory of Grantham is that the sun usually shone. Grantham Class 47 Parkeston Quay to Manchester July 80 J6994.jpg Grantham Class 254 up May 81 C5360.jpg Grantham 150148 Nottingham to Skegness May 87 J8910.jpg Grantham 43099 up 8th Jan 89 C11768.jpg Grantham 43097 down 8th Jan 89 C11769.jpg David

You know that heavy drizzle that you can hardly see, but gets into everything and can soak you through? That's what we had this morning, carried on a cool northerly wind. My putter and I didn't get on either, so I am glad to be home. We will have a plonk to celebrate.

After my telephone call to 111 a couple of weekends ago and a meeting with the Out-of-Hours Doctor a couple of hours later I had some discussions with my GP regarding urine and blood tests during the following week after which she said that I'll be fast -tracked to the Urology Department to ensure that there are no nasties hiding about. Last week received a phone call followed by an appointment letter for a flexible cystoscopy at the local clinic on July 7th and today received a phone call asking if I could get to the William Harvey Hospital at Ashford for a CT scan tomorrow reporting at 8:20am. They certainly are fast-tracking things!! To get to the hospital by 8:20am means using the car, it will be the longest run its had since lockdown started. Think the car will be happy to get the chance to exceed 40mph, maybe take the scenic route along the A20 rather than using the M20. Time for bed now, up early tomorrow! Keith

Brown and cream remembered trains, blue remembered hills ….. John C.

Just a quick update. I mentioned the bench that I've been working on. Here's one I took just before I started work on it, missing latts and rust. This is it now. It has received the royal seal of approval. I'm quite pleased with the result. Now it's off towards the loft hunting relays. Jamie

Thanks Tony! I really enjoy the railway photography. I've found a few vantage points on the layout that I think really work.

And gone around the bend....

Brilliant as ever, Tony. Valve gear photos like you have posted are invaluable. 'A picture paints....' May I dare to offer a D120 LNER pigeon van. I know there is a little controversy surrounding these - possibly a jack of all trades, master of none. All I know is it looks reasonably LNER'ly to me. First attempt at Teak. It's perhaps a little darker than I wanted, depicting a van about 10-15 years old. Comments welcome, as long as they're nice

I find it impossible to drink alcohol when on my own, I just don't enjoy it, so none has passed my lips for several months now. I can't say that I miss it much either, which is a bit worrying. I have had a snooze though, and woken up feeling 'orrible, so I have promised myself sausages for dinner. Afternoon tea first though, and a picture to go with it.

Good morning all, Sunny start but heavy thundery showers are a possibility later. First bin lorry was here at 6.25, two more to come. That's most of my excitement for the morning apart from a Sainsbury's delivery later. Things will improve after lunch as Nicki, Joe and Gemma are visiting and Abbie will be here after she's finished WFH. I may need to do a Sun Dance to try and keep the rain away. Have a good one, Bob. P.S. I'm thinking of organising a new union:- The Society Opposing Desecration Of Furry Friends or SODOFF for short! Thinking of asking Mr Polybear to act as President and ChrisF as Secretary.

Good evening everyone This morning I managed to get about 1 1/2 hours work done on the beach sides before it started to rain. So I packed everything away in the shed and headed back into the cellar. I then gave the 6 slats I painted yesterday a second coat of primer, once that was done I cleaned my brush and packed away all my painting paraphernalia. As I still had a couple of hours to kill before dinner, I carried on with the circuit board I’d built yesterday. I connected it up, switched on the power and tested it, disappointingly it didn’t work. A few tests were carried out and I found a duff crimp connected to the lead (I’d crimped the insulation) going to the photo interrupter. This was replaced and I retested the board, still nothing. So using the breadboard, I built a second one using the same circuit diagram and similar components, when that was powered up it worked fine. My next step was connect both the working and non working boards to the power supply and take test readings from all the joints/junctions on each board to compare to two, that’s when I discovered I’d fitted a faulty transistor to the first circuit board! This was duly removed and replaced with another transistor and when I retested it, it worked perfectly! So now that I know everything is working fine, I can carry on and build the rest of them over the next few days or so, if the weather continues as it is at the moment, I may get some built tomorrow! Once there done, they’ll be ready for installing on the turntable and do some proper testing can then begin. After dinner the sun returned, so I went back outside and continued working on the bench sides. They both had quite a bit of ‘flash’ that needed removing, so far one side has had it all removed and made a start on sanding it down. I sanded down the 2 stays that are fitted to the underside of the slats and fasten, one to each sides and I’ve also support strap that is fitted underneath the each slat in the centre. At this point, my back was starting to complain, so I decided to call it a day and packed up. At about 9 o’clock tonight, it started chuckinitdarn again, it’s still chuckinitdarn now and due to continue through the night. Rick. Congratulations to Sharon for obtaining her well deserved PhD. I also enjoy reading your posts and have missed them over the last week or two. Goodnight all

Behold the cheery glow of the Yuletide Log, except this is July 1 and I just lit the wood stove cos it's too cold in my shed.

All finished now.............. The motion support bracket, with everything hanging on. To hold the bracket, expansion link and radius rod in place, I solder a 14BA bolt to the bracket, both sides. I then fit the expansion link and radius rod over this, finally making all secure by soldering a brass crankpin washer over the inner end, then snipping off the excess. To prevent solder contamination causing binding, two Romford crankpin fibre washers are placed between the moving parts and any solder. Unfortunately, these most-useful little items are no longer available. Once happy, the inner supports were then soldered in place. Cylinders and motion support bracket just tacked in place for now - just to check all runs freely before a more-secure joint can be made. Everything now secure and running sweetly. I had to slightly crank the valve guides outwards, just to give greater clearance for the combination levers. Everything now in place, and time for a little running-in (not that any was really necessary). Cylinder drain cocks are 15Amp fusewire. In case anyone thinks it's taken me all day to erect the motion on this V2, I have done other things as well, and taking step-by-step pictures slows everything down. I hope my pragmatic approach to making valve gear has been made clear. Some components should be of a sandwich construction, or have forked ends. Such niceties are for those who take their loco-building more seriously than I do. This is yet another 'layout loco', and it satisfies my requirements for that. Any comments/brick-bats, most-welcome.

Today we are building valve gear....................... The intention (acting on a request) is to show how I go about erecting the Walschaerts motion on a steam-outline loco. I'll state, right from the outset, that I take a pragmatic view towards this most-onerous task; I simplify it, but still (I hope) capture this elegant arrangement in motion. Cylinders first. These are best made-up whilst still 'in the flat'. Annoyingly, all the pre-etched holes are much too small and all must be opened out with drills/broaches to accommodate the cast items. I know this is better than too-large holes at source, but there's still a bit to shift. Equally annoyingly, the cast metal valve guides are completely 'blind', and must be drilled to take the (dummy) valve rods. A cocktail stick aids alignment as parts are soldered together. Once happy that everything is in the right place, the assembly can be folded up. And popped into the frames to check the fit. It's essential that the body be tested for clearance at EVERY stage during the motion's construction. Clearances seem to be fine here. More later, as I carry on......................

I have a picture.....!

Greetings one and all! Welcome back to Rick and congratulations to Mrs Rick Yesterday morning was not the best, even though the fodder run was over and done by 9 am. Awaiting my pleasure at home was the ironing, followed by one of my least favourite jobs – changing the bed linen. Even the normally trusty cuppa did not do much to help. From time to time, usually after spending the weekend at a show such as Scalefour North, I feel unfitted for fine scale m*d*ll*ng because of clumsiness. My recent impromptu and inelegant descent of the stairs has done nothing to dispel that feeling. Help, of a sort, was at hand. As some know, I have a certain fondness for koalas despite never having seen one. By good fortune there are several clips on YouTube at the moment. There is something about a baby koala bouncing around or being cradled in the hands of a human which melts even the stoniest heart. After the bush fires in Australia the army was deployed to help in a number of ways, including animal welfare. One of my favourite clips shows a row of chairs, each occupied by a soldier bottle-feeding a baby koala. Call me a soppy date if you will but 20 minutes or so in the company of these gorgeous marsupials did much to restore my flagging spirits. Today is likely to be unproductive. My gas boiler is due to be serviced. The British Gas webshite was having a bad day when the visit was booked and could only offer me a window from 12 to 6. The last thing I need is to be kept in suspense. Oh well. Best wishes to all Chris

Not a sign but still whacky.

Greetings, the lost relay is found. To misquote the good book, "There is more joy in Saleignes over one relay that is found than over 99 that ire safely in the shed" After Beth had departed for a Dr's appointment I got some left over roof boards from the shed and set to work. First off I couldn't go straight across the bit of the loft as the joists ran the wrong way. However I created a safe route round the other three side of the rectangle and after investigating several junction boxes, the lost was found. The said junction box is on the far side of this picture under the insulation. This is the useless article in question. As I had turned off the circuit breaker before going upstairs I then removed it and insulated the tails. This afternoon I'm off to buy a new one, and may well have a coffee at the railway station along with cake of some sort. My plan now is to get some conduit and run leads across the loft space so that the relay is more accessible in the future. A dust mask was essential. Happy days. Jamie

Good moaning all from the Charente. It's cloudy but not too cold or too warm. First off congratulations to Dr Mrs Gwiwer. Very glad to see that the hard work has paid off. I hope that the anxiety levels drop though. Beth arrived back in time for lunch yesterday and I even managed to provide a lunch for her. Margaret, who she'd been staying with and myself. A rather nice Golden retriever called Teddy also came and visited. The bench was moved across from the shed and was duly sat upon. The big news here is that we now have a 37 yr old pony living in the garden next door. It's a long story but hopefully it will make less noise than the cockerel which used to live on the other side. After Margaret left we had just got sorted when an expat couple called. Wine was consumed and much chat and banter was had. They have come to across without health insurance. Another two couples that we know are taking the same risk this weekend. Mushrooms on toast were then eaten followed by a pleasant evening visiting some more friends. This morning I'm heading to the loft hunting for the dratted relay. I may be some time. As to moss and roofs. It's a pain. The moss builds up means standing water on the flat undertiles. If there is a frost that leads to spalling and eventual cracking. After 45 years that's why we've had to have the roof redone. Hopefully the new one will last us out. Regards to all. Jamie

Canada's national holiday today. The Village bands were "rehearsing" in somebody's driveway. They are not allowed to announce "performances" as that might attract a crowd. We listened to the Easy Listening combo for 1.5 hours; they were going to be followed by the Elderly Brothers and another outfit. I wonder at the wisdom of opening places that help to impair judgement and dexterity in these times. (I am also in sympathy with the fellow who said of the internet "Who thought it was a good idea to put all the idiots in the world in touch with each other?" And congratulations to Mrs. Gwiwer.

Dunno what went on there - this mornings post appareently didn't (post) so is now above. i blame the mangement (well why not?) Congratulations to Dr Mrs Gwiwer - well done througha lot of hard work and good that Rick has been able to support the achievement. And if she's in the extra vulnerable category I don't blame her for worrying but what it comes down to is I suspect not her but probably a concern about the actions of others and while we can all take care of ourselves to try to stay safe and stick to guifdelines there are an ever increasing number of the braiun dead out there who very obviously can't. Talking about real railways - if still allowed there were some comparative trials of various classes carried out in early LMS days and the results of those trials were used to justify the continued building of various MR designs instead of any from other constituents, as for compounds versus simples Churchward carried out extensive comparative testing and while teh French engines lived out their natural lives he settled on simple expansion engines as offering similar levels of economy for lower constructional costs. SNCF went on very much for compounding right through to their final large passenger designs but French operating conditions were quite different from British and the bureaucracy that effectively encouraged maximum fuel economy to be got from compounds by paying Drivers bonuses based on coal savings was very different from the practice elsewhere in Europe. french running conditions were also very different, and remain so, from practice in many other European countries anf d taht affected loco handling and economy.

Evening all, Hot dry and green in Northeast Oklahoma today. Cooked an almost perfect grilled cheese for lunch, but was threatened by uneven heating of the sides. I spent most of the day busying myself with scratchbuilding a broad gauge disk & bar signal, and it’s accompanying cable a-frame, if you fancy a mildly boring read you can do so Here. I’ve had the Boeing 777 fan running all day in my room, and it’s not that bad with Airpods in my ears with music playing. I discovered this morning I had it on the intermediate setting last night, instead of the quiet setting, usual incompetence to be excepted from me. Currently it feels like 109 degrees out, but the actual temperature is more like 104, or 42-43 for the rest of you. Moan finished. The one good thing about this heat is it makes the trees exceptionally green, which doesn’t really amount fully to reparations for my lack of sleep but I suppose it’s something. And congratulations to Mrs. Gwiwer as well. as always, stay healthy, Douglas

Quite a good morning, I've fitted all the Exit Tracks to the Door Fiddle Yard, and re fitted the three Fiddle Yard Tracks ready to re wire. For the Track feed to the Fiddle Yard there will be a Male / Female Plug that I will plug in as I bring it across. and unplug on it's return to the storage position. In the event that I forget to unplug there will be a strait pull for the lead to self detach.

Pass me a couple of dozen Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, bung me several Black Puddings, a few brace of Haggis and a case of Single Malt Whisky and I'll make absolutely sure that the currency of your choice emerges from the CaptCynicoMatic(tm) squeaky clean....(a) Our motto is "No Bank Note is Ever Too Grubby To Become SwissClean" (a) all currency washes of less than the equivelant value of CHF10 Million will be subject to a 25% handling and pre-wash fee

Morning form a Sunny Surrey. Just been on the TV ' I look like the lone Ranger with a black mask on' - I have a few alternative phrases that I can think of for number 45. I hope all our ER's across the pond are keeping safe and just aswell that our flights were cancelled the way things are being reported over here. Yesterday the penny dropped that when the news said that Gloucestershire is amongst the 36 areas with high infection rate that Bristol is now part of Gloucestershire. Luckily we haven't prepaid the hotels and can cancel at short notice on our upcoming travels.

Ah, but but can it penetrate the 7 meter thick reinforced bunker walls of an Alpine Redoubt? Just asking for a friend. Captain Cynical, Switzerland. A remembrance service will be held this Sunday to honour the recently departed Mr Competence, late of this parish. He will be sorely missed. As I recall, “better living through chemistry” was one of DuPont‘s advertising slogans (50s, I believe). If I were to create a catchy phrase for the pharma (and now also biotech) industry it would “make life liveable, take drugs” (which you can interpret in many ways...) > frequently > always > usefully so > err, can I get back to you on that? Neapolitan Cricket? It’s chucking it down over here and in a little while I will have to take the Wolfpack out to “savage” the neighbourhood. After which it’s supply run time (and I am fortunate in that I can go to this “trade shop“ where there are not many people at any one time [“trade” customers tend to be fewer in number than at the supermarkets but big spenders - frequently dropping a few grand on meat and booze in one shopping expedition] and where good social distancing and hand hygiene is practiced). And then, I start working for my client Muddling tokens in abundance are foreseen (or at least what’s left over after Mrs iD - my CFO - has had her say...) Have fun, boys and girls! iD

A work in progress using Noch light and mid green leaves.

Congrats to Dr G! Just getting beyond that must help to reduce the stress a bit. I've never had to write a thesis or do a dissertation (thank goodness) but I have written a couple of patents and they can be a gigantic PITA . It doesn't take long before you start asking yourself why on Earth you are doing it.

Morning all, A little bit drizzly out there and still pleasantly cool. Two of the bins have been emptied but the other lot of binmen haven't bin yet so the recycling bins still awaits their indulgence and attention. The younger of the young ladies next door has borrowed n my concrete mixer in order to hopefully ease the hard work of mixing building sand with clay in order to finish off her pizza over. Said oven does look most impressive but I'm far from sure how much use the mixer will be in produced puddled clay and have warned her not to use too much water and to add both clay and sand gradually and in an alternating manner. Maybe when she gets back to her engineering training course with that nice(?) Mr Dyson she could knock up a clay puddling machine? I've already suggested she might get an opportunity to make teh necessary tool for putting the pizza in the oven and extracting it but also suggested it might not be a goodo idea to 3-D print it - apparently the Dyson development facility has a printer which can produce some very large 3-D prints. And back to Pre-Group comparisons. A group from teh LSE undertook an in depth research into railway financial, and other, efficiencies back in 2007 with some interesting results. Although arrived at in some respects by calculation rather than using raw data (wg hich didn't exist) they concluded that the GWR, LNWR, and MR ran almost the same number of train miles as each other as an annual average between 1893 and 1912 at 646.2 - 46.4 million miles per annum. Total receipts were respectively £11.3 million, £13.6million, and £11 million. the division of receipts showed some interesting contrasts - the GWR was 49% passenger, 25% merchandise, & 26% minerals; the LNWR figures were 44%, 34%, & 22% respectively; the MR's were 33%, 34%, & 33% respectively - a very similar split to the NER as it happened and ona slightly larger route mileage than the MR. Percentage rate of return on capital employed was measured at three years - 1892, 1900, & 1910 and showed some interesting divergences, For example the NER went 4.92, 4.75, 5.21; the LNWR was 5.17, 5.06, 5.11; the GWR was 4.64, 4.44, 4.73; the MR was 5.03, 4.78, 4.69. In comparison the best of the bunch was the TVR which was 5.93, 5.57, 6.24. Most companies they looked at, except the NBR and GER showed a decline from1892 to 1900 but only the TVR, NER, GWR, NBR, and GER (just) showed an improvement between 1892 and 1910. Note that the MR did not recover between 1900 and 1910 although they were far from alone in that. Most companies suffered deterioration in overall cost efficiency between the first two dates but then made b very considerable improvements by 1910 although ofddly the NER's cost inefficiency slightly worsened. The GWR and LNWR made significant and finished up virtually on a par with each other and the MR although starting from a much poorer position. The GWR and LNWR made similar gains in annual productivity improvement measured in terms of the cost of moving their traffic but from 1900 =1912 the MR went in the opposite direction and completely at odds with what the other large companies were achieving. Improvements in the speed of the longer distance/more important passenger trains between 1887 and 1910 (using Bradshaw as the base for data) and excluding services operated by more than one company, e.g. the WCML Anglo-Scottish trains are also interesting. the LNWR speed rose from 52 to 57.5 kph, the GWR from 45.6 to 53.3 kph, and the MR from 53.9 to 56.6kph. Probably a better indicator would be the one that took all passenger trains where the LNWR rose from 42 to 45.3kph, the GWR from 37.9 to 43.4kph, and the MR from 40.9 to 46.4 kph. I suspect that the speeds for longer distance trains include journeys completed by connecting services as the GWR very obviously didn't have the number of such routes claimed by the authors hence the average figure is perhaps a better guide. Best bets for a 1910 shareholder, in descending order - 1st Taff Vale; 2nd NER; 3rd LNWR; =4th GWR L&SWR, LB&SCR; 7th MR; 8th GNR So in many respects the NER comes out on top followed by the LNWR then the GWR with the MR trailing some way behind. It would seem that there is something to be said for painting engines green or black. (but somewhere I have a picture of a very grubby Midland single working a freight train which could count as 'almost black ).

Time for the latest update of 'Duff' Weekly..! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr I've got previous form here and long time readers may remember my previous ramblings on the topic of modelling the much-missed ILRA pool of Virgin Cross-Country Class 47s! I'm somewhere approaching double figures with these and there's many more in the grand plan for the future! Newest additions to the fleet are 47807 The Lion of Vienna and 47845 County of Kent, recalling the great days of the last true widespread loco-hauled services on the UK network before Virgin's well-intentioned but ill-fated Operation Princess would change the game forever. Unlike the other Virgin repaints completed a few years back, we are now fortunate enough to have a ready to run Bachmann version available! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr However, all is not as it first seems! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Bachmann chose to model 47814, one of the earliest to go into the iconic red scheme, and as a result it had larger-than-standard yellow warning panels. So a simple renumber is not so easy unless you cut back on the yellow! I masked off the yellow to be retained, and set about scratching the excess yellow away with a sharp curve-blade scalpel, because it's applied over the top of the dark grey, it comes off a treat! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Next came the individual machine modifications, few 47s were quite the same and roof mods needed doing on each of these before repainting. The number and name branding came off super quickly with Humbrol enamel thinners. As with the other locos previously, a coat of gloss varnish was applied to the model prior to new decals and nameplates being added, and then topped off with a coat of Railmatch matt varnish. Glazing is covered in Humbrol Maskol to save removing the windows, on some models such as these it's sometimes so well-glued that it's just easier to leave it in place! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr A classic slice of Pet Shop Boys is the recommended background noise for life-extended Class 47 projects, accompanying the light weathering taking place on the roof and upper bodysides. The Virgin '47' fleet was generally kept pretty clean, often only picking up occasional oil streaks and grime in the places where the carriage washers wouldn't reach, barring the worst winter conditions, when they probably broke down anyway! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 47845 County of Kent was modelled with some minor streaking at the No.2 end, oily exhaust deposits brought down from the roof, with an otherwise-clean exterior. 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Little details were picked out such as the wear on the steps, I forgot to do the buffer greasing before the photoshoot but that was done as well, a little bit of gunmetal grey on a cotton bud to finish off! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Of course I couldn't just stop at doing one more ILRA beast! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 47807 The Lion of Vienna was a long-time favourite, having modelled it several times across Lima, Heljan and now Bachmann permutations! I just really liked the mysteriously exotic-sounding name as a kid and only later in life learnt about Nat Lofthouse and the Bolton Wanderers football connection - funny the incidental stuff that railway modelling teaches you! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Virgin famously had numerous reliability problems with their Class 47 fleet, so it seemed appropriate to make another dummy model to be towed around as a dead-in-train failure, often rescued by an EWS no-heat dump, much to the joy of bashers and photographers alike! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Bringing the story up to date, the locos have had interesting careers since their Virgin glory days. With their evocative Sulzer engines ripped out, both these locos were re-born as the second wave of GM Class 57s - the Virgin Thunderbirds! 47845 was to become Thunderbird 1, 57301 Scott Tracy and 47807 being transformed into 57304 Gordon Tracy! (though for the record, my favourite Thunderbird was always Thunderbird 3!) It was very much mixed feelings, while I was in the midst of peak Thunderbirds-fever making my homemade Blue Peter 'Tracy Island' in the early '90s I never imagined that one day my favourite railway locos would be ripped apart and come back with bold Thunderbirds branding! They did look superbly stylish when however. 57301 even had a spell in bright Network Rail yellow, and today both locos are still out there roaming, these days in more subdued DRS Blue - classy, but not a patch on 1990s Virgin red! 47807 and 47845 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr It's been great fun nostalgia bringing these two to life, and what with easy availability of Virgin 47's now, I can't imagine they will be the last! Cheers, James

Any spare change?

Managed to visit Fort Knox GP Surgery. well drilled process to get in, be met, testing done and being released. Figures from Test done today not available till next week , Sister Drac will ring and growl at me for being a naughty boy re weight and other measures. (and no, I cannot get an Antibody Test until we have some in Leeds) The HCA was very worried about what could happen on Saturday night with some of the people who attend his local pub.. Hopefully it will be damp and cold so may keep people sensible. Baz

Afternoon all, Today has mostly been spent outside trying to get a nice beer of things done before the next batch of carp weather we are forecast. Friday and Saturday are due to be very wet, while Sunday is more high winds. Just what the poor garden needs! To protect some of my veg plants, more slates have been stuck into the ground as windbreakers. My efforts so far at this have been quite effective. Plants have also been staked to try to help them. The erection of the new shed is waiting for a fine day, but the wooden base is now ready. It has all been treated with preservative, and some damp proof course plastic sheet stuck on, in an attempt to prevent water from soaking up into the shed from the base. Only time will tell how effective this will be. Early this morning, I went to return a number of plastic bags that I had collected free horse manure in, only to find more bags for collection. The manure has all been placed into a couple of builders dumpy bags that a friend gave me. It will hopefully rot down nicely in the bags for use next spring. Now it is off to make a summer fruit pudding with some of the soft fruit from the garden. Makes me feel hungry just thinking about it!

Well I tried to post the following yesterday but my system crashed. Fortunately it has all been rememberd: "Greetings all from a damp Sidcup. Work has been very busy, and so no time to go back and catch up - but i do note that Sharon has been awarded her PhD so congratulations there. This is another at school week for Mrs Lurker and Younger Lurker but tomorrow is his penultimate day. He should have been in for 4 days the week after next but apparently so many parents complained that the children who were in the second weekly slot would get one less week that the head has decided that both lots can come in that week..for one day each! The amount of complaining that has gone on has driven the head barmy - they provide packed lunches for the KS1 kids (as they would have been entitled to school meals). One girl in particular does not eat and loudly complains about that and everything else. Protocol is that nothing goes home from school so uneaten lunch goes in the bin. She threw a strop and the Mum complained to the head, who is so fed up she gave in. So protocol broken for a 5 year old behaving like a two year old. I guess roll on the end of term....! Meanwhile Younger Lurker is keenly anticipating the resumption of Formula 1 this weekend. It will widen his interests from the Indycar and NASCAR that he has also been following - and from watching the virtual racing He has even done a couple of F1 "pub quizzes"! enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe!" and it is dry here now but cool for the time of year. It is still busy but slightly less frantic today. I persuaded the people who wanted phonecalls yesterday evening that first thing today worked much better, and my system is no longer crashed of course. However there is not too much else to report!

Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare, 885/553 Fell asleep early got 3 hours... then 5 hours of very intermittant dozing.. ugh.. Brain kept thinking about the sailing boat again, this time about the Kicking strap or Vang. "Vang" from the Dutch "Vangen" meaning to catch. Many sailing terms are from Dutch, since the Dutch gave Charles the Second the First Royal Yacht the HMY Mary in 1660, that started the fashion for yachting as a hobby rather than sailing as work in the UK.. Anyway for the non sailers, the Vang, is normally a bit of string (often blocks and tackle for more power) from the base of the mast to partly along the boom (the horizontal bit of wood beneath the sail). This stops the sail rising uncontrollably if hit by a gust of wind, and also causes a better sail shape.. On my boat however, there is little room for a conventional Vang, So I've been looking at all sorts of solutions, the Temple Vang, the lever vang, the Gnav (vang spelt backwards it's rods that push down on the boom instead). and the ultimate an all carbon fiber L shaped boom, with the foot pointing down near the mast acting as a lever.. Sadly the carbon fibre solution would be the best but the price is ouch,. Further research will continue.. I belong to a couple of American web sites, it's noticeable that they often have to replace rooves at around 30 years, yet on one site I saw someone taking the micky because our rooves are heavier and stronger... I did point out that our rooves don't often need replacing, mine had the tiles taken off and a new membrane fitted 40 years ago then the tiles put back on, it was about 80 at the time..some rooves in the UK go on for centuries.. (and one or two woodworm eaten battens replaced) The Broads hire fleet are now booked almost solid from 4th July till October, although they've had no hiring since the start of season which is normally the week before Easter, it could turn out to be a bumper year overall.. Strange, when the spread sheet i'm using boots up I can see it saying " linking to : XXXXXX new Cert 9-29", XXXXXX being another department this spreadsheet has nothing to do with. So I go to the file page "inspect document " and it comes up with there are links... I follow the instructions to use the data tab at the top of the spread sheet ... no links show... so I can't edit them and get rid of it... The next measurement awaits. Time to do some work..

This mornings pic is of the Rat 25285 and Gronk 08173 working Seven Mills Yard.

Were those the ones that I have read about at Rainhill?

I hope you're all well and managing to get on with a few modelling projects during these strange times. Probably well overdue an update...... so here it is. The Class 74 and Class 501 unit (#2) have finally been completed, as well as D3989 which has been sat in the works for some considerable time. A picture paints a thousand words, so here's three thousand's worth in one go! All the best. Kier

Thank you so much for supporting Hippos in Need. I'll get my Nigerian finance Director to send you a large cheque.

Moaning Nothing to report here, spending most of my time sitting/laying on one side with this annoying !@#$!$!@$ bursitis It sucks, and there's no pleasure in pretty much anything right now... At least it's not COVID etc. Weather beastly (thank god for air conditioning!) highs in mid-30s next 5-7 days and humid with it. Heat advisories posted. Carry on.

A rousing good morning owl from the Piedmont. It is going to be a great day; as in off to Gene's for my weekly hit of corned beef and cabbage!

Moss on roofs, now that's something I haven't seen in years . . . Morning awl, Hot humid and green here once again in Northeast Oklahoma. The ceiling fan decided to be quiet last night, so a better sleep was had, but still not normal. Broad Gauge signal unit was finished last night, to the accompaniment of much rejoicing by the Works laborers. Ye Olde friend dog came in this morning from her morning walk smelling like she'd just had a bath it was so humid out. But thankfully I don't notice it. Today I hope to start work on the baseboard and fiddle yard for my BG layout, so wish me luck, as it will be the first "proper" mini layout I've yet constructed.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The postman has delivered a couple of subscription magazines, one of which I hadn't subscribed too. I had subscribed to 'Model Collector' magazine but had not received anything last month and this months edition was due about now, in fact I was going to contact them to enquire about it. The magazine that I was not subscribed to, Diecast Collector dropped through the door with an accompanying letter explaining that Model Collector has folded due to the corona virus and that subscriptions had been transferred. Another magazine that I subscribed to has been merged with another from the same publisher so I'm quite happy with that. You will also need a treasurer and I am quite willing to step into that role. Donations please in used banknotes, Sterling, Euro's or US dollars preferably but not Roubles or Zimbabwean dollars. Failing that signed blank cheques, diamonds or gold bullion.

Good morning everyone It’s raining, it wasn’t when I sat down for breakfast, pah! Anyway, once I’ve finished my breakfast I’ll dead downstairs to the cellar and continue painting the slats of the bench. The condition of this particular bench I’m working on was in a very similar way to the first photo that Jamie showed in his post. When finished it too will sit below a window, the workshop window. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later

Some o' them pesky Texans is gettin' a mite testy. (I better say no more.)

As a yoot I was fortunate enough to see some 241P's hammering up and down the Rhone Valley. Very impressive they were too. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics. I was in a car at the time and my Agfa Box camera and my photographic skills were not equal to the task.

She seemed to be hoping I was ready for a new roof. Perhaps in a dozen years or so. Meanwhile the local public television station has switched back to their pre-pandemic programming - cooking and travel shows at lunchtime, and kiddies' shows in the mid-afternoon. This might be a good thing. Perhaps I will use the time for something worthwhile. Daytime television on the corporate networks is unwatchable. There are of course many alternatives, but I've avoided the deliberate focused watching of shows during what are notionally 'working hours' as a monumental time-sink. I have this notion that I will use the time to do job-hunting or some other useful activity that won't happen if I start consciously watching anything. It's about time for a constitutional.

Tonight we have another Ivatt 4, bringing the 1245 from Yarmouth to its destination, some four hours ten minutes after it started. H A Ivatt is running through at the head of the West Riding.