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A country scene for you but without the odour!

Second training day completed successfully......................... Another great day with John getting used to the new ways of working. It's quite noticeable how the superb control which DCC affords, together with the synchronised sound effects, encourages much better driving by the operators. There used to be a temptation to drive too quickly and rush through the operating sequence. This seems to be replaced by efforts to simulate prototypical practice, as best we can remember it! By lunch time I felt confident with the Station control panel, so I moved to the Sector Plate controls for the afternoon. With only one operator on the Station panel this gives the Sector Plate operator an opportunity for a stroll around the whole layout. I took advantage of these little breaks in activity to capture a few shots on my phone: John, busy on the Station control panel, with my empty chair beyond! A view over the station roof looking towards the hotel. Lime Street and the Station Hotel. The old carriage drive entrance to the station with the main platforms beyond. Quite busy on Lime Street! Looking across the station throat to a London express waiting the "Right Away". Locos waiting their next turn of duty. 2024-04-22 15.56.16.mp4 A little video clip as the station pilot takes the mail train up the shunting neck. This is the sector plate and fiddle yard, which I am supposed to be operating! More when we can.......... Steve

We are regaining confidence. It grows every week. An unscheduled visit from the Sales Director who spent a considerable amount of time listening to the difficulties we had to try and deal with. Straight talking as opposed to the masquerade we had been subjected to. The abolition of the Tier System, how ridiculous was that? We wanted to spend and weren’t allowed to. Sadly this came too late for one particular retailer. Hornby had rebuilt bridges and had made a confidence building approach. This is very much appreciated and hopefully will continue. TT120 rolled out to any retailers who wanted to stock the product. Our Airfix orders and preorders are the highest they have been for many, many years. On a personal note, the Sales Staff, Accounts, etc, all seem happier, that’s got to be good. One thing hasn’t changed, their After Sales Service. It’s way, way above any other suppliers. Problem? Resolved with the minimum of contact. As a small retailer that’s always a big confidence booster.

Preparation for Bristol continues: another loco testing session at the weekend on part of the layout which was up for electrical maintenance. I had to take a couple of pictures of this on the layout while i was there: those who read Sir's thread may have already seen it. Expect to see more at the show. Not so hot on dead frog points (only picking up off the driving wheels) but fine tearing down the main line. Just as a C1 should be used.

Had it for forty years and Kathy has had it since she was eleven and she is seventy one in July. Seems more noticeable on a quiet day and with or without hearing aids.

Good moaning from a sunny but cold Charente. More visitors arriving this morning but just for the day then a meal at a friend's this evening. Beth has actually admitted that she is worried about going into hospital tomorrow. This has been apparent to those around her for some time. It's mainly the language problem. However after how well she did over the weekend I think that she will be fine. Things to do so must get on. Ttfn. Jamie

Roy Cross, whose incredible artwork adorned the lids of many, many Airfix model kits, celebrates his 100th birthday today, the 23rd of April. A man whose art was responsible for so many of us parting with our hard earned pocket money as we scoured the model shop for a kit that took our fancy! Happy 100th birthday, and thanks for the brilliant childhood memories Mr. Cross!

In my case the loss of high - but oddly not the highest frequencies - was indeed due to something very loud indeed. Engines this big are Very. Noisy. Indeed. Especially those turbochargers, hence whistly-hissy tinnitus. Pah.

Another batch from Switzerland, this time taken at Rapperswil where the line from Zürich crosses the Südostbahn line from Arth Goldau to the north east of the country. Rapperswil Südostbahn ABe4/4 14 Pfaffikon to Rapperswil 31st July 88 C9812 Rapperswil RABDe12/12 1118 31st July 88 C9816 Rapperswil Südostbahn Re4/4iii 42 Konstanz Rigi Express 31st July 88 C9824 Rapperswil RABDe8/16 Zurich to Rapperswil 31st July 88 C9826 Rapperswil Südostbahn BDe4/4 85 Rapperswil to Einsiedeln 1st Aug 88 C09965 David

Thanks Jonathan for the updates Yes, it has been possible to put up bits of the layout in turn, to attend to a few ailments. Here's the north end, surrounded by the general chaos in the chapel with TWO large exhibition layouts effectively being stored in here between shows. Once Bristol has been and gone, it'll return to some semblance of normality. Here's an example. One or two of the boards have developed 'ski jump' ends, which have periodically been attended to. This piece of track was noted as being particularly bad at York so up it comes for due attention. Above it is the errant Signal 20. Most folks might not have even noticed but we've had multiple signal motor failures which spoils the authenticity of the operation. So ... Now you see 'em ... ... now you don't! Is this a light on the road to Damascus moment? Well, initially not as me and Andrew between us manage to upset 3 out of the 4 replacement servos. However, they eventually settled down and Signal 20 has been signed off as working satisfactorily. With the useful byproduct that the one good recovered Veissmann motor has been used to replace a further 'dud' on South box Signal 3. It now has to pass the 'does not twitch' test when locos of all makes and origins pass by it. And very much a test bed for future projects rather than the start of a campaign change out on Grantham per se. We'll see ...

Ey up! Heavy rain in Driffield means my umpiring today has been cancelled.. pah! The Over 60s are a nice bunch .. I know a lot of them as well so missing out on a catch up and a cricket tea.... PAH! I fear that I will have to get a hearing test. I too had measles but years working in Engineering hasn't helped. One fitter at Leeds used to stamp numbers into the ends of a particular item.. using a large metal stamp and a very large mell hammer.. hevhad ear protectors on.. we didn't always have them.. standing close to guns even with protectors on wasn't good for the ears either. Handy when umpiring though.. players assume you are deaf anyway. No cricket means I have a free day.. could involve muddling or gardening.. Enjoy your day! Baz now located in the mushroom shed..

Just getting ready to start my last week of timetable teaching. At least: The road out of town has reopened, having be shut for power line replacement fir a couple of weeks It's not raining It's not frosty But I'm sure that something will come along ...

Morning all. It is overcast here, not raining though. I have to present myself at 11am at a nearby pharmacy for my Spring Covid booster. As mine is health related I rather than age I have to take along proof that I qualify even after being invited to book an appointment by the NHS. After that I may spend some time in the garage. Tomorrow I will have to move some stuff about to give easy access to our solar power inverter and batteries. The company that installed it contacted us to carry out an annual check to make sure all is well and check any updates have been installed. This is a no charge after sales service. It wasn’t that long ago we had a new extra battery installed and everything seems fine but this checks everything. I will do the tidying tomorrow as the technician is coming on Thursday. Not sure what time yet. Tony

The Met Office says it will be dry so it is raining - hopefully only a shower coming in on the cold NNE wind from the North Sea. I am tempted to stay indoors today. The groceries have come, and a batch of e mails deleted, some actually got read. Next job is to scan some more of the family photos - it looks like the next batch are the weddings of an Uncle and an Aunt. David

Now the Down expresses start to appear much more frequently. Copley Hill A1 Aboyeur has the 8.00 Leeds. The J6 is now out of the way while parcels transfers take place, while Aboyeur negotiates the dogs leg curve.

Night one of avanti testing, turns out it was an 807 not 805 331 in crewe my unit to Stafford changing ends North end another 805 came in on another platform Varamis parcel train heading south A brief stop in crewe where another 805 turned up, a different one to the unit seen in Stafford! Awful colour to get a pic of at night! Then it was away to oxenholme ready to do a timed run to carlisle And into Carlisle, made it in time, 4 seconds under the required time Ready to head back to oxenholme for run 2 had us away early back north to Carlisle, different platform this time but amazingly exactly the same time, 4 seconds under! DRS 57 156 Once that was done it was a bit of a break and a sleep before heading back to oxley Changing ends in Wolverhampton and done same again tonight

Morning all from Estuary-Land. My hearing is pretty good though it has deteriorated over the years with the loss of high pitched sounds but at nearly 76 years old that is to be expected. Twenty five + years ago I started to go deaf in my left ear, but an examination found it was blocked by wax. So it was a case of ear drops followed by a syringe. When it came to the syringe out the practice nurse said that it appeared that I hadn't used the ear drops enough but she went ahead with the syringing. It was then that she found out that the problem was that I had a malformed ear canal. Instead of being straight it was coiled like a pig's tail. That was the only time that I have ever needed something done with my ears. I put that down to my infants school teacher who told us that we should never put soap in our ears, just use hot water to clean them out. I have never used soap to clean my ears for seventy years now.

Good morning everyone I’m another one who has had measles and worked in a noisy environment, I also have tinnitus, a high pitch whining in my ears, you just get used to it. It’s looking a little overcast with the odd bit of sunshine today, so we’re going to chance having a walk in the grounds of Dunham Massey, with the possibility of a drink and a slice whilst there. This afternoon Charlie is calling round, as he can’t come on Thursday, so I’ve an afternoon in the workshop to look forward too as well. Back later. Brian

Morning! Damp and wet out there so a bit of mo'sickle fettling in the garage I fancy this morning 😀 Back later! TTFN

Bear here..... Up at disgracefullylateo'clock (0720) today; it could've been 04-something but I fought my way kickin' & screaming back to snoozybearland again. The weather isn't great over Bear Towers, so further work on Harry isn't looking promising (some of us don't have a comfy Garage to work in - unlike others I could mention whilst fettlin' with their mo'sickles.....have I mentioned that?). It seems DPD are promising to bring Bear his 4L of Oil at midday, so that'll be a Tick. I sent a message to the accommodation I've booked in Lisbon a few days ago (last Friday) regarding options for luggage storage and still haven't had a response - notta good sign; it's a place rated with a 9/10 review score (from 190 reviews) - but all from external travel sites rather than Booking.com (presumably they are new to the site). Cautious Bear will give them until the end of the day and if still no response I may well bin 'em as I can cancel without loss - fortunately I haven't booked flights yet. Right, today I think I'll finally attempt to finish off the notes that'll accompany a (certified) copy of my Beary Will before handing over a pack to my Buddy over the road (he's an Executor) as well as keeping another pack at Bear Towers; hopefully the notes will assist those who may need to be assisted when I snuff it. BG edit: Jeez, it's 0845 - Bear had swum a Km by this time yesterday and was back home.....and I'm not even dressed yet. Disgraceful.

Mooring Awl, 5 hours sleep, long awake, 1.5 hours sleep. Ben the early Collie ask for out an hour early, he got told so and went back to his pit.. we've now been out, he bounced around and enjoyed his wander. cold light south westerly at present, dull grey welkin. Forecast to become a strong northerly later. These repeated strong northerlies has raised the sea level in the southern north sea. Some areas of the broads are getting flooding.. Plans for today Not sure weather looks doubtful for lawnmower work. Time for breaky.

I have it too - but I'm not sure in my case it's related to electronics. My only long-term exposure was to the little fans in desktop and laptop computers - nothing 'loud'.

Now I know why I spent most of my working life in buildings and darkened rooms with no windows, still do on a Friday... I suspect I've lost some high frequency hearing, I've increasing tinnitus, it's a high frequency whine. That may well be to do with the high frequency whine a lot of electronic equipment had when I worked on in those darkened rooms . Interesting that article by the professor, where we live was considerably further inland a thousand years ago let alone 10,000 years.. The village to the East of here lost 90% of the land ( approx 1800 acres) between the Doomsday book and QE1. its lost more since.

That's it, go on......rub it in.......😒 Bear is more than happy to pay the going rate for properly skilled and experienced tradespersons; however when they're little more than cash-in-paw odd-jobbers who couldn't even spell College/Apprenticeship/Training etc. (let alone having received any) charging over the odds for basically straightforward tasks (many of which the householder can no longer do due to age and/or ill health) then I get the 'ump, especially when they do a mediocre job.

There is a scene in Oppenheimer where he describes to his potential mistress (then later wife) how we are all made from atoms and it is only how attracted these atoms are to one another that creates the falsehood we are solid and don't simply pass through everybody and everything we meet because they too are atoms creating a false solidness through attraction. I've had a low level tinnitus in my right ear for years, quite tuned out from it now so it generally doesn't bother although sometimes it can escalate. But since early this year a new louder one has started in my left ear and when I am in bed it does impact what I can hear. It could be the headphones I wear to listen to music, but it doesn't tend to so high it would have done this damage, or it could be related to pressure within my cranium I guess as I've been having other symptoms such as a pain in the neck which characterises my lifelong condition. Whichever it is, I think the tinnitus might be here for good as it's not noticeably subsided.

That's interesting. No mention of that that I have seen. I didn't even have to go through a "prove you need one" on the website when I booked it, I entered my NHS number & DoB and it took me straight to the appointments. Perhaps I'd better take my medication with me just in case? 🤔

I have always been a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed a load of bullsh1t...

I had measles as a kid (I think) and do not (yet) have any significant high-freq hearing loss.

The audiologist today asked if I had worked in a very noisy industry,as my hearing response looked as if I had. I said I hadn’t so just bad luck then. I had been unwell with measles when I was at junior school but the hearing loss was only apparent later in life, I had no upper frequency loss until I was about 60.

Bin drizzling all mooring, old decision not to work on the mower, instead been earning brownie points making new bits for the electric spinny thingy. I'm being huffed at by an impatient teenager.. a certain 13 year old Border Collie.. Time for his long walk...

I think we are getting closer to needing to employ people to do things like decorating or at least bigger spaces like the lounge or hallway/stairs/landing. Just looking at the lounge dining room ceiling makes me contemplate employing a decorator. It doesn’t need doing at the moment but the thought of it is daunting. Fortunately our over the road neighbour would recommend someone, he only recommends people,he would have work in his house. As he is something of a perfectionist we are happy to follow his recommendations.

I have an apology to make. The accident rate I gave of every 20 minutes was for deer. Wild boar incidents occur every 2 minutes!

And in sunny Newton Abbot our nearest star is shining bright. Fluffy white clouds scattered over a mainly green and not so pleasant landscape. A bank of cumulonimbus though looking threatening on the horizon. Pleasantly warm in the sunshine, wind SSW light.

Dry and sunny here, though there is a bit of cloud about. Met office claims sunny with cloudy spells, temps just into double figures and less than 5% chance of precipitation...

Which is why properly qualified handwerker and craftsmen are thin on the ground in the UK. Brits tend to be very snobbish about skilled craftsmen and tradesmen and frequently don't want to pay them a fair fee for what they do. Being a neurosurgeon and being a qualified and certified electrician are different jobs - but both can have fatal outcomes if the responsible individual doesn't do his/her job properly. Both jobs require academic and practical credentials, not to mention lengthy training and lots of supervised work whilst in training. You wouldn't want to get a neurosurgeon "on the cheap", so why get an electrician or plumber "on the cheap"? Maybe it's an "it's an easy DIY job*" mentality or perhaps it was the skilled Eastern European workers being paid poorly by UK standards (but making a lot of money by their own - home - standards) that has lead to this "they have to be cheap" mentality. I would argue that it's this refusal in the UK - pretty much across the board - to pay decent prices, salaries and fees** that has led to much of the UK's infrastructure (public and private) not being properly maintained. * I've read a book or two about neurosurgery and thus I'm supremely confident that I could do some DIY brain operations on friends if they wanted to save some money. ** as mentioned before, the UK is a low wage/high tax economy

"Hello, is that the cricket club?" "Yes." "Could I speak to Mike please?" "I'm afraid he's in at the moment. I'll get him to call you back when he's out."

Sadly those LMWDIFY often seem to think they're more highly qualified than a Brain Surgeon and want paying accordingly. That'll explain why, whilst Bear was at The Great Empire for 39 years I was fed on a constant diet of nothing but Bullsh1t from the grown-ups. The info came from the BBC - maybe the two things happened together? Perhaps they would've moved onto the second witness had the Juror not got a note from his mum?

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The only problem with 'society as a whole' is that almost invariably society as a whole is not sufficiently informed about all the relevant facts and how they inter-relate to be able to reach a properly informed and reasoned decision. Such decisions often just go with either gut reaction or some variant of pre-formed prejudice with only a small part of the whole actually bothering to look into the facts and the various conflicting points. CDL is a good example of this. Firstly we should ask just how many members of 'society as a whole;' have even travelled on a train in, say, the past 10 years? We could then take that down to more detailed levels such as how many of those have travelled in a Mk1 coach on either a preserved railway or some sort of mainline excursion and then how many have done both of those things and are therefore able to make some sort of comparisons between them. We are immediately coming down to some very small numbers compared with 'society as a whole' and I suspect that it is more than likely that far more. will have travelled in a Mk 1, or even older, coach on a preserved railway/preservation site than have travelled in one on a mainline excursion. Thus only a relatively small number of people can come to some sort of qualitative assessment drawing on their own experience. But even that group will not necessarily have the necessary quantitative data to put into a proper assessment comparing risks. So informed opinion. and objective professional inputs are needed in order to draw up Regulations etc and implement them. CDL was introduced for one very simple reason - it would remove an unregulated, irrational, decision process from the control of train doors, i.e. it would stop human beings doing something they shouldn't do and opening a door at the wrong time. In consequence it would reduce the number of deaths which occurred every year due to the lack of something to prevent human beings stupidly hurting or killing themselves and others. And somebody probably also put the usual method of costing such a step in improving safety against the cost of lives saved. I have picked up the personal possessions of someone who jumped off a loco travelling at less than 40 mph - his body had been removed before I got to site to do that but small parts of it remained. The 25mph decision speed for provision of CDL wasn't just conjured up by magic but has a lot of logic to it if you relate severity of consequences to speed. However some people have stepped out of a stationary train on the mainline and have either died or been killed as a result of doing so and CDL has helped reduce/eliminate that potential as well (it's far more likely on mainline railways). Looking at a recent photo in the Daily Telegraph of people leaning out of slam door droplights on a certain viaduct on the West Highland Extension reminded me of another good reason for CDL on The Jacobite. If a door happened to be only on the first catch leaning on it, especially with others crowding around to get a look as well, could result in the door coming open and somebody falling out. Falling out of a train is one thing, falling out when the train is on a viaduct 90 ft high is averry different thing. That too strikes me as a pretty good reason for having CDL on tourist trains using Mk1 coaches on the WHE.

Not quite correct - both prosecution and defence gave their opening statements and the first witness got 30 minutes of questioning by the prosecution prior to the adjournment at 12;30PM, which may be where the 30 minutes figure came from.

I always knew there was something magic about me.

The ‘tweaking of certain frequency bands’ in some modern hearing aids outperforms many top of the range graphic equalisers that cost and arm and a leg a few years ago. Apart from the overall amplification I notice a huge improvement un the clarity of what I hear. My (lack of) frequency response is a result of, and typical of, me having measles as a youngster.

That’s most reassuring given that we share about 50% of our DNA with a banana.

I do jobs involving reaching or stretching for things and really hurt the next day. I think next time I will do,some stretching warm up exercises first. I never do.

Many years ago my mother said her older brother would like me to some research on their ancestors. The surname wasn’t one of the more common ones so I hoped it wasn’t going to be too hard. Uncle was hoping I would be able to show the family origin wasn’t French as many people assumed (not sure why). I traced their paternal line back to someone who was a wheelwright in Weoley Castle but who appeared to be Welsh. I passed on this information and Mum said her brother wanted me to stop as he was no longer interested!

I used to work in a noisy environment until I told the children to use their indoor voices...

Link added. These settlements (depending on the accuracy of the dating methods) were not likely permanent - given the extent of glaciation and hostility of the climate at the time. As much as I like Wikipedia - it is more reliable than it's reputation, I found this from the British Museum (p4) which may offer some clarity: So John ( @Coombe Barton ) is accurate. And @Dave Hunt is accurate. Over this period the sea level went up and down and the "channel" was a bay, a "river" and had megafloods at different periods. The essential truth, is that the vast majority of the multiple and various waves of the peoples who ultimately permanently inhabited Britain did so in boats. Not unlike the peoples who inhabited the Americas. They most likely traveled in canoes (or equivalent) down the west coast of North America (to avoid all the glaciation). The peoples who first inhabited Australia may have crossed a land-bridge (or canoed across abbreviated open water) during a period of low sea-levels perhaps 70,000 years ago. Later inhabitants of Australia certainly arrived in boats and some still do - or at least they try to.

Tricky to know for sure. Modern humans were in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, but perhaps not much before that. They were present in Southern Europe perhaps 10,000 years before that. For La Manche, this is useful. The channel was not always a channel. There was a land bridge 600,000 years ago but what is now "England" was glaciated. At some point there was a series of megafloods that carved the chalk where the Pas De Calais is today. Sea levels rose and fell a lot. In a more meaningful period for human migration there was a 'river' where the channel is about 20 - 25,000 years ago. At that point Wales and the North of England were still glaciated, but a passage might have been possible.

Midland class M coming off shed crossing into the yard. This loco is over 60 years old. I scratch built it to show a work colleague that loco building was not particularly difficult. We built one each in tandem to EM gauge. mine was painted and lined by my friend Larry Goddard, his was still in its raw state when he died a few years ago Spot of shunting.