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Not had a Fairburn (Noo Year challenge) update for a while. Quietly plugging away in the background ... Tank top details. Lifting lugs and inspection covers waiting to be fitted. The tank straps are quite distinctive. As the boiler and tank units separate, needs to be a close interface. With the two assembled together in the frames, straps are soldered to boiler, to align with fixing points pre-soldered to tank tops. Filler caps. None of the right size in stock so simply fashioned them by lopping the tops off these long term residents of the 'spares' box. No idea what loco type they were originally intended for? Moving on to the front of the loco, here's the all important 'face' coming together. No LMS style smokebox doors to hand (WHAT?!), so I took a similar size one and turned it back to plain so I could ... ... add the detail. Not too shabby? Tried in position. Front footplates now need detailing Adding steam pipes, lubricators and front sand box fillers. Are we - perhaps, just maybe - starting to look like we're on the home straight? Hopefully!

Well are all those panniers and Prairies here are some wagons....... Say tar!!!

Foam used in such tasks isn't permeable, it's closed cell foam. Wax rings in the UK are very rare, I've never come across them, though it seems they are available. Most UK systems use some sort of rubber seal. Mooring Awl, About 5 hours sleep, not enough, just can't get back to sleep. The forecast for the weekend has improved, looks to be dry for Saturday's boat show. MRC this morning.. fitting a sink for dirty brushes etc... Suns up Ben's snoring, so should I.

We had the plumber in today. On the weekend SWMBO noticed water liquid seeping out from under the toilet. I called Monday morning and Bob said that he was just back from holidays, but I got an appointment for today afternoon. When he lifted the fixture off its mounts, there was a break in one of them and the washer thing (about 6" circle) was life-expired. New mounts and a new washer of wax instead of foam. Shims under the base -- looks like the floor has a slight hump. I've now seen it done; I think I'll use a professional next time as well.

All this talk of wax got me wondering if it was a Brazilian toilet. Good moaning from the Charente. Still cool enough that we have keep the fire lit. The nurse is due this morning to change dressings. I will be on coffee making duty. Then a fish pie take for consumption tonight. Jamie

Newcastle, Benton and Benton Quarry junction for this morning. Newcastle right Class 101 to coast left Class 101 from South Shields May 74 J3714 Benton Class 101 Morpeth to Newcastle 10th Aug 85 C7112 Benton HST 43073 up10th Aug 85 C7113 Benton 47188 up ammonia tanks Grangemouth to Haverton Hill 10th Aug 85 C7115 Benton Quarry Junction Class 254 down May 83 C6053 The line to the left went to Gosforth and eventually reached Ponteland at one time. At this time I think there were still trains to Rowntrees at Fawdon as well as making a connection to the Tyne and Wear Metro. Now the line is gone. David

Seagull is now off on the way to Grantham. For some reason I did another very similar shot, and didn't fancy doing all the shopping again, so I cropped it and changed it to black and white. A very large black cloud must have obscured the sun just as the photographer took this.

Ey up! Busy, busy, busy.. Getting picked up at 10 ish. Then off to the club to load van. Then trundle down to Bristol. Hopefully we will have a good weekend.. Misty this morning ( the sun didn't burn through it until lunch timeish yesterday.) Time to get up and eat.. I may be gone gor a few days so.. behave.... the awl flinger will be watching Baz

There’s a story (possibly apocryphal) of a similar incident in a Canadian town on the Prairies. A man noticed activity in his garage at the far end of his yard. Suspecting a burglary in progress, he phoned the local RCMP detachment to be told that they currently had no officers available to respond. He hung up, waited a couple of minutes and phoned back to say that the RCMP did not need to respond, as he had taken his shotgun and sorted things out himself. Cue the arrival of several cruisers at high speed with full lights and sirens, in time to apprehend the very alive burglars. After things had been sorted out, the officer in charge said to the householder “We thought you said you had shot them?” To which the reply was “I thought you said you had no officers spare to respond?”

I find the antics of some of the so-called influencers quite repellent. There is a restaurant chain of four establishments in our area that are clean, well appointed, staffed by friendly and efficient people and serve excellent food - not all the same but with varying decor and menus. I know the head waiter in one of them and he told me that one of these influencers contacted the owners saying that if she recommended the restaurants to her followers she would expect free meals for her and a companion. The owners told her to Foxtrot Oscar and that since she was known locally they would monitor if and when she ate at any of their restaurants so that if she made any false detrimental claims they would sue her. Apparently she hasn’t been seen or heard of since. Dave

My old layout 'Appledore' will be there with some of our usual crew but not me this time.

Yesterday I took the winter tires off the car and replaced them with the all-season tires it runs with for the warmer months. Today, I drove the car some distance with the all-seasons. I had forgotten how much quieter the car is with those tires on, compared with the winters.

Good evening everyone The weather finally what it wanted to do, so I had a great day in the garden, the sun shone and it was pleasantly very warm. We did get a bit of rain around 4:30 this afternoon, it was quite heavy, but didn’t last long. But I get another 2 sets of seeds planted, I also administered the nematodes to the garden in an attempt to stop slugs. I even managed an hour in the workshop after dinner. But I packed up early so that I could get my ears lowered. My left hip has been bothering me for a day or so, so, after I’d had my hair cut, I too a brace of paracetamol, which do seem to have helped. So tomorrow I’m going to take it easy and do a bit of building construction.

Shh...

Good morning all, Dull start here and apparently it was very damp with thunder and lightning in the night which I didn't hear. I did hear the torrential rain and hailstones which woke me at 04.50 but I managed to doze off again for another hour. 5-6 hours sleep is the norm for me. I do sometimes doze off for about an hour after lunch if I stay in the armchair. A cloudy day is forecast with more heavy showers and the chance of thunder. 12°C rising to 18°C. Bin lorries have already started their parade but no Ocado delivery this week. We're using up part of the various supplies that were possibly bought for some sort of siege and will pop out for any fresh stuff required. Still no Sim card.....it's in the post!!! I did ask Nicki's fiance Darren where it was (He's a postie) but for some strange reason he seemed unable to tell me. 🤪 Abbie and James are on holiday in Malta visiting his grandparents. Their Instagram photos start early each morning with a shot of a gym and both of them in there. This is followed by photos of sunshine, lots of drink and huge meals....that may be why the gym is being visited. 😁 Jealous? Moi? The gym not so much although there was a time way back in the dim and distant recesses of my forgettery © ChrisF that I would have enjoyed such a thing. Window cleaners have just arrived. They were due over a week ago but sadly the old boss and dad of the current boss died a few weeks ago so unsurprisingly they had more important things to deal with. They've been doing our windows for about 20 years and changed from ladders to long poles and hoses just before the pandemic, the main reason given being the insurance costs. Must admit I was sceptical to start with but they are good lads who do a great job and it saves me having to do it. Better go and open the back gate for them. Have a good one, Bob.

I don’t know the detailed recipe for the pastel de nata from our local deli but they appear to be made in batches of about 30 or so, are scrumptious and cost £1.50 each. Dave

Good morning everyone A bit of an overcast start to the day so far, it the sun looks like it’s trying to breakthrough the clouds. My first task will be to drop Sheila off at the church hall for her Zumba class, after which I’ll return home to try and tackle setting up our new digibox recorder thingy, this should be fun! Once that's (hopefully) done, I’ll carry on with the micro layout buildings which I’ve made a start building. This will get packed up just before dinner, as Charlie is due round this afternoon. Back later. Brian

Don’t be afraid of doing it yourself. I’ve repaired one toilet, then replaced that one several years later, plus replaced two others. The most difficult bit is being able to lift the bowl high enough to clear the wax ring and not deform it. You can get wax rings of different thicknesses, or actually stack wax rings to take account of some unevenness in the floor. (And I’ve never heard of foam gaskets before!)

I honestly wish the problem at the MoD was incompetent civil servants, as in that case the problems might be addressed by a campaign of firing and hiring new people. I used to do a lot of work for the MoD and spent a lot of time in Bristol, and contrary to what is often portrayed I found the people I dealt with highly competent and committed to doing a good job. They were good people in a dysfunctional system. Where I did see ineptitude was at higher levels in Whitehall. Even there it was in many cases less incompetence than arrogance. I had the same argument repeatedly on certain issues such as special engines for warships, they genuinely seemed to believe commercially available engines were junk and that there was an industry anxiously awaiting the opportunity to design and build a super duper diesel engine for 8 frigates. They couldn't get the fact that even if they had the money to pay for such an engine none of the engine builders would be interested because engineering resource needed to develop and build an engine which would struggle to get into double figures wouldn't be working on designs that would sell 100's or 1000's. I explained multiple times that Wartsila, MAN et al really couldn't care less about the MoD, customers like Maersk, Evergreen, COSCO buy more engines in a year than the MoD will buy from them over several decades, followed by huge orders for spares and support, it's their standard engine or go somewhere else. That always went down like a lead balloon. Even the USN, which orders a lot more ships than the RN, struggles to find interest in the big equipment suppliers to deviate from standard designs as it's not worth the effort. The other issue is when they sign contracts with a commercial customer they have a delivery date, it's sent to a yard, goes through an acceptance test and job done. I know companies who actively avoid warship work as they can't face years of endless meetings, interference and efforts to change orders midway through delivery etc. If the MoD was building 100's of ships the gain would be worth the pain but the orders are trivial. I used to get orders of magnitude more booked hours for MoD work than I needed for much more complicated approvals work for merchant vessels, however in my case my employer saw political value in the military work despite being able to make a lot more doing a lot less commercially. The department I do find properly incompetent is DfT, but that's another story.

It’s to add to the collection….

Drat. I had thought What Tiler? was a monthly mag for decorators.

Morning, from a dry rock at 12c with more promised, indeed almost a given. Wonders. Breezy to windy though. We're off on a little bike ride this morning, as Mrs NHN wants one (!) of her other bikes out of winter storage and another to be put away for a few months. So the white bike needs a good run to charge the battery before laying it up. The blue one will emerge from a chrysalis like a flutterby, it hasn't been ridden for a couple of years.

You’ve highlighted a considerable problem facing many democratic Western countries: a total disconnect between the decision makers and (to use a modern term) “influencers” (media pundits, the “mediarati” etc) and the general populace. This disconnect extends far beyond the serious matters of state - it’s everywhere, even in something as lightweight as entertainment. This is exemplified on Rotten Tomatoes, where films - praised to high heaven by the critics - absolutely tank in the court of public opinion. And to add insult to injury (so to speak) the critics (and others) then refuse to even contemplate that they may have made a misjudgment but instead blame the public for being……. well, whatever. A good example of this was the reaction of critics and the filmmakers to the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters absolutely tanking at the box office and in viewer reviews. They claim that the reboot tanked not because it was badly written, badly acted and badly directed (which it was), but because of the bigotry and misogyny of the cinema-going public. I would go as far as to claim that one of the biggest problems facing most Western democracies is the shirking of personal responsibility. It is never “my fault”, it’s always “someone else’s fault”. And even when someone is caught “bang to rights” (or holding a smoking gun - choose your metaphor), then they have the get-out-of-jail-free-card of being afflicted by a “condition” or a “syndrome”. One day, something will snap and the politicos better hope that it isn’t the beleaguered middle class. My father, a keen student of history, observed that it was when the middle classes got intolerably squeezed (politically, economically, socially, financially) that you had successful revolutions: the Robespierres, the Lenins, the Mao Zedongs all coming from an equivalent of the middle class. I wonder if this is an observation that the Lords This or Sirs That of the UK’s political class have made.

Not that I'm all that fussy, but... ...just in case anyone wondered :) I do, but with no real intent. The recently announced 517 has got me back to thinking of a 4mm BLT, but that would still be tabletop*. I just like the idea of a few of my little layouts linked around one system. I tend towards c. 6' scenes (a natural 120 degree viewing angle from a comfy central seated operating position) anyway, regardless of how big a layout may be overall, so all that changes is convenience/coherence of 'offscene' moves! Thank ewe. You make a very valid point, but I don't think I can afford to loose that space - visually as much as in terms of siding capacity, so whilst I shan't be doing exactly this in 7mm - it was plenty tricky to do on Code 75 - I think it shows where I stand on subject proper rail-built bufferstops. And wot she sed. Agreed! See @JimC's typically informative write-up and some useful pics here. From which a great demo of why I keep banging on about the importance of setting for small layouts. It doesn't matter how clever your trackwork is if the stock swamps it - you get so much more out of a space by going small (and so, often, going early!), I wish more was made of it as a layout design factor. This is now a thing, and shall be played. Rules to be codified here in the near future! Right, where're we to...ah, yes, today: I fear I misunderstood the position, purpose and...well...size of East Budleigh's goods shed. Pics and plans here http://disused-stations.org.uk/e/east_budleigh/ However, something in that orientation may work rather well. The current plan is for there to be a warehouse/transit shed to hide the edge of the board, aligned with the tracks, with a lean-to style loading bay extension, thus: bolted to the side. The inspiration comes from Bideford, Fremington having nothing suitable: with the lean-to taking the place of the canopy at the far end. Speaking of ends, other one looks like this: Which is rather fine. Or was, as it's all be knocked down for flats now. Clearances are tight on the LSWR van...but an inch is as good as a mile sometimes. Sadly the van took an absolute clattering in the course of being delivered, one end of the box being totally crushed. The vehicle escaped remarkably lightly, with only one buffer ripped out (replaced, visuals are fine) and this damage to the roof: I suspect I'll just glue it, but had be toying with the idea of covering the roof with tissue soaked in dilute PVA to add a little texture and better represent canvas. Happily, I've utterly destroyed the Siphon roof Which has snapped and been 'fixed' (YMMV) upwards of ten times. It needs all the help it can get, and so I was in the fortunate position of having a test subject to hand. Mid process... ...and end process not shown cos I didn't get a pic, but in general I think it's a success. Certainly doesn't look any worse! I'll probably still end up making a new roof for the Siphon, but that's future-me's problem :) Thanks for popping by! *With nobs on. Still very rough, and feedback would be most welcome, but it currently looks like that. Removeable cassette connection lower left, as per, RHS masked to the operator somehow but open for views through/between the sheds. Pretty gentle turnout geometry, loop curve between settrack R3 and R4. 1900s GWR BLT - 4 wheel coaches, 3 plank wagons - with nominal arrival and departure platforms. Suspect in 'reality' it'd be one platform only (upper) in regular use, the other being used for parcels, coaching storage etc most of the day/year. Anyhoo...!

SO ... We're on our way to Brissle. Long way back home if I've forgotten anything! 6 day adventure this one, in total. Today: 4pm pick van up, load up and get some miles under the belt Tomorrow: to show venue and commence set up. Friday: complete set up and be ready for the adoring public from 1230 Saturday: full show day Sunday: last show day, pack up and get some miles under the belt Monday: complete journey home and unload Tuesday: take van back at 8am There must be easier ways of making a living 🤔

As the sun shone and the rain hid, we had a ride on something running on steel three feet apart, then another three foot six apart and very steep. It was still sunny! Only went half way as there is a very good cafe (used to be a kind of place Q worked in) that does superb home made pies there - the one at the summit is rather poor fair.

Hi folks, Jus some more cab sneak peeks! More soon! Cheers! Fran

I don’t mind at all but for a difference of 75p for a once a week treat my personal choice is the pasta del nata. Each to his own; an ‘influencer’ I am not. Dave

Although the layout is a work in progress, this hedge is greening up nicely.

Regardless of the incident that followed, the fact that Tony Martin was easily able to get hold of another shotgun, does show how useless the firearms certification and shotgun licencing really is. Honest citizens who are denied these for any number of reasons, go away and grump but that is as far as it gets. But someone with mental health problems, or who want a firearm for criminal activities, will get hold of pistols and shotguns with relative ease. There are also the likes of Dale Cregan, who made a false 999 call and lured two unarmed female police officers into a grenade and gun ambush as they were investigating an alleged burglary. That was back in 2012. He had about 10 guns, including automatic weapons. None of which were legally held. Although I admire Brian's stance regarding the British Police being largely unarmed, there seems to be a growing number of incidents where officers are injured or even killed, by criminals who are armed*, and totally at ease with hacking or shooting their way out of trouble which might force a rethink in the future. I include the use of a vehicle where one is deliberately used as a weapon to: Run over (PC Alison Armitage), Ram into (PC Raja Bashrat Ahmed) Drag along the road (PC Andrew Harper)

Bin day today, we are given lockable containers by the council for food waste. This morning it was not in the place I had left it and when I checked the foxes had got in to it but just scattered a few bits around. Oddly I had put the handle in the upright position to lock the bin and it was still locked. It's known for the cleverer foxes to unlock the bins but they don't usually lock them again afterwards.

Wish we could have muggy, we were down to near freezing at dawn and it was chucking it down as well. No thunder though, the Dartmoor land mass to the north west of us greatly affects our weather.

Actually warm and sunny with a light breeze today, temp due to rise to 20deg by this afternoon! S'pose I ought to grub some more weeds out before they rocket up...

Portuguese Custard Tarts (or more properly Pastel de Nata). Although the original (and some say only true) recipe is a closely guarded secret (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata), all recipes I’ve seen call for flour, butter, egg yolks, cinnamon, vanilla extract, cornflour, lemon zest and water. The highlighted ingredients tend be avoided by commercial manufacturers due to reasons of cost (butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract) or shelf life (butter) or ease of preparation (lemon zest). Butter, especially, is frequently replaced by margarine (or a pseudo-butter) as items made with butter can quickly go rancid. For a home baker, the cost difference between using real ingredients as opposed to synthetics is marginal, but for a company mass producing thousands of Pastel de Nata each day a one or two pence difference (or more) between real and synthetic ingredients soon mounts up to a big wodge of cash*. Furthermore, even with the financial advantages of bulk purchasing and mass production, using “real” ingredients could well increase the price per unit to a point where those who care more about price than quality will no longer buy your product. Let’s be honest here: how many on ER would spend £5 for a hand made, all natural ingredient Pastel de Nata from a small baker? * one US site quotes $6.19 an ounce (about 30mL or 6 tsp) for a pure vanilla extract and $0.12 an ounce for synthetic vanilla. So if a batch of tarts (12) requires 1 tsp of vanilla, then a mass production of 12000 tarts would require about 2000 fl oz of vanilla for a total of about $12000 for the real stuff or $240 for the synthetic version.

Good morning John, 'Trigger warning' acknowledged. A fine RTR model 'inferior' to a scratch- or kit-built one? Only in terms of haulage? I took this Hornby RTR A3, changed its identity, replaced the bogie wheels and weathered it; then sold it. Why? Because it just couldn't haul trains like these, here pulled by my South Eastern Finecast ENTERPRISE (painted by Geoff Haynes). The train in the first shot is 14-cars long. Seen here in its entirety............... All built from metal kits! Here, it's hauled by a DJH A1 - no Bachmann RTR A1 will look at this. Granted, not all layout owners/builders are 'loonies' like me, but, for my needs, it has to be kit-built locos. Garsdale Road? The most-exciting thing David Jenkinson ever created. Though my memory crumbles, I saw it (I think) at Central Hall, and never looked at anything else. Nick Campling was helping him operate it. Regards, Tony.

No. To the best of my knowledge, you can't eat a pannier.

I'm possibly descended from a pirate as well. Unfortunately a lot of the relevant records were lost in the fire of London in 1666. My fathers side of the family were watermen going back several generations based at Gravesend and were almost certainly involved in smuggling.

Good evening Brian, The Olney Club members are very friendly, too - certainly by today's evidence, where five visited and we all had a most-enjoyable time (though apologies to Malcom for our crumbling - soon to be replaced - decking!). Great fun was had running the railway, though there were a couple of MR/M&GNR derailments caused by a rogue coupling - now fixed. In fact, the most-popular loco on the day ran on the 'little bit'.............. My McGowan D9 (painted by Geoff Haynes). Only one 'visiting' loco was brought (though more will be brought on the next visit)................... This J50. I recognised it instantly, since it's a lot of my work. It originally came from the estate of the late Gordon Stolliday. Now, if memory serves, Gordon had started it (its origins unknown). To reach this stage. I took it further. To completion. Then painted it. It was then weathered by Geoff Haynes, Geoff West or Tom Foster (I can't remember which). To produce................. The rather attractive loco seen above (I've added the crew and lamps today). I sold it originally to one of the Olney Club members, but he has no further use for it, so, via some 'wheeler-dealings' it's back with me. Chances are I'll keep it! Thank you gentlemen for your most-entertaining company and conversation, and your most-generous contributions to CRUK. Particular thank to............. Barrie Trinder, who gave me this fascinating (and recommended) book he's written. Gentlemen, here's to the next time.....................

Jill was supposed to be meeting up with some ex-nursing colleagues for lunch today, which would have left me free to spend the day in the shed, but it was cancelled this morning as some can't make it due to illness. Ah, well, this morning has been otherwise spoken for but after my daily walk in a few minutes' time and a spot of lunch I may still negotiate some modelling time. Dave

I can't think of any revolution that didn't start from the middle or even upper classes. Even the Peasants Revolt leaders, Wat Tyler and John Ball came from an emerging middle class. John Ball was literate at a time when even many of the aristocracy were not and Wat Tyler was a self employed businessman. Some of those who followed them were themselves minor aristocracy. However in the aftermath the minor aristocrats got the equivalent of a slap on the wrist whereas those peasants who had merely stood on the sidelines shouting found themselves hanging from a rope. Wat Tyler is seen as a working class hero, so much so that there is a country park named after him in Pitsea, the tories when they were in power on the local council tried to rename the park but that was not successful because people still used the original name. Ironically Wat Tyler if he was alive today would probably be a self employed builder with a copy of the SUN on the dashboard of his Transit van and voting tory.

They look delicious but think of the calories.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Five solid hours sleep last night then I woke up to the rain and hail hitting the window. However I went back to sleep for another couple of hours without disturbing bladder control. Even Arthur Itis was behaving himself. Not sure what to do today, I've already voted by post so there's no reason to go out.

The only trouble is, as our learned doctor has already stated, that by the time 'big business' has finished with it it'll have half the number of ingredients and won't taste anywhere near as good as the one you remembered.

Think I'll stick to my custard slice if you don't mind. Two for £1.50. It's my Friday afternoon treat.

Surprising that Bachmann appear to have no new blue and grey coaching stock on the immediate horizon. Mind you with an rrp of nearly £70 that is perhaps a blessing in disguise. 37022 approaches Garelochead as it heads for Oban with 1B11, 12.54 ex Glasgow.

If it's Trial by Jury then there's a fair chance they'll walk. The bit that amazes me is IIRC the two scrotes were of the metal fairy persuasion; Tony Martin went back to the same Farm House after release and I was really expecting him to receive a visit one dark night. The scrote that was wounded continued to be a scrote even afterwards, so obviously didn't learn his lesson; a real shame he survived in my book.

Something that permeable doesn't feel like it would function properly. Wax is the standard. A quick search came up with this which compares wax and wax-free options.

Dear All, A few photos of the Chester yard development. It is quite a slow process laying such a large yard. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get to this stage. Thankfully the picture quality has improved. Will continue the process to complete the 24 track yard. Regards, Anthony ashley

I did want Donuts - but at 0710 the shelves were bare, as always 😢. On previous visits I've found someone in the Bakery Dept. to be very helpful, who's been happy to squirt the Jam (Strawberry, naturally) into a couple of packs (=10)** of still warm Donuts for Bear to take away; sadly on this occasion came those dreaded words "The Donut machine's not working....." 😭 As to whether that was "I can't be ar5ed, matey", or code for "It's not working yet cos' it's still the middle of the night" or maybe the dreaded "It's totally bvggered" I've got no idea. (**89p/pack).

805 to Holyhead today repositioned preserved semaphore in oxley started in oxley with a pair of them which I worked to crewe, we left Stafford at the same time as a Pendolino so have a bit of a race upto 100mph as that’s my linespeed, the 805 pulled away at a fair old lick to line speed the. The pendo obviously pulled away, was very impressed with it! crewe Chester after splitting rhyl Conwy tubular bridge Another one for the Conwy collection, got similar pics of a class 56, 70 and NMT stood here Holyhead couple of jets flying over, the first time they went over they were flying upside down! Llandudno Jn on the return we had over 2 hours in Chester so they dropped us onto the goods so we could get off for a coffee and leg stretch We then shunted back out into north gate tunnel to wait for the other unit to arrive in from Euston where we then coupled back up And off it went back to oxley with the ex euston driver same job tomorrow