jamie92208

Good moaning from the Charente. Whose stolen the sun. I've had to skip a few pages as stuff got in the way. However I had a very good evening trainspotting on Tuesday. Yesterday was spent fitting steel replacement feet to the 6" square wooden supports for the verandah roof. Much rot was found but work is in progress. I even learned a new word. Pied de poteaux regulaible which means an adjustable pillar foot. Today is much cleaning day as we're are having friends to stay over the weekend. Regards to all. Jamie

Good moaning from the Grey and overcast Charente. I didn't get chance to visit yesterday so have skipped a page. However we had fun trying to fit new feet to the four big pieces of timber that support the verandah at the front. These are 6 to 7 inches square and were rotting at the base. The roof is an extension of the house roof and is heavy. Acrow props were used to prop each one up at a time. Then the base sawn off and a steel foot inserted. Sounds simple. First discovery, there was a steel spigot sticking up the centre of each so the cut off piece had to be chiseled apart then the spigot cutoff with a cutting disk. Problem 2 was that there was rot in three of them and in one this extends over 2 feet up. All good fun. 3 of the pied de poteaux regulaible, (adjustable pillar feet) are now in place and the fourth is sitting on a temporary pillar of breeze blocks and timber. I am going to have to source a suitable piece of timber to replace and splice in the lower metre of that one. Anyway after that Beth and I went out for a nice meal at some friends. Jamie

Wander g Northerner has posted another video progress on the two viaducts in the Wendover area. Wendover Dean and Small Dean. It's welshot but could do with a couple of subtitles when he jumps from one viaduct to the other. However it shows real progress. l Wendover Dean looks as if it is nearly ready for the next big push to launch over the next four piers. Albut the final abutment seem tbeonearly complete. Jamie

Page12951 is a repeat of 12950 Jamie

Ahbut have the scales fallen from your eyes yet. Jamie

Good moaning from the Charente, where the temperature dropped by ten degrees yesterday. However the weed patches got mowed. The French word for weeds is great, mauvais herbe, literally bad grass. Then in the evening we went to some friends for supper and ended up playing Uno Stacko, a cross between Uno and Jenga Great fun. Shopping this morning the after lunch I'm off for aafternoon/evening,trainspotting with Andy. A good day in prospect. Jamie

When the George Davis is Innocent crowd, from London, dug up the Headingley test wicket, they had to move the trial to Birkenhead to get an unbiased jury. Jamie

Beth would never ask me that question, she knows that the answer would be yes regardless of the time period specified. I usually have a wry smile to myself when people say they are 'off their food'. That's not something that I can identify with. Jamie

Pivkersgill Kaye in Leeds will supply all the locks you need with the the required railway certification, off the shelf. As I mentioned before, it was they who did some of the original research on doors that flew open. Jamie

It's one way of keeping death off the roads. Jamie

You must have kept fit doing that route with a long climb in each direction. In 82 I was pedalling a heavy pushrod round Drighlington Gildersome and into Morley each day as their caring community Constable. I could eat as much as I wanted and not put weight on as well as being able to sneak up on scrotes driving whilst disqualified in a certain estate. Happy days. As to cycle tracks there weren't many in the noughties. The longest was down Stanningley Road but that was too dangerous to use due to rubbish. I used to annoy taxi drivers who parked in the cycle zone at traffic lights by getting in front of them at about 60 degrees. Most other car drivers observed the signs. Jamie

Many years ago, a certain police lady who 'd worked with became one of the first West Yorkshire lady motorcyclists. One day she turned up at a major event in Roundhay Park and parked her bike at the end of a line of other bikes. Hers fell over and the others all went down like skittles. Jamie

On a more serious note, I rarely used the cycle lanes in Leeds because use they were so full of rubbish and broken bottles etc. Obviously a cleaning budget hadn't been allocated. I did use one occasionally and often had to go out into the main carriageway to avoid parked cars. As to traffic lights. I ended up on the bonnet of a car that turned across me at some lights. I had the right of way,she was turning right. I didn't see you she said, I am fairly large and had a yellow jacket on. I did ask her when she was going to get her eyes tested and she had a large dent in her bonnet to sort out. Fortunately I was unharmed. Jamie

Good moaning g from a sunny but cooler Charente. We had a good afternoon playing Belote and beat our tutors. Today it's French class so I better get my homework done. Definitely no AI involved in that task, and decidedly a lack of actual intelligence. Grass to cut this afternoon. We have sections of 30kph (20mph) in most villages usually near schools. I warn UK visitors to obey them, 99% of them have quite vicious speed bumps. Jamie

I did them both many times when volunteering on the Ratty. I even once took a transit minibus full of senior Indian officers over it. Most of that went OK but it struggled on the final section going up Harknott. I made them get out and walk. Some of them even pushed and thought it was great fun. The story I was told was that Signor Lamborghini wanted a Ferrari but Enzo wouldn't sell him one as he didn't want to see a tractor maker driving one of his cars, so he built his own, Jamie

As a cyclist I think we should construct a spider lane across the bridge that @polybear has to cross.. Jamie, who would stop at traffic lights if there were any near here.

A new contributor, certainly to me, called Wandering Northerner, has uploaded a new video of the Thame Valley viaduct. It is certainly coming in with the beams in on some 22 spans, Deckingbeing cast on at least ten spand a d I thi k 13 spans still to go. Most of the abutments and pillars are done but it looks as if two sets are still to be started. Jamie

Good moaning from a sunny Charente. Offto the market this morning then playing Belote with friends this afternoon. Ttfn, Jamie,

Is that why the best selling colours for rail match paints are reputed to be, dirty black and Sleeper Grime. Anyway there is news from the Charente. A Fatwah has been issued by SWMBO Mk 3. I'm married to Mk 1. Young Emily made two polite requests yesterday morning. The first was for Nana to make some raspberry jam and the second was for Grandpa to have a train that she can play with in August. I have inspected some items in the shed and it should be renamed the house of horrors. I discovered a 00 Flying Scotsman in Apple Green then worst of all, a Brunswick Green Pannier. There was also some track. My soul was restored when I found a Joueff Nez Cass 15000 in Silver Maroon and Orange. Grandpa has some work to do. As to the jam,that will have to be made in the next 12 days whilst Nana has two usable arms. I was tasked with buying two packs of frozen framboise. Jamieé

It sounds as if they have I stalled new fans and filters at the suburban bunngalow... Are the neighbours complaining about the diesel exhausr in the area. Thanks, it makes sense now. Jamie

The kit that Tony built for me was Janick. I ha e no idea who has those kits now. They did go to Oldbury who went bankrupt then at least the coaches turned up from some called, Mid, and Carriage a d wagon or similar. They had the 6 wheel tender. Jamie

Sorry, my forgettery ©Chrisf, has struck again. It's the Thornton tunnel, referenced in column 2 on page 27. Jamie

Our property, which includes a very large shed cost the same as a two bed inner terrace house in south Leeds. The land and shed came as freebies with the house. We only got the ride on, a Mccullough about a year after we moved in. Until then we did the weed patches and got a neighbour to do the main bit every so often. Jamie

Good afternoon from a very warm Charente. Very busy day yesterday and this morning. Lots of small jobs do e and so e good friends round yesterday evening snacks and Belote. Our usual chat to the girls this morning g then a quick trip to the Danglies. I needed some more drip feed nozzles for the veg watering and Emily has requested some home made raspberry jam. I was able to source Framboise at our equivalent of Iceland which is called Picard. As to watches I won a set of four Rotary ones on Sale of the Century in 1976. I've worn a gents one ever sine, the boys and girls ones wet to my parents and I saved the ladies one for any potential bride. Beth was given it 2 years later. We've got about 4000 sq metres of green to cut. A tractor for the big bit and a self propelled push alo g for the weed patches near the house. About 2.5 hours for the big one and just over an hour for the weed patches. We usually only need to cut them for about 5 months of the year. The rest of the time it's either two hot or too cold. Guess what needs doing this afternoon. Jamie

I enjoyed it but thought that as a large part of the article concentrated on the Vancouver area operations,a better map of a complex area would have helped. When I read an article with specially created maps I do like to be able to find every named location on the map eg the Douglas tunnel about which I have no idea. However I enjoyed the article. I've still got the other two long ones to read. Jamie