New Haven Neil

HR should administrate recruitment of staff, but the final shortlisting and decision should be the manager of the department/team they are to work within, and maybe their boss, and an independent for senior roles. HR should be present at the interview to ensure all candidates are dealt with fairly and in a non-discriminatory manner, checking qualifications etc, but NOT be part of the final decision making process. Recruitment 101. It appears a lot of HR folk have got much too big for their boots. No wonder folk have such a crepe time with them at work nowadays.

My wife, on my 50th birthday 'train-treat' tour of Switzerland, (eek 12 years ago) didn't like these locos at all, and named them 'Wine Gums' due to the shape. Seems fair to me.

Indeed I was 'old school HR', or perhaps I would prefer 'proper HR'. It was a while ago to be fair, and in the NHS which does take, or did in the Trust I worked for back then, HR seriously and properly. Result was a pretty well run Trust, with few disciplinary issues. A clue was in job titles - 'HR Advisor', there to advise managers on employment law and issues pertaining to. This modern world 'Killer HR' really serves to unsettle the whole process of employees working efficiently as far as I can see. As I no longer pay to keep the letters after my name from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development I once earned, I don't get the monthly comic 'People Management' from them (once parodied - rightfully - on 'Have I Got News') to keep up to date on modern practice. Thankfully, by the sounds of it!

Gosh yes, congrats to Andrew C, well done to escape the Directorate of Cockwombles. Yay! I wouldn't hold any hopes of anything happening to the wrangler/mangler though - as an aside it is their manager's, not HR's job, to do something about him/her. HR may help the manager through the process, but managers are paid to manage and make decisions - HR are not, they just advise the manager on process. #takes off old HR hat#. We get the blame for everything......

Oh you've set me off on one, HH. The speeds the G1 fraternity seem to need to run their trains at drives me nuts - no matter what the loco is or the train, it is run as fast as it can with the steam available, and that seems to be a point of honour. A visit to a rather secretive and large indoor G1 layout very near home base here a couple of years ago was terrifying. The contents of his garden shed were interesting though. IoM number 14.....and no, I'm not going to tell you where it is, the owner wishes it to be kept that way. I then made a friendship through that and visited another local layout, and as it had no gauging restrictions took some of my NG stock and a loco. Having passed the R/C to the host to try, as he hadn't tried it at that time, resulted in my VoR tank running so fast the rods were blurred.....luckily his tracklaying is good. I don't take stuff now. Some visitors to my (rough..) line also drive as if they're on an A4 after a new record, discrete mentions of scale speeds have to be made. It'll all end in tears one day.

Morning, but not particularly good, from a miserable Fraggle Rock. Vannin's Veil is down, mist and drizzle down to the Andreas Heights of 90 feet ASL, and to add to the misery is passing by at about 30 mph. Power Mizzle! The twirlers are predicting considerable improvement later, after the front passes. Currently the mizzle is so fine the rainfall radar isn't showing it, but it is mighty wet out there, and a miserable 13c and 87% humidity. Awaiting 'The Boiler Man' this morning, for its annual service and replacement of the modulating gas valve as it has become very noisy. This will no doubt absorb this month's toy money. And possibly next month's too. Here's hoping that young Emily can get some medical attention, the practice really should be prioritising the very young.

My pal that made the tiny traction engine once did some experiments to measure steam temperature on a garden railway locomotive, IIRC it was superheated in the true meaning of the word, I must ask him if he still has the results. (looks for old copy of my 'steam tables'.....).

Yes, all our little garden locos are too. Not hard to arrange. it amazes me that many larger passenger carrying miniature railways don;t use superheaters, the one I was involved in certainly does. Makes a hell of a difference.

A friend has made two of these - live steam, that's a pound coin. They run for five minutes or so.

Brian Caton, yes! Nice chap, chatted with him a few times over the years. He wanted to move here but finances didn't allow, I don't recall where is is from but he was bemoaning the house prices here, so presumably north of the Watford Gap. Not the smallest live steam in the world though, I have a Model Railways form the 70's with Z Gauge live steam locos in it.

'noon. A pleasant day, boiling water using butane, and using the resultant pressurised vapour to promote motion, with a good friend for company. Can't beat it. It was even sunny-ish, 23c but a mite breezy - again. iD, I don't like whisky/ey, and have a hydraulic woodsplitter, so that really just leaves sitting. I'm good at that though, I get lots of practice nowadays, after the manic 6 years running a business in 'retirement'! What's football? Never watch it.

Oh yes, they were meths fired though - I'll remember his name soon I'm sure.....d'oh. He also does 009 live steam.....yes.....

At said museum - there are several Allen engines - Mrs NHN is related....so here are some of that branch of the family, nephew Steve, his wife Sarah (they're different scales, she's N gauge, he's G1....Mrs NHN and of course Donk, posing in front of one. Steve's an Allen, Mrs NHN had a double barreled surname I am forbidden to reveal.

There's also one in the Museum of Internal Fire in Wales, a fantastic place if you like internal combustion engines. Somewhere I also have a photo of the ones in the NCB Harton system at Westoe, but the photos are eluding me err, currently..... This is what they replaced though! Rotary converters.

The mercury-arc's are now out of use, Douglas, but still in-situ in Laxey sub-station. we had a look around in their last weekend of.....zapping. Terrifying things to watch.

Yes just the one side - only one exhaust steam injector was fitted, when they had one - not always IIRC.

Back from comestible shopping, sun now in evidence, 21 of those degrees we know and love. Now a decision - split firewood or tidy garage? Or procrastinate for a few hours?

Morning, yes, windy again and the residue from overnight rain, 16c's according to our garden thermometer, 12 feels like 11 according to appo-weather. They don't usually differ much, odd. I see the Signal Engineer has discovered Northumberland, one of the great secrets of the north. More castles than any other county, sparsely populated, great coastline, hilly scenery inland. Did you get to Cragside in Rothbury? Quite a house, Lord Armstrong's old gaff, IIRC the first domestic house to be lit by electricity. Not sure what the day will bring, both cars badly need the interiors cleaning out, and some tidying up of the garden railway for a friend to visit tomorrow.

We're lucky to live here, Dave, we love the place. And as I love early electric railways (grew up next to the Harton system) nearly as much as steam,living here the past, er, 19 years, eek, is a great privilege. No.6 was out today too making a change from the Winter Saloons.

This lunchtime, we were mostly:-

Evening. The day stayed not that warm and overcast - a disappointment as it had been fore-guessed to be scorchio. We had lunch in Laxey again, via the 550v DC devices that run on three feet apart parallel steel strips. Car 1 in use (amongst others), the oldest electric train in use on its original railway in the world. 1893. oops, train talk.

Morning-ish. A warm but dull start to the day enlivened my driving the washing machine. House-husband stuff. Not sure what we're meant to be up to, no doubt orders will be issued. Travel back in my merch days was organised by the company, the general idea being that you arrived at the port as the ship did, or left the ship and went straight to the airport. This didn't always happen, as you might imagine! I had a week in Gibraltar once, waiting for a seat in a flight home, and 5 days in Hong Kong similarly. Also a few days steaming hot in Dubai awaiting arrival offshore of a poorly tanker. Didn't like that much.

Been there, done that, moved there.....happy life. Even better, happy wife, who now works for fleet services - which includes the railways!

A'noon. The full day happened, starting with taking Mrs NHN to be Pilated, while I went off to fetch friend Jayne, then drive us all to the Big City for Jayne to collect her repaired car - gearbox rebuild - eeuuww. £2k worth, but a really good job done, including a video time-lapse of the guy rebuilding the 'box, and the tray full of replaced parts to show the job was really done. Impressed, actually. Synchro rings had lost their tabs, if anyone is interested. Thought not. And as is the way of these things, the guy was from......Texas! Not sure how he has ended up here! Then shopping (eeuuww again) with the two girls, lunch, back to Jayne's to inspect ongoing building works at her cottage, a full internal rebuild basically, going well which has reduced her stress levels somewhat, thankfully. Finally sat down, completely knackered.

Gosh Brian, sorry to hear that, hopefully you're making a good recovery.