New Haven Neil

Ohhh, the N5! Love that photo, proper railway atmosphere.

A windy dull morning here in the Irish Sea. As a 53 year old with a (temporary!) zimmer frame I won't be seeing new year in either, I'm afraid. Next year maybe, Don!! Had an uncomfortable night, must have done too much yesterday :-( I presecribe train DVD's to inspire armchair (or slouch on couch) modelling.

Moghrey mie indeed DD failt eriu, and to the rest of you non Manxies, good morning Mind you, given the amount of time it takes me currently to get what passes for a shower and dressed, it would soon be fastyr mie. (good afternoon!) A windy, windy night doesn't seem to have done too much damage, and has cleared the garden of the hated sycamore leaves. Good job done! Slaine lhiu. Neil

Oh, thank you for supporting our railway! The walk you describe of course is a potted summary of our little island. Victorian and 21st century side by side. Being laid up currently I have not been able to take advantage of the extra trains the bus strike has promulgated - there's a 21st century bit! A pal sent me some nice shots of 'Hutchinson' last week to tease me.

Avoiding getting drawn into politics, but as ours are different to yours.....if we did have JTP, he may be better than the current incumbent. In reality, the three legs are so the standard manx alky can get home without falling over, let's not forget we are '80,000 alcoholics hanging onto a rock' !!! Closer examination of our motto may confirm this..... Quocunque Jeceris Stabit

Olddudders, I've just had a trawl through Shaefer, and there is no mention of grey (or gray!) DL109's. Three various shades of dark green, the warm orange (that I had forgotten previously!), the 'Cranberry' and poor 0759 in McGinnis looking like a hippo in a tutu are all mentioned, but no grey. I'm fascinated now! I think we're going to have to put anchors out here, or we'll be 10 miles closer to Scotland soon.....to say it's windy is somewhat of an understatement.

A wet and windy good morning from Fraggle Rock, and may peace descend gently upon those so ill. One of the downsides of middle age certainly is the loss of older persons close to yourself. I also find writing about trauma therapeutic, I'm sure the medics would be able to advise why, but anything that helps in such situations should be grasped. DD, I have 'Fiskars' in mirror image on a foot from exactly the same experience! They ALWAYS go pointy-end down !!

My heart goes out to you and yours Don, got that T shirt and it's no fun.

Morning, after a wild windy and ark-buildingly wet night on Fraggle Rock. Chilly too now, with a mere 4c. Hope all goes well Mike, I've seen enough of hospitals to last me a while at the moment. May venture outside today, in the campervan, I can get into that! Ashers, a greenhouse here would suffer the same, shelter in the shade or suffer the winds across the northern plain of the island. So, Mrs NHN has to manage without one, and the veggie plot gets a rough time. We have a stand of large sycamores at the bottom of the garden which shelters us from easterlies, but the prevailing westerlies ane not much abated by a bungalow! Best wishes to those ill over the holidays. Neil

A fact of life I suppose that the minority spoil things for the majority - in many hobbies and walks of life. Keeps me in a job though.... MM, not really the best smilie but the nearest I could find! Got a pile of Kiwi railway DVD's to watch sent from another forum friend, the presenter guy Marcus Lush is....ummm...somewhat off the wall! Good stuff though, enjoying them.

It was all Romans in primary school for me, and Modern (1900 - 1945) British history for a JMB O level in the Grammar school, 197, er, 4. I majored on the General Strike as there were a lot of train stories ! Debs, couldn't agree more about the cyclists, they always seem to have had a manners bypass around here too, and folk in general tend to be very polite in our small community over here on Fraggle Rock so it highlights itself even more.

Good morning, see I do arise before noon! Thank you for your welcomes! M®s Ashcombe, a colleague had a resurfacing last year, he has recovered well too, but as you thought mine is unfortunately a longer job. It is good however that I retain my own joint, as it isn't arthritic, it was the mechanical impingement problem that caused the damage. Apparently this would cause arthritic damage if not addressed, in the past the hip would have been replaced but new techniques allow a repair to be made for which I am thankful. Oh, and you'll be pleased to know high heels aren't in my wardrobe.... Debs, those are three lovely dogs - Mrs NHN (also Debs!) best friend has two collies, Doona and Ffinlo, which she walks out with most days, given a chance! I'm more of a cat fancier, but we are currently between cats, more's the shame. Olddudders, that grey/gray livery is a new one on me, I don't have that book. I must get NH Power off the shelf this morning to see if it is mentioned, I failed to stay awake long enough last night Over 50's disease!! Best to you all, whatever the day brings.

Hi Stewart Yes, this part of the forum is very like some of the others I have posted on for years, very friendly. As for the hip, it was 'femoral acetabular impingement' I had to google... After the local general hospital told me there was nothing wrong, a good physio my GP referred me to took 10 seconds to diagnose the cause of the pain! Only trouble was that was two years ago. Things slowly got worse, then in October a bomb went off in there, turned out part of the impinging bone has come away and cut off the edge of the cartilege. Ow. Operated on 27/11, removed the parts of bone and cartilage, ground bone off the pelvis and femur to prevent a re-occurence, pulled cartilage around the joint and re-attached via stitches in holes drilled in the pelvis! Ow again. I had to go to the UK for all this as it was so specialised, Mr Mohammed at Wrightington Hospital in Lancashire (centre of excellence for hip surgery) did the operation and declared it a better success than they had hoped, especially as the damage was greater than had been feared. So 6 weeks no weight bearing and no more than 60 degrees flexion, and 4 months partial weight bearing. I have to say the flight home was a nightmare, I don't want to do that again in a hurry! OK, enough waffle, sorry for the gory details folks not interested in hips! The 60 degree thing means I can't sit upright, so no workbench, just a lot of daytime TV and train DVD's. Oh, and RM Web I discovered whilst slouching here with the laptop, adding to the other forums I post on! That 16t mineral thread kept me busy for days, the era I used to model in my BR modelling days, and that I will return to in the future. The company here helps keep me sane, so thank you for your forebearance. Neil

Thanks for the invite! Of course that should be invitation, to pre-empt my first attack! ;-) I have had a bit of a rough month myself, had major hip surgery but it went well, joint is saved for future modelling/kayaking/motorcycling activities, but it's going to take 4 months to repair now - eek. Nothing though, to what I gather you have suffered this year, you have my heartfelt sympathies. As for DL109's, I don't recall a gray (US spelling ;-0 ) one, I know of hunter green, another green I can't remember the name of, the 'Cranberry' and the poor one that got McGinnis which looks great on other units but truly awful on a '109. Off to look in 'NH Power' !!! May you all have a great time, keep the Rennies handy.

Well, I do have a live steam Vale of Rheidol tank..... but videoing is out of the question at the moment as I can't walk! Recovering from major hip surgery I'm afraid, so all action on the garden railway is out of bounds until Spring.

Yes, a great thread and have a great Christmas. I did actually visit Big Didcot for the first time in summer 2011, and can throughly reccomend it, it is a lot more interesting than I gave credit for. That it was the wettest day in christendom only slightly put me off, but that weather seems standard for summer now! So there we go, Manx exiled Geordie enjoys things GWR stylee, whatever next! Joking aside, please keep your thread going, it is very inspirational, and if we ever get so far south again I'll definately call in to Big Didcot again, even Mrs NHN enjoyed it! Neil

Seems nice in here, can I play? I need to get up earlier though, maybe..... Have a great one, and spare a thought for the less fortunate. Neil

I see it's now at the GCR and has been restored http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/59575.html This states it was green at the KWVR, well, it was maroon with a cream stripe when I rode in it!!

Plated by the look of that, no 'Widney' sliding windows. The buffets were out of use by the time I travelled on one on the Carlisle line, but I've had a pint in the KWVR one!!!

Mmm, should have clocked that one myself! can't see the buffet being done though. There used to be one on the KWVR, not sure if they still have it? Could be scanned if they do. Slobber.

In an ideal world for me, this would have been the 0-6-0 outside crank version, as seen at our local colliery line so long ago, but it'll do for me as it is....I see it is promised to have a 'scale speed' mechanism, so for my money the price is OK. I think three may do nicely. I don't see 'Design Clever' as an issue, it's not a prototype that's bristling with detail is it? I can add the odd handrail if I need. Well done Mr Hornby for this one.

Personally a 3 car has no interest for me, they were all 2 car sets in South Tyneside, with some 4 car (some with the buffet IIRC) on the Carlisle services from Newcastle. I can't recall seeing a 3 car oop north, there were power twins I think on the Whitby line though.

I'm an ex-sailor too Southern 42, Bibby Line engineer. Seems a long time ago now! Mike, we too have a magnificent array of birds visit our garden, we are on the very edge of the village so there is plenty woodland. Latest 'cop' is a tree creeper, impossible to photograph though, tiny thing and moves up the trees so quickly in darting movements. Plus I'm a lousy photographer.... Our favourite birds here are the Choughs, they squabble and sound so funny. have to go to the seaside to see them though, but that's never far away on a small island!

I just wandered over here after posting about the boilers and seeing your link, and over an hour later I reach the end of the thread! Some great modelling, and despite my north-eastern leanings I am bowled over with 1363, she is a litlle beauty! Nice work, keep it up. Neil

You want to try actually being stuck in the Irish sea between Eire and the UK - AND we have to pay their bloomin license fee! We get zilch news coverage, unless someone is whinging about tax havens, which we aren;t any more!!