bbishop

John, No, please join in. What you wrote was interesting. We are allowed to wander along any highway or byway until "Sir" brings us into line. Bill

Not much longer. In Ivan's day, it would have been gone by now. BREAKING NEWS - sock found, tucked into the sleeve of a jumper. Bill

Grey, with blue, yellow and maroon stripes, quite attractive really. In other news, the "Pub Landlord" thread survived less that 24 hours. Mike, how did the Cat (capital C) get on? Bill

Y'awl, I've lost a sock. If anyone finds it, could they send me a PM please. Bill

Chris, don't expect me to join you! Y'awl, My girlfriend is a pain specialist. When I mentioned my knee trouble, I was told: 500mg Paracetamol, four times a day; if still in pain, 200mg Ibuprofen, three times a day with food. Or else! Bill

It was a pleasure to meet Chris and Baz at Stevenage. It was a busy weekend, home after 11:00pm on Friday and Sunday, and spending Saturday at a South Western Circle meeting. Sorry I seemed a bit rushed, jobs to do and all that - I never actually got round the whole exhibition! Yesterdays training was resuscitation; six minutes continuous on a monitored Annie. Bloody hard work, but I achieved a mark of 99%, so well pleased. German class tonight and I need to do my homework. Bill

Andy, that was exactly what I was saying. Also, I think that mineral wagons had a harder life than freight wagons. Bill

I think 40 years could be an overstatement. It was a tough life, having 8 ton of nutty slack being dumped in you weekly(ish). I reckon a fair few were knackered after 20 years. Given that 1887 spec wagons were built until 1908 (there was an overlap) a number would survive until the late 1920s. At which time two factors intervened, Britain went into recession with a consequential tightening of capital spend, and houses were built without coal cellars. Collieries still wanted to lift coal, but had no means of storing it. One solution was to use superannuated wagons as mobile summer storage, making one annual circular trip. Then Hitler invaded Poland and the rest is history. Bill

And I was taught 26m2. Back from Dracula, off training. Bill

Mal, I'm about five years out of date, but there was an excellent bar at the top of Spui, where it becomes Singel. It's on the canal and there are trams screeching round the corner. It had food and a good selection of beers. Also there was a restaurant on platform 1 of the Centraal station, which used to be excellent but over the years has become a fairly bog standard café. Good location, thou. Guys, recovering from putting St Evenage to bed. Now for a bath then off to give blood. Bill

Evening all, Busy day today. Visit to the vet about my knee plus bloods form and prescription. Then a friend came round and we laid about 40 ft of track in the garage. Didn't watch tv but drafted (and now have to type) my report for the South Western Committee meeting on Saturday. Shaved and bathed ready for an early start to St Evenage - also there Sunday. Keep well all, Bill

accommodate Bill, sorry one of my bête noir - the number of BT main board papers that I amended.

Ian, They always ran as 3 coach sets: Bk 3rd - Comp - Bk 3rd. Could be coupled to Maunsell, later Bulleid or Mk 1 sets, or more likely as a single unit on cross country traffic. Bill

Strangely, yes. I rang him about six months ago, asking for a bit for my heavy duty Antex. "Don't stock them, they are cr@p". I then received a lecture about how dreadful Antex irons are. So at the next exhibition, I asked "Eileen's" lad for a bit. "80 or 100?" "Dunno, does it matter?" "Yes!" Plumped for 100 and got it right. Any of you drink full strength Coca-Cola? If so, then you are only drinking diluted green label. On the subject of irons, I also have a variable high temp iron Antex and a variable low temp Antex. Plus a 30w electrical one bought at Maplins, which truly is awful. Bill

Today would have been my father's 100th birthday. Bill

Victoria actually. Is this Chris's doing? Bill

Come on, own up, who else watched the Hornby clock tick down to zero! But the world didn't blow up!! Bill Ps - I've just checked, absolutely nothing in Spur Null. Ian, don't bother, no Czech TT either. Bloody typical! B

Ian, your MP should see Failing about the fare r..... No, hang on, he would have to explain the concept of money, something that Failing has yet to get a grasp of. If you haven't seen Failing in the last few days , he's been holed up in his office , with his staff showing him cue cards of lorries. That is in case he is interviewed about the blockage between Manston and Dover, and he might have to recognise a lorry. I was gardening yesterday, cutting back the pyracantha that was encroaching on a path, then deciding that was due to the overhang of a neighbour's fir tree. Now have very cut hands. Bill

What a interesting weekend with the guys and gals wearing their costumes. Warley is in hall 5. Bill

Phil, Very true. There is a world of difference between an "operators layout" and an "exhibition layout". So Jamie designed Lancaster Green Ayre as an operators layout, including shunting the electric set to / from Morecambe and the Castle station. But at Warley, to Jamie's chagrin, we ran the layout as a roundy roundy until the crowds reduced. We could only do the fun things in the last hour. The punters wanted to look at a succession of pre-grouping trains (given there were 90 layouts to be got round in 9 hours) so that is what we presented to them. I have designed Höchstädt mark 2 to present a succession of trains. But I will allow the fiddle yard operators some latitude in making up the trains. Also some down trains will cross over to the up platform line in order to be overtaken by a fast train - something interesting for the operator, which won't impact upon the presentation to the public. Bill

John, You're 24 hours behind me. Bill

Chris, nice to have you back. Bill

What track gauge? Bill

John, Points at Purley, bu99ered me up last night. Bill