bbishop

Sorry guys, been remiss of late. Chris, well done! Andrew, what awful news. Off to do a loop round the City, visiting the Diocesan office, 4D and QVS, before the European Railway Group meeting in Croydon. Bill

I make up my own mix. About 90% oyster shell; this is sold as chicken grit and comes way overscale so needs a whizz in a redundant (*) coffee grinder. The colour can be determined at this stage by including a lump of coal. It needs a brief whizz, extraction of right sized product, then rewhizzing the remainder. The oyster shell doesn't glue very well, so I add 10% of granite ballast. Bill (*) use of redundant coffee grinder optional, but otherwise divorce proceedings definite.

Bushampton by Freddy Bush - a regular at Central Hall. Watching the Adams Jubilee sitting in the dock persuaded me into modelling the LSWR in O gauge. Bill

Yup, Dom has to haul his vehicle round some pretty sharp bends. Bill

So I went to Warley mainly to see LLS. Superb architectural modelling, superb track, superb stock. I waited until the crowds reduced mid afternoon, then spent two hours soaking in the atmosphere. One thought, I would describe LLS as a working diorama. Whilst there are probably two items of stock moving somewhere, they may take a while to reach my eyeball - in which case I can admire a building or the cutting wall. Warley cost me about £25, well worth it just for LLS. Bill

Evening all, Best wishes to all in distress. Early bed, early start as I went to the Reading Trade Show today. I travelled on the gentleman's railway - no problems until we were put behind a Windsor stopper from Staines to Barnes. Minimal use of tokens although I did buy a Christmas present for Jamie. Central heating boiler services tomorrow with hopefully a small leak resolved. Bill

There were a few tram - car incidents when they opened the Croydon Tramway. To quote one aggrieved driver "why didn't it swerve behind me?" Bill

Dave, The Odeon cinema was demolished in 1992 to make way for the roundabout. Bill

My craft teacher at school was a lovely man, who had been a Welch triallist before a bu99ered knee had finished his career. No pain, except to other schools' packs - we were taught a few little tricks. Bill

Yes, the copper can be caught between a duty of care for the individual and a duty of safety to the general public. One thing about the police force that worries me, is a tendency to dive in mob handed. The ambulance service response is controlled. If I'm told to stand down from a shout, then I do; if I didn't then I would be disciplined up to my services being dispensed with. Drummed into me. Hasn't stopped me attending some interesting shouts - but I don't carry protection gear so if a weapon appears I'm back in my car pronto. Bill

And Maria Theresa's present Brexit proposal would put foreign nurses below the immigration threshold so the situation would only get worse. Then if the case service cannot accept the patients, they cannot be released from the (remaining) ward, which means a bed isn't available to take patients from A&E, which means patients are cared for by ambulance staff in corridors, which means no ambulances out on the road. Keeps me busy. Bill

And also a significant proportion of 999 calls to the ambulance services are for mental health issues. Bill

Mark, my second iteration of Höchstädt has been invited to 2021. 32' of German Spur Null. Obviously cannot guarantee underwear extraction. Bill

Well, I spent about two hours looking at Liverpool, from three different positions. I regard it (and Sidmouth as well, for that matter) as a working diorama. Sidmouth is a BLT and using the correct track plan has restricted its operational potential. Lime Street is a large station (11 platforms, 4 sidings) but with a very restrictive station throat. Presumably not a very intensive service. Personally if I was going to undertake such a project, I wouldn't have chosen Lime Street. But someone did, and what a wonderful model. Bill

Together? Bill

And in my neck of the wood - Pratts Bottom. Bill

Evening all, First a check on ER attendance at Warley. I know that Baz and Ian are there over the weekend and Chris is there on Sunday. I'm there tomorrow, wearing a South Western Circle (!) badge, whom else am I likely to meet? Trouble getting up to London today, due to a trespasser on the track in the Lewisham area and power had to be turned off. This is becoming annoyingly frequent. Anyway, once I was in London, I did my Black Friday shopping by getting a discount on next term's German lessons. Then some track pins from Ian Allen and my Christmas Cards from St Martin in the Field. Home via the quack to book my flu jab. Early supper, early bath, make tomorrow's sandies and then to bed. Bill

Morning all, Ah yes the Anonymous survey. I always sign them. My e-mail in box is filling up with Black Friday deals. Same price as the Thursday deal but I'm sure there are some suckers out there. Keep well all, Bill

Tony, I use Evostik "Gripfill". Not many fumes. Bill

Thanks Jamie, although you forgot the umlauts. German O gauge was resurrected by Bernd Lenz, so naturally everything is fitted with DCC. And it is fun to have the bells, whistles and automatic uncoupling. Supporters of both systems have justified their choice. Some layouts are naturally analogue, others digital. In fact I operate Southwark Bridge, which is analogue and could never be converted to DCC: but one has to be careful where one parks a locomotive - otherwise it will disappear of its own accord. Jamie mentions the ease of control when shunting on Höchstädt. But during the shunting procedure, the train locomotive is working its way around the layout to gain the engine shed, and a passenger train will arrive and depart. This can be achieved without switching from one controller to another - and that to me, ladies and gentlemen, justifies my use of DCC. Bill

Evening all, My PC is so ancient that I haven't noticed that RMWeb is slow. Spent much of the day in the garage, laying cork on Höchstädt 2, so that I lost track of time and missed my European Railways Group meeting. Need to adjust my sleep patterns as I have a very early start to Warley on Saturday. Keep well all, Bill

Remembering directions of forty years' ago, the Cranleighans ground was hard to find. I think it was "hard right at the Scilly Isles, under the railway arch and it's on the left". Didn't play there that often. About to do my German homework. Describe a German city that you've visited. Well, I'll write up Frankfurt, which I'll give a bit of a slating. Bill

Who on earth takes magnets to shows? Eats shoots and leaves. How else does one uncouple the idiots from this thread? Bill

GDB and I spent an ER meeting determining whether we had met on the Rugby field. Given we played at the same time at the same level in South London, and both were hookers, there was a fair chance. We also had the same robust style. But sadly - no. Bill

BREAKING NEWS Bill Bishop re-elected to Diocesan Council of Trustees. In the big world, I doubt if Liam Fox will resign - too many free dinners to enjoy. Fayling may resign at a later date, but not un-til his staff have re-writ-ten the Brex-it file in-to words of one syl-le-ble. so that he doesn't meet diff-I-cult words. 'Spose someone will still have to read it to him. Bill