SM42

Some West Midlands miscellany, with a Yorkshire tail Henly In Arden c2007. Brereton Sidings 1997 Bloxwich 1997 Hednesford No1. c1997 and finally Quay Crossing, Bridlington c 1995 Andy

Was there a constant in the family? Andy

A few more now extinct boxes. First up for lmsforever Aylesbury c 1988. It was as close as I could get Northampton Bridge St c 2000, looking a bit scorched Forders Sidings c 2001 Forders with its 4 stack shunt signal Hartlebury Station Box c 1996 before the nameplate was stolen over the Christmas holiday and finally Blakedown c 1995 Blakedown is still with us though. If you took this picture today, you would still see the box in it, but it would be behind the timeatble boards in the background in its new role as a community meeting / exhibition etc space Andy

Ahh, but only 3 were earned They arrived singly One for each task completed So we sort of agree. Well done on getting three (Oooh. I'm a poet and I didn't know it. Makes a rhyme, every time) Allow cake evaporation to get out of hand and you could be a few hundred down before you even start. Andy

With KJ 63 in the foreground A nice easy pull that one A move through the crossover in the foreground from the down to the up (towards the box) this signal applied even though it didn't look like it should. Andy

No, no , no It's a common male misconception that brownie points are earned in multiple. They arrive singly and depart in multiple ( normally in the order of thousands) It pays to remember this when you next answer the question: " Do I look fat in this dress?" honestly as you weren't paying attention and were dreaming of panniers, red engines ( not LUL panniers either) or even blue things that go chuff not grrrrrrr, whilst bored senseless outside the changing room. "Yes dear, I would love to go clothes shopping with you" Andy Who seems to be having a moment and digressing a bit

Nah! That's in Landan, ennit Andy From a winter wonderland. Let it snow let it snow, let it snow.

Piccalilli is in Manchester Andy

Cake evaporation is a well documented phenomenon. Occurs during the Christmas period mainly and is most pronounced in the vicinity of bears and hippos Andy

If only you had tuned your radio to the correct hippo frequency you could have saved a lot of time and fuel and returned to base for cake and medals a page earlier Andy

A few that are no longer with us, scanned from prints Shirley c 2006 Stechford shunt frame c 1997 (previously Stechford No 1 I believe) Coundon Road 2009 and finally Meaford Crossing c 1994 Andy

I have a mental image of burial at muddy hollow. Hippo slipping slowly beneath the surface bow first. Bit like that scene in Titanic. Andy

I'll bet she noticed if he finished it. Jig saws; feindish devices that draw you in and then your hooked. Andy

I've got the radio tuned to channel 6 just in case a call for an emergency extraction (of a corner piece perhaps) comes in. If you can hear us Big H, go to location Delta 5 Andy

Whilst being honest about stuff arriving being modelling supplies, not filing a detailed customs manifest can often make the passage through the border a lot easier. Andy

Hipposhire is only next door. I am a little concerned that I may be in the blast radius. Andy Taking cover behind the yule log

To be fair to my beloved, 3 of the kitchen walls only had a subtle colour change. The window wall changed from pale yellow to light green though. Baking is obviously very distracting. I find testing the results of such activities very distracting too. Andy

Mrs SM42 came back from a weekend trip to see her parents and didn't notice the kitchen was a different colour for two weeks. Andy

Indeed. Honesty, respect , trust and time for you each to persue your own individual hobbies and interests are what really makes a good realtionship. Mess with any of those at your peril. Andy

I was fortunate enough to make it to Poland during the summer. Whilst there I found a bit of Polish steam First up some narrow gauge sitting around doing nothing much. No idea what they are. I'm sure someone can enlighten me This was sat anonymously at the end of Majdan station on the Bieszczady Forest Railway I found this in the agricultural museum at Szreniawa. Unfortunately I didn't record the details of what the loco is and later that week out on the mainline at Szreniawa OL49 59 pulls away with the 0609hrs Wolsztyn - Poznan service and heads off into the rising sun And finally the 1009hrs return working from Poznan Andy

Like Jamie, Hark the Herald Angels gets my vote too. A real roof raiser. I was surprised how much I remembered when singing along (a practice best done alone) to the midnight mass on TV, whilst Mrs SM42 went to a much reduced real one. My favourite Polish carol is Bog Sie Rodzi (The Lord is born) and especially this version by Stanislaw Soyka. Just a piano and his voice. Best listened to by candlelight whilst in reflective mood. You don't need to understand the words as the sentiment and emotion comes through in spades. Cake beckons yet again (guess what I had for breakfast) as the coffee machine has been fired up. We are down to the last Yule Log. The tin of biscuits is looking nervous. Andy

That's Home Alone watched All Christmas traditions - tick Andy

Mrs SM42 has returned from church and announced coffee is to be drunk Here at SM42 Towers that can only mean more cake as you can't have one without the other. Supplies will now be desperatley low. Got to pop out and fit the doorbell we had for Christmas afterwards ( A hint from friends that Mrs SM42 doesn't always hear when people knock at the door,) so will need the energy boost. An SM42's work is never done, even at Christmas, with a bad back, luckily I have a healthy supply of industrial painkillers I hope all the NMers out there are enjoying cake and are making merry this Christmas in whatever way they can. Yesterday we kept up the Polish tradition of eating Christmas dinner, opening presents and singing carols (with the folks in Poland by the power of the internet, ) however we did not indulge in that other Polish Christmas tradition of watching Home Alone Here's to a much better 2021 Wesolych Swiat i szczesliwego Nowegu Roku Andy (full of cake and painkillers)

My recently acquired Christmas tradition is to think about all the time I'm going to have to finish off a kit and then come the 27th, wonder where the time went and the kit remains exactly as it was on the 23rd It's going to plan so far. Andy

It's a bit late for cake Here at SM42 Towers we are on leftover cake for breakfast (one of the gifts that Christmas always brings) We are down to our last few slices of butternut squash cheesecake (yeah, I know, but strangley nice and it is cake after all, even if it is made with cheese) the homemde gingercake has been all but exhausted and we have only a yule log and a pannetoni left in reserve and I can't see those lasting much beyond tomorrow morning We need an urgent re-supply SEND MORE CAKE! I'm sure a decent artillery piece could get some over here from Hipposhire. Otherwise we are going to have to eat biscuits and chocolate and we don't want to descend into desperation just yet. Andy