Annie

True enough. It looks more like something from my daughter's computer gaming catalogues rather than anything that could be called a 'screwdriver'.

It's a 6 in 1 Pen tool by Isalbi.com.au The two I purchased came from Mighty Ape here in New Zealand.

Now there's a lucky find, - well done!

A Christmas present I purchased for myself, - and I got one for my daughter as well. Not quite a sonic screwdriver, but it is still quite a useful multi-tool. It's a pen (with replaceable cartridge) as well as a spirit level, a metric and imperial ruler, a screwdriver and a stylus (for prodding at notebook screens). It's made of alummminium, - so it's a proper job and not some nasty plastic gimmicky thing that will fall apart in a hurry. My daughter is delighted with the one i gave her as she really likes useful tech type things, - and I'm pretty chuffed with my own one as well.

The poor lad looks like he's fallen asleep on his feet.

Yes that particular Loop Line session has some amazing atmospheric effects. The only problem with it though is with all those dozens and dozens of Chatterley-Whitfield PO wagons in the sidings my computer stated to struggle a bit towards the end of the session.

Various test snaps taken along the Potteries Loop Line route in TRS22. Settings are still on low, but the images seem to be Ok. Or at least to my Woolworths eyesight they seem to be. The updated CPU I'm now using is the early precursor of what became the i7 CPU, - so it's not doing too badly for its age.

Forgive the not very good photo as the Kodak digital camera I owned at the time was not really the best. This is my 3-rail 'O' gauge LSWR B4 I built over ten years ago now. Most of the body was made from galvanised steel flashing off cuts with some brass and tinplate in a minor supporting role. It was very much built according to John Ahern's methods. Like a stupid fool I sold it when i was short of money. For the little that I got for it I should have kept it.

The GER C53 tram engines definitely didn't run with the W&UT bogie tramway coaches as they had all been sent off to the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway by then. My own little virtual line only has the 4 wheel ex-W&UT coaches. (Even though I'd love to have some of the bogie coaches, - but can't afford to have them commissioned at present.) But gosh those Rapido RTR coaches are lovely models. And just to make it perfectly plain least others fall into error, - Selsey Tramway coaches are nothing like W&UT bogie coaches and cannot be said to be the same no matter how poor your eyesight might be.

Yes please Santa, - extra Guinness and fruit cake for you if you can fit that into one of your present sacks for me. Sounds good, - just so long as it's not modelled on my brain or they'd never get it out of sleep mode to do anything useful. Just as a by the way, back in November the NZ Herald had an article on Baba Vanga's 2024 predictions in which it was claimed that the Balkan Nostradamus had foreseen a major advance in quantum computing during 2024.

Linux experiments continue. I was able to find an upgrade CPU for my HP Z200 Xeon and after doing a little research my very clever daughter has set it up for optimum performance. It might not be on a par with modern computers, but for a ten year old computer the Z200 now ain't doing too bad. Yet more running about on the S&C. This is the Dandrymire Viaduct.

I need to clean my cloche hat and you would not believe the foolish suggestions people make as to how to clean a hat. It's partly my fault as I neglected to obtain a hat box so it might be kept safe from dust and dirt and now that I have little cause to wear it has fallen prey to dust and small spiders. I think I have found a suitable source for a hat box, but now all that remains is to safely and properly clean my hat without causing it any further harm.

The shame of it though with the C32's for all their fine appearance was that they were heavier than an 'Intermediate' so didn't have the same route availability. Once they were displaced from working London suburban trains they didn't really have a job to do anymore so their fate was inevitable. Doesn't stop me from running them on trains out of Moxbury though.

Wot's an F3 Mister? The GER never had no F3's.

Two old favourites arrived this week. They both went missing some years ago when too much life happened, - but now I have them again. 😄 With these books as an influence I tended to have a slightly old fashioned approach to building model locomotives, - and especially my 'O' Gauge ones. Nothing wrong with that though and I certainly had a lot of fun doing it.

Thanks Adrian 😀

Because the original S&C route is payware I can't modify or adjust any of it so the vintage clean and bright and shiny appearance has to stay. I particularly wanted a Summer time/ sunshine appearance for the screenshots. With a few small changes to the session data i could have brought on thunderstorms and heavy rain, - or even snow. With my Norfolk layout out of use at the moment I've had to put my 'L' plates on with the S&C so I had to go and check 1894 OS map to be sure of my facts. The S&C project (the Potteries Loop Line project and the Cornish Mainline) are the only real UK steam era routes that N3V have ever bothered to officially hand out to UK steam era Trainz enthusiast. And even then they had no hand in them and simply accepted the work of others and made them their own stamping them with the payware brand. The S&C is an old route now and with having been converted to run in TS12 and then TANE, TS2019 and finally TRS22 the scenery and trackwork has taken a hiding, but unfortunately N3V haven't bother to fix any of it and each time they simply revive the corpse and send it staggering off again. There has been some recent discussion among UK Trainz enthusiasts about giving the S&C a proper tidy up, but I don't know if it will go anywhere or not. It's the Appleby to Garsdale and Hawes branch section of the Trainz S&C route that I know best having run trains about on it the most, but even then my knowledge of it is fairly scratchy.

Appersett viaduct, - or at least I'm fairly sure it is.

Vintage Trainz. The Hawes branch from the Trainz Classic 3 S&C Project. This is the TANE version. I thought I might as well do a Midland session since I now have a fair collection of Midland engines. Because the S&C is payware I can't alter it in any way or even fix the scenery where it's slipped a bit, but I am allowed to introduce my own engines and write my own schedules if i want to.

My immediate thought James was to drill the broken pieces to accept a couple of short lengths of brass rod to reinforce the join. Though that might be a little more of an engineering approach than you might be comfortable with. My second immediate thought was, - 'What kind of a daft carbuncle doesn't pack a model locomotive properly so it doesn't move about when sending it through the post'.

A 'clockwork' Jinty shunting at Durran Hill. This is from one of the sessions in the TRS22 version of the old TC3 Settle & Carlisle route. I found that I can get TRS22 to work in Linux if I set the performance menu to the lowest setting and make sure that I'm not trying to run a graphically intensive route. There's some very clever command coding in this old S&C route as it manages to work perfectly whereas other routes will be plagued with bugs and errors. I think the original TC3 team must've been blessed with esoteric Trainz knowledge denied to to us lesser mortals.

Another small victory with Linux. I was able to get the decade old Trainz Classic 3 version of the Settle & Carlisle route working reasonably well in Debian Linux. Screenshots aren't quite so easy to do as they were in Windows, but at least they are turning out alright. I've found a Linux screen capture program called SimpleScreenRecorder that seems to work reasonably well, though I'm not really set up to do any You Tube videos just yet.

Yes double spotted, - they truly did get everywhere.

In memory of Shane MacGowan.

You've seen this picture or at least many like it over the time I've been writing about my Norfolk layout in this thread. Tram engine No.08 heading for Bluebell Woods with three tramway coaches and a luggage van in tow. Only this time around it's happening in TANE and not TRS22. The one thing I especially noticed about being back in TANE is the greater variety of trees. When I came to move my Norfolk layout over into TRS22 from TANE I was really struggling to replace the trees that weren't compatible using a much smaller pool of tree models than I had available before. In fact trees and the lack of them are one of the many sources of complaint about TRS22. It's going to be a pain to have to repeat most of the rebuilding work I've only just finished doing in TRS22, but this time around my Norfolk layout is staying put and I'm not going to move it into any other version of Trainz, - no matter how many glittery geegaws it might have. Oh and a bit of luck as I've been able to find an upgrade CPU for my HP Z200 Xeon computer. That will certainly help things along.