60159

Thoroughly enjoy NFL although don't see all that much as too mean to pay for Sky etc TV. Current BBC2 highlights programme is very good however, with good presenter and good pundits. Got hooked way back in the early 80s when Channel 4 broadcast a Sunday early evening programme from Cheerleader Productions (and presented by Nicky Horne? and another knowledgable guy?). I acquired an affection for the then LA Rams with quarterback Vince Ferragamo and legendary running back #29 Eric Dickerson. Wide receiver Ron Brown (an Olympic sprinter) was incredibly fast. The LA Raiders also had a great running back in Marcus Allen. I'm pretty sure I could still name all the QBs and backups for all the teams at that time. I also seem to recall that the Pats had an English kicker. Houston were Oilers (not Texans), there were no Ravens, Panthers, Titans or Jaguars and Cardinals were St Louis and Colts were in Baltimore. Had the pleasure of meeting Dan Marino when on a ski-ing holiday in Colorado in 1999.

I go off to the Isle of Skye for a few days to ensure the New Year is celebrated in traditional style (where broadband is lamentably slow and the local Vodafone mast fails with monotonous regularity) and I return to find that what Auberon Waugh described as the "chattering classes" or is it what Nigel Lawson called "City Scribblers" have been teasing readers about our nascent Edinburgh Princes Street to Dundee West end to end DCC T gauge layout to be built on a revolutionary concentric concept. (Do not be misled, dear readers, by deceitful mention of other broad or narrow gauges) For info, this approach will allow full reproduction of the Glenfarg tunnels and bridges, Perth General station in its entirety (other than the goods relief lines to the north) and Perth (south) shed (to hold all the Duchesses) but the Forth Bridge has had to be sacrificed due to no-one within the membership having small enough fingers or good enough eyesight to build it to any reasonable standard at 1:450. One bit of strategically placed water will serve as all of the Forth, the Tay and Loch Leven. Loch Leven castle will be sound-chipped for lapping water, creaking rowlocks and hushed voices for a re-enactment of Mary Queen of Scots (the actual lady, not 37401) escape therefrom. Other novelty features will include a tempting whiff of fish and chips from the chippie on St Leonards bridge above Perth Station and period music from a waiting passenger's transistor radio at Cowdenbeath. I see the use of pasting tables to pass as base-boards has already been rumbled but I'm surprised no-one has yet twigged the use of a poor cardboard cut-out of Mr Franks ..... or is it a cardboard cut-out of poor Mr Franks.

....and here's another! Predecessor to Triumph Herald with 948cc engine developing an amazing 34.5bhp and rocketing to 60mph in a breathtaking 35 seconds. Top speed 72mph

Congrats to Steve, and best wishes for every success with the shop. I just noticed this thread this morning which also explains the unfamiliar address for Grimy Times in the Hornby Magazine Dealer Directory. I'm primarily a steam man but also run the occasional green diesel on my own layout. Steve has done excellent work on my green diesels and in particular a superb Hornby 08 which is much admired when I'm allowed to sneak it onto our Alloa layout. (It is conceivable D3545 made the trip down the Devon Valley line from Perth to Alloa.) Incidentally, Alloa's next outing will be at Wakefield 20 - 22 November 2015 (lots of prep going on!) - come and see us. Some excellent new kit-built locos could appear including my cherished St Rollox Standard Caprotti 73148. Mike