Mike Bellamy

My mum was so organised that she had already written out the life history for herself, my dad and my sister - and they all had funeral plans organised and paid for. Although the funeral director was a family friend, it made it so much easier as I had three to arrange in three years . . . . . . . . I've done nothing for myself yet ! .

What a coincidence - after Bemrose the Printers left Irongate Derby, the site became the offices of Lloyds Bank - and that's where I worked when the Bank transferred me there from Leicester in 1980. I worked there and across the network of local branches until redundancy ended my ride on the Black Horse in 1997. The Irongate office has closed (along with 6 other branches in the area where I worked) - it is a listed building and currently unoccupied like most of the City Centre - photo in link below. Click for Link to Lloyds Irongate Derby Bemrose remained in Derby and became security printers producing most of the cheque books issued by the major banks. .

There was a discussion about the website last month in the topic about "Hornby Tiers" where Andy provided a link to "Rawnet" - see below Click Here for Link to Rawnet Hornby page When I looked there, I noticed a number of mistakes in the International section - Lema instead of Lima, Arnol instead of Arnold and UF instead of Jouef. I can only assume that it was dictated using voice recognition software and not checked afterwards. I commented in the other thread and it shows that Hornby or Rawnet are monitoring RMweb as corrections were made within a couple of days. There were also comments from Rawnet about the search process . . .. . . . .

Good to have you back with us Dave - the issues with your dad are very similar to father-in-law last year who fell a number of times after becoming very unsteady as old age caught up with him about 10 years after a stroke. The final straw was when he lost his balance getting off the toilet, fell backwards and cracked his shoulder on the edge of the WC. A&E wanted to send him home after putting his arm in a sling, until we asked if they had actually seen him stand up - the nurse admitted that he had been treated on the ambulance trolley that had brought him in and so they hadn't had him standing at all. Obviously with one arm out of action he couldn't use his walking frame and stayed in Lincoln hospital for about 4 weeks - this was the height of second lockdown and so we couldn't visit at all. Two weeks at Gainsborough for rehabilitation which didn't do much good then back to Lincoln again as he got a water infection. By the time he was "medically recovered" again he had lost the use of his legs and had to be hoisted in and out of a wheelchair. We got him into a home at Grantham and then had many many trips from Derby for the house clearance and sale. We now have no worries about him as he's in a good place with happy and friendly staff - as a result we are now taking holidays again making use of our touring caravan and don't feel quite so guilty about not visiting every week. Luckily we had arranged Power of Attorney a while ago for both Financial and Health & Welfare and so my wife was able to make all the arrangements for him. There is light at the end of the tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Peco 12mm track is already available - but with code 75 rail and different sleeper spacing for HOm Narrow Gauge. .

Would you believe that we sold a model railway layout to someone in Australia. It was an American outline layout about 8ft by 12ft and advertised in the early days of eBay - the winning bidder contacted us to arrange payment and the money arrived into the club bank account the next day. A few days later we got a phone call from his shipping agents to say they were coming to collect his consignment - they had no idea what they were coming for and were surprised to be faced with a number of boards all dismantled and ready to go. It turned out that he was importing a classic car from UK to Australia and there was spare room in the container. We sent a lot of photos and detailed instructions but never heard another word - not even to say it had arrived - we assume it got there, he was able to assemble it and it worked OK. .

Thanks for these - just shows what I missed in my late teens / early twenties as I had other interests but lived just a few miles away at Grantham and didn't know anything about this location! .

For a few years, the name of East Midlands airport was changed to Nottingham despite the fact that it had a Derby (DE) postcode and was actually in Leicestershire. Now changed back to East Midlands. In any case what do most travellers know about Nottingham - nothing except Robin Hood - but Robin Hood airport was near Doncaster (formerly RAF Finningley) and has since been renamed as Doncaster Sheffield airport. .

A most enjoyable afternoon - we had to learn how to run JMRI from our phones connected by wi-fi to Rick's digital set-up in the shed. the only issue was when my Dapol 08 got it's rods in a twist and wheels out of quarter - left with Rick for some attention - hopefully not too much damage otherwise I might need a new chassis 🙁 .

Agreed - I also paid into the appeals for cash - I seem to recall that one time over £6,000 was raised to keep the forum going. One pound a month is nothing compared to what we all get out of the forum - and the added bonus is that without any adverts, the whole site runs a lot faster as you aren't waiting for the adverts / video etc to catch up every time you view a new page. .

just had an email reminding me to activate Premium if I had not already done so (I have and it's all OK) However, just a very minor point - whoever put the email together needs to look at it again - see duplicated last line .

Very pleased to see that Andy has finally been able to introduce the "Premium" version of RMweb - no adverts and only £1 month - paid £12 in advance. Details in the post below https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/171928-rmweb-premium-no-google-ads/ .

You'll be telling us you're a volunteer for Samaritans next - I bet it feels like it sometimes . . . . . . . .

In that case - many thanks for showing that as I suppose that setting it up was an additional cost for Warners. I guess that in due course those still seeing adverts will get one that's more distracting - as it was always there , I found it easy to ignore it.

Worked OK for me apart from the initial log-in to World of Railways - I was sure I had registered for this years ago as I get weekly emails etc but I had no idea what my password was. When I tried to reset, the email back to me never arrived. Tried again just in case I had screwed up my email address but still nothing - if I wasn't already registered, I would have thought the system would tell me at the outset that the email hadn't been recognised. I then registered as a new customer and all went OK after that. I'm already missing the continuous video with historical info on what had happened on that day - I never clicked on it so I have no idea what they were trying to sell as it had obviously been paid for. Many thanks for introducing this new scheme - even though it took much longer than you first expected! Mike .

My story links both of those comments - I was one of a group of about 10 university staff travelling to Malaysia to approve the accreditation of Royal Malaysia Police training - Constables got a Level 3 certificate (equiv to A-Level), Sergeants Level 6 (Degree Level) and Inspectors Level 7 (Master's Level). On arrival we were met as we stepped off the plane by another of our staff who identified each of us and we were taken to one side - there were half a dozen very senior officers there in full dress uniform to impress us - the rest of the passengers thought we were being arrested! We went straight through the airport with security staff making a way through the crowds for us. We didn't get passports checked or have to wait for luggage. Straight out of the main door to find two police cars, a couple of people carriers for us and a van for the luggage complete with motorcycle outriders front and rear. Off we shot down the motorway straight down the middle with the bike riders going ahead to get the traffic to part for us to get through - they also sped ahead to block any side roads or to hold up traffic when we went though red lights - a most incredible journey - and we got that for three days but once we were returned to the airport we were on our own. However there was a slight bonus going back as due to a mix up, two of us had been booked into Business Class and so we swapped seats a couple of times so I got Business KL to Dubai and a colleague Dubai to HR - the only proviso that you had to be in your booked seat for take-off and landing. My job was the boss's bag carrier and note taker - I condensed 3 days of meetings into a 6 page report for the University's Executive - it was outcomes based and we only reported in detail where there were any issues or important points to note - unlike a former secretary of our model railway club who managed to produce 16 pages from a 2 hour committee meeting !! .

One of our club members is helping in the disposal of a deceased estate and brought in a whole load of assorted junk to help raise funds for the club. Included were about 20 small plastic boxes that had contained all sorts of electrical bits etc. I thought they were from Ikea as we once had some like that at home. I turned one over to check the manufacturer's name and yes it was Ikea. However what surprised us was that it was also stamped "Made in USA" !! I looked at a few others and found they were either from India or Czechoslovakia. . . . . . not China as we all expected. .

Somebody at Rawnet or Hornby is monitoring this topic as the errors I quoted above have now been corrected . . . . and I hadn't spotted that UF was supposed to be JOUEF. I wonder if this was dictated into speech recognition software . . . . . even more reason to check afterwards that it makes sense - it reminds me of "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance" !! .

Rawnet need to employ someone to proofread their own website - saw this on the Hornby page Andy linked to earlier Searches were mentioned earlier as well - this is what they say .

You can now get custom made maps where you specify the central point (home town or holiday destination for example) and Ordnance Survey will then print at the scale requested. https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/custom-made/ .

You comment above sent me to my National Trust handbook - to start with I couldn't even find Ormesby Hall as they claim it isn't in the "North East" as I expected, but is actually in a county called "Yorkshire" - to save anyone else the trouble, the description is on page 352 - but I was disappointed to find no reference there to the model railway(s). There is a brief mention of a model railway collection on the website but nothing to say what's there or why. I hope you enjoy your day - we were last in your area a couple of years ago and this year we have already been to Anglesey, and have further trips planned to The Lakes and the South Coast so it might be a year or two before we can visit - however now I know about the collection, Ormesby is on the list. .

Douglas - I can see why you are so excited to go and meet Mr Robertson - that is a most impressive website and I just couldn't believe some of the work he has done - it looks to be full size and then he shows you another photo of him holding the item which is so small - unless he has very large hands !! Enjoy your visit and please report back .

I was also impressed by that row of buildings but until comparing your photos, I had no idea that the "Navigation" was the same basic building as the "Terminus Tavern". It just goes to show what a difference the surface treatment makes when decorating what started off as a wooden box ! .

The same applied at Lloyds Bank back in the 1970s and early 1980s. When I got engaged to a member of staff, I was immediately moved to another branch (Grantham to Leicester) as we were not allowed to work with each other. All transactions had to be approved by two members of staff and so we could countersign each others work to rob our customers! We married (and still are 44 years later) and bought a house in Leicester. Two years later I was told I had to go to Derby - when looking at houses, I was told that a cheap staff mortgage was only available if I bought a semi-detached house (previously we had an end of terrace) but the amount spent didn't matter as long as I didn't buy a detached house as they were only for managers. A couple of years later the bank started doing commercial mortgages for customers in competition with building societies and all restrictions were removed - but the very cheap rate was increased. At around the same time they started advertising jobs for the first time instead of managers shuffling staff around the region like pieces in a game of chess - I was always a pawn . . .

You mention the number of events - this has changed in the last couple of years as at one time there were only a couple of enthusiast days each year that were known about by the narrow gauge community but weren't widely advertised to the "general public" - it's a most impressive set up - there can't be many people with a private garden railway that runs around several fields !! A greats set of photos Ade - thanks for posting those. I saw on another forum there were over 2500 there Saturday and 1000 today - I missed out, along with other members of our local narrow gauge group as we had an event in Mickleover (Derby) on Saturday where unfortunately our numbers were about half of the previous in Jan 2020. We had originally planned for Jan 2022 but then had to move because of Omicrom and at that time knew nothing about the Statfold event. Then today it was Afternoon Tea on Churnet Valley for my birthday ! .