Mike Bellamy

As stated previously, this is following the Games Workshop idea - they have their own shops all over the country selling at RRP but there are also a number of independent shops often in the same towns who are selling their products but are also free to stock similar items from other manufacturers. Having spent many hours with my son at Games Workshop, I know how busy they are - and how profitable !!

I don't know where you live but I expect that you will find that almost every preserved railway has a fund raising shop selling second hand books. I was in the shop at Wirksworth (Derbyshire) last week (Ecclesbourne Valley Line) as they had opened especially to try and move on a very large donated collection from a deceased estate - these were all American and Canadian books and so more specialised and more expensive than the usual more common books that you tend to find in almost every railway bookshop. The lady there said that many of the books would have cost up to one hundred pounds each but she was struggling to sell them for £10 each. Despite this, I see that their pre-season opening raised almost £2,500 (with me providing £12 of that !!) Click Here for Link to EVRA Book Shop Another option is to contact your local model railway group to see if they have a reference library for their members - we have five large bookcases full to overflowing of modelling magazines, modelling books and the more specialised railway books. The guy who looks after the library tries to avoid what he calls "The Boys Book of Biggest Fastest Trains in the World" as it's just a set of random photos, usually with incorrect captions that would be on no benefit to an enthusiast researching how many rivets to put on a scratch built tender! Click Here for Link to a list of Model Railway Clubs .

I'm sure I saw Humbrol in Boyes a few days ago when visiting family in Grantham - according to their website they have around 60 shops in the Midlands and the North. Also stock Vallejo and Citadel (Games Workshop). .

In my experience, the "Load more activity" button had always been there and until the crash it was often very slow to upload the next set of entries. However on a few odd occasions (usually when a Blog entry was the last item on the page) it would not load any more. In those cases a "refresh" of the page would go beyond the blockage and would sometimes give you everything since your last visit all in one go. All very odd and has happened once since we came back. .

It 30 years since Wild Swan published "Etched Loco Construction" by Iain Rice which may help - even though it's mainly about locos. The first chapter is about the design and production process, second is tools and techniques, third is preparation, fourth is soldering and then it gets into the finer detail.

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The concept works for the rebranded "Warhammer" stores (previously "Games Workshop") where they only sell their own products at full RRP. Have you seen the prices there - no discounts and customers queuing up for the new releases. .

To be introduced next April . . . . . . . .

From what Andy has said elsewhere, it may be several days before the volume of photos are processed and transferred from the back-up. The problem will then be the last 12 months or so as they were backed up on part of the hardware that failed and cannot be recovered. .

From what Andy has said on other topics, older photos may reappear over the next few days as it's taking a long time to process the volume. However the more recent photos have gone for good as the back up also crashed and could not be recovered. I expect that it is up to you if you want to go back and replace the photos - I assume this will be one by one. .

Yes but remember that they are 7mm Scale (O Gauge size) and so will be much wider and taller than your OO stock - might hit your platforms and bridges . . . . . . .

I only agree with part of that statement - "Garden Centre" means Coffee and Cake . . . . . .

. . . . . only if you can trace your family back to Adam and Eve . . . . .

I see the Plum Porter has affected your spelling . . . . . . . . . . .

I complained when I was rejected for redundancy a few months before I was due to retire, and so I was offered 'part-time' work - 4 days a week. The boss was happy but when I went to HR to sign the papers (confidentiality, non-disclosure etc) I discovered that their idea was to take a day at a time off my usual holiday entitlement, not realising I had already organised all of my holidays which were booked and paid for. So no part-time work and no signature - which meant I could tell everyone what the plan had been !! .

Father-in-law once owned a holiday caravan at Skegness which was rented out to family and friends. It was sold at least 30 years ago. Last year we removed all the bedding he had saved up in the loft . . . . . . . . Yes I remember Brian - a one time regular at 7mm Narrow Gauge Shows - didn't his layout "Hollies End" have a connection to the group of the same name ? .

We still have members who for understandable reasons don't feel ready to return to the clubrooms. We now open 4 nights each week - two are "restricted" and masks must be worn and social distancing observed - however we have removed the need to book in advance to control numbers and the need to answer a number of questions about Covid. Two other nights are completely unrestricted - so how we operated in the past. About 70% of members have renewed their subscriptions (48 out of 65) but only about two thirds of them have actually been back to the clubroom so far.

You may be interested to see that here in UK back in the 1950s a consultant at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary paid for his own taxi to get to the scene of accidents - this then developed into the DRI Flying Squad, originally using Police Cars and later their own emergency vehicles paid for by fundraisers. The first link is from the local newspaper - a brief summary Second is from the USA Emergency Medicine Journal - a very detailed summary of work done in the 1980s The other two are reminiscences about the service by those who were working there in the 1970s https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/dri-doctors-idea-became-global-2003267 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1285651/ https://bygonesderby.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/life-of-girl-with-slashed-neck-was-saved-by-squad-doctors/#more-2319 https://bygonesderby.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/flying-squad-medics-were-left-stranded-at-scene-of-fatal-accident/

Even though there were supposed to be 19,000 there (one trader said 20,000), it didn't seem too busy but we were definitely in the minority wearing masks. Didn't buy anything at all except lunch. Manufacturers are already sold out of some models and taking orders for 2023. Need a new battery for the caravan (been managing with a knackered car battery for far too long) and on one stand we were offered a 20% discount - sounds good but checking last night, their price after the discount is still £134 but I can get it from another online supplier for £110 ! We saw several Sarahs - many on mobility scooters including one who knocked over her companion! Sorry to hear about your fall - that must have been a worry after all the bother with you extensive foot injury - please don't show us that photo again !! I was told the other day about one of our club members who had fallen down stairs - he has broken both wrists, shoulder and has a neck injury and so he is wearing a neck brace. The friend who rang him said it was a good job he had a loving wife to wipe his ar$e ! Problem is he is seeing three different consultants, the wrist specialist, the shoulder specialist and the neck specialists - they all have clinics on different days . . . The Food Network is always the go to alternative for Mrs B when she doesn't know what else to watch - even though with Sky there are hundreds of options - it's just there for background noise as even I recognise the numerous repeats. Another friend from club had a funny turn a month or two ago and was asked to go to the hospital to be fitted with a 24 hour heart monitor - he had one before and it was a bit of an involved procedure with several wires connected to a box worn on a belt. This time when he arrived he was given a carrier bag and sent home again - it's now a 'do it yourself' stick on job with no wires - so perhaps even quicker than your five minutes ! .

Same with my father - retired at 65 and had a 'mild' heart attack just after he arrived at hospital a few weeks later. Full recovery and he lived to 92. He was out with my brother at the time as he had taken over dad's plumbing business and sometimes took dad with him to hold the other end of the tape measure and to make him feel useful. Brother was driving back to town when dad displayed some of the classis symptoms, feeling sick, chest pains radiating into arms etc. The conversation was along the lines of - - right we're off to hospital - -oh not yet, can't we go home first - -why - - I want to go to the toilet - - b*gg*r the toilet, I'm taking you to hospital !! In my case, I retired a couple of years ago at 65 and a bit, as it was part of the transition period between 65 and 66 but I started to draw one pension at age 60, which then got invested as I was still working full time with another employer who then offered generous redundancy to most of the staff, had far too many volunteers and had to drastically scale back on numbers so I was told I had valuable skills and knowledge base so couldn't go with a payoff which would have been about 12 months salary. I negotiated a smaller amount (2 months pay bonus) to stay on for an orderly handover but they didn't recruit a replacement until a few weeks before I left so they didn't start until after I had gone. 65 in April, left July, state pension and bus pass November, 2nd works pension backdated to April aged 65 as the pension dept considered it to be redundancy as I had received that additional payment so win-win which ever way you look at it. However I was only a low grade pen pusher (keyboard hitter) so although it sounds a lot, the sums weren't that great. .

No doubt they were heading to Birmingham Airport for the Caravan and Motorhome Show at the NEC - we will also be there and will look out for your friends - how do we recognise a pair of Manxies ? The show is on from Tuesday to Sunday in Halls 1 to 5 (Warley Exhibition is in Hall 5). I saw a posting on Facebook last night that they have limited the numbers to 19,000 each day and every day is sold out to advance ticket holders so those turning up at the door are going to be disappointed. That makes a total of 114,000 visitors plus hundreds of stall holders and staff, so I guess one or two might be Covid Carriers and we'll be wearing masks even if nobody else is bothered. .

Copied below from the link provided above by David Green - do you have the confirmation I have highlighted in bold from when you first registered as a sole trader - if not could HMRC provide a duplicate ? A sole trader simply notifies HMRC that they intend to start working for themselves, essentially telling HMRC they are becoming “self employed”. HMRC will ask if the sole trader business intends to have a “business name” or “trading style”, but this is not in order to register the business name and HMRC will not alert you if there are other businesses using the same name. The only proof that you will get that you have registered as a sole trader is a Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number. HMRC will send this to you around 10 days after your sole trader registration has been completed. Unlike with a limited company there is no certificate, or other documentation, to show you are registered as a sole trader. Also unlike a limited company there is no public list of sole traders that anyone can look you up on and no public database they can look your UTR number up on. There are a few private companies who will offer you the chance to register your sole trader business on the ‘Small Business Register’ or something equally official sounding. These private business registers are not run by the government and you are absolutely not required to register with them.

The Alex in Derby has been mentioned before. Local BBC News have been there to interview @Ralf about the financial situation at Derby County and how this is impacting on the local pubs. Click for Link and scroll down to see inside the Alex - with loco nameplate and railway pictures on the wall .

The link from David above seems to say that the only authorised way to get official recognition is to be registered as a sole trader with HMRC. .

Thanks for that - it must be an absolute nightmare trying to keep on top of all that, as well as running the rest of your business and keeping the customers satisfied. I clicked on "Thanks" but perhaps it should have been " Friendly and Supportive" - keep up the good work as it's always interesting to get the real information from a retailer. .