ian

Good luck Nick. I hope it goes well and that you and your team have a great time.

Having just been caught by the same thing I managed to navigate through to the support page for reporting it as a problem. The recent enhancement to require an OTP to a mobile 'phone discriminates against those, like me, that cannot use or do not posses a mobile 'pnone. To make matters worse there was no advance notice given within the system that this change was coming. It is perfectly possible to send the OTP to a land line number - as an example both eBay and the Inland Revenue do this. It would seem the Inland Revenue cares more about disability, inclusivity and its service users than the NHS. I'll let you know if I get a response!

Yes, I'm sure you can. I think I have found a suitable prototype.... https://www.scherpinbeeld.nl/foto/267/groenlose-tram/4193/groenlosetram9

That all just oozes character.

How many more buses? And will you need to include some more bridges...

The tide is in! The water level has risen by 87cm. The previous lower water level meant that the link span was at a crazy angle (even for the Ercallbahn) and the severe change of gradient at either end led to a number of unplanned uncouplings. Whilst the link span is now more or less level the track still drops to accomodate the change from the metal M track on the quay to thr plastic K track on the link span and ferry. A gratuitous shot from the seaward end with all the bits in place. I need to find the rest of the ferry's fittings that have come off over the harbour's gestation period. The scrapyard is now fully fenced, although it still needs a gate for the siding. And there has been a test fit to establish the pattern for the retaining wall behind the container crane.

I love a good backstory.👍

Welcome to the world of statistics.

I have o say that the coat of paint has elevated the model;s appearance. Well done that man.

You're a very naughty boy. Fortunately suitable models at acceptable prices are thin on the ground today. Mind you, I like the extended Vollmer car park.

That looks like lots of fun. Hmm, I wonder if I could get a tram in at Maifeld.

No. The box-top/catalogue illustrations were rather like the 'serving suggestion's that you see on packets of food - lots of extras to make it look appealing. Fortunately I do have two post buses to hand, albeit different to the one illustrated. Mind you, the bus stop and van loading bay are major points in the kit's favour...

Yet more bits added to the scrapyard. The walls have started to go up and there are gates at the entrance. The staff now have the benefit of a toilet and Fleck has gained a water bowl. Two lighting masts have also been added. Along the viaduct a market is starting to spring up. And a great find on eBay. I wanted this model for the post office in Maifeld but have only seen poorly built examples with missing parts until now. The existing part-built Pola example will be displaced and I suspect some revisions to the town centre will be needed to properly accomodate it.

Watch it. Any more of that sort of talk and you may be hearing from his solicitor. Anyway I think your eye test is overdue: Fleck, the scrap yard dog on the left with Blitz on the right.

Progress on the scrapyard. It now has a hut, weighbridge, guard dog, safe storage and some vehicles - even a small pile of scrap! Over at Maifeld Bhf the platform between Gleis 4 & 5 has been filled in. At Neustadt the station building and Gleis 1 have been connected to the lighting supply.

But just what did they do in Gomorrah?

Proper job there. Having its own, labelled prop is a master stroke - and the wiring documentation squirrelled away inside too. 👍

Whilst I was working in the area I wired the track for the container lorry. The race car type throttle isn't really my cup of tea. I have fitted a plug on the end so that it can be removed and stored when the lorry isn't needed. The small switch to the left of the throttle is the gear lever offering forward and reverse options (the lorry must have DAF Variomatic transmission - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variomatic). And then my butterfly attention alighted elsewhere and started looking at the scrapyard. It needs a weighbridge which will go by the hut pilfered from Billshaven Hafen. It also needs a boundary fence. Chain link won't be much cop if faced by some low-flying scrap so something a bit beefier was sourced from the bits box as a potential solution. Finally, the two mostly complete buses have made it all the way from my desk to the bus station at Maifeld.

That looks bang on - or rather banger blue on!

The different job turned out to be adding a new control panel shelf alongside the scrapyard and container crane (site of) at Maifeld. Being on a roll I thought that I'd wire the crane in while I was at it. That was a mistake. I had put the special control box somewhere safe. Very safe. Verry, very safe. It took me two days to find it. I wouldn't mind so much but I have got a spare - and that hasn't turned up at all.

But where's the fun in that?

Fulfilling childhood desires like that is one of the great pleasures of adulthood.

So, with plenty of different jobs to do on the layout - naturally I have been doing something else - bothering buses. True to form these aren't ones that were part done, they were all untouched specimens. I had mocked up the Maifeld townscape for a visitor and, as there were a number of buses to hand and the predicted 10" of snow had turned out to be continuous rain the garage was a bit cold and danp. A dash to the garage harvested a handful of potential victims and I was good to go. These two can be parked up between duties. All they need now is registration numbers, destination blinds, fleet names and numbers and some legal lettering. That's a job for another day. One to go by a bus stop with passengers boarding. There's much more work to do here. Still, the sun is shining now, so I am off to find a different job to start...

So it would seem.

They won't fall for that, more's the pity: The Flat Earth Society, along with previous notable flatists such as Samuel Shenton and S. Rowbotham, believe there is no end to the Earth and that it continues indefinitely. The only edge to the earth is the one you are standing on. Some math describing this can be found in our blog article The Mathematics of an Infinite Earth https://theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/about-the-society/faq