runs as required

Wow! Enjoyed that. Not too clear when that was - or why. It appears near the end that Cancellara was simply catching back up with the peleton. I remember you telling me you used to do that round the back of us. From Prudhoe station (by Ovingham bridge) up to Hedley-on-the-Hill/Whittonstall - and vv. dh

I did watch him on Newsnight last night To be fair he did say he'd just come from the dinner party where he said "he'd met ...um Bill....um Bill..." I bet most of the time you Raf lot could never remember on the way back from the mess whether you'd actually had anything to eat or not - never mind who'd been at the bottom of the pile ontop of the WC dh

He sounds to be an interesting guy, judging by the wealth of enticing images posted up shewing his resin body kits assembled and painted. There is a 'snail mail' address for him in post #90 here dh (PS I've so enoyed following this thread)

hmmm.... ...my spies whisper to me that it looks like you are quietly "on the fiddle" already dh

Do you mean the 7th Dr Who? (Must admit I had to Google him) So you claim you actually saw him in Louth yesterday - carrying his panama? Now where is that "I'm SERIOUSLY impressed button? dh edit - I can't spell

Wow! I'm really missing that (?) button 1 Not clear - About the forgon - are YOU actually doing the soldering between tab breaks? If so, well impressed! 2 Are you all snowbound dahn sahf? Good thing your mam came back home when she did. Lovely morning here - got to wash J's little red Mazda racer out in the sunshine now while she's out Yogaring. There is a speck of dust low down on the near side apparently. dh Edit because wife's ipad always knows best about my spelling - I've just noticed it also doesn't do emotions (sic)

Not just that but the "mi no comprendo" button's gorn too. There's that nice Flying Officer Kite down Salisbury way who used to like sandwiches trying to assemble a WWII Halifax behind his bathroom door. Poor Quoi? Its like being on the French exchange on RMweb these days - no idea at all whats going on around me now. "Non ferstehen mate!" I said "NON FERST..... Me ? SHOUting? Mi dispiace... where's the &%$£ing Broon? dh

About those troublesome blue stripes..... I'd do what all those cockney lads used to say threateningly a few years back: "LEAVE I'AHT"

Some of those pics above (especially the last in #4155) have a look about them of the West Highlands rather than the route of the one-time Merseyside-Ramsgate/Margate "Sunny South Express". Third rail electrification of the Dingwall & Skye would really stuff up the Lairds' game larders with dead stags. dh

Treni ya safari kwa muzungus have a look at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67526-older-inspirational-layouts/page-14 post #330 below tebee, on 06 May 2014 - 18:07, said: Aha! But the twiga is making a comeback in AV dh

I love that salty samphire stuff - but its really expensive in Fenwicks posh food corner. Next time can you hoe some up to hoy up here mail order please? dh

Whatever it is the two lads are up to..... its nice to see them looking happier than they were in #8975 while you were roughing 'em with yer paintbrush dh

I like the idea of people in cages behind bars (for personal safety) so the animals can enjoy a good laugh at all the stupidos riding past them gawping. dh

That's really interesting. Does the change between up and down designated lines occur just after the old Harbour Station (which would have been the Chatham's) before getting onto the South Eastern's original line through the Warren? Also enjoyed the arched windows onto the former station. dh

Wow! Post #4136 has some absolutely suberb images. Thats what i love about wasting tim... clicking into RMweb - a wonderful range of ways of escaping and dreaming. But that sequence of lighting effects and contrasts of 4mm scale and living room are stunning. dh

I agree - its these kind of idiotic....idiosins...peculiar little details that always set me off to looking around more carefully. When I was a smug an earnest sixth former I got the school a heavily reduced subscription to the Spectator - because I'd become an avid reader of Betjeman who contributed a wonderfully maverick weekly column on railways for several years called 'City and Suburban' . I learnt such a lot from JB: one never-to-be-forgotten detail was how one Liverpool Street UndergrounD station Met/District line platform had Britain's only bar counter serving directly onto an often crowded platform - where they would pull you a pint of beer irrespective of pub opening times. We had a school trip to London (Chinley to St Pancras) where I led an expeditionary force of the older looking kids around on the Circle line and we all got served! dh

Thanks for those contributions folks - are there no actually helpful machines out there ? As for the philosophical 'hard problem' they were were all banging on about in that Burkeman article I linked to, I reckon the Beano had got it sussed 40 odd years ago: (I tried to find a pic where they are looking out the big circular eye windows driving him) dh

Just love that picture - looks like some GIGANTIC bird has just escaped from Jaz's Showman's zoo train and is about to terrify the commuters dh

Not much hardcore Philosophy on RMweb..... The other day I was lucky enough to be allowed to sit in the back and read an article all the way down the A1(M) to our favourite Wentbridge bacon-sarny, coffee and watering hole just past Ferrybridge. The piece was by Oliver Burkeman: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/21/-sp-why-cant-worlds-greatest-minds-solve-mystery-consciousness and the gist was whereabouts in our biological make-up is “consciousness” (i.e. soul) ? And is it in animals? - 'What is it like to be a bat?', plants/trees ? and even in rocks (and houses - as my former Daoist Chinese colleagues firmly believed). The article had been discussing whether we would ever bridge the gap between neuroscientists’ brain-mapping and systems analysts’ ‘artificial intelligence’. When I read (as Steve Jobs claimed) >>does your iphone have a soul?<< 8) I answered “Nah, course NOT !” Later on, by about the M18 (it was now my turn to drive) I started to think….’though my chirpy little sound chipped Jinty might ’. I remembered my best mate in our wartime primary school (where are you now Derek?) who really did believe he was an Epping-Ongar F5. I'd like to think he grew up to be a Stratford engine man juggling with fire/injectors while watching boiler pressure then later as driver interacting between reverser and regulator, train load and state of the road - an extension of his machine, a Brittania perhaps. .I do hope he didn't become a clerk in the City. Then there was Brunel’s problematic ‘Great Eastern’ steamship with its ghostly riveter’s mate tapping on the inner hull. ----- By the time we can’t sure whether you are ‘one of us’ or a robot zombie, I shall be dead (and may have joined the other side!) In the meantime I invite you to nominate a machine with a ‘soul’ I’d like to kick off by nominating Derek St*** as LNER Holden F5 (the sort with the big surprised eyes , long funnel and Westinghouse pump). dh

So why is it called a "fourgon" ? (takes up smug teacher's stance, finger carefully stuck in the dictionary hidden behind his back) Ans: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fourgon quickly follow up with OT anecdote: (brand new) wife stuck her brand new Antler suitcase in the Night Sleeper fourgon at Gare du Nord on our return from honeymoon in August 1961, then promptly followed up by wrestling a snatch thief to the ground who was attempting to nick our passports and tickets out of her open handbag! I've been scared of wor lass ever since! dh

Aw! Now yer've just spoilt it al Bonny Lad - given awa all yer trade secrets. Why, bending that stuff must be a piece of p... Was it the same routine for those fourgon 'gable ends' (as we Ribers call them in the trade)? Would be a bit more difficult with a tumble home on the body sides. What about an old SE&C 'birdcage' brake as your next etch project? ....and while we are doing requests: A NAFF video of you soldering up etches please. dh

Used to smoke with a curly Briar - not very successfully, as I had an open J2 MG Sports car and many is the time I had to stop in a Lay-by and lean out over the door and drop it from gritted teeth, as it had become Fanned by the breeze and the heat build up had reached the mouthpiece - by which time the Bowl was positively glowing red .... Yeah I too gave up on pipes after always riding with one drawing well on my motorbike along laterite roads through West African forests.... until..... .....I ran into a tree (or vice versa) after hot ash flew in my eyes and I lost a few front teeth. dh

Impressive stuff! dh

I reckon it must be your mum with her amazing hand-eye bowling green co-ordination that's doing the soldering. Please do give her my regards. dh

It was my mum who was the zealot in our family. As a result my sister and I have no past, except in our heads. I came back from my first term at college to find my room had been cleaned out and my S/H 0 gauge Hornby electric LMS compound and later new Trix twin (but with only one 0-4-0 black LMS tank) all gone. Later, when I returned from working abroad, all my College and after portfolios had likewise all gone. My sister enjoys recalling how all my mum had really wanted was a litter of black Labradors. Not surprising my psychotherapist wife likes dining out on all this stuff :-( dh