Dr Gerbil-Fritters

Aren't fiddle yards a ruddy nuisance? I've had to devote half of my layout space to somewhere just to park trains...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.... one of my students designed an interactive booth that would provide a translation service for exhibitors at events (this all predates the internet etc) The first menu had a list of languages to translate to/from. The Dean of the Faculty decided it needed to be shown off to a bunch of Big Wigs, including the local mayor and other refined dignitaries. The Dean invited the Major to press the 'select English' option. On doing so, the assembled dignitaries were treated to Mr S Jackson booming out; 'English, M***er F***er. Do you speak it?!' from Pulp Fiction. I have never seen a Dean turn pale so fast, nor a party of VIPs leave in such a hurry. I laughed and laughed.

That's a marathon painting session lined up for when the weather warms up. It's Spring now, which means its colder than December/January here.

That seems very likely... I think as well.as the airfield there was some sort of MOD storage there too. I went gliding from there once in about 1983. Never again. Horrible!

Tehachapi has a fair number of derailments, probably because of the combination of severe curvature and grade, possibly exacerbated by PSR. We've been here before... in the late 70s and early 80s railroads cut themselves to the bone and then ran the axles off the biggest trains they could. Fortunately, for the most part, the right of way is better than it was back then. But if some bright spark with an MBA starts talking about cost savings through deferred maintenance, head for the hills

No, it's Porto Trindade, Portugal. Six platforms, frequent commuter trains headed by 2-8-2T and 0-4-4-0T, diesel railcars, servicing facility, turntable, stock sidings... all on the metre gauge. I've been fascinated by it since seeing evocative colour photos in one of Colin Garrett's small books that I borrowed from my local library as a small boy.

Yes, and with the view point as well, it's very Craig and Mertonford, Railway of the Month, Railway Modeller circa 1966

It's not Minories, but what a fantastic modelable little terminus, with a busy steam powered commuter service...

I lived in Stroud as a lad, back in the 1970s. What are you referring to?

Careful now!

Meanwhile, not so very far from us, other people have got things worth getting het up about going on. Spare a thought for them before you hit 'send'. And then maybe don't send.

I always thought NRM stood for Not Really a Museum. Rather a stark contrast to the excellent restoration, interpretation and archive work of the IWM.

Perhaps not, but it was probably felt necessary to capture the authentic vernacular of the characters in this drama. We all have our own sticking points; whenever two lead characters kiss, or folk get busy in the bedroom I tune out. I thought it was rather good, and Martin Freeman continues to astonish - becoming a hugely accomplished actor, in my view. I'll forgive him Frodo Brakes, or D1ldo Bobbins, or whatever that nonsense was. He probably needed the money.

Careful! The last episode of that series ends with the little houses being blown up!

Ay caramba, that ruddy turntable.... Good luck.

Boaty McBoatFace. I rest my case.

Three beauties... four if you count 1815, which is a DR giesel ejector equipped variant! I'm extremely pleased with Roco.

50 987 and 50 1478 also got their Automatic Train Control fitted this afternoon, and then posed for a photo in the late afternoon light.

Righto, I located the gondolas. I have four but only two are complete for some reason! As well as opening doors they have sprung buffers. Nice bits of kit, and usually available on the Bay of E for a reasonable price. I'm no expert on wagons, but these are coded Eaos. Also both are SNCF, and the one painted for SGW (Société de Gérance de Wagons) is running on DB early style bogies - highly unlikely! At some point all 4 were to be backdated and painted to appropriate DBR EpIV style, but are currently residing unloved in a drawer. There's no traffic on my DB BLT that requires these monster boxes!

I like the Lilliput EAS wagons as they have opening doors which make the insides look more accurate as well as adding pose value when they're parked in sidings. I'll dig one out for a photo tomorrow.

Before... and after... 50 2840 now has her Automatic Train Control equipment fitted - on one side at least! I hadn't noticed the hand rail was missing. Good job I got some spares this week! Lots of fiddly stuff here to keep me busy

I feel like we must be getting close to the point where every OO locomotive currently in existence has been previously owned by Andy P.

Hocus Pocus by Focus

Excellent service from Modelleisenbahn GmbH... means that my Br50s will soon be equipped with automatic train control system.

My box of spares arrived from Roco today - so I can repair the damage to the Kabintender among other little chores. I only noticed in the photos that the roof over the access doors has folded flat back against the roof instead of being aligned to the hand rails... I can also replace the water hatch levers which did not survive my attempts to cram a decoder into the Kabin. So far, the difficulty of installing decoders into these models is the only downside I've encountered. To be fair though, I had just as much difficulty with a Hornby BoB, S15 and even more with a Bachmann 4CEP.