Edwardian

We might add to that summary concerns that the generality of more liberally inclined youth are (a) too concentrated in towns for the effect of their votes to reflect their numbers and (b) they are anyway relatively less likely to vote than the Old Haters amongst us. We've had a couple of by-elections here, both lost by Conservatives to Labour, but in both seats the right-wing Reform Party came third, both displacing the centrist Lib Dems and in one seat causing combined Reform and MAGA*-Tory vote to exceed the winning Labour vote. Labour will win the next general election. This will halt the worst excesses of the present government. It will not, I predict, effect real or effective change to solve the many deep-rooted problems we have. Labour is both too embedded in a broken and corrupt system and too fearful of its returning 'socially conservative'** core voters to be more than Tory-Lite, with an ironically less diverse cabinet than the current Loonies. * Here 'Make Albion Great Again' ** For which read 'xenophobic reactionary anti-wokist', if not even worse.

That is a sufficient explanation of both the crew and the wagons, I accept, and the above would make a nice Grouping era train! It is the job of the modeller, I suppose, to find something more useful and persuasive to do with such collectors# issues to give a more early railway feeling!

Hornby now have a colour image of their forthcoming OO gauge Locomotion. Apparantly that represents the extant condition, though whether adifferent true 1820s appearance would beknowable or much different, so far as is known, is another matter. No 1820s chaldrons in the offing? Not so far, and, certainly there are already voices proclaiming that, if it's not 100% accurate for the 1820s one may as well run anything with it, so Accurascale chaldrons will do. I find that unsatisfactory. I note Hornby continue to believe that drivers and firemen of the 1820s-1830s wear top hats! Possibly on opening day...! Even then, though, Hornby seems to have dressed the crew like the gentleman spectator at the front of this illustration, with tall round hat and swallow-tail coat. Actually, even en fête, the crew wear short coats and different hats; the chap on the tender with the typical John Bull titfer.

Ah, then, so very, very close!

On a practical level, I have my work cut out trying to secure my future at that of my kids in terms of a reasonable chance at economic survival. Though, I have considered a YouTube channel, on the basis that screaming into the void might prove cathartic!

Well, perhaps you could just try stoning them? Welcome to my parlour, said the spider to the fly

Ask them if they've been asleep for the last 14 years, if not, ask them how can they face getting up in the morning or look at themselves in the mirror, let alone have the temerity to knock on your door and beg for your vote?

I have railed in the past about laws restricting the right to peaceful protest .... Today we learn of a proposal to add to the Criminal Justice Bill currently before Parliament to empower police in England and Wales to arrest protesters who cover their face in a bid to avoid prosecution. What bothers me about this is that we know the police review footage of protest so that they can identify people for later arrest. Given that one can potentially commit an offence by merely inconveniencing people, that is a concern, but I also worry that this is a way simply to track people who go on protests, whether or not they are suspected of committing an offence. Further, people who scale national monuments could face a three-month prison sentence and a £1,000 fine. This is not vandalising monuments, you understand, merely climbing onto something is now an imprisonable offence. Bad news for Isobel...

When Dean Swift imagined war between Big Endians and Little Endians over which end of an egg to crack, he meant it as a metaphor for the absurdity of religious wars. War literally over what one ate for breakfast would have no doubt struck him as too absurd. That bit's funny This bit less so. And in Gemany, of all places, there are reports of rightiwingers meeting to discuss theremovalfrom Germany of anyone not considered German enough. I seem to have heard that before. Mind you. on the bright side, it was mainly reported becauseof the significant protests against it. So there's hope....

I am a left-wing collectivist extremist bent on giving ever more power to the State and to unaccountable bodies ... according to Liz Truss. Evidently this is because I care about the environment and want an inclusive society that embraces, inter alia, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. Here was I thinking I was a boring old centerist trying his best to respect other people, be a decent person and wave my kids off to a happy life in a free country with the rule of law , a functioning democracy and a sense of fairness. Silly me. Actually, that just makes me some frothing, raving Marxist. Decent right-thinking people, on the other hand, don't believe in these things. Assuming that these "secret bigots conservatives" believe in the opposite of the things that "left-wing" extremists" believe in, they must want to disadvantage ethnic minorities and LGBTG+ folk, and to keep power with the unaccountable super-rich sovereign individuals and captains of industry and their corrupt cronies and client press. Obviously that would be better. Thank goodness someone has the courage to stand up and say these things. Take it away, Liz.... Unf-king-believable.

True, but to be honest I would have been surprised otherwise. £85 is not really in synch with today's prices, and existing tooled models have climbed in price since release. For example, the Hornby Terrier IIRC was released at a price somewhere in the 80s; it's now £99 odd to £109odd. I have the choice not to maintain my pre-order if I dislike the idea of a price rise, but I fully intend to stump up £99 and will be happy to do so. Frankly, I suspected someone would want the Hattons Originals, yet could not see this happening this soon, and I was troubled by the vagueness over the existing pre-orders. I'm impressed that this has all happened and happened in time to confirm those pre-orders will be delivered. Well done all concerned. Will there be future batches? Who knows, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did not emerge at some point in the future. Rails always wanted to do generic pre-Grouping coaches, but Hattons beat them to it, so it's nice that Rails has inherited these and got their wish at last. I hope they commission future batches and, indeed, pick up on the pre-Grouping generic short bogie coaches, because the Hornby generics are so poor in comparison that I will keep on buying Genesis coaches for preference as long as someone is still making them.

Good news indeed!

Everything I had on pre-order has been marked "sold out on pre-order" for quite some months. These would be the Genesis coaches. As the Genesis topic had been closed to further postings because ... reasons, I must post here. I have not received anything from Hattons to say if and when these pre-orders will be honoured, but nothing to say they will not be. There was a hint that they might be. I remain hopeful, therefore. The announced next run of P Class seems even less certain. By chance, has anyone been able to glean more definite information? I had not liked to bother Hattons, as they've obviously had a lot on their plate in the run up to closure.

Approx. online calculation of the cost of using 1.5mm grade EDPM for the large shed is £700. I take it I would need to strip the existing roof down to the boards?

Don't know about anyone else, but in that last picture the stones look extremenly spooky. Barrow Downs vibes.

I had not realised you'd visited my shed! We know best! British Exceptionalism, we have so much to thank it for!

I elected for craftsman clever as a testament to the skill and work involved, but also interesting, informative, thought provoking etc. UK parishioners seem to think I need something called coraline ....! You fascinate me strangely with such talk.

Sorry to bang on, but this whole tiny building scam annoys me. I've just been reminded of how much these wretched things usually cost and it just makes me cross! The reason I was attracted by the Bachmann model was not just the design, but the fact that the design implied that this was a larger structure than the minimalist designs offered by Hornby and Wills. As a model of a larger prototype, I naturally expected a larger model , and one that could sit, front of baseboard, on the non-conformist outskirts of Castle Aching. I should have known that I should stick to scratch-building as instead I ended with a uselessly tiny ill-proportioned tin elephant that now needs to be set carefully at a distance. Sizewise it's actually something like 2.6mm to a foot compared with the structure on which it is evidently based, though detail on the model is more like the claimed 4mm, making it a misshapen Frankenkirche that will need to be set carefully in a 3mm scale zone if I am to get away with it. So, it will be recalled that I only succombed to Bachmann's tabernacle because it was on sale at £9 something. Even so, I was disappointed because it proved to be comically under-scale and therefore unfit for purpose at any price. The price I paid just meant I'd wasted less money that I might have. Today I received news of a discount now offered by a retailer, but look at the full list price for this thing! If i'd paid anything close to that, I'd be suing Bachmann by now!

Sadly, I don't think the Aged Ps even remember the house they left 18 months ago, such is dementia. I now dread that fate.

Or is it 57%, I can never remember!

Reduce to 58%!

I had thought to erect it in the house, but if I can fit the test track layout, I will put that up in instead. My thoughts were (i) to get to a working layout, it's probably not more hassle than persuading the rescue layout to work, (ii) as the scenics on the rescue layout need renewing, again, the test track probably isn't much more work; and, (iii) the test track is a roundy roundy and with generous enough curves to run most things. A long way off any of this, but we'll see. In the meantime, I continue to be cheered by your pictures of a realised virtual railway world.

Lovely views with some wonderful equipment. Funnily enough, I have a similar train!

Pechot Bourdon should really be a dog breed, not a locomotive, but it is looking magnificent.

Yes, that is an Engine of Doom by anyone's standards. Meanwhile... Status update. The last few months have been taken up with clearing out my parents' house. They are beyond independent living, you see. This has been both time consuming and draining in every possible way. Finally, with everything packed, the pantechicon booked, and exchange and completion just days away, a pipe burst, the house flooded and the ceilings fell in. This was not ideal. In the meantime, the shed intended for Castle Aching - the roof of which now leaks in several places - is crammed both with my kit and the contents of my parents' house, with the overspill filling our reception rooms. So, bear with. Anyway, once the tide of life's flotsum and jettsom has receded from my living quarters, I think I might be able to shoe horn the test track into the little room off the sitting room. This could then be be finished, fulfilling its purpose of scenic test track and photo plank in both OO and OO9. We'll see. As electrickery is the stuff of nightmares, I might at that point have to submit the track plan and request a wiring diagram!