Judge Dread

Our tumble dryer lost interest the other day after having it's door slammed several times. That would be my wife's standard method of curing all electrical and mechanical ailments. I'm glad I could never have been a patient of her's during her nursing days! I am a retired electrician but at the moment I'm on light duties and so the idea of dragging out the offending dryer is out of the question especially since it has a small freezer standing on top of it. I diagnosed that the door catch just wasn't making contact with the micro switch and so I removed it from the door and carefully filed it's plastic mounting plate so as it would move just a little to the side. Refitted and closing the door with a click away went the dryer. The job's a good one.

You do realise that Dave maybe reluctant to market one of these wonderful locos as their nickname was "Hornby's" as in a popular Liverpool based manufacturer at that time. Here's one of Charlie's examples of a class 71 under the wires at Brockley Green.

It is indeed a very sobering thing to think of your passengers safety whilst driving, as any driver should. Imagine the responsibility driving this old girl. 9.5 tons, 14ft 6ins high and air brakes! Happy days!

The one's I worked on were so built and nailed together too. By the way, my great grand father listed his profession as "Coal dealer" but I suspect he had a horse and cart and did deliveries!

So was mine, are we related??

This is my attempt on a Merrymaker excursion, thanks to stock loaned me by Tappa. I would say it is a return working from Margate, diverted through Meopham, en route to the some where in the Midlands.

On the subject of tall young lady's, my eldest daughter Heidi is 5ft. 13ins (her measurements, not mine), but she's not blonde. The last time I saw her she was a shade of purple. Also to moles, dangerous things on the human body my wife (retired nurse) tells me. Although not quite the same thing, a few years ago now on visit to my doctor he wanted a listen to my heart. The front seemed to be OK and so he wanted me to turn around and pull my shirt from my waistband. Before the stethoscope hit my back I felt a short stab of pain and heard the comment, "Skin tags, I hate them". He had removed one with his thumbnail!

Yes Simon, I do remember our conversation on the late Chessington. As to the lads from Bonnie Scotland, well they had had quite a journey because the high winds blowing in the North Sea that Thursday and the hotel put the tin hat on it. We were comparatively lucky with our crossing, it only sent us to bed early because it was too dangerous to walk about the ship. About an hour after setting down as best as I could, I was awakened by a loud crash caused by the breaking of pottery. I remember saying to my daughter, "There will be no early morning coffee tomorrow", but there was. My target now is to return to Sedan in 2017, with what, who knows.

In my quest to find our family history I have come across several members where the date of birth was followed, in the same year, by the date of death. The real eye opener was to then see in one example, in that date of death year, another child born and given the same Christian name. We have come along way from the need to have a large family just to ensure some of them may survive into "old" age, but any early death must be a terrible shock.

If you remember a round and round 00 layout in the far corner of the exhibition at Sedan, that was me. I travelled via P & O ferries, Hull to Zeebrugge. This was my third visit to Ramma, taking my daughter with me this time. We enjoyed ourselves as always and hopefully a fellow club member will be taking up the invite for next year. I am sidelined now awaiting a heart operation. My advice to anyone going to this show is, firstly learn a smattering of French at-least. Secondly, pay the surcharge for a hotel upgrade as the accommodation offered is about 20 miles away, in a "hotel" which has a name which may make you think you are going motor racing! This e-mail address may be useful www.cmsedanais.com/ Bon chance. John

I must agree on the Bachmann D11/2 being a wonderful locomotive both in looks and running. I too have had to run one and considering I model Southern Electric, the reason for is that much harder but here is 62691 "Laird of Balmawhapple" on an enthusiasts special to Margate. Why this particular loco, well I saw the actual loco in a timber yard near Bo'ness waiting to go for scrap in 1962. Also may I add a photo of 60084 "Trigo" being "pulled up" at Doncaster in about the same year to show the lamps it was carrying for the parcels train it was pulling.

Feeling the cold and old age can sometimes have another factor thrown in. Since I had my heart by-pass operation I have had to take an aspirin a day to thin my blood, with the result that my fingers and toes are now ill supplied and I feel the cold there were as I never did before. If that's not the only pain in the rear, I now feel the cold in my feet in bed and have to wear "bed socks". Still I'm upright and breathing. "Mustn't grumble".

There was a show at Harrogate organised by the Pickering Tractor club if my memory serves and these days it usually doesn't! I went there with a Hull MRS layout to the mutterings of "You will never be invited to any show every again". Well if that was true, I've not done too badly since, if fact I've had to cancel shows. I even managed a truly professional show at a location to the south of Hull where the organisation was bad, very bad. Three operators we were, put up in different hotels on either side of the town. I got a second invite but didn't go. Once bitten, twice shy. Other people do organise shows outside of model railway clubs, the Scouts for instance! If your not sure you will be looked after, ASK around! To paraphrase Oddudders "Experience is a great teacher".

Been there, done that and it was an even longer lapse of time for me.

Just you be careful, I seem to remember that after two bottles of a good quality Belgian beer you start slurring during phone conversations. Is it beer o'clock yet?

What was it "we" said in the 60's? "Too fast to live, too young too die."

The East Riding Fine Scale Group visited Mr. Wright yesterday, and a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Tony and his good lady wife. The photographic record of our layout operating has been censured under the 30 year rule.

That strikes a cord with me Baz. When I left school in 1959 and went on to the Signal Engineers dept of British Railways, I was amongst men who told me they had left school at 14 with no real education and certainly not in maths. But if you were to ask them how much would a bet pay out at what ever odds, they would tell you to the penny. I also tried them on A3 racehorse names and they could name races those horses had won and how much money had been won by my colleagues and lost! To worn me against the evils of gambling, I was told that I should never bother backing horses, just open the betting shop door and throw my money in, it was by far quicker!

Thanks for the posting, now I've got to clean the sick out of my keypad. Up and down, it went up and down.Up and down, it went up and down.Up and down, it went up and down. Oh no not again...........................

Zippers, Zippers, What's all this talk about zippers. Something tells me I shouldn't do this but what the heck! Now here's a zipper. You can be assured that the only real reason I have posted this photo of yours truly is to announce that after seeing the specialist this morning, I shall be returning to his tender care in about 18 weeks for round two. He intends to fit me with a metal valve which may also include a pacemaker. Evidently during my first operation in 2008 the odds were 100 to 1 on my surviving, this time they will be 30 to 1. Get your bets placed before the odds shorten any further. I'm not "that" worried, at the moment, as the song says "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever will be) but I don't want to go to Wembley!! P.S. Thanks to all those who have sent messages of support.

Before the bird watchers tear you to pieces, something I learnt on Qi, one sex of owls do the twiting and the other does the whooing. Not both unless it happens to be a "substantial rebuild or not to original specification" sort of a person sometimes seen at some shows.

As I read this posting and the subsequent one on car's instruments, it made me think back to the time I acquired a set of what were beer mats. I laminated them together and stuck on the rear a couple of fridge magnetic strips. Then on a Morris Minor rally in Southern Ireland, I left our car with this over the central speedometer.

I went down the same road when I got Ken Gibbons to build me one of Charlie's kits. This one is on it's second power bogie having worn out the first one on "Brockley Green S.E.4." in it's E.M. guise. Now it runs on "Meopham East Junction" with a "Black Beetle" power plant.

When I tried to point out the same to a driver preparing to leave his car across my garage entrance, I was told "It's not your private piece of road." My reply was "Quite right and it's not your's either!".

I bought a couple of bottles about two months ago at Morrisons in Beverley for a £1 each. Very nice.