eastglosmog

On the black cat theme, time to post some more pictures of my first cat, Sally: This her in all black mode when a young cat. This is her aged about 16, when her whiskers had all turned white and her fur had got a browner tinge, with her bed in the airing cupboard to ease her arthritic old joints.

Reminds me of a friends Beagle. Whilst she was opening the door to her daughters birthday party guests, Beagle scoffed the birthday cake.

In days of old, when knights were bold, and bog paper not yet invented, they wiped their a**e, withn tufts of grass, and went away contented. (as recited by primary school children in the 1950s)

Considering how much paint there is on the wheel treads, I doubt it has ever run (at least, not after the paint job).

When Badger was alive, he and Tilly hunted as a pair. They often dropped their prey in the living room, but wherever the poor mouse went, there was a cat ready to pounce.

Discovered that my mouse catching skills are still working this morning. After over 2 years, Tilly caught a mouse and was playing with it round the draught excluder. I caught it and put it under the garden shed. Tilly then had her breakfast and went back to bed.

You certainly need one of those "20 when flashing lights show" zones or just a blanket 20mph speed limit on the estate. But they do need enforcing.

Seen near Glyn-Neath last week, the remains of the Aberpergwm Colliery loop line on bridge over River Neath. Now a footpath.

Maybe it was a very sulphurous batch of coal they dumped in the tender to get rid of it - the iron pyrite has now all oxidised to give the brown colour. However in this case, the sulphuric acid produced as a result would probably eat away the floor of the coal hole and all the coal would fall into the water tank! Didn't realise that one of the A4's got their valences back before scrapping - I thought all the A4's had their valances permanently removed during WW2 for ease of access.

"May have slight damage to sticker" Either it does or it doesn't. If he can't tell when looking at it close up, how are the punters supposed to tell from a photograph?

There are no photos of goods trains in motion in it, but there is a quote in Smith and Reeve "The story of the Lyme Regis branch" that in 1903 the remodelling of Axminster station for the Lyme Regis branch included lengthening of the branch platform road by 25ft to assist with attaching goods trucks to the passenger trains. With only one intermediate station at Combpyne, I suspect mixed trains did not cause that much delay.

Not a full freight train, but "Branchlines of the Southern Railway Vol 2" by Reeves and Hawkins (Wild Swan, 1983) has a picture of what is said to be a mixed train at Lyme Regis in 1903, when Terriers provided the motive power (the mixing seems to be restricted to one van).

A modern version of a GWR Toad? I thought they were banned because there was only one exit!

That goes back a very long way (and is not unique to Christians). Divine right of Kings, for example, for which King Charles II lost his head when sufficient of his subjects disagreed.

I was at choir practice, heard the news from the vicar when we came out of church afterwards.

Ivo Peters (The Narrow Gauge Charm of Yesterday, OPC) has a picture of an Ivatt 2MT at Port Penrhyn alongside Linda in September 1961. The 2MT is too dirty to be able to read its number. I am sure I have seen other pictures of somewhat cleaner class 2's on the line, but can't find them at the moment.

There is nothing in that notice which says your cell phone has to be somewhere you can hear it ringing - or that you can't put them on silent!

Ah yes, the fun of country living in the 1950s. Outside toilets at school, freezing up in winter. The wonders of school dinners (yuk), bussed in from 5 miles away as our school had no kitchen. Getting the cess pit pumped out at home as no main sewerage system. Still we did have hot and cold running water down in Hampshire, which was a sight better than some parts of rural Oxfordshire at that time, Certainly the binmen were cheerful, but they still are round these parts! What I do miss, though, are ships which looked like proper ships, not floating box carriers or floating hotels.

He just needs some tufts on his ears and a fluffier tail and he would pass as a MaineCoon!

Tilly was somewhat apprehensive of the sound of the bagpipes leading the Remembrance day parade. She retreated from the window and headed up the stairs:

The Irish Republic did have coal, just not a lot of it. Mainly around Killkenny and Arigna, see here: https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/collieries-of-the-british-isles/coal-mines-ireland/ The Kilkenny area seams were generally thin (less than 12" thick) but of anthracite grade. The ones around Connacht (Arigna) were thicker (12 to 36") of bituminous grade. The Agrina mines kept the Cavan and Leitrim going for many years. There were shortages of coal in Ireland in WW2 because their only other source of supply was the UK, who needed all they could produce themselves.

According to my old art teacher, the rubber is the invention of the devil. "Being able to erase your mistakes makes you careless - take care and get it right first time".

Point of pedantry - Chalk is limestone!

You are in good company. Turner, left out a number of gunports in his paintings of ships of the line (only noticed by nerds who count them).

The Pettex absorbent grey litter my cat uses comes in granules up to 5mm in size (before use). Looks the right shade of grey for limestone but I would not recommend its use as such in loose loads as: It breaks down readily, forming a grey dust that gets everywhere. It is heavy - just as heavy or heavier than limestone so if your locos are having difficulty with the weight of real limestone, they will have just as much trouble with bentonite based cat litter!