Gwiwer

I have had to leave Sharon to manage the house hunting. I received "the call" from mt sister at 10am and am rushing to Worthing hospital. Might or might not be in time. More later.

I'm afraid we missed the lot of you due to arriving at London Heathrow.

Ladies and gents. We arrived safely in London on Monday morning after an easy and comfortable trip around the planet. Met as planned by chauffeur who brought us to abode-of-the-week the Coach and Horses on Kew Green. Yesterday we were met by our relocation agent and viewed 16 properties in the area between Sheen and Hounslow and as far out as Kingston. Today we have to wait for confirmation that our bid for the favourite has been accepted. We are both in good spirits and as usual I have suffered no jet lag at all. Once we have signed a tenancy and got utilities organised we can head south and visit my family. Reports are not encouraging. Father seems to be slipping very slowly away with a good day followed by two bad ones; he has not been released from hospital and may not be. Mother is tired and unwell but pleased to have no caring duties at least for now. She has a daily home help plus family support. Best wishes to one and all.

And what does one serve salmon steaks on? Fishplates of course. Which might lead us vaguely back in the direction of the topic

^^^ What he said.

As I said before it would be unrealistic to expect to please everyone all of the time but for my money the Dapol Westerns are among the very best OO RtR locos we have seen. Yes they sometimes had a few minor issues (such as mine derailing which was caused by the very fine tolerances in the design not being happy with my track-laying) but they run well, pull well, look exactly like a Western and in my case are among the most useful locos I own. Other opinions may be available.

It just appeared in the mail and was a surprise. My DoB means my UK "preservation age" for private pension schemes is 60 but doesn't affect my "normal" retirement age which is still 67. All that is on offer is the former Company pension with no State element. And thank you - along with all other ERs who have offered their good wishes and support.

Ladies and gentlemen. An update. I have not been able to read or rate anything in this topic through want of time and therefore must offer generic greetings. For the past week or so I have been burning the proverbial candle somewhat at both ends with genuine ER alarm calls at 4am or earlier and the needs of the Big Move meaning i sometimes am not in bed until 10 or 11pm. Paperwork is dealt with. We are at the right place for our departure on Monday. Sharon may not see Australia again for some years. Matters have been complicated by my very poorly father having taken a turn the day my sister began her respite week in St. Ives. Alone in a cottage overlooking the harbour and paid for, as recognition for all she has been doing, out of funds which have become available to father from his late sister's estate. She arrived to receive a message that he was unable to get out of the chair. Help was sent but decided an ambulance and hospital assessment was required. He was admitted and found to be "critically weak" and with a blood pressure "so low it could barely be measured". Mother has taken this as well as we might expect and is even relieved that she can rest a little. Being a full-time carer when you yourself are 91 isn't easy. Dad's condition worsened for a couple of days but seems to have been stabilised. He is not being allowed home for now as some changes need to be made including providing a bed in the (former) dining room so hat he can access all facilities without using stairs and most requirements can be met without taking more than a few steps. I am told that we do not, yet, expect this to be the end but he is so weak that his body might simply shut down without warning at any time. I should be able to see him on Thursday of next week after we arrive and have completed the initial and non-negotiable engagements required of us. I also received my notice of UK pension in the mail today. That's scary. I must choose whether to take it now or later, and what split between lump sum and income stream I desire. It's too much for Sharon to cope with right now but my instinct is to take the maximum lump sum, the lower monthly payments and continue to seek part-time employment. That should give me the best income against the lowest tax liability. I cannot claim my Aussie funds until I turn 68. While in London I shall have very limited internet and phone service but intend to offer news updates here now and again. In the meantime it is the family dinner in a rather good restaurant tonight in celebration of our move and our birthdays (which are 60 and 50 respectively in the coming weeks) then friends over for pizza tomorrow. Sunday is our last day at home here and on Monday we fly north. See you soon. Literally.

Any one of us is entitled to lose interest. Suggesting that something might "never turn up" when the commissioning retailer has made it widely known that this has reached the tooling stage, they have taken payments and they have, over the long gestation period, always kept us informed when there is news is, I feel, a kick in their groin at best and certainly uncalled for. We who have had orders for, in most cases, some substantial period of time, have not until now been asked to pay a bean towards these locos. Kernow MRC would have had to commit a quite significant investment sum, probably as a business loan, and may have a bank asking them when the repayments might be made. It is not their fault that the first-commissioned manufacturer chose to do nothing for several years but it may have added to their costs. Since re-commissioning progress has been seen to be made if not always rapid. The manufacturer and their associated factory have other projects on their books for which people are also becoming impatient. A large-scale model of an extinct class has had to be made working only from drawings and old photographs which would not have been easy. The details of the offer are now given above though I chose to not discuss the detail in my earlier post. After the £10 discount for up-front payment and the £15 per loco value loyalty bonus the actual net cost has risen by a mere £5. that is over a seven-year period. I consider that to be very good value indeed all things considered. As Kernow MRC make clear in their email the option to pay up-front assists them in funding the tooling and manufacture by not having to service another loan. Effectively it offers the models as crowd-funded items. Each of us is free to make our own decisions. Do we still want one or all of those we ordered? Are we willing and able to pay the lower rate now or wait to pay the full price upon delivery? We are equally at liberty to form our own opinion of the retailer, the manufacturer and every other party with an input into the project. No-one can please everyone all of the time. But for my money Kernow MRC has gone above and beyond to please most people most of the time and no doubt they are as relieved as any of us to see money finally flowing through on the D600 project as this will ensure the earliest possible delivery time for these long-awaited locos.

It'll look good when it's done Peter - it always does. In the meantime best move that Crosville bus around to the front of the station to take your passengers where they wish to go

When ever I have placed a pre-order for a yet-to-arrive item my card is not charged because no sale has taken place. The details are requested, perhaps to ensure you are (likely to be) a genuine customer. An email is sent confirming the order number and value. When the item arrives into stock i receive a notification email then the picking. packing and despatch notifications but not usually any other request for card details. You should check your emails for an order confirmation and perhaps use live chat to confirm all is well if you have any doubts.

In terms of tram drivers route knowledge and reacting to non-signed "marker" points this is generally held to be acceptable just as it is for coach and bus drivers. A tram is fundamentally a road vehicle which happens to be guided by rails rather than a railway vehicle which happens to run along a road. Croydon is not alone among modern tramways in having sections of route laid over former heavy-rail routes and upon which higher-than-road speeds are sometimes permitted. Melbourne has a vast tramway, claimed to be the largest in the world, with two routes swapping from street running to rail track-beds (and one which swaps back again) and upon which drivers are expected to drive by line of sight subject to road traffic signals and to react to braking points according to route knowledge and conditions. There have been some reports of alarming (mis)use of speed around the 90-degree curves from the section now known as "light rail" into Fitzroy Street at St Kilda and it is quite normal for trams to approach the city from both the St. Kilda and Port Melbourne lines at significant speeds despite the routes merging at a flat junction and then continuing as a street tramway beyond. STOP boards have been erected in recent years approaching the junction from both lines but are not universally obeyed. It appears the urge to travel as fas as the driver wishes (possibly to make up time) is not confined to British tramways. "Braking points" are learned by all trainee drivers under instruction of senior staff. Much the same applies to the bus and coach industry also when the new driver is learning the routes and is guided by their trainer as to hazards, specific braking points and where to pay greater attention for some reason - which might be a concealed bus stop ahead requiring anticipative braking before it is visible. On the Croydon system change may follow the final report from this incident but I would expect custom and practice to include the need to power off when entering the tunnel prior to braking after a mental count of what ever number to ensure the spot was not missed mid-tunnel. I am assuming coasting marks are not in use as would have been the case under BR - SR for electric trains. I don't know of them being used on any tramway as trams generally must remain under power for braking and auxiliaries to remain fully functional. Many of us would have heard stories about missed braking points along similar lines to this one which I heard from a driver-manager on the Cornish main line. "When you're approaching Hayle you look out for the pub under the viaduct where the landlady hangs the sheets out the back. Once you see the white sheets you apply the brakes. But on a wet day she doesn't hang out the laundry so you have to remember to brake before you see the sheets aren't there ......... " As regards units of measurement London Underground might be unique in Britain measuring distance in kilometres but continuing to use mph for all speed-related matters such as limits and warning signs. No more confusing than buying petrol in litres and quoting economy in miles per gallon to my mind.

66135 at the clay dries.

Morning all. Sunny with a chance of toast. I've managed to struggle through the week with worsening gout but having a rostered day off today looked forward to some rest. Arrived home last night to find Sharon had a friend over as the pair of them had been to the movies. The conversation was rather loud and with a very tired self struggling to stay awake and sensible. I finally called quits at 1.30am but was unable to sleep with their continuing chatter intruding. Friend finally left around 2.30am (and fair enough as he may well not see us again for some years) but I had passed my point of no return and was so tired I wasn't able to sleep. I remember 4am passing with pain in my foot rising to "as bad as it gets" before I took more drugs and returned to bed. As a consequence today, which was set aside for numerous tasks and visits, has been cancelled. I have spent most of it in bed in pain and with the after-effects of a largely-missed night's sleep. I even uttered words ruder than bottom at one point. Best wishes to everyone here. I'm sorry not to have responded or rated but there has been no sort of time to do so. The week ahead is Sharon's last in Australia. We have nine days, seven of which I have to attend the palace, in which to complete everything which requires both our names or her input. We are actually on track. In ten days time we should know our new London address. I'll pop in here when I get a moment.

I logged into my Facebook account this morning to discover that Penhayle Bay has now topped 10,000 fans watching its page there. I'm not sure how many other layouts have their own dedicated Facebook presence but I'm rather humbled that my modest efforts have garnered such a level of world-wide interest.

Not in spoon, not in nip but in a quandary. Harrow. On The Hill, & Wealdstone, North, South or West? I feel the urge to retire to the nether regions to cogitate. FAIRLOP

I have experienced all of the above. A. The motor buzzes meaning it is correctly wired and trying to do something which it cannot achieve. I investigated that by dismantling the motor housing only to learn that small parts which "ping" out before their correct location and orientation is noted cannot be accurately replaced without having a drawing to work from. In any case something which pinged was never found again rendering the whole item useless. B. I managed to cure this by wiring the opposite way around (red and black reversed at the control panel) on one case and on two others discovered that if one changes the aspect but the arm does not move it can be teased into the correct position by light finger pressure. After a couple of goes it either works normally or responds to a tiny spot of WD40 which implies the problem was actually something causing friction which was overcome. C. After a couple of tests with the signal on the bench and learning that it worked it failed to work when connected to the layout supply and had burned out. I uttered words ruder than bottom.

800s? Are we on the same page? They had bulbous noses (yup, similarity here) and large cast nameplates the last time around. Please, pretty please, can we have another build of "real" 800s, or 1000s, (even both?) with new-build Mk1 coaches fitted with Ford Transit diesel-powered air conditioning? They got past Dawlish in almost any conditions. Though not all the windows survived intact

I have no means of testing how smooth is the 12vDC current offered by my Morley Vortrak controller but the Dapol signals don't seem to object.

Isn't this country famed for its giant hopping mouse? I did once discover Mus musculus concealed on the layout. Having checked the tracks were clear of leaves, spiders and possum poop (all of which are regular embuggerances) I switched on, powered up and the train ran nicely until it entered the tunnel. I heard a dull thump, the train jerked stop-start fashion but continued. I thought little of it for the next two seconds until a sleepy mouse emerged from the tunnel portal closely pursued by a train!!!

When we see a series of pictures such as this it is very sobering to consider the conditions under which our objects of desire are assembled, and the conditions under which the staff work. It's worth bearing such things in mind when we moan about price, waiting times or niggly details which may not be quite right. I look forward to the completed loco arriving here within a reasonably short time. And I thank you, Dave, for reminding us how these things come into being and under what conditions. It's rather down-to-earth-with-a-bump.

Well as I mentioned above those which haven't failed totally remain in use here, and of those only two don't power and are in LED-only mode with hand-posed arms. Six others work perfectly way beyond any design parameters being outdoors (though under cover) in Australia and controlled by levers not push-buttons through as much as 15 metres of wire. But the experience of multiple failures and partial failures means I am not impressed overall. Dapol build and quality control has been questioned in other places including but not limited to the class 73. Put simply: Buyer beware.

And hot on the heels of announcing the final chance to enjoy this layout comes the delayed photo-shoot of the last BR-WR "genuine" running day. Not photographed on the day as I mentioned above because it's already a challenge to run the trains, meet and greet, organise the teas and keep an eye on everything when single-handed. There's also not the opportunity to get the exact shot required. But these are a record of the trains offered for service on that final "proper" running day. No attempt was made to keep to a specific timetable or time period. The only criterion was BR Western Region in Cornwall. And some video clips The SmugMug gallery with these images and clips holds 40 files. Please feel free to browse the lot at this link rather than me filling your screens and this reply window. A SmugMug account should not be needed to view. https://gwiwer.smugmug.com/ModelRailway-1/Penhayle-Bay-Final-WR-Running-Day/n-gtw8QB

Though not so easy perhaps to convert to LED as well. Aside from the Dapols most of my signals are Cresecent and are still in pretty good shape considering I bought them all second-hand, they are outdoors and they have all been repainted at least twice since I bought them.

Which promotes my next turn by one according to Stovold's Rules 43.7 (i(13b)) of 1938 A District Dave Diagonal is called for to ELM PARK