Gwiwer

As others have said - sincere condolences Alan and may the rest of the year be an improvement. Whether it is or it isn't remember there's support and friendship here any time. Very wet conclusion to the weekend. Some minor flooding overnight. A major level-crossing removal job on our trunk eastern-suburbs lines wasn't handed back on time due to the appalling weather and causing suspension of trains (which should have returned at 5am after eight weeks) until 7.30am. Some very unhappy Jans at the Palace today - once they finally arrived. Welcome to Moan-day. May it treat you fairly and equitably.

47436 leads the mostly first class HST-substitute set OC83 into Penhayle Bay

Let's just say it does not - as has been suggested more than once - stand for "Gone Wandering In Western England's Railyards" An internet search will reveal this is a Cornish and Welsh word for a small furry rodent which it is alleged I resemble. Those who need to know already know the rest. I choose to use a nickname because there are a few people out there I know I cannot trust, who I don't wish to cross paths with again and who I don't want positively identifying me for various reasons arising out of the past six decades.

Oh Sir!!! What a move. I can barely match that for cunning and style. Perhaps, being Sunday, a relaxing traverse to quietness is called for. RODING VALLEY

Sunday. Red eyes. A half-decent sleep but need more. We ventured out to regular cafe for breakfast and on probably the final occasion upon which we shall both be able to do so. The event passed without remark. Brioche French toast with bacon and maple syrup was enjoyed here while across the table it was bacon with corn fritters with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. Both excellent as always. Regular coffee-maker (she prefers not to be styled "barista") commented that she hadn't made a decaf this morning, which is Sharon's usual beverage of choice, but noticed the large flat white went out with a golden latte instead. Apparently golden latte (made with milk, coffee and turmeric) is becoming quite trendy. And it's nice to be remembered by your regular order - that's both friendly and professional. On the subject of ashes our wishes are of course known to each other. My preference is to be scattered from the clifftops at Botallack in Cornwall (for which purpose the prevailing SW winds should ensure no blow-back!) and she wishes to rest beside her dearly missed nan in Lilydale cemetery here. If powers that be do not allow such things then there are dark nights and subtle visits ......... we Cornish have our ways of doing things unseen along the coast! It's not quite 11am. I am heading to the sofa for a post-breakfastial snooze. Good night all.

In February I dare say loadings are seldom an issue. By Easter they are. I have experienced the effect of XC "decanting" their passengers onto what was at the time FGW. A four-car 220 waiting to go from Plymouth was refused the road account rough weather at Dawlish and emptied. Into the HST which was already full and standing arriving from Penzance and which, despite the significant number of passengers alighting at Plymouth, also had a platform two-deep end to end waiting to board their "own" train. Add in another couple of hundred and we were both late away and loaded to an extent which would be more typical of the Brighton or Bexleyheath lines in the morning peak. Simply not running the XC services because they cannot cope with salt water ingress is only part of the problem. The passengers have to be accommodated somehow. Buses could be used but cost a disproportionate amount of money; one vehicle and driver per coach on the train. Some capacity exists some of the time aboard alternative GWR services. But not when the next train is a 143, 150 or worse a 153. Some Exeter - Plymouth duties are so formed (though not solo 153s over the banks). Four, five or occasionally eight or ten into two won't go. This is XC's problem and they should be stepping up to address it. These storms are not going to stop arriving. Larger waves are not going to stop breaking over the sea wall causing spray above cantrail height at high tide. The cancellation of the entire XC service for at least two hours and more often a large part (or even all) of the day for perhaps the next 20 years will not do anyone any favours. As well the displacement of sets can have a knock-on effect causing cancellations through Cornwall the same and the next days. Farther west capacity is less of an issue but the loss of a stopping train is. XC provides the only service to some Cornish stations at certain times of day. The "business" train into Penzance is an XC working on Mondays for instance when the sleeper runs an hour later. If that is cancelled all stations in Cornwall lose their early morning down train. The only late evening train to serve Hayle (at 22.28) is an XC working; GWR doesn't stop between 19.36 and 00.31.

Given that the business was established in 1946 I would agree.

Overcooked veg is not a favourite of mine. I'm with the "just cooked" school of al dente potatoes and carrots with a slight crunch to greens. Boil salted water first. Potatoes go in on a rolling boil and nothing else goes in with them. Carrots go in five minutes later to another pan again on a rolling boil at which time lower the potatoes to a brisk simmer. Another five minutes and it's time to place the greens (of any / all required varieties) in the steamer / colander / kitchen sieve to steam - not immersed at all - above the carrots and with the lid over the steamer. Allow five minutes and the whole lot should be ready. Lift carrots and potatoes from their water or strain and return to the pots then allow all veg to rest for a couple of minutes before serving. Morning all. More than somewhat tired here. A mighty effort saw the house, drive and hobby area thoroughly cleaned and tidied ready for today's event. Fifteen turned up - a goodly and comfortable number - to share chat, tea, biscuits, cake and enjoy the final open-house running day at Penhayle Bay. A lot of effort goes into these days from cleaning everything (house, scenery, driveway, wheel rims, rails etc) to setting up the table with the nibbles. Kitchen fairies seem a bit hard to come by on Saturdays! A thoroughly enjoyable five hours was had by all. Friendships were renewed and in some cases made for the first time. Many questions were answered about our own future plans. Sharon cooked pasta carbonara for tea while I tidied and closed up the outside areas. After a hot afternoon a large glass of chilled wine went down a treat. Since when I have been struggling to stay awake and am about to abandon that struggle. Sunday tomorrow; the seaweed-wranglers are predicting a lack of sun and a significant amount of rain. Between 20 - 30mm they say. I'll take the shampoo outside and shower on the drive

Those pictures turned out all right Peter. I still can't get used to using a phone to take pictures since my point 'n' shoot died but seeing yours gives me some ideas for angles I haven't used and where the SLR just won't fit.

Best wishes for the new job John. It's a path I too am about to embark upon. The railway is slowly and steadily coming to life and being able to run to something like a set timetable is a big moment. I must admit to hardly ever having used my timetable but that also relied somewhat upon having a second operator which I have also never had on a regular basis. As those here for the first time today would testify it's a huge layout to run single-handed - but it works.

1. Not for long and 2. They might have already had the departure from Smithdown Road planned / intended. 3. Running two sites even for a short time might also have cost the business more than they bargained for.

Good to meet you too Mark and thanks for taking the time to travel down.

The Voyagers were supposed to be fine. They were not. It is too late now to alter the design of the 800/801 classes just as it was to alter the 220/221 once the problem with the sea wall manifested itself. I'm preaching to the choir here but to have another major train fleet unable to cope with fairly regular and normal rough weather on a key part of the route is simply unacceptable. We might as well close the line west of Exeter every time the wind gets up. In the long term that will do far more harm than good to the railway and will discourage business. But as I said I'm preaching to the wrong people in here; we know already.

How many stand-by locos do you want? One? With a single driver? Able to cover no more than six round trips Exeter - Newton Abbot at best, more likely only four in a shift. And that assumes both are in the correct position at the right time. One with two or three drivers to offer continuous assistance across most of an operating day? The £££ start to rack up. Still only a single loco. Still only able to assist one train at a time. Still not able to cover all the XC duties and perhaps not even half depending on timetabling and shunting time. Two locos with crew to cover the operating day? Now we're talking serious money. And effectively paying spot-hire fees as this sort of assistance wold only be required on an occasional and unpredictable basis. You might get 24 - 48 hours warning. Or conditions may be better or worse than anticipated meaning you're paying when you don't really need to (and delaying / disrupting the service) or caught with your brake hoses down if you don't hire and the line is closed to Vomit Comets. Not a call I'd want to have to make. And we still don't know for sure that the new GWR Hitachi trains will safely pass the salt-water wash facility. The situation stands to get worse before it gets better.

Having seen both brands I am happy that I own Hornby and not Oxford. I believe I made the correct choice.

Many thanks to all who came along, regular visitors and new faces alike. Fifteen of us, about as many as the layout can accommodate happily without taking turns, enjoyed quite a warm afternoon which just about remained comfortable enough given a mid-session tea break. Most trains played nice most of the time and the only technical glitches were a couple of heat-related issues with points reluctant to change and the lighting transformer tripping out and refusing to trip back in again. From past experience it will take until well into the evening for that to occur. The main Morley controller has a cooling fan fitted which certainly earned its keep today; the top panel of the controller was very hot indeed making me wonder how long until it too tripped out. It never did. Good things, Morley controllers. As ever I was too busy at the panel and with general hosting duties to grab photos of the day itself. I'll take some of the trains which were presented for service and add them here later. Provisionally at this stage Friday March 31st after 7pm and all day Saturday April 1st between 10am and 10pm are set aside for an anything-goes final fling. If it runs on DC and OO track you're welcome to bring it along and run / photograph it on the layout. I'll have some of my non-WR collection out and about too. SR EMU sets running mysteriously bereft of a third rail, multi-headers on the branch, the Australian stock of which one loco has already made two trips to the UK and anything else I can find to play with. There are a few weeks of occasional running left. But today was the final open-house for the normal WR stock in front of a crowd. With thanks to Sharon for providing catering assistance despite being absent from the afternoon on other business. And with thanks to all who made today as friendly and enjoyable as always.

Not only Hattons. The moral of that tale is to shop around. Hattons' prices will be governed to an extent by the big suppliers and permitted discounting. The playing field is a bit more level than it was a couple of years ago. I suspect they are also factoring in the overheads of now running a distribution warehouse as opposed to a high street shop. But I still found a better deal on a NSE-liveried 50 of the most recent batch outside my regular haunts when at least most of the big names, including Hattons, had it listed at much the same somewhat higher price.

Reality came home with a vengeance today. I was woken at 7am by the sounds of a large semi-trailer carrying a 40-foot container reversing into position in our small court. The neighbours are leaving for the Netherlands. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the final open-house running session for Penhayle Bay featuring only BR Western Region trains. In a very few weeks time I too shall be leaving for London with as much as will fit into a container and our future new home. Penhayle Bay, at least in its present operable form, will be no more. I know of a comfortable number of people coming. There are sometimes a few who just arrive and are equally welcome. The forecast is a sunny 30C which will make it on the warmer side but there is a shaded seating area under one of our larger trees outside and indoors is air conditioned. In addition to running Penhayle Bay the portable N-scale Boghouses project, which is not currently operable, will be on static display. This is coming to the UK with me along with some sections of Penhayle Bay.

Yesterday's visit by the arborists provided a large stack of logs for future firewood. Today it was my job to move that lot from the footpath outside the front around to the log pile at the back of the house. I counted 56 trips with mostly 2 logs at a time though a few were larger and carried singly and a few smaller and could be managed three-at-a-time. Out of interest I weighted one load - two average sized logs - and found them to each be 11kgs. So 56x22kgs (on average) 1232kgs of logs carried and stacked. Or something above a tonne. That's a fair amount of carrying and stacking in 27C. I have awarded myself a glass of ice-cold Chardonnay with some cheesen bikkies.

I'm sure they have their eyes wide open. They are a Dutch couple who moved here 21 years ago and had their family here. All four are fully bilingual and have made increasingly frequent trips "back home" in recent times. The springboard was daughter leaving home for university at much the same time as father being offered a job through his brother who never left their home country. The container has just left on its long journey north. We are meeting in London during June and have tentative plans for a holiday together in Cornwall during the Autumn subject to us all getting the required leave.

Oss. Not sure quite how close that is but it's a small country and these people are used to Australian distances where "close" means "you can drive there in less than a day"

Morning all. Bright sunny day. 27 of your Celsius degrees are promised. Awoken at 7am by sounds of large truck reversing in the court. Think a nine-house cul-de-sac for those playing at home needing a sense of scale. One semi-trailer with 40-foot container and one flat-bed truck used as an access ramp are currently parked at the neighbours' and loading their worldly goods for removal to a small town in the Never Lands near Amsterdam. Educational watching all this take place and thinking in a few weeks it will be repeated here. Todays tasks completed include: changing home and contents insurance to home landlord's insurance (no contents), obtaining certificate of insurance from the car insurers proving 10+ years of no claims entitlement, advising termination date of cover for car policies, confirming end dates for utility supplies, booking the cat for annual shot, rabies shot and international paperwork, booking doctor's appointment to obtain letter confirming my medical history and medications over the past ten years, making and consuming coffee and toast, cleaning the house, cleaning the railway in advance of tomorrow's open day. Phew. And still time to make brews for the neighbour as and when required. Though breakfast in town did get cancelled due to lack of awakening by Sharon G'night all. Sleep well.

Methinketh the gasman maketh promises he canst not keep.

Only the usual nibbles if you want. Plenty of rolling stock here already! I spent an hour putting stuff out tonight and as usual there's one siding too few for what I'd like to run. I could swap out one of the more recent sets as there seems to be an imbalance biassed towards sector and post-sector era.

I like the idea and it does traditionally follow dinner as the next meal. But not by a single hour I'll sleep on it first thanks!