Mountain Goat

No. You are mistaken. The martians have only just arrived and have taken over a new Phone contract from a well known telephone provider which had moved its operations to India. Here they are during a staff training exercize to familiarize themselves with the new equipment.

Alan Gibson took over from Romford. I am a bit behind the times. I call them Romford.

I think you mentioned it having a 14xx running chassis. These did have a few issues, but there are ways to overcome them. One was that the pickups were a bit weak. Another was there was a pick up shaft between the motor and the bottom pickup plate which went through a hole in the main structure of the chassis block. They were prone to touching and causing a direct short, and as it was not that visible, it could leave owners baffled as to what was going on! This can easily be remedied by making a little sleeve out of insulation tape around the motor pick up shaft (Pin thing). As long as the current gets to the pickup plate below and does not find its way to touch the main chassis block all will be ok. There was a third issue with some of them in that the 5 pole motors were not balanced but the one I had (Airfix) was silky smooth! I no longer own it, but I do have a spare chassis. Not sure if it runs or not. If it does not, I can always use it for spares. Your wheels are interesting. Are they Romfords?

What does she run like?

I am working on a coach from this. In the past I made a bogie coach from one by giving it a new chassis (Jouef Playcraft shortened flatcar chassis). Chassis it comes with has eight fixed position (Not bogies) rotating flangless wheels for pushalong operation. But it did require quite a lot of work by opening up doorways and adding depth to the doorframes etc (The coach only has doors on the one side). Looking at the coach, it is easier to simply cut the coach body to form two small workmens type coaches each having 3 windows each, so I am working on it. If it is a success, I may also alter the bogie coach in the same way. I am not sure yet. We shall see. The locos themselves have a lovely cast metal bodies and looks ideal as they have future conversion project potential.

I remember the GWR 150 celebrations and we saw both a hall and a castle class pass down where we live, and I took a few photos. I also have a badge somewhere and a set of 4 postcards of local scenes to celebrate the event. I did not know they ran the goods train but that did not pass near here.

Why do elephants have wrinkles? They cant fit on ironing boards.

I would be tempted to make the loco shorter just for fun! Ooh. You have enlarged the diameter of the boiler.

It is lovely.

Prosopragnosia. (Faceblindness). I knew my Mother had it. She had not recognized people coming up to her in the street in town when they had later told my Dad and they happened to be his workmates. My Dad used to work where he would be working at first as an apprentice with another experienced man, and then when my Dad had the experience he would always be sent out with an apprentice with him, and even though these apprentices were no longer apprentices, if there wasn't anyone new they would carry on working as pairs together so all the council employees in this field and in other fields would be sent out in pairs. (E.g. plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, brick layers etc... (Whatever field of expertize one was in). So my Mum would see these apprentices regularly because they would be with him for a few years before he had another apprentice and the apprentices would occasionally call in with my Dad if they happened to be working closeby or in this direction for a cup of tea or a meal when they passed by. Now it was one of these apprentices (And other apprentices on numerous occasions who had said "Hello" to my Mum on various occasions where she would say "Hello" back but be cagey as she did not have a clue who she was talking to unless they happened to be working with my Dad... So if she saw them in town on their own, she would not have a clue who they were! Now I get this. I can have entire lengthy conversations where the other person knows me and goes away looking happy... I have tried to prolong the conversations to try to get clues as to who these people are... And to this day I do not know some of the people I have been talking to even though they seem to know the family intemately through the questions that ask (Like "Hows Jean" (My Mum) etc). As a child I dreaded when shopping to loose sight of my Mum or Dad. My Mum would occasionally in a supermarket ask me to get something in another isle in order to try to prevent me through being so clingy (She told me this recently) and I could easily loose her in the store (Even as an adult I get this) and on several times I have as a child I have gone to hold the hand of a complete stranger thinking it was my Mum. I will say about the more embarissing moments again as I need to get things done.

I never forget when I worked on the railways heading a driver tell me about his recent holiday (This was over 10 years ago). He went to the travel agent while on a break and as he had been stressed and needed his holiday to be somewhere that was as distant as possible from the railway he said to the travel agent staff "Give me a holiday in the remotest place you can find. As long as it has a bar and a beach...." Well, he went on the holiday. It involved a few flights in various sized planes and a boat trip and then a couple of hours walking through a wilderness of scenery to get to the destination. No sooner had he found the bar he walked in to see another train driver from our own depot who had asked the same travel agent for the same thing!

Shall I share some of my prosopragnosia happenings? I also can forget names as well so I can loose people entirely from my neighbourhood and I have probably lost most people from the past that I know.

Does anyone else get prosopragnosia? Any amusing or terrifying stories to tell? Uhmmm. I have!

Thanks. I know I don't have to tell the driving licence people. I could not wear then if I drive! Haha. I would hardly be able to see a thing!

What would I be? Long or short sighted? I use glasses when I am reading or trying to focus on the smaller things. When I am stressed or tired, my eyesight is worse then when I am relaxed and not tired if that makes sense? My distance vision is fine.

That's what started happening to me! Somehow they kept printing this smallprint smaller and smaller!

I did not used to need to wear glasses but since the last few burnouts my eyesight deteriated. The last one hit so hard that it is only now I have been able to finish this model as my hands also were effected, as well as balance and co-ordination. I hit the last burnout in late summer of 2019 when I last worked. (The last few burnouts I hit each time I took on a job). But anyway. I am on the mend but it took me about three months to do the handrails on that little red loco I have just finished, and it took me four or five days to do the coupling loops. It is wierd. I knew "How" to do them. I knew what was needed and I had the tools and the parts. But somehow each time I tried my mind would go blank and I would have to do something else. Anyway. I am soo glad I have got this latest loco done as it is for someone on an autism site I am on who lives in America. (I don't normally make things for other people but when she saw my models she thought they were lovely and she wants the loco for her Dad and I have missed his birthday, even though I had plenty of time to build the loco. Hopefully now it will arrive for Christmas for them. I will wrap it tomorrow for them to give the paint a chance to harden. ).

People skills... Uhmmm. I can mask well at times but other times... It varies. Something I was told came as a bit of a shock to me a number of years ago because... Well. This is what someone said to me when he visited me at home, and later when in work (When I worked on the railways) he said "You're a totally different person when you are in work to how you are at home". I know why now. In work I was masking to be able to do the job, and at home I was less likely to mask. The problem with masking is that it catches up with you in mental exhaustion. It is like pretending to be someone you are not by acting a charcter but then having to maintain that act every day day in day out during long hours of work, and often one has to concentrate on how to maintain that mask but also do ones job at the same time if that makes sense? Often I would think "If only they knew the "Real" me", but to be honest, my general character is the same but my boldness (Work mask) or my acting thick mask (This is a very effective tool I use to "Fit in" when I don't fit in when in social situations), when in reality I am a shy quiet introverted man when nurvous but if I am relaxed and happy I am still shy but I am talkative, but usually about trains, bicycles, cars or something else I can relate to as I switch off when small talk comes around. Two ladies chatting about someones left arm or knitting or the weather and I leave them to it. Oh. I have tried. I have tried to do this small talk! One of the most common things people talk about is the weather. (Why do they alsays talk about the weather when all they have to do is open their eyes and they can see it?) So as my youngest brother happened to have a book about the weather as when he was i school he did a project as he liked the weather... I found his book and tried to remember all the different cloud types, patterns and formations and what they are called and what they mean. It is hard for me to remember things outside my area of interest so I thought I was doing well. (Since forgotton most of what I learned as retaining information outside my comfort zone is not easy). So armed with this new information I thought "Great! Now I can join them and talk about the weather and try and fit in !" I waited and then I met one of the neighbours. The weather was mentioned, and I opened up with my new information... I pointed at that cloud and this cloud and went into depth in what they meant. Uhmm. The look on their face as they stood there with their mouth open let me know there was something wrong! I kept quiet and let my Mum speak...

I thought I was doing well to paint the few lines on my locos, but I do mine freehand. Getting my eyes to focus and stay still is the problem!

Two more 0-4-0's. (Actually you have seen the green one on this thread earlier somewhere).

How did you do the lovely lining?

The new loco is finished and is called Sophy. She is not staying as she has been promised to a new home.

While there were good times, in general both school and college were the most stressful times in my life, though some of the jobs I have done came close. I am one who should have been home schooled.

Thank you. I don't have high achievements in my life partly because the collage enviroment was stressful and partly because I have a visual mind so I tend to do maths differently. (I did not know I did until recently). I was also never able to copy down dictation fast enough or copy what is written on boards fast enough, and teachers were a bit fed up with waiting for me so they would carry on and tell me to copy of someone else... But through school and collage, I rarely ever was able to be popular enough to be offeres someone elses books to copy from, so I ended up with big gaps in all my notes, so when it came to revising for exams I had big chunks of work missing. I never said anything as I soon learned from a young age to keep quiet and not draw attention to myself. But since school in the work enviroment I actually worked my way up and somehow was for a while in charge of a department of a store. (Somehow... Well. I actually went for the job of a bicycle mechanic/sales assistant but was soon promoted when the previous head was promoted. The strange thing is that the manager of the store who was a very tallented man (People skills) and very hard working too in the hours he put in... Well. He kept saying he could not work me out. I was puzzled why he kept saying he could not work me out. This had been going on for a while. (I get it now because his job was to understand people so he could manage them well). Then one day not too many months before I left the store he said "I have found out what you are. I get you now. You are autistic!" I said "I don't think so" (But I said it not knowing what autism is). Now that was around 1997 to 1998 as I started working there in 1996. But looking back now I realize how tallented that man actually was to notice that when I did not know. (I still do not know for sure, but it has reached the point where I will be surprized and puzzled if I am not). But that job was one that when I left the store I could not switch off from. Continually my mind was switched on and not able to break away from it. My evenings at home and trying to sleep at night my mind was involved in it. My holidays were involved in thought hoping all was running right when I got back! Now often I was like that with most jobs, but not quite to the extent I was in that job. But looking back I do not know how I was able to do what I did in the various jobs that I did. Here is a puzzling one for you. I have prosopragnosia which is faceblindness. I do not know when I have it or when I don't because I only find out when others tell someone else that I have not recognized them and ignored them and the other person has told me. I do however sometimes (Not always) get a feeling that I have seen them somewhere before and I think I know them and sometimes I do and other times I don't and have made errors in this way when it turns out to be a complete stranger. Life can be frightening with prosopragnosia, especially as a child. But why mention this? Somehow I worked for nine years on the railways as a guard (Conductor was my official job title though we did passenger guards duties so I sometimes (Not often) worked engine and coaches which involved working ground frames, uncoupling and coupling etc.), but why mention this? Well. I would say a typical day I could see anything from a few hundred to a few thousand people in my shift, yet I struggled to remember faces. I did my job through my "Pattern recognition" ability. Every coach I worked, I would memorize the seats. Which seats were occupied and which were not. This changed every stop, so I would count who got off and how many got on, and looked at the colour clothes the ones got on wore. I was rarely wrong when I came to check tickets. What did throw me were if someone got up, went to the toilet but then sat back down somewhere else. I would end up asking for their ticket a second time and people were not amused. But my ability to see patterns went beyond seeing the seats of the trains I worked. As part of the job interview process we had to be tested for colour blindness. I went to this office (We were tested individually in seperate appointments), and the man had this big book. It was the book he used to check us to see if we were colourblind. Now he started me on the first page and we worked through the book. I had to find the letters or numbers which were on each page. Well. I could see that something was up by the mans reactions but I did not know if that was a bad thing or a good thing. Some of these pages I was shifting my eyes slightly out of focus to see the characters. I started to relax and concent4ate eager to answer each page while he was turing them one at a time when I saw the correct charcter for each page. Then when I was halfway through the book where one could see where the book was bound, he was about to stop me but I had already answered the next one and he seemed intregued, and he said "Carry on", so I did. I worked my way through the whole book and finished answering every page in the book, which I thought we were meant to do. The guy then said "I don't know what to say. I don't know if you have passed or failed". He said "Do you know in all my years of working doing this job you are the first I have seen answer the whole book correctly. How did you do it?" (I think he expected me to say I had seen the book before but I hadn't). He said he had done that job for 47 years and was retiring soon! And no one ever has done that!" He then had to have a think. He said that the first half of the book only colour blind people were supposed to see, and he was going to stop me and fail me but I answered the next page which colour blind people are not supposed to see.... And he said "And then you carried on and answered the whole book!" He then reasoned "It has to be a pass because if you were colour blind, no way would you have got the second half of the book right". (He also mentioned how the book worked and no one is colour blind in all colours and yet I answered them all correctly... He was really taken aback how I did it and at the time I could not tell him how I did it. All I could say was "I don't know!" I know now because it is how my mind sees patterns and how I am able to see things off focus and then shift back into focus when I need to. (Did make my eyes strained a bit doing it!) But anyway. I left being puzzled myself because I was puzzled why he thought it was such an unusual thing. He said that he tested thousands of people a year so probably over a million people. The strange thing was that he seemed to view me as the highlite of his career! Not been one of them before!

And now comes making some nameplates and numberplates out of fizzy drinks cans. Which are then painted and once dry they will be cut out and have their raised surfaces removed to display the lettering or numbers etc. (Ignore the mistakes as it takes a few goes to get the letters right with the machine I use).