Oldddudders

Anent the Wenford empties trip, I'm not sure a fitted head would be needed - my recollection of cycling it about 20 years ago suggests it's uphill all the way from Boscarne!

Morning all Grey days with that wretched north-easterly still spoiling the party. Luxembourg was an odd mixture. Leaving aside the limitations of the transmission medium (sorry) it seemed to operate on two levels. There were live djs spinning discs in real time, but they tended to be used for short fill-in slots. From 1961 ISTR someone called Ted, playing several versions of the same song, and declaring the Sarah Vaughan version to be the best. Yet Luxembourg's real income, and the reason the transistors were under the covers for the youngsters, was Top 20 stuff, in which Ms Vaughan would not feature. Programmes of 15 and 30 mins were pre-recorded by EMI, Decca, Philips, Pye etc and so on, and sent over ready for transmission. The recorded DJs were top line people, e.g. David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Jack Jackson, Jimmy SaVile, and included some slightly more cosmopolitan names like Ray Orchard, who added a transatlantic sophistication, and David Gell, with a more jazzy orientation. The pirates did for Luxembourg, just as they did for stuffy Light Programme, and were ulitmately the cause of the Beeb losing the requirement to play a large % of live music, which was increasingly unpopular with the target young audience, and less concern about 'needle time' although these silly anachronisms blighted the early years of Radio 1. A grey cat is rolling on the bed between washes. Very relaxing! Hope your Sunday delivers.

Jock - and maybe others - please do not infer that I have had any sort of run-in with the Big C. At no stage before or since my prostate op last year has there been the slightest suspicion of cancer. With so many of you coping admirably with that wretched disease, personally or in a loved one, my trivial bladder problems are simply that - a minor inconvenience (!) and not much more. I can't even claim to have needed painkillers. Let the famous ERs sympathy and support continue to be offered where they are deserved, please. I do not qualify!

Didn't Karl-Heinz Stockhausen write a symphony for transistor radios? Every performance unique! Sorry to read Grandadbob's sad news. I hope this is a breech into which you can step. Anyway, as my pretty but damaged - in the Purley train crash of 1989 - assistant Mary would say "Well, stap me vitals!" The urologue was delighted to find my plumbing performing really well! Mind you, Fred Karno was about. After all, while consulting with another patient, he suggested I nip off to the loo and empty my bladder, so I'd be able to do so calmly, and he'd measure the residue in early course. So off I snuck, and while in the loo the lights went out - power cut! Came back after I'd fumbled my way about and opened the door enough to be able to see to wash my hands, found the electric towel dispenser wasn't working etc. And the IT was still down, so no chance of booking to see him in three months, either. But things are better, it would seem. So feeling quite pleased with life I drove home, and got a crack in the windscreen from a stone....... Anyway, opening champoo shortly!

Good to know DJ the DJ is still punching. That version of Image did fairly well in the UK, ISTR, but is in no way, to my mind, a rival to either side of the original 1961 version by Hank Levine, which I think was HMV POP947.

I hope you are on firm ground with this, Pete. Had I ever bought such a practical household item as a birthday present for Deb, I am confident I know where she would have shoved it, not necessarily handle first!

Somebody mentioned New Cross. New Crorss is one local pronunciation. In 1973 I had a day off from Control, as I was required to attend a briefing session at Waterloo. The briefing was mid-afternoon, and so a couple of mates and I went to a pub called, I think, the New Cross House for a pint or two. There was known to be a topless disco dancer. We also met one of the Area Signalling Inspectors in there, probably on a half-day. He subsequently became a minor railway author, I think. The briefing session went well, I attended further stages of the process, became a Management Trainee. You can take things too seriously. A few years later I received a letter requiring me to cover the post of SM New Cross from the following Monday, but on referring to my boss, this was withdrawn. I have no idea why, but think the vacancy was due to the incumbent going to St Pancras, possibly in connection with electrification.

Morning all Interesting to note that even on page refresh my bride is shown as being online. In fact she is off making more TIB (Tea In Bed). Duncan Johnson, ISTR, had a particularly deep voice, itself a relaxant for some of us. We had an Area Manager of the same surname, and he would announce it on the phone in a much higher register, which was not relaxing, as typically neither was his message! He was AM at Holborn Viaduct, which, despite being in the heart of London, was a wonderful railway backwater. It was not a good day when developers took over the site, and we got City Thameslink instead. As for the length of the platforms there....... I have to see my urologue this afternoon. Not sure he'll be terribly pleased with progress, but there we are. I think the repertoire of new ideas is looking a bit limited. Hope your week is ending on a high note. Great to see Leopard is back home already. Sherry is noting points for sometime later this year.

Morning all Condolences to Polly. We only get one mum, and your trips to Kew indicate you remained close. Be proud that you made those dates with her, because not everyone maintains such contact when living far apart. You were a dutiful daughter, for sure. Cliff Michelmore gone? It's more than 50 years since I caddied for him at Betchworth Park, and even longer since I watched him, and Guy, meeting Jean Metcalfe off a Sunday afternoon train at Redhill. She was returning after the live broadcast of Two-way Family Favourites. He was exactly the man you saw on tv - easy company even for a teenage boy as I was. Jock continues to stand at the wicket and knock the balls in every direction. Amazing man. Mad McCann and Leopard taking great and positive steps (sorry) in recovery, too, while Mal comes to terms with a difficult past. Some determined folk about here. Weather likely to be a little warmer today, with less breeze. Alison wiil be here and will be encouraged to do some tidying of the flowerbed. Hope your week going well.

Fame takes many forms, and being found asleep is just one of them. It was good of my bride to wake up long enough to take two pictures, really! Bright and sunny yet again - the weather seems to be stuck. Slightly less breeze, though, today. Delighted to know our resident Leopard is already mobile again. When I first saw a factory lettered Zimmer Orthopaedic about 45 years ago, I had no idea their products would become so universally known in the most positive way. I had an hour's brisk constitutional walk with Alison this morning, which is my excuse for having a few zzzzzzs. Her collie-cross, secured as usual with a lead around Alison's not-slender waist, remains a dubious companion, darting here and there enough to trigger some teeth-grinding, and not a little Anglo-Saxon.

Well aware of that, and I removed the Relcos from my layout in 1997 before converting to DCC. But the OP doesn't mention Relcos, or anything but DC.

I hated waiting, 10 days ago. But my op was a walk in the park compared to yours, although I had been without food or water for 18 hrs, despite having only a local anaesthetic. I hope everything goes smoothly and comfortably for you.

Most decoders will run happily on DC if so configured in CV29. What is the problem leading to the decoder needing to be removed?

Off the road blocking the yard entrance again, then Mike?

Great story, Gilbert. At a time when a leading British manufacturer decides no longer to send samples to the magazines, a European counterpart indicates a sound knowledge of good manners. I hope she runs as well as she looks.

Morning all It's a glorious Spring morning in la Sarthe - until you step outside and the windchill takes yer breath away! Great to see more of the real Jock emerging from his recent setback, and good to see Mad McCann feeling like a man brought back from the brink. I hope other sufferers are feeling better, too. I spent an hour on lawns yesterday afternoon, and may venture out again later, well-swathed. Grass has never really stopped growing this Winter, and so I'm stopping hay for the dobbins, as it is really not being appreciated. The green stuff is always preferred! Hope Sunday is treating you as you would wish. I could wish to be at the occasional railway exhibition, and Andy P's list of chums at Nottingham does sound like an extension of the jolly banter on his layout threads. Lovely!

Not a bus collector so cannot comment knowledgably, but I suspect so. A website called Londonbuses.co.uk gives a history of every route since before you were born, Pete. Might help if you needed confirmation.

....Woman

AFAIK, the football park is still extant. Not so sure about the bus garage.

Bus is from Upton Park garage.

One of the things I have been surprised to learn on RMweb is just how many mature chaps have musical tendancies, including collecting guitars. Not me - I am content to let others make music, thanks!

TT motion looks very steady. Well done!

Poor Debs. Her own health issues recently, and now Tegwen gone. 17 is a good age, but so what? The loss is no less. Metheny will be taking on greater responsibilities. Glad to hear Dave and Flavio are on the up. An odd day, but nice after a rather grumpy start, with Alison turning up too early, so she could borrow my cheap scaffolding, despite me suggesting 10.00...... She did not get coffee. Weather is on the turn, and while nights remain chilly, days are into double figures. A couple more like that and the lawns get it again!

The Electrotren ABJs are/were stonking models, and I have half a dozen. Several different body-styles, several different liveries, some dating from the 1930s, before SNCF was created. RTR UK diesel railcars from before the war are non-existent! They seem more robust, and also more reliable, than the more exotic Picasso railcars from Mistral and LS Models, of which I also have - er - several examples. But prices had fallen by the time I took an interest, so they were a great bargain, too, suggesting Hornby did not make the killing the models deserved. I think the last ones I saw advertised new were from the box-shifter in Andorra.

on the run