tetsudofan

Received my train tickets on Friday for Manchester on December 7th and have been told that the tickets for the Manchester Show (already paid for) will be distributed on the train. The train leaves Kings Cross at 08:15 and is due to arrive in Manchester at 13:12 via Rutland, Leicestershire and Derbyshire before crossing the Pennines via the Hope Valley Line. The original plan was to arrive and leave from Manchester Piccadilly but this has now been changed to Manchester Victoria (due to the non-availability of a full-length platform at Piccadilly at the required times) which means a longer walk (or tram ride) to get to the show venue. Departure from Manchester Victoria is timed for 17:35 arriving back at Kings Cross at 22:09. DB is the TOC so be interesting to see what the motive power will be. Last trip up the east coast was behind a Cl.90 but that was all under the wires to Durham. Not sure if all the journey across to Manchester is under the wires. Its going to be a long day leaving home on the 05:59 Highspeed to St. Pancras. Could catch the next Highspeed an hour later but that would be pushing it a bit just in case something happens enroute so taking the earlier train will give me plenty of time to relax and amble across the road to the Golden Arches for a coffee and muffin before heading to Kings Cross and a proper Great British Breakfast on the train as it makes its way north. Should be a good day!! Keith

Already booked my ticket and a seat on the UK Railtours charter …… even though it does mean having to start my journey by catching the 6:02am Southeastern Highspeed to St.Pancras! Keith

Have just checked my models, I don't have W194W but I do have a W196W in the same colour scheme which is Hornby catalogue number R4100B. If you want something similar but different you could, for instance, find a maroon and cream version, look for R4187 (W195W) or R4187A (W192W) or, as mentioned above, look for one of the Bachman models. Keith

Email received from Hornby today, Huntley & Palmers Peckett W4 Works Freight Pack has arrived at the warehouse. Keith

Black/silver version pre-ordered, keep my black/silver Bulleid and LMS diesels company. The sound project does sound good, like the Swiss whistle as well. Keith

Just seen the Dakota and three accompanying Spitfires etc. passing over on their way to Dover to drop their poppys. Very impressive. Keith

Over the years I've made a number of trips to Berlin. Back around 1980 I was working for European Asian Bank in Hamburg and was sent off to spend a weekend in West Berlin with an afternoon coach trip to East Berlin via Check Point Charlie. During the course of the weekend took some pictures from both sides of the wall. Most scary thing was taking off from West Berlin on the Sunday evening, looking out of the window and seeing the complete ring of searchlights around West Berlin. Next trip to Berlin was in the late 1990s when I hoped to revisit some of the places I saw on my first visit but didn't manage to see much as I had spent nearly two days and nights flying from Hawaii to Berlin via Minneapolis (with 7 hour layover) and Amsterdam and, as a result, felt like a zombie not having had much sleep. Did manage to revisit Check Point Charlie as was staying at the Hilton Hotel just round the corner (on the east side) from the check point. Last trip to Berlin was just over three years ago when I went back much better prepared taking with me many of the pictures I had taken on my first visit. Spent a very interesting morning at the Berlin Wall Memorial and got chatting with one of the staff who hailed from the East. Showed her all my pictures and she was able to identify where all the pictures were taken. We got talking and asked her what the biggest change had been for her after the fall of the Wall to which she replied "the freedom to do things that she wants to do". The rest of the day was spent visiting all the places that I saw on my first trip and trying to do some "then and now" pictures. Keith

Seeing all the codes reminds me of my time with The Chartered Bank (now Standard Chartered) in Hong Kong in 1966/67 when one of my jobs was Telegrams Officer. Had to be up at the crack of dawn to decode all the messages received overnight from Head Office in London for presentation to the Branch Manager at 9:00am. In many cases it just meant deciphering the first word in the message to authenticate the message but in the case of strictly private and confidential messages it meant deciphering each word for which purpose there was a big code book which had to be kept under lock and key when not in use. The day finished decoding all the outgoing messages. It was a long day!! Keith

…. and delivered by Postie at 10:15 this morning . Keith

Order placed at 14:14, order fulfilled and passed to the mailing room at 14:22. Keith

Evening all, looks as though tomorrow I may be making my first ride on a white worm..... but only a short journey from Sevenoaks to Swanley to attend EXPONG. Normally the journey from here means a trip to Ashford Intl. and then change to a Swanley train via Maidstone but when I looked at the offerings on the National Rail Planner, as well as the hourly service via Maidstone, there was a second option (on the noon train only) which involved a change of train at Sevenoaks instead of Ashford Intl. Further investigation showed that the Sevenoaks to Swanley service is provided by Thameslink and Great Northern TL so I presume this means a white worm. I'll find out tomorrow if it is a white worm. Keith

Talking about hypodermic needles I have no problems getting the things stuck in me as long as I don't see the needle going in when being used on me. Have no problems seeing needles being stuck in others. All goes back to the 1980s when I had a liver biopsy and saw this great big needle coming out and went into shock. Got rolled over and jabbed in the backside to calm me down. Keith

Tenshodo is a model railway shop just off the Ginza in Tokyo. Ground floor is a high end jewellery and watch store with rest of the building being dedicated to model railways . The shop is well known for their brass models but also sell models produced by other Japanese brands. Used to spend many a lunchtime in the shop when I was living in Japan. Didn't see much UK stuff there but they did have loads of Roco and LGB. There was also an excellent pre-owned shop on the top floor covering everything. Keith

Going back to my time in Japan when aircon on trains was being rolled out as quickly as possible a number of passengers started to complain that it was sometimes too cold on the airconditioned trains so they introduced some "warm" coaches on some of the trains.... Keith

Many thanks for another great report on your travels, always look forward to reading your reports and seeing the pics. Noticed that you travelled out on the 11:04 Eurostar and got lunch. Has this train replaced the 10:58 Eurostar on which you only got a very basic so-called breakfast? Keith

Surely its about time that building models of this calibre should not be dominated by the need to go round trainset points and curves..... Keith

Just checked the trains the other way (coming up from the coast) and pleased to see that no engineering works scheduled that day..... Keith

Popped into my local out-of-town Sainsbury's for the weekly shop this morning, decided to pick up a copy of the Railway Modeller 70th Anniversary issue and plonked it in my trolley. Got to the checkout and was told I could not purchase that copy as it was not recognised by "the system". The copy was duly confiscated. Customer Services got involved and said there was no way that I could purchase the magazine despite it being on the shelves for sale...… The system does not know it, you can't have it. Sent off an email couple of hours ago and just as I started writing this posting got a call from Sainsbury's apologising for the problem and advising that the magazine should be on their system and available for purchase within the next couple of days...…. Think a walk up to town tomorrow to get a copy from the local WHS and pop into Starbucks afterwards is called for! Keith

Fantastic news, compromise has to be expected and accepted if a manufacturer goes ahead and produces such models, think its the only way ahead for such models. Pre-ordered the GNR, SECR and Southern sets...... Keith

Reminds me of the time I took my parents to Hiroshima which included a visit to the Peace Park. Dad suddenly went very quiet which got me quite worried. Had I done something taking them there? I asked him what was up and he said quite quietly that if the bombs had not been dropped we might not have been visiting the Peace Park that day. After the war in Europe ended (when he was serving on the tank landing craft) he was training for the invasion of Japan..... Keith

Agree with you completely regarding the above. In the past I've mentioned the fact that the club is always slow in promoting/posting details of the show on RMweb to a couple of senior club members (who I couldn't see yesterday) who thought it was a good idea that they did post. Was at the show yesterday afternoon with a friend of mine who I've recently got into the hobby and he got three other members of his family to attend. What did surprise me yesterday morning whilst walking round Folkestone town shopping area was the lack of posters in shop windows promoting the show. Thought the choice of layouts this year was excellent, interesting to see some O gauge layouts showing what can be done in a relatively small space. Keith

Neil. Interesting that you are having problems with your Heljan 05. Something weird is happening here to a recently purchased Heljan Cl.33 (the one that came in the Esso tank set). The loco operates perfectly on analogue and, after being fitted with a decoder, can be programmed successfully on the programming track on my Z21. After that it all goes haywire once the loco is placed on the layout. Touch the controller and the screen goes bananas and the loco starts surging up and down. Only way to stop things is to turn off the dcc. Tried fitting another decoder and the same happens. Put those decoders in another loco and no problems so, as far as I can see, the problem is the loco so am in the process of drafting an email to Heljan to see what they say...... Keith

I certainly remember the huge (stuffed) Polar Bear in the transit lounge at Anchorage. Having done at least three trips London, Anchorage, Tokyo (but never the other way round) I also remember Anchorage as the place of hangovers, the bank paid First Class for flights over seven hours duration which meant that our flights always started in the First Class Lounge at Heathrow. Bloody Mary's were the drink of moment those days! … and talking of drinks, TWA did an excellent Harvey Wallbanger on their flights from New York to London. Towards the end of my antics in Asia I was a regular user of "Round-The-World" tickets (normally cost less than the direct fares and you got more mileage points!!). Starting off from Tokyo I would leave Tokyo at 8:00pm on a Friday evening and arrive in Hawaii at 8:00am on the morning of the same Friday! My flying days are over now, flying today is not what it used to be when I was flying. Drinking habits have also changed, no Bloody Marys, no Harvey Wallbangers and no hangovers now. Favourite tipple now is the odd Kir Royale. Keith

Marked in my diary!! Many thanks. Keith

Barry, Brother is 70, four years younger than me. Don't know why but the nurse asked me this morning to confirm that I was over 55. Yes I told her, 19 years older! I know many people say I look younger than my age but...…. Keith