tetsudofan

...... and so is mine........ 🙂

That's all I got yesterday......and the package arrived at 11.30am this morning. Now to read the operating instructions and stick the coaches on the track.......

Two emails received, looks like my TPE's are on their way down here to the far south east corner! Brutus is ready and waiting......

...... and a Beyer-Garratt later this year?

Yes, as well as changing the CVs I left the clips in place, double protection I think!

As I don't have any overhead wiring I followed the instructions on the "List of DCC functions" and: Set CV22 to 0, then set CV's 359/360/367/368 to 63 and the pantographs stay disabled........

Same here down in the south east corner, Trains4U phoned on Tuesday and the electronic receipt from Kernow arrived at 4:20pm this afternoon.......

Snap, mine were ordered and paid for on February 22, 2019

The Hobby Shop at Faversham is showing one on his website www.hobb-e-mail.com

Have just looked at my pre-orders listing with Rails and see that the pre-order for my Cl.92 has appeared twice for the same loco but on different pages. One shows an estimated price of £249.99, deposit paid £30.00, estimated balance £219.99 Other shows an estimated price of £279.99, deposit paid £0.00, estimated balance £279.99 Nothing has hit my credit card yet, be interesting to see what does appear.....

92038 arrived a short time ago, all seems to be ok. Bit confused at first as the packing list shows: "92038 DCC sound fitted Face Moisturiser with Vitamin E, Night Cream with Blueberry Extract and Organic Face Serum with Coffee Oil Dropper" Checked the box and pleased to advise that it only contains 92038, no sign whatsoever of the Face Moisturiser etc......... Now that 92032/92036/92038 have arrived just waiting for 92015 to arrive in due course from Rails. In the meantime must start loading them on to my Z21 ...... Something to keep me busy over the festive season.

Yesterday at 17:39 an email was received from Accurascale advising that my 92032 was on its way to me. Taking into account the time of the year and everything going on in the outside world my immediate thought was that if I was lucky 92032 might be delivered by this coming Saturday. However, much to my surprise I was to be lucky: - at 20:07 last night the parcel was collected by DHL - at 08:20 this morning the parcel was at the delivery depot somewhere in Kent - at 09:20 the parcel was out for delivery - at 15:58 the parcel was delivered by DHL to my home on the southeast Kent coast For the package to be delivered in under 24 hours at this time of the year is just fantastic. Many thanks Accurascale for packing and dispatching 92032 so quickly and DHL for delivering it to my home within 24 hours. Now I've got to digest the paperwork that accompanied the model........ somewhat more detailed than what came with the purchase of my first dcc sound-fitted locomotive - a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotive produced by Broadway Limited around 20 years ago. Things in the dcc sound market have changed since then!!

I've received two emails from Hattons, first one covering the SECR 4-pack with the second covering the LMS & LNWR 4-packs. This was followed today by two more emails, first one advising that the SECR 4-pack is due for delivery tomorrow by DPD with the second one advising that the LMS & LNWR 4-packs will also be delivered by DPD tomorrow. Now I've got to find where I've hidden the LNWR loco for which the LNWR 4-pack has been purchased for........

Some great pictures of the trams running between Woolwich and the Yorkshire Grey (now a McDonalds!) roundabout via Eltham Church. It's also interesting that the Burtons building opposite Eltham Church (where the trams turned right towards the Yorkshire Grey and onto to London) is also a McDonalds now. Brings back many memories of my schooldays when I travelled from Woolwich to Eltham Church on the replacement 161 bus to get to and from school at Shooters Hill.

Keeping my fingers crossed I've already pre-ordered 4001 in green (having ridden on them from Mottingham to London Bridge I had to!!) now that I've seen the latest EP and the comments made above think I'll take the plunge and pre-order 4002 in blue.

They are returning to G-Scale.............

As I understand it there are two types of direct debits, the Direct Debit which covers a fixed amount which can only be changed by the payer (which gives them useful protection in times like now) and the Variable Direct Debit which covers a changing amount. In my case I'm with British Gas, have my meter read every month and pay the bill every month which, of course, means that the amount each month varies. Some people like it that way, others don't. I do this because I got fed up with British Gas estimating what my annual bill will be and dividing that amount by 12 and sorting out the difference at the end of the year. Normally they ended up owing money. Keith

From what I recall from my stay in Saigon (where I arrived on the first ship up the Saigon River after the Tet Offensive in early 1968) the weather patterns were quite rigid, it always rained in the afternoon. Because of this I was able to use my motorbike (a Honda SS50 for which I still have the owners manuals in English and Vietnamese!!) to get to work in the morning and back home for lunch but always used the bank car to return to work after lunch and get home in the afternoon. Working in a bank I was surprised that we closed down for lunch but this was one of the habits that the Vietnamese continued after the French left. Keith

In the early 2000s (after I left Japan in 1999) I did at least 3 trips back to Japan and joined tours operated by the Japanese Railway Society but since then I understand that they don't operate such tours these days. My suggestion is that you make contact with Ffestiniog Travel (the profits of which support the Ffestiniog Railway) who have operated tours to Japan. Apart from arranging group tours I understand that they are good at arranging individual tours. You can find them on: www.ffestiniogtravel.co.uk I've not used them myself but have not heard anything bad about them. My only connection with them is that I'm a member of the Welsh Highland Railway Society. Keith

I can certainly confirm that....... just before leaving Japan back in 1999 I paid multiple visits to the evergreen department on the top floor and got hooked on some tram models two of which are currently posing on what will be a tram depot/museum whenever I ever get round to finishing it. Both models are brass made in Korea by Ajin for Musashino Models in Japan. Just had a look at the two boxes, once priced at Yen 76,000 with the other at Yen 88,000..... think I was using up some of my Japanese pension fund which was paid out when I left Japan. At that time under Japanese regulations leaving a company was classified as "retirement" and pensions were paid in full subject to 10% tax, no need to wait until you became 65. One of the benefits of being on the Japanese payroll (rather than being an expat) when I was working for UBS in Japan. Keith PS: putting the boxes away just noticed that at the back of the cupboard there are some more Musashino Model boxes ..........

Was the shop Tenshodo just off the Ginza? Watch/Jewellery shop on the ground floor and trains on three floors above it. If so, I spent many a lunch break there! They even had some LGB in a large cabinet on the staircase up to the trains. Keith

I've already pre-ordered a Charles as I saw the original on one of my visits to North Wales a few years ago ..... and as one of my rules is that if any loco that I have seen is produced in model form I have to buy one of the models when they appear. A Blanche will be purchased if Bachmann produce a green-liveried tender version as that loco was seen by my late parents when they visited North Wales many moons ago, Mum didn't stop talking about it for ages. Keith

Certainly different to the buses running around in the late 1970s when I was living in Singapore! Things were just starting to change as I was there when the CBD (Central Business District I think) was introduced, if you wanted to drive downtown your car had to have more than two passengers in it. To help with this prior to the introduction of the CBD the Government created some park and ride systems just outside the CBD so commuters could get to work - all very well organised. Another introduction was a drastic increase in the taxes on the import of cars into Singapore. Keith

Back in the early1960s used to skip church on a Sunday morning and, together with my friend from next door, instead of going to church we used to go for a walk somewhere. One Sunday we walked from Mottingham to the Petts Wood area and watched the trains from a couple of foot bridges in the area shown in the picture above. One Sunday, though, we did get caught. Was walking from Eltham to Mottingham when a police car passed us, slowed down and stopped. One of the policemen got out of the car and walked back towards us. My heart started beating when I realised it was my Dad.... Dad was on a Traffic Accident Car (as they were called those days) and I never found out if he ever told Mum where he found us. Mum was the one who had said I should go to church every week although she never came to church with us. Keith

Having spent nearly 30 years of my working life in Asia (Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Japan and Korea) I ended up having three sets of business attire - for the winter (certainly needed in Japan and Korea), one for the summer and the other for Spring and Autumn. Keith