brossard

Those are remarkable pictures. Indeed we must never forget. A wise man once said: "If you can make people believe absurdities you can make them commit atrocities" John

Those mints in the bowl as you leave the restaurant should be avoided for pretty much the same reason (no, not allergies). John

All we need now is 3 Yorkshiremen. If you miss the reference you are too young. John

Yes, but those few who survived were good 'uns. In the early 60's, I remember when riding my bike, flying over the bonnet of someones car - no helmet in those days. Still, I survived and am none the worse for wear. One day I was doing sums and the teacher (nasty bu**er he was), leaned over and asked if I had used a ruler to draw the line underneath. Obviously I hadn't so he took my ruler and smacked my hand with it - several times. Ahhh, good ol' days. It was HUGE treat for the family to take the train (amazingly we didn't have a car) for a day out to Blackpool. The first stop was Woolies for buckets, spades and flags. The water was horrendously polluted (as we know now). Mum in her summer frock, dad in his white shirt and suit pants with the legs rolled up (can't remember if he had a knotted hankie on his head), both sitting in those rented deckchairs. The trip was enormously appreciated. Only 2 channels on the B&W TV. No remote. If you were posh (we weren't) you might have BBC2 where you could watch colour programs on colour TVs that never worked properly. John

Before people were literate, those few that could read/write tended to spell words the way they heard them. William Shakespeare is thought by some to be the inventor of modern English. He coined a lot of words and started to standardize spelling. Seems to me that the trend is reversing and fewer and fewer people seem to read these days. Therefore they spell things as they hear them and pick up phrases off the telly. Before long English will be reduced to single letter/numeral words as used by texters. John

Especially my mum.

The English language has been evolving for centuries. I never forgot a series on PBS called "The Story of English" hosted by Robert McNeil. This was nearly 30 years now I suppose, but it was fascinating (to me). The phrase that really gets my hackles up is "The proof is in the pudding" - aaarghhh! I hear TV commentators using this all the time. Of couse, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating". The other thing that annoys me is the glib use of "decimate" to signify that something has been (nearly) destroyed. It was a Roman concept to instill discipline. Any legion or, I suppose, other unit that ran from a battle was sentenced to be "decimated". That is, one soldier in ten was chosen by lot and then killed by his own mates - yikes! This could be an example of the evolution of English where the meaning of a word has been changed over the years to mean something else, like "gay". If I want a bit of fun at Christmas (not Holidays!) time I will pronouce to the family on Christmas Eve that "now we don our gay apparel", from the popular song. For my mum its a signal to go on her rant about how the word gay has been perverted and so on. Very entertaining. John

Mike: DCC, like DC can be frustrating as hell, but when it works it is a joy. It is recommended that DCC layouts be split into districts so that a short in one district doesn't bring the whole system to a grinding halt. A couple of weekends ago we took our layout on the road and it worked beautifully. Usually, if there is a problem turning off the power and resetting fixes it. With our old layout we would typically spend half the weekend on our backs trying to find the fault. Anyway, as you say, it's only a hobby and its about being happy. John

I don't know about the H&M but I take issue with the author's first paragraph. DCC is suitable for any size layout, not just the huge ones. It has a flexibilty, precision and adjustability unmatched by any DC system no matter how sophisticated. It makes slow speed operation a joy instead of tedium. (On our first club layout, the control system was designed by a telecom engineer. It had lots of switches, knobs and dials and looked like it belonged in the space shuttle. It probably worked - trouble was, none of us mere mortals had a clue how to use it despite frequent lessons form our engineer. If he wasn't there at an exhibition and someone hit the wrong switch we were sunk. Not fun at all.) There will be those that live and die by their DC systems (much like those who prefer vinyl to CD) and that is their choice and indeed their right. Just my 2 cents. John

Great post! Some really useful advice. I've tried to use a bow pen on and off but never had any real success. This gives me some hope. Cheers John

I would be wary about this sort of thing of thing. Not too long ago I kept getting calls from someone claiming to be from Microsoft (Indian accent) who wanted to sell me a service contract. They said my computer was uploading viruses. Absolute twaddle of course but unfortunately there are less savvy pepole out there who fall for it. John

(Climbs onto soapbox and after a wheeze...) Get a laser printer, they are very reasonably priced (including a set of cartridges) and you never have to worry about about ink drying out. Colour cartridges are good for 1000 pages (black for 1500). Cheers John

Thanks to chrisf for his info. Back to the drawing board for me and a good lesson learned even if it is annoying to be wrong. Hornby have been vindicated - shoulda known better. John

Thought I'd delete this since it's so obviously in the wrong and I don't want to mislead anyone. John

Hmmm you may be right, never thought of that. Here's me thinking I am so clever. Will check into it. The step details are all separate pieces and secured with weak glue so it may not be too difficult to correct. John

Anyone noticed the body is on back to front? Mine is the BR version and based on the number, the model seems to be Diagram N15 (1930s) (the only version to be oil lit for the pedantic of mind) and I don't have a specific picture of that. However I do have a few pictures of other diagrams showing the groom compartment to the right of the tank. The models pictured above seem to confirm this. It's not hard to switch the body although some shaving is needed. Comments? John

I remember an episode of Yes Prime Minister where the PM approached CGS with the idea that national service be brought back to alleviate unemployment. He went positively pale at the thought of his beautiful volunteer army being sullied by the yobs referred to above. Society is to blame of course. It comes from decades of coddling children and trying to bargain with creatures with no frontal lobe. Kids today have no fear of consequences because there aren't any. If you clout them you'll be staying at HM's pleasure before you know it. Shocking to think these "people" will be governing us in the not too distant future. Stay tuned for death panels and "Soylent Green". Vent over. John

Used to fly a lot for work and I've probably come across most of the horror shows. Now that I'm on permanent vacation I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore. Between penny pinching airlines, excessive security and government charges, any vestige of pleasure has been sucked out of the experience. John

There's an old saying that goes: "If you owe the bank $100,000 and can't pay, you worry" "If you owe the bank $100,000,000 and can't pay, the bank worries" As Jon Stewart said, America will just have to move to a cheaper country. John

I don't think China is all that worried. I think the US Gov't should start to worry about how much debt the Chinese (and others) own. This can mean that the debtholder is able to apply pressure to influence US policies, foreign and domestic. It also means that US policies can become constrained by a reluctance to offend their debtholders. Again I think there is a parallel with just after the war when the US was able to influence the foreign and colonial policies of Britain. John

A great deal of Americans claim to be Republicans, even normal ones that have to earn a living. It's already been made clear that when Republicans say "job creators" they mean the rich. I also hear them talking about what the "American People" want. To the Republicans the "American People" are also the rich - they don't care a fig for the middle class. Honestly, I can't understand why anyone making an hourly wage or even white collar workers making less than $250K would vote Republican. It is said that in a democracy we get the government we deserve. Lets hope the American voters get the message. In the meantime the rest of us must grit our teeth and hope these idiots smarten up. I was particularly angry today when I hear that Exxon's obscene 41% profit is attributable to high gas prices. I understand that when a corporation's raw materials cost rise, the prices that consumers pay will rise to offset the cost increase. This, however, is blatant greed. Oil companies (and other major corporations) get subsidies and tax breaks which cannot be removed because the Republicans won't agree to tax increases on the "American People". Sometimes you want to weep. Of course I think that the Roman Empire in its last days was paralyzed by political infighting, rampant corruption and poor productivity. Hmmm, maybe history does repeat itself. Now where did I put my meds? John

Tony has made huge contributions to our hobby. I wish him well. John

Here's one I've had more than once (I live in Quebec). "Fish and Chips please." "And would you like fries with that?" You can only shake your head and smile. John