Happy Hippo

The sidings at Walnut Tree West that accessed the Dolomite works were accessed by a facing point into a set of dead end sidings. More than a few branch lines had the arrangement you have illustrated, had the diam9nd crossing replaced with a facing point and lock. I R should have known that.

Unlike Cyril Freezer's plans which did tend to verge on the cramped and improbable, Ian Rice was a dab hand at making unique track formations.

Stafford show is always a must do in my railway exhibition diary. One thing the club does so well is getting very large aisles between the layouts which makes the show far less claustrophobic.

I actually looked at the exchange yard and thought some of the sidings would be better as loops. But that is the joy of a schematic plan that someone else has come up with: There is no reason to slavishly copy it, but you can adapt it to suit your own concept. My personal thought on this plan was it was really intended to be for N gauge, especially as it ties in sizewise with other plans for N, that the Iain Rice designed.

If I go, it will be by train. However I won't go if it is a replacement bus service, because I'd have to leave the NEC to get home before I arrived there! For those eager for a weather update, it is now clouding over rapidly, and looking suspiciously like another dose of rain.

I've just looked out of the window to find bright blue sky overhead. In this neck of the woods, that is a precursor for less clement weather by mid morning. Yesterday's mail revealed an appointment for a week tomorrow to attend the PRH day surgery unit, in order to have my errant nail bed surgically removed. (For the second time.) That means I'll miss a Trayne Klubbe meeting, although I might go to the modelling show at the NEC in Birmingham on either 27th or 28th of this month by way of convalescence.

A 36" siding in N or TT120 might be better, but as always, I looked at this as a concept rather than as a slavish copy. As you write, it gets the thought of pencil and paper making contact once more. I certainly concur with the suggestion of backdating it and shifting it into Forest land. Of course, if you had either Dave's or Jamie's real estate (or any other of the country set of TNM) , you could build an enlarged version in 7 mm scale.

A funnel attached to a flexible hose might also be considered. It would enable you to turn around without having to look over your shoulder, when Elvis enters the room.

I suspect in her darkest thoughts, Jill believed it was a repeat of the Polecat saga. Of course, whilst I am girding myself up for an attempt at some of the cosmetic work on the Hippodrome's Doric Arch, I to was having very dark thoughts. Some years back, the late Iain Rice produced a rather natty S Wales track plan called Tai Bach. It is what I would term the American style, in that instead of concentrating on one station or yard, the modeller can follow the train through the landscape stopping off at various industries along the way. Suddenly I was thinking C2 Working in S Wales using blue Class 37s and strings of 16 and 21 ton mineral wagons (br2975's ears have pricked up) but not in 7 mm scale but in this new fangled TT 120. Although for what I have planned N gauge might also fit the bill. Of course, these thoughts were hot on the heels of Bachmann's entry into the 7mm NG scene with the wonderful Quarry Hunslets. And just after I'd shelved plans for a N Wales BR(M) modelling project🤣. I'd best return outside and work the stupidity out of my system.

I've got to get the red beacons in place and working before nightfall, otherwise I will be in trouble with the CAA.

There might be a rose bush in the vicinity but I am reliably informed that the arch will support a Clematis plant. It was one of a pair bought early last year. Unfortunately one was damaged, so the supplier sent us another one as a replacement. Of course with the typical low cunning emanating from all corners of the Hippodrome, the damaged Clematis was taken into the horticultural hospital, and after a period of intensive care, has emerged into the garden as a viable climber. The policy of never throw anything away until it has absolutely no further use works well..... Providing one has unlimited storage facilities, otherwise you end up a bit cluttered.🤣

Sunny Devon? Although there are one or two blue patches where the clouds have fallen over, the general outlook here is wet and blustery. The timber garden arch gets ever closer to being finished. I now have a complete kit of parts for the main framework that just needs screwing together. Once it has been erected, I will be able to add what I see as a number of cosmetic add ons.

A few weeks back we were telling our friends who live just up the road, how disappointed our younger nephew George was, when he couldn't get over to see Wales V Georgia in the RWC match at Nantes last year. All he got was the match programme that his parents bought for him. George is sports mad, and is a natural at just about any game he plays. On hearing this, friend Barbara asked us for the programme, which we duly got back from S Wales. Her son is the head coach of Saracens, and we now have the programme back, signed by Nick Tompkins who played in the match. However, Nick also took the time to record a personal Whatsapp message for George, and said he hoped to see him in Rome next year! How's that for being nice? As you can imagine, George's 'street cred' has just gone through the roof🤣 George and the rest of the family are coming to Italy with us for next year's 6 Nations Rugby match: We already have the accommodation booked and now await the release of tickets. br2975 might not be so enamoured with my nephew, as George has a season ticket for.......... Swansea City

As I was doing this morning on our front lawn. I have to admit that the major indulgence of the thicknessing machine I bought last year paid for itself this morning. Taking 1/4" off the thickness of a 3/4" thick rough sawn board (1/8" each side) would have taken me a long time by hand with a jack plane. Set the depth, power up and feed the boards through one after the other. Then lower by 1/8" and repeat on the other side of the planks. All four boards were done in less than three minutes. They don't need any further finishing before painting as they are only going up as bigger. better barge boards on the new shed. I have to say it was interesting to stand back and watch the wind redistribute the wood shavings as compost all over the lawn. I've packed up for the day, as the sunny, but windy morning, has degenerated into a very windy and wet afternoon with rain squalls interspersed with bouts of hail.

This is what happens when you allow planners and designers to work from home with no requirement to attend site meetings!

From personal experience, cycle tracks are great, until they become shared with hordes of pedestrians who spill over both their side and the cyclists side, and get totally brain frozen when required to move out of the way. Ditto dog walkers with their damned extending leads. As you so rightly point out, the biggest danger area are at poorly designed junctions where the cycle lane suddenly joins the carriageway. The genius who designed this, also forgets to put any access ramps off the carriageway onto the cycle track. This is especially noticeable at roundabouts where roads without seperate cycle tracks have to join a road that does have. This is especially difficult where the planners, as a cost saving, put the cycle track on one side of the road only. No wonder a lot of cyclists just use the road, because it is quicker, and certainly at roundabouts, much safer.

I could save the R&D budget a lot of time and money by allowing Dave to carry me around in a baby(ish) sling. One might say a pedant pendant.

I can't get wound up over liveries. The fleet for Pantmawr North consists of unlined black steam locos and green diesels. The only exception is the ex GWR Railcar which is finished in Carmine and Cream. I do have a solitary 41xx Prairie tank in plain green, although I do have the lining set to add should I wish, and the only other planned green steam loco will be 6690 when Minerva deliver my pair sometime in the future. Both classes of loco do have a place in the S Wales picture I hope to portray, but just not yet! I know I have far too many locos for my actual needs, but not half enough for my perceived traffic requirements. The same can be said for mineral wagons. However, I believe this is quite commonplace within the model railway community

Back onto clearances for passing cyclists. Before the revised UK highway code and it's inclusion of the Hierarchy of Responsibility, I went to a meeting of driving instructors where safe passing distances were brought up. The 1.5 metres clearance minimum for passing cyclists at up to 30 mph is specified as 1.5 metres which we concluded is the average length of a car door. This should be the minimum distance you should pass a parked vehicle, in the event that it is opened into the path of your vehicle, so you have a greater chance of avoiding a collision.* Would you overtake a slower moving car or a horse and rider with only 1.5 metres clearance? Anyone who has ridden a push bike can vouch for the force of displaced air when a vehicle passes you at speed, so the more speed the overtaking vehicle is doing, the more distance should be allowed. I have related before how I was blown over into a ditch whilst at the end of a cycle track. I was moving very slowly and unclipping from the pedals, whilst parallel to the road, when a 44 tonner passed at about 50 mph. The distance between the cycle lane where I was and the road was about 2 metres. When I'm passing cyclists, I work on the principle that I will wait until I have enough space to move onto the other side of the carriageway to pass safely. As for insurance and registration of cycles, I've cycled in Belgium where adults are required to have a registration plate on their bicycle, and you have to have 3rd party insurance. I would suspect the government of whichever shade of yellow, would just say it is too difficult to set up and administer: Ditto the compulsory use of Cycle helmets. As for insurance, most serious cyclists are members of clubs and national associations who provide automatic 3rd party insurance for their members. The other way to easily put 3rd party cycling insurance into place would be to make cyclists who are also motorists declare this on an insurance application. this would then extend your vehicle insurance to cover you when riding a cycle. (The insurance company would probably charge an admin fee, but in all honesty, you can't ride a cycle and drive a car at the same time, so the one policy ought to cover you at no extra cost.) *There are plenty of Youtube clips, where cyclists have been passed by vehicles which are travelling very quickly and the passing distances are far too close. In some cases the video footage has been passed to the police and prosecutions have followed.

I notice the vehicle behind the 17/21st Lancers staff car, is a roads policing vehicle, so it is likely he's been pulled over on the double yellow lines as the protruding load is somewhat dangerous.

That reminds me of the Scotsman discussing his forthcoming wedding with a friend. To cut a long story short, the wedding was going to be very Scottish. The friend asks: 'What's the tartan?' The punch line is: 'Oh, she'll be in white.'

Are you missing the bottom cab step or is it an optical illusion?

Of course......🤣

It was the Trayne Klubb biscuit that did it for you.

One has to remember that modelling the GWR/(BR(W) is a very exclusive and elite group, and membership of such is very restricted. This probably accounts for the large numbers of modellers who moan about all things Swindon, simply because they fail to meet the exacting standards laid down by the Glorious Western admissions committee.