PhilH

You've obviously heard me playing the thing... Lovely morning here, a wind down day at work is called for I think as it's Friday. Some more out of the way reservoirs to visit then roll on 3-30pm. I think some red wine will be drunk this weekend.

Thanks for the reminder BoD - I really must sort that out - the thing is that's not the whole story. You see there's pedals and um another guitar and amp as well, and it all sort of meets in the middle.....

Looks good to me Jam, hope it turns out ok. My new toy arrived today - even more excuse not to do any modelling! My first Strat, a Mex Fat Strat deluxe bought on Ebay, my favourite shop. The guitar is virtually new and has a fabulous tone to it, so I'm very pleased especially as it was an absolute steal.

Morning all, just relaxing with a cuppa before I re enter the mad world of my employers. I'm sure that they trawl the local asylum for managers, anyway if they did they surely couldn't come out with any more nonsensical claptrap than our lot do. Still it's a nice day, I've got some out of the way country reservoirs to go and give a good coat of looking at to so 15-30 should come along fairly quickly. I've bought a new toy, might post some pictures when I get round to it. What it does mean though is that all of my good intentions to do some modelling have fallen at the first hurdle. Ah well, c'est la vie!

Ah, found you lot at last. This is turning into a proper model railway forum - don't they know this is the most interesting bit? I suppose it's going to be countless posts about 37's cantrail design or other associated drivel from here on in.

Morning all. Recovery day today after entertaining the masses at the MHR's Thomas event. I do feel somewhat guilty as although it's still the railway's biggest money spinner I don't like it much so, despite having today and tomorrow off work, have not volunteered for any more turns. I drew the short straw in having to prep 850 'Lord Nelson', that thing takes pretty much a full hour to oil up properly and you have to squeeze right up inside the motion. I can see how people used to get killed doing this, any movement of the loco and you wouldn't stand a chance. Still, nice early finish and of course one feels duty bound to check that all the young mums are up to scratch.... I also got signed off on the new colour light signalling at the Alton end of the railway. In all the time I've been there it's been run on the 'one engine in steam' principle which has severely limited the operating potential of that end of the railway. Now it has all sorts of weird and wonderful possibilities which we will have to get used to. I do applaud both the railway for financing it and the volunteers of the S&T department who designed and built it. It was commissioned by Atkins as a training exercise and passed with flying colours. Next thing now will be, after a settling in period with Alton signal box manned, a switch to fully automatic operation so it can be run unmanned. That should be fun as there will be scope to cock things up (such as stopping in the wrong place on the track circuiting) and bring the whole railway to a grinding halt. It's bound to happen....

I think you might have got the wrong idea about using Snipe programs - it's nothing to do with being 'really determined to get something'. On the contrary you only have one chance to get the item, you set your top bid related to your idea of the item's worth and you're not tempted to get carried away by keep increasing your bid. If you get it great if you don't you haven't gone beyond what you think it's worth / what you can afford. I use snipe programs exclusively for my ebay bids even if the auction ends while I'm in front of the computer - as I said no temptation to increase my bid. I have bought items from all over the world so these programs are especially useful for, for instance, auctions in the USA which end at silly o'clock in the morning. Just set your limit and forget it! The snipe program will only bid the amount which is necessary to win that item up to your limit. And best of all, I only use the FREE versions of the programs!

Starting to look nice Dave!

Morning all - just surfaced after a rather late night watching some Sky Arts blues week programmes and ,um, drinking beer. Did a bit to the 7mm O2 yesterday, spent more time inventing jigs to hold bits together than I did actually making anything. Got fed up with it rather too easily and moved on to less challenging pursuits like watching football on the tv. Must do better today - however my excuse for not doing much today will be that I'm preparing myself for a long day driving on the MHR tomorrow, it's Thomas week unfortunately, still at least it's a whiff of steam. Have a good one!

Just sweep up in the garage, that'll keep you going for a couple of months....

Morning all, another glorious bank holiday weekend weatherwise (not). It could be down to me as I'm about to do some modelling, and it's not my Matalan underpants this time. Had a get together with children and partners last night over my son's house. His wife is Indian, and she cooked a curry with all of the trimmings - home made chutneys, home made mint and cucumber yoghurty dressings etc. etc., it was amazing. My contribution was a homemade iced carrot and ginger cake which, even if I say so myself, was bloomin' good. Ah well,suppose I better get the soldering iron switched on,must do a bit before beer and football on the telly beckon me. Have a good one everyone.

Morning all, bit of a damp windy start to the Easter break. Weather's not too good either. I was going to take my dear old mum out for an outing but we've postponed it to a brighter day. So I'm going to get on with my O2.....immediately after I've given the PS3 as bit of a go. I will, you wait and see.....honest. That has got to be defamation of character. Me? Sensible? I don't think so....

Morning all. Last day today before six days off (I think they call it IBM time) - I have to do some family stuff tomorrow and drive on the MHR on Monday, but in between: I MUST MAKE PROGRESS ON THE 7MM O2 I MUST MAKE PROGRESS ON THE 7MM O2 I MUST MAKE PROGRESS ON THE 7MM O2 I MUST MAKE PROGRESS ON THE 7MM O2 etc.

As can be seen from the photo we were all getting ready for the Can Can.

I enjoyed the day and meeting up with the usual suspects again as well as two new faces, TonyS and BoD. I even understood some of what BoD was saying.....away the lads and all that. People from north of Winchester don't half talk funny.

I'll make sure I use the extra strength Araldite then.

B*gger! I was thinking of wearing that - perhaps I'll go for crushed auBergine instead......I'm getting my hair cut today especially, do you and Gordon want me to bring some of the trimmings along?

I can lend you some high viz stuff to go with that - apparently these days if you wear this nothing can harm you.

And thereby hangs a tale - it could be only the enthusiast who cares if a diesel loco has the correct JLTRT6FU2 engine or whatever in it. Would it be fair to say that Mr and Mrs Joe Public couldn't care less if it has an off the shelf Cat engine in it as long as it looks and sounds like a diesel. SO - is a 'proper' diesel loco only really of interest to the diesel enthusiast?

That's certainly not the case on the MHR.

Not quite right with 34073, certainly for the first thirty odd years since it was saved from the scrapman - having been associated with the MHR for many years I know the early history of this loco fairly well. It was bought by a man who was subsequently mislead. Enough said.

No - the world was a much simpler place then. You only knew that you didn't want to see them cut up. I even remember a standard tender being done up in someone's garden.

One of which will be the next Merchant Navy charging around the mainlines of the UK in a couple of years time. Does that not prove some sort of (admittedly obscure) point?

You know what the answer is then don't you? (If you need a clue see my post above)

Wouldn't that be nice....IF we had the space, the money to build areas to screen eyesores from public gaze and the volunteers to organise such goings on. If all the people who moaned about preserved railway affairs gave a day a month to help, a lot of what they moan about would disappear.And in any case, it doesn't do anybody any harm to compare what we have to start from with the gleaming, working machines seen on most lines. As I said in a previous post, you can't think only about what's happening now on the line. The future has to be considered, if you don't nthen you will gradually run out of stock. Today's heap of junk is tomorrow's mainliner, as has been proved time and time again.