PhilH

Morning all - just had an interesting meeting with the developer of RailSim. I'm helping him develop the A4 loco for it, and he's just shown me the first models. It looks very impressive, they've certainly captured that elusive shape well. Few more tweaks and it will be ready for sale, should be on their stand at Ally Pally. Now it's settle down with a beer to watch some FA cup football on the telly, Was going to do some modelling, but just like every other day I won't.

Usually known as Gordons.......... Yeh, I know. I've gone.

If you've already stepped in it twice then I suppose the next time will be the turd time....

What a tail. He's a bit of a wag is our Gordon.

Flippin' 'eck, had enough of this. I'm on call this week and tramping around the Hampshire countryside at 1am looking for bursts in snowy fields is not my idea of what I should be doing at my age.Never mind, all part and parcel of the job I suppose. It's not as though I've got a good weekend to look forward to - I mean helping Dave with Cramdin and meeting up with Gordon, PhilC and GeoffR at the MHR Freight Weekend mini exhibition doesn't sound like fun does it....?

Waaaay too smart - I'm a berrrettt man - they don't blow off, are waterproof when they get a good coating of oil on them and you can blow your nose on them (all adds to the aforementioned waterproofing) Who ordered this snow for the South coast? You lot north of Winchester need to keep it where it belongs, not give it to us.

I don't like them because I've had to work on them.....!!

Bit of a strange day now Christmas and New Year are all done and dusted - don't quite know whether to be glad or sorry. I had a good time last night with my son, his wife and my grandson. This is Joshua, aged 9 weeks. He already has his first Thomas....

Happy New Year everyone (early as I'm not around a computer later) Hope its a good one.

What goes round comes round I guess - not much sympathy from along the coast when it all went pear shaped for the Saints B)

Morning all - up late today as recovering from a long day on 92212 at the MHR yesterday. Lots of niggling faults to contend with, but I suppose it made it interesting. Still managed some mighty chuffs up the hill even though the thing is somewhat overpowered for what we use it for. I'm hoping to get to grips with the Playstation 3 today, bought a couple of games from ebay. One is a sort of Indiana Jones style adventure, it's in HD so the graphics are pretty stunning on the big tv. People don't have very high opinions of couch potatoes, but, do you know what, to be one every now and then is really enjoyable.

Very pleased about the progress that Southampton are making. At last the club seems to be on an even keel, the new owner seems to be running the club in a dignified, correct way. It looks like the first target, ie consolidation in the league after the handicap of the 10 point penalty, seems attainable. There were 30,890 at St Mary's today, which by any standards is damn good for a Div 1 game. I'm not thinking too much about the play offs, maybe next season?

Hi to all, hope it all went well for everyone.I had a very pleasant time at my daughter and Sil's. My elderly mum joined us, and my son bought my new(ish)grandson over, so it all worked well. Bback at home now, a couple of football matches on the telly, some beer, getting to grips with my new Playstation 3, then get everything ready for a day driving on the MHR tomorrow. It's 'Christmas Leave day' when all sorts of oddballs dress up and pretend it's 1944 or whatever and they're home on leave. It's quite good actually, the lengths some of them go to for realism is amazing.

The old one did, which is why I had to get rid of it.....

Update - made the mistake of taking my credit card to PC World. This is being posted on my new Compaq Presario 17" widescreen 4mb RAM 320 GB laptop which cost less than a third of the price of my old one four and a half years ago, and much, much less than Gordon's Australian garrett!!. Most of my stuff is backed up on my external hard drive so haven't lost too much. happy Days!!

Morning all - I'm going to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year a bit early as I shall probably be offline for quite a while. Once again my laptop has imploded and I think that it's terminal this time. I shall have to work out how to afford a new one, it's something I hadn't bargained for so probably won't be able to eat for a month or two. Unfortunately a lot of my life is on that computer, so will have to remember how I did without it. I'm on the one in the library at the moment, very slow but at least I can check a few things. Have a good one!

..which is just as well given current weather conditions.

Morning - touch of insomnia here so just having a cup of cocoa and a browse through the net. Blowing a hooly and freezing cold here, but no snow as yet. Not a lot forecast either. My job hasn't been particularly pleasant over the last few days, working outside, but one thing I can't criticise my employers about is the gear we are supplied with. We get a full range of clothing etc to combat bad weather even down to sea boot socks, thermal T-shirts and long johns! It's good quality stuff too, even the wet weather coats have detachable fleecy linings so that they are warm in winter. Must cost them a fortune but we're worth it. New toys on the horizon - I've always only had a pay as you go mobile phone but am finding that I am using it more and more so have gone over to a contract one. ??25 a month for two years, a zillion 'free' minutes and texts and a Playstation 3 thrown in for good measure. I quite fancied a games console anyway, so bearing in mind that these are around ??250 to buy anyway I suppose that that is akin to 10 months free line rental on the phone.I'll never get any modelling done now - not that I did much anyway.

As they're on top they must be near the crown sheet, so perhaps they're the Crown Jewels...?

Umm, not quite. However as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, well, it is pretty.

Looks like a lovely model, but I'm sure that there's something not quite right about the height of the tender compared to the loco. Look at the proportions of the placing of the tender step compared to the prototype, and the way the loco top step lines up with tender framing. Is it low?

This might be a good base for 4mm modellers who want a Clyde Puffer - 6 available as at 19-10hrs Sun 13th Dec.

Morning - bit of a mix here weather wise. Just got in after a the food and beer fest that is a sleepover at my daughter's. She and her husband are a very hospitable couple, and apart from having to sit through the X factor (make that sleep through the X factor) it was a good night. We also watched the remake of 'The Taking of Pelham 123' which, despite a not very good reception from the critics, I thought was an excellent film. John Travolta was good as usual, he really does make a scary villain. I spent the day yesterday driving 92212 through the Hampshire countryside, they sprang my driver assessment on me so had the loco inspector up all day. It was ok though, assessed as being in the top category, mind you the 9F is a very forgiving loco to drive so it probably helped me a bit being on 92212. This means I'm alright to drive for another two years, not 100% sure if the interest will last that long though. Gonna do some modelling now (Matalan catalogue - sorry, wrong sort of modelling), enjoy the rest of your weekend

Flippin eck! First one, what is the world coming to. Not up through choice though, off to the MHR to drive a Santa Special. Bit shorter day than normal, hence the late start. Haven't been up there for a while, will get either 9F 92212, 850 Lord Nelson or 34007 Wadebridge to play with, so should be a good day. Straight over daughter and SiL's after that for food, beer and port. Stay over, back home tomorrow, determined to get some modelling done. Hopefully a good weekend, have a good one yourselves.

Morning all - could be a nice day here, the signs are good. Call out going well so far, it's been really quiet since the weekend (that'll be the kiss of death then). We were always addressed by our surname, don't know if it was just me but the amount of distaste most teachers used to be able to get into the utterance of that single word, ie my surname, was amazing. Perhaps I wasn't a model pupil...! I think they were known as Fiveoh7fiveoh and Fouroh6fouroh.Or maybe not.