jamie92208

Good moaning, it's chilly outside but nice and warm inside, the fire was still a mass of red glowing ash when I came down, so with two new bits of oak is going well. Yesterday morning we went round the village delivering cards. All went well till we came to the 90 yr old Belgian widow and we ended up having coffee, cognac and biscuits forced on us. It's a hard life. However when we got back we had missed the post lady and found two missives saying there was signed for mail to collect. We are fairly certain that these will be our official Residence cards. Wecwill have to go to the Post Office on Monday morning. If it is our cards it's good news and all our rights are now protected. Various decorations and lights were put up and not a lot else got done after that. This morning it will be the market as usual. Regards to all. Jamie

That's exactly the scenario that was running through my mind, with 3 manuals and like trying to play Bach's Tocatta and Fugue at the same time. I would need about 4' of height to be able to see the shed area over the backscenes. Our music teacher used to play that on the chapel Willis organ with miscreants hand pumping. Jamie

A very interesting point. I can run trains on the main line on my own with a bit of tripping from the front to rear panel in the central well. I can operate the shed area alone but can't transfer locos without ducking under the layout, the same applies to the Castle Branch. However it was designed as an exhibition layout. All the panels, bar the Castle branch are standalone with from 3 to 6 interconnecting multicore cables. Thus I could bring the shed panel into the centre but would need an 80 core jumper cable.. i could do the same to get the Fiddle yard and main line panels near to each other. Thus I could operate 85% of the layout from one place. I'm not sure I want to end up like Reginald Dixon on his Wurlitzer though. Longer term we may well get a regular team of 4 trained up and have social gatherings. We are where we are. Jamie

It looks like it. I seem to remember that when they were installed clearances were rather tight so the concrete slab helps keep it all in the rights place. However I may well be wrong. Jamie

Good evening a few more for tonight. First a seasonal shot from my Long Preston Layout. We don't need to run it down here at the moment. The Hellifield twins as they were known, built on the frames of two bogie 'watercart' tenders originally fitted to the early compounds before water troughs were introduced. Then we move forward to 2011 on the 29th March at Glasgow Central. A test train with two 37's and a single test coach appeared, obviously checking the overhead. Here's the coach. However it was two for the price of one. The NMT was in platform 1 and two 334's in as well. More tomorrow. Jamie

Now do I have an email address for the obergrumpenfuhrer...... Jamie

Good moaning from down ere. Congratulations on the new motor GDB. My 16 yr old Volvo V70 now has 182K miles onbthe clock but still functions well enough for me. It was bought as a layout carrier, not the whole layout, but any part of it. It's now an excellent tow car. Like Q, an electric usn't feasible round here with the distances we need to drive and as it does 50 mpg on diesel I'm happy with it for the time being. Anyway we got to Niort and back yesterday and the dietbetalogue was reasonably happy with Beth. The builder got the bathroom floor finished and grouted and has made good advances on the plumbing. 2 dust and noise free days now. Chat with Emily and her Mums to come this morning then various bits of unspecified potterring. Chrisf, glad you got good results from you scan. Poly, hope that you get yours done pdq. Regards to all. Jamie

Good evening after a busy couple of days. These are from a trip to Warrington on 18th May 2010. First off a Pendelino heading north Then a 175 coming, I think from Chester. Then a 66 in a strange livery came into view with an intermodal. Turned out to be DRS's 66414 with a very appropriate name, James the Engine. Then another 66 in the shortlived Fastline livery. Big Jim would probably recognise it. I believe that they went under when Jarvis collapsed. Jamie

You go to Tesco's for that don't you. Jamie

Just to add to my post above this was the inspiration for my comment above. Construction methods 110 years apart. Hopefully we'll have some similar shots of 21st century methods soon. This was in 1910. I've resisted putting up the pictures of the steam navvy and the horse drawn MSC wagons. Jamie

That was the first of your layouts I ever saw Ian, at Warley IIRC. I do like the Big Blow though. Having see the one in Ogden they must have been truly fantastic beast to see in action. Jamie

It will be interesting to see how all the materials forvlaying the Up Stamford get to site ascit's quite restricted access wise. Jamie

Good moaning from the Charente. So we are still guessing about GDB's purchase. My money is on a combine harvester. You could leave the cutter bar on and it could recycle cockwombles as you drove to the supermarket. Anyway, we now have a newly tiled floor in the bathroom but no toilet as yet. Hopefully the tile cement will have dried enough today. Today we are off to Niort for Beth to see the diabetologue. Ms Laurent is quite nice to see so I will just have to be there to help translate. Pah. Apart from that not a lot on the agenda. Regards to all. Jamie

It brings to mind the photos of the GC's London Extension being built. However at this stage they would have been busy laying a contractors line with Manning Wardle tank engines running up and down with MSC type wagons. Jamie

I've got a kit to build of one of those they are nice looking locos. Jamie

As I understand it, the switch will be inserted into the running line in the position that it needs to be when the diveunder is in use. The new Up Stamford can't be built until the actual tunnel is in place. That happens during the blockade in January. Then they can build the new Up Stamford. The switch will be secured out of use for the time being. Jamie

Remember Tony, it's your train set and rule 1 applies, let's have a picture please. Jamie

Good moaning. It's bright and sunny outside but was wet in the night. The builder got most of the bathroom floor tiled, however the adhesive hasn't fully gone off overnight. Fortunately he has some othe stuff to do. I spent the afternoon shoping for various bits and bats. This morning it's my turn to write C*******s cards and then post them, apart from that make coffee forvPaul the builder when required and keep the fire going. We are now back to slow burning well seasoned oak, it only needs a log per hour or so. Perhaps I could try burning politicians very slowly, it would be more amusing. Regards to all. Jamie

Roger Ford has done some articles in Modern Railways about this, along with his colleague Ian Walmsley. IIRCthe use of electricity to produce hydrogen is not a very efficient process. With further losses in the fuel cell, the overall efficency of hydrogen powered trains is not very high. The only saving grace of the process is to run it at night to absorb the base load from Nuclear as a form of energy storage, though storing hydrogen in quantity does produce some serious safety and handling problems. Jamie

I was not sporty despite having a sports teacher for a mother. At a sports mad school thiscdid causecproblems and I hated playing Rugby. However salvation came when I entered the 6th form and was allowed to drop Rugby if I did a cross country of at least 4.5 miles. I actually got really fit for the first time and also got to see the BR standard steam loco, class 3 or 4, shunting the lime sidings at Giggleswick on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I came to love running across the fells. Strangely I was appalling at French coming 23rd or 24th out of my class of 24, throughout my school career. I did pass my O level aged 15 with a grade 6. I now read and speak French every day and it's an esential life skill. Beth even takes me to medical consultations to translate. Sadly, unlike Figworthy, we didn't have any teachers who wore blouses, unless it was in the privacy of their own homes. Jamie

A friend of mine was with a party of American friends in London and they asked him what he was doing the folliwing week, his reply of "I'm off for a week on The Broads" got rather a strange reaction. Jamie

Some of the Alaska fleet head across the Pacific in the Autumn and back in late April. Those positioning cruises can be real bargains because of the number of 'at sea' days. That's how we did Sydney Vancouver last year. I believe that some of the Mediterranean ones head across to the Caribbean in a similar fashion Jamie

Isn't the term 'light engine' an oxymoron when Hippos are involved. Jamie

You ought to have met the two drill Sgts I did in November 73 at Wakefield and then Newby Wiske, 3 haircuts in a fortnight, I was freezing as it had been shoulder length until then. It was dark brown then however. Jamie

Thanks Neil, the daybwas the highlight of the cruise for me. We entered at dawn and exited at twilight. I believe that P&O paid something over $200,000 for the passage and garunteed entry times. They opened up the verandas below the bridge for the day and we had a tannoy commentary most of the day. Our cabin was on the starboard side with a balcony but if I wanted Port side pictures, it was a mad dash down two flights of stairs to the boat deck. It kept me fit but was a fantastic day. When I've finished doing my Random British railway pictures I'll start another thread for American railways from Panama to Alaska and will keep you posted. Engine rooms are definitely securely off limits but therecwere some very good lectures on our last cruise followed by Q and A sessions to various officers from different disciplines. Thanks for that John. I'll order it. The mules are fascinating. The double cabbed early series were in some sort of encyclopedia I had as a kid. They are nowvon their 3rd set of mules. Most of the 2nd set are dumped on the Atlantic side by the lower lock where there is one of the early ones preserved. I do have a photo of it's cab roofs. Jamie