Claude_Dreyfus

All of which I agree with. This raises the argument (again) for at least some England friendlies to be played at grounds other than Wembley; Villa Park, Old Trafford, Anfield, Elland Road, St James' Park etc. I do agree a wider spread of venues for non-competitive matches woudl help generate more interest in the team. Apparently this has been discounted as the debts incurred by the construction of Wembley need to be paid off first - still another 7 or 8 years to go on that - according to the papers anyway...

Well, there was, but I thought they used to operate out of Stanstead...

Indeed. I don't think the 'filler' between the tracks has been sorted out as yet. In the past Das clay was used for filling in track - that time standard PECO stuff, but we had mixed results and won't be using that again. I'm not sure if more sleepers will be added once the alignments have been sorted out. To be honest it is something I didn't think about, so will mention it to my colleagues...

Perhaps Man Utd are looking to adopt the 'you score two, we'll score three' approach? Would make for some entertaining football, but their rather glittering selection of forwards will need some service from the midfield, or it could be a bit of a waste of money.

Today we were able to have the whole hall for a few hours; full details on the Friedrichstrasse thread. Here are, however, few pictures of today's activities... Next week the club will be represented by Kanjiyama at the Gaugemaster Open Weekend, next Saturday and Sunday.

More activity on Friedrichstrasse; again focussing on the tram line. The target for this session is to get something running on DCC, as well as iron out various running issues on the tram lines. There are a couple of club members who are lucky enough to have some lovely tram models... More details on the river were added as well... Progress continues slowly with 'Ulbricht' Towers, but at least progress has been taking place. It has been in the form of a card mock-up for the last few weeks; however today the first of the 'real' structure came into being, with the first of the frames being constructed... As with the real structures, this building is a modular construction, so the frame work is intended to support the window modules. Within the gaps in the frame will be some clear plastic which will have two functions, firstly to be the windows, and secondly to added some further rigidity to the 'concrete' window modules. The clear plastic currently has a blueish protective film, which can clearly be seen. The individual window modules have been cut out using the club's Silhouette Cutter (so much easier!) and will eventually fit onto the frame as above. This will be the back wall, so the left-hand side will adjoin another wing to the structure, whilst the right will be the end wall beside the railway viaduct/embankment. There will be reinforcing pillars and edging which will cover the exposed white edges that can be seen. Window frames will be constructed from fine microstrip...another rather fiddly job on the horizon.

Visited the in-laws this weekend, which (providing it is a home game) means a trip to see Accrington Stanley on the Saturday afternoon. Today's visitors to the Crown Ground (still steadfastly referred to as such by the fans, despite a number of name changes over the years; currently referred to as the StoreFirst Stadium) were Luton Town. The game began brightly, with Stanley scoring two in the first 15 minutes. Then came a tactical switch-round from Luton, and by half-time the score was 2-2. The lack of applause from the Stanley fans at half-time told the whole story, and the interval was awash with predictions of a 4-2 final scoreline - to Luton. In the event, the game remained at 2-2 (the Dreyfus magic continues to be worked - in the seven matches I have attended, Stanley are unbeaten!), but the signs are very worrying. As can be expected for a club with the smallest budget in League 2, the quality was not high. Basic passing was wayward, and more often than not a pass from a Stanley player fell perfectly for a Luton player. There were enough aimless long-ball punts up-field to make Sam Allardyce feel at home, and there was an alarming lack of organisation, especially when defending set-pieces. There was also a lack of width in the team. Some of their best moves was when they passed the ball to the wing, spreading the Luton defence and creating space for their attacking players. In all, they were pretty good for the first 15 minutes or so, then fell away to a standard nothing short of abject for the remaining 75. I'm afraid part of this problem is down to the manager, James Beattie; who sat benignly on the wall by the dug-out as mayhem ensued on the pitch. There was no tactical change when they were being overrun, no exploitation of Luton's narrowness at the back by getting the ball out wide, nor any communication with Stanley's rather ineffective Captain (who did score their rather fortuitous second goal). A special mention to the Referee; who had a stinker. A lack of consistency which meant a tackle made by a Luton player met with a play-on (fair enough), but an identical tackle from a Stanley player brought out the yellow card. Luton's equaliser came from a similarly suspect free-kick decision (at least it wasn't a penalty award, it was only a few feet outside the penalty area!). Free kicks taken literally yards from when the foul took place (one foul took place on the centre line, but he allowed the free-kick to take place at the edge of the centre circle). Basic, careless mistakes. At least they did not ruin a good game...they summed up a shocker. When we left the ground, the mother-in-law asked what I thought Stanley's prospects were this season. My response? Two words; Be Worried...

The river has simply been painted onto the baseboard as a first step. Once the edging and other details have been completed, it will then have a couple of coats of varnish...

This is some impressive modelling...this really looks the part. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

Well, work on Friedrichstrasse has been progressing well, as can be followed in the layout thread; however there have been some other activities going on as well... As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, the club contacted a number of local primary schools offering a donation of some (new) books about railways; sow the seeds now and you never know, in 15 or so years time we - or some other club - may get a new member as a direct result! So far we have had one response, which was positive, so at least some donations will be made over the next few weeks or so. We had a 50th Anniversary open day back in June, and will hold our usual 'Model Trains in the Valley' on 26th October, but most of our activities have been reasonably local; various articles have been written for local newspapers etc. We are also supplying a stand at he Lions Club show in Chichester on the 25th October - the day before our open day. In terms of shows, Mr Secretary is currently in sunny Swanwick with his Wipers, Fishook and Menin Railway for the Midland Railex. We will also be showing Kanjiyama at the Gaugemaster Open Weekend on 6-7 September and the Horsham MRC show, also on 25th October; a busy weekend for us! Finally, I have managed to get an article for Kanjiyama published in Continental Modeller - the October edition. Lots to keep us busy over the coming weeks!

Only a brief update here as not too much visible progress has been going on. That said, wiring is proceeding apace for the fiddle yards, and the droppers are being added to the tram lines. Last night, we spliced some sections together to get some movement. Good news! A club member's recent recent acquisition did the honours (a Roco model I believe), and managed to navigate the track well. It is interesting how different the running characteristics when the thing is running under its own power as opposed to being pushed along manually. Still, the tram certain looks the part, even if it is an older model. It is now off for DCC fitting... Here it is dodging the various drills and other tools... A very elegant little model... Talking of which, a BR74 tank engine arrived from Darkest Cornwall to take up duties on the Berlin suburban network. Still some detailing parts to add, but a very pretty little loco - ideal for those articulated carriages. We have a full-day work day coming up soon...hopefully some more visible progress, with the aim to have stuff running by our Open day in October.

Been there (before the first of his Stoke stints)...got the chop!

One interesting thing about that table is that Villa and West Brom have the same points tally, the same GD and the same goals scored/conceded figures. Presumably Sky have projected that West Brom will have a better head-to-head this season...

It is interesting how many predictions have Manchester Utd back up in the top-four. Okay, the Moyes era was pretty disasterous, but for me said more about SAF's ability to get more out of ordinary players than Moyes' ability as a manager (although he in no way set the world alight in that line). van Gaal does not have the quality squad of Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal or even (dare I say it) Liverpool, so I do not share the optimism this season (even without European football). I suspect they will do better than last season, and may even grab fourth if lucky. Hull have the distraction of Europe, and that can kill a team, and Southampton may not do as well as predicted here. Palace have no doubt gone from being a solid mid-table bet to being one of the favourites for the drop. It is amazing the influence on a manager in these circumstances and I am pretty sure Pulis will not be out of work for long.

Is a 3-0 defeat a 'set' result for match forfeiture?

Indeed, but I suspect Legia have a very strong case to appeal this decision. As I said, Celtic were absolutely destroyed in the first leg, and well beaten in the second. Uefa have, in my view, disproportionally punished Legia for fielding a player who had absolutely no material impact on the match...a lack of perspective and of common sense that come from an organisation who blindly follow the letter of the law. This is not a straight-forward as the Sion situation a few years back, who fielded ineligible players for the entire match(s). Whilst I don't want to go on too much about racism in football, this punishment of Legia could potentially run into millions of pounds. When was the last time such a fine was imposed by Uefa for clubs whose fans racially abuse players, or assault the opposition fans?

Just as you thought football could not get any more ridiculous... http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28701951 Sure, it was a dumb thing for Legia to do...one would have thought the suspended player would not have even been on the bench...but there can be no way the punishment fits the 'crime'. They were 6-1 up on aggregate and the offending player was on the pitch for the last two minutes or so. Had it made a material difference to the score-line, then fine, but this is just daft! I really hope this was a UEFA referral and Celtic did not raise the complaint. They were annihilated over the two legs, and deserved losers by all accounts. They are very lucky on this occassion, but if it is as a result of a Celtic complaint then that is a very poor show. I accept rules are rules; but then again, this is a sport where the punishment is greater for a player showing their of underwear with a non-approved sponsor than racial abuse from fans. Just goes to show that 'proportion' is just one sense the football authorities are lacking...

A KiHaE131 arrives at a deserted Kanjiyama with an evening train from Kofu.

During August, the carpet bowlers take a break, so the layout was set up in the main hall and the opportunity was taken to use the space we had available to us... Work continued on the tram lines, wiring of the fiddle yard as well as some initial scenic work. Progress on the tram line has been going well, with the circuit being completed last night. Work is now progressing with the inner guard rail, which will take into account tighter inner curves. Fingers crossed there will be something running soon. The eagle-eyed will spot that the river has changed colour. As this will be beneath the bridges, this needed to be done quite early. The walls and steps are in place, and all that is required is some extra detailing a a few coats of varnish... There will also be a boat of some description - probably one of those large, low, river barges, so it can fit underneath the low bridge! Meanwhile, further down the track, slow progress is continuing with 'Ulbricht Towers' This is a basic (very basic!) mock-up to get an idea of the height and overall bulk of this large structure. I don't see this as being a particularly tricky building, just somewhat time-consuming; as it will be made up of any number of 'concrete' modules forming the outer wall. Time for the Scalescenes concrete walling methinks! A rather nice Roco articulated carriage features in that photo. Here are a couple more pictures...they were the subject of much perving throughout the evening! Finally, an overall view with the main track beds reinstalled...

Ah, yes, I think I make the connection now. You will no doubt recognise GRC as well then... See you on the train some time soon then.

Interesting... We take the 7:35 from Billingshurst (Carriage 4) - for me the 7:28 from Pulborough(!) - and the corresponding 17:50 back from London Bridge (Carriage 1). I'm pretty much every day - normally in the company of a loud Mexican - whilst GRC is at best a couple of times a week. Hey, why not? There's a group on the morning carriage who do their knitting, so why not break out the kits?! Claude...actually called Nick as well...

I spent a rather enjoyable couple of hours in the Trappist bar.

Likewise, along with various others. Mrs Dreyfus worked in Brussels for a few months, and would come home armed with a couple of beers complete with glass. I also am fond of Delirium Tremens - anyone in Brussels, check out Delirium itself, the beer menu covers well in excess of 1,000 beers from various parts of the world. My personal favourite is Palm...