34theletterbetweenB&D

For the desireable full balance you need 70 more conventional 9Fs, roughly 50:50 with BR1C and BR1F tenders. Don't hesitate, you'll be turning round the economic position in China practically single handed.

I am now extemely clean. (Is there a human applicable term, equivalent to the 'Mexican carwash'?) Anyway, that's what I have had, thanks to the copious liquid sunshine. Sirens still audible round and about, probably police and brigade moving from one floody area to another. Some of the road gulley fountains were impressive, just been out downhill to lay down flat a couple of lifted covers. That's a lot of force on cast iron covers from a head that I would estimate as 10 - 13 metres from the top of the hill on which I live. The irony here is that our water supplier has just announced universal water metering, to cope with shortages. I'll keep a couple of bucketfuls to donate to the cause. The funniest effect was the fairly large scale march - or should that be 'float'? - of the wheely bins in the temporary rivers. I'll write to my ward councillors and suggest an issue of anchors. (They get wind driven fairly regularly too.)

Sounds like a challenge for the 'first on Dom's tram' trophy. Pease allow passengers disembarking the space to get off before leaping in to claim the prize. Another funeral today, for someone much loved. It is always so much better when it is a celebration of a life well lived. Rather more than expected of her former pupils came along which was particularly good, even if it did mean a scramble to unclip and stack chairs as most of these ex-pupils were in wheelchairs. Some people make an incredible difference to other's lives, and all the evidence was there today. Crowned the day by getting in, making a pot of tea, pouring a mugful and the handle falling off just as I picked it up to drink from it. Slightly warmed and tender in the lap department as a result. Ho hum.

Appraised by the ratio of published information and public interaction to sales volume, they are a very small supplier, when compared to most other businesses in this sector. Peco gives me the distinct impression that their preferred route for customer interaction is for the customer to go to Pecorama at Beer, and talk to one of the men in brown dustcoats. If that's working for them - and there is nothing to suggest otherwise - then that's a resonable choice even if a little out of step with much of the rest of the world.

Not in detail, but aspects of the generic design. Many, many, years ago I participated in a safety critical systems symposium, looking for the best predictive metrics of impending mechanical failure: helicopter mechs being one group quite high up the list. I had actually flown in helicopters prior to this, usually in poor weather in Northern Scandinavia, and was rather glad that I hadn't known quite so much back then.

No, it's just a loop of knotted string around the free power turbine shaft, that then runs round a pit head winding wheel to get the reduction, and a few bits of line shafting to the rotors. Or possibly the most exquisitely cut gear sets in the lightest alloy imaginable, in an intercooled forced lubrication system that is monitored within an inch of its life for particulate build up. ;-)

That link just hangs for me. http://www.ehattons.com/60212/Hornby_R3195_Class_8P_Duchess_4_6_2_46247_City_Of_Liverpool_BR_green_with_early_emblem/StockDetail.aspx Here's what Hattons are currently offering. All the bad old Margateness I mentioned on clear view. To be clear, if Hornby have updated the Duchess completley to match teh standard achieved on the Castle, I will be 1) interested to know how I missed that, and 2.) looking for the best price at which I may obtain a current standard model of Sir William's Biggun.

I'll just have to state that I radically disagree. Among the easily recognised bad old features are a slightly smaller centre driver, the bogie on a waggly bar with a huge amount of daylight above, the non-existent bit of valancing on the standard tender: all markers of Margate design, and there's much more. I don't know precisely what is and isn't post-Margate, but the fact that Margate's features are still to be seen is enough to tell me it is not 'all new' since the move to China.

My estimate would be a hybrid: still has large chunks of Margate DNA with various improvements made over the years.

The L1 had the totally unnecessary camming pony truck, with a tendency to remain thrown over after exiting curves. Happily Hornby seem to have moved away from this ill-conceived device in their most recent introductions. The 9F has always had the much preferable single pivot plus spring which tracks very nicely. This does not grant immunity from problems, especially on set track points in combination with a relatively fine scale wheelset. As ever it will be 'suck it and see' on the layout to find out exactly what will work reliably.

Liquid sunshine here. Lots to do today, trying to move forward on getting a CoE church building demolished. I am very very low church... To conclude with 'Like a mighty tortoise/Moves the church of God/Brothers we are treading/Where we have always trod'?

From please? I have tried a couple of times in the past for the comparable rear framing component of the Hornby A3/A4 - listed as a spare - and it hasn't been available. The one I chanced on s/h was very easy to mount on an older model, with a few simple modifications to the block, and I shouldn't imagine the LMS pacific models will present any more of a challenge. (I want a flanged wheelset in the rear truck and the advantage of the Hornby frames moulding is that once cleared of all superfluous internal tackle, and with the rear stretcher cut through; if contacted by the wheelset - in a DIY inside frame swinging truck - it deflects slightly if required on tighter curves.)

Wonderful day. A small boy jumped off the organ console into the font - well, onto the font cover - and then totalled the flower arrangement alongside. An impressive amount of mess from a three year. I blame the parents for giving him a superman costume. He was absolutely fine but several aged ladies needed a little help to get over the excitement. He could only have done better by performing naked (we had a streak a few years ago by a four y.o.). An awfully crowded pitch for 22 overs? Is this a sort of 'village free for all' cricket?

Looks bad at Shoreham. Is that enhancement the one where they put remotely actuated mobile phone type 'vibrate motors' in the silicone bag? I would not have believed this had not an old friend currently working in The Phillipines showed me the footage from a nightclub.

I truly appreciate that. Had I not already 'filled my boots' with relevant model purchases back in the 'happy time' when Bachmann and Hornby were ludicrously cheap then I might well have purchased more of the earlier GBL products. Certainly the Director 4-4-0 body mouldings were highly useable, way better than the vast majority of whitemetal kit castings as a starting point to a finished model. The mazac used in the near useless castings is interesting. It's a better composition than seen from typical China production. If I still had access to an XRD, I'd be looking at its composition to see which one they have used.

All the best to those coping with health issues. Had a week with various of friends and family all coping manfully and womanfully with their difficulties. Just now seen a news report of increasing theft of 'blue badge' permits for disabled parking, and by some coincidence I sww the evidence of such a happening to someone in Stansted Abbots this week. Now that is low. What with it being a warm day, I am washing the 'puffa-type' jackets with the special Nikwax treatment. To my surprise I found they had gone unused since 2013, we have had a couple of very mild winters in succession in the Southern UK.. FWIW, when I turned into a room humidifier in this wise, I discovered that a hammock is just the thing.

It's a handsome brute isn't it. Sadly I can find no evidence of one ever bowling up in the Southernmost 20 miles of the ECML in the last half dozen years of steam. I shall just have to buy lots of J50s instead, to ensure Hornby get the message that Eastern engines are always the best idea. ;-)

The service outage, I wasn't imagining the 'Guru meditation' error message was I? I think I'd find "Way to much ganja, Maaaan" more believable..

There's your own insight. Seen this over and over again. For some folks the 'making stuff' is far more than the operating ever will be; and for others the very reverse, operating is all, ("I'll build the vital items to make the operation more realistic as I find the time between or within operating sessions"). I doubt you will be able to significantly change your orientation. Try the 'purposeful' operational approach recommended already, scheduled ops, assigning loads/unloads to appropriate vehicles, diagrammed traction. But if operation doesn't float your boat, that's just the way it is.

Yesterday was fatiguing on a couple of levels. There was the funeral of a very dear friend. There was an information dump in multiple sealed envelopes left in the late friend's charge, released to me consequent on that funeral. The information dump was 'all the missing pieces' of a long term jigsaw. I now have enough plot material - with names suitably changed - to author something Tom Sharpe would be proud of. It will never get written. But at least I can close a whole heap of open questions with tactful answers for any future reference. I never cease to be amazed at the bizarre byways of human nature. Her name isn't Enid is it? The first real job I ever had (while off school on summer break) was in a large retail establishment. There was an extremely predatory woman who used to grab we teens and give us compulsory snogging and fumbling round the back of the cold stores. It was brutal I tell ya. When I came back the following summer, there was no informal sex-ed. She had married a bloke who ran a chain of launderettes was the story...

The only reason for a DCC decoder equipped loco performing poorly - assuming the mechanism is in decent mechanical order - is the decoder not receiving adequate track power. This can arise from a faulty or underspecified DCC system, poor connection of system to track, dirt on track; before any question is asked of the loco and decoder. If the loco and decoder work reliably on the same layout when DC supply is used, then questions may be directed to the DCC system and track connection. How does one of your sound equipped locos perform if the DCC system track output is directly connected to the loco's current collection wiring? (That's all of the track connections, rail dirt, loco pick up system eliminated.) The reason for asking this is that some years back I looked at just such a situation, and the whole problem was a train set DCC 'system' that was on the limit for adequate power output to drive a single loco with a sound decoder. The wall wart that powered this system had clearly had an 'episode' judged by the smell, and was not achieving the specified output in my opinion (no test gear to hand). A new wall wart, and all was well.

Perhaps the staff member responsible for carefully incorporating the white cat hairs with the two A2's I purchased is having a week off? As a neophyte purchaser of the product at issue no 39, has this been a standard feature of this product line? (I only learned they are cat hairs yesterday from the person I purchased the second of the two for, the female side of his family are cattists, much to his despair.) The Hutler Benderson 4-4-0 body I have was bought for me by the same friend and came to my hands already dismantled.

The only UK located person I have spoken to recently about his modelling of Australian railways, is of course doing the self same thing; buying direct from Australian mail order retailers. Every online retailer is a local shop now. Just need that information to generally seep into everyone's consciousness, and we'll be closer to the economist's 'perfect market'. (Or whatever they call it now, very OOD with economic theory.)

At least the socket is in a useful place, bunkers with their typically cuboid void are a pretty easy location for a decoder. Cannot tell from the diagram what space will be available, First thoughts would be plugging in an 8 pin wired type, then winding the wire bundle round the socket and putting the decoder flat on top of the plug. If there is insufficient space for that it is easy enough to create more space. On many models removing a socket from its mounting or removing the socket entirely and hardwiring are good options. (I usually want to get more weight in rather than a speaker, but the principle is the same: remove anything bulky from the useful voids inside the model.) The significant aspect is that with all the wiring coming to the bunker for the socket, there's what is most likely the roomiest cuboid void on the loco neatly available for a decoder location. (If the Adams loco design proves too small to accomodate current speaker designs out of sight, that's not the fault of the model!)

She'll cut quite a dash in a retro Mary Quant wet look PVC raincoat. Headgear, cloak, portal.