Peter Kazmierczak

Yet again I've been omitted from the New Year's Honours List. Would it help if I gave a couple of ££ to a political party? Just a wondering... It's almost 1 am, so off to bed.

"Let's walk to the shop before it rains", says the wife. Of course, the heavens open before we get there. "Got any Easter eggs?", I jokingly ask the assistant. "Yes, we've got some in the back..." Wait at the shop until said rain subsides. Start walking home when the heavens open up again. Now having a coffee to dry out as I type this, and outside there are blue skies and the sun is shining.

Our (black) bins are due to be emptied tomorrow - two days later than normal. Must remember to put out one of our neighbours' bins too as they're in New Zealand for three months. Allows me to put some of our rubbish in theirs... (I didn't really say that...) Amazed that nobody put out their bin on the normal collection day, so missed any "lemming effect" when everyone else wonders if they should too.

Did the exact same walk to the local shop this evening, so can add some 3,000 steps to the ones I missed this morning. Folks near us seem to like their Christmas lights...

Today was the day that never got light. Will go out for a walk after tea with my Fitbit on this time...

As Clive wrote in his comprehensive post, BRCW Type 3s worked freights via Snow Hill, though how regularly I don't know. There is a photo of one such working heading past the loco yard at KX in (I think) an old Locospotters' Annual.

Like Hroth (above), just walked to the local shop for bread and milk. But I forgot to put on my Fitbit this morning, so don't know how many steps I've done...

Finally allowed to open Simon's book on the Peaks yesterday; was really looking forward to it. Definitely worth getting, but one or two reservations that I've noted in my review on Amazon. Hope it's a fair review...

Santa brought three Mainline cattle wagons in his sack for me this Christmas. One of his little helpers told me he'd got that for £5 each off eBay. Just the thing for Shardlow.

Probably appropriate, but the only model railway (I'm sure we can mention the "R" word at Christmas) items I got were three Mainline cattle wagons. Although without boxes, they are all in excellent condition and Santa tells me he got them off eBay for only £5 each (plus p&p). The number on them all is M12098, so will have to do a bit of digging to find the prototype. And why appropriate? Ate like pigs yesterday...

Harlem Blues - Nat King Cole

Well, Christmas Day is over for another year. As Murray Walker might've said, ours was a day of three halves... First half: Opening some presents with son and one of my daughters. Then daughter drives off to have dinner at her boyfriend's and his family - he did give me a rather nice 500-piece jigsaw though, of a Duchess at Hest Bank on the WCML. Second half: Christmas dinner; son, wife and me. Then went for a walk around where we live. Third half: Youngest daughter was working today in Critical Care at main hospital. She appeared at 8.30pm so we made fresh roast potatoes and veg for her to go with chicken/turkey. Opened remainder of presents. Ate too much...

What's the one day of the year you don't want the oven door to fall off? Yes, well, anyway... As my wife was taking out the roast potatoes, the glass front came off the oven front. It slid onto the floor but fortunately didn't crack. After Christmas dinner, I gave the oven front a good clean, sprayed WD-40 on the hinges/springs and refitted the glass front. I think the heat from the oven has loosened a screw which made the handle that the front slots into, come a little loose. All good now. Though we did forget the pigs-in-blankets...

Dave, the MR is still "The Best Route", so all is well. Better be off to bed soon as I see that Santa's train schedule takes in most of Dorset early on; starting at Gillingham and ending at Weymouth. Wonder what his sack will bring?

First question is; do I want to model a generic station building or one based on a railway prototype? If so, to which company design?

Are said sprouts HO, OO, EM or P4?

We had bubble and squeak today as the sprouts I got a week or so ago were getting to the end of their shelf-life. So had to make another trip to Tesco (other stores available) to stock up on them for Christmas

Marriage of Figaro - Mozart

Last Train to London - ELO

Ten Green Bottles - Anon

When we lived up in a village in Derbyshire, we used to see lots of bats flying around at sunset. I think we had some in our attic. I never ventured up there; left that to my wife to investigate the rustlings. Talking of attics, we've still got some boxes of stuff we've not opened from two house moves ago...

Though I post on this thread, I'm not really an "Early Riser". But I had an appointment at 8.20 this morning at our local cottage hospital; suppose we're lucky to still have one. Roads were clear as schools are on holiday, so only took 10 minutes to drive there and plenty of free parking on-site. The receptionist was one of the most cheery I've encountered, wearing reindeer antlers on her head. I was my usual grumpy self and told her she was too cheerful to be a receptionist... Saw the consultant, who was very, very good. He had another doctor with him and it was good to see how he involved the younger one in the discussions. Upshot is I have to have a scan in January, then an operation sometime before next summer. As it's on my head, my wife asked if I could have a new face; George Cloney was mentioned... Apparently the consultant knows one of my daughters who works in critical care at the main local hospital. Think the NHS is a small world at times.

A really interesting thread. Some milk tankers appear on my layout, though the dairy is off-stage further up the branch line and the tanks just come into the station to run-round, so I don't have to worry about depicting any loading facilities.

One of my last HST "Castle" photos...

Do they plan to fit them with a Seuthe smoke unit? Just a wonderin'... 😜