gordon s

The pillars themselves are 18mm ply with a strip of 4mm mdf glued on. I start with a strip 500-600mm long and just slice it into 18mm wide pillars. The rest is just made up from strip balsa. The string course is roughly the same width as the wall thickness and just scribed by applying pressure with a scalpel blade every 10mm. The coping stones are again strip balsa about 3mm thick and scribed by the same method. The top stone on the pillar is just sheet balsa glued on the top of the pillar and then trimmed to shape. These were first attempts so so could be improved. I just cut a slight bevel edge to them and they're OK but could be better...

Good grief BoD, that's a bummer. I'll keep my fingers crossed that all is fixed. There is room at the inn if you can get here. I'll stick a few more sprouts in the pot... Woodburner hasn't been off for the last few days. Just leave it at night and off to bed. Open the air vent in the morning and the ashes start to glow, add a log or two and away you go. Best thing we ever bought. Just need to find some more trees round here...

Had to look that one up, you cheeky blighter...... You can tell we're all staying in by the level of activity at this time of day. Seems that the roads are still playing up. M4 was closed just after Bristol and before the bridge. Someone at the MoT has a sense of humour though. The diversion was the M5/M50 which I guess is a round trip of 80 miles..... I knew us stay at homes would strike lucky one day....

S'pect you've thought about it Tony, but can't Matthew just transfer the money into your account or even into his new account via internet banking transfer? Sounds like a real b*ggers muddle...

Good grief that was a fun afternoon! Sounds like the South East / Thames Valley got the short straw. Had a call from my daughter last night at 5pm. They had left London at 2.30 and got to Maidenhead, a journey that would normally be less than an hour. They then spent three and a half hours between junction 8/9 and 10 which is about 10 miles. Finally arrived here at 9pm.... The fact that they were supposed to be going to Cardiff is another story... Hopefully they'll continue their journey today before coming back home for Christmas.

Enjoyed the West Ham v Chelsea game yesterday, but the Chelsea penalty was a farce. First, it was a very iffy decision to say the least, but what on earth were the retakes about? I could understand it if Green saved them, but he was beaten each time. It's no different to allowing a team advantage. Yes, players were inside the 12 yard box, but they were not directly impacting play and Lampard scored each time. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Green saved one. Would he still have ordered a retake?

Great to hear you're back on line Phil.... That was some bargain you picked up there! .....but does your laptop whistle and smoke?

Morning all...Apologies for my tardiness. Have I missed anything?.... Still bloomin' cold but no new snow. Just hard packed ice across the drive. Had three mini's over various years in my youth. Real fun cars which were considered fast in the mid '60's. Had a few brown trouser moments though, particularly when you had to pump the brake pedal to get the thing to stop..... Been engrossed in a problem since 6am. Like you Dave, been point building over the weekend with a replacement long curved point, which has been proving troublesome for some stock. Decided to bite the bullet and scrap the old one and build a new one from scratch. Most stuff now runs well except my FiaTrains 10000, which has a long 6 wheeel bogie and little play in the axles. So I've been tweaking a bit here and a bit there. Widened the gauge by a fraction and now about to play with various check rail designs and dimensions. Too tight and it binds on the back of the wheels, too loose and it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. I'm getting close, but sods law says I'll get it right for this loco and the Hornby/Bachmann ones will be an issue.... If all else fails, I'll just have to ban that loco from using the reverse loop.....or sell the bloomin' thing.

Morning snowmen.... Had a few inches overnight, but judging by the news coverage, the UK is going to grind to a halt. Better send Mrs S to the supermarket to get provisions in case this gets really serious.... Drive safely guys if you're out and about.

I'll approach Mrs S with a proposal that I have a few days off over Christmas.... I wonder what her answer may be. If all else fails, I'll tell her it was your suggestion....

Wot no snow? Nuffink!.... A few clouds but a lot of blue and even the sun is trying to burst through. Pah! Weather forecasters? What do they know.... May be time to take of the sou'wester and wellingtons. Work Christmas parties? Those were the days...

T5? Got it in one Mick and you are very close to the truth on running costs. Probably the most expensive car I have had in terms of servicing/repairs/tyres.... Despite rumours, I'm not a boy racer anymore, but that car managed to eat tyres at an alarming rate. Cars are well iced up this morning. Carol said it was -7 overnight in South Farnborough. I reckon that must have been in Kent, rather than Hampshire, so that must have been real brass monkey weather.

Jeez, it's cold this morning. No doubt Don will be sunning himself and enjoying a brandy... Paid out a kings ransom yesterday for two new tyres, but at least they lasted 30,000 miles. May not sound too great to some, but double the distance of the Volvo estate, so I'm ahead of the game.

Morning lads... Grey and dreary here this morning. Bit like me I 'spose... Anyone got any happy pills?.......or Sam's phone number...

No worries Craig, I just quickly placed it into position. To fit it properly I guess you will need to unplug the tender properly and take it off the loco. I'd prefer to do that in daylight and with higher magnification glasses. Of course my sausage fingers won't be an asset and I'm sure there may be some cussing and swearing let alone crawling around the floor looking for that elusive part which just pinged out of the tweezers.... Still wish they'd supply a diagram though.

David, you're a star! Went back into the box and lo and behold as part of the odds and sods that you have to fit, was a box section similar to your description. Brilliant! I will fit said pieces tomorrow, but you know I do wish that Bachmann would give you a diagram of where all these bits go. It can't be beyond the wit of man to give an exploded diagram. Kato do it with their loco's.... So new pic with the box section just placed loosely in place....Looks a lot better now. The coupling gap will also improve once the box is glued in place. I think the tender/loco coupling is not connected as everytime I moved it the box section fell off....

Do you know Phil, I think you have a point. There is something weird about the tender frame/loco frame alignment and in particular the uppermost loco step and the height of the top surface of the loco frame above that of the top of the tender frame. It also seems strange that the fall plate is hanging in mid air. After all that effort and secrecy, I can't believe they would get that wrong. To be honest, I'm going the check the assembly in case something has not been assembled correctly. Unlikely, but worth a check....

Santa came early today, so a few more pics to add to the topic. Even as a LNER man, I can appreciate this loco. Fond memories of seeing City of Truro and the Midland Compound 1000 working a special out of Kings Cross in the early '60's....

Bit of a bummer, then Phil...... We'll think of you whilst we're doing our list of weekend jobs.

Glad to hear your wife is OK Tony. Must have been a little scary for her to breakdown in the outside lane of the A13. Good to read the boys in blue turned up to rescue her. Came down this morning and the ashes of last nights fire were still glowing, so couldn't resist putting a log on. It's quite cold outside, after all. Best thing we ever did.....and it gets rid of all my old scrap wood.

Not guilty m'lud......John started it. How to deal with latecomers. Such a laid back style and totally clean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx4n9P4bLEo&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y469rFDlPVQ&feature=related

Another one from the archives. Even having heard it dozens of times, you can't help but chuckle long before the next line comes out...

Thank you so much John for reminding me of Victor Borge. Along with Peter Ustinov, one of my heroes. Wonderful guys I could listen to all night. Brilliant! Another few hours down the Swannee..... http://www.youtube.c...h?v=YY6kElOYcd8

Morning guys.... I'm another one from the "you boy" education system... Those of you that know me, will know I have an unusual surname. Before the internet and search engines came along, I had never come across anyone with the same surname and limited searches by looking at phone books etc never threw up any others. Once search engines came into play and with my kids growing up in the Facebook generation, we've been surprised to find 8-10 others who must be related somewhere down the line, although much earlier than my father's generation. I guess if I had the time and inclination, I could start to map a family tree, but it's not something that has really appealed to me. On my own again today, so a full day of modelling beckons. Never happier than when messing about with bits of wood. Had a minor mishap yesterday though. Power bench saws can bite so they always need respect. I got slightly distracted yesterday and a piece of ply caught in the 10" blade that was turning at umpteen thousand rev's. There was a bang and it came of the saw like a large bullet. The only thing standing in the way was me and I caught it right in a very delicate place......Jeez, that hurt. Thankfully no lasting damage other than the voice squeaks a bit...

Morning all..... We could do with some sunshine here Don. Pass it round... BT are back here again today and I'm hoping they will replace the rest of the line down to the road. I suspect we will be off line all day so might even get some real work done for a change.