eldavo

Tough one Don. Looks like a lot of us here have been there so we know it's no fun. Weather dreary and so am I. Currently laid up in bed with a knackered back. Don't kow what I've done to it but I can hardly walk. Off to the docs later. Deep joy. Have a good one all Cheers Dave

Don't think much of the ballasting and you're going to have a hell of a job getting those station buildings to fit! Have a good Christmas mate. Cheers Dave

Morning All, Seems we are still here and even the sun is shining. Suppose I should either go and play golf or buy the wife a Christmas present. I wonder what they have in the pro shop? Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Seems backwards to me. At least we don't need a sign saying "Welcome to England" as those of us from this side of the water realise we never left! I can imagine you'll be well pleased if they can get the paint job on your mini up to the standard of the Barons example Nidge. Rather stunning as minis go. I learnt and passed my driving test in a Ford Escort. Was a little unnerving taking my first driving lesson in a brand new (literally just driven from the garage) car but I dare say somewhat more worrying for the instructor. I blame my instructor for my "enthusiastic" driving style. I had my weekly lesson on a Friday morning and had to get back to the station to catch the train in to college. Each week we would get a little further away before the instructor decided we should head back. Once we got to the point of having to overtake multiple cars and only arriving with a minute to spare he decided I should put in for my test! Never really liked minis I have to say. Used to borrow a bog standard 850 on the frequent occasions when one of my Alfasuds was in the body repair shop but never enjoyed it. I inherited one with the wife and that was a bag of nails (the car not the wife). It had a screaming idler gear but we managed to drive it to the scrap yard and pick up a few quid. It finally siezed solid when the new owner tried to move it to the crusher. Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Only if we are scratching around for things to post. Cheers Dave

Not yet but I bet he'll be getting jumpy by about noon on the 25th. Warm brandy anyone? Cheers Dave

Late on parade today. Cold is much improved today which is just as well as I had to take Archie dog down to Ringwood for his 6 week check-up with the surgeon. X-rays duly taken and all appears well. We have an exercise regime to get through for the next 8 weeks after which he is expected to be fully up to strength and back to normal life. Being a young pup has definitely helped in recovery from some nasty broken bones. Shame some of us humans can't have our various maladies sorted so efficiently. Hope folks have a good one so far. Cheers Dave

Groan, man-flu. Day is dreary so am I. Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Can't help thinking having seperate switches for the frog polarity is going to cause you problems especially if you are using sound locos. It will be all too easy to get a short circuit through having the polarity switch set wrongly. Is there no way you can have a microswitch or some such operated by the point motor? Cheers Dave

What is this "modelling" of which you speak? Surely this is the Ramblers and Moaners web. No longer cold in these 'ere parts but it 'aint 'alf wet. Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Even if not necessarily for the direction! The odd 90 degree turn on the first bounce can set a challenge or two. Morning All. Just getting the brazing kit out for the monkeys. Off to a "Christmas" lunch today to meet up with a bunch of ex-colleagues. First time I will have set foot in my old work environment (the club bar) for over 18 months. Could be a laugh or could be as dull as... Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Morning All, Tough one on the MiL front Bob. Hope things improve. Having spent too many years trotting backwards and forwards across the Atlantic for business trips to the US I have had more than enough encounters with the US Immigration service. Some of them have a sense of humour like the guy in Raleigh who greeted me with the words "You again. I stamped your passport last week!" and some a real pain. When they brought in the fingerprint reading technology there were some real screw ups. Every time I travelled through Chicago I would be hauled off by armed "gorillas" and plonked in a room with other unfortunates, left for 45 minutes then eventually told to "go away" without any explanation. I saw old ladies in wheelchairs in tears as they were treated in the same way. Eventually, on about the third occasion, I met an official who was reasonable and told me that they had got another persons fingerprints associated with my passport. He fixed the problem in minutes and I never had another problem. As to Librarians... I have to be careful as I married one! Have a good one if you can. Cheers Dave

Gin not know that for the sake of claret(y) ya should na post whi sky broadband. It's not in the spirit of the thread to wine on. Morning All Cheers Dave (any port in a storm)

Morning All, Had the battery issue myself last week. One of the biggest problems is not the size of the battery or the longevity of same but the vast array of gadgets the cars are equipped with. The Smart we used to have couldn't be left for a fortnight without starting otherwise the various systems still running when the car was turned "off" drained the battery. My current car has one of those wonderful keys with lots of buttons on it that allow you to open the two boots separately as well as unlock the doors. The side effect is that whenever you put the keys in your pocket and are in range of the car the bloomin' boot opens. Of course that has a light which if left would drain the battery. No problem the German designers have thought about that. If the boot or doors are unlocked the central management computer fires up and will turn off the light and lock the doors if you don't shut the boot. The downside is that the computer doesn't turn off after a while, uses more power than the light and so drains the battery. Doh! I don't use my car much these days but can usually pre-empt a complete flat battery as the starter sounds a little lazy as the volts drop off. Just needs a good blast up the motorway or to be put on charge for a couple of hours to get things back to normal. Of course a week or two ago I sensed the drop in volts but didn't get to check on it for a week as I was up at Warley for the weekend. Guess what? Flat as a pancake and hardly enough volts to unlock the doors. Luckily 4 hours charging and we are away again. Could have messed up a game of golf if I hadn't remembered to check it! Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

We have a somewhat enlightened GP thankfully who has always been prepared to refer to an Osteopath (assuming they were on his OK list) and other "alternative" practitioners. SWMBO uses a Homeopath who is also a GP. On the other hand our previous GP thought they were all quacks and would have nothing to do with any of them. On one occasion he refused to refer me to my Osteopath for a back problem but when I returned some months later for something else he was the one using a "standing" desk because of his bad back. I asked him if he wnated the name of a good Osteopath. He wasn't amused hence the move to a different practice. Cheers Dave (who now only visits the Osteopath every 3 or 4 years when he does something stupid to his back)

There needs to be a serious clamp down. The posters on this thread have too many vices. Perhaps we could tap their energy before a screw up occurs. Or maybe just nail it. Cheers Dave (fetching coat)

Morning All, There are times when I appreciate living at the top of a hill! Still grey, damp and cold outside so not sure whether the normal Wednesday afternoon golf bats sessions will proceed. Down in these parts we only have 2 bins, green one for recycling (a very restricted list of stuff) and a grey one for everything else. As they only collect each fortnightly they are huge and ugly. The city council stores it's spare bins in the old tunnel next to where Winchester Chesil Station used to be on the Dirty, Noisy and Smelly line that was closed in the 60s. On occasions they have walking tours of the tunnel. If you get to go down there you find that the vast majority of the bins in the tunnel, many many thousands of the things, are broken. They are not waiting for repair and they are too expensive to dispose of. Why you may ask. Because they are not recyclable! Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Morning All. Grey outside so I think a workshop day is called for. Mick, glad to hear some positive progress at last. On the subject of office chairs, raised upmteen pages back, I think the best bet is to find a seller of used office furniture. You can get a reasonably clean used "proper" office chair for the same money as one of the rubbish things sold by the major chains. The major benefit being it won't fall into bits in five minutes. I'm on Archie sitting duty today so it's time to scoop him up and take him down to the workshop with me. Still got 4 weeks of keeping his movements restricted. He has to be caged when nobody is in the room with him to ensure he doesn't decide to go leaping about the place. He is one very frustrated small pooch! Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

Not gonna be as mucky as the last one you built I hope! Mornin' All Cheers Dave

Now suitably chilled. Cheers Dave

Evening All, Been having a tough day. Arrived at the golf club to witness Gordon finishing off his cup of coffee then setting about a bacon sarnie (the man knows how to live), 18 holes of Ampfield's finest(?), lunch then playing trains. Now I have to go out and eat curry and drink beer! The folks who go off for a quiet day at the office don't realise how tough life is for us folks on a pension. I may have to have a quiet day tomorrow except that I have to take a trip out to pick up the last of a set of baseboards, play a bit of trains then go out to a quiz night in the evening. Roll on the weekend! Have a good one (what's left of it) All. Cheers Dave (who saw his first BP today)

This is my heater and NOBODY is getting closer than me! Cheers Dave

Afternoon All, I'm sure there was some form of uplift/downshift/fiddle-with on my pension calculations when they came through but even after spending months looking at figures it still makes little sense to me! Happy burpday Ian. Hope those that are facing redundancy can find some reasonable situation from it. Managed to go though my working life without ever being canned which in this day and age is some kind of record I suspect. All of course due to luck not judgement as almost all of my friends have been through it at some point. It's a week since Archie was hit by a car and he is making slow progress. Our days are largely taken up with looking after him at present. He has to be taken out to the garden for the essentials 5 or 6 times a day, has pills 3 times a day, massages to his injuries 3 times a day, heat packs applied to his hurty legs 3 times a day and simple physio exercises 3 times a day. He has to be kept caged except when we are in the same room as him. By the time he has had copious cuddles as well there's hardly any time left! Frankly just very glad he is still the same pooch. Have a good one all. Cheers Dave

No sorry, don't recognise the place. Where's all Gordon's piles of stuff gone? Cheers Dave

You're making great progress Jeff. I haven't commented before but it looks like you will have a cracker of a layout. I think you could have saved yourself a couple of switches on your panel though. There are a couple of crossovers that could have been wired with a single switch throwing both point machines. Can't see why you would want to only throw one of the points in the pair but maybe you have a cunning plan. Cheers Dave