eldavo

Morning All, Monday again and awfully grey out. Better head off to the office trying to avoid any elf and safety issues.

Cheers

Dave

Nah but he does have a highly polished ring.

I'll get me coat (already). Morning All.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Was very frosty out a little while ago but now it seems to have settled into being nice and grey and damp! No phone calls or meetings scheduled so it sounds like a day for working from home.

All this activity on 2010 challenges is a bit worrying. I have a trackplan but that's about it! Not quite sure when I shall find the time to actually build anything either. What with stuff still to do on Cramdin ( a complete baseboard as yet unstarted!) and the fact that I won't be retiring in March, my schedules have somewhat gone to pot. Could be a real challenge.

Cheers

Dave

It's all your fault Gordon I've just lost half the morning watching Victor Borge clips. Brilliant!

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Blue sky seems to be emerging. Can't figure out whether that is good or bad as the weather seems to change radically at the drop of a hat! You boy seemed to be the most common form of address in my school as well though official policy was to use the surname only. For some obscure reason I seem to have been addressed using my surname only for most of my school and working life. Even now in a company that has everyone using first names I am invariably addressed as "Renshaw" by people that know me. The odd thing is I hear both my sons addressed in exactly the same way by their friends! Strange things names.

Cheers

Dave

Don't you get tired of dodging the traffic?

 

Eeeh when I wer't lad, we used t' live in't shoe box in't middle of t'road!

Nah need for a shoebox as there's plenty o' room amongst the trees in the central reservation. I 'aint no Injun neither!

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Grey with leaking oktas hereabouts. I see now that there are advantages to living on a dual carriageway with only a line of houses on one side and no steet lights, no carol singers (or trick or treaters). So the carol singers were wearing the mail not delivering it then. Surprised Santa was at the helm, would have thought he had enough on his plate. Another pun-fest? Should have sword that coming.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Being a late riser I can see signs of a blue sky appearing! Not much exciting happening today apart from my Chinese language class. A bit of backscene repainting on the layout is in order this evening I think.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Grey one hereabouts. Monday again. This morning I have to post off my acceptance of an early retirement offer. I was expecting to be pushed out in March next year and was starting to look forward to it but then blow me the company has decided they can't do without me and have given me a date of April 2011. Bit of a surprise I have to say. So unfortunately they are going to pay me a full salary for a further 16 months!

All of a sudden 16 months seems like an age but then I did some sums and lo and behold on average I will only work 4 days a week due to the amount of vacation entitlement I have built up. Doesn't sound so bad now. It also makes a lot of financial sense as I have over a year to push up my pension contributions (and force the company to contribute more) and to get the rest of my finances in order. Also I will have an additional years worth of entitlement and lose less through going early as I will be a year closer to 60. Coincidentally I had planned many years ago to retire at 55 and that is what I will be. Odd how things work out.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Early oktas seem to have blown away and now it's a pleasant bright day. Some of the list conquered yesterday but more to do today.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Bright with few oktas in evidence. Dog walked, breakfast eaten, coffee brewed, wife dispatched off on errands and now all I have to deal with is the list.

Cheers

Dave

Doesn't seem to be sheepish about returning at this hour. Wait till he gets the bill, fleeced is the word that comes to mind.

Cheers

Dave (fetching jumper and bobble hat)

Tup, tup. One good pun and you all teg along.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Not an okta in sight and the temperature was -1 when I walked the dog! Has someone moved Hampshire to the far North when I wasn't looking? As I decided to "work" from home today apparently that means I get dog walking duties.

Trying to retain some self control and avoid going to the Reading O gauge trade show tomorrow. Severe wallet damage could occur if I go so I must restrain myself. Have a good one all.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Grey and damp one again. Another day in the office looms. Not sure there is anything exciting though apart from a meeting of one of my invention groups. That frequently turns out to be an hours chat amongst friends about the things that are ticking everyone off. On occasions we do find the odd solution to a problem and have managed to patent a few ideas so it must be working generally. Have a good one all.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Not many oktas and some brightness in the sky. No frost either so now I'm running out of excuses for not getting moving on my way to the office! Happy Hump day all.

Cheers

Dave

Having said I wouldn't start work on this till the New Year it was obvious I would have to do something sooner than that. My excuse is that it was too bloomin' cold out in the garage to do much on Cramdin! A bit more planning was in order.

I have little experience of N gauge so I felt I needed to see what the track plan would look like full size. A one foot wide baseboard sounds awfully narrow so I'm concerned it won't really work. I've laid out the basic plan in Trax2 and refined it a little so I set up to print out a set of templates for the scenic area, pretty much the entire 10 foot length.

So how big is that exactly?




Well it certainly takes up a fair amount of the kitchen! The righthand long edge is the viewing side and there is almost my entire N gauge rollingstock collection lost somewhere in the middle. In fact that is a pair of 66s and some wagons that look awfully small. Still amazes me how much detail is on these Dapol models.




Looking from the rear of the baseboard the locos are sat at the two platform faces of Waton station.



This location is the juction of 4 lines. Looking from East to West there is a point complex as two double tracks converge.



At the other end looking West to East there is another point complex where a single track and double track converge. If someone had carefully smoothed out the plan the rather strange set-up would be a bit more obvious.




It's when you come to look at the plans with an eye to building the trackwork that you realise this stuff is pretty small. One and a half points in the width of an A4 sheet of paper and these are B8s I think!



Oh well it is supposed to be a challenge I guess.

Cheers
Dave

Morning All, Seriously frosty car on the drive but luckily mine is in the garage! I guess I'll have to venture out soon. I really don't like cold, second only to wet in my dislike list. Quite unreasonable really but someone has scheduled a meeting with me today so I have to venture into the office. Then again I have to attend a Mandarin Chinese course at lunchtime and I better not get on the wrong side of the teacher!

Cheers

Dave

Afternoon All, Looks like Andy is still having fun with the true proffessional hosting provided by UK2!

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Dog and I now hiding indoors after being blessed with hailstones earlier. Why is it the weather always turns for the worse immediately you take the dog for a walk? Think I'll knock up a couple of buildings for Cramdin's extension today.

Cheers

Dave

I feel this thread is angling for acute radian problems.

Cheers

Dave

Well it would be rude not to have a go so here goes nothing. Not much chance of work starting until well into the new year as I have a bunch of stuff to finish off on Cramdin before it's next outing in March. Of course if my dear employer forces me into early retirement in the next couple of months I will have lots of time!

Current thinking:

Time for a little foray into 2mm N gauge I think. I've acquired a few bits of stock so I need something to run them on. That's my excuse anyway. the setting is somewhere in the Midlands and it is based on a location well known to several forum members. Era will be present day(ish). That's about all I know so far.

Here's an early draft track plan:



All routes end in cassette storage and I think this is comfortably less than 2010 square inches so far. Should be a bit of spare area available for refining the central area as currently it's a bit thin at 1 foot wide. Should be able to run a train of 3ft or so which is not wonderful but probably adequate. There's a lot more work required to get this into something that will "work" in terms of scenery and operational.

My current thinking is that I will build my own track as I don't like the look of the peco N gauge track at all.

Cheers
Dave (N gauge, I must be mad!)

Morning All (just!), Having been at Warley all last weekend there appears to be a "list" this weekend. Better get on with it as I am pretty low on the Brownie points scale. Already had to scrape the mushed leaves off the drive as they have blocked the drains which means we have a substantial lake outside the front door! I'll have a play with the lawn mower next and hoover up some leaves from the back. Should mean I'm allowed to play with my indoor toys this afternoon.

Cheers

Dave

Morning All, Fair few oktas in evidence but it's Friday! Was going to take today as vacation but having received an email from my dear employers yesterday evening that sent me bouncing off the walls and ceiling I decided I go to work just to spite them. All my American colleagues are on vacation as it's Thanksgiving so there is little if any work I can do. Would be silly to waste a days vacation entitlement!

Cheers

Dave

... and so I cooked a goose. Haven't done one since though.

That'll be where the saying came from then. You cooked your goose.

Cheers

Dave (now leaving with coat)