Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

 

Any pet seems to be just waiting to die on my watch.

We've just completed a fortnight of looking after a parrot (in its home).

Overcoming an urge to let it out of the window, we watched the poor thing sat on the perch for 14 days with little stimulation.

 

 

 

Norwegian Blues stun easily .......

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Took a while to catch up, but I'm there now.

 

Cardington airship sheds - I stayed at Cardington camp many years ago, just across the main road from the sheds, and after a session in the bar, and a subsequent sleepless night, I took a stroll out into the grounds, and found one shed illuminated as they were doing something with tethered barrage balloons, and it was really eerie.  I did ask if I could get a look inside the following morning, but was told that access was restricted.  They certainly are a prominent landmark, even now.

 

Generic greetings are all I can offer (again) but I wasn't even expecting to get here today, due to having many other tasks to perform.

 

One other thing that somebody here might be able to help with (BoD possibly) is that the chest/trunk which I acquired is addressed to a street called "The Path" which I can't trace on Royal Mail or Google maps/streetview, and I wondered if anybody could shed any light at all on this.  We're probably looking at a date pre-nationalisaton so possibly a demolition job and now under a shopping mall or the likes.

 

Possibly back tomorrow.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited August 29, 2015 by 45156

[edcayton]

Last time I looked the south shed was in reasonable order and in use, the north shed seems to be falling into disrepair. I was very close on the DSA test track at the rear of the site.

 

Ed

[DDolfelin]

The Vulcan is flying over this way.

May see it.

Can't take a picture - haven't got the lens for it.

[Two_sugars]

Afternoon All

 

Took a while to catch up, but I'm there now.

 

Cardington airship sheds - I stayed at Cardington camp many years ago, just across the main road from the sheds, and after a session in the bar, and a subsequent sleepless night, I took a stroll out into the grounds, and found one shed illuminated as they were doing something with tethered barrage balloons, and it was really eerie.  I did ask if I could get a look inside the following morning, but was told that access was restricted.  They certainly are a prominent landmark, even now.

 

Generic greetings are all I can offer (again) but I wasn't even expecting to get here today, due to having many other tasks to perform.

 

One other thing that somebody here might be able to help with (BoD possibly) is that the chest/trunk which I acquired is addressed to a street called "The Path" which I can't trace on Royal Mail or Google maps/streetview, and I wondered if anybody could shed any light at all on this.  We're probably looking at a date pre-nationalisaton so possibly a demolition job and now under a shopping mall or the likes.

 

Possibly back tomorrow.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

Could it be "THE PETH" , Stewart. . Crossgate Peth runs from the centre up to Neville's Cross.

[BoD]

I Would have to go along with Two_Sugars on that one. Path or Peth are popular names for roads that lead out of the City, there's also Framwellgate Peth and Claypath to name two others. I was at Uni there but never heard of 'The Path'. It was always Peth apart from Claypath which was more likely to be known informally as the path. Mike, was at school in Durham City (there's a clue in his user name - 60860) and so may have heard of some other 'Path'.

I would suggest it may be the local term or nickname but then that would hardly likely to be used in a formal address. Are there any other clues?

Edited August 29, 2015 by BoD

[pH]

I changed my mind as I literally had to be lifted off it by the end of the journey which had been punctuated by several stops to adjust things like the primary chain.

 

Given the first part of that sentence, that was not the kind of adjustment I was expecting to read about!

[New Haven Neil]

Too tired to do much this evening - this was probably the best photo of the day - from Jayne's front garden - post-classic practice/qualifying - Kawasaki ZXR 750

 

 

oops - not enough pixels - I'll do a better one to morrow!

Edited August 29, 2015 by New Haven Neil

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[grandadbob]

'ello,

Not had time to post earlier (although I did look in briefly) as it's been rather a busy day what with domestic stuff, shopping and also a bit of layout board building. Apart from that we were invited to Nicki's this evening for a meal (Steve cooked a very nice curry) and have only just returned home.

Anyway - just to bore you all, here's the board (now installed) that caused the problems yesterday.

 

 

 

(I have managed to save the nearly sawn off finger!   ) The third board has been built but hasn't got legs yet - not sure I have either  after tonight's curry, beer and wine.

Hic.

I bid you good night.

 

[Jock67B]

Evening all,

Very tired tonight after being unable to get off to sleep last night - probably dreaming about the wonderful range of machinery in Neil's lovely photos! Managed to fit in some shopping and a walk with Archie the Westie before the weather broke.

Neil, the bike in tonight's image might become a classic one day, but what a contrast that rear tyre on the Kawasaki makes, when compared to the one on Geoff Duke's Gilera! As a matter of interest Neil, has Jayne ever had any bikes land in her garden, or is that the 'telephoto effect' making it look closer?

On a more sombre note, thanks to Rick's information, we observed the minutes silence for those unfortunates who were killed at Shoreham a week before. A very sad occurrence indeed, involving passing innocents as it did. RIP.

AndrewC, sorry to hear that the venerable vehicle appears to have failed its MOT miserably. The question now will be whether to throw more money at it, or cut your losses and scrap it.

grandadbob, glad you managed to avoid cutting any lumps off your body today, and I have to say that the Railway room is coming along well. Do you have a particular region or era in mind?

Hopefully Dom and Mike(60860) are enjoying their short breaks - we are now pondering whether to book another few days at the cottage in Orford that we used some weeks back. It really was a lovely week, but prudence suggests we wait until after my Thursday oncology consultation.

I hope Sunday is kind to you all, and hope to look in at some point,

Kind regards,

Jock.

G'night all!

[southern42]

'Evening all from red dragon land.

Wall to wall sunset earlier.  Fabulous.

 

A great day at West Shore - sunny though windy as usual and a few light showers.

Made even better with the arrival of not one, not two, but three narrow gauge locos.  Each was coupled up to two trolleys giving us 3 trains running on the track all afternoon.

 

 

I was guard on the back of one or other most of the time trying to keep tabs on passenger numbers at the same time.  This got to be fun as one train would be on its first lap while another was on it's second.  I also found out that pen and paper (notebook) is not ideal when it's raining, so it was back to using the iphone for record keeping.

 

Being bank holiday weekend, there was a mass exodus of boats out of the estuary in the morning, most seeming to go north abouts round Anglesey. 

 

By late afternoon it was low tide and the wind had died down.

 

Up early again tomorrow, so I'll bid you all good night.

Nos da.

[grandadbob]

Jock - I did start about 6 years ago with the intention of modelling (ie  having a trainset ) the Eastern / Midland region in the '50s as I was born in WGC and lived in Bedford and then Brampton (Hunts) so that's where I started trainspotting.  However I joined RMweb and got side-tracked and met people like Mike (Stationmaster), Bob(81C), Castle and a few others at the Didcot visits.

They brainwashed me (honest Guv) and I became addicted to things like pannier tanks and other Western type thingys. ( I suppose the fact that I have Cornish blood in me doesn't help)

All this means that I now have a selection of locos, coaches and rolling stock from several different regions (even Southern) and eras so I suppose I'm going down the preservation route. ((especially as I've got an APT-E, a blue King and a Stirling Single on order!

Indecisive? Me? Quite possibly!

Edited August 29, 2015 by grandadbob

[Tony_S]

Bob. I totally understand. I lived a couple of houses away from an ex GW branch line when I was an infant and my grandparents had a GW mainline at the bottom of their garden so although my layout is Midlands BR ex LNWR, ex LMS I do have the odd ex GWR loco and coaches.

[roundhouse]

We had a leisurely drive from Portland to Olympia WA today stopping off at various places.

Just after coarrived shortly afterg the rental car we called in at Vancouver WA station. The West bound Empire Builder arrived not long g after, o my about two hours late. The other day it was about ten hours late so it was doing well today.

 

Now enjoying a few beers in Three Magnets Brewing in Olympia

[Two_sugars]

Fell asleep in  the armchair . . Off to bed now so . . 

 

Goodnight all . . .Sleep well   

 

John

[Tony_S]

Goodnight. Just back from a nice meal at the neighbours.

Tony

[AndyID]

All this means that I now have a selection of locos, coaches and rolling stock from several different regions (even Southern) and eras so I suppose I'm going down the preservation route. ((especially as I've got an APT-E, a blue King and a Stirling Single on order!

Indecisive? Me? Quite possibly!

 

It's your railway, and you can run anything you like. If you were to take it to an exhibition you might hear some critical comments, but if anyone complains in your railway room, they get the bum's rush  

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.

 

It's Sun Day.  As if in celebration there's a large yellow object hanging in the sky in the same way that bricks don't *  Someone forgot to turn the heater on though.

 

It's a day of late-shift Attendance at the Palace which will hopefully be less frenetic than last night's version.

 

Bob - I for one am not bored by the board.  It's always educational to see what others have beneath their layouts and to learn how obstructions and problems have been managed.  Nurse the finger well.

 

Jock - thank you.  And to others who may also have observed.  Quite apart from unprecedented scenes on the old toll bridge beside the airfield (packed, flower-laden, last post played amid floods of tears) the town-centre footbridge in Shoreham which leads to the beach was lit end to end by candles last night and brother-in-law reports that the town was eerily silent when a normal Saturday night would have it as lively as you'd expect from what is effectively an outer suburb of Brighton these days.  Six now named.  Three names familiar to me as family friends but not known personally.

 

Two days off after tonight are allocated to domestic engineering and outdoor maintenance.  The latter might even include a clean-up of the model

 

 

*  Due acknowledgement to the late Douglas Adams

Edited August 30, 2015 by Gwiwer

[DDolfelin]

Top Tip for Bob:

In order to avoid sanctions, keep that window and the net curtains in top tip condition!

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

The green bin really is full now, the contents having settled over the last few days and allowing me to attack the strawberry bed for about 45 minutes.  The dock leaves, thistles, dandelions and other vegetation that should not be there was growing so close to the strawberry plants that inevitably some of those were casualties.  The pile of part completed models remaoins as was and I did not go to the book sale.  The great movie Patton was shown in the afternoon on Channel 5 so that consumed another three hours.

 

Meanwhile I am left wondering why the individual charged with delivering the local rag which comes out on Thursday left it on the doorstep early on Friday morning.  How fortunate that it did not rain.

 

Until tomorrow, gentle reader, and may the day grant you the wishes that you would wish for yourself

 

Chris

[Smiffy2]

Morning all.

Stiff day yesterday, as I've had a visit from the Goat as my friend Glen puts it. It's gout, of course, the scourge of men of a certain age who just happen to be overweight, diabetic and prone. I first had it at the age of 15 - in my ear. It came on on Friday, coming back from a wonderful visit to see my grandsons with my grand daughters.

 

So yesterday was immobile whilst waiting for the drugs (colchicene and Naproxen) to work. I took the opportunity of setting up Daisy's birthday laptop. What a palaver. I'm not used to Windows at all, thankfully, and 8.1 is more of a punishment than an operating system. I had to upgrade to 10, and it took hours, largely because of a complete lack of sensible instructions. It seems 'you may need to restart your computer' means 'you must restart your computer and update 132 (really) bits of software in order to proceed'.

 

Anyway, it's done now, and Libre Office installed, and most systems set up, though the photo app is bizarre. I'll get into looking up the weird, strange and bizarre operating procedures later. Why does anyone use this stuff? It's terrible...

 

I think I've persuaded friend Alan to get a railway, probably N - he wants to model the Brighton main line he remembers as a kid. Sounds good. I'm a bit banjaxed for doing some Monty as the goat has triggered the arthritis in the hand. Tant pis.

 

So today I'm sitting it out to let the pain in the toe go away, and then I'll be mobile again. I've a hankering to go and take some photos, and Alan is the same, so a 'spedition may be on the cards, possibly after assorted grandkids have gone back to school. They're always fun, although the last one was to do the gorillas (not real or metaphorical ones, fibreglass statues) at City Hall, but when we arrived they had just been packed off to Birmingham, and rather than chase them we went for a long lunch instead. By the way, is King Kong still around in Brum?

 

So, I'm off to have another coffee and stand, in the rain, in the garden listening to the blackbirds. Have a great day, all, spring forward with vim, vigour and zip, and carpe bloody diem.

[trisonic]

Boring old sunshine and 85f today. Picked a dandelion and shredded it.Guy came and fitted new gutter to part of roof (destroyed during confirmed 5” of rain in two hours a week or two ago).

 

Want to get a real Longbow for back yard. Anyone know of a source that is NOT bespoke? Everything over here is weird and used for hunting, mine would be purely target.

 

Oh, also took daughter to her first day at University. Went early - but so did everyone else - moving in took an age, despite many “Assistants” with large Wheely bins to load stuff in from the car. Amazed to find she already had 15 credits for the first semester from Advanced Placements during last year of High School, she happy. Room mate v. attractive young lady too.

 

Did a 10,000 mile service on my ’52 Telecaster - what a wonderful sounding guitar! Tomorrow it’s the ’67 SG Special’s turn. I’m a bit bored with model railways at present.....

 

Thinking of entering the Round the World “Pooh Sticks” Race...

 

Later, Pete.

Edited August 30, 2015 by trisonic

[AndyID]

I took the opportunity of setting up Daisy's birthday laptop. What a palaver. I'm not used to Windows at all, thankfully, and 8.1 is more of a punishment than an operating system. I had to upgrade to 10, and it took hours, largely because of a complete lack of sensible instructions. It seems 'you may need to restart your computer' means 'you must restart your computer and update 132 (really) bits of software in order to proceed'.

 

Anyway, it's done now, and Libre Office installed, and most systems set up, though the photo app is bizarre. I'll get into looking up the weird, strange and bizarre operating procedures later. Why does anyone use this stuff? It's terrible...

 

 

You're not going to get a lot of sympathy from me. The other reason I was advising you to stay away from a laptop was because I was thinking some poor schmuck is going to whizz away countless hours maintaining the dang thing. I would sooner let my ten year old grandkid drive my truck than let him anywhere near my laptop - a slight exaggeration for dramatic effect

 

Despite that, Daisy might get on very well with it! (All grandchildren are not necessarily equal.)

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

Another hot day expected here. It was certainly 31 at 1800 last night when we drove to Le Mans, and the Old Town felt very hot all evening. Sherry bought us dinner at an outdoor restaurant near the Hotel de Ville, which I had last visited almost 3 years ago to collect Deb's death certificate. Time moves on. The meal was excellent, the service was slick, and Sherry didn't have to break the bank.

 

We then wandered off to inspect the Old Town, which was still truly hot at 2100. Eventually stopping at the cathedral, we found some chap in mediaeval clothes declaiming the history of the building to a street audience, with others in costume joining in. More Sherry than me, this, I thought, and it didn't improve. We waited patiently by the end wall of the cathedral, where a projector was visible, but it was ages before the declaimer and audience enacted some other little scene on the steps before all disappearing inside. Then, rather later than expected, the Son & Lumiere finally started, but was impressively underwhelming in the age of CGI, frankly, and much less of a spectacle than Sherry recalled from a decade ago. The soundtrack, including wailing women, was pretty naff too. On such occasions I am forced to confront the thought that watching paint dry has really had a harsh press. We saw the programme round, then wandered down into Place des Jacobins, where there was another projection on the other end of the cathedral. Plenty of families coming and going, but the fire-jugglers in the square were receiving most of the plaudits, one felt. Overall, something to have done rather than something to do.

 

The trip home was easy, and we were supping much-needed tea by 23.15.

 

Hope your Day of Rest succeeds in its aims.