Early Risers.

[lightengine]

Congratulations to Mal for the notable post above.

Overcast here in sunny Teignmouth today.

A few more bits of shopping to do probably today.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

...sorry to hear of your feline issues Mal.

 

Dave

Edited December 19, 2015 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Popping over to Gravesend to get a few Christmas bits later such as pickles from a stall in the covered market. Condolences to young Herbert on losing his job, when I was working my job involved close liason with various HR departments, some were very good and professional in their approach whilst others were certifiable psychopaths who should never be allowed out without a keeper. Very sorry to hear of your loss Mel, I would love to have a pet but I feel am too old now to take on the responsibility of a dog and I'm not a cat person though a neighbours cat is very friendly with me, always coming to me expecting to be fussed over (which she is) despite being thoroughly spoilt by the neighbours daughters. Thats it for now, be back later.

[NGT6 1315]

So, I recently treated myself to the Hakone Tozan Railway 2000 Series…

 

 

(Photo by toshinori baba, CC licence)

 

…and 3000 Series units by Tomix…

 

 

(Photo by Cassiopeia Sweet, public domain)

 

 

…and one of the Toden Arakawa Line 8800 Series trams by Modemo, all in N scale. 

 

 

(Photo by Kunio Horikiri, CC-BY-SA licence)

 

 

Those models will probably arrive after Christmas, but I felt like I had to reward myself a bit for the things I accomplished this year.

Edited December 19, 2015 by NGT6 1315

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Baz I hope young Herbert will bounce back, not nice for the younger generation to be treated in that way especially when finding a job in the first place isn't easy.   Mind you coming from an industry where you knew when redundancy was coming I still find it hard to comprehend the behaviour of the cowboys who seem to have limited, if any, understanding of industrial relations legislation - simply confirms my impression that many so called 'HR professionals' are no better than the so called 'managers' they are supposed to advise and support; if managers can't manage people properly then in my book they'r not fit to be called 'managers'.

 

Chris the Eurostar body scanners sound as if they've gone downhill in sensitivity - the old ones at Waterloo could detect the foil in a cigarette packet but wouldn't pick certain metallic items in clothing; all due to the mass and area of the 'metal' they detected apparently.  But they could easily pick up 9mm ammunition if somebody happened to have a  couple of rounds in their pocket  (the culprit was a 'merican).

 

Have a good day one & all - I wonder if it's save to venture out for a newspaper?

[PhilJ W]

I've just been informed that an order I made with Model Railways Direct is on its way, hopefully it will arrive before Christmas. One item is the Hornby Sentinel shunter with the side cranks and the other item is the Bachmann container crane.

[skipepsi]

Got up late today despite the best efforts of the smallest cat and I have a full on cold totally unimpressed. Then I think of Jock and others on here and feel ashamed of myself. Onwards and upwards into the loft to find Christmas.

[emt_911]

Morning all. Late on parade thanks to an unintentional lie in this morning after forgetting to set the alarm.

 

A few bits and pieces to do today as well as a bit of shopping. At least nothing too strenuous.

 

Have a good day everyone

[Ohmisterporter]

 Her hunting skills were appalling (much to our relief), never killed a bird or mouse. Next door's alsation was a different matter

 

Mal

 

You mean Molly dragged the corpse into your kitchen and had that "I brought you a present" look? 

Edited December 19, 2015 by Ohmisterporter

[grandadbob]

Talkng of cats .. although we like them we haven't had one for years. Yesterday after the fire place was fitted I sat down on the settee at Nicki's for a well earned cuppa. Their little puss "Jasmine" jumped up on the arm of the settee and started "talking" to me. I said to Nicki "Looks like I've made a new friend". She laughed and said "No way - you're just sitting on her cushion!

[AndyB]

Morning all,

 

Woke up late as I'd earlier woken up early. If that makes sense. My level of awakedness wasn't, however, sufficient to get me out of bed to work on the part of my project plan that had caused me to wake up. Thankfully my youngest burst in to song about 7 o'clock, otherwise I might have caught up on sleep! 

 

Robert, if you haven't had the chance to see the Japanese rail system in the first person, then make sure you put it on your bucket list. It's a beautiful country. 

 

I see GB continues his tradition of personal injury infliction. I bet they keep his medical notes out ready on the Dr's desk at A&E! 

 

Andy

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Mornin' all,

 

Is has been helping the other ladies prepare our church for Christmas this morning. This was taken half an hour ago....

 

 

Seasonal greetings to you all

 

Dave

Edited December 19, 2015 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[AndyB]

Further to my earlier post - about 40 pages back, I mentioned that the Alton Model Centre has a model railway on show in their shop window. 

No sign that it has a slot for tuppenies, but it is worth a look and goes by the name of "Hankley"*; a little marvel* and casts a shadow* on my own efforts. 

 

* do you see what I did there? Coat on. 

 

About 6' x 2', roundy roundy with a BR steam/early diesel theme to it. 

[roundhouse]

Talking of Alton, we will be there with Banbury next February.

Edited December 19, 2015 by roundhouse

[Gwiwer]

I am sorry to read of sad news.  And happy when there's better to be reported.

 

Today has been a challenge in many ways.  It has been 42C (officially) and I have spent a full eight hour shift at what is known to be the hottest duty point, namely under a large tin roof with little air movement and where my phone app sowed consistently that the air temperature was 47C.  Despite being provided with copious amounts of water that is a tough shift by any standards.  

 

We sometimes hear of bravery and courage beyond the call of duty.  Coming from a Cornish fishing village we grew accustomed to the occasional tragic loss of a man or even (rarely) a whole boat and crew to the sea.  Today, 19th December, marks the day I lost two good friends.  

 

Few events in recent history would match the courage which took eight volunteers to sea on the night of 19/12/1981 into the face of a hurricane with 100mph winds and 60-foot waves to rescue eight of their fellows.  None survived.  The Penlee lifeboat disaster, coming just before Christmas, hit eight families and two villages so hard that its effects will be felt for many years yet.  

 

Two of the crew were personal friends.  I knew others by sight just because of who they were in a close community.  I stand in silent honour of their memory and in the knowledge that Coxswain "Trev" Richards would never have accepted rescuing half a crew.  He would always ask his crew if they backed his decision but none would have refused to go back for more.  "Can't leave 'em there, Trev" would have been the call.  

 

The link plays for an hour, uses actual recordings, is dispassionate and unbiassed.  If you don't have that time then please just take it from 39 - 41 minutes.  

 

[runs as required]

Mornin' all,..

...I walked into town with Is yesterday...just there and straight back but a milestone nonetheless.

 

Hope you returned with a Christmas supply of excellent Staffs oatcakes from that characterful shop in Leek.

Best Wishes

dhig

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Hope you returned with a Christmas supply of excellent Staffs oatcakes from that characterful shop in Leek.

Best Wishes

dhig

 

Hi RAR,

 

We have a preference for those dispensed by one of the indoor market sellers...along with his fruit pikelets. Amazing really just how many tastes & textures/thicknesses there are in plain oatcakes.

 

Seasonal greetings

 

Dave

[runs as required]

Morning all... I feel am too old now to take on the responsibility of a dog

That was the trouble with all our family's dogs (all Heinz loo brushes - except one, an abandoned Doberman in E Africa - and all strays) - no matter how much you put yourself out for them, it was NEVER enough.

They'd all look at you with "is that all?"

After walks/stick throwing/food/tickles on the tum/rides in the car...

dh

[Ian Abel]

Mal, sorry to hear about Molly - they are truly part of the family and it's hard to lose any pet... I'll get Bob to pose for a picture if I can rouse him

 

Saturday and getting sorted for various errands (never fails, seems there's always SOMETHING to do instead of modeling!).

 

First challenge is to explain to the cockwombles who try to deliver my newspaper that having ALREADY called once this morning and announced it isn't here, getting a promise of "a new one will be there in 90 minutes or less", two hours have passed and no sign of it. I'm on hold waiting to tell them the "latest" and ask if there's a real chance of getting todays paper before the failure to deliver becomes the headline on tomorrows arriving rag!

 

Off soon to our rental property as I need to install a new ceiling light fixture in one of the rooms... then possibly a movie tonight.

 

A little chilly, at -13 looking in desperation for the paper this morning, bright and sunny, but at these temps that isn't really noticeable. Could be a whopping -3 for a high!

 

Have a good start to the weekend everyone...

[roundhouse]

Ian

 

No papers delivered to us as its all on line for us these days.

 

A visit to Gaugemaster today and didn't even need to get the credit card out. No Okehmaptons yet so they will have to wait till next year.

 

Hoping to get a visit to one US shop this holiday season. It's mainly a railfanning and beer trip.

 

Now in Worthing and after visiting two Micropubs with a great conversation with the locals and now in Worthings newest brewpub it is deathly quiet yet good dark ale, it just doesn't work like it does in the USA where they do appreciate good beer enmass more than the UK surprisingly.

 

So got to get back to meeting other half who has been shopping with her mum, I still haven't got a single present for her but she knows that she's waiting for me to get something across the pond.

 

Oh and yes the trains did fail me today as the new timetable from Ford to Worthng gave me a 3 minute change at Barnham and didn't make it despite both trains being on time. So another fail for Southern as you can't make the advertised three minute connection between those standing around being dippy at the top of the loooong ramps at Barnham.

 

pS must try an Stanley as this epost has taken me 10 minutes to type because it owns accept what I want or bloody type let alone my own mistakes.

iPad won't let you type some words despite constantly changing them and rmweb site justo doesn't like Android.

[lightengine]

Lived in Worthing for over 30 years Roundhouse some good pubs but the brewhouses must have started after 2011.

[Oldddudders]

Great to see a pic of Is bearing up. Real courage after such a ghastly experience.

 

Mal - I felt a little guilty in view of the Molly tale, which I hadn't read at the time, so am glad Cooper's pic had a positive effect.

 

Having stitches out is not always fun. My own experience 20 years ago was untypical though, as those in my knee after it was repaired had been in far too long and were grown over. So the nurse's confidence that she could help was quickly sapped, and she needed to fetch a man with a scalpel! "Big breaths" she said as he went to work, which elicited the standard response "Yeth, and I'm only 14!" which fell rather flat. Cooper, by contrast, faced with a young woman bearing tiny scissors, cutting things on his cheek, simply purred throughout. I'm not sure she could believe her luck. He's hardly stopped purring since.

 

Another ridiculously mild day, although I don't think we quite made the forecast 17 degrees.

[roundhouse]

Lived in Worthing for over 30 years Roundhouse some good pubs but the brewhouses must have started after 2011.

Worthing is picking up a lot in recent years and rumours of more good places due to open.

 

The Alehouse is new but quiet.

 

However guess what

 

Trains late back from here so the usual carp from Southern. Can't get away from the delays at the moment which is one reason why I hesitated from making todays trip.

 

Looking forward to not using any trains in this country for over a week.

 

It's total SH1T at the moment south of the Thames. This new timetable just doesn't work even without NRs input to Screw things up.

 

Makes me look lik a right miserable bigger yet I am quite mild in my views compared to many on other forums.

 

Those of you thin that we have it rosy down her just co and try it for a weeks and then pay for what it cost to live here on top of this.

[The Stationmaster]

Ian (Roundhouse) might find this of interest (although it is from the 2016 Planning Rules) -

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

iPad won't let you type some words despite constantly changing them

 

That's odd. Haven't ever had this issue on my iPad, regardless of using the German or English keyboard.   Perhaps something country specific, i.e., location based?

 

Very happy bunny on this end because of the shifts I was given for 25 and 26 December:

 

 

I have the exact same shift on both days, actually. In fact, I had asked our planners if they had anything on Line 7, 14, 15 or 16 for me, and as roster changes for the holidays had been announced in any case, they seem to have found something. 1644 is a turn supplied by Angerbrücke and thus most likely booked with a NGT12, while 1667 is a changeover turn from Line 10 and supplied by Wittenberger Straße which quits service around 8 pm daily due to lower ridership in the evenings. Line 10 is commonly booked with NGT8s.

 

 

 

I'm also looking forward to my shift on Tuesday:

 

 

…as this will comprise a full dose of six full and two half rounds on Line 14, meaning a significant likelihood of my getting one of the NGT6 prototypes, which are almost exclusively booked on this line.

 

The second half will be the afternoon peak variety of Line 12, where turns re-sign as Line 4E for the figure-8 path along Dresdner Straße, Breite Straße and Riebeckstraße onto Prager Straße for the return to Gohlis-Nord. In the morning, the line runs just in the opposite sense, turning onto Prager Straße, at the Technical Administration Centre continuing onto Riebeckstraße, Breite Straße and Dresdner Straße for the return to Gohlis-Nord.