Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

The mystery of the arrival time was solved - rather fortuitously.

 

Reading station happens to have a number of 'staff information' screens dotted about where the interested passer-by can get a good look at them and in so doing I noted 1E44 coming up through Southcote Jcn so we headed for the bridge and overlooked its punctual arrival at 12.37 on Platform 12.  And lo and behold the distant cousin duly alighted from said train although we actually caught up with her as she exited the lift on Platform 7.  She then found the niece who was meeting her at the enquiry desk in the old(er) concourse also trying to run to earth the alleged 12.53 arrival.  Duly congregated we then adjourned to the London Street Brasserie which said niece had pre-booked where I enjoyed an excellent lunch of liver and champ plus green beans.

 

These screens really are an excellent idea and having them on public view can be very useful if you know what you're looking at (this is a view of another one at Reading taken some weeks ago - sorry about the reflections)

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by The Stationmaster

[jamie92208]

You are right about the hard work, as I controlled the stock and finances the last time we did this, and I suspect will do so again. I think that there is at least one G gauge layout planned to be at the Workington MRE this weekend, so I will have a chat to them at some point. We may also contact the G gauge society, as it is a gauge that no-one at our MRC has anything to do with.

 

One that we did was actually via a clause in the deceased's will and the club got a percentage of the net proceeds. Because we needed an audit trail, as it went into a 5 figure sum, we set up a separate account for the club. It solved problems for those of us who sold a lot of the stuff on Ebay when HMRC started to take an interest.  We have since kept the account going and use it every year or so.  It keeps things in order.

 

good luck with it Simon.

 

Jamie

Edited November 14, 2017 by jamie92208

[Horsetan]

.....These screens really are an excellent idea and having them on public view can be very useful if you know what you're looking at (this is a view of another one at Reading taken some weeks ago - sorry about the reflections)

 

DSCF9921.jpg

 

This looks awfully like the SimSig simulator game....

[roundhouse]

Stopped off at East Croydon for a couple in the Cronx Bar in Boxpark next to the station. It’s a great little bar selling Cronx breweries own ales plus various guests and craft brews.

Now on a great white worm (Thameslink 700s) back home. Horrible cramped uncomfortable seats like surfboards and no leg room by the windows. Who would design trains like this. Aah, Daft of course.

At least it’s on time for a change.

 

P.S.

Sat outside Redhill for about five minutes late making what used to be 11 minutes on a fast train (now around 16 minutes)  into over a 21 minute journey so we missed the bus home. Apparently 'a bicycle on the track' somewhere causing delays earlier!

 

Upside is that we had a couple of pints of local Droking Brewery smoked ale in Wetherspoons with a rather nice steak

Edited November 14, 2017 by roundhouse

[New Haven Neil]

GDB, I'm afraid your box is not likely to appear until tomorrow - the elastic band of the mail plane snapped last night, so all the island's post for across sat on the runway all night.     This always causes mail to go adrift too, as for some reason all their systems seem to go to hell when a delay occurs. Worst case is when the mail then goes on the boat if the plane is fogged in for a couple of days, so it needs to be trucked from Heysham to the midlands hub - things can take a week to re-surface.        How hard can it be?  They all have postcodes on.....

[Purley Oaks]

Good news, Steve! Enjoy the Malbec tonight.

 

Just back after a few days away in Killiecrankie. We took my mum who really enjoyed the play at Pitlochry Theatre on Sunday afternoon, and yesterday morning we woke up to a covering of snow. How festive! Hope it's the last I see of the stuff this winter - fat chance! Stayed in a very nice hotel with excellent food, too. Good to get away.

 

Back for a few days then off to London and Southampton on Sunday.

 

Meantime, stay warm

 

Mal

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The first of the expected parcels arrived this afternoon, the 4Ground laser cut building kit. On the box it says skill level 5!!! I hope I'm up to it. On the way home from the Romford exhibition on Saturday we popped into Tesco's, me, my friend and his lad. My friend espied some damaged multipacks of Dorito's and some other items with large reductions (90%) to clear. When he got to the till he was pleasantly surprised to get a further deduction under the price comparison, in fact the rebate was for more than the cost of the branded goods.

[BoD]

Just back after a few days away in Killiecrankie. We took my mum ....

 

Mal

Hope you didn't make her try the soldiers leap.

[Coombe Barton]

Steve - great news - I've only just read the morning post, being at work all day, and then to get the result you have ...

 

Haircuts** - got my termly one a couple fo weeks ago, reducing my somewhat shaggy state to something more pruned.

 

Then people say, "Have you had a haircut?"

 

Then I say, "Yes, can you tell which one?

 

** Local lass in the Square, £8.50 - better then seventeen quid in Brum.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Coombe Barton

[AndyB]

Great news, Steve.

 

Evening all,

 

1 hour 40 minutes to drive 14 miles this morning.

1 hour to drive 14 miles home again this evening, of which half an hour was sat in a queue to drive about 300 yards.

 

Night all. 

[Judge Dread]

 

 

better then seventeen quid in Brum.

How much???

[Coombe Barton]

How much???

Yep - nearest one to the university in the 'right' direction.

[Gwiwer]

Good news from Steve.

 

Not good news from aunt-who-is-still-holding-on. Doctors do not expect her to wake up in the morning.

 

Not very good news from the Isle of Wight where a train has been reported on fire on Ryde Pier. My local contact is some distance away but is hoping to head over to see what’s what.

 

And with that - good night all.

[Barry O]

Cricket umpired.

Good night to most!

Morning or afternoon to others.

Baz

[newbryford]

Physio visited.

Ouch, less ouch, more ouch, less ouch. Advice to help ease sciatica taken on board. Stand up/walk around, try not to sit down too much.

Playing trains and track laying at work, which involved more standing/walking than sitting down.

MR Club visited.

Big decision about the annual exhibition taken - all for the greater good.

Trip to Wakefield Ex on Sunday lined up.

Painkillers consumed.

More laying track/playing trains at work tomorrow with not much sitting planned.

 

Have a good hump day folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[BSW01]

Evening everyone

 

Well the track on Max's train layout has had a thoroughly good clean and I've ran several engines on it. Running them highlighted where the inevitable stray bits of ballast was where they shouldn't have been. But whenever this was encountered, it was removed and the section retested, but it took a lot longer than I anticipated. I also found a couple of the points needed a bit of attention too, but they also were cleaned up and all is now ok. One thing I did notice is that my Hornby Adams radial doesn't like going over Hornby points, but it works well, everywhere else, very strange!

 

I too recently had an email, supposedly from PayPal. I never open links, I always log into my paypal account through their own website, if all is ok I dump the email.

 

Steve. Great news, I hope you enjoyed the Malbec!

 

Goodnight all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

This looks awfully like the SimSig simulator game....

 

It's basically a derivation of something called P2 which BR computing devised back in the 1990s (and which cost a lot of money per licence so regrettably I wasn't allowed to have it on my desktop PC which was a darned nuisance especially as our licence ran over most of the Railtrack network).  This is a slightly refined version although not much different and the data access has improved as there are far more digital based interlockings in use now.  A modern desktop version of it has been around for at least 5 years and it allows interrogation by train ID so has been used in offices - the Chargeman's office at Twyford has that version but these 'outdoor' wall mounted ones without a keyboard but with a train list at the side have appeared at a number of GWR stations in recent times.

 

For your home version, accessible to all with an internet connection and covering almost the same area here is the link -

 

http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/reading

 

And here is the link to their main index

 

http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps

Edited November 15, 2017 by The Stationmaster

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Thoughts with Rick

Night awl

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Damp start here and it could stay that way for a while with the (small) chance of bright or sunny intervals this aftenoon.

 

GDB, I'm afraid your box is not likely to appear until tomorrow - the elastic band of the mail plane snapped last night, so all the island's post for across sat on the runway all night.

 

Not to worry Neil, I know how good the service is from your emporium and in the great scheme of things my little parcel is not very important.

The Boss was telling me about one of her workmates yesterday. He is the carer for his aged parents and brother. Dad has been in hospital for 26 weeks after suffering multiple (9) strokes. Mum has cancer, brother is in wheelchair suffering from MS. On top of that his 14 year old son is in remission from a brain tumour. I don't know how he copes, holds down a job and still remains sane and fairly cheerful.

 

"Haircuts" here are a fortnightly event that cost nothing and done by The Boss very quickly. I stopped going to the barber years ago when they wanted to charge £8  for about 2 minutes work. 

 

Kids were on form last night and telling us all about their dad's new flat to which they have given their seal of approval. He picked them up and also had Abbie with him who he'd collected from work so it seems all is going reasonably well and he will continue to be around for them. Abbie has got a temporary shop job until the end of the year but is still having problems finding something in her preferred career so is now also looking in another direction.

 

Just got to collect The Boss from work at 9.00 and do a couple of minor domestic things then I am free for the rest of the day.

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited November 15, 2017 by grandadbob

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a rather chilly morning here, but not as cold as yesterday morning as there is a fairly heavy cloud cover which went some way to keeping the temperature up.

 

Last night, there were quite a few reports of a fireball in the sky.  I didn't see it unfortunately, but it is sounding like a bolide.

 

Sorry to hear about your Aunt, Rick.  However, good news about that the damage to Ryde pier is likely to be minimal.  It would be a shame to loose such a historic (and useful) structure.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with sighs of relief for Steve and special thoughts for Rick

 

The shed where the ;layout lives is tidier now.  Assorted components have been sorted, labelled and recovered from between the floorboards with the trusty dustpan and brush.  Sarnies at lunchtime were corned beef embellished with yummy Waitrose chutney.   In the evening Chris Green spoke to the Hitchin chapter of the RCTS about Reggierail.  "Masterful", said the chairman, and rightly so.

 

Today I must await a special delivery consignment containing my travel documents for the Swiss trip.  This evening Area Group meets in Harpenden.  Oh, how I love the M1 - not at all.

 

If memory serves, the not altogether savoury expression "chrimbo" originated with one of the Beatles.  At this point memory reverts to forgettery as I do not recall which Beatle.  What I do recall is the answer to a trivia question.  Which other artists charted with "A Hard Day's Night"?  Answer tomorrow, if I remember.

 

Warm thoughts to all in distress and recovery, today especially Rick's aunt.

 

Chris

[emt_911]

Morning all. A quick post thanks to having no internet access last night.

 

Another good day and the days are counting down rapidly.

 

Steve - Great news

 

Rick - Sorry to hear your news.

 

Hopefully and early journey home today.

 

Have a good day everyone

[AndyB]

Morning all,

 

Debating the wisdom of bran for breakfast if there's another 100 minute drive to work. 

 

Rick, sorry to read about your aunt. I hope she is peaceful and in no pain. 

 

Haircuts: It used to be £13 and then went down to £9.50 one week. I believe I must have been given the pensioner discount. Doh. 

 

Have a good one everybody.