PhilJ W

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I have like Tony had the reindeer journey on BBC channel 4, quite a spectacular ending with the northern lights. Getting ready for tomorrow, must make sure that I take everything with me so a post it note is attached to the fridge. Found a joint of Polish Sopocka in the fridge with a soon to expire sell by date (29th) so I'll take that with me to my sisters as well as the Christmas pud. Treated myself to a new mobile for Christmas and have just spent 15 minutes trying to work out how to open it up to insert the battery, the instructions say 'slide cover off' so I tried sliding the cover but it stayed put until I found that the cover lifted off, American English strikes again. Phone is now on charge, car is fueled up, so I'm ready for Christmas day. If I've got time I'll call in tomorrow before I leave but I wish everybody a very happy Christmas.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Popped out to get my papers this morning having decided to risk Tesco's as I realised I was out of bread. Wasn't as bad as I feared so I was able to circumnavigate the aisles quite comfortably. So much so that when I reached the checkout the basket was well filled. If anythings forgotten now it will have to stay forgotten until after Christmas.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. As I am going to my sisters for Christmas dinner I have only a little to prepare for, just to make sure that I take anything that I might need with me, I'm supplying the Christmas pudding and a few other things and I must take my slippers. Just had an e-mail from the Dartford crossing people telling me that as I haven't used the crossing for 12 months my account is about to expire. So I duly telephoned them only to get a message that to find their office closure times during the holidays I will have to look on the Dartcharge website, this I did only I could find no mention of the opening times on the website. Cockwombleism is alive and well it seems. Done most of Christmas shopping yesterday so only the papers to get today, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Ventured into town today, had a nice lunch in Asda's, steak pie, mash and peas, bought a few neccessities such as bread. Luckily all my Christmas pressies have arrived, they are all from me to me so I get exactly what I want.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Dom, those S-Bahn trains look like DLR trains on steroids. Bright and breezy this morning so the car stays on the drive as I venture into town today. The calendar adjustments in 1752 were to adjust for the anomalities that had built up under the old calendar that was drastically out of sync. In fact if it hadn't been done we would have celebrated this Christmas last August. This was why the Gregorian calendar was introduced with the innovation of leap years to keep everything in sync. As it is it is already slightly out as it changes every year and to keep things on an even keel every 200 years a leap year is 'skipped', the last one was 1900 and the next one will be 2100. This is because the Earth circles the sun in fractionally less than 3651/4 days.

The actual vehicle is wheeled not tracked. I would imagine that Atlas would want to include such trailers in the series. Incidently the rail wheels are set at the scale gauge not 16.5mm, so they are set to run on P4/S4 track.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I was aware that the winter solstice only meant the shortest day and that the sunset or sunrise times continue moving earlier/later either side of that date. In fact it continues over a total period of 12 days. Whats more its not the middle of the 12 day period but two thirds of the way in that the solstice occurs. This means that it is the 25th of December that both the sunrise is getting earlier and sunset later. If you accept that Christmas originated as a pagan ceremony long before the birth of Jesus Christ you can understand why Christmas day is on the 25th and not on the solstice and where the '12 days of Christmas' originated. The maths involved date back over 5,000 years, it is now thought that calculating the date of the winter solstice was the function of Stonehenge. Over the last 5,000 years or so timings would have changed for various reasons, every century as the spin of the Earth slows down the days become longer, only by a fraction of a second so the calender will have to be altered again* at some time in the future. *(The last time it was altered was the introduction of the Gregorian calender but as that addressed most of the problems of the previous calender its good for another 5,000 years.)

I have found an illustration of the actual vehicle on the 'On Track Plant' website. The 'Philmor' part of the designation refers to the engineers wagon attached to the excavator. These wagons are the small low ones with inside bearings used for carrying tools etc. on trackwork sites not the hauled stock. Apparently they are often semi permanently attached to road/rail machines such as excavators for carrying the excavator buckets, in the illustration there is about three such buckets in the wagon but none attached to the excavator. If your interested in on track plant the OTP website is well worth checking out but you will have to sign up if you want to see anything other than thumbnail pictures.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I'll be going to my sisters for Christmas dinner on Friday so I hope there will be no problems on the A12. The weather forecast is not much help, all they tell you is that it will be 'wet and windy' but not where and when. Thats enough rant for now, I hope for those undergoing medical procedures that they will be successful and congratulations wherever they apply.

Goodnight all.

The Atlas version was not produced by Oxford, however Oxford had the self same model in an advanced state with manufacture imminent when Atlas announced the series. At the moment I have only seen one Unimog up for sale, at £30! hopefully prices will settle down as they did with the excavator. At one time they were going for very high sums, up to £80 on e-bay, now they are down to a more sensible £15-20.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The Sentinel diesel shunter arrived just on lunchtime, now I'll have to get on with that micro layout to run it on. I'm lucky in that I already have a 'built' baseboard that will just fit in the car, its 3' 6" long and made from offcuts of wood 'rescued' from various places.

I have received most of the items so far except for the class 66. Like many others I received the certificate with the horsebox ??? Like many others I held on for the Unimog which has turned out to be a very good model, now I'll hang on for the others if only to get the roadsweeper but if theres any problems I will cancel. Its a shame in that most of the models are very good but as for the Atlas organization a certain celebration in a brewery comes to mind. I only wanted a few from the Stobart trucks series and those that I wanted I obtained from the Stobart shop, it means waiting a bit longer for them to go on sale but their service is second to none. Some of the 'World of Stobart' models are available already from Stobarts but they do not discount any items or make any 'loss leaders' like Atlas, the Komatsu excavator is the full price but is a lot cheaper on e-bay. You get a small discount if you join the Stobart club, if you are buying a lot of models from them it might be worthwhile.

Will it return to the exhibition curcuit?

Morning all from Estuary-Land. My order from Model Railways Direct is winging its way to me as I type, only the Sentinel I'm afraid, the container crane is not in stock yet but its something to look forward to in the new year. Nice to hear from Andyram again and I'm green with envy because of Amber, its a long time since I've spent Christmas with a young child and despite it being hard work at times the magic and wonderment is a thing of beauty. Dom, I'm not sure if there is a term for splitting points from the trailing end but that reminded me that the Japanese railway that you showed the film of featured sprung points in several places and this was quite common on British tramway systems and may still be so. Have a good journey all those who are travelling over the holiday and I hope those undergoing various medical procedures are dealt with before the holiday. Be back later.

Goodnight all.

I don't seem to be able to cut and paste the list, this might be down to the privacy settings on Facebook or more likely my being a computer Luddite. The list only gives a name of the item and no description of it and includes airport items as well. So I am writing out the list giving a few more details. The list also includes models already produced/annouced up to so I will begin with the next one on the list after the MAN box van. The next on the list is the SARO Javelin airfield crash tender and this will be followed by an airfield de-icer spray lorry. The next six models will be rail related. First of them will be a Morooka MST150 carrier, this is one of those small dump trucks on catapillar tracks. 2) will be a Mecalac714MW road rail excavator. 3) Colmar 10000FS materials handler, this might also be road rail. 4) Leibherr A900ZW road-rail excavator. 5) Scania RV14, similar to the Oxford 'crane lorry' but a 6 wheeler with an older style cab. 6) Daewoo/Philmor S140WV another road rail vehicle that appears to have an attachment for handling round timber? The next two items are an airport tug and aircraft handling equipment. After that comes one of the most useful models, a small DAF road sweeper http://www.flickr.com/photos/77175657@N00/12515802515 The final model on the list is another airfield crash tender. EDIT I understand that there will be about 30 models in the 'set', the above brings the number of models including those already issued to 20 so it looks as if theres even more to come.

After hearing of the problems people were having with Atlas with regard to this series I was seriously considering cancelling my subscription. However yesterday someone obtained a list of the forthcoming models and put it on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1503751889920863&set=p.150 Several interesting models there including road/rail excavators and a roadsweeper.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Yesterday I was perusing my Facebook groups and someone managed to obtain a list of the Atlas 'World of Stobart' series. I had signed up for this but I'm certain that the Atlas management is made up of those dismissed by Southern/South-Eastern Trains for incompetence. Until I saw the list I was seriously thinking of cancelling my subscription. There are several rail maintenance vehicles on the list including dumper trucks and road/rail excavators and one I particularily like is a small DAF roadsweeper but it appears that I will have to wait until this time next year for that.

Goodnight all.

The ferry was threatened with closure a few years ago but the protests were such that the local authorities had to support it. It carries more traffic nowadays than it did then since the Tilbury docks expanded. There was only a handful of passengers when I crossed both ways today but it was difficult to find a parking spot on the pontoon and quite a crowd was waiting to catch the ferry when I returned.

A shocking accident

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A successful trip across the water to Gravesend, stocked up with plenty of pickles for Christmas. A little worry, the covered market was locked and barred but a notice on the door directed people to the local shopping centre a couple of minutes walk away where the stalls were ensconced in an empty shop and the pickle stall was just inside the entrance. Also on the food front, or tea anyway, I started on the leaf tea with the filter teapot and although it involves more preparation and clearing up I do not intend to go back to tea bags now, I'd forgotten how good tea tastes without being enclosed in a bag. I am trying various teas at the moment, some are too fine for the filter which seems to like the larger leaves which are also easier to clean from the filter. Another advantage is if you remove the filter before pouring the tea doesn't 'stew', just put it back in if you are going to top up the pot and then remove it again before pouring.