PhilJ W

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Robert, when I visited Germany back in the 70's I went to the Odenwald, a really beautiful part of the country, and it snowed, in September. Jock, I agree the Rocket III is not exactly a racing machine, the ones I saw were all attached to sidecars. Out of curiosity I looked up the prices, £11,500 for a 10 year old machine. They are aimed primarily at the US market as is evident from the different models offered. As I mentioned I run a Hyundai which I chose because of the easier access as I require a 'tall' car. The model I drive is the i10, a bit to small for Jocks needs perhaps. Commiserations and congratulations where necessary, have a good one.

It was discussed earlier in this thread about the class 66 model as to whether it would be R-T-R or a static model. I have just noticed on the paperwork that came with the Doosan it states 'More officially licenced die-cast metal models coming up'. This includes the class 66 so it looks as if it will be a static model. (My bold.)

We had a similar game at our school, about the only difference was the name which I cannot remember now except that it was different. Talking of motorcycles when I went to the Canvey show on Sunday on display were a few of these beasts. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Rocket_III

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I thought I'd heard rain last night and the patches of damp this morning proved it. Pete, I drive a Hyundai as well and they are justifiably popular on this side of the pond getting top marks for reliability most years. Congratulations and commiserations where necessary, be back later.

Goodnight all.

Wendy's one of the weather girls/reporters on the BBC London news. Monday evenings she gives a forecast of the local weather for the week ahead. I don't think we'll see so much of her over the next few months as she is obviously pregnant.

C is 6 down 12 from right. 6 is first on row 4 N is 3rd right top row.

The snow was in Poland/Czech Republic. What has happened is that the low pressure over the Balkans that is dropping a lot of water everywhere it goes has bumped into the high pressure over Scandinavia. A low pressure in the northern hemisphere rotates anti-clockwise and a high pressure clockwise and the one over Scandinavia is pulling a lot of cold air off of the Arctic. The snow is predicted to move west but peter out over Germany. The same high pressure will deliver cold air to the UK but without the moisture fortunately. EDIT Your probably paying too much attention to the delectable Wendy Hurrell Tony. I only just managed to tear my eyes away and look at the weather map.

It is the Oxford model. Mine also arrived this morning but delivered by the postie. I think the reason for the lack of a free gift is that the stacker was intended to be later in the series. This model was overdue by about three weeks so last week I telephoned Atlas to make enquiries and I was told that there were delays in their receiving the models from the producer but that my next model (the stacker) would be despatched immediately. This has made me suspect that another model was supposed to be number 4 and the stacker was moved forward in the series to replace it.

I remember a copy of H&E circulating at my first year at secondary school. As you say full use was made of the air brush on the adults 'naughty bits', this led to some speculation as to what happened to them when you became an adult. Did they drop off or did you have to visit the doctor to have them surgically removed? (It was an all boys school) and how did you pee? After a few days of worried speculation all was revealed by one of the lads older brother, in fact he had been stoking the fires to get his own back on his little brother for nicking his mag. Little brother got his own back by leaving the magazine where mum would find it.

There's also the Mid-Essex, Ken's their exhibition manager.

It seems to be very slow on RMweb again this morning.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Just taken over an hour to catch up on ER's since last night. Sorry to hear about your knee Rick, I was worried in case you had been bitten by something nasty. There was a thread a little while ago about some of the things in Australia that can give you a nasty bite. Weather is set fair for the week if a bit colder for the rest of the week according to the forecasters but a snippet on last nights long range forecast said that central/southern Germany should expect heavy snow mid week so winters a-coming.

Goodnight all.

Not new cars exactly but I visited the Canvey Bus Museum open day today. In the school playing fields alongside the museum was displayed some modern motorcycle combinations. I was surprised to see some of these quite new machines displaying the Triumph badge. When I enquired I was told that the firm was still making motorcycles in the UK. Looking at one of these machines I noted that it was fitted with an in line 3 cylinder water cooled engine. When I asked the capacity I was told 2,300 cc! http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Motorcycles_Ltd

Evening from Estuary-Land. Had an enjoyable day today at the Canvey open day. I'm afraid Tony that the football club car park has not been available for visitors to the show for several years, you have to park on the seafront and use the free vintage bus service from there. Managed to get a few of the newest Oxford diecasts and a couple of diecast buses for £5 each. I hope those wanting to see the Vulcan fly over were able to do so, a couple of visitors to the show were following its progress, apparently it flew over North Weald at about 1:45 and Thurrock about 5 to 10 minutes later. Feeling a bit tired after my exertions today so perhaps an early night tonight.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Short one this morning as I'm out to the Canvey rally shortly, be back later.

Mike (Stationmaster) posted as I was writing mine. I have obtained the information from 'Kaleidoscope of Shevloke and Drewry' published by Warne. It states that the biggest user was the London Brick Company with approximately 170 units but British Railways had over 70 at one time. As I said above the 'Dual Drive' was not very common so I assume the next ones will be of the single cab type.

The 'Dual Drive' Freightlifter appears to have been exclusively a British Railways Western Region version. This came about because magistrates in Slough prosecuted British Railways for allowing a vehicle to be driven on the road with the drivers vision obscured by a 'Jungle of steel' in 1956/57. They came with several lifting attachments one for British Railways was for lifting railway containers, others were developed for moving rolls of paper and steel. They were originally developed at the behest of the London Brick Company for moving palletised bricks, including loading railway wagons.

Its about six years ago that I visited Ypres and the surrounding area not realising the extent of the carnage that was the Great War. I think that everyone should visit the battlefields of that terrible war to learn the human cost of war.

I'd forgotten a couple of items so I went out about 7 this evening to get them before the supermarket closed. At the bottom of my street is a small row of shops but including a kebab shop and a chippie. The road also curves quite sharply and the customers to the fast food outlets park on the outside (right) of the bend reducing the road width to that of a single vehicle. Also there is a hedge on the inside of the bend that makes it difficult to see traffic approaching. This evening as I entered the part of the road where the cars were parked an a*** hole in a BMW came swinging into the road, straight onto my side of the road expecting me to back up, instead of which I stood my ground and moved forward until we were almost bumper to bumper. After a few seconds he realised I was not going to back up and he backed up. I could see he was yelling something at me but I couldn't hear it as I had my windows closed and the radio on. The cause of the problem is the parked cars, despite there being a perfectly adequate car park behind the shops, they park between two road junctions about 40 metres apart so are illegally parked anyway.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Good news from Mal and I hope Debs is feeling better and will be out of hospital soon. I collected my order from Tesco this lunchtime, quite impressed less than 24 hours from placing the order to it being available, nice little models. Got to have an early night tonight as setting out for the rally on Canvey tomorrow, and breaking out my winter woollies as well as the museum is right at the eastern end of the island and is cold inside even in the balmiest weather, I'm not sure if my neighbour who purchased the Reliant Kitten van from me will be there with it but he said that he intended to be there.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Hope everyone's feeling well, Debs has acknowledged my good wishes as undoubtedly she has all other good wishes. I ordered the Oxford diecast models from Tesco Direct mentioned in the 'Bargain Hunters' thread yesterday and I will be able to collect them this afternoon. They are the set of 3 00 scale minis for £6 and 3 Walls ace cream vans for £6:49. The weather as forecast seems set to remain cold but fine well into next week so winter drawers on.

Goodnight all.

Not quite what he meant when he said he wanted a hot car.