TheSignalEngineer

I can appreciate your feelings there Chris. So far I have missed or future cancellations of nine shows, swapmeets, club open days etc, four trips to photograph main line steam, an MTB holiday in Yorkshire, three planned visits to heritage rail sites, three exhibitions at museums (non-railway) and some sporting events. I need to get back to swimming as that seems to have the most beneficial effect for body flexibility, I can't do the Joe Wicks stuff these days as I end up needing too much recovery time between programmes. Anne has probably found it harder than me as she goes swimming several times each week and would normally be in the tennis league season at the moment with two matches most weeks. She is also carrying an injury at the moment but can't get a face to face physio appointment. Up side is I have done a bit of catch-up on the muddling side finishing off incomplete projects. Two more programmed for later today as the postie has just delivered my order from Wizard for the bits I had run out of. We have got back into walking around the countryside more than we have for the last few years. In addition the backlog of cycle maintenance is no more, the allotment is the tidiest it has been for about three years and I know where all of my tools are in the garage.

I keep my old EX8 with it 26" wheels and 3x9 in running order as I find it better than my Whyte with a 1x11 on some rides. Nice area, we did one there a few years ago but it was winter at the time so not quite the same. The previous day we had to abanbon due to a blizzard.

When my Dad retired from the vicarage my parents moved into a flat. I did a fitted bedroom array built from flatpack parts supplied in those days by MFI. Fortunately my 9 year old son was still small enough to fit into the tight corners with a stubby screwdriver and was an excellent DIY assistant so he negotiated a piecework rate to put all of the screws in whilst I held the parts in place and made sure they were square. When the job was finished he worked out that he had put in 308 screws.

Problem easily avoided by snipping the rind at one inch intervals before cooking.

Must have been a fair downpour last night. Just back from a walk by the rivers Sett and Goyt around New Mills, water very high and coloured. Flood warnings out for low lying areas aroind Stockport.

Can the figures be more dubious than the testong figures for the UK?

I rode on the Class 151 a couple of times btween Derby and Matlock. It was running as a three car then. IIRC there was some issue with the transmission being suspect as the gear changes were very rough. They only lasted in service for about four or five years before lurking on in store around Derby and Crewe for about 15 years before eventually being scrapped.

I've done a few Cambrians, tend to be needing a bit of adjustment to get the best job, although the SR 8-plank I used for a BR Vac conversion went OK. So did the Boplate, although I gave up on the fiddly buffers and used Dave Franks ones for that.. The Dance Hall Brake was a bit more awkward and I am currently wrestling with a rake of Catfish hoppers. I've got three assorted bogie bolsters in the stash which are due to replace some of my old Airfix/Mainline/Hornby ones.

Picture from Robert Carroll's collection of W9217E . W9217E_FaringtonJct_28-7-62 by robertcwp, on Flickr. Looking at some old CWNs I see that in September 1955 no. 9211 was in the Margate - Birkenhead circuit and 9213 was on the Bournmouth - Birkenhead. These worked north and south on alternate days. Bill Bedford does an etch for these conversions. See the last item on this psge. https://www.mousa.biz/fourmm/coach/sides/BR/br_sides4.html#sr-ex-lner-r-caf. Do I feel a project coming on?

More lockdown modelling continuing with the completion of some half finished items. The LMR excursion set has just gained another coach, this time a Period 1 Open Third or second as it would have been in this livery. It's a panelled two-window type to Diagram 1692 of which 555 were built between 1925 and 1929. They lasted in revenue service until the end of 1963. A large number were converted to Ward Cars for ambulance trains in WW2 then converted again to 57' Full Brakes on their return to the LMS. The model is Comet sides on a Replica/Bachmann donor. The Stones vents were 3D printed by Guy Rixon based on a sketch I made at the NRM. Next for the set will be a Period 1 all-steel BTO in blood & custard livery. The body is completed awaiting a delivery of some bits to finish the mods to the underframe and adding roof detail as I have just noticed that this lot had a steel roof with quite prominent rivetted seams.

I don't know about the years immediarely after closure of Woodhead but from 1995 coal was mainly imported through Liverpool's Gladstone Dock terminal I believe.

Only about 20 lengths which was used for a temporary connection for delivery of materials to the Snow Hill lines from the Moor Street end. All of the final track was new.

I once stood for the Borough Council which covers the western portal of the tunnel. (Didn't win). The electoral register for the Woodhead part of the ward on the northern side of the reservoirs contained just 32 names.

Oh, I don't know. There seem to be a few of the present lot who like to give it a try.

A bit like the Denton and Hyde bypass, aka the M67 Manchester to Sheffield motorway. Starts at a half built junction with the M60 and finishes in a field just short of Mottram traffic lights. The bit through Gorton to Mancunian Way never got built although they are currently removing the old railway bridge near Tesco. The unstarted Woodhead section was planned to use the railway trackbed even before the line closed and the Stocksbridge section is still only half its final width.

Our daughter was seconded to the Italian branch of her firm several years ago. Their operation is based to the north of Milan and the first flat they put her into was in Monza. As she was quite fluent in Italian she took us to some excellent eatong places with Italian-only menus. One night she suggested a particular place and we had to wait a few minutes outside for a table to become free. Having quite a tanned skin, long black hair and wearing Italian designer clothing she could easily pass for a local. Two obviously English tourists stopped and asked her in faltering Italian as to whether it was a good place to eat and what she suggested from the menu. She answered in Italian which they couldn't understand followed by a translation of the menu in a broad Birmingham accent, much to the amusement of all around.

My head feels several pounds lighter now, as is my wallet.

Fearing the wrath of the Awl-mighty I will be posting about yesterday's muddling along in another section when the paint has been touched up. Meanwhile now the weekend exhibition is over I can stow my rucksac and have a shower before venturing out for my tonsorial therapy appointment.

I refuse to donate to Mr 'Spoons tax avoidance funds. Don't like his politics, attitude to staff and suppliers and don't like being preached to on TV by someone who looks like a third degree p1$$ artist and reminds me of Father Jack's stunt double. Only time I have been in his local establishment was to put some residue in the trough after supporting a local beer establishment nearby and the gents on the market square was being refurbished.

Much the same on our side of the hills, so the morning bike ride to Woodhead is off. Can't fit the top to my brassica cage either. No problem as I have a muddling project needing finishing in daylight so hopefully the inclement weather will continue for a couple of hours.

Anne has gone to the hairdresser this afternoon. She has been complaining for weeks that they were closed so hope she will be happy when she gets back. As for me I have an appointment with the tonsorial technician on Monday morning. Good job as any longer it would have been out with the clippers and a No.1

I remember being in an SYHA kitchen on one of our 1980s trips, possibly Kyle, when a lad from a Glasgow made himself a Mars Bar toasted sandwich for his evening meal.

I tend to use Halfords red or grey primer as a base for most wagons then vary it with washes and weathering powder. Don't forget that a lot of paints were still hand mixed on site in the 1950s, so there were wide variations. Also for the grey there was a lot of MOD surplus paint around after WW2 and any steel bodied fitted wagons could have been set out in red oxide primer without a finishing coat in times of shortage.

Another term frequently used for colour light subsidiary aspects on the LM region was Cat's Eyes.

Good job I finished this one then. Replica/Bachmann to D1755 BCK.