Half a Blog

This one really dosen't count but it is a picture, [black and white of course] of a particularly stunning property.

Wonderful and what modelling is all about.

A pub in the middle of some pretty dramatic industrial buildings,,, [steel works] & the real bonus is,,,, you don't need any flock!!!!

I took my lovely wife in there one Sunday lunchtime for a pint,,, it was full of either working or retired steel workers,,, the language was nearly as strong as the bitter,,, wonderful,,, every other sentence came with an apology!!

Oh happy days,, you don't forget things like that in a black and white world.

SAD

That poor old cow's innards

Saturday night and it's on again,,, and all cleverly disguised as entertainment,,, that poor cow.

Anyway onto more enlightening subjects like,,,why are black and white photo's more interesting than coloured ones,,, or is it just me.

Perhaps I am of a generation where black and white is the norm,,, I offer a classic example of what I am on about,,, not only that,,, but the buildings when they were intact were about 1 mile from my favourite imaginary location,,, Salmon Pastures.

Which does actually exist,,, but is now a glorious technicolour annexe of one of europe's largest shopping malls,,, and you cannot move for mosque's and empty McDonut wrappers,,, yuch.

About 20 years ago I took a work colleague on a trip through industrial Yorks and Lancs,,, [what a lovely name for a railway] we were supposed to be visiting industrial battery manufacturers but spent most of our time looking at some pretty incredible scenery and victorian buildings.

My colleague was born in South Africa and lived in a particularly rural part of Hampshire near Basingstoke,,, on driving past a particularly run down area of Bolton he commented that he could not understand why anybody on gods earth would want to live in a terraced house!!!

I exploded and called him all manner of snobbish southern gits,,, and mentioned that I had been born and bred in a terraced house just like the one's he was scoffing at and it was wonderful.

He thought that answered all manner of things,,,he was a particularly colourful character,,, I on the other hand prefer black and white.

Not particularly interesting I suppose but better than watching that poor cow's innards yet again and it does give me an opportunity to mention the pastures will be displayed,,, colourful terraced houses and all at Chelmsford model railway exhibition in October 2012.

Suvvern Gits!!! I really do love em.

Look forward to seeing you there,,, whoever you are.

SAD and everyone else at the Pastures.

Fancy a Ramble.

Ramblings of a pasteurized mind,,,, Murphy's law is alive and kicking. Further to a visit to my local friendly builders merchant I am now fully equipped with bricks, mortar, wall plates and all manner of buildy type things so I can commence on the very overdue home for The Pasture's.
[now that the cattery no longer exists and the management has decided she really does need to put her car in the garage]
And despite the hosepipe ban and government sponsored official drought in East Anglia,,, since I took possession of the aformentioned builders bits it hasn't stopped bloomin raining,,,, I really am getting a bit precipitated off with all this.
Whilst living in Jeddah for 9 years, where it rains once a decade for about 3 hours, we never had a hosepipe ban or government sponsored droughts there,,, how do they do that.
All right the water was a bit salty that came out of the local desalination plant,,, but we wouldn't dream of drinking the stuff,,,, I'm sure if I handn't showered in it for 9 years I may still have some hair!!!
Well actually we did have a sponsored drought after the government discovered that some of the water the expats were drinking was decidedly alcoholic,, sorry,, fizzy.
Does this actually qualify as blog 4? Send us a comment please please please let me know your' still alive,, whoever you are.

Casualty!!!! That's not what Saturday night is for!!!

A new window of opportunity has occured to this most reluctant of bloggers,,, rather than sit and watch green clad mummies disecting some poor cow's innards whilst pretending it's a human being I can be much more productive by blogging to my known 4 followers,,, and perhaps many more,,, who perhaps understandably prefer to remain anonymous.

What a gay time we had at York exhibition last weekend,,,, Gresley Beat,, Stoke Summit and trade stands to die for.
I personally offered my thanks to the very kind man on the Bachmann stand,,, what a year for us confirmed North Country types,,,, is it Christmas already!!!
They had the Scottish Director D11/2 in the usual glass cases and in my opinion it looks tremendous,,, doubtless there will be myriads of rivet counters with serious consternations offering all manner of critique's as to why the round headed rivet on the back of the widget valve is pointing down as against slightly up but to be quite honest who cares,,, it's a GCR loco,,, just what The Pastures is all about promoting.

I had to offer my sincere thanks to smiley Bachmann man and thank him for the first GCR r-t-r passenger release and he like me was duly elated,,, we then swooned onto the possibilities of later releases of the D11/1,, D10's not to mention the NRM Butler version.

All this before we get round to the news on the Pom-Pom,,, a proper engine,,, YoHO who's afraid of Osama Brunel now!!! And all the copper clad disciples are already whingeing on various forums as to why anyone would consider anything other than a Swinedon loco could possibly be popular.

As I was on a euphoric "Directed" role I also suggested it wouldn't take a lot of effort to extend the boiler,,, drop another pair of driving wheels in and Sam's your Uncle.
His response,,, "We know,, we have to seriously consider all possibilities before we commit to any new models"

AND and and,,,they are also going to do a Yorks & Lanc's 2-4-2 tank,,, they used to run from Huddersfield [not lately madam] into Sheffield via Penistone and all those lovely stone clad viaducts so we will definitely be having one of those joining us down by the river.

What a year for The Pastures,,,,, I'll have to sell the recent ebay purchases of both an old Bec Director and LYR 2-4-2t as they will never hold a candle to the offerings from Barwell,,, I think it's called Murphy's Law.

Ah well,, Casualty has finished,,,they have sewn up the poor cow till next week and I need to fight my way past the dog and cat to get a front row seat for MOTD.

Is it May yet???? NO then only one to go,,,, watch this space.

Don't time fly when your having fun

As expected the much vaunted ambition to "avablogamonth" has already missed a couple of months BUT there have been mitigating circumstances.

The good news is we have been invited to Chelmsford Exhibition in October which will give me lots of things to tinkle with between now and then.

Could be a dangerous weekend as an old AirFarce chum lives just down the road and he has agreed to assist!!!!!,,,, he's never been near a model railway in his life so it could be
"tres intressant" as they say dans l'continant,,, as against incontinent!!!!

I have also been very bust on a top secret project just down the road,,, but as we are all sworn to secrecy best I leave it there,,, but SAD has been dabbling with N gauge,,, and "intit small,,,, cripes my digits are far too oversized for such twiddlings".

The quick dust over and track clean on fathers posthumous efforts have had to take a slow shunt to nowhere for the time being,,, but all is not lost,,,, it is now working after a fashion and I just need to sit and look at if for a bit before I decide where we go next. Watch this space.

The dog has taken up residence in the cats' box in't shed and that has created all manner of agro,,, but all is not lost as now we don't need the calor gas burner on full belt every session they are both quite content to sit outside and joust for position on the shed threshold.

Will have to leave it there as I'm fed up with all this,,, but only 2 more to go to get back on track.

TTFN