WORK IN PROGRESS. DECEMBER 2019

Don't get too excited I just happen to be on an emotional high.
Have had a good couple of days on the Zeppelin and thought I would share the renewed enthusiasm.

As mentioned previously it can now propel itself up and down the track and this is the progress to date on the body,,, cab, bunker and tanks all cut out and sitting on the chassis.
It is only blue-tacked in place at the moment but it is giving me a pretty good idea how accurate my marking out was,,, conclusion being it is workable but needs a bit of fine tuning.

Now it is coming together it has dawned on me just how BIG these things were!!! Massive.
Not to mention they were apparently the first 2-6-4 tanks to be put into service on UK main lines.
Another first for the G.C.R.

Have also spent a few minutes looking through the instruction manual on my digital box brownie,,, much better pics than previously and good enough to show what progress is being made.
Have just realised you don't need to get them developed either!!! Keep that quiet though before somebody decides it's a good idea to start taxing digital photo's

Read the instuction manual!!!! first time ever,,, but I might give it another go in a few years and see if I can improve the quality even further.

What value for money,,, 3 posts in 5 days!!! [[This should spike the Squitters Guns.]]

The Wanderer returns!!!!

Just look who is back,,,, Lizzie our very own working elephant,,,,
After various attempts to find her in the plethora of cardboard boxes she reappeared this morning and it transpires she had been hiding amongst a load of wagon kits I had taken with me on my recent travels,,, it's good to have her back,,, it just was not the same without her,,,, doubtless the more eagle eyed will also notice the reworking of suicide corner!!!! Still a work in progress but nearly finished.

And just to prove how active we have been here is another couple of shots of the new home!!!
[note to editor,,, digital camera's work much better if the memory chip is not FULL]
This is a part of the current build line as mentioned in yesterdays post!!! N5, Q7, Zeppelin, J3 and don't even ask what is lurking in the doorway of the works building,,, it is a commissioned K's kit,,, that actually works,,, and it has a genuine glued together K's motor,, yo ho,, those were the days!!

Where was I,,?? oh yes,, the new home,,, this is a shot of the workshop end of the garage,,,

basically it is where I attempt to solder my blistered fingers to the workbench and drop Stanley knives onto my laden flipflops!!!!! 

I can't promise the posts are going to appear on a daily basis,,, but,,, as mentioned the Norfolk Squitters did have a bit of a go about the lack of blogging of late,,, and who am I to argue!!!! 

I just make the tea once every 3 weeks.

PS: haven't got any pictures yet,,, BUT,,, after todays efforts the Zeppelin now has a set of pickups and it has successfully propelled itself from the fiddle yard into the shed!!!!

A proud moment in any fledgling loco's life!!!

Guessing Game

I'll bet you are wondering what this is all about,,, busy bee's,,,NO:
Honey Pot,,, [I wish,, those were the long warm days of yore!!!] NO:
Apiculturists Convention,,,Could be but I've never actually been to one,,, so its a NO:

IT'S A HIVE OF ACTIVITY.!!!!! Honest,, it says so on t'internet piccies.
[note,,,  The Queen is the one in the middle with the flowing locks and ballet pumps]

I had the "Norfolk Squitters" round this afternoon, who after they had eaten me out of Shortbread, Jaffa Cakes and Ginger Nuts thought they had better get a bit complimentary and informed me that the new garage was a veritable hive of activity,,,,,and we have only been in business for about 4 weeks,,,
Thankyou chaps,,,[and I mean that most sincerely]  I am very pleased you noticed,, and I have to agree we have been productive,, if I could get my steam driven digipic thing with all it's associated micro-bytes to cooperate I could post a few pics to prove it,,, but for those who are even remotely disinterested,,, all the boxes have been unpacked,, placed in the appropriately revamped filing cupboard drawer thing,, complete with labels,,, I have reinvented my Q7 [that means I've eventually found its chimney],,, got the chassis on my N5 0-6-2 tank working,,,stripped the paint off a J3 & J39,, dusted off my Zeppelin for the next batch of scratch building,, replaced various gutters drainpipes and window glazing,,, smoothed out "Suicide Corner" on the tram way,,, so now it's just hairy as against darn right ridiculous,,, and most importantly I have actually played with my trainset again,,,
A LOT!!! & it works,, WOO-HOO

How did I ever find time to go to work!!!! I am really taking to this retirement thing,,, it's great fun,,, the money could be better but I haven't had to worry about market share,, exchange rates,, mop heads,, toilet rolls,,, action or business plans,,, focus groups or market surveys at all.
Having been without the pastures for over 2 years in some respects it is a case of cram it in while you still can,, and I am,,, and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself,,, the tingle finger is back and the nails on my right hand whilst not quite Dibnah-esque are definitely getting that well worn demeanour again,,, magic.

I will have another go in tomorrows daylight at getting my digital box brownie working again so I can prove that this time it is not just good intentions,,, but hard blistered activity.

All we need now are a few kind hearted exhibition managers to take pity on us and give us a run out while we still can!!!!!   We are good value for money,,, very cheerful,,, and will do anything [within reason] for an early morning bacon sarnie and permission to play trains for 8 hours,,, think about it and as a certain D Trotter Esq said quite frequently,,,, "you know it makes sense" among other things.

Read recently that the rather zealous hair shirted academic who wrote weekly moans to the telegraph about the dire state of the Britains use of the apostrophe's has finally conceded defeat,,, thank the lord for that,,, what a senseless waste of time that all was,,, as you can see above,,, grammer or speling or  punctuasian was never my strongest sweet,,, and now I don't have to even try,,, but of course I will!!!!

Q:  Did you know that O gauge is 3/7th's bigger than 00 and 5/7th's bigger than N??? neither did I till recently,,, there you are,,, you are never too old to learn something new and congratulations to Westerner for giving it a go!!! Well done that man!!!!! [but unfortunately it's still GWR!!!!]

Did you also know one of the best ways to lose weight is eat less,,,, I've tried it and it works all I did was cut out the wine gums kitkats, mars bars, and peanut brittle and lo and behold this week I lost 4 oz's!!!

Guess What,,,, we've moved again!!!!

I do wish I had bought shares in Pickfords all those years ago,, but I didn't so what the fromage frei!!

The last 48 months have been nomadic to say the least,, we have moved 4 times,, & all with the best of intentions,,, to start with,,,, but a retired life in the Mediterranean sunshine was not to be,, and we really are glad to be back in the frozen east that is Norf Norfick.

The reason for this blog is to advise my healthy gang of 11 followers that we are now "settled" back into a sort of normal existence,,,, Helen is now only a 5 minute walk from work and when I am not watching "Yesterday" I can go orienteering in our garage or shed,,,you know whats coming!!

The Pastures holiday in DarnSarf Surrey is not quite over but we are getting close,,, [crickey there is a terrible echo in here!!] 

What has happened since we were last really on air with the BLOG,,, well Brexs!it for a start,,,, what a 3 year load of old Cobbrers,,, BORING,,, and can I just add,,,

 if certain people are not careful then Democracy is going to be about as relevant as a straight banana or lead free solder,[ that was just for all you long time supporters!!! see June 29th 2016 post!!]

But onto happier thoughts,,, I now have a 16' x 10' garage to fill,,, well the Pastures will do half of that,,, and I still have room left to cobble together a workshop,, garden shed,, and seating for the regular "Toosdy" supporters,,, I can't wait,,, bring it on!!!.

But a word of warning to the previously mentioned "Regular Toosdy  beardied unwashed"

I am not in the least interested in:

high tides
mid tides
low tides
bowsprits,, halfwits,, or wot-ever-fwits
sheets,, tweets or pleats
bowlines,, lifelines or sidelines
berth's,, girth's or wursts,,[cancel the last one]
midships,,ships,, loggerheads or jibs
asterns,,flotsam or jetsam,,,
bulkeads,, decks,,, cabin's or galley's
heads,,,, [could be tempted on an ad-hoc basis]
ports,,,,,,[well maybe ,,Graham's,, Taylor's or Kopke!!]
starboards  [except Taureans]
belay's ,,,,, [unless it is decidedly hearty]

Enjoy,,,, !!!

Interesting nonsense.

Came up here to do a bit of "planning" for the new attempt at retirement activity  and got completely diverted by 1001 distractions::

So here is some,,,,,

1, The powers that be at the "Ministry of Diversity" have decided that Thomas the Tank Engine needs to widen his horizons!!!!!! and is to be joined by Indian,, and Australian forms of locomotion!!!!

Where do they find these "ministry" people,,,,, I bet he/she/it has a degree in sociology with media studies,,,, not yet at a state where they need to shave,,,,can nearly tie there own shoe laces,,, and is on about £55>60K,,, p.a. UNBELIEVABLE NONSENSE.

2, Over the past 2 or 3 years my dearly beloved has been very keen in supplementing my intake of Omega 1,2&3 oils,,,, as if cod liver oil out of a bottle at school wasn't enough I have,,, over the past 36 months,,, probably consumed enough fish oil to make Captain Birdseye decidedly jealous,,, and now some chinless wonder at Oxford University has decided the "old Omego oil ploy" was a complete waste of time,,,, either that or he has just lost his evenings job at John West!! whatever.
Thanks a lot pal,,,, before I started on the oil slick diet,, I had hair,,, my privates were only occasionally salmon pink,,,& I left very few scales in the bath!!!! Not to mention the bearings in my right shoulder need lubricating and the NHS are politely telling me it's my age. Painful Nonsense.

3, Am I the only one who finds women commentators on Football Focus complete madness.
No offence,, BUT,, you now have your own "game" and TV programmes related to the same end,,, so sod off and leave us alone,, not to mention you all sound like a 33rpm recording of Wayne played at 45rpm anyway,,,,, eerrrrr. NONSENSE.

4, Over the past week the papers have been drowning in full page articles about how serenely and quietly the Beckhams marriage is possibly falling apart,,,, As Rhet Butler famously said,, "to be quite honest my dear,,, I don't give a damn",,,, live and let live,,,, life's a bungee when your down to your last 40 odd million,,, and no matter what the outcome it won't put a smile on my face,, or hers.
NONSENSE.

5,  Compound NONSENSE,,,,
The BBC,, why not come clean and admit your a political party really, then we can legally stop paying for a license.
The Donald,,,, as they say locally,,, "wot is ee loyk" UNBELIEVABLE,,, lets just hope his assistants can hide the BIG RED BUTTON for about another 6 years

MODELLING NONSENSE.

Today was going to be so good,,, I was out there clearing umpteen cardboard boxes,,, found myself a work area,,, much to the annoyance of the cat,,, found 3 or 4 suitable projects,, just right to ease my way back into it,,, only to discover that my main tool box is still in store.

Frustrating,,, but there's always another day.

Southwold on't Sea

Worthy of a post in itself,,,,I have just been to my first model railway exhibition for some time.

Southwold,, Suffolk,, [Chelsea on sea,,, for the likes of me and thee] home of the beach chalet's that fetch a far better price than my 3 bed detached bungalow.

In a word,,,, disappointing,,, a possibly biased opinion from a 4mm fan,,, as there were more 7mm layouts than anything else,,, but I suppose,,, "this is Southwold".

And an old gripe,,,, how do they get away with alleyways of approx 6' [that is 1.8 metro-gnomes in parles junker speak] and allow double decker Porsche buggies in that can bring the whole bash to a standstill in 30 seconds,,,, mind you I am please to report that "Pippa's" offspring slept through it all with no problem whatsoever!!!!!

With a £7.00 entrance fee it worked out at £3.50 per hour,,, and we spent 25% of the allocated 2 hours quaffing tea and debating if the buggy borne L'enfant Terrible's were better flam-beyed or lightly toasted!!!!   [It's all about personal taste I suppose] it was that sort of show.

On a brighter note,,, Gresley beat was there in all it's glory,,, there was a lovely 2mm coal mine layout which I couldn't get anywhere near because the front row was full of people with smart phones filming it for pretty much the whole time I was trying to get a bit closer,,I gave up in the end,, after all it was only 2mm,,, and the variety of books on the book stand was wonderful.

It was SUNNY,,,, it was DRY,,, and the company far outweighed the imbalance of the exhibits,,, but let's be realistic,,,, nobody wins every week.

Southwold has other attractions as well and well worth a visit if you ask me!!!! 

An IMPORTANT discovery

Well well.,,, look what I have just found whilst swanning about in my ether driven chariot on't web.

                                                       ^^^
It's a 1950's Ordnance survey map of Sheffield as used by the local council,,, now if you scroll up in line with the three arrows,,,,,,,,, [above] to the first bright red copy-write marks and attack the view with some form of magnifier you will see the following,"Salmon Pastures Yard coal and coke depot".

I never knew the Pastures had a coal and coke yard,,, HONEST,,,and not only that I have now got a track plan of the yard and it's feeder line which swoops majestically over the canal and then over the River Don ,,,  if you look at the next map,, which I haven't included,,,Salmon Pastures Yard appears to be almost an island surrounded by the river.

I can already see it forming in my minds eye,,,,,the picturesque River Don complete with it's weir's,, babbling brooks,,, kingfishers,,  [yeh right]  more like,,sewage outfall's,, old lorry front axles,,,surplus to requirement 45 gallon oil drums,,, toxic waste pipes containing goodness knows what,,,,and while you are there have another good look round that map just about every road in the industrial bit has at least 3 steel workshops on it,,, YO HO,, all that grunge and grime,, lovely,, what more could one ask for.

WHAT A DAY,,, what a discovery,,, I'm going to have to go and have a lie down as I can see I am going to be VERY VERY  busy.

Anybody got any pictures of a Coal and Coke Plant????

Watch this murky space!!!