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

Smolt's or Baby Salmon to you

Nature is a wonderful thing,,,, after residing in various garage's for long enough the pastures has spawned,, son of Salmon Pastures,, yet another odyssey on the favourite "where there's brass there's broke finger nails" theme.

Actually started by father as his "final fling",,, unfortunately he flung before it was finished and in a moment of brandy induced sentimental madness I told him I'd finish it,, someday,, and after sitting in the garage loft for nearly 10 years gathering dust and contracting warpy baseboards disease I now wish I had kept my mouth shut.

What was sold to me as a quick whip round with a track rubber & a few buildings to finish to taste,, has become a life's work,,, oh what fun we are having,,,, now we have built new points & replaced all the track and made a concerted effort to instill some East Anglian level flatness to the woodwork and fathomed the wirey plugs et al we are slowly starting to enjoy ourselves.

[Well it's cheaper than spending endless hours in the local,,, but only just]

Cassette's are in,, inpractical but nonetheless IN,, otherwise it gets a bit cold having the shed door open for any form of running session,, and in an unexpected departure from normal SAD logic this one will probably be based on British Railways late 50's early 60's when yours truly was actually trainspotting, on the other hand I have so much LMS LNER stuff it might not to mention that my D9 is over 50% unfinished!!!

Thats all folks,,,, I just can't wait for February!!

Anyway this years resolution is to Blog-a-month,, but not necessarily in chronological order.

Aylsham was HOT HOT HOT

Just a quick debrief for our vast array of followers!!!

It's a pity Aylsham was a 1 day affair,, we really enjoyed ourselves.

With the forecasted temperatures I was expecting problems but NOTHING occured.

Certainly makes a change.

Will probably be some time before I do another exhibition in shorts and sandals,, not a pretty sight but very practical.

And on returning home I found out we had got ourselves on You Tube,, just put in Aylsham Model Railex and you will find us I'm sure.

It's a record,, 5 posts in 1 year and it's only October 1st

I had to do it,,, beat the all time record of the number of posts in a calendar year,,, and we've done it,, there is every chance we may hit double figures by the time Santa comes staggering along!!!

It's all a rooze really,, just to let you all know that the pastures is now safely esconsed in the back of a white Trannie van and we are all chomping at the bit for the autumnal bash at the Victory Hall Aylsham tomorrow Saturday 1st October 2011.

Unfortunately his handsomeness will not be with us on this occasion but we do have a computer wizard in our midst which should be handy as that means we can all pop out for a byte!!!

Look forward to meeting any Pastoral Bloggers,,,

Have a nice day,, a don't forget to pay the alimony!!!

SAD and Salmon Pastures

Aylsham Norfolk Exhibition. 1st October 2011

Just a quick line to our many followers, well 4 to be precise.
Salmon Pastures will be at the Aylsham Norfolk Exhibition on Saturday the 1st October 2011.
It's a one day show, starts at 10.15am and closes at 4.30pm,, I think.
Worth a visit as the Bure Valley Railway have all sorts of festivities organised in their anniversary year!!
We are that close we could take the layout on a wheelbarrow,, but it has to be easier with a van.

Sorry it's so late of posting,, but we have been very busy,,,

Look forward to meeting any of our 4 followers!!!

SAD at Salmon Pastures