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cleanerg6e

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Everything posted by cleanerg6e

  1. The importance of applying the handbrake and wheel chocks was because of the Westinghouse air brake. Once the loco was shut down the compressor no longer supplied air to the main reservoir and the brakes would "leak" off and after a few hours you could see the brake blocks no longer hard against the wheel surfaces. The same happened on the electric locos. The 46 class Metrovicks were really bad as they leaked air very quickly, in fact so quickly it was audible. You could hear a loud hissing sound as the main reservoir emptied of air. Once empty of air then the pantographs can't be raised so in the main shed a long wooden pole would be put under the panto graph and sheer brute force would be used to hold the pantograph up to the wire until enough air was in the main reservoir to hold the pantograph on the wire. If you let the pantograph drop slightly you got a very bright white flame from the collectors on the pantograph. Outside you just piped air through from another electric loco and used that loco to raise the pantographs on the "dead" locos. Once enough air was in the main reservoirs of the dead locos you could start them and their air compressors would hold their pantographs up on the wire. Here's a video of the old 46 class in their final months of service.http://youtu.be/LTbHWvkiWEY''>http://youtu.be/LTbHWvkiWEY'>http://youtu.be/LTbHWvkiWEY
  2. Hi Roddy, not only was the other "workmate" self centered he was weak too. We had a detergent company representative down the steam shed one night and we were trying out new detergents, namely acidic detergents. We had an electric loco shunted into the steam shed (an 86 class) and the representative asked the other "workmate" what he thought of his companies acidic detergent. He told him it was great. But it wasn't, it wouldn't shift the skin off a custard. The other "workmate" came over to my side and said to me that the detergent was rubbish. I told him to tell the company representative that. He said 'oh no I don't want to upset him'. I said ' never mind upsetting him tell him the truth'. He replied 'no no no you tell him'. We also used to wash the pantographs on the electric locos with acid because they had to be crack tested for metal fatigue. On of the charge men said call me when your done and I'll take a look to see if it's clean enough. Well we cleaned both of them and this charge man was outside the main shed. So I called him verbally. After yelling name a number of times with him taking no notice I yelled 'ah you f**king fat c*nt!!!!' He heard me that time. I turned around and the other "workmate" was hiding behind a girder which supported the roof. I asked him what he was doing and he said ' you called the charge man fat c*nt I not want to get in trouble. The charge man came down to have a look at the job and asked where the other bloke was. When I told him what he said to me the charge man said "bl##dy weak idiot". Another time one of the shed labourers who was also a builder outside the job was using wood shuttering to build a new detergent compound floor prior to pouring cement. This other "workmate" said that when he'd finished he'd like to take the wood home. This bloke said I'll leave it under the humpy when I'm finished with it. Well on the first day black clouds gathered so this bloke put the wood under the humpy to stop it getting wet and warping. The other "workmate" (who live nearby) came over after work and took the wood home and cut it up. This builder asked me what happened to the wood. I told him I hadn't a clue where it had gone so this bloke told the district manager who was fuming but ordered more wood. I guessed where the wood had gone so I asked the other "workmate" had he seen the wood. When he told me what he'd done with it I decided to have some fun with him. I told him that the DM was getting the police in and starting an investigation and if the culprit was found he would be sacked. This other "workmate" clutching his backside went running for the loo saying 'I've got running a stomach!!!'. This other "workmate" was also known to others at loco as "Hydraulic" because he would lift ( steal) anything. When working with him you had to keep your locker locked otherwise he'd rummage through it and take whatever he wanted. Here's a short video of our 86 class electrics. http://youtu.be/dMTsZhK3PgU Roy.
  3. I started on the railways in 1985 and left in 2000. I'll describe a normal working shift in as much detail as possible. I worked in what was known as the "steam shed" and worked back shift. Sign on at 11pm and off at 7am. It was known as a straight shift. Having signed on in the main shed I'd make my way down to the steam shed and place my food in the frig in our humpy which was an old demountable one room building. In winter time we'd leave the heater on all day so it was warm when we started work. Accommodation was basic and we had to fight tooth and nail to get a bar fridge to keep things cold and a microwave to heat meals up. There were three lockers in the humpy and our wet weather cleaning gear were also in the humpy as being made of thick pvc type plastic they'd go very stiff in the winter if left in the unheated plant room and be almost impossible to put on without tearing. Lets say I'm doing an inspection clean on a GM 81 class, similar to a class 66. First the electricians and fitters have been down to do a pre-inspection. I now have to blow out all the dust in the electrical cabinets ( which they have left open). So I get kitted up in a Tyvek barrier suit which is a one piece type of clothing like a boiler suit but prevents dust and dirt from getting on your cloths. I also where a respirator and special gloves. Taking a long steel reinforced air hose and two copper pipe wands (one short the other long) I take those out to the loco. I turn on the air compressor in the plant room, a noisy Atlas Cop Co. I return to the loco and proceed to blow out the cabinets in the generator room. I also blow out the generator itself. I then move to the outside of the loco and using a small ladder lent against the loco side blow out the radiators from which a lot of dust and dirt creates a huge dust cloud. I then move underneath the loco to blow out the traction motors all 6 of them. Once I've finished there's dirt everywhere and I change out of my barrier suit and turn the air compressor off and get into my wet weather gear. I fill my 10 litre pump pack ( like a garden sprayer) with a neat alkaline detergent called "Spartacus". I then proceed underneath the 81 class and commence to spray all the traction motors, gear cases, air tanks, fuel tanks bogie frames and rear of the cow catchers or pilots. I then go outside the steam shed and start one of two hot water pressure blaster. I make sure the temperature is 95 degrees. I then start the diesel engine and once enough air is in the main reservoir I turn the engine control switch to it's run position and making sure the handbrake is applied and the reverser handle is in neutral I move the throttle to 4th notch. This will make sure that no water enters the traction motors. If the throttle is moved to a higher notch it creates a hurricane type of wind from the traction motor blowers. My workmate starts to wash the exterior of the whole loco but not the roof by spraying a powerful acid from his pump sprayer over the exterior and then using a broom and a modified homemade bucket from a 20 litre plastic detergent container that's been cut in half length wise and filled with the aforementioned Spartacus. The acid dissolves all the brake dust and the Spartacus removes any oil and dirt. I'm now ready to wash underneath. So I'm in my wet weather gear. I have my face mask on. My gumboots on. My ear plugs in and I'm wearing special rubber gloves which come up to my elbows but with the ends turned back on themselves to prevent water and dirt from running down the inside of the gloves on my hands. I also wear a rag tied round my face over my nose (like a bank robber) to prevent any muck hitting me in the face. I have the face mask at a 45 degree angle because once watery muck gets on it I can't see. I proceed under the loco and sit on a small low four wheel stool and I clean slowly and move backwards from one end and then I turn round and do the same until I return to where I started I come out from underneath and I'm black with dirt, oil and grease from head to toe. My work mate (pommy Jim) moves the throttle to idle and taking the hot water blaster from me washes me down get rid of the excess dirt. He then sprays me with Spartacus and using a broom washes me and hoses me off. Jim and I take it in turns to do underneath locos. I take off my wet weather gear and taking my pump pack I proceed to one side of the engine room and start to spray the engine,compressor, floor, walls etc. The engine room is hot water blasted with us taking turns so as not to saturate one another. We finish off by hosing the engine room out with cold water taking care not to hose the light bulbs which will explode on contact with cold water. After this it's now time to move the loco back and at floor level do the outsides of the bogies, fuel and air tanks. Firstly we both spray the bogies, fuel and air tanks in Spartacus and once again placing the loco in 4th notch and each using a hot water blaster clean them all off. It's now 3 to 3.30am. I go back underneath and open the water drain cock to drain the sump under the diesel engine of all the water we put into it. When I come out Jim has the kettle boiling and we have something to eat,a nice cuppa, and a smoke. Once the water has all drained I shut the drain cock come back into the humpy and phone the charge man to tell him the loco it right to be moved to the main shed for the main day work inspection. He usually tells us of another loco or two that's coming down for a wash. As washing those locos is not a rush we can take our time and clean the pit out at the end of the shift ready for the next night. Sometimes nothing comes down so we have a sleep having nicked long bench seats from old coaches which make good beds with a pile of clean rags for a pillow. There was three of us in the steam shed but there was two on and one off. The other "workmate" would open the drain cock before you went underneath and would hose out one side of the engine room so that water and muck was flowing out the drain pipe and if you didn't watch it you'd be covered in crap. He'd also hose out the engine room when you were hosing out and seemed to delight in hosing you laughing his head off. If you hosed him in return he'd get very upset. Jim and I used to order supplies for the whole steam shed but this other "workmate" just ordered for himself. He never once called me by my christian name always by my surname and I hated his self centered ways but I had to work with him as I didn't get a choice. He approached me on my council job when I was working and I told him to p#ss off. I've met other former workmates from the railways whilst doing my council job and we have a right old chin wag. So that describes a typical day (or night) that I had on the railways and the people I worked with. Jim was the best workmate anyone could have and I feel so lucky to have had him as my mate. He once slipped on top of a loco and ripped all the muscles in his right shoulder and wanted to keep working. But I made him register the injury in the compo book and had him sent home. He had to have an operation and it never cost him a penny. I went to his place after his operation to see how he was and he insisted on sitting in the sun and he got sunburnt on his still painful shoulder. I got the blame for that. The steam shed had no doors and it faced in a east west direction. So the wind would blow right through the place as all the high winds came from the west and made the underneath job even more unpleasant. But we were lowly cleaners and our welfare was of a very low priority. Roy.
  4. Hi Tony, 8029 ended being bent like a banana after being involved in an accident at Enfield loco depot. The fuel man was driving a loco from the fueling point into the main straight shed when he opened the diesel up by accident and panicked. He just laid on the cab floor and waited for the inevitable crash. A G class had the diesel engine ripped from it's mounts and it and it's generator were shunted into each other. The G class hit 8029 with such force that 8029 was slammed into the loco in front which is why it bent the frame. The loco was never the same again as nothing lined up. Nobody was killed but the fuel man did suffer a few bruises. If he'd switched out the generator field the locos engine would have returned to idle. The generator field switch was on the control panel above the throttle handle. I think the fuel man was on an 81 class. On an Alco you pulled the throttle handle towards you to increase engine revs and thus speed. On a GM like an 81 class you move the throttle handle forwards to increase engine revs and thus speed. We used to move locos all the time as I worked in the steam shed. No there wasn't any steam locos but it was used for washing locos and we'd often get locos out of the "paddock" which was near to the steam shed and once was the loco depot in steam days. So we operated the turntable as well. Sometimes two of us would do it ( one driving the loco the other working the table) or one of us would just get the loco on our own. The turntable was electric and had a wonky old cabin on it that was eventually replaced after it blew over in a gale and collapsed due to all the rust in the frame. You had a foot brake, a toggle lever to push forwards or backwards which ever way you wanted the table to rotate and a lever which you pulled towards you to release the locking bars. You pushed that lever when you wanted to lock the table to prevent it from moving when a loco passed from the table to the roads leading off the table. To stow a loco you'd drive it off the table and slowly approach the end of the road and apply the independent brake. You never put the brakes on. You always make a brake application. Once stopped you apply the handbrake and switch out the generator field and turn the engine control switch to start. You then shut down the engine, you never turned it off. You then open one of the electrical cabinets and pull out the battery knife switch to prevent the batteries from going flat. After climbing down from the loco you apply the wheel chocks so if the handbrake doesn't hold the loco, the loco won't roll back into the turntable pit. Roy.
  5. Today the Indian Pacific still runs known to most as the OAP express. The motive power is the NR diesel locos like Tony has as his avatar. But to me the 80 class alcos were the loco I remember on the "Indian" and were when I was on the railways. The very first time the unreliable 80 class hauled the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Broken Hill the day got off to a bad start. The publicity machine was cranked up and in a blaze of publicity it was announced that brand new 8002 and 8003 would haul the train. However 8002 failed with ground relays in Eveleigh loco (just near to Sydney Terminal) and so the train was hauled by 8003 and 8005 as a substitute with a lot of embarrassed railway officials. There must have been a lot of political pressure to accept the 80 class from Commonwealth Engineering (Comeng) because even when undergoing trials the locos had trouble even completing the trials and were returned the the manufacturer for "adjustments" (repairs). The first 25 of the class were slowly being delivered and all were constantly failing in service and yet the railways through political pressure ordered another 25 to be built bringing the total to 50. After the publicity day of 8003 and 8005 hauling the "Indian" as it is known, 46 class electrics hauled the train to Lithgow where the 80 class would take over. On the first positioning run there were two rakes in Sydney and one was run empty stock to Perth so that a service could begin from that end. An old driver named Roy Hurst (now dead) or his nickname of "Hurricane Hurst" was given the job of driving one of the sets from Lithgow to Dubbo. The speed in those days through Blayney Station was 60mph. Roy went through Blayney at a higher speed and as the train leaned over the leading coach struck the platform. Being made of thin aluminum the platform acted like a tin open and ripped open the leading coach at platform level. The train didn't derail but the brand new leading coach was in no fit state to enter service.....oops. http://youtu.be/VDEMn5N8Qno Roy.
  6. Yes I'll be planting plants Mick and before was just "Lawns" well weeds actually. I never moved the lawn, I harvested the weeds. I used a grass catcher on the mower so "all was safely gathered in", the catcher.
  7. Well here are the last two photos which signify the end of the Faulconwood and Springbridge railway. The first photo shows the area which had the concrete and Hebel blocks. The second photo shows where the concrete and blocks are now. That my friends completes the thread of the Faulconwood and Springbridge Railway R.I.P Roy.
  8. Trevor, I bought some time ago a Hornby magazine and with it came a free DVD showing some of the railways featured in the magazine over the past 12 months and one of those railways was yours. My question is how did you make the metal uncoupling ramp at Great Wakering Station? On the DVD you were shunting using the Model Rail Sentinel shunter which you modified I think by permanently attaching a shunters truck to it and giving it extra long pick ups to help it over point work at slow speed. Well lets face it it only moves at a slow speed. I look upon your railway as the very best of a ground level garden railways and Ian R's railway as the very best of a high level outdoor railway. I have not seen a better railway in OO or any scale that come close to either of these railways and both are DC controlled. Roy.
  9. Tony you asked to see that OO gauge railway in Tring UK. I've posted a link in the "Model Railway" section of this forum. Roy.
  10. With the first skip full of all the concrete stumps and 4x4 wooden legs but no railway boards I tried to get a bigger skip. My first one was a 4m squared skip at $547 for 4 days. A 10m squared skip was going to be $1200 for 4 days but on ringing them later they had none spare so I hire a 6m squared skip at $700 for 4 days which arrived Monday morning and will be picked up Friday morning. Most of the railway boards are in this one and all of the concrete and Hebel block is going into it too. I'll probably have to hire another 4m squared skip to finish off all the demolition and rubbish removal. All the treated wood that was in use as garden edging for a proposed garden will be removed an disposed of. I intend to use rock and concrete it in. All of the big pieces of rock I bought can be split to thinner pieces, then broken into smaller pieces to use as garden edging. I'll take some photos of the skips and post them on here together with a view of the now empty plot. It should make a nice ending to the Faulconwood and Springbridge Railway thread. Roy.
  11. It's a sort of masonry. On the Model Rail Garden Expert DVD Trevor confessed that he didn't invent the "rubbercrete" but pinched it. It was originally invented to be used as an insulated trial for piggery floors. It was a wonderful insulator but it didn't have a lot of abrasion resistance. On a garden railway you don't get any abrasion because the track takes all the abrasion. The "rubbercrete" is made from a mixture of cork and rubber chips mixed with cement and an SBR glue. A sort of up market PVA. It looks like cement but behaves more like hard rubber and you can plane it and hammer track pins into it and it all holds firm. So the track work is laid directly onto the "rubbercrete". I hope you don't mind me writing this Trevor. Roy.
  12. Yes I have heard that Roddy and quite surprised that the present generation of french would really care about what happened so long ago. In 1998 I visited Victoria and went to Whalhalla an old gold mining time and they have a graveyard there on the side of a steep hill. All the coffins have been lowered into the ground vertically so no one has been 'laid to rest', they're all standing up yes the children as well. I find those graveyards very depressing when you see all the head stones for the dead babies. Some only survived 1 month. I suppose that's one reason why they had such large families in those days as so many would not survive infancy. The other reason being no TV or internet so they had to 'amuse' themselves somehow.
  13. I found on you tube some B&W footage of two NSW railway Garratts in 1968 double heading up a 1 in 40 gradient called Fassifern bank. The locos had to reverse their 1200 ton coal train out of Newstan Colliery. They didn't have much of a run at the bank and slowly the grade takes it's toll as the pair get slower and slower. These two Garratts are how the class looked most of the time. Being goods engines they didn't have the attention of the cleaners like passenger locos did. 6029 restored is a beautiful machine to look at but definitely not how they looked in mainline service. 6029 would have been filthy dirty most of the time of her mainline operating life. The only time she would have been clean is when she had a major overhaul and repaint. If you know someone who is a staunch environmentalist forward this video onto them, they'd love it.
  14. Well mum has had her hip operation but is finding it difficult to walk. She thinks the doctor "stuffed up" but I think that her muscles got so used to the last joint slowly deteriorating that now that new hip joint is in it's put things back in their proper place in one fowl swoop. I'm annoyed with the doctor for having her wait so long for this replacement. He should have done it 2 years ago rather than now when she's almost a cripple and half a step from a permanent wheelchair. I was supposed to be taking holidays this year but one of our "workers" has been diagnosed with Pancreatic, Liver and Prostate cancer and he's going to have 8 months off. When his sick leave (the 8 months) runs out he'll take his accumulated long service leave and holiday leave which should see another 12+ months. We've asked for another person to be employed but have been told there's no money. Yet for the head office staff (known as the castle) they advertise for a manager, an assistant manager and an assistant for the assistant manager. So an deputy chief assistant for the assistant deputy chief. All on between $1,500-$2,500 per week. Yesterday afternoon we had one hell of a thunderstorm which included large hailstones. Yes my work vehicle now has dents in the bodywork. One of my toilets has a clear plastic roof section which is a skylight. It looks like Swiss cheese with all the holes in it. It can't be repaired today because today is union picnic day and the council only has a skeleton staff on. I'm one of them ( the ribs actually). Tomorrow this toilet will be a focal point for a town festival and at the present time is closed due to the fact that it's raining and if one is to sit on the "bog" one would need an umbrella to shield one from the "plops" of water from above. Does the council have any spare plastic sheets to repair the roof......no it hasn't. Simple no money to buy any only to employ office staff.
  15. Where I live is steeped in railway history. We have the Lapstone Zig Zag, the first attempt to get a railway over the mountains. That formation is now a popular walking track. The second attempt was the single track Glenbrook Tunnel which on a continuous curving uphill gradient of 1 in 30 with no ventilation was a horrible experience for both passengers and steam loco crews. It's still there but has been used for years for growing mushrooms. As it's only a single track tunnel, height wise is pretty good but width wise there's not 'mush room'. In WW2 it was used for the storage of chemical weapons, mustard gas etc. That only came to light quite recently when two (now) old former armed forces personnel came forward to tell what was really going on in the tunnel at that time. They lived locally and the locals had no idea. Up at Wentworth Falls is a large lake that appears to be natural. Wentworth Falls Lake is man made and used to supply water to what is now Lawson Lawn Bowling club. It has a odd appearance to some of it's outer walls. They are curved because it was originally a number of water tanks. From the Lake at Wentworth Falls a pipe ran down the northern side of the railway line to Lawson and kept the tanks filled. From there the pipe ran down the southern side of the railway line to Valley Heights Locomotive Depot. Water was also supplied from the lake to water columns at Lawson, Springwood and Valley Heights Loco Depot. Valley Heights Loco Depot supplied locos at assist down trains up the ruling 1 in 33 gradient from Valley Heights to Katoomba which is a distance of 20 miles. The present mainline still uses this formation. The ruling gradient from Penrith to Valley Heights is 1 in 60. Valley Heights loco depot is now closed and in use as a railway museum. Steam finished over the mountains in 1957 and today high powered diesel locos work in multiples of 3-4 to haul goods and empty coal trains up the gradient.
  16. Photos will follow shortly of the final view of where the railway used to be. I hired a demolition hammer and was a bit apprehensive about it's ability to go through the concrete. I'd hired it for 4 days. I picked it up at 10am. I started "hammering" at 10.30am and I'd completed the demolition by 1pm. Either it was a very efficient tool, or my concreting wasn't as good as I thought....mmmm. I got a large refund from the hire shop. I've cleared out the garage and I'm amazed at the junk that I'd managed to collect over 30 years. For Tony I live about 15km from Katoomba and go there as rarely as possible. It's a ghastly place. Tourists love it, locals hate it. I have been to Leurala a sort of toy train/dolls house/old home museum which has a wooden mock-up of a full size steam loco smoke box in the garden. I think it's a "P" class 4-6-0 and use to be in the old NSWGR shop in Sydney. The scenic railway which is reputed to have the steepest rail incline in the world has recently had a thorough rebuild due to plain common usage. Many tourist think that it's an easy way of quickly getting into the valley below and that's what it was constructed for. But no it was constructed by the Katoomba Coal and Shale Co for extracting coal and kerosene shale from the valley below. What is now a beautiful lush green valley was in the time of the mining as "bald as a coot" with not a tree in site. (The beautiful tree lined valley was planted by men after the mining had finished). When the mining started to decrease the company would offer tired walkers a quick and cheap ride to the escarpment above. Not in the type of vehicle used nowadays but in 4 wheel wooden coal wagons. The people sat on pit pony feed bags. They also later gave people rides down into the valley. There is a story that two elderly ladies inspected the haulage cable and asked the operator if the cable broke how long would it take for the wagons to stop. The operator replied 'madam the wagons would stop in 5 seconds. Thus reassured the ladies climbed aboard. Without a cable and brake on the cable to slow the decent the 5 seconds is how long it would take to reach the bottom....in a mangled heap. H&S at it's finest. Roy.
  17. G'day Trevor, well your railway has certainly matured from the first time I saw it in 1998. Have you found that heavy frosts play havoc with your track ballast, only I was talking to Ron Turner up in Diggle who said he'd been talking to you about it. I know longer have an outdoor railway due to the weather extremes finally getting the better of me. On mine it was an above ground railway and although the structure eventually failed the track work was as good as new. I tested the theory of the Peco code 100 streamline track being resistant to ants by angering bull ants which really bite hard. The track suffered no damage whatsoever although I didn't have a look through a microscope for microscopic bite marks. I see that Hornby magazine has uploaded to you tube videos of your incredible railway (I don't know how else to describe it) so it will be nice to see one of your videos of your railway. I can say that a Sony AS100V action cam if placed in a bogie well wagon comes within the loading gauge for OO. Like all modern cameras these days it has everything on it but the "kitchen sink". Roy.
  18. Well the demolition has come to a halt due to all the rain we've been having. I've now removed all the stumps and they're neatly stacked as are all the track boards. I've started demolishing the hebel blocks but due to the ever present rain I can't hire the electric demolition hammer because I can't use it in the rain. My Pink Tongue lizard is dead after 15 years of having my place as it's adopted home. I came home Monday night and found her/him in the jaws of a Red Bellied Black Snake. I startled the snake which was attempting to eat the dead lizard after killing it. Whilst I went inside to phone for the snake catcher the snake itself disappeared. Maybe the Pink Tongue was getting old and not able to move as fast as it once did. Red Bellied Black Snakes will usually try to escape and won't confront a human unless cornered. The Eastern Brown Snake has an entirely different temperament. That snake has a really short fuse and a huge inferiority complex and would prefer to strike rather than escape. If it manages to bite you it's venom is so toxic it's lethal. Roy.
  19. One box full of streamline code 100 and one medium right hand insulfrog point.
  20. Plants that go pop! could it be from the nursery rhyme, Pop goes the weedle. Roy.
  21. Poor mum is now almost immobile and hopes to have a new hip joint operation next week. This is to replace the hip joint that was "installed" ( for want of a better word) 44 years ago. In those days one could only have the op in Queensland and mum was one of the first to have it. I can remember mum always did the exercises that she was given to do in the hospital so that around 20 years after having the op she returned to Brisbane to see the surgeon for a check up. Unfortunately she had sprained her ankle a few days before so the surgeon spent most of the consultation time concerning himself with mum's ankle. I do remember her saying that after lying on the bed/couch that the surgeon asked mum to raise her leg. So she did and almost kicked the surgeon in the face. He hadn't expected mum do to the exercises once she left hospital. Yes I can still remember the rhythm of mums slippers on the bathroom floor all those years ago as she did her hip exercises. She told me recently that she'd stopped doing them due to feeling too unsteady on her feet. She was also told by the authorities here that I should have a disabled permit in my car for her. But being one of the old school she told them, 'I can still walk even if I have to use a walker. But I can walk so you can bend over and put your permit where the sun don't shine'. 'I am NOT disabled'. On disabled permit use in NSW. If you have a disabled relative in the car and you park in a disabled parking spot and they don't get out of the car you're not entitled to park there. The same if you are on your own just because you have a permit attached to the windscreen doesn't mean you're entitled to use a disabled park spot, but many do. Many people in our area have the permits and they aren't disabled....just seniors. A truly disabled person can't push a full supermarket shopping trolley around a shopping mall. Many of these so-called disabled seniors walk just as well as younger people. It all started when a former Olympian asked for a disabled parking space to be put outside the front of her inner city unit so that she could park her large 4x4 with ease. That then opened the flood gates so that now people with an unsteady heartbeat to a permanently sore big left toe can have a disabled parking permit. There is only one lady where I live who I think is entitled to the permit. She's in a wheelchair with hand controls on her Ford Focus. The wheelchair is hoisted up in the folded position and sits on the roof when she's driving. There's also a young lad who's a paraplegic and has a VW Van where he wheels himself in the back in his electric wheelchair to the driving position in the front. They are truly disabled but I prefer to call them less able. If you disable something you make it totally useless but disabled people are not totally useless. Rant over........Roy.
  22. Yes in some ways it is sad Griff in that I won't be able to run 60+ wagon freights and 12+ passenger coach trains. But I'm looking forward to the new railway. I try not to get downhearted thinking of the time and money and effort that I put in on the Faulconwood and Springbridge Railway. I did what I did and it can't be undone. I think I was very foolish to build such a HUGE length of railway as the upkeep was big. Having a look on you tube most of the big garden railways owned by older men in G scale seem to fall into disuse after the owner becomes too frail to look after them. So maybe there's a lot to be said for a small garden railway. On mine if the boards had not rotted out where the hinges were due to water getting in around the tiny screws then eventually the tops would have given way due to the paint deterioration and being unable to paint under the rails. I wouldn't have left it too long for the stock and rails to plunge through the boards into a broken heap onto the ground below though. Even this railway that I'm planning will eventually have to be consigned to a skip when I'm too old to look after it unless someone here with a large out building wishes to buy it. With a garden railway you can't remove it and reinstall it somewhere else. Roy.
  23. Thank you Ian you're very sweet and I still look upon your railway as the very best of high level outdoor model railways. Roy.
  24. Yes Mick in the end the elements finally got the better of me. My only regret is that I made the railway TOO big in the first place. I was annoyed when people here (in Australia) had all sorts of wonderful ideas that I should try out, but they wouldn't come and give me a hand to implement them. So I didn't try them out. As stated before it was a constant worry about vandalism as the railway stuck out like a new tooth in an old ladies mouth and didn't blend in. I'll upload some more ending photos once the demolition is complete. Roy.
  25. I apologise for not replying sooner. Your right it takes only minutes to undo what takes an age to install. You may hijack my thread as often as you like. I hope you are able to find a house with a decent size garden to build in and not too expensive. Roy.
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