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Iain's occasional drivel, moans & groans


ba14eagle
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We're all just numbers Iain, nothing else matters. I did 27 years and was 'promised' or rather 'assured' of redundancy by my manager. I made plans based on that 'assurance' only for it to be withdrawn afterwards by which time it was too late - I had made decisions that meant I couldn't continue working full time, I had other things to do. I ended up leaving on my own accord with nothing - not a single penny. 27 years? - they couldn't have cared less. The job was good to me and I earned good money but when you think of what you gave up every day to give them their 12 hours worth you'd think that when the time comes they would be a bit more gracious. I threw the long service certificate in the bin - yes, thank you very much.

I'm not sure of your situation but I can understand the uncertainty you must feel. I hope something comes along within the next 12 months. Would moving within the company ultimately mean greater distance?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Not too much to report from this neck of the woods of late, but I had an enjoyable morning this morning, in the company of a good friend, on our bicycles.

Some of you may have picked up that as far as old / steam railways are concerned, Im quite into the Somerset & Dorset. So it was really nice to be able to take to 2 wheels and enjoy 5.5 miles of the old trackbed / route, from the outskirts of Wellow, to the crossing over the GW mainline in Bellotts Road, Bath. This route takes in Combe Down tunnel (single track, unventilated, 1829 yards) and Devonshire tunnel (again, single track, unventilated, 440 yards) via the "Two Tunnels Greenway". I had previously walked through Combe Down tunnel on one of the rare occasions it had been opened to the public - a sturdy torch was required! - but not anymore, as there is very subtle lighting throughout nowadays. This cycle / walking route has been open just short of 2 weeks now and is quite busy. Very enjoyable and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is visiting this part of the Country. :D

http://www.twotunnels.org.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is also another chink of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel ( :lol: ) regarding my work - I have been made aware that there is at least 1 job vacancy coming up soon, very close to my home. Now I will just have to beat off all the other people who will want it :) My Wife has also had some good news this week, confirming a promotion at work - time for a celebratory bit of retail therapy, me thinks ;) .....

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mick said:

We're all just numbers Iain, nothing else matters. I did 27 years and was 'promised' or rather 'assured' of redundancy by my manager. I made plans based on that 'assurance' only for it to be withdrawn afterwards by which time it was too late - I had made decisions that meant I couldn't continue working full time, I had other things to do. I ended up leaving on my own accord with nothing - not a single penny. 27 years? - they couldn't have cared less. The job was good to me and I earned good money but when you think of what you gave up every day to give them their 12 hours worth you'd think that when the time comes they would be a bit more gracious. I threw the long service certificate in the bin - yes, thank you very much.

I know how you feel Mick. Before I started on the council I worked at a minerals warehouse. I started as a casual and then went permanent. We bagged up ceramic clays and additives for plaster board, cement renders etc. We were going through the negotiating process for a wage increase and the management gave us a firm and unequivocal no saying that business was not good and the company was doing it tough. The next week a dozen new cars of 6 BMW's and 6 Mercedes showed up for the management for use as company cars, and the company was doing it tough?

Another time we milled 42 tons of and additive for cement render and a manager was paid a $5,000 bonus. When I asked where our share of the bonus was I was told "you got paid for your overtime what more do you want. When I got the job on council I'd only been a permanent staff member for two months. So I walked into the office of that manager and told him I was leaving right then, no 2 weeks notice and he said "your sacked effective immediately!" I said "good I'll have three weeks holiday" Money was no problem as I got a huge tax free payout when I left the railways.

Although council can be bloody minded at times with employees if you do something terribly wrong like say hoarding huge amounts of council equipment and then selling it on ebay. The council will give you an alternative to either leave with all entitlements or be sacked. They won't ask for the value of the goods because they just claim it on insurance.

Roy.

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  • 2 months later...

I have managed a couple of days out lately (always nice to plan - very rarely executed!).

Friday I made an early start, travelling upto Manchester Airport, to view some of the new Thomson Airlines Boeing 787 "dreamliners". A very impressive piece of kit and very quiet.

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Yesterday, I travelled down to East Grinstead and visited the Bluebell Railway model railway weekend. This was the first time I had travelled on this line in about 16 years and I wasnt disappointed. The new extension to East Grinstead makes it a very easy destination to get to, using the train, and I think it might become a regular trip for me. This preserved railway is pretty much faultless - beautifully restored locos, rolling stock (and not just a load of Mk1's  ) and stations. The model railway weekend has seen a variety of layouts located in station buildings, engine shed and the carriage & wagon works, with relevant trade support too (although the model items I purchased were actually on the railway's own secondhand stall at Horsted Keynes). The layouts varied greatly in scale and cater for all sorts of differing interests, from the smallest layouts built in box files, to live steam gauge 1. A very innovative idea for a special event by the Bluebell.
Steam locos working were Maunsell U class no. 1638 & BR std 9F no. 92212.

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Alongside this duo was a BRCW type 3 / class 33, 33103.

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Now this is pretty radical for the Bluebell - for years, a no go zone if you wanted to see a diesel loco of any shape or size but this loco recently arrived here and this was pretty much the first time it had been used on public trains. I would say, at least a third of the visitors yesterday had come just to ride on the extra diagram of trains, hauled by this loco. Hopefully, these facts wont be lost on the Bluebell and there might be another diesel or 2 appear in the future. With the lines gradients, you get some great sound effects from the front end, which is a must for the diesel enthusiast.
One moan from my travels on both days - we live in a beautiful country, but you are gradually being deprived of the lovely views from the carriage window, by the ever increasing amount of lineside trees and foliage  - come on NR - sort it out!

 

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  • 4 months later...

Its no good :) - Ive not done any running on the HFR since the end of July, with little prospect of an opportunity to do any before next spring :( .

So, I have started the ball rolling on a new project - creating a test track around the inside of my garage. Its not going to be anything too grand, just somewhere that I can do some running, undercover, through the normally barren winter months. The garage can easily accommodate the Wife's small car and narrow boards around the wall. I am starting off with the intention of just having a single line with a section of 3 track's down one of the side walls and across part of the back of the garage - enough to run my normal length, HFR train sets. However, the boards will be wide enough for the laying of double track, should circumstances / finances permit future expansion ;).

Im not planning on any great deal of scenery (possibly not even ballast), but thought I may paint the walls a little, before adding a few pan scourer bushes and trees.

As things develop, I will post some photo's.

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Quote

The Kirkfield & Warmthorpe started as a "test track"!... Be warned! IanR

Ian

Having re watched your K&WR videos (looking at how you arrange your pan scourer trees & bushes) I have had a few more ideas for some bridges & buildings - your warning seems to be coming true and Ive not even erected a board as yet :lol::lol:

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  • 2 months later...

Funny how you can have no desire to do any modelling, but once you start, you cant stop :?

Firstly, it was completion of the garage railway and then a few evenings doing some bush / tree planting, along with rail weathering and ballasting. This has come to a bit of a grinding halt though, as I have decided to wait until the weather is a bit warmer before doing anymore ballasting, as it takes too long for the glue to dry and its not gone off as hard as it probably could. Terrain construction and foliage planting has also stopped as I decide whether or not to introduce a short tunnel and I am still looking out for a very cheap Hornby brick viaduct, that will be chopped about to make it fit - and when I say cheap, I am looking for really cheap :lol: (A Triang or Hornby signalbox will be next..) Having seen Ian use some of the older Triang / Hornby structures so well on the K&WR and the fact that I am trying to recycle, older, cheaper material / buildings, I decided this was a route I wanted to go down.

So, having come back indoors, it was back to rolling stock in the main. I finished weathering and sound fitting the class 31 that I had bought before Christmas and even got around to putting some windscreen wipers on my class 45. I have now started weathering 2 more locos. To be honest, I think these 2 had been waiting a while, as for some reason :? , I was feeling a bit apprehensive about starting them. 47406 & 50004 are now in bits on the workbench (read conservatory dining table :lol: ) and undergoing a transformation into 2 locos which actually look like they earn revenue. 50004 will also gain its "voice", courtesy of Howes. Beyond this job, there are 2 VGA vans and 2 Polybulks, waiting for their weathering to be added to / finished.

Nearly forgot - I have also fashioned 2 lifts & shafts from 2 old Triang / Hornby station buildings, for the platforms of the main station on the garden railway. They are not brilliant, but when fixed under the station canopies, they will do just fine! :)

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  • 1 month later...

Dusted down the HFR on Saturday and ran the first trains of the year.

As expected it wasnt all plain sailing :roll:

There were a couple of dead track joints and I found a track feed that had been snipped by the shears whilst chopping the foliage back :!:

More annoyingly though was the sound chip in 50004, which having been back to Howes for replacement last year was playing up again :x I dont know if it is the speaker or the sound file on the chip which is corrupt, but when under full power, the sound goes all distorted (same as last year), so this loco came off the roster...

The session finished a bit sooner than expected (mostly due to the power problems) but I did manage a bit of filming on my camera - the video camera battery was completely dead :oops: when I tried it, so the footage isnt the best quality. Its up on YT now.

Sunday saw the power problems sorted out, only for another loco chip to start playing up :x This time it was 58037. The loco worked fine on Saturday, but yesterday there were no sounds, only lights and movement :? A bit annoying, bearing in mind that its only 12 months old and has probably had no more than about 12 hours use in that time. I dont enjoy taking locos apart, especially Hornby ones (50004), and certainly dont have the skills with the soldering iron to change speakers, so it will probably end up with me taking them back to Howes and getting them to sort it out.

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Nice video Iain but not good news with the two duff soundchips. I was just admiring the sound on your class 33 and the footage of your 58 reminds me that I still haven't got a sound chip for either of mine but when you hear of someone having problems it makes you think again when you were considering ordering from the same source. I have a Bachmann 37 which was giving me similar problems - I had lights and movement but no sound. I had contacted Bachmann service to ask about returning it for attention as it was unused but by that time out of warranty. Then just by chance I discovered that if I pressed down slightly on the circuit board the speaker burst into life. It's been fine since then but it's obviously just a loose joint/connection somewhere. There are times when I wish they'd never come up with the idea of sound chips!

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  • 1 month later...

Busy long weekend!

On Friday I visited the Bristol Model Railway Exhibition. Unfortunately I drew, mostly, a blank with the bits and pieces I currently have on my shopping list and wasnt overly impressed with the layouts on show. Too many seem to be end to end "shunts" where very little action exists. Dont get me wrong, the scenics maybe beautifully done, but I like to see some train movement :) There were also a few layouts that were still devoid of large parts of scenery and completeness and others where operators dont actually seem to know how to operate them!

Saturday was my birthday and so little got done other than a nice lunch out with parents / in laws.

Sunday saw my son and I go to Twickenham to see our home town team, Trowbridge, win a thrilling game of cup rugby. A tremendous achievement for such a small club, which has had a great season, that started with moving to a whole new ground and ended with promotion in the league! :D Hopefully, in 4 or 5 years time, they will be able to repeat the feat and my Son maybe on the pitch :D

A good running session on the railway yesterday helped round off a nice weekend with the icing on the cake, being Crystal Palace's brilliant comeback against Liverpool last night :D Well done chaps - you did us proud!

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Interesting day at work - first bit of training at Westbury Panel signalbox, my new workplace when Swindon Panel closes (or perhaps sooner 8-) )

Viewed a most ridiculous train of the day (photograph of it may appear on the excellent Hondawanderer.com website) - 3 x Colas Class 70 (not big on these so cant tell you off the top of my head how many hp this was potentially) & 1 "Salmon" wagon!!

Later, started the new member of the family on his model railway education - you cant blame a man for trying!! - after all, my teenage Son is no longer interested, now he has discovered girls etc!!

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Looking at the photos on Hondawanderer.com brings home just how long it's been since I worked on the railway, or at least how quickly things change in such a short space of time. The loco's have changed and there are railway companies and their liveries that didn't exist during my time. I am completely out of touch with the modern scene.

Good to hear it's been a happy outcome for Enzo after all he's been through.

Would be interesting to see any photos you manage to take at the Swanage Railway Mini Gala tomorrow. Have a great day!

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