Graskie

Welcome to the forums, as. Plenty of help on here, but not usually from me, I'm afraid. Just enjoy modelling our wonderful old, or perhaps even modern, railways.

I actually bought from Hornby direct for the first time. Brilliant service and products consisting of R4566 BR (ex LNER) 61' 6" Corridor Composite Brake Coach for £29.99 (38.78% discount), together with R4570 BR (ex LNER) 61' 6" Corridor 1st Class Sleeper for £23.99 (51.03% discount), plus free postage. Fantastic deal!

Sorry, Toaderic, you seem to be using some sort of Gallic dead language!

Sehr gut, Herr Poliss! Ich habe es verstanden. Genau so!

Make it May 2nd when I will be 71 if still here. That'll probably be a very quiet day as well, whether I'm here or not.

Sorry, LC, when I say posts, I do mean pages, of course. I'm very pleased to see that it was I who actually did it, though.

@ Fishy You said, "Sorry but original setup as administrator is a furphy." Well, not knowing what a furphy was, I assumed you had either misused predictive text or done a typo. I did wonder whether it was perhaps another marsupial animal I'd never heard of, but I checked and: "A furphy is Australian slang for a rumour, or an erroneous or improbable story, but usually claimed to be absolute fact." Please use the Queen's English in future, Fishy, so as not to confuse us.

Who's going to test this thread to see if it can show 100 posts?

Yes, I do know what a Chinook is, WTD. It's a long helicopter with blades at each end going the wrong way round.

...and a puff, and blow your shed down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why can't you delete a message after sending it? This text has replaced what I wrote before, so please ignore (lovely bit of poetic licence there).

£40,000 is nothing!

My railway room is about the size you mentioned, Vespa. My station can only accomodate a tender loco with 5 coaches, and I consider that to look quite reasonable. I know you are not talking about building a station but I still think that as many as 8-10 coaches could still look a bit silly, depending, of course, on exactly how your trackword is laid out, especially with full curves at the shorter ends of the layout. A few tunnels at the end(s) to alleviate the problem?

It's sad, SoT, that a skilled man like yourself can no longer make a living out of something you have obviously enjoyed. I'm afraid, though, that time and people's habits move on, and, in the end, it's wise to bow to that pressure and give up. I myself worked as a self-employed qualified Insurance Broker working from home for 8 years in the late 70's/early 80's. I had had loads of previous experience in all classes of Insurance, was also qualified through the CII as an ACII (Associate of the Charted Insurance Institute) by examination, and wanted to run a professional outfit. I was forced out in the end by new legislation requirements I couldn't afford to meet, and just had to finish. I had many satisfied clients who were a bit upset, like me, that I had been forced into such a decision. I'm afraid we have to face and accept new times where the bigger boys generally dominate nowadays in most areas. Look at what has happened to local butchers, bakers, pubs, post offices, village shops, blacksmiths, and even candle stick makers, for example. We'll never go back to those times. Best of luck in any new occupation you find. By the way, are you nowhere near retirement age then?

Whatever happens, I hope you stay on the forum, SoT, because of your technical advice for restoring old locos alone. Best Wishes.

Funnily enough, LC, one of my neighbours over the road is an Indian from Mauritious where he owns a family property. Bit of an expensive place to go there, isn't it, though? My chances of ever going there in my state of health are about as dead as a dodo! I have been to Rhyl a few times as well. I even went round their steam loco shed 6K just over 50 years ago.

I just fear that you impatient guys are probably making things even worse for Hornby with your apparently endless expectations and suggestions on this subject. The way you're going on, poor Hornby might never dare to bring out their LD system!

Sorry, PJ, but "Evening Star" was a loco, not a train.

I am also that magical age, Graskie. My heart condition is called Brugada, it is all to do with the electrics of the ticker, and it is known as 'the sudden death syndrome'! I have been fortunate that although it is hereditary, it has not killed me off! Had to have an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator fitted 6 mths ago in Harefield Hospital so if the heart does go into flutter or fibrillation it will shock it back to normal. I am one of six siblings , trust me to get the problem (but then I have lost. 3 brothers at very early ages to cancer). So I use model railways, and Hornby in particular, as a form of therapy. (That's what I tell my wife, anyway). My problems seem small compared to yours, if I feel a bit iffy, I sit and look at the forum.......... Same age group but mine is simple SVT, controlled these many years by beta blockers. Nothing simple or non-serious about SVT (Supraventricular Tachycardia), RAF. You needed treatment for that. I can't tolerate Beta Blockers, so I have to stay on Amiodarone which, unfortunately, is said to be good for heart arrythmia but destoys eveything else! I had Amiodarone induced thyroiditis a few years ago and it wasn't very pleasant. I originally had ordinary ventricular tachycardia for quite a while, which is, of course, pretty dangerous and needs a defibrillator just in case it goes into full quivering arrest. Mine did that and my defibrillator saved me once. In more recent years I developed atrial fibrillation which sent me all funny because it threw my cardiac device with confusing messages. To cure that I had an AV (Atrial/Ventricular) nodal ablation which cut off the confusing messages from my atria to my ventricles which are now only operated by means of a pace maker set at a minimum of 70 beats per second. I've had a very good year so far with regard to my heart and feel fitter than I've been for a long time, with better but still not perfect breathing and feeling pretty fit physically. I am a very lucky man, but a bit concerned about my loss of taste recently which could well have been medicine induced with the cocktail I have to take and, Im told, could be gone for good. Sorry, those not interested, but I like to help people from my own personal experience if I can, whatever the medium.

IF I worried about this sort of thing, THEN I know it wouldn't do me any good, ELSE I would do so. Takes me back to my old Atari Basic programming days.

Regard that defibrillator as your guardian angel, Bulver. Mine went off and saved me several years ago.

Yes, I'm afraid I need my wife. What sort of heart problem, Bulver? I am 70 now but have suffered with heart trouble since I was 45, when I had 2 heart attacks, the second nearly killing me, a bypass op (zipper club) immediately after, followed by heart failure several times, and I'm now sitting here worked by electricity, with a pacemaker, defibrillator and ventricular resynchroniser in my chest. Marvellous what they can do! I can even plug myself into RailMaster to charge myself up.

Kick her out, Bulver! Or is she a good cook?

Unlike a lot of you, despite my enormous wealth and ability to buy anything at any price, I'm nowhere near going in for LD. I still have so many other things to do on my railway first that I'm not too bothered about it.

So, am I right in saying you have 3 grandchildren then, LC? I got O level Maths, you see. I have 5 but the missus always buys their Christmas presents. I must hurry, I haven't bought anything for myself yet. Last month's purchase of a £300 steam loco with all the bells, whistles and more doesn't count.