Vaughan

When I was 21 years old I had a heavy goods vehicle licence, by what they called "grandfather's rights" and have driven HGV's ever since, including formal training with the Royal Corps of Transport. I am licensed to drive every vehicle on the road today, including motor cycles and mobile cranes, but not fare paying coaches as I do not have a PSV licence. As I am over 65 I have to pass regular medicals including eyesight tests. So if I want to check my eyesight I go to the doctor who will fill in a form having examined me. I have no need, or excuse whatever, during lockdown restrictions, to drive to Barnard Castle and peer out to sea to check whether I can see anything or not. This excuse alone, on the part of Cummings, is a disgraceful insult to anyone's intelligence. And the press didn't "make it up". He said it himself, on live TV.

I hesitate to enter this debate as I agree we don't "do" politics and we could say that this dispute doesn't concern the Broads but does it? As private boat owners we have been fastidious in sticking to the guidelines and keeping away during lockdown. So how would we feel if Cummings had driven 200 miles to celebrate his wife's birthday on Ranworth Staithe and "check his eyesight"?

Well I never! I have now wired up all 4 baseboards, so yesterday I bolted them together again and blow me down, it works! I chose a tender engine, which was the first white metal kit I ever made, with the thought that if that runs through the points, then everything else ought to as well. And it did, very smoothly. There is a bit of tweaking to do where one or two spots of solder are sticking out and I got the polarity of one of the point crossings wrong, but that seems to be all. Well worth several weeks of patience. I am sorry I can't show a video but I am not set up for that technology! This morning I take it all apart again as I want the garage to get Susie's car ready for the MOT and then I have some window frames to mend in the house, now the weather is better. Next job on the railway will be making the mechanism to work the level crossing gates. That should drive me cross eyed as well!

Thank you both for those explanations, which are most enlightening but I think my point, above, still holds true.

I may have missed the point of Monica's intention but I think this point is being missed as well. These webcams are only seen on social media for a particular technical reason. They are installed by businesses such as boatyards for security, so that their owners can view them when they are at home, or even from elsewhere, such as in a restaurant. In order to be able to do this, the image must be streamed online by internet. This means we, the public, also have access to them but I don't feel that we should start to expect them, as a "public service" nor should we start complaining if they don't work! I am personally uncomfortable about this and see it as the equivalent of sitting in a train reading someone else's newspaper over their shoulder. Or perhaps walking down a street deliberately peering in people's windows. I am not saying we should not watch them and I know a lot of people get pleasure from doing so but I think we should respect what they are actually there for and should certainly not try to judge, on a forum, anything we see on them that we don't happen to like the look of.

I have only recently finished this model, so it is freshly painted but will need a lot of weathering before it looks typical. This is modelled on a real engine which was based at March shed and later moved to Norwich, where the famous shed master, Bill Harvey, used to keep them in good condition, hence the polished steel straps on the smokebox door and around the cab windows. Some of them were picked out with red coupling rods. They were a lot dirtier than this though and this one will be as well, as soon as I can summon up the courage to attack my work with an airbrush! I think in a lot of ways, the 1950s were the heyday of steam railways but it was just after the War, all the rolling stock was tired and a railway was a filthy dirty place!

The other day we had an inquest as to why Herbert Woods had moved some of their day boats off a mooring, as though they were supposed to have asked us first and now we have this. I suggest in these very difficult times and to avoid confusion due to total lack of any evidence, that it would be a great deal better for all of us if we could avoid the voyeuristic temptations of "trial" by other people's webcams.

So what? Are we now supposed to report back to the forum with our comments, because we have seen someone, on an internet webcam, sitting on the riverbank having a beer? We are never going to get back to normal, as Broads lovers, if we behave like this.

I strongly object to this. If we are ever going to get the Norfolk Broads back running again, we are not going to do it by making assumptions about what we might - or might not - have seen on some-one else's webcam. We don't even know if the person concerned (who we are told has been hidden) is actually the owner, or anything to do with the property. And do we actually suggest that someone is at risk of catching some virus, because of what we see (or don't actually see) in this webcam screenshot? Do please let's concentrate on the "end game".

I have no memory of that occasion. I am not sure where they had locked me away - probably in the British Prep School system. Only to be let out at weekends!

The launching of "Her Majesty" at Herbert Woods in 1952 (I think). The well-dressed couple on the corner of the quay to the left, are my parents!

Can't remember who built her but the hull looks like Herbert Woods. Rather like "Her Majesty" of Broads Tours. She was used as a motor houseboat for attending sailing regattas, hence the railings all around the cabin roof, where people used to sit to watch the racing. There was no steering from inside : just the wheel on the aft bulkhead where the skipper stood in all weathers. Inside the aft door was an engine room, with two small petrol engines.

Pear drops? I think that tells us that he might be "on" the varnish fumes!

Poor old Doris. I remember her well. She used to be immaculate, with leaded-light windows, and a full time skipper.

That is always another option but I had some Ratio point levers from a previous layout, where I used them very successfully for working signals, so I thought I'd try this! It seems to work for the moment, but we shall see! The camera can be very cruel to small-scale modellers - you spend ages making something and when you are finished you think "that looks great". Then you take a close up photo and you see it "warts and all"!

This actually shows how the early motor cruisers were not much more than converted yachts. You can even see how the low, white part of the hull looks like a yacht, with an extra varnished part on top. The steering wheel is just a simple affair on the bulkhead and the canopy performs the same role as the awning over the aft well of a yacht. In the cabin are two berths either side of a central table, just like a yacht. This boat was obviously not a converted yacht, but you can see where the design came from!

I assume BA 461 is in case you lose it overboard?

Excuse me, I didn't know we were discussing "single handed" where any safety equipment would have to be rigged for use before you "buggered in" in the first place. There is a hire company in France which equips its boats with aluminium ladders with a non slip plate surface on one side. So they can be used as a ladder, or a gangplank. Very useful!

Marshman and I were actually offering sound advice based on experience but as you wish . . . .

From memory, this looks like one of the "Alice" class from Richardsons, called Brer Rabbit, March hare, Mad Hatter, etc. I think they originally came from Leo Robinsons at Oulton. There were also Tweedledum and Tweedledee, which Richardsons took out of the fleet in the 60's and used them as tow boats.

That is nowhere near as quirky as it sounds and they are often carried on canal barges. If you tie the top of the ladder to the cabin top handrail and let it lean out over the side, then someone in the water can simply walk up the ladder and step off onto the deck!

Here is an update from the "lockdown" workshop. I have finally got the pointwork laid down and although I can see a lot of my own mistakes, I don't think it is too bad. I can now stand the baseboard on end (screwed to a roof beam) to do the wiring loom underneath. The switch blades of the points have to be held closed against a spring and then held open by tension on a lever. Electric point motors won't do this, so I made up a mechanism from brass strip, brass rod and bearing bushes that are normally for making model locomotives. I have a lot of old "train set" type track left over from a previous layout, and it is very handy to use as a wiring bus, for tag soldering all the track connections. I wire up each section of track separately so as to allow for expansion of the rails in extremes of temperature. When you are working in a garage or a loft, this is very important! The points are worked by twine, on manual levers and in front of them are the double throw switches for changing the polarity of the point crossings - or "frogs". Getting this right drives you crazy and if you have ever tried it, it is just as difficult as wiring one-way light switches on your stairs! I have a feeling I may have to use stronger and stiffer twine to make the points reliable but they work for the moment. Next job is to wire up the base-boards on either side, which will be much easier, and then I can actually run some trains to see if works. I have had a good poke about with an Ohm-meter and it looks as though it should be all right! Next time I report I might actually be "playing trains"!

Prince Philip's rank in 1947 was Lieutenant (RN) and his substantive rank now is Admiral of the Fleet. For many years until his retirement he was Colonel in Chief of the Grenadier Guards and that is the uniform we see him in here. By the way, the Queen is laughing because she had just walked past and didn't recognise him! I don't think honorary colonels are called colonel, but they are referred to as such. "Our Colonel in Chief" is always toasted after "The Queen" at regimental mess dinner nights. I hope that helps to answer Paul's question. The thread has suffered what we would call a "flanking skirmish" since then but perhaps I can also clear up some mis-understanding? During my time in the Army I became friends with Col. Reggie Steward of the Army Careers Office in Norwich - in the days when Norwich had one - and he told me that of the very few young men who actually apply for an officer career only one 1 in 400 get through the selection and training to earn a Commission. The military academy at Sandhurst trains royal princes (and princesses) from Commonwealth and other countries all over the World including, infamously, Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi although we were told they didn't complete the course! I did my training with 2 foreign princes, 3 sons of Commonwealth government and 3 relatives of the British royal family. I can assure you none of them got a softer ride than the rest of us. In fact, they probably got it worse. And I would have been proud to serve beside any one of them.

Six campaign Stars, which represent every Naval theatre of the second World War, except one. My opinion is as it always was. My remark was a sign that I did not wish to rise to your bait. I still don't now.

I wonder where he got the Mention in Dispatches from then? Or the Greek War Medal, in recognition of his bravery during the Italian invasion of Greece in 1941?