Update 7 @ 01/01/04
My daughter left home twelve months ago into her own flat (100 yards away?). The result being a lot of my time has been spent yo-yoing to and fro on some errand or other. Why can’t she get a husband like anyone else so I can grow old normally?
What little time has been spent in the loft has resulted in apparently not a great deal. Well believe me, it took a lot of time and effort to accomplish very little. Firstly there was the manufacture of traction poles – enough to complete the layout. This was achieved in batches of approximately 30 a time. Work being split between my workshop (?) and loft.
Purchasing the raw material 3/16 piano-wire from Cheshire Models Supplies shop in Stockport in bundles of five (£7.50). Cutting six poles from each wire, then grinding the cut edges in the workshop. Grooving for the span wire on the Unimat1 in the loft. Back to the workshop for heavy duty soldering of 4mm nuts with a blow torch to fix the height, in a jig made for the task. Then back up to the loft to clean and paint prior to installation. The layout has a total of 335 poles of which under half were purchased as finished items.
Work continued on the buildings in Albert Square and 99% of the span wires were installed. The other 1% awaits the construction of shelters in Piccadilly, which are proving tricky to glaze with acetate. In the meantime, construction of the Friends’ Meeting Hall [the present day meeting place of LRTA members on the last Thursday in the month] on Mount Street is underway. To be followed by the West side of the Square.
Over the Xmas my wife has been ill and thus I have not been in the
loft for a couple of weeks. Instead I have spent the time available on the
computer re-working this site. As usual fate had to step in and kick me in the
groin again.
One: - the Flashgun on my 35mm camera went off with a mighty ‘Bang’, for the third time in
it’s life, except this time it was terminal.
Two: - My son went Broadband and networked my box onto
his. Exuberant am I to have access to my site.
Only to get messages from my computer, telling me “ not enough disk space on drive C”.
Once again funds (Xmas pressy!) were diverted. This time a 40Gb Hard Drive to replace the 1Gb, courtesy of Microdirect
So here we are starting the New Year sober again, still not smoking (3 yrs in Feb) and poor with a sick spouse – should be a good one! All The Best to You and Yours
Update 8 ........>>>>> (anyone’s guess?)