that service used to be offered by our local heritage railway, "Puffing Billy", but has been put on hold due to a "health & safety" review. Not quite sure what issues there are, but given it used to be totally volunteer, and now has been taken over by the state government, I guess that may have some bearing.

Great day yesterday to celebrate my birthday, despite a rather inauspicious start. We had booked tickets for the 'Beachy Head' inaugural special and turned up at our usual station, Horsted Keynes, in good time for the 1130 train only to find that it was going to run non-stop to East Grinstead and wasn't stopping at HK, despite what the timetable said! We had no alternative but to go home for a few hours and catch the afternoon service from Sheffield Park instead. Anyway, it gave us the chance to have a good mooch round the station.

For those who are interested, here are Mr and Mrs Papyrus in front of said newly-minted loco:



...and some steamy videos:






Everything was looking splendid in the sunshine, even East Grinstead  . Went home to fish and chips and a cold beer  .

Cheers,

Chris

Glad they day went well despite the morning disappointment chris



Two fine locomotives and two lovely videos

Well everyone a really happy day for me today, for anyone who does not know, I was diagnosed with cancer last year. The  hospital has  now told me I am clear of cancer. I am now being passed back to the surgeon at MRI hospital, he did a brilliant job I can not thank him enough.
Chris H.

Fantastic news, Chris 

Brilliant news, Chris. I hope you have many years of good health ahead of you.

Cheers,

Chris

That's cheered the forum up

Seriously great news

very   good  news   chris      ...  still  take  it  easy

  paul

That is probably the best news anyone can expect to ever hear.  . As the other Chris says, you have probably made the whole forum feel good. I shall have a little drinky tonight and celebrate with/for you. 

Great news Chris.

Fantastic news fella. I'll drink to that 

Good news, Chris. Rock on, man!

Some unexpectedly good news...

After my car insurance went up nearly 50% last year, I was dreading this year's renewal. To my utter astonishment it's gone up by less than a tenner! Whether last year's big increase was anything to do with me passing the ¾ century mark I don't know but passing 76 doesn't seem to have given my insurer's computer quite such a meltdown. Still a lot of money though  .

Cheers,

Chris

      
I ran my Chiltern Railways slam door set after fitting the Hunt Magnetic knuckle couplings and it  looks good and it both pushes and pulls through my pointwork really smoothly .
Well worth the money and the wait . This was my last Christmas and Birthday present from my family . ( Now that I have trained them excuse the pun . )   They dont buy me any more socks or handkerchiefs they now ask me what railway things I would like .
I would like to thank Hailstone for re fitting the hand rails on my Dapol Class 68 .
My daughter will be training to drive the 68s by the end of the year she has been a driver for Chiltern for a few years now so will be upgraded soon .
Bob
See some of you at T I N  G S  Later today ,

Apart from receiving a load of green stuff for the layout courtesy of a very friendly person on here I'm also happy regarding car batteries or at least my car battery.

I've known for a while I may need a new battery on my car but have put it off whilst not working as I knew it woudn't be cheap. Anyway, with the colder months fast approaching I took it up to my friendly local garage yesterday and was quoted £200 and £260 for 2 different makes, the second being Bosch. I get on well with them at the garage and to be fair to them James told me I could probably get it a lot cheaper from somewhere like Amazon. So this morning I have been hunting 1 down. I found the same Bosch battery on there for £148 which I was happier with. However, I have Coupert installed on my PC and it popped up with several other offers. The best being £118 including delivery. A quick call to my local garage and I offered him £20 cash to fit it and he accepted. So pretty much half the price for exactly the same battery. So in a couple of days time not only will I be happy but so will my car and also my bank account