Overall the show was a disappointment, though. Far too many traders, especially box-shifters, and not enough layouts, especially modern ones. Not as bad as Doncaster, but nothing like as good as Nottingham.

I have just virus-scanned my brain using the Human Virus Scanner, and it appears that I'm infected by the Prog Rock virus. As if I didn't already know that...
:: Tim Hall 11:04 PM ::  

Still, it has meant my reading time has dramatically increased, now I'm reading on average a book every week-and-a-half, which means I've had the chance to re-read Lord of the Rings after seeing the film. (See Mark Rosenfelder's comments about film and book - I find myself agreeing with much of what he says)

Of course, being a railway enthusiast, a commute out of Manchester Piccadilly has it's attactions; I'm seeing the last stand of the Virgin Cross Country 47s, and even more venerable 43-year old class 101 DMUs, of which half-a-dozen or so are still running on services to Marple or Rose Hill, including the green-liveried one known as 'Daisy'.
:: Tim Hall 10:28 PM ::  

A couple of years ago I put up a web page about the ficticious death metal band �ml��t as part of an on-line Call of Cthulhu game in which I was playing at the time. Part of the back-story featured the gruesome murder of one member of the band.

Looking at my web site access statistics recently I found references to my site from something other than the usual phoenyxs, googles and yahoos, so I investigate the site. It turns out my spoof web page had been taken as genuine, and my dead NPC is listed on a The Dead Rock Stars page alongside Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain - See it at users.efortress.com/doc-rock/1995.html

Of course, the band have been recyled into a different game, the said member is not due to die until some time in 2003, and I updated the page to reflect this.
:: Tim Hall 10:10 PM ::  

Met up with a few of the usual suspects, like Martyn Read, Stu and Gareth Beyer. No sign of Bryn or Roechard Wibb

Some impressive layouts, such as 'Deepcar', 1970s Woodhead line with a procession of freight hauled by pairs of 76s, the always impressive 'Dewsbury Midland' from the Manchester club, another 70s blue-era layout, this time with lots of 25s, 40s, 45s, capturing the flavour of 1970s West Yorkshire. In the smaller scales there was the 1990s 'Totton', well researched with some nicely-researched stock, and the wonderful scenery of 'Kingswear'.

There were also a number of American and Canadian layouts.

So what did I buy?

The long-awaited Minitrix grain hoppers are very nice, if pricey. Only sold (so far) in sets of four, these are just about the most detailed N-gauge freight wagons I've ever seen. The '2001 exclusive' set are for wagons registered with SNCB (Belgian railways), two with different 'Cita' logos, one in 'Transcereales' and one unbranded in grey. The Cita ones at any rate are appropriate for a British outline layout.

The Habblins long bogie sliding-wall van is another nice model. Although it's a Continental prototype, it's very well scaled for a British layout again, larger than the Roco van, but smaller than the massive Arnold vehicle.
:: Tim Hall 12:26 AM ::