Hello from over the Pond

[folkestonekeith]

Hi Guys,
I've just joined the forum, live in Folkestone UK (in the south east corner of the country close to the Channel Tunnel - using Eurostar closer to Europe than many parts of the UK!!). Spent about 30 years working in Asia and returned home to the UK about 5 years ago.
Have been into garden railways for just under two years starting off with an LGB digital start set. This was soon expanded and construction of a line down one side of the garden started - plan this year is to chuck out the LGB power system and install the more powerful Massoth system as well as beautifying the track surroundings etc. Next year hope to start taking the track up the other side of the garden.
Main modelling interest is the Swiss RhaetiaBahn and the German NG lines around the Rugen, the Harz and Dresden (railroads which have been visited by train starting at my local station[8D]). Also appearing from time to time is some Union Pacific (F7AB and Alco Passenger and Freight locos) and Boston & Maine (GP9). My cousin lives just outside Boston so on my last visit dragged him to Charles Ro to get the very nice blue and white GP9!! Also have got the Bachmann Heisler (DCC chipped and Pheonix-sounded) and latest Shay (awaiting chipping and sounding!!).
Have subscribed to Garden Railways - great magazine but one problem - the adverts show how expensive garden railroading here is in the UK compared to what you pay in the US - just like the price of gas!! Am hoping to get many hints from joining this forum........
Keith

[vsmith]

Welcome to the forum from the left coast of the US,

Happy to help in any way we can, you'll not be the only Brit here,we have a few other great guys here so you wont get just a US point of view, as for gas prices, there predicting +$3.00 a gallon here in Kalifoonia, as our governator says, so thats one thing a little more in common, that and my predisposition to English and Irish brews. Later Vic.

[Tom The Brat]

Pleased to meet you, Keith.

From somewhere in the middle of the USA.

[Anonymous]

KEITH[#welcome]
FROM THE east coast ,in penna ,usa their is a lot of good people and good garden rail road information on this forum Ben

[grandpopswalt]

Hello Keith,

Welcome to the forum. We're a friendly bunch with a lot of collective experience and strong opinions on almost any subject you'd care to talk about. We're always anxious to help new members in any way we can (short of sending money).

It sounds as though you're well on your way to a great garden railway, send along some photos when you get a chance.

Walt

[Rastun]

[#welcome] Keith,

Sounds like you are well on your way there. Ask any questions you have and I'm sure you will get a lot of responses or direction to where your question may have been asked before.

Take care,
Jack

[powlee]

[#welcome]

Hi Keith from a fellow Brit. You will enjoy it here. I live next to Heathrow Airport.
Isn`t Charles Ro store great. I brought back a lot of spares for my USA trains. Get your cousin to visit you regularly and bring back back some goodies. That`s what I do.

Hey Vic, $3.00? Our`s is $6.85 a gallon.

All the best
Ian P

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by folkestonekeith

Hi Guys,
I've just joined the forum, live in Folkestone UK (in the south east corner of the country close to the Channel Tunnel - using Eurostar closer to Europe than many parts of the UK!!). Spent about 30 years working in Asia and returned home to the UK about 5 years ago.
Have been into garden railways for just under two years starting off with an LGB digital start set. This was soon expanded and construction of a line down one side of the garden started - plan this year is to chuck out the LGB power system and install the more powerful Massoth system as well as beautifying the track surroundings etc. Next year hope to start taking the track up the other side of the garden.
Main modelling interest is the Swiss RhaetiaBahn and the German NG lines around the Rugen, the Harz and Dresden (railroads which have been visited by train starting at my local station[8D]). Also appearing from time to time is some Union Pacific (F7AB and Alco Passenger and Freight locos) and Boston & Maine (GP9). My cousin lives just outside Boston so on my last visit dragged him to Charles Ro to get the very nice blue and white GP9!! Also have got the Bachmann Heisler (DCC chipped and Pheonix-sounded) and latest Shay (awaiting chipping and sounding!!).
Have subscribed to Garden Railways - great magazine but one problem - the adverts show how expensive garden railroading here is in the UK compared to what you pay in the US - just like the price of gas!! Am hoping to get many hints from joining this forum........
Keith

A BIG Welcome from South Texas. I'm Capt J.E. Carrales and we 'd love to have you add your identity to ours...resistance is futile![:)]

Again welcome!

[underworld]

Hello Keith!
Greetings from Toledo, Ohio.....probably almost as cloudy as London here but I think we get more snow and more days over 30C! [:p][:p][:p][:p][:p]

undeworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[aljay]

[#welcome]

You picked the right place, . Great advice, lots of help and lots of answers. But most of all LOTS OF GREAT PEOPLE..................... Right Capt. C..?

Welcome aboard Keith [tup]

[Anonymous]

[#welcome] to this side of the pond[:D]

[Anonymous]

Hi Keith,
Same side of the pond, up in Blackpool. You'll enjoy this lot, we do have our moments!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

PS, watch it Yanks, us Limeys are back up to four now. We'll soon outnumber you and with Vics help you'll all be drinking warm beer![:D]

[Anonymous]

Hi Kieth
[#welcome]
From under the pond yes there is life down here[:D][(-D]
regards John

[Anonymous]

Hello Keith.Since I'm only half an hour from you I'd be interested in hearing the Pheonix sound.Get in touch.
Troy

[bhewitt452]

Keith,
Greetings from the Boston area, actually Mansfield MA (just south of Boston). I have been to your area of the UK and stayed south in the New Forest in Brockenhurst. We even took the Eurostar to Paris. I have a good sized outdoors layout if you ever come for a visit look us up on the LGB website under "Atlas". When we visited the UK we had touble finding G Gauge garden railways to visit but did find one train shop in York and another i Windsor. The railway meuseum in York was great! Took lots of train trips. If you have any questions try this link, http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips.html

Bill Hewitt
Mansfield, MA USA
The Southpark & Dogbark GRR

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kimbrit


PS, watch it Yanks, us Limeys are back up to four now. We'll soon outnumber you and with Vics help you'll all be drinking warm beer![:D]

Warm Beer NEVER! I also drink what many I've found to be called domestic swill Budlight that is[;)] But the cheaper beer enables my RR budget!

[grandpopswalt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kimbrit

Hi Keith,
Same side of the pond, up in Blackpool. You'll enjoy this lot, we do have our moments!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

PS, watch it Yanks, us Limeys are back up to four now. We'll soon outnumber you and with Vics help you'll all be drinking warm beer![:D]

I'll consider eating my rice pudding warm (someting I learned from an English friend) but warm beer? ............ absolutely not, that's just plain uncivilized!

Walt

[Rastun]

Well Walt,

If they tried a few of our beers that I can think of right off warm. They would realize why most of our beers are served very cold
Jack

[Anonymous]

Hang on chaps,
It's not so much warm,as in room temperature.,It's all down to taste.
At 0 degrees everything tastes the same.Bloody cold.
Troy

[Anonymous]

That's the only good part about winter, you can work outside and your beer doesn't get warm[:p]

[Anonymous]

Ha ha,
I have 40 pintsof IPA sitting in a barrel.
It's nearing completion !
Long live real ale !!
Goodbye reality!

Hello wife,(only had the one,honest!)
Troy

[Anonymous]

IPA, lovely stuff. For those who don't know it stands for India Pale Ale and was brewed for the all the boys in India at the time of the Raj. It had to be a special brew to survive the journey to India by sailing ship and one such ship carrying Cains (a Liverpool brewery) IPA foundered shortly after leaving the Mersey, the casks washed ashore and the contents where consumed by the locals and that, plus the demand from soldiers returning from India, created the home market. I know that there are a lot of small breweries and brew pubs in the states, any of you guys know/use any.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

if we are discussing beer,(and why not)The best beer is from Gods country the other UK lot will know where i mean.And i dont mean John Smiths smooth.

[Anonymous]

Hi Warrior,
Lots of good beer comes from that place where you live, it used to be said that lots of good things come out of Yorkshire and they are all roads to Lancashire!! One of my greatest friends is from that place and we have hours of entertainment taking the p**s out of each other over a few pints, I usually pay for most of 'em. Have the railways reached Yorkshire yet?, I see trains from Lancashire disappearing into holes in hillsides and I wondered.................[;)]
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[vsmith]

OK some of you'z guys over here have got the wrong notion about warm beer! It aint warm, its just ment to served at or just below the ambient room tempurature....of course in England thats somewhere around 65 degrees. Actually most Anglo/Gaelic brews are best served around 50 degrees, I keep mine in the fridge just like everyone else does and when I pour them on a hot summer day they warm up to the right temp soon enough. My "stock" brew is Murphy's Irish Stout, some might claim Guinness Extra Stout is better, I claim otherwise. And my "special" brew is the occasional bottle of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout or Young's "Old Nick" brandywine ale. That stuff will curl your chest hairs!!!

Bartender, another Murphy's please....

[folkestonekeith]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all your welcome messages - this sure looks like THE place to be. It's also great to find that Troy lives about 30 minutes away....and we both have an interest in trams - sorry, streetcars as well as garden railroading. Amazing!!
One thing I have to learn is how to post pictures to this site - I've tried but no luck so far. Give me some more time to suss this out as well as all the smilies.
Have to admit to one thing - I can't stand warm flat English beer. Started on the beer when I was living and working (with a British bank) in Saigon, Vietnam in 1968 - and thanks to our Vietnamese cookboy (who later turned out to be a VietCong commander!!) we had access to the black market and various brands of American beer - all served well chilled. Great place, great beer.......(apart from the Falstaff which was the lowest priced on the black market...and I quickly found out why!!)
Keith

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kimbrit

Hi Warrior,
Lots of good beer comes from that place where you live, it used to be said that lots of good things come out of Yorkshire and they are all roads to Lancashire!! One of my greatest friends is from that place and we have hours of entertainment taking the p**s out of each other over a few pints, I usually pay for most of 'em. Have the railways reached Yorkshire yet?, I see trains from Lancashire disappearing into holes in hillsides and I wondered.................[;)]
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

Which is why we have all the building societys.we look after our money.White rose rules OK.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by folkestonekeith



...apart from the Falstaff which was the lowest priced on the black market...and I quickly found out why!!)
Keith

At least it wasnt Shaffers....I remember when I was younger me and some buddies got a 24 case of Shaffer because it was the cheapest beer we could get for our measley incomes. We went to go drink it one evening out in the middle of the local school field next to my friends house where we could hang out without being bothered by anyone (This was a long time before all the security hazzapoluza at schools today). We'll about halfway into those first cans we were sooooooooooo turned off by the rancid taste of that [censored] in a can, we ended up just leaving, walked away, leaving the rest of the case out in the middle of that field. We just calling it an evening, went home, disgusted in our misguided attempts to get quality without paying for it. We NEVER bought bad beer again after that.[xx(]

BTW I've always wondered what happened the next day when all those kids went back to school, we never did hear anything on the news about drunken 8th graders running amok in the school, so I guess nothing bad came of it[:p][;)][:o)]

[Anonymous]

Warrior, Northern Rock mate, up in geordie land!!

Vic, One of my favourite watering holes is a railway station buffet bar that has been converted into a pub, at Stalybridge just outside Manchester. It's a lovely place to visit at any time, in summer there are tables out on the platform and you can watch the trains go by and in winter there is a roaring coal fire to welcome you. On a few visits I have actually left the train exactly opposite the pub door, five strides and I'm in the bar. Eight handpumps serving beer from around the country and a good bit of home made food as well. Sometimes it just doesn't get better!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

Well Keith it is about time you should understand things, there is only one real pond and you are nowhere near it. The pond I speakof course about the Pacific Ocean and more precisely the Coral Sea, any thng else is small and of no cnsequence. Ask Vic Smothh and he will tell you the same thing

I have also worked for a bit of my career in the east, mainly Singapore but also Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia etc.

As well i will be visiting Troy and Kim during August, as i will be living at Chelmsford in Essex as a result of a house swap.

Regrds Aussie Ian.