The thing in the attic

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the loft recently.
We replaced our central heating boiler last year, and I decided it was time to upgrade the loft insulation; after all, the price of energy is rising all the time, so the cost-effectiveness of insulation continues to improve.

Simply whacking down an extra 200mm of rockwool across the entire loft space would have been a comparatively easy job, but inevitably it has become a much more complicated operation. I won’t burden you with the details, but if it’s finished by next winter I’ll be delighted.

While I was stumbling about in gloom, deciding which of the formerly valuable things really ought to be chucked out, I came across the beginnings of an N-Gauge model railway layout which I started a few years ago. It looked pretty sorry for itself, and although I couldn’t bear to consign it the scrapheap, I didn’t know whether the original plan would warrant the time and effort needed to complete it. I put it to one side for later consideration.

So it was a happy coincidence, when a mate of mine dropped in for a cuppa last Thursday and mentioned that someone had given him a model railway locomotive for Christmas. He was sounding dangerously keen on the model railway thing, and I’m afraid his enthusiasm may have been more infectious than I thought, because I started wondering whether to try to revive my moribund layout. Even more worrying; when I was at the newsagent today, I bought myself a copy of “Railway Modeller” magazine.


So thank you very, very much, Mr S.