As an offshoot of my previous post and getting my VPS working (Virtual Private Server click me to see what I mean), I’ve been trying to play with my latest asset from Blender. The good news is that the 10T tank Wagon is in Trainz, with LODs, with now rotating axles, bad news is that it isn’t textured yet and I as I write this, I have to fetch the screenshot to show you which is on another computer that isn’t available. Also unusually for my stuff, it actually has LODs, be it 4 levels. I’ve always kept away from LODs because of the problems with A) reducing detail which makes development time much longer, B) as mentioned, makes development time much longer.
At least in this case, it was much easier to do and the performance isn’t too bad with 4 LOD levels. Level 4 was built from scratch but the other 3 were gradual reductions.
So as an offshoot of this, I had a go at the rectangular tank wagon. I thought it would be a case of a new body and same frame, but what I didn’t realis is how many detail differences there are! The frame is different. This is how it looks.
Author: wessexen
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Another wagon!
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Virtually fun! (Or virtual insanity!)
It was a good idea… I thought!
(Feature image downloaded from Pixabay (Edgar Oliver), not my own image, so credit to the author for providing a royalty free image for me to use as I don’t have any server images that are suitable!)
So I paused 3D modelling, well sort of, to work on a computer as I wanted to put my stuff in the cloud. First problem was finding a cloud provider cheap enough, I didn’t care what it was, it just had to be something. So, did a Google search and got in contact with a company called “IONOS” and a quick chat to say that I wanted something to mess around with online (basically to replace my home lab, I’ll talk about this in a bit) to run Blender mostly and for personal use.
Recommended a 6 vCore, 8GB vRAM server, ok, not bad for the price, but the question was “Do you have any experience in Linux?” and the answer was “Yes, Debian and Arch”. I prefer Arch as AUR is the most useful tool ever for Linux. The problem with Linux is a lot of programs you want don’t come “precompiled” to install. You have to build it yourself, which means, if you have any issues, you have to find all the dependencies yourself. AUR can help, but my god, can you end up going down that rabbit hole of finding all the dependencies. On a download page on this site, I came up with a script for that problem, Proton VPN (which has a free tier to use). So I can use Proton VPN on the train without worrying about my data. VPNs have become more important for me as I adapted my network for my uses. Before, I just connected to a desktop via RDP and that was it, exposed to the net, for about 15 years when I really got into it, on the default port, left on 24/7.
I knew about VPNs, but I felt they were way more complex to setup, so I generally tended to avoid them. Then I went into Train Planning, used a VPN solution, then thought “actually, I can use this at home, the benefits are fantastic!”, now learning also I can do far more with a VPN, then that allowed me to access my NAS from the outside. That allowed me to download files from the outside. Now I’m going all online with offline too, part of that plan was a long standing one, hence the vServer. Well, I am learning new skills for potentially my next job, its selling myself to my next employer- well, I already have a reputation at my workplace. Its a case of selling myself when I don’t have much experience in a corporate environment. I just been super interested in VDI, except my network isn’t large enough.So, I started playing with Virtual Machines more recently – I always did using VirtualBox so I can run my windows software on Linux and Mac OSX, this came from Virtual PC when I had a proper Power PC mac – which wasn’t particularly good for Max, yes I tried it.
So, I decided to start playing with more and more VMs, I created a development environment for a program that never happened. Why? Because if I am to hand over the source code, I would want to use a VM with everything set up and avoid the problem of “well, it worked on my computer” scenario. So lets go onto more recent ideas.I became a councillor and I thought initially “so, lets repurpose my VPN server which had Windows 10 on it that’s now out of support for something else”. (Yes, I ran a Debian VPN in a virtual machine for security reasons and backed it up). So I turned that into a Linux then windows server, then used KVM initially which I started having problems, then used Hyper-V. Loaded it up with VMs and let the problems begin.
Now my personal work is in a Windows VM and my council stuff is in a Linux VM which is behind a VPN. What was the point? Well, I am a lover of thin clients, as I write this, I am using one right now. A Dell Wyse 3470 Mobile thin client, the data stays in one location and with the power of remote desktop, you can go from location to location, room to room and you don’t have to shut your PC down. Great! Performance however? Is something else. In corporate environments, this sort of thing is used to the max! Think of a couple of big servers, running Windows Server, in a large chain containing several Hyper-V Virtual Machines for a number of employees, in some cases, just to run ONE program. Yes, one program, with a remote connection. I’ve used remote desktop but not remote app. That is something for future me to get interested in and gets a bit complicated to set up. Now that means you can have a laptop or a desktop, that goes from several hours to set up, to a matter of minutes, as long as you got a good internet connection!So you hear me rambling on about my skills and thinking “well, whats the point?”, Trainz. That’s what, more specifically, one point to develop my work, to store my work, to use my work and it doesn’t matter what device I use. Thin Clients are useful for this as it means you can do all 3 in one go. 2 things I am worried about that I am trying to mitigate.
1) Data loss
2) Theft
This is where VMs come in, does both, but putting it online, also means that you swap one for another, likely to get hacked. That I am going through and finding a solution for.
And what would I say to someone thinking that they want to learn some new skills? JFDI! I mean, guess what my server that runs all my virtual machines? You’ll love it! (Its below the 3Com Switch)
A 2014 Lenovo small form factor desktop, M73 from memory. 4th gen Core i5 4570-T, 12GB ram, 256GB SATA SSD. Yes, really, that is it! Does it do the job? Yes! Is it slow at times? Yes! Can I run more virtual machines? Yes and I’ve run upto 5 at once. Will it die? Sure, but I got a back up of it online for when it does eventually kick the bucket. All I have to do is then get a new machine, install the OS and then restore the backup. Everything is saved.
I guess that gives you an insight of my environment I love to mess with and give some of you some ideas of how you can use your skills for a long drawn out project. Oh and I now use Linux more than ever before, I am looking at replacing Windows with Linux and I have tried to.
Oh yeah, does the vServer run Trainz? Yes! Not very well which I think is down to the Bochs graphics drivers, but it does it via Debian, it has an AMD EYPC CPU in it, along with other machines and it seems to be OK. I’ve not tried the Lenovo M73 which I should replace. (Anyone want to help me?)
Final thought, you do realise that what I am doing now is the future of computing? Microsoft is already trying with Windows 365, having your data in the cloud on a virtual machine with all your programs. Its a good thing as you have a high performance computer which is replaced when you migrate off that server onto another, so you don’t get much performance degradation as it is anyway. Its also more efficient, a thin client doesn’t have to do much, just repeat frames from another computer of some sort. So you go from a computer that is like 60W to one that is less than 5W. My desktop probably pulls 200W then the screen ontop. Which sucks a lot of juice – for something that basically idles most of the time anyway. Yeah, computers do idle a lot, the more you share the resource, the more efficient it is, bearing in mind, a lot of office applications actually don’t consume much processing power, in fact, if someone asked me what computer they should buy for their budget and shops won’t like me for this, but buy what you need, don’t buy unnecessary power because its a waste. Do you need a nVidia or AMD graphics card for Office documents? No way! Save your money, get something like an Intel Celeron N100 or Core i3, or a low end machine. Even an AMD Althorn 3000 is enough. Most of these sorts of CPUs may not last as long but long enough to consider replacement in 4 to 5 years when Microsoft changes the system requirements again. Although by this point, you can just go down the thin client route. (And a virtual machine is more than viable for that sort of thing).
EDIT:
If anyone wants me to, I’ll try and produce a detailed explanation of how everything worked. Including a previous server build that failed miserably and some tips I’ve learnt as the default server packages that IONOS provides have some features missing that would be useful as a general purpose system. Other things, online storage is a must and Windows Server which is what is often packaged with these virtual servers is far more expensive – bear that in mind. Nothing says you can’t slap Windows in a VM though, I did that. -
25000 polygons later… (Blender)
That was a bit unexpected, I got some serious optimisation to do!
While trying to learn blender, I almost bar a few small things before it goes to the next stage, completed my tank wagon.
It was an interesting project and the modelling took a week longer than I wanted, most of it is because I am trying to undo the way Max works as this is now muscle memory (GMAX which got me into modelling works way differently than Blender) and the unique ways that blender works. For example, the way you start an object in Blender requires working from primitives, I work mostly with splines in *max these days which is massively different. When I completed a spline, I can add a surface modifier or an extrude modifier. Blender so far, from what I noticed unless someone wants to leave a comment, you have to convert the spline to a mesh (curve in Blender) which means you can’t edit the spline once its a mesh without undoing everything, whereas in max, you have a modifier stack and you can go back several iterations to make a minor changeBlender has more advantages though, it works on anything, I have it on my tablet, phone (as I am avoiding the iPhone at the moment), in fact, anything that includes OpenGL – that isn’t my remote desktop annoyingly. Plus Blender 5.0 completely changes the file format, making it incompatible with earlier versions apart from 4.5 LTS. Which means the version on my tablets is Version 3.6.22. Yeah, annoying. The version on Ubuntu ARM from what I tried is 3.0.1 from memory, which is even older!
Getting it to work on my Windows On ARM laptop – the Lenovo Thinkbook X13s is a royal pain in the arse and requires some hackery and I’ve not tried the Mac yet.
Max? If it runs Windows, it works. If it runs Wine, it doesn’t, even more frustrating as I have had 3D Studio Max 5 working for a demo in Wine – once. That’s it. Otherwise, Virtual Machine time for Windows. More space needed, more overheads for limited resources and more hopes and dreams needed. It does work without Open GL on the 2 old versions I’ve tried – and they work in a virtual machine.If you want to play with the source files, download below.
(Download here – Google Drive)
3 file formats included, blend (original), glb (used on this site) and FBX (if you fancy a different program as well as the blender iterations I went through. (3 of them) -
More tank wagon progress!
I didn’t think I’ll get this far with Blender, but I am making progress.
The “spur of the moment and I want to learn a new skill” thing is actually getting somewhere, once I got the hang of Blender.
However, some bits have made it in that shouldn’t on export like the sky box, hence why there are a couple of things that most certainly shouldn’t be there. The polycount is also rather high for my liking. Now I am getting on with Blender, my next challenge is to buy an ARM based laptop for Linux and for a big reason, battery life as I spend more time away from a plug that actually on it. (Anyone like to help? Theres a donation button available)
Hopefully, I’ll have this out in the next month when/if I finish it. There is already a space for it on the page. -
Developing in Blender
This object is a tank full of trouble! Literally.
It should be no secret that I am a MAX developer, I’m trained in it, I worked with it for years and well, it makes sense. So, I tried Blender, like I’ve been doing for years, I did have previous experience, but as in the future , I’d like to go over to Linux and therefore Blender, it would make sense for me to try it. I just wish I could get hold of a PineBook Pro (they look interesting), I would go for the MNT Reform, but the prices are quite “Galactic” for what they are. They have some nice features and nice Right To Repair ideas, but still. Or even Framework would be a choice, despite my laptop of choice is actually a Toughbook.So I started my first object as a test, this used splines, just splines, this is how it looked.
It was meant to be a Wickham Railbus, downsized to 25% of the screenshot size, which was built out of lines, or spline modelling, using diagrams as a start, then using a surface modifier or Blenders equivalent of, to form the shape. It wouldn’t be out of my comfort zone if it was max as I now do this almost all the time. But as the UI on Blender and the naming of tools is vastly different, its a lot harder. So I left it, wanted another go for something simpler to get the basics of it, so I built this thing.
Now I spent about 3 hours on it, the screenshot is what I started with, however, its not how it looks. I noticed a lot of mistakes and I keep finding them, so I had another go and the model below is how it looks.
Yeah, not much, but there is one bigger twist! So I tried it on my Hyper-V virtual machine which I use in and outside the house. Then found that Hyper-V doesn’t support a feature that Blender requires, meaning it won’t start Oh well, back to the drawing board. Hopefully, this will look more like a 10T or 12T wagon, its slow, but I’m learning how Blender works and my god, the amount of tutorials (and Google) I needed to even get this far.
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Turning 40
God, pretty much half way through my life (I am guessing, but with the age I’m expecting to live to) and this year, my birthday sucks, hard, literally. You’ll see below what I mean.
The time came to deal with being 40, to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it, until I got my pressie which for birthday’s, is a rather odd choice, considering that if someone was given it, it will be thrown out the window pretty quickly, especially if your husband buys it and you didn’t ask for it.
So, leading up to my 40thh (the day I write this), it was marked with depression issues, of them and even at 6 months out, my family wanted to know “what do you want for your birthday?”, lets just say, if you had the same idea I had, 116 123, call that. To be honest, I have a lot of issues with depression recently, not because I don’t want to feel depressed, but things aren’t quite going the way I would like them to and the horrible habit of comparing myself to other people, especially from the school I came from. What makes it worse, is that I am focusing on the stuff I don’t have, which is a wife, kids, a house (although I now have the money to move out of my dads place when needed – with a little help with a mortgage) and I feel held back considerably.Actually, it is the first time I’ve talked about this on my blog and don’t worry, I have thought about seeking help, its on my todo list. Also recently, as I became an eBay seller to reduce my computer collection substantially, I’ve been doing a lot of selling, my god, one package has become extremely stressful, because Royal Mail decided not to deliver it, instead, it was at my local delivery office for 10 days with no activity. It was suppose to go elsewhere (not Chichester). So, I had a pretty understandably frustrated buyer wondering if I scammed them.
I’ve tried to be helpful as much as possible as well. Yes, registered a complaint and guess how far that got? Nowhere!
So there is that, the thing I have to focus on and I am not very good at doing that, is what I achieved. Now I’ve not really spoken about it, but I was considered a SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) pupil at school – before SEND was a thing, so my education hasn’t been great, left with 2 GCSE’s when many leave with 5 or more, one C and one E grade, couldn’t go any further, couldn’t do A levels, couldn’t do six form, so ended up in college. But what I didn’t expect was to go into university, that was a very last minute decision, because of a course I liked and that was thanks to “Trainz”.
Now I am working in London. I broke records at the school, now I am probably still breaking records after I left. I’d love to know how many pupils actually did go to University and graduated, even more so, how many actually work in London for a large company that millions depend on daily. Many from my school will be going “you’re boasting about what you have done”, actually no, I’ve actually got a bigger challenge and its not about me, its not about others, its about SEND and this is borne out of my frustration of life, you see SEND, jobs and education becomes hard, VERY hard. IT shouldn’t be, but the stigma is still there, the stigma of society as a whole see people like me with Asperger’s Syndrome as “pretty stupid” when actually, we are really really smart, its changing perception of that and as much as I hate to say it, when I come from a far more diverse background, I’ve had that exposure of seeing what the person can do, those that come from state school where SEND isn’t a thing, still have that stigma. That’s what I want to change, just became my education background isn’t that good, doesn’t mean I am less able, in fact, I prove I’m just as able – I just need a bit more support to understand what is the social norms and how to interact (as I interact differently).
I actually had a longer post prepared on SEND, but I never completed it, so that is on the back burner.
So why does my 40th suck? What did I ask for, for my birthday? Well, everything I touch either doesn’t work, needs emptying frequently, the filters clogged very quickly, you need to untangle the bloody thing and no matter what manufacturer you use, its the same situation, so when I go and clean the house, I want the bloody thing to just bloody work. I asked for something that became my companion at work, I remember them at school too, with his great big smile and eyes, that great big trunk sticking out and made a machine human. Outside the UK, he’s not as well known, but inside the UK, he has a dependable reputation and has many other friends in different colours…
.. he’s not a machine, he’s a life long companion! Many people would absolutely hate having a hoover for their birthday. Me? I wanted a Henry. So I finally got my own Henry Hoover. Finally, I can clean the house with a hoover that is reliable and easy to fix. That’s the other complaint, every Dyson I’ve touched, breaks, can you find the bits for them? God, nope, because they stopped making them. Henry’s? Dead easy and dirt cheap! That’s why he isn’t a machine, but a companion for life.
(Side note, I managed to complete a yearly task, trains and daffodils, this is on the flower bed at Haslemere station with the only daffodil I snapped at the time.)
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PPQG (for Trainz) – minor update
… Passenger Point Queue Generator, the program that took my site offline once.
Its not often you hear a site taken offline for a program that well, does what its not supposed to. I spent quite a while developing PPQG (Passenger Point Queue Generator – for Trainz) and it’s suppose to help with randomising and creating queues for rolling stock for passenger trains. I might enhance this to include freight queues as well, as some of my projects also have freight queues (parcels) included. Not unusual for Railbuses.
I wrote this about 8 years ago in Visual BASIC 6, yes, really, on the train to and from work and it took quite a while. Across several computers and never finished. The reason why I never considered it finished, is because I left a module unfinished and never went back to it. Yes, I use it a lot, I’ve offered it out with its source code on this site which was fine for a number of years, until suddenly, my site got shut down because of it – because it contained malware. Got it back online, hosted it on Google Drive and it looks like its been deleted again. I have scanned it and some sites saying its clean, some are saying it has malware.
It looks like this, doesn’t actually do any file handling and its only 40KB long. I hope it’s bugless but it can probably be buggy accidently. (If you do find some, let me know please).
So used VirusTotal and it says 3 out of 71 providers consider it to have a virus which isn’t bad news, it just means that there is a way and style of my code writing matches a pattern in a Trojan or Virus. After all, all virus scanners look for is patterns in the code, if it matches that pattern, its a false positive. This could also be related to the VB6 libraries and embedded code to identify it as a VB6 programs but without asking a question to why, I will probably never find an answer. Nor would they tell me how their virus scanners work, because of intellectual property and secrecies that could be used to beat the virus scanner. So with that in mind, I started thinking about completely re-writing from scratch, this time, I used Visual Studio Community edition and the skills I already learnt.
The thing I find is that to understand the language as VB.net is vastly different than VB6 (the language structure is different and its more Object Orientated and its compiled rather than interpreted. I could develop it in C++ which isn’t beyond my capabilities, or C# or Java, just all 3 take a lot longer for me as I rarely program in those languages. When I go over to Linux, I might look at that, but then I may end up using GAMBAS anyway.
So, I started off like this on an old laptop that I was going to get rid of and ended up in use on my desk. (Dell Latitude E6430 ATG).
To get the randomisation to work took…. ages! But I worked it out with little help from the internet, which shows that I understand the basic language structure. When I started programming, I had high expectations of myself, thinking an experience programmer would understand off by heart all the required libraries. C++ is a strictly typed language and my god, it can be hell to work with. (Actually, in the office, that is a point, I wonder if the other 2 capable programmers understand C++?) until one of my tutors at the time pointed out that there is 25,000 libraries from memory, approximately! Yeah, I can’t memorise 25,000 libraries and what they do, that would be nearly impossible. Its bad enough understanding union rules for train crew or understanding the limits what you can do on the infrastructure. I know the other 2 understand VB, but Visual BASIC for Applications (which I avoid due to its flexibility). One has a basic understanding of VBA and had to explain to them how the VBA IDE (integrated Development Environment) window, like debugging features – inserting break points and the intermediate window, which is VERY powerful and you can understand how the program is working. But the code? That’s something else. The other understands VBA to a deeper level than me. (Oh one understands I believe Python that I find it difficult to get on with and understands Blender, whereas I tried Blender and struggled.) I like structured rather than spaghetti code, so all my loops and decisions are always indented to which one I am applying my code to (good programming practise) and I was always taught “Do not use GOTO statements”, its not quite true, but yeah, avoid them. Your code is messy! I always use modules; they allow reuse and small code. Goto statements? Don’t. How to get into a mess quickly and have zero usability of code.
On Err GoTo Hell.
You may not understand that! Anyway, I think I topped out for PPQG VB6 at less than 500 lines of code. I’m waiting to find out how this one is doing, but you will need Windows 10/11 at least as I’m building it for .Net Version 8. I prefer 3.5 as it doesn’t need 8.0 or even 10. No doubt I’ll talk about more of its development over time.
Russ the roofer – does it leak? No it doesn’t! In other news
You may of noticed I’ve done some changes to the site too, small ones on some pages. I finally found the problem with my templates, so I’ve locked the sidebar, footer and header which resolved most issues on most templates and there is a search bar now. I’ve also put some files up, I had a separate page that just directly linked to a Google Drive as I wanted a publicly accessible drive for all the stuff that I’ve not put onto a page, but that didn’t, so I went the manual way. I’ve got some sources to put up and yes, you can download them and do what you like with them. There will be more in the future. That came from my WIP server and if you are after something that isn’t on my site, just drop me an email, the contact me page should work now and I’ll send it over. I also plan to add some sort of feedback to the side bar, so I’ll see how that goes – more importantly, time. Considering I’m feeling like “Bob the builder” at the moment. “Can I fix it? No I f***ing can’t!”
As well as – going around the country on the coldest week on record!
Lets just say a Northern guard had a bit of a shock when I hid under a hood and a scarf covering my face, then presented them with my Southern ITSO card, my Staff ITSO card, my PRIV card and my PRIV rate ticket. – it was blowing a gale at -2°C. I had a good laugh, just the Class 150 I was on, (between Ribblehead and Salford Cresent) went from nice and toasty, to the time we got to Blackburn – (or was it Bolton?), it was bloody freezing.
Yes, that is an Class 805 Evero, yes, that is Ribblehead, Yorkshrie. Unfortunately, I’m not friends with Class 800s now, one took me and a lot of passengers prisoner at Carlisle by refusing to release the doors on 5 out of 10 coaches, with loads of alarms going off in the cab as the train refuses to co-operate with the door release buttons. Considering I was a full fare paying passenger in that I actually brought an advance single on a Disabled Railcard.
EDIT much later (next day in fact!):A partially wasted Sunday with little to do, I was able to get it working. Well, I say wasted, I did manage to rearrange my desk so it was more usable for my height. But, after a lot of head scratching and finding out why variables weren’t parsing, I managed to fix it:
Only 4 or 5 hours to get back into it and produced something useful. VB6 skills are still relevant. (And I didn’t resort of Xojo – another BASIC IDE!) – hopefully, it’s easy to read. I can add a crap ton of comments if you REALLY want.(And yes, I’m that “old school” that I try to follow the Visual BASIC coding standards)
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Now its Happy new year (onwards to 2026)
Its that time again, onto 2026 and I already have some “new years resolutions” (targets). I have a nice easy one, go to the office at work more. Yeah, 2 days at home I didn’t particularly enjoy, in fact, 3 days in some cases. However, as there is some engineering projects affecting me next year, I might find that 3 days at home or 50% in the office over 2 weeks will be the norm (and we have gone for more hybrid working where I work, not less).
For me, what has happened this year? Well, a lot actually, some really big changes too. The only thing that hasn’t changed is my job, but the industry I work in has changed and is changing more and more.
The bad
I lost Buddy – the dog very early on, back in January in fact and to be honest, it still is quite painful seeing Buddy going through his last moments on earth in the worst way possible. I feel the vets should of been much more supportive but they weren’t and yes, I do miss Buddy a lot.
Then came more concerns. I’ve not mentioned it on here, but I had a few health issues that were concerning, it started with issues that I kept getting with a certain type of cold that requires anti-biotics as it causes breathing difficulties over time if it worsens, so I was scheduled for a “spirometry” test as I also been diagnosed with eczema/dermatitis (my skin is a big problem, those that seen me know that my hands are littered with flaky skin and splits!) , so they think I was potentially asthmatic. I’ve been given an inhaler but I only really use it when required,
You thought that would be it? Well, when I was with my friend who was driving to Kidderminster with the dogs from Llandrindod Wells, I noticed a lump on my head that grew out of nowhere and it was hard like that for about a month when I got it checked out. Then on the same side of my body, 2 more lumps appeared. One was really bad, which is a suspect insect bite, one was considered an ingrown hair, the other when I went to A&E (the insect one burst and kept leaking), I was told to get it checked out as there was a 1% chance it could be cancerous – small, very small, so I did, turned out to be a wart. So for about 4 weeks, I was worried I had the signs of cancer because being naturally red headed, the risk of skin cancer is really high. At least I got it sorted when I did.
The end is nigh – for the franchise
The big one? I changed employers and got TUPE’d over, I went from First Group to DfTO from the 21st May 2025, that has been a big change and was it positive? Well, putting it on here will upset one or the other, however, as things go, I’m not going anywhere.
However, as part of this, my box card which First Group employees get, was coming to an end, so what was idea? Use it! Plus my 40 odd tickets a year friends and family discount (which was £6 a ticket and rarely used it). So first of all, I went to Hull, using Hull Trains, an open access operator I wanted to use for years, I finally did it and it was a really smooth great experience. That was on the bank holiday weekend in May. I was going to post my thoughts on Hull (its alright), but to be honest, I didn’t find much to do for an overnight stay, apart from the aquarium, it was a fishy trip, that’s for sure.
The Deep, Hull – 03/05/2025 Weekend after that, I went with the older sister to London with the dogs for a day and did a long walk that Finn and Bailey – oh, I’ve not mentioned those yet. I need to – to Brixton from London Waterloo, it was warm but OK.
Weekend after that, I took my mum and younger sister with their 2 dogs and my 2 dogs to Bath, that was a nice trip but got too warm, this was a sign of things to come with the weather,The final weekend, it was again, my mum and younger sister to London and a walk around London. This was the final weekend of the franchise and it was a goodbye and hello. If I don’t fall foul of a policy, I’ll post my thoughts on the franchise. I’ve been in the company from the Stagecoach days and there were some good ideas, don’t get me wrong.
A change of direction – in my spare time
Politics talk. I kept quiet about this, but in July, I became a councillor for my local parish council. This being Fishbourne (Sussex), yes, I am now into politics and making positive changes. This was influenced by my mum and the big reason for doing it was quite simply crime. Sussex police I had arguments with their PCC where crime was going up and nothing had been done about it. So, I did something and I started recording things. I’ve now started a database and I have met many residents to hear their views. I now have a bigger project in the wings (yes, its one I want to sort as well) which is Fishbourne Roundabout, its dangerous, its a hot topic here and the whole A27 (the road that runs from Romsey to Eastbourne) runs right through the middle of the roundabout metaphorically. There is many things I’ve heard and not to upset a certain influential person on this blog, I’ll keep my mouth shut – but I was not impressed when I heard it. (I do agree that the northern bypass wasn’t a good idea anyway as I got my own interest that will be on a direct collision course with them anyway – called railways and a line I want to build and one I want to reopen.) Theres lots to do and I’m getting started. Its slow, but I’m getting there. For those wanting to make a difference, I’ll recommend joining the council, there is one important rule though, you can’t act individually, you have to act as a collective – including all decision making. This maybe a new career if the railway goes Pete Tong. However, if anyone gave me a bribe, I’ll send it back to where it belongs. Sorry I’m happy with what I have got, it doesn’t come with strings.
Work challenges
At work, I’ve not progressed, we are relatively stable at the moment, so the opportunity isn’t there, but work life has been interesting. I’ve gone to a situation of doing nothing to doing lots to doing nothing. Big thing, I actually got involved in 2 events, the 9 day Portsmouth Direct Line closure as I diagrammed the crew on the last trains (yes, I didn’t expect that!) and a small contribution to a railtour, so small, its almost insignificant, but had I picked up something, it would have a massive impact. Yes, I would of been affected by my own problem. It ran, so I wasn’t worried. I even got involved in the Class 701 introduction for a day, that was an interesting experience and that was back in March.
Related to the PDL and being affected by my own work, I also saw all 3 signal boxes on the last day! I managed to take some photos too, with my camera as phones are frowned upon, 2 still exist (Petersfield and Haslemere), but one has now bit the dust. I understand the reasoning however (and that’s a wider subject I can’t talk about on here).
Places been
Trips! Ok, where I have I been? In this order
Ledbury/Birmingham (Jan)
Llandrinddod Wells/Barmouth/Eden Valley/Talyllyn Railway (Apr)Hull (May)
Bath (May)
Coventry (May)
Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland. Belfast/Dublin/Coleraine/Coach Tour of several Irish Places and nearly got sick! Because the roads are rough and I was at the back (June)
Llandrindod Wells again/Aberystwyth – Vale of Rheidol Ralway/Barmouth/Bala-Bala Lake Railway (Oct)And finally, Jersey (see blog post here) (Nov)
I have to say, I mentioned Hull previously in this post because it formed part of the end of the franchise for the company I work for, but going to Northern Ireland in June was scary! No really, it was, it was when there were demonstrations about immigration and when I came across some graffiti that read “locals only, no foreigners – keep out” in Bangor, that scared me. You cannot judge someone’s origins from how they look. Yes, I’ll fit right in – in Ireland as I am red headed and IC1, but the moment I open my mouth, I will be picked out, because I don’t sound Irish, I’m from Southern England which is known to have a posh accent (apparently!), so that was quite honestly scary. Then add the Land Rover Tangi’s roaming around, it wasn’t reassuring at all, I thought I was just about to walk into the next civil conflict since “The troubles“. No, I don’t ever want to go down that route, I don’t want to see it a second time in my life. Keep everything at peace, keep everything going as it is. After all, we are all human. Be peaceful and run trains, you will achieve a lot more, plus your economy does better with tourism.The website
Another big thing, ever since my original site got taken down in 2013 from memory, I’ve been trying to produce a new site with a content management system. Joomla is what my old site used from 2009 to 2013, I then went over to “NetObject Fusion” which is a piece of software that does websites with a storyboard interface and is more of a WYSIWYG editor that builds entire static websites than a content management system. I’ve been messing with WordPress for years, just I never knew how to create a template, even though I had a blog in a sub directory which was used to convey my thoughts. Until I started messing with WordPress properly and found lots of stuff I never knew existed. This allowed me to use my template dated from 2017 to be used and that’s what kicked everything off. Just the ability to create my own template and put them on my site. It worked! That’s what I wanted to do from day one. Once I unlocked that, I spent 4 weeks on and off producing this site. Then launched it quietly. I’ve not changed much. I did have a Google Drive link, but I have had to remove it. I’ll add it back into the future at some point.I’ve also done a lot more 3D objects for the site, I still am, on and off, just pause for other reasons, then restarting.
Personal life
My life has a change of direction too. I’ve complained about being single for so long, now this is where it gets really weird (such as my life), certain dating site, my ex was on it, just flicked through her profile and noticed that October last year, she left a like. That said site kept trying to match her and me together and I kept avoiding it, I decided to go with it, liked her and matched. This was in January and yes we dated in February, March and April, but haven’t seen each other since, so its a bit of a limbo situation. However, I’ve been hijacked a lot by my family (my mum and sister) as they moved from Fareham to Southbourne, so you can guess who did a lot of DIY work. You got it in one! (ME!) I reckon I spent out of 52 weekends, 26 of them there – or there abouts. It got difficult to manage and it put a strain on my life too. Thank god I don’t have any kids.
In short, change of employer (same job), involved in some special events, travelled to several places, became a councillor, launched this site, dated my ex (x4) and did a ton of dodgy DIY. What a year.
The worst bit: Under 2 months until I am 40 and apparently, I look nowhere near it. That might explain why I seem to be getting young ladies coming up to me recently and the usual youths I have problems with, think I am their age, that will be funny when I turn around to them and point out that I am old enough to be their dad – and scary!
(Something I never thought about before until I started talking about my age, especially when I talk about slammers to my boss who is 8 years older than me and everyone around me is like “what is a slammer?” Slam door train – think Classes 411/412/421/423, even I have managed to travel on Mk2s, Mk3s and now Mk4s on the mainline and Class 310/312s on the mainline. Not forgetting one Class 101 on the mainline – Stockport to Stalybridge, one way in 2001)
Next year goals
Next year, what do I want to do? Get my blue Espace on the road, spend more time in the office rather than at home, do some changes to my desks at home as I got a really uncomfortable chair and go to France. I’ve been saying that for 2 years so far and Jersey is close enough. Now I have some new stuff to try out for my desk at work (a leather seat and a trackball), it would be natural to spend more time at work. At least I don’t have to put up with my horrible low backed seat. Oh wait! I’m sitting in a low backed mesh seat while I type this at home that is begging to be replaced. I’m not bothered about the back, but the base – ouch!
Fun fact, in a year, I’ve travelled by Car, Train (Narrow and Standard gauge – steam, diesel, electric, passenger and ECS), Bus, Coach, Ship and 3 planes, an ATR 72, Airbus A319 and an Airbus A320. Fascinating fact, I’ve nearly thrown up on a coach (rough road), car (rough road – rough driving), plane (turbulence on approach to Belfast City Airport – the ATR72 was too small anyway), but this time around, not the ship. The car decks kept me up on the Belfast to Liverpool overnight sailing though! I’ll never forget the car alarms going off below me.
Photos
Oh photos! Yes, you like photos. A selection of some published and previously unpublished photos for the year.
All I can say, what an incredible and here in the south of the UK – record breaking warm year and lets see what 2026 brings.
One final thought
Oh yeah, I didn’t mention one thing, I left it off accidently, in the words of someone I watch a lot of YouTube shorts (swearing);
This fucking thing!!
Coventry VLR – 07/06/2025
I actually rode it, talked to the designers and gave my input into future ideas of the overall design – make it modular and other interesting design ideas. I won’t take credit, as some may notice how I design things, how about a tiller handler used to remove, add or swap modules in a depot to vary the length of a train? The idea of the Class 475 was that and it had a more important reason for its short coaches. Its to do with where I would like the train to go. Chichester on a tramway, from West Street to South Street, round the cross. Buses do it every day, why not trains? (Not that you can at the moment, you can’t as there is no tramway).Bringing myself back to the subject, its an interesting vehicle and to be honest, has some really brilliant ideas, some I thought of, some of my ideas I’ve shared and some I’ve learnt off them too.
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Breaking my site… again!
I mentioned about this in my previous blog post, but yes, again, I broke my site again!
Its the contact me form again. I had issues in the past with the site going off line randomly and I’ve been trying to sort that since June or July (yeah, none of that stuff please? You know, the month numbers?) 2025, I can’t remember which, but the site kept going off line, disabled multiple plugins and my site host started a new server, still kept going offline but a lot less than before, so I kept disabling more and more plug-ins. The previous contact form was driven by JetPack, which is a plug-in for WordPress which comes with a handy contact form builder and has other nice features like the ability to update via an app on a mobile device, which I used extensively on my blog when it was in a sub folder before I rebuilt everything and got to grips with how WordPress works (I actually was planning to go back to Joomla as I previously have done, WordPress just has a load of plug-ins).
So disabling JetPack = no contact. Luckily I had another way to build contact forms, which came from PageLayer. If I thought about it, I could of built it from scratch for 4 times the time it would of taken and that’s an estimate as it would require some PHP coding. (I don’t fancy that!)So imagine my surprise and excitement when I got an email on the 23/12/2025 from a user, read it and great! I can’t respond, because I would be responding to myself.. how the hell? Did some investigation, tests, runs and found a setting I had enabled. “Ooops”. This is in a plug-in called “GoSMTP”, great. So I tried again, it worked but some clients weren’t sending emails. Great.
So with all the plug-in problems I’ve had from the same provider, I thought “Ok, lets fix this”, I did, tried every way possible, removed GoSMTP, it worked – this is the classic developer thing of “it worked on my comptuer.” WRONG!
So tried it on my work computer and guess what? The email bounced! Great, more figuring and testing. It looks like PageLayer uses the existing email client to send a computer which will work if you don’t have an exotic OS. I use a mix of Linux, Windows, Android, iOS and occasionally, MacOS.
Then discovered that GoSMTP doesn’t do what I want it to do as it is for sending emails from the site, not for receiving email (it seem to work that way), so tried pagelayer and that then stopped sending emails via the submit button, so tried the WP form which is driven by… Jetpack.
But it also doesn’t work the same way, it sends an email, my wessexelectricnut address never gets it, so goes via my home address. All fun and games.
So if you have tried to send me an email and didn’t get a response, I do apologise, try now.
(and I got a lot more bugs to fix! Like the blog pages, I’ll find a way – its to do with the templates). -
For all my readers – Happy Christmas!!
Ok, short but sweet blog, well ok, a little longer as now I have 4 1/2 days off work (YAY!) and a pile of stuff to do at home (Boo) and places to go in the new year, I.e. hunting Avanti West Coast services on the Settle to Carlisle line (opens in a new window, leaves the site) – which unlike last time as I could do it for free with my box card, will cost me a pretty penny, still with PRIV rate and it looks like with all the engineering work going on, I may sample some new Aurora trains that East Midlands Railway, similar to the Everos I’ll be travelling on, not a great thing but at least the seats are far more comfortable on the Everos than their Great Western Railway cousins.
Anyway,HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!
Hopefully that is clear enough. Things that I may mention in the future, all dependent on time and what policy I’ll break next as there is a social media policy in place that I have to be careful of and I’d like to keep my job.
This might feature and it will require explaining. (I was on it for a start!)
And no, I can’t talk about anything else, please don’t try, messages about them will be binned, not that you can contact me at the moment as I found an issue which will be explained in another blog post to do with the site.
I’ve also started a year in review for me (back in October) and you might be shocked with what I got up to.
Also, for those who read this post on Christmas Day, please do tell me what you got up to. I’m writing this ahead of time but as I don’t have any kids and nearly 40, unmarried (so bachelor) but with 2 sisters and both parents, I’ll be spending time with them, with DIY tasks (please, please don’t go there, its a sore point of mine) and helping with Dinner with 4 dogs going nuts and 1 at home going nuts. (2 bitches, 3 dogs, one dog is at home).Then I’m back to work on the 29th for 3 days, off for one, back to work on the 2nd for reduced hours (preplanned, possibly working from home), off up north with a friend, then back to work 5th, not decided if it’s the office or work from home. All I know is that I asked for a chair – oh yeah, I am sort of getting something for Christmas.
/!\ TANGENT WARNING /!\
Going off on a tangent!
A new chair in the office and a mouse which became a requirement. The mouse itself is a trackball and for me, I come from an age where trackballs were king, some people swear by them, some people hate them. Its like some settings I’ve enabled because the era I came from. DSTN screens anyone? Old tech, slow refresh rate, plenty of ghosting and what happened to the mouse pointer? You lost it as the mouse often moved between refresh rates, meaning it was hard to track. Even with modern displays, I still lose the mouse. So the solution is simple, mouse trails, visual clue to where the mouse is and moving. Its rather fun at work:
Them: “Why is your mouse laggy?”Me: “Its an accessibility thing, comes from the era of DSTN displays.”
Them: “What?”
Me: “Errm, look up what a DSTN display (opens in a new window, leaves the site) is, it’ll answer everything, but every laptop in the 90s had them.”
As for the trackball? No one will touch my desk with a trackball to the dock, even though I thoughtfully retained the original mouse, put it in a draw with Sellotape and a note saying “If you don’t like the trackball, feel free to use the mouse in here” on one side, then “and a wireless charger and a lightning cable” on the other side./!\ PUN WARNING /!\
(its not very punny!)
I think everyone has just worked out what I am like to work with in the office now. Except, one of my colleagues also had to put up with my tea puns that got me into hot water (at least they didn’t boil over) , I couldn’t sugar coated it any other way. He was totally tea’ed off at the end of it as I milk one more pun out of it. And that was the PG Tip(s) of the iceberg with what I was talking about, just I felt mugged off at the end of it. I better stop there as I’ll be talking about CUPS (link opens in a new window and/or leaves the site) next, that’s on my Linux machine. Just don’t take a tea leaf out of my book and don’t have a drink to that.