After the big city last week, for my next rail adventure i went to a station which seems to serve about half a dozen houses! Yorton is a request stop in Shropshire, it is a very rural setting with not a huge amount nearby (though there is a larger village a short distance away). I stayed in Yorton though, and also visited the local church. You can see my photos here.
The Decimo Vatman was a Japanese made calculator for the British market, this one probably made in about 1974 or 1975. The name Vatman refers to Value Added Tax which was introduced into Britain in 1973. The introduction of the new tax caused many headaches for businesses it is said, so no doubt the Vatman with it's VAT key helped!
This key is just a percentage function, and the figure needed to be multipled by 8 for the then-VAT rate of 8% (sadly it is a lot higher now!) The calculator has an eight digit green fluorescent display. As well as the basic four functions and percentages (VAT) it also has square root, square and power functions.
Unfortunately, my example no longer seems to work. The battery compartment has some corrosion.
Now the track is laid, and seems to run quite well, on the new layout it is time to start building the scenery! I've used foam board to separate out the backscene from the rest of the layout, foam board is also being used for hills at the two far corners of the board. I intend to use papier-mâché on top of the foam board, and then the scenic flock and other stuff like trees and bushes on top of that.
The parish church of St Elphin in Warrington in Cheshire has existed since at least the mid-14th century though a church has been on the site since 650CE. The oldest parts of the current church are the chancel and crypt which date from 1354. The church was rebuilt following damage in the Civil War, including the tower rebuilt in 1696. The nave was rebuilt in the 1770s. The church was extensively restored and expanded in the 19th century including a south aisle and a spire for the tower. The spire (86m tall) is the fifth highest parish church spire in the country.
The church has a central tower and a nave with north and south aisles. There is a chapel dedicated to St Anne at the north transept.
As i was not at work today, and it was a nice day, i headed up to Stafford to watch some trains. You can see my photos here and one of the videos i took below.