The Canon Palmtronic 8, also known as the LD-84 is a fine little mid-1970s Japanese calculator with a VFD (vacuum fluorescent) display. The calculator has a TI TMS0855NL (7632) microprocessor and supports the four basic arithmetic functions as well as square roots and percentages.
My one still works OK and is in reasonably good condition for something that is now fifty years old, though it is a little scuffed (arn't we all?) Some of the keys are a little stiff and sometimes do not register.
The church of St Mary de Castro is, as the name says, in Leicester castle. There has been a church on this site since the 10th century. In 1107 the church became a collegiate church and was located inside the castle's bailey. The church was expanded in 1160 with a north aisle added and an extension to the chancel.
More expansions to the castle in about 1300 included the tower and reworking of the south aisle. The spire was rebuilt in 1783 though had to be removed in 2014 after serious cracks were found in it. It is not known when, of even if, the spire will be restored.
The church is built from coursed rubble with an ashlar dressing.
Project 112, a Boeing P-12E is nearing completion. Painting has finished and all that remains to do be done is to apply the decals. Now, this kit is a Matchbox one and a genuine vintage kit. The state of the decals after all this time will therefore be interesting. However, i have trouble with brand new decals and in the past have applied decades old decals without any issues so you never can tell...
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.
At the weekend i headed down to London for my first trip to the capital this year. I wanted to explore the northern end of the Piccadilly Line and went to a number of stations including the superbly named Cockfosters. Later on, i visited Essex Road which has some lovely surviving Network South East signage. You can see my photos here.
Time for the first gardening update of the year. Obviously, there has been little to talk about over the winter though i have experimented with various ways of attracting wild birds to the garden, i've found that seed balls in a feeder seem the most popular way for our feathered friends. Today, i gave the lawn it's first cut of the year. It needed to be done now because if it got much higher it would have been too much for my hand mower (and it's motor - me!)
This jolly and retro-tastic piece of beige and black technology from the mid-1970s is a Lloytron Accumatic 320. It seems to work well and has a green VFD display. The calculator is pretty feature rich for it's day with a few extra mathematical functions such as square root and pi to go along with the basic four arithmetric functions.
The calculator is pretty power hungry though, requiring no less than four AA batteries.
The parish church of St Peter in Dunchurch, Warwickshire is thought to have early Norman origins though little if anything of that original church remains after a rebuilding in the 13th and 14th centuries. The tower was an addition in the 15th. The church was restored and modified in the Victorian era. It is in the Perpendicular and Decorated styles.
The church has an aisled nave and a chancel, the later gained a north aisle in the 19th century. The church is mostly built from sandstone ashlar.
Stechford was where i usually went when i was a little kid trainspotter in the 1980s. Its changed a bit since then, the trains are not quite as interesting as they were back in the days of Class 86 and 87 hauled expresses screaming though.
At the weekend i headed over to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, in doing so it meant i have now visited every railway station in the county (except some on a preserved line) though there are only six anyway so it isn't that impressive! Wellingborough is a nice place, it has a lovely church which i was able to good look around in. You can see my photos here.
The town of Bracknell is at the east of the county but also on the western edge of the Greater London Urban Area.
Bracknell has Saxon origins, being first recorded in 942CE. The name back then was Braccan Heal, which may have meant Bracca's Land. By the Middle Ages there were two Bracknells, or Bracknoll at the time. Old and new market villages. Dick Turpin is said to have frequented one of the village pubs. The two villages were combined into a single town in the 19th century. The town saw rapid growth with the manufacture of bricks a major industry.
After the Second World War, Bracknell was designated a New Town, thousands of new houses were built to rehouse people who had lost their homes during the war and German bombing. Bracknell has expanded beyond the original plans and now has a population of well over 100,000.
The town is host to the headquarters of a number of large companies including 3M, Fujitsu and Waitrose.
Typing on a Petite International de luxe, a typewriter aimed at children but can still cope with adult fingers, just about.
The parish church of St Anne in Bagshot, Surrey is Victorian. The church was built in the early 1880s and consecrated in 1884. It replaced an earlier church dedicated to St Anne. The church is in the Early English style and has a nave with north and south aisles, clerestory and transepts. There is a west tower with a spire.
The church is built from red brick with a Bath stone dressing.
A few week ago i had to replace my original windsock after it vanished after one storm too many. Hopefully the improved fastening arrangement with windsock 2.0 will prove more survivable (although to be fair, the first lasted over ten months!) The next meteorological toy to be installed in the garden is a rain gauge, naturally there wasn't a cloud in the sky as i installed the gauge though as this is Britain it won't be long until precipitation is being recorded in it!
It has been sometime since i last went to Wales (indeed, over a year since i went to Chirk!) So, it was high time i returned, especially as it was St David's Day on Saturday. I went to Caldicot / Cil-y-coed in south eastern Wales, Monmouthshire to be exact. Caldicot is a nice little place with a superb castle to explore and also a rather fine church. You can see my photos here, lets try and make the next trip to Wales soon.
Sandhurst is a town on the south eastern edge of the county.
The town has Anglo-Saxon origins, the name is probably derived from the sandy soils and hursts (or tree covered hills) in the area. However, Sandhurst is not mentioned until 1175. For centuries Sandhurst remained a small farming village on the edge of Windsor forest.
The big change came to Sandhurst in the 19th century when the Royal Military College moved to there from Marlow in 1812. This helped the village grow into a town with expansion continuing into the 20th century with the building of new housing estates.
Sandhurst gained a railway station in the 1850s though this was only temporary, the current Sandhurst station dates from 1909.
