Robert Hampton

I told people not to buy me chocolate for Christmas, but what was under the tree on December 25th? A Toblerone selection box and Cadbury Heroes as far as the eye could see. Of course, I could just not eat them, but if you think that’s an option for me, you clearly don’t know me very well.

Today was my first visit to the gym in 6 days (it’s been closed since Christmas Eve) and I could feel every miniature Dairy Milk bouncing around as I jogged on the treadmill.

Christmas itself was uneventful, just the way I like it. Excellently, I received the Rail Simulator Official Expansion Pack, giving me access to the Class 08 Shunter. I spent a happy Boxing Day rearranging virtual HST trailers at Old Oak Common depot, only to be told that my performance was terrible and I must do better next time. Well, if they will insist on parking Class 47s where I’m going to crash into them…

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Interest has been revived in the model railway, partly because Hornby have seen fit to produce an actual Merseyrail-liveried train in their range. Now, I know what you’re going to say: The doors are wrong (wait, you weren’t going to say that?), but it’s still great to see that M logo in 00 gauge.

I logged on to the Hattons web site last week in order to see if the aforementioned model was in stock yet (intending fully to jump on a bus to Smithdown Road to get it in person from the shop). But lo and behold, there was a special offer on: free delivery if you spend over £150. Naturally, I had to spend the extra £102 in order to avail myself of this offer, which means my credit card is hurting, and I am now in possession of a whole host of railway related paraphernalia. IT MADE PERFECT SENSE TO DO THAT.

On a related topic, I wonder if Hornby would have produced this item…

…if it weren’t for a certain popular science-fiction series?