Trains of Thought

OK, I'm tired of ranting about UKIP's unspeakable foreign cheerleaders and financiers.  However, before leaving the subject of UKIP for the time being, I'd just like to congratulate whoever it was who vandalised that big UKIP election poster here in Crapchester the other day.  One word of advice, though - in future try using black  spray paint, as it would make the 'racist bastards' bit easier to read than the red paint you actually used.  Anyway, let's leave the subject of extreme right-wing politics for now.  After all, ranting about the threat posed by these lunatics isn't the only thing that occupies my time. Lately, for instance, I've been giving some more thought to resurrecting my model railway. The railway has been in limbo (mainly stored in boxes) for some considerable time now.  It was only meant to be temporary hiatus, whilst I repaired the plasterwork in one corner of the spare room that houses the railway, (the cracked plaster was a legacy of the days when I dried clothes in there).  But other things intervened and, despite devising a new layout plan, I never got around to restarting the railway.  Then there were the storms last Winter and the damage to the roof, which further diverted my attention.

Finally, over the past few days, I've been giving some serious thought to starting a new layout.  I've been surveying the aftermath of the storm damage - despite the damage to the roof not being over the spare room, the water that seeped in seems to found its way to that room's ceiling.  There's no real damage to the plaster - just some light staining which, now everything is dried out and the roof repaired, can simply be painted over.  Of slightly greater concern is the evidence of some leakage around the chimney breast, suggesting that the external flashing might be loose, (it could also be the result of displaced ridge tiles, which were reset when the roof was repaired).  As the chimneys are a shared structure with next door, which is a rented property, any repair work will have to be done in co-operation with their landlord.  I've already spoken to my neighbours on the subject and they are going to speak to their landlord (apparently they have other outstanding repairs they need done).   Nevertheless, I'm reasonably confident that if I start rebuilding the railway, no serious water damage will be done if the flashing hasn't yet been repaired.  The most pressing problem is that of how best to rearrange the furniture in the room so as to accommodate the maximum of railway whilst retaining its functionality as a spare bedroom.  Once I've figured that out, I can come up with a layout plan to best use the available space.  There, that made a change from my political ranting, didn't it?