Had the Williams USRA Light Pacific on the rolling road! I bought this loco for £80 in need of a little fettling, runs nicely now
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xwvo3r7ff1jmsiu/Video 26-04-2020%2C 12 25 31.mov?dl=0
I was minded to go to speedway on Bank Holiday Monday, but didn't. Turns out I did better than I knew.
Speedway has long been troubled with problems revolving around provision of standard tyres, and the present supplier (Anlas) seem to be particularly controversial. Peterborough's big, fast circuit was just too much on Monday and the meeting was abandoned after several nasty blowouts, after 10 heats of 15. This means the result stands and there were no refunds....
No 1 S
This WFH is a funny old business. It has taken a couple of weeks to create any sort of useful engagement, I am fairly sceptical of actual productivity, too. It’s a good way to get individual tasks completed but the absence of the general interfacing that goes on in the office, is definitely a limitation. No 2 Son reckons he needs 3-5 days a month in the office, averaging 2 half-days a week, to maintain impetus and tie up loose ends.
This isn’t a surprise to me. I’m used to remote wo
Life moves on, and I’ve now joined the ranks of the Working From Home. A directional drilling contractor I’ve worked for in the past approached me a while ago, about looking after the documentation for some new projects they expected in 2020. I was certainly open to suggestions; my attempts at re-entering civil engineering had rather turned out as a reminder of why I’d left the industry in the 90s, and we’d had a good relationship in our previous dealings.
I’d seen this as a possibl
Seen in today’s news, Qantas are apparently offering 7hr flights including flypasts of locations like Great Barrier Reef and Uluru. How bored would you need to be, to do that?
Mind you, Singapore are now starting “covid-secure cruises” with ships half-full, masks mandatory at all times, increased cleaning regimes and “mingling discouraged”. Best of all, vessels make no port calls and passengers are confined to the ship at all times! Form an orderly queue, please...
I’ve just seen a piece on another forum, to the effect that the NYC PT Passenger Tender used with later Hudsons carried 18,000 gallons of water and 46 tons of coal. The UP Big Boy 4-8-8-4s towed 25 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water (all US measures, of course) with the Norfolk and Western Y class 2-8-8-2s in the same bracket.
That seems to be about as big as it came, although some South African and Australian locos seem to have towed additional water cart tenders or tankers f
One thing I do notice lately, is that the combination of present property prices and unemployed construction workers (most of whom, are not receiving furlough payments) has produced a “perfect storm” of house conversions and cramming new-builds into former gardens.
I’m astonished at the amount of disc-cutting and drilling involved. Local streets and adjoining gardens are made hideous by the sound and dust of these infernal machines, day after day.. another unsung effect of lockdown.
Just looked in my garage, and would have done better not to.
This would usually be the Racing season, and all the bikes are jammed handlebar to handlebar. None of the engines have been done, because I can’t get them to the tuner. My granddaughter hasn’t been, so the trampoline and swing are still cluttering the place up.
Changeable weather and boredom means the garden furniture is being dragged in and out...
Last year, I was moderately optimistic about getting some more offshore work in before I retired, but present circumstances seem to have completely collapsed the market. Any revival in prices, has quite gone; headcounts are being slashed and viable enquiries for work are non-existent.
Looks as though The Big Crew Change is pretty much complete. This is an industry term relating to the retirement, willingly or otherwise, of large numbers of older staff, working on to cover the gap in
I’ve just had an exchange with another member which reminded me of my years in Cambridge. It brought to mind the Tom Sharpe novel, and subsequent David Jason vehicle, Porterhouse Blue.
Most of Sharpe’s locations around Cambridge are easily identified, if you know the place. Porterhouse College notionally stands on a site now known as All Saints Garden, at the junction of St John’s Street and Trinity Street, near the Round Church. Skullion lives in the Gwydir Street / Sturton Street a
Having for all practical purposes, at least semi-retired, I’ve been slowing down a bit... oh, quite a lot.
Had a slightly tedious evening actually using the office/study for that purpose, it was dark when I finished so I just turned off the lights and switched on the train presently laid out on the floor and watched it amble round, headlight on, lighted caboose in... very relaxing...
One thing I do notice about the current nonsense, having ceased working at Werrington (I’m getting too old for this sort of thing, truth be told, and family circumstances don’t help) is that I’m getting more done in the garden and workshop.
My good wife has the tv in, most of her waking hours. I can’t tolerate the relentless blare of propaganda from the BBC, soap operas and Doc Martin irritate me behind words, and I watched those 1980s sitcoms long ago, so what’s left?
Xmas is definitely over, after a busy, festive and highly enjoyable week involving presents known and surprising, friends old and new, children who have grown astonishingly since last seen, NONE of my good wife’s innumerable siblings and their offspring (for a mercy...) and very little tv (although I did see Carols from Kings College and St Paul’s at various times).
But it’s back to the world. I usually reckon it an important milestone, the first evening of tv involving various ill-mannered
I can’t help noticing that Singapore, usually something of a fetish with Our Man Boris, have had considerable success with a closely targeted containment system and “business as usual” for the rest. Strange, and wildly inconsistent stories are emerging from Sweden, which maintained a much more relaxed policy.
Elsewhere in the news... figures for actual and predicted cases seem to be all over the board.
For anyone unfamiliar with these brutes.. https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Mining-Company/Geevor-Muckers-Loco-Restoration-Group-1529683350637528/posts/
I’m somehow, rather ambiguous about this. It’s good to see them survive but ... I worked there in my student days.... I went to Geevor as a museum and somehow....
Today’s surprise fact is that the model of the 1927 NYC 4-6-4 in the Smithsonian Institute was made in U.K. by Severn Lamb Ltd
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_843760
I’m not a great watcher of tv at Xmas or any other time, but I do enjoy it occasionally. This year’s unsung gem was Martin Clunes’ rather touching performance as the eponymous Mr Chips.
I first read the book long ago, when it was banned at the Perse School. The author had been a pupil at The Leys School, across town, and much of the setting (a rather outdated, High Church, minor public school in decaying, historic buildings amid an East Anglian setting) was a poke at the Perse Schoo
Given the threads about older Hornby models and coarse scale O Gauge, I thought I’d toss this one in. Saw it on eBay. I’m not interested in this particular loco, but it’s an unusually pristine example of what Lionel were actually producing between WW2 and the 1960s. This might be described as “the top of their mainstream range” as opposed to the rare, much-coveted and very expensive “Scale Hudson”
Started the day watching Wales’ win over Australia. I do like to see dropgoals in open play, they change the whole defensive way of thinking and keep everyone on their toes, and a well-worked drop goal is a thing of beauty. Australia’s (eventual) try from goal line attack was rather tremendous, as was the Welsh interception try... in fact the whole game was a real advert for both the sport, and the tournament.
If England qualify from the pool, they will meet one of those two in the
I’ve reached the end of my run of work in U.K. for the time being, having a few weeks off and rather enjoying it. Spent a couple of evenings using the test track at the club, catching up with everyone, very enjoyable
Meanwhile, No 2 Son has introduced a sizeable joker into the pack. He works for one of the sponsors for the RWC, and has been given 2 tickets for the Pool C and D quarter finals in some sort of works award scheme. The original plan was to go with his girlfriend but that
I stopped at Birchanger Services today, not a thing I like to do but so it goes. It’s the services by Stansted so....
(whining child) NO, I WANT SOMETHING OUTSIDE!!
(stressed mother) well, you can’t! You’re back in England now!
What did surprise me, was the number of people wandering around a motorway services in what appeared to be pyjamas, teamed with hoodies or even dressing gowns on a wet, windy Saturday morning. Do they just fall out of bed in Costa Del Chav an
So I’m strolling along as a Project Engineer on directional drilling works. It’s a stroll in the park, I have everything I’m asked for at my fingertips and half the time, I work from home.
This leaves me time to look about me, and I’ve been out today on my 2013 Bonneville. My kids conspired to get me to buy this bike, and... I appreciate their thinking but is it REALLY a Bonneville? Nah, not reeeelly. It’s a pleasant bike and it has the name and the styling - but I owned a Bonnevill
