woodenhead
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Posts posted by woodenhead
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Whilst I accept there is a case that future road schemes both local and national will have to take into account the weight of EVs over ICE vehicles, I am of the mind that the current state of local roads cannot be pinned on EVs alone.
There are not enough pure EV vehicles compared to ICE and Hybrids (with less batteries to carry) to be the sole reason for all the pot holes. It's rather like it's easy for those in control of purses to blame the motorists for their car choices when in fact it's simply that road maintenance is taking a back seat to pay for social care and other priorities when funds are tight. And we also should consider the ever increasing numbers of large SUV vehicles that manufacturers like to push now over small lightweight vehicles that are a dying breed in the UK.
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1 minute ago, Michael Hodgson said:
Don't give me AI.
Yesterday I wanted to hang out the washing if the weather was going to hold.
Alexa told me it would start raining at 12pm.
I've always understood there was no such time, there's 12 noon and 12 midnight, given the meaning of the Latin abbreviations.
And I'm wary of those times having had to fix Cobol programs that had been specified for a clock running from 0101 to 2460 hours.
So I asked Alexa "What is pm?" and it told me that was currently Rishi.
OK, fair enough I suppose, so I rephrased it "When is pm?"
It told me that 8pm started on 12th March 2023 at 4am !!
From the company that brought us till free shopping powered by 10000 Indian remote checkout assistants. 🤣
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I tried it using the persona of a man of malachite
Review Heljan Class 47 Locomotive
It's kind of the same boxy shape as CC1 and has the same number of wheels, but the shade of green is all wrong and it wasn't designed by Bulleid. So it's not for me and I cannot recommend this model to any of my friends down at the club.
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So Boston Dynamics have retired the 'old' Atlas
and now we have a new Atlas
anyone think he looks a little like him
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1 minute ago, Michael Hodgson said:
This could be done if you develop an interface to software like iTrain - which is a better piece of software than any AI system I've yet seen..
We don't play with AI, we play with large language models.
As a developer I am confident there are many ways to skin this particular cat, but I used AI because as you'll probably know it is the answer to every question these days and my days are numbered, even more so since Microsoft announced their latest product that is claimed to removed the developer from the development cycle......
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Ahh, the fervent enthusiast persona.
Have tried it using a persona of a typical jaded cynical modeller 🤣
But it actually looks like the persona of Heljan's Ben Jones.
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2 minutes ago, AY Mod said:
It's a lot of fact checking, comparisons and deliberation before getting as far as assembling some words in the right order and sorting out the pics. Last month was a crazy one; years ago who would have thought you'd see nine new tooling lines in a month? It was six the month before that and I'm on number four already for next month.
I am sure I could sell you an AI tool that would help, are you a senior project manager with 20 years experience as that helps apparently with getting the style of the output right.
But I am sure we can find a persona that would suit from somewhere within GPT4
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30 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:
I suppose with a computer generated random system it could be linked in with the controller so when it chooses a loco, the said loco goes through its start up procedure automatically and is ready to roll when the operator wants to move it.
Except if that loco is behind another loco that hasn't started up as well to move out of the way. Gonna need some AI to sort that one.
And I've seen you cheat at cards 🤣
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Nice and bright presently, can feel the warmth of the sun through the window.
Tooth extraction news, residual bleeding has stopped, I've cleaned my teeth much to the joy of Mrs W and after three meal replacement type drinks I am starving for some real food. Also pleased that after a couple of doses of paracetemol through yesterday I don't feel I need them now so we are rocking and a rolling.
I guess I will be in London next week too for a working day trip so I might need to think about booking a red eye.
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Saw the oral surgeon today, it was just an extraction, he didn't need to do any packing or stitching.
Was in and out in 15 minutes and didn't feel a thing apart from the obvious pushing/tugging.
Hopefully this is the end of the extractions.
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The broken tooth that my dentist couldn't remove has been removed by the oral surgeon.
Was he efficient - appt 11:45 and I was outside again at midday. Excellent with the needle, careful with the tuggy/pushy bit and best news he said he saw bone between the cavity left by the extraction and my sinus so unlikely to have punctured the membrane. Said if I notice anything odd in a couple of days I can go back to have it looked at and if necessary stitched, but he said 90% of these sorts of extractions don't break the membrane so I should be fine.
Taken a couple of paracetemol ahead of the final bit of the anesthesia wearing off.
So glad this tooth is out, it's been 4 years or more of anxiety trying to keep it in when it really needed to come out. My fault entirely, but the three dodgy teeth are now all out so everything is good.
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1 hour ago, RichardT said:
Lots to debate about this, but I just want to point out that the one thing oil-firing steam locos *isn’t* is inauthentic, both here and in the USA.
RichardT
Yeah, plenty of conversions before nationalisation, wasnt there a big push after WW2?
Apparently it's Vera Lynn that's trialling it first
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17 minutes ago, rogerzilla said:
Oil firing would put me off going. It has an unpleasant smell and, at some point, hopefully well away from any houses, the fireman has to clean the tubes while the loco is steaming. The resulting black cloud is not a good advert for preservation.
It's an interesting conundrum - I agree it doesn't feel authentic but as they explained, no more UK coal, imported coal is getting expense, harder to source the right stuff and then there is moving it when the world is moving away from that sort of transportation. They are not limited to one sort of oil, it can even use vegetable oils in the solution being proposed so lots of options and plentiful UK supply and if waste product helpful too. Ovoids don't appear to cut it unless you are investing in specially made ones for steam loco use and that might be a dead end or even more expensive.
Then there are the running benefits over the moors as much less risk of fires being cause as no cinders dropping.
I guess it's this or a lot less steam running, more diesels and potentially more engines sitting idle meaning less and less time spent maintaining them to the point they are no longer able to run.....
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4 minutes ago, 25901 said:
WCRC and ORR could now be in talks about fitting WLD to all the Scottish stock (weather lockout devices)
How would they be opened in an emergency?
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3 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:
Who?????
lol is it Alstom now.
Maybe I should stick to BREL Litchurch Lane, safer. 😀
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2 minutes ago, melmerby said:
These:
750hp 3 Car articulated.
LMS 1938
If we are getting esoteric.
How about some narrow gauge, OO has it, 7mm has it so why not for TT too.
Could call it TTn.
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NYMR looking to convert their steam to oil.
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1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:
Indeed it does.But it needs bigger stuff than this…..Yeah, it was a little tongue in cheek
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2 hours ago, phil-b259 said:
Any engineering firm capable of making them!Bombardier need some work…
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9 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:
Blaenau has developed a lot in recent years, and there are many nearby top-class tourist attractions in the 'adventure' theme (long zip lines over the slate quarries, underground trampolines, forest assault courses etc.) All easily accessible by car but a bit too far from the railway for public transport to be an option. A more frequent service on the Conwy Valley would be great, but I think it would need reliable connections to these attractions, and also it would need to serve Llandudno which is the major centre of tourist accommodation in the area. The FR now does run services originating in Blaenau (the 'Quarryman'). I do think a revived 'Daisy' would be popular in season to double the frequency of the existing TfW service, but I doubt a regular steam service would be viable.
However, the Conwy Valley is at the mercy of the elements, despite huge amounts spent by NR in flood repairs and defences it continues to be washed out regularly. To be quite honest, an hourly bus service could be provided at a fraction of the cost of keeping the railway open and would be far superior in terms of frequency and equal for journey times.
I guess if you create the opportunity then in the words of great showmen "They will come".
But whilst it's great to make Blaenau a destination we have to then also make Llandudno / Llandudno Junction a destination too, one that will attract tourists to come and the rejoice in the delight of a heritage journey to Blaenau where there are lots of attractions waiting to be visited. Sort of I guess on the lines of these big cruise ships arriving in port and fleets of coaches waiting to take the passengers off on day adventures. Because it's no good having it all set up at Blaenau if the tourists have had to leave London at red eye o'clock to get to Llandudno for 9am to begin a 1 hour heritage journey to Blaenau to catch a coach to go zip wire across an old quarry. I don't see that happening, so you also need people to want to experience North Wales and especially Llandudno to create the market for Blaenau to tap into. Not sure Llandudno is that untapped market presently.
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6 minutes ago, 1andrew1 said:
Certainly, with supply problems, I would expect Kader to prioritise its own brands over contracts for others.
You don't look a gift horse in the mouth as they say!
A commissioned item is covered by the commissioner unless Kader agree to take a risk, so if a Rails or Kernow come to you and ask you to produce x model and they are paying for it then it's good business because it's not your risk, it's theirs and Kader will have their profit from the endeavour which feeds into their bottom line. It's then down to the commissioner to sell the stock they paid for not Kader's.
If all your work was commissioned and paid for life would be so much easier for Kader.
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11 minutes ago, adb968008 said:
it also means any other steam preservation groups 45596, 45305,777,70013,76084 wont be able to go mainline any more either unless a vac braked cdl solution emerges…
Not to mention as ECTS as it creeps northwards from London - it might not get everywhere but you can imagine there will be limited lines where steam will eventually be able to operate without ECTS. The A1 project are spearheading the design of the ECTS application onto a steam locomotive, they were also meant to be then fitting it to a WCRC/RIley Black 5 and an LSL Black 5.
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1 minute ago, Northmoor said:
How is this rake braked? I thought all air-con Mk2s were air braked only and wasn't aware the Black 5 provided air braking, so presumably the 47 is there to provide brake pressure (but how is it controlled?).
If Riley's Black 5s all have air braking then I have even less sympathy for WCRC than I started today with. CDL fitment is routine on air-braked stock, so WCRC could have used air braked Mark 1s all along, there are plenty of them around. This is, I suspect, why WCRC are stalling on CDL fitment; vacuum braking will become unacceptable on NR before too long so the company doesn't want to commit to the expense on stock that might have to be withdrawn altogether before they have earned the installation cost back. CDL is a red herring.
According to the KWVR who own 45212 it is air braked.
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9 minutes ago, jpendle said:
There's absolutely no need to make the changes recommended for OO points because the flangeways on N Gauge points are proportionately much wider than those on OO Gauge points so there is no real risk of wheels causing shorts when running through points.
Some might say too wide, but that's another story for another day 😀
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Driving standards
in Wheeltappers
Posted
I'd argue the manufacturers are pushing ever bigger cars, rather like in the US where car sizes are ridiculous and dangerous but the more of them there are the more people need them to feel safe by being in a car of comparable size. Look how Ford for example have dropped Fiesta and Focus models in favour of larger (though not the largest) SUV type vehicles.
The numbers of Range Rovers / Land Rovers and similar large SUV I see on the road and in shopping centre car parks in the middle of a city are ridiculous.
I get the benefits of a small/medium SUV, when the kids were young we had CMAX and Picasso MPV, and as you say they they are easier to get in and out of, sit higher on the road for visibility and are generally a useful mode of transport.