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2750Papyrus

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Posts posted by 2750Papyrus

  1. I received  my letter this morning and have my 1st jab on Thursday, with the second on 25th April (fingers crossed!).  So it will be May before all 70+ UK residents are protected.  My wife is some years younger than me and I can't see jabs in her group beginning until the higher priority groups are completed, so her first jab is likely to be May/June and her second August/September.  The EU programme started later than ours and doesn't appear to be well managed.  However, they have large multiple orders in place and should receive bulk deliveries within the above timescale.  Given that our Government's first priority must be to its own citizens, I don't see the UK being able to offer much help to the EU even if we wanted to. 

     

    Their use of export controls to divert a supplier's output  when a shortfall would otherwise occur may help their citizens at the expense of ours, but does little to encourage me to provide them any support, which I think should be directed to those unable to help themselves.  

     

     

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  2. Somme and Ypres have already been considered in the Directors' poll. I don't know enough about WW1 leaders to nominate one confidently, so I will go with Ole Bill as a tribute to an ordinary soldier, typical of the thousands who fought and died. 

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  3. 3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

    You and I go to the builders’ merchant separately, and each order a yard of sharp sand for delivery on Thursday. The merchant accepts both orders.

     

    Come Thursday, the merchant has messed-up and only has a yard and a half of sand in stock, yet both of us need a full yard to finish building our houses. There is a storm coming, and without our houses finished our children will get cold and wet.

     

    Which of us is entitled to a full yard of sand?

     

    And, if you demand your yard from the merchant, in what sense are you a bully?

     

     

    When I tell the merchant to divert your sand to my house irrespective or your needs and threaten to sue him if he doesn't.

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  4. The latest copy of BRM arrived this morning and went into the quarantine box.  I am looking forward to reading about PN on Saturday.  Incidentally, does anyone know if Archie Andrews' tutor took the name Peter Brough from the town? (How strange those times were: a ventriloquist with a long-running radio programme.)

     

    I have always admired Oliver Bulleid's attempts, not always successful, to modernise the design, manufacture, operation and servicing of the steam-age railway, of which the MNs were a very visible manifestation.  One of two full colour booklets, approx A4 landscape, which brightened my childhood, featured the latest products of the Big 4, including Channel Packet, so she has to be my nomination.

  5. Many brave men and tales of daring-do to choose from.  However, I will vote for the man most responsible for the creation and command of air defence at that time, "Stuffy" Dowding.  Poorly treated in the aftermath of the battle, and subsequently suffering reputational damage due to his belief in spiritualism, we owe him a greater debt than often recognised.

     

    If there were to be a vote for second place, Keith Park.

     

     

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  6. There should have been route refinement and informal consultation last year but the latter was interrupted by the Covid crisis.  Formal consultation on preferred route and request for funding was scheduled for 21/22.  eastwestrail website has quite a lot of detail, from which this is an abstract

    https://eastwestrail-production.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/public/Preferred-Route-Option-Announcement/Files/f84ce55503/EAS019_RouteOptionsTable_Landscape_280120_v3.pdf

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  7. 10 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

    Not got mine now but does anyone remember the Flexicurve, twin thin brass plates either side of a lead bar covered in plastic. About a foot long and half inch square, you bent it to (more or less) align with dots on graph paper then drew a line along it. Most useful at Tech.

     

    Think you can still buy them.

     

    Brit15

     

     

    Yes, I had one of these.  It was in the garage (railway room) for many years but seems to have disappeared.

     

    I did go my my Thornton drawing instruments box recently for a pair of dividers and was disappointed to find that the foam had crumbled and the instruments corroded.  A bit like their owner!

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  8. 1 hour ago, chris p bacon said:

    I think I might have posted this before, apologies if so.

     

    I was taught to use one but can't for the life of me remember how to use it. I do have my Fathers slide rule that he used for his whole working life (57 Years) He was captured in 1941 and sent to Germany as a PoW (as a merchantman he was a captive) while there they had a rough time in the camps so the senior engineers held lessons in various subjects for the junior engineers. Dad took as many classes as possible to use is time up but really needed a slide rule. He wrote to Grandmother asking if she could send one to him which she did.

    Of the many parcels and letters she sent only a few got through, most didn't and those that did had the clothing or food taken out before reaching Germany. The parcel with the slide rule was treated very differently, when it arrived the Germans made a big presentation of it to Dad in front of lots of the other camp internees and read out part of the letter from Grandmother, in it she had written that she had sent him the slide rule as requested and had sought out and purchased the best she could.... the maker was F W Faber-Castell....German....

    When he returned he had just 3 things, a plate, a spoon and the slide rule.As can be seen he used the world supply of sellotape on it during its life..

     

    IMG_1556.JPG.2b52d9bfdb979b6701ccc2baeaca8b9c.JPGIMG_1557.JPG.dbef8e32b771777039e00f8ea5006472.JPG

    The next time Antiques Roadshow is in the area, you should take it along.  It won't be worth much, but the story deserves a wider audience.

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  9. Has to be Winston Churchill.  What would have happened without him?  And conversely, would he be remembered if WW2 had never occurred?

     

    I watched the funeral on television and will never forget the way the Thameside cranes dipped their jibs in tribute.

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  10. My wife has always been fascinated that I can do ROM sums in my head, as noted above, a necessity when using a slide rule.

     

    I still have my Thornton somewhere.  My Dad used to have a circular instrument with a chromed body and glass face, working on the same principle as a linear slide rule.  Nowadays it would be collectable, but  sadly had gone missing when we cleared his house.

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  11. A difficult choice, this one.  I do like the idea of a locomotive name containing an exclamation mark. but personal memories take me in different directions.  I watched the 1966 World Cup Final at a camp site in Bude, and have happy memories of holidays at Torrington.  However, Dartmoor is a frequent destination when not in lockdown, so that will be my nomination.

     

  12. 30 minutes ago, great northern said:

    For the avoidance of doubt, and as the names didn't change when rebuilt, we are on West Countrys today, and will do Battle of Britains tomorrow.

    Is that the correct plural or should it be "Battles of Britain" (like "Courts Martial")? 

     

     

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