Hroth

A laser cutter in your mountain fastness? CC will be starring in the next Bond film!

The First Cut Is The Deepest - P. P. Arnold

Its rather similar outside here this morning, though the wind was strong enough overnight for the Dalek to attempt another walk. I might have to drill holes in its perimeter and peg it to the ground...

Shock! Horror! Ok, got that out of the way, now down to considerations. The only way to prevent the English side of the Dee from silting would have been to build the training walls, where the river turns into the estuary, pointing away from the Welsh side. I don't think that would ever have worked, but it does mean that the Wirral side silting is becoming worse* over time. Now, not having a geological map of the Wirral to hand and thus relying on observation, the Dee side of the Wirral is mainly sandstone. At Neston there was an underlying stratum of coal, which was the reason for the building of the original Hooton - Parkgate branchline, the extension to West Kirby came some years later. I think the colliery was exhausted by the 1930s. Clay deposits did exist, but these were concentrated in the flatlands between Meols and Moreton, on the coastal side of the current railway, and its a long time since these became worked out! The site of the brickworks is now part of an industrial estate. There was never a rail connection, product was probably for local use and taken away by road. Given the above, I can see a case for the development of a narrow gauge tourist line along the branch, this is what happened to the GWR line at Bala**, and provided they got in early enough, the destruction of the trackbed at Heswall and the sewer pipe in the cutting at Neston might have been prevented. A line between West Kirby and Neston, with the views across the Dee would be very attractive! But sadly, there would be little in the way of mineral traffic. Another thing. I've just cobbled together the West Kirby 25" OS sheets ( XXI,7 and XXI,11 rev 1909) showing the station site. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=11.1&lat=53.35169&lon=-3.10594&layers=101&b=1&z=0&point=53.37854,-3.18248&i=114581380 The alignment is a bit wonky, but it does show the relationship of the Wirral Railway station to Birkenhead Park and the Birkenhead Joint branch station to Hooton. Siting a narrow gauge line on one of the WK Town platforms would take it across Grange Road and through the block of buildings between Acacia Grove and Tynwald Road, at a diverging angle to the alignment of the Joint Branch! Now, there was a suggestion to merge the West Kirby stations in the late 1940s, aligned on the Joint branch (discussed many pages back) which would make more sense for a Narrow Gauge interchange, but you'd have to remodel WKT completely, lose the old Victorian station building and replace it with something like Hoylake station. It might make sense to widen your baseboard by some inches to accommodate the narrow gauge and have a fiddle yard going out into the open on the other side of the Grange Road bridge, then you could keep the operational flexibility of WKT. It would also give you hours of planning and the fun of a complete redevelopment of WKT to keep your creative juices flowing for another decade! Just a thought! * The spartina encroachments and spurious SSSI designations are now threatening the Hoylake RNLI station. ** I remember visiting the Bala ng in its first years, what I recall is very basic track laid on the standard gauge formation. The loco was a 4 wheeled Ruston Hornsby.

A tad steep, to be sure. A couple of years ago, I got a Dapol set of a Pannier and two B Set coaches for about 70 quid, a Peco N starter track set for about the same and a new boxed Bachmann controller for 40 quid. Total 180 quid. A nice starter trainset. All I have to do now is build the layout! I don't think I'd want to pay all that extra for a cotton swab!

As an aside, is the brohuaha about gigafactories genuine or similar to the demand that the UK invest in 64 kilobit* chip fabs back in the late 70s/early 80s? * Don't remember if it was bits or bytes, I'm sure that the politicians of the time didn't know either!

One must ask, fingers alone or including thumbs and toes?

In connection with BEVs, we have been told that it is essential that the UK invests in building battery Gigafactories. Today its been announced that a proposed one in Northumberland is not to go ahead as the previous promoter has gone under and no-one else has taken up the reins. There is now the possibility that the site will be used for a boring Datacentre... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw4rx2zxy7wo Perhaps a suitable "bribe" from the Levelling Up fund might have been an appropriate expenditure, if local battery production is so important?

And??? 🤔 🤪

Its just brightned up here, so I expect precipitation is due...

Fog or mist is actually quite rare in these parts, despite being coastal! How about an update? 🤪

Our Wheelie Day is Thursday and the binnies can turn up at any time between 7am and 4pm so the appropriate bins go out on Wednesday evening. As its general waste (ie landfill) this week, it would be helpful if the wind had moderated by Wednesday afternoon!

Grey is a nice colour, it doesn't need washing as often as lighter coloured cars do. White can look disgusting as little as a couple of days after its been washed! Choose Grey, use less water! Grey is an Eco-Colour!!! 🤪

In the UK,the basic "free" car colour is van-man white. Anything else is £500-£600 more. You have to pay the extra to show you're not a cheapskate. The best thing is to get an ex-demonstrator, which might not be the colour you prefer, but it won't be white and it'll have a good selection of optional extra goodies and will be at a nice discount....

I don't fancy any of the main colours, but I suppose I could live with the colour used on its legs...

One of the problems with the current windy weather is that the "Dalek*" in the back garden goes walkabouts and has to be recaptured... * An empty compost bin, unused because I don't compost anything!

One thing I've experienced a lot is "dead air" calls. I think these are mapping live phone numbers by detecting a voice response. Nowadays I pick up the phone and wait until there is activity on the other end, or the call automatically disconnects.

Windy, but presently dry. Waiting to see what NHN is experiencing, as advanced warning...

You say "Please wait, and I'll see if I can find anyone who cares". Then you hang up.

Currently, 1844 and 1845 are showing the same content - lets try to make rmweb re-index... 🤪 There we go, sorted!

Its a colourised version of one of Mr Gormleys new statues?

Have you noticed that Wagon Wheels have become much smaller too?

You Make Me Feel So Young - Frank Sinatra

People who order from McDonalds get what they deserve...

Never give kids alcohol, they start singing all the rude songs they've learned off their friends! Some are quite unsuitable for parental ears... I went to a party where a parent had made some Dandelion and Burdock for the children, but had followed the alcoholic recipe rather than non-alcoholic one. After all the partygoers started singing, the drink was quickly withdrawn for the minders!