FarrMan

Is that how you treat sub-standard RTR! Lloyd

You succeed. If you were 23mm tall, you would find difficulty getting clothes - and you would be buried by the snow here! Lloyd

I do like both of the above photos. Just the sort of photos that would have been taken. Lloyd

I have used scientific notation (x.y by 10 to the power of n), but had never heard of engineering notation until I had to teach it. It is similar to scientific notation, but you can have 1 to 3 digits before the decimal point, and n must be a multiple of 3 - hence mm, m, Km as you have said. I have had a few experiences of mixed dimensions, but i think the strangest one was asx an undergraduate at Liverpool University during the changeover period. I think it was a soils lab. where we had to weigh samples. We had balances with weights to put on one side to nearly balance the weight of the sample, with the difference in weight being shown on a needle attached to the top arm against a suitable scale. The weights provided were in imperial, but the difference in metric! We this ended up with x ounces plus or minus y grams. Lloyd

Cms are used by scientists, mms by engineers. As an engineer, I detest cms. Architects can't tell the difference! Lloyd

Timber these days come in standard lengths with 300mm increments. I presume in pre-decimal days, that would be foot increments, starting at 6', maximum length normally available 16', though you may get specials longer. You should be able to get standard cross section sizes from the trada website, www.trada.co.uk, but I can't access it just now. Most of these are just imperial sizes rounded (usually down) to metric. Lloyd

We always referred to DMUs derisively as Bug Cars, though you have to be careful to pronounce the C properly. Now I have contributed to this sad discussion. Perhaps we should have a 'boring' icon! Lloyd

Yes, Tony - Me! Lloyd

That's a black rhino by the looks of it. It is not easy to tell them apart as they are the same colour! White is a variation of wide, so the white rhino has a wide mouth. The much rarer black rhino has a narrow mouth. Trivia I picked up in Zimbabwe. Lloyd

So that's what happened to my armoured mouse! Lloyd

Thank you for that clarification. Firebox temperatures would be rather higher, but I had thought that the comment that I quoted sounded far too much, but am glad to have it confirmed. I just had not bothered to work it out from the coefficient of expansion of steel. I know that it can be significant at high temperatures - One of the buildings that collapsed at the World Trade Centre was due to a steel beam (above a fuel tank that was on fire) expanding sufficiently to push the adjacent beam off its supporting column. Perhaps Mike Sharman was meaning to refer to the length of the expansion slide plate? Lloyd

Colour saturation could also depend on the location. I remember (nearly 35 years ago now) that in the Antipodes, the sun being so much brighter, the colours looked so much more intense that we are are used to in the UK, especially here in the Highlands of Scotland! Perhaps a scene set in Southern US, for instance, should look 'too intense' to our native eyes. Lloyd

Mike Sharman in 'A Guide to Locomotive Building', p.8 states 'Add to this the fact that the boiler/smokebox and firebox units were only usually attached at the cylinder end, the rest expanding and contracting rearwards some 6" in length in a big Pacific - .....' Lloyd

Gilbert I would guess on a stepladder, a little to the East of the West end of the parapet. From memory, the parapet stopped just West of the West abutment. Looking down at the Westernmost midland line was not far off vertical. Of course, what one remembers as a child/youth, may be quite different to what one would see as an adult. One's view is related to one's size. Things appear bigger to shorter (or altitudinaly challenged) people. I remember thinking as a child that the beach at Barry Island was huge. When I went there 5 years ago, it looked quite small - not at all how I had remember it. Regarding the AC Ingram photo, I cannot recall seeing any other photos taken that far along the parapet, but that is not saying very much. Lloyd

I think he would have needed his stepladder for the previous views as well, unless he is VERY tall.I could only see from the West end of the parapet, just West of the Midland lines, but then I am altitudinally challenged. Lloyd

Reminds me of someone that I once worked with, who used to work on the Railway at Kyle of Lochalsh station. He was known there as Beeching, but he was stupid. When he left the railway, a month later the line was repreaved! We all put it down to his leaving! Lloyd

What is Tony's photo of Humorist a wee bit above then? Lloyd

Was he thinking of modelling 60097 himself? Lloyd

I like the idea of writing about how you research train formations. Before I saw that I was thinking, how about stressing the teamwork involved? This might be by concentrating on an aspect that someone else has contributed, either physical or operational? Perhaps you could even ask them to write the piece, or at least give you the information so that you could write the piece? There must be enough for many articles there. Or on the operational side, something on realistic operation, such as how to achieve realistic speeds, realistic stopping and starting, etc. Lloyd

I still burn coal on an open fire. Plenty there for a tender. Perhaps I should crush some up and sell it! Though there is some dross in it already, so no need to crush? Lloyd

Perhaps it is both? Lloyd

And now the noses are afflicted! Lloyd (I can't stand the smell of fish)

I think that that is a lot older than Rudyard Kipling. I think it is traditional Wiltshire, and probably further West as well. It was Wiltshire folk who buried the beverages in the mill pond and were raking it out of the pond when the excise men came by. They played the daft laddie and claimed they were raking in the moon! Hence Wilts folk are known as 'Moonrakers'. Lloyd

Just to add to that, if you print it to pdf as a 'handout', 6 slides to a page, the content should still be readable, but much shorter! Lloyd

Re the discussion a day or so ago on containers in open wagons, I have consulted 'Freight Wagons and Loads in service on GWR and BR,WR, by J.H. Russell. Fig 119 shows a LNER 6 plank open (I cannot see a number) loaded with two small flat GWR SL containers, one on top of the other. These containers were used for 'ceramics, tiles, & similar earthenware materials'. The date is given as 1928, and the location as Paddington Goods. The next image, Fig 120, is of GWR 6 plank open 148250 with side door open, showing it loaded with an open bulk container, CB2948, for the conveyance of sand, gravel, etc. No date given, but location as Royal Oak. Lloyd