Dave Hunt

When I was a teenager an antisocial git who lived near us started parking his damn great lorry in a lay-by at the end of the road that was meant for several of the residents. All requests and protestations failed to persuade him to move it elsewhere so one night my Dad went all round it putting pieces of grit in the tyre valve dust caps then screwing them back on. By morning every tyre was flat . That was the last time the lorry was parked there. Dave

Off today with my mate Crimson Rambler to the S7 AGM at Warley. To be more accurate we’re off to play trains at Warley with an hour’s break for the S7 AGM. Dave

For many years there was a row of six Leylandii along the neighbours’ side of our fence. They grew to a great height blocking light not just from our property but also that on the other side of us and also, in my opinion, became a threat to our house as they were only about ten feet away at the nearest point. Despite my approaches the neighbour refused to do anything about them and when I approached the council they were completely uncooperative. Eventually I threatened to take the neighbours to court but at the same time offered to pay half the cost of the trees being removed and the neighbours on the other side offered 25% so they gave in and the trees were removed. The difference was amazing; over the years we had almost got used to the light diminution and the sudden flood of illumination was wonderful. Dave

Mean - yes Cake scoffing machine - yes Lean - ????? Dave

And fingers getting fatter and less supple. Dave

I’ve not heard of that but I do know that the US coal mine association (don’t think that is the correct title but I can’t recall the proper one) in the late 1940s or early 1950s had some trials conducted for using coal dust as fuel for railway diesel engines. The biggest problem was handling the stuff as it was so fine that it was very explosive as well as the slightest moisture making it clog up valves etc. I don’t know any further details except to say that it was a failure. Dave

A friend of ours has the most magnificent hosts called a marmalade that has yellow and orange leaves edges green. It is about four feet across and nearly the same height. It is in a large pot on her patio and has no sign of slug damage. Jill is extremely jealous. Dave

When we were operating out of Gioa del Colle during the Kosovo operation we were told to expect slightly lower than normal jet pipe temperatures and hence thrust for a short time after we got there because of different fuel but I didn’t know why. Now I do. Dave

And lo and behold it did - for real. The moral ‘be careful what you wish for’ turned up and bit me 😖 Dave

Bang goes all the cake then. Dave

I think that providing armbands to play in a sand pit is taking ‘elf’n safety a bit far Jamie. Dave

I once managed to fill the tank of my diesel car with petrol - why I have no idea - but luckily realised within a few hundred yards what I had done and went straight into our local garage that was only a further half mile or so. The car was lurching along belching smoke and I thought I must have knackered it but after the chaps at the garage had emptied the tank and cleaned all the fuel lines and injectors it was OK. Cost me quite a bit but a lot less than a new engine; I was lucky. I still can’t think what possessed me to do it. Dave

The great Hunt Towers kitchen rebuild is due to complete stage 2 tomorrow, i.e., the units will all be in place with the worktops, flooring and decorating still to go. This has resulted in the joyous news that we can begin moving all the stuff we moved out of cupboards last week into the new cupboards tomorrow evening. I think that my sciatica is due for a massive flare-up in about fifteen hours. Dave

I think that by the time you've made up your mind you'll be too old to start using the shed. Dave

When our goldfish outgrew its bowl we had to get a hyperbole for it. Dave

Our local bakery does a mean Portuguese custard tart. Un fortunately Hunt Towers is currently on a campaign to reduce the mass of its inhabitants so I can only look but not touch. Pah! Dave

The Hunt Towers roof situation is, with luck, in the throes of being sorted out. The guys who came to look at it yesterday have issued a report that has identified the work to be carried out, i.e., removing all tiles, replacing battens and felt, replacing tiles with upwards of forty needing renewal, refixing ridge tiles and renewing several broken ones, clearing out and recementing valley gutters for the sum of £3,500. All the work identified as necessary is backed up by photographs and videos. Until recently my BiL was CEO of the British Roofing Federation and his opinion is that this is a fair and reasonable price and since the firm have a very good reputation I have given them the go-ahead. So that's a few more Deltics off the roster. Dave

And the bean counters are eager to see an underspend at year's end so they can cut next year's budget as last year's obviously wasn't needed. When some cretin decided that the armed forces would have an internal market system and every unit, no matter how small, would have its own budget this sort of thing was endemic. Dave

There was an incident many years ago at Lincoln station when a woman had climbed over the side of the station footbridge and was threatening to throw herself onto the tracks. This would probably not have resulted in her death and what she was trying to do was unclear but all rail traffic was stopped, including the train that a disgruntled RAF NCO was catching. Eventually he got so fed up that he marched up onto the bridge, said to the woman, "For pity's sake just get on with it," and pushed her off. Apart from cuts and bruises she was unhurt but The NCO didn't catch his train since he was under arrest. I don't know what happened to him afterwards but by all accounts he was applauded by many of the other people at the station. Dave

The type of pencil used? 😋 Dave

As I understand it, that is exactly how it was done and I believe that tables were produced as well. E. S. Cox wrote a paper on it in, IIRC, the 1930s that I think owed something to the deliberations of the Bridge Stress Committee. Dave

Not an unknown happening with Avpin starters. They were vicious things but had the advantage that no external power or other assistance was required. Dave

Dynamic balancing that took into account the reciprocating masses was introduced in the 1860s and can be seen on many Kirtley 0-6-0s by the fact that the balance weights aren't opposite the cranks. The problem was that as well as opposing the reciprocating moments they also resulted in hammer blow on the track as they produced vertical forces. For this reason the reciprocating masses weren't generally balanced fully and most engineers settled on 66.6% balancing. Later experiments and trials led to some engines having the balance reduced to 50% and in the case of the LMS 8Fs for instances allowing some of the class being permitted over routes that the majority were banned from.

On occasions the starter wouldn't fire and you then had to carry out a dry start cycle to purge the combustion chamber before trying another start. The trouble was that the purging wasn't always successful so the next attempted start would result in a loud bang and a fire in the starter bay. The groundcrew had a large asbestos and metal gauntlet for patting out such a fire (in fact, a normal start would sometimes result in a minor starter bay fire anyway) and it wasn't much of a problem. There were, however, occasionally more serious fires that required more heavy duty extinguishers and at Tengah one day a Lightning caught fire following an Avpin starter fire and burned out on 74 Squadron's pan leaving a Lightning shaped sooty mark on the concrete. Dave

This afternoon I witnessed something that really p!ssed me off. Outside our local Sainsbury's mini market a police car was parked in a disabled parking slot even though there were plenty of other slots available. At first I thought its occupants may have been responding to an emergency but when they came out of the shop chatting and carrying sandwiches and drinks cans I realised that it was just idleness and a total disregard for the rules of decent behaviour. I went back to my car to get my phone and take a photograph but by the time I'd got it they'd driven off and being a numpty I hadn't taken the number. Is it just me or is that an appalling way for our guardians of law and order to behave? Dave