The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

Today's exploits seemed to consist of various exploits with lengths of timber in order to build the swing for the grand children.

 

The frame has been erected and now awaits bolting together, and the seats fitted.

 

I then need to find the ground screws to hold it firmly to the ground.  They were last seen in the store shed when I put them inside having purchased them (for a different project as it happens).

 

Tomorrow will be another gardening session.  I am supposed to be digging out more pototoes so the bed(s) can be replanted with more veg.

 

I suspect a lot of weeding will also be required.

 

Having seen what is unfolding in the GOG, I'm not sure whether I want to be a member anymore.

 

I just don't know what to make of what might be either a series of unconnected events or whether there has been a deliberate effort to sabotage the Reform Group candidates.

 

I have cast my electronic vote today, and I suspect my remaining in the Guild will revolve around the results of the voting.  If I were to leave I could use the saving in subscription to buy more cake!

 

Being totally realistic, even if  all the Reform Group candidates get their places on the MC, there is going to be no overnight change:  It will take months or even a few years to get things moving forward.

 

The real tragedy is that boils down to differing perceptions of how to be organised to play with 0 gauge trains.

 

 

[polybear]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

And of course 1:43.5 Wheels probably wouldn't fit into 1:48 wheel wells.

 

You can be sure it won't.  Whilst not the same aircraft, the last time I had my bonce up inside the wheel well of a Tornado I can recall thinking "How the bloody hell do they get this lot to fit in here (there's pipes all over the shop) AND get the wheel to fit in too?"  That could well be the same time that some joker pulled the ground safety pin out of the pylon EMRU, stuck the other end in the "unlock" hole and (before I had the chance to say "that isn't a good idea) turned the key.....

My mate came within an ace of losing his kneecaps (he was kneeling on the hanger floor at the time, very close to where the launcher - 2 man lift - dropped off the pylon and bounced off the deck.  I was rather too close for comfort too.

Silence all round, after witnessing a launcher worth perhaps £60K (1990's money) turning to scrap.  Until Joker announces in a loud voice "There wasn't a Ground Safety Pin fitted!!"  I slid up to him and quietly said "You've got it in your hand you c***...." 

"I'd better report to Supervision" he said, sheepishly.  I was thinking to myself that they probably already knew, judging by how the bloody great bang had echoed around the Flight Hanger.

All good fun.

 

[jamie92208]

If you worked on Tornadoes Polybear, did you ever cond across Uncle T, aka Dave Tanner, aka Supersonic of this parish and a good friendvof both myself and Dave Hunt.

 

Jamie

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening,

 

Heath Robinson’s copper rolling mill has been strengthened with a large horizontal brace. A crank was also fitted for testing under power with my hand, and nothing fell off it so it was declared a resounding success to the board members. 
 
I have also begun restoring this Baltimore & Ohio Railroad lamp, which I’ve had for ages but never done anything with, mostly from lack of interest. This is one of the type that would be on the front of the loco, near the cowcatcher. As you can see it needs quite a bit of work. 
 

stay healthy,

 

 

Douglas

Edited July 29, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Dave Hunt]

Which type of Tornadoes did you work on Polybear? I flew F3s whereas Dave Tanner was on GRs.

 

FloLoWo, are you sure you will have time to attend high school? You seem to have a full time occupation fettling, bodging and building things with the odd time out for culinary explorations.

 

'Night everyone.

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Which type of Tornadoes did you work on Polybear? I flew F3s whereas Dave Tanner was on GRs.

 

FloLoWo, are you sure you will have time to attend high school? You seem to have a full time occupation fettling, bodging and building things with the odd time out for culinary explorations.

 

'Night everyone.

 

Dave

If I didn’t go to school, I would loose my kind from boredom, nearly did during quarantine. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Goodnight all, from Greencountry.

 

 

Douglas

[Happy Hippo]

Good morning.

 

A slightly early start which has been enhanced by a cup of coffee, although the rest of the household is still asleep.

 

What I'd really like now is a cooked breakfast, but I cannot recall when I last had a proper fry up, especially at this time of the morning

 

I do know it wasn't this year.  In fact it probably wasn't this century!

 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Editor cleared now breakfasting.  Pool liner to be fitted this morning before it gets too hot.

 

Jamie

[polybear]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

If you worked on Tornadoes Polybear, did you ever cond across Uncle T, aka Dave Tanner, aka Supersonic of this parish and a good friendvof both myself and Dave Hunt.

 

Jamie

 

Not that I'm aware of.

 

6 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Which type of Tornadoes did you work on Polybear? I flew F3s whereas Dave Tanner was on GRs.

 

FloLoWo, are you sure you will have time to attend high school? You seem to have a full time occupation fettling, bodging and building things with the odd time out for culinary explorations.

 

'Night everyone.

 

Dave

 

From memory, both GR's and IDS; little input in the grand scale of things though, as I was much more involved with Lynx

[Happy Hippo]

9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

If you worked on Tornadoes Polybear, did you ever cond across Uncle T, aka Dave Tanner, aka Supersonic of this parish and a good friendvof both myself and Dave Hunt.

 

Jamie

 

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Not that I'm aware of.

Hang on Jamie, you are talking about the RAF here.

 

The people who try to keep the cabs working as opposed to those that drive them are very different beasts, especially as aircraft are pool items and not a personal mount.

 

DT would probably have been easier to identify if you'd said, say:

 

'Did you know my mate the pilot from XV Sqn? (others are available) he always used to lounge around outside dispersal in the third stripey deckchair to the left of the door, smoking a pipe full of old sh*g and wearing a pink silk scarf. (oaa)'

Edited July 30, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Dave Hunt]

HH, I've just sent a googlearth picture of the Muddy Hollow to my friend on XV Squadron just in case they have a spare LGB that's looking for somewhere to go 

 

Dave

Edited July 30, 2020 by Dave Hunt

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

HH, I've just sent a googlearth picture of the Muddy Hollow to my friend on XV Squadron just in case they have a spare LGB that's looking for somewhere to go 

 

Dave

Brilliant, I did want it deepened, and if it could be arranged before the beginning of next week, I could get it filled up with splashy stuff prior to the arrival of the grandchildren.

 

If however the greenhouse is blitzed  he can expect extreme AAA on departure.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[jamie92208]

And there was little old me thinking that the brylcreem boys were going to drop him a pallet of LGB trainy things.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

And there was little old me thinking that the brylcreem boys were going to drop him a pallet of LGB trainy things.

 

Jamie

LGB, one gauge and multiple scales.  The antidote to 4 mm modelling, where you have one scale, but multiple gauges.

[Happy Hippo]

My thoughts about a fry up came to fruition this lunchtime.

 

Fried eggs, sausage and some home grown potato (Kestrel variety) sliced and fried.

 

Various gardening duties were performed and this evening will also see watering duties taking place.  We have a number of neighbours who all need their pots watered as they are away from home.  I am also in charge of next doors fleet of guinea pigs.

 

The swing seats arrived today, so all I now need are the new  pivot links that fit to the crossbeam, then I can finish putting it together.

 

Mad plans abound regarding railways, and current thinking is to convert an end to end line into a roundy.

 

It would be a  no brainer in 4 mm scale but I'm going to need about a 13' 6" dia circle to connect the fiddle yard to the scenic section. The other issue is the fiddle yard design.  Fans of sidings with appropriate crossovers take up a huge amount of space, so perhaps a traverser might be a better bet.  The cost of the associated pointwork for such an undertaking is also a consideration. The current end to end scheme  relies on an engine release sector place and half a dozen cassetts or a five road traverser.

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[jamie92208]

If you need help with your traverser it sounds very like the Castle Branch Fiddle Yard on LGA.  I used the runners off an old filing cabinet drawer which are very nice horizontal  ball races.  I made those first then built the board around them and it works well.  Photos can be supplied if needed. The traverser is the same length as the 3 car EMU's which also happens to be the same length as my trip freights, there's a coincidence.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

Fried bread was had today for the first time ever, accompanied by bacon and eggs for the morning repast. Much polishing is in store today, now I’m also working my through a Budenberg Gauge I have, in preparation for its installation on a wall in my room. There is also the B&O lamp to do and a Wilesco d6 boiler house, which I’ve done two sides of so far. Very tedious job, since it’s covered in 30+ years of wax paraffin smoke. The inside of the lamp really needs a date with the wire wheel or some rust remover, which probably won’t be done until at least Saturday. 
 

Currently the big puzzle in my mind is what color to repaint the base of the engine in, as I think the red is sinfully ugly. Black seems it would clash the with engine badly, so I think something near be Brunswick green will work. The top surface will probably be some sort of red brown, as would be prototypical. The photo below (with red base) is of my engine, with it’s bent governor. Weeden actually made these engines with a green base, so it wouldn’t be to, err, offensive to some collectors. 

stay healthy,

 

Douglas

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

If you need help with your traverser it sounds very like the Castle Branch Fiddle Yard on LGA.  I used the runners off an old filing cabinet drawer which are very nice horizontal  ball races.  I made those first then built the board around them and it works well.  Photos can be supplied if needed. The traverser is the same length as the 3 car EMU's which also happens to be the same length as my trip freights, there's a coincidence.

 

Jamie

 

 

I use these:

 

 

As used on laser cutters, 3D printers or almost any CNC type machine

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Morning all,

 

Fried bread was had today for the first time ever, accompanied by bacon and eggs for the morning repast. Much polishing is in store today, now I’m also working my through a Budenberg Gauge I have, in preparation for its installation on a wall in my room. There is also the B&O lamp to do and a Wilesco d6 boiler house, which I’ve done two sides of so far. Very tedious job, since it’s covered in 30+ years of wax paraffin smoke. The inside of the lamp really needs a date with the wire wheel or some rust remover, which probably won’t be done until at least Saturday. 
 

Currently the big puzzle in my mind is what color to repaint the base of the engine in, as I think the red is sinfully ugly. Black seems it would clash the with engine badly, so I think something near be Brunswick green will work. The top surface will probably be some sort of red brown, as would be prototypical. The photo below (with red base) is of my engine, with it’s bent governor. Weeden actually made these engines with a green base, so it wouldn’t be to, err, offensive to some collectors. 

stay healthy,

 

Douglas

I think that you will find that depending on the location will depend on the colour!

 

The pumping station at Coleham in Shrewsbury, uses black and red, whilst the much better known pumping station at Kew uses predominantly green and black.

 

Of course, our other local pumping station at Mill Meece uses red and green.

 

So whatever 'standard railway colour'  (Red/Green/Black) you chose ought to be fine.

[bbishop]

Good morning all,

 

On another thread Mike mentioned that he doesn't know what happened to the ex-Bristol & Gloucester broad gauge locomotives.  Now Mike may have a dispensation to talk railways on that thread, but I don't, so it's posted here.

The Gauge Commissioners required the Taw Vale Railway to be built to broad gauge, resulting in Thomas Brassey scouring the country for suitable locomotives.  Fortuitously the Midland Railway were in the process of regauging the B&G.  Information in Don Bradley's book on the Beattie classes.

The Taw Vale is of course now The North Devon Railway, one of the lines the P********* Tsars failed to close (although they are still trying).

 

Bill

[Happy Hippo]

I suspect the Dave the hunter is currently asleep under a parasol in his garden.

 

It is quite warm; so much so that I have got the garden umbrella on the drive way to give me some shelter as I finish off the swing rebuild.

 

just a load of holes to drill, well six actually, then it can all be bolted back together.

 

The real fun will take place when I have to fit the ground anchors as they screw into the ground, so accuracy is of the utmost.

 

As always I have a slightly cunning plan.

[Happy Hippo]

Finally got the swing finished. Originally a single seater I extended the top beam to take two seats. Of course, only the brackets that connect the cross beam to the legs come from the original. The swing hanger bolts have been left oversize and there is a wire that runs between them to discourage birds roosting. 

[Northroader]

Load tested for baby hippopotami?

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Load tested for baby hippopotami?

It didn't collapse when I tried it, so the little ones are probably Ok. (Unless they've been eating anvils.)