The Night Mail

[Happy Hippo]

This appealed to my sense of humour having set out real Claymore mines.

 

[Philou]

Evening Mr Hippo and friends,

 

'Tis I again - slowly recovering from the heat of yesterday and today - 38° and 37° respectively with highs of 43° in the sun. Only small amounts of repointing were done. It's still 28° and the sun set over an hour ago!

 

I read with interest your reminiscences of your military life - 'fraid I have none of a personal nature to impart with you. I was supposed to have done military service in the early 70s being half-Welsh and half-French and I would have served in Perpignan, but an accord was struck between the French and UK govts that meant dual nationals were exempt. I was already working then so I was a little relieved. I found my 'let-off' letter only the other day.

 

My brother on the other hand was in the TA and was on the medical side and bent a couple of their ambulances - higher ups not amused! He met his wife in the same service so there was a good outcome.

 

Regarding the Mellingriffiths works and their railway - did you know that the line pre-dated the TVR and had priority over the TVR at the crossing? The private line crossed the 4 tracks of the TVR on the level to gain access to the exchange sidings on the other side. I think the TVR must have come to an arrangement as the Mellingriffith line was gated with level crossing gates.

 

I have a photo in this 'ere computer of the Mellingriffith loco 'Emerald Isle' that looks remarkably like an 0-6-0 Peckett.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

[bbishop]

Thanks for keeping me amused during a very quiet shift.  Good in some ways, and I purchased my bases and finished an article for the South Western Circle, but it is boring .....  Just finished my Teams meeting, slightly less boring.

 

We had a wee disagreement recently on TNM.  Settled courteously,  no-one went crying to Andy, no toys were thrown.  That is what I like about TNM. 

 

Shopping at 7:00am tomorrow, so bed soon.  Bill

[New Haven Neil]

3 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Neil,

Very sorry to hear about Trackshack, and of course the other news as mentioned on the website.

Even with postage charges, you were often more reasonable than my local emporium, as well as being able to supply what others couldn't. 

Stu

 

 

Thanks Stu.  It has been a traumatic year, for sure.  John is bearing up OK, but it was an awful shock - we're close friends, the friendship came long before I retired (the first time) and went to work with John.  The team all remain good friends, we're a close bunch.  With more modelling time.....

[Happy Hippo]

44 minutes ago, Philou said:

 

Regarding the Mellingriffiths works and their railway - did you know that the line pre-dated the TVR and had priority over the TVR at the crossing? The private line crossed the 4 tracks of the TVR on the level to gain access to the exchange sidings on the other side. I think the TVR must have come to an arrangement as the Mellingriffith line was gated with level crossing gates.

 

I have a photo in this 'ere computer of the Mellingriffith loco 'Emerald Isle' that looks remarkably like an 0-6-0 Peckett.

My father's cousin and his family lived in the the Station House at Pentyrch Crossing, although by the time I was able to visit the Melingriffith line had long gone.  Although you could still root around at the side of the road that ran from Morganstown north towards the Walnut Tree viaduct and find the occasional bit of old sleeper.

[laurenceb]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

 

 

When we arrived back in Sherry's flat nearly a fortnight ago, there were two letters for her with NHS logos on the envelopes. She had been warned by her neighbour who pops in occasionally, and had picked them off the floor. Sherry had assumed they were from the local hospital, but was mystified as to why. One look at the envelopes said they were not - they had come from London. It turned out to be an invitation from Imperial College - where my brother once ran a research lab - to take a Covid test. Her name had been selected at random from GP lists. Today she received a negative result. Reassuring. 

I had one of them, had to do the test and send them the results. Also negative.

Edited August 10, 2020 by laurenceb

[Happy Hippo]

Pentyrch Crossing looking south with a 56xx on the up relief line

 

The farm crossing where the sign came from is down by the hedge on the rhs just beyond the stop block for the up siding.  Gelynis Farm can be seen over the gate to the left of the signal box.

 

The signal box diagram:

 

[The Johnster]

Lovely to see this shot, Happy, and the signal box diagram; almost everyone who takes photos of trains at this spot (and there’ve been a few over the years, myself included) is seduced by Castell Coch as a background and points the lens in the opposite direction.  I’ve never seen a shot including the exchange siding before.  
 

The Taff Vale opened in 1835, but the Melingriffith was already in business, so the TVR crossed the Melingriffith rather than the Melingriffith crossing the Taff Vale...

[Northroader]

By the crossing you’ve got Pentrych station, one of the original TVR stops, now a private house, but you can tell it’s off the same drawing board as the terminus at Bute Road. It must be a two mile hike to Pentrych village, where I used to live, from there.

[Happy Hippo]

I always questioned why it was called Pentyrch Crossing rather than Morganstown which was the nearest settlement.  

 

I was told that the reason for the Pentyrch name was due to the fact that the Melingriffith works was only a small part of the tramway system in the area and that there were also brickworks and iron works and another steel and timplate works to the north.

 

This was the Pentyrch Steel and Tinplate works, which was located just south of the Walnut Tree viaduct. Which may account for the name.

 

However, one has to wonder at these names as the works would have been much closer to both Taffs Well or even Gwaleod Y Garth.

 

I was unaware that the tramway complex also headed north and eventually connected with the TVR between Taffs Well and Nantgarw.

 

Of course, there was also a further confuser in the mix as there was also a Pentyrch signal box between Walnut Tree West and Tyn Y Caeau Junction on Barry line that ran over Walnut Tree Junction.

 

For those who want to know more about the incredibly complex layout of railway lines in S Wales, then use the seamless and zoomable maps courtesy of maps.nls.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

I am already on parcel alert.

 

 

I know that the stuff from Rails will not arrive for a few days, but I feel that a parcel interception would be a sound tactical move.

 

In other news my, Sekonda watch died this morning, it's been three years since it last had a battery change, so it was not unexpected.

 

I have a very good stock of watch batteries and quite a few watch repair tools, but having taken the watch out to the workshop and dug out all the kit, it appears that a CR2025 is not amongst the collection.

 

I have ordered some spares:  As well as a load of CR2032s as they fit my rifle scopes.  One has a laser designator which burns through batteries quite quickly, and there are a couple, each fitted with an illuminated reticule for low light situations.

 

The temporary loss of the watch is no great hardship, as I have a further six wrist watches and four pocket watches...........plus the phone!

 

The Midland brigade should note that I have more wristwatches than 7 mm scale pannier tanks:  There, I've mentioned panniers!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Happy Hippo
Punctuation

[Happy Hippo]

I have pleasure in reporting that the bath repair I mentioned on page 2, (drilling holes in the bath and repairing the crack with Milliput) is still holding up.

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have pleasure in reporting that the bath repair I mentioned on page 2, (drilling holes in the bath and repairing the crack with Milliput) is still holding up.

I tried to use some new Vallejo filler on a model (car) recently but I couldn’t get to to behave as I wished. I found some Milliput in an old box in the garage. It must be from last century. Anyway I mixed it and it was fine. I was able to fill and sand it perfectly. I was impressed. Aditi was impressed that I had been able to find something. 

[Stubby47]

59 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have more wristwatches than 7 mm scale pannier tanks

 

Happy to report I also have more wristwatches then 7mm locos in total  (3-0).

 

However, I have significantly more 4mm panniers than watches.

Also more 4mm prairies than watches.

And about the same number of Class 25s.

 

Is that too many ?

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

 

Happy to report I also have more wristwatches then 7mm locos in total  (3-0).

 

However, I have significantly more 4mm panniers than watches.

Also more 4mm prairies than watches.

And about the same number of Class 25s.

 

Is that too many ?

No, I have quite a few panniers locos that need moving on. 

 

Or I build a suitable 4 mm scale roundy............which might be good for the grandchildren.

 

Sadly, my impression of what would be good, and their interpretation of 4 mm scale which at present would be F1/TGV/Demolition Derby, are world's apart.

[The Johnster]

I possess a mobile phone, and am not interested in fashion, so I do not own a watch.  Should I wish to know the time, my phone tells me and is ‘close enough for jazz’ accurate, being linked by radio signal with the atomic clock at Cerne, collider not Abbas. 
 

Pentyrch Station was named thus as it was intended to serve that upland village at a time before Morganstown had been built. 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Pentyrch Station was named thus as it was intended to serve that upland village at a time before Morganstown had been built. 

Another of life's little mysteries has finally been put to bed!

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

accurate, being linked by radio signal with the atomic clock at Cerne, collider not Abbas. 

 

Linked either to a national time-signal, possibly the UK one, MSF, broadcast from Anthorn, Cumbria or for a product sold throughout Europe more likely the German one, DCF-77, broadcast from both Frankfurt and Anthorn, or to the GPS time signal. In all these cases, the transmitted signal is at several removes from an atomic clock.

 

The GPS signal is traceable back, via the satellites, to the ensemble of 60 commercial caesium atomic beam clocks at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington DC. I've been there, many years ago. My host was the head of their primary frequency standard development group, a most charming and un-military character with a surname of Swedish origin and parents living in Great Yarmouth. In one of the rooms full of serried ranks of HP ceasium clocks, he pointed out the one that he had, with great difficulty, managed to persuade his superiors to allow him to rotate through 90 degrees, just to check that there wasn't a N-S vs E-W frequency shift - such as might be induced by magnetic field, for instance. 

 

The MSF and DCF-77 signals are derived from hydrogen masers - although based on an energy transition in the hydrogen atom, these are not true atomic clocks as there are slowly-changing environmental effects that mean that the true hydrogen frequency is not obtained. They do, however, provide a very stable frequency - it's only after several days that the drift in frequency becomes a problem.

 

Data from everybody's national timescale is submitted to the International Beaureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), just outside Paris. The data is combined to produce an after-the-event timescale, TAI, which is offset by a whole number of seconds from UTC, which is the legally-recognised timescale in most nations. Thus the local timescales such as MSF, DCF-77, and GPS time, are approximations to UTC; if you want to know exactly what the time was, you have to look up the offset of the timescale you were using from UTC using the BIPM's Circular T, published every five days.

 

I should add that the whole thing is kept on the straight and narrow by a handful of caesium primary frequency standards at national metrology institutes around the world, such as NPL in Teddington, which provide the true frequency of the caesium transition that is used in the definition of the second in the SI units to an accuracy of around a gnat's whisker on the diameter of the Earth. That's the bit I used to be involved in - collecting gnat's whiskers.

 

The CERN laboratory at Geneva does not generate a publicly-available timescale but may well have one for the precision timing needs of its experiments; certainly large area radio telescope arrays rely on internal maser-based timescales to ensure synchronisation of signals from the telescopes in the array.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Compound2632

[Happy Hippo]

Stephen, is it still Tuesday?

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Stephen, is it still Tuesday?

 

I worked on realisation of the SI second from the primary caesium frequency standard. I could tell you how long a second is to the aforementioned gnat's whisker but not where any given second sits relative to another. For that, you need a timescale expert.

 

If you like, I was working on the pendulum; someone else with different expertise worked on the escapement mechanism, someone else on the dial (making the timescale accessible to the public), and there was a whole department of non-experts polishing up the mahogany housing - as that's the bit that those that pay admire most.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Compound2632

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

 

Happy to report I also have more wristwatches then 7mm locos in total  (3-0).

 

However, I have significantly more 4mm panniers than watches.

Also more 4mm prairies than watches.

And about the same number of Class 25s.

 

Is that too many ?

I can report that I have as many unbuilt 7mm 2P kits as I have wristwatches, and if I ever get thevpreviously mentioned Compound made up I will also have as many Compounds as wristwatches, namely 2.  All much better looking than panniers.

 

I keep the other wristwatch for when my main one gets sent away for a service and new battery.

 

Jamie

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I can report that I have as many unbuilt 7mm 2P kits as I have wristwatches, and if I ever get thevpreviously mentioned Compound made up I will also have as many Compounds as wristwatches, namely 2.  All much better looking than panniers.

 

I keep the other wristwatch for when my main one gets sent away for a service and new battery.

 

Jamie

 

I would concur that your wristwatches will probably look better than the pannier tanks.  Not so sure about the others you mention:  They are all a bit soft as they all have have............. a tender behind.

 

Now submerging in Muddy Hollow to await reprisals

[bbishop]

I used to receive a wrist watch as a Christmas present every year and it was broke by twelfth night.  Then I found out that I have a magnetic personality.  So now my only timepiece is a medical watch, now worn on the sleeve because I must wear an apron on duty, plus mask, plus double gloves, maybe a Tyvek suit and visor.

 

Today was early shop, church Zoom meeting (*), walk round Petts Woods, chat with the girlfriend, start my 700 TRIBULATIONS article for the South Western Circle.  The builders are here tomorrow, they have no concept of social distancing, so I'll be off somewhere.

 

Bill

(*) I've offered Richard's Archbishop friend to sort out the persistent fly-tipper in the church grounds.

[New Haven Neil]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I worked on realisation of the SI second from the primary caesium frequency standard. I could tell you how long a second is to the aforementioned gnat's whisker but not where any given second sits relative to another. For that, you need a timescale expert.

 

If you like, I was working on the pendulum; someone else with different expertise worked on the escapement mechanism, someone else on the dial (making the timescale accessible to the public), and there was a whole department of non-experts polishing up the mahogany housing - as that's the bit that those that pay admire most.

 

Did you know John Dunworth by any chance?  NPL Director?

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I would concur that your wristwatches will probably look better than the pannier tanks.  Not so sure about the others you mention:  They are all a bit soft as they all have have............. a tender behind.

 

Now submerging in Muddy Hollow to await reprisals

For an old groaner like that we should have some sort of ground attack missile the seeks out Hippos from the rear, they would obviously have a large target.

 

Jamie