The Night Mail

[SM42]

Well good news in the post.

 

I have won a sum of money. Cheque attached. 

Optimistically they ask if I feel like celebrating please share it  with us on  social media. 

 

Not sure there is too much to celebration to be had for a tenner. 

 

Since I will still be required to pay the mortgage off despite this sudden pecuniary bonus  then retirement is still a way off

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

I pulled all the timber out of the garage roof and did some shifting around of other 'stuff'.

 

Other stuff went back up into the garage roof and remarkably I have:

 

1.  Timber to hand.

2.  Space inside the garage to work.

 

Timber found was Ash, Beech, Birch, Lime, Maple, Mahogany, Oak and Sapele.  Plus various sheets of ply, pine of differing qualities and some MDF.

 

Tomorrow I start sorting the paint and adhesives.

 

I'm still falling over the 1.9TD engine from the VW Golf.

 

One day it will vanish!

 

 

 

 

[SM42]

I have managed to do some modelling.

 

4 decals added.

 

I am now enjoying a pint of Byatt's Platinum Blonde in both celebration  and reward 

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

And I put netting on half the chicken run and learned how to use fencing pliers.

 

Jamie

[SM42]

1 minute ago, jamie92208 said:

And I put netting on half the chicken run and learned how to use fencing pliers.

 

Jamie

 

I have a really easy life in comparison. 

 

I may have to mow the lawn occasionally, a 20 minute job, trim the hedge, 45 minutes or generally tidy up. The latter I try to avoid. 

 

Chicken runs? Engines? wood piles? fencing pliers? Live steam?

 

Well outside my pay grade 

 

Andy

Who has been known to decorate occasionally.

 

[Stubby47]

I'm not allowed to cut the grass anymore, after 'correcting' the lop-sided wheel height setting it was deemed I'd scalped the lawn and was withdrawn from active service.

Similarly although quite competent with both hand and powered hedge trimming equipment, I am surplus to requirements.
I am not one to cause an argument, so take my enforced horticultural retirement with good grace.

[SM42]

15 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

I'm not allowed to cut the grass anymore, after 'correcting' the lop-sided wheel height setting it was deemed I'd scalped the lawn and was withdrawn from active service.

Similarly although quite competent with both hand and powered hedge trimming equipment, I am surplus to requirements.
I am not one to cause an argument, so take my enforced horticultural retirement with good grace.

 

I once trimmed the electric cable to the trimmer. Well    it threw itself into the blades in an act of self destruction.

Needless to say it stopped. I repaired the cable and went to reset the circuit breaker. But it hadn't tripped and I had no power

 It was then a search for a fuse. 

 

I was a little perturbed at this, but apparently it's quite normal. 

 

Mrs SM42 still trusts me to do the "blue" jobs despite this little misadventure

 

Andy

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by SM42
Predictive text being very bad at predicting

[New Haven Neil]

Someone say live steam?  That I can manage....

 

[jamie92208]

15 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

I once trimmed the electric cable to the trimmer. Well    it threw itself into the blades in an act of self destruction.

Needless to say it stopped. I repaired the cable and went to reset the circuit breaker. But it hadn't tripped and I had no power

 It was then a search for a fuse. 

 

I was a little perturbed at this, but apparently it's quite normal. 

 

Mrs SM42 still trusts me to do the "blue" jobs despite this little misadventure

 

Andy

 

Been there and done that a couple of times, those live cables really are a nuisance. Trouble is if you try to use dead cables the hedge doesn't get cut.

 

Jamie

Edited March 26, 2021 by jamie92208

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

f you try to use dead cables the hedge doesn't get cut.

After two cable cutting incidents I did ask Aditi if she wanted a cordless lawn mower. 

[PhilJ W]

I have half a dozen connectors for re-joining cables, both two and three pin, ordered in error. The perils of ordering on the internet. For the lawn mower the cable is in three parts with a spare so if it gets cut it is easy to just replace the section.  

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

After two cable cutting incidents I did ask Aditi if she wanted a cordless lawn mower. 

 

'We' bought a Bosch cordless mower when I was laid up with the wrecked foot, and Debs wouldn't use the petrol one.  This turned out to be a very good thing as she now enjoys...yes!!..... mowing the lawns and still won't allow me to do them.  Result.  One charge does both lawns too, better than a neighbours Nissan Leaf that he keeps on running out of charge with!

[PhilJ W]

I've decided on a name for the new layout, Minerva Street. The layout, which I purchased 'Ready-to-run' Is a micro shunting layout the includes a four rail electrified siding. The builder described it as somewhere on the District line in East London. As I mentioned I have 'transferred' the line to the unbuilt northern extension of the East London line. I discovered the name looking at an old London A-Z, its a short road just to the west of Cambridge Heath station on Old Bethnal Green Road. I like to create a plausible 'history' for my layouts mixing fact and fiction.

[Happy Hippo]

19 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I've decided on a name for the new layout, Minerva Street. The layout, which I purchased 'Ready-to-run' Is a micro shunting layout the includes a four rail electrified siding. The builder described it as somewhere on the District line in East London. As I mentioned I have 'transferred' the line to the unbuilt northern extension of the East London line. I discovered the name looking at an old London A-Z, its a short road just to the west of Cambridge Heath station on Old Bethnal Green Road. I like to create a plausible 'history' for my layouts mixing fact and fiction.

Chris Basten will be pleased. Pity it's not 7 mm scale.

 

I agree with the faction (or is it friction) element of modelling as plausibility is better the deniability.

 

Brian and myself have been researching the Efflew Valley and it's industries and people, but apart from Aberflyarff which was well documented in the South Wales Echo, the rest of the valley is completely invisible.

 

It has been a long and painstaking labour of love to track down the elusive maps and pictures that only exist in the chest of drawers in somebody's upstairs spare bedroom in order to amplify our knowledge of the area.

 

As a matter of interest, who left the clouds open last night?

Edited March 26, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Oldddudders]

I have electric and petrol hedge-trimmers. The latter works well but is heavy and a tad noisy, as you might guess. I have cut the cord on the former. Alison borrowed it a couple of years ago and it came back with a new cord - you can guess why. Given that as an electrical engineer's daughter - on one occasion driving through her village, there were men up an electricity pole fixing something and she told me they were 'hot-gloving' - she would have been quite capable of simply adding a new socket on a slightly shortened cable, I thought that was noble. But she has bought a cordless hedge-trimmer, and that is the biz. All these are Stihl, so all work well, but the cordless one is the least hassle, subject only to being charged! 

[SM42]

I thought I had done really well, fitting a plug connector to the hedge trimmer cable.

 

Didn't take long  until I realised  I had put the male connector on the mains side of he break 

 

Shocking 

 

Andy

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

27 minutes ago, SM42 said:

I thought I had done really well, fitting a plug connector to the hedge trimmer cable.

 

Didn't take long  until I realised  I had put the male connector on the mains side of he break 

 

Shocking 

 

Andy

 

 

I feel your [pain!

 

Having built the engine mount for 'Crusty' I failed to read the instructions properly therefore one part of the laser cut kit  that needed to be cranked to enable the slipping clutch to function correctly was put in straight.

 

It has sat on the bench for some time before I finally get around to disassembling the whole thing to get the bit out that needs the bending applied.

 

One day....

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

Brian and myself have been researching the Efflew Valley and it's industries and people, but apart from Aberflyarff which was well documented in the South Wales Echo, the rest of the valley is completely invisible.

 

Are the denizens of the valley the Efflew-ents? Or is that what the industries produce?

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

Why don't you model the town at the mouth of the river ration.

 

Jamie

[Northroader]

Cwmtwp is up that valley.

[Happy Hippo]

This afternoon's excitement was going into the garage and being able to lay my hands on various items without sending out a search party or stumbling over  a cluttered floor.  Some heave-ho in the garden followed.

 

Now we have to ask whether Scotland will triumph this evening, or will their old allies do the dirty upon them?

 

The cider is in the fridge and I've got a bag of cheesy Dorito thingies for a half time snack.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

Cwmtwp is up that valley.

Cwmtwp is a bit like Deliverance with sheep instead of pigs.

[simontaylor484]

Keep paddling i can hear banjos

[Doncaster Green]

Wouldn't want to breakdown on a foggy mountain

 

[Happy Hippo]

5 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Keep paddling i can hear banjos

You can sometimes hear banjos in the muddy hollow.

 

It's nothing to worry about although I would suggest you get out quickly if you can hear bubbling!