The Night Mail

[Northmoor]

Tyres only have about a five year life anyway, even on a shelf; rubber ages quite quickly.  I have used a 13y.o. spare on a car once and it delaminated on my first motorway journey afterwards......... dunk dunk dunk dunk dunk dunk dunk etc.

 

During the year I owned a Range Rover I never experienced snow, sadly, but my first year with a Freelander was fun when we hand about 4" of snow one night.  Daughter wants a lift round to friends? No problem, let me just clear the snow off the car first.  Giving it a bootfull away from junctions and it just grips..... On a well-polished mini-roundabout I managed to provoke a nice four wheel drift at about 10mph.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm still seventeen.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

 

A darn good run was this afternoon, with a bit of excitement. A fairly serious derailment was had at full speed. Either I forgot to set the points back to straight, or the front bogie jumped the track. Either way, the engine swerved to the right and into the luckily empty siding. It then derailed and fell in between the track, thankfully not falling over and spilling burning meths. 
 

I managed to get it rerailed and resume the run, the wiser about checking the points before setting off. Obviously I wouldn’t make a good signalman. Anyways, here’s a short video with the regulator turned down.

 

 

 

Here in Oklahoma, my family has always kept the same set of tires on the cars all year around. Although before I was 8 my grandparents had a early 2000s Porsche Cayenne diesel, and if I remember there was always much buzz about when it was getting the winter tires on or off. I would venture to say Porsche via the dealer made you do this, as we would have no reason to do so, as snow almost never is a problem on the roads.

 

Douglas

Edited April 26, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Tony_S]

My car has all year mud and snow tyres. The winter tyres on the Fiesta worked well on Aditi’s commute to East Ham and Stratford. People who didn’t have them consistently told her they weren’t needed but she drove further than they did on ungritted roads. The  winter tyres we had on our previous Clio did have an effect on the cars mpg but the Conti winter tyres on the Fiesta didn’t affect the fuel economy at all.  Once the temperature drops below 10C winter tyres work better than standard tyres, they aren’t just for snow. 
Tony

[SM42]

24 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I would venture to say Porsche via the dealer made you do this, as we would have no reason to do so, as snow almost never is a problem on the roads.

 

Winter tyres aren't just for snow.

 

Useful as they are in snowy conditions they perform better in temperatures below 8C than the non winter tyre.

 

I must admit I quite like snow driving. I was fortunate to learn to drive when snow was a winter regular and learnt a lot about driving in it.

 

 Oh what fun I had

 

ABS is a waste of time in snow. Never had it in my day so learnt how to use the snow as a brake

Many who passed their test in the 90s never saw the stuff and were completely flummoxed when it snowed. 

 

Andy

[pH]

I’ve just changed the winter snow tires off the car. They are mandatory in certain parts of the province - in some places until March 31; in others until April 30. But they degrade quite quickly in warm weather on dry roads, so they shouldn’t stay on longer than necessary.

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by pH

[BR60103]

SWMBO aka she who holds the chequebook agreed to winter tires this year. She says she felt so much safer as there was no slipping or spinning.  We'll get them changed back when the COVID allows.

Our neighbour found a fellow who comes around and changes them in your driveway, but Someone doesn't want dirty tires cluttering up our garage.

 

We've never had them on the motorhome.

Edited April 27, 2021 by BR60103

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I don't think I've ever changed tyres over from summer to winter etc. and I've owned cars since 1966. Even when we lived in Germany and experienced some fairly severe winters I just had the same set of tyres on all year round. Mind you, I never tried to drive over the Alps or anything like that in winter either.

 

Dave 

 

Bear has never had winter tyres - storing a set of wheels would be right pain for the little (if any) benefit I'd get in the UK by using winter tyres.  I did some work in Northern Italy during the winter of '86/87 - we drove up to the Magugnaga (Monte Rosa) ski resort one weekend - the road is pretty hairy in many places, basically on the side of a cliff (it seemed that every corner had a memorial to Giovanni, who didn't quite make it in his Alfa GTV....).  Anyway, getting to the top was "fun" - we seemed to get a lot of funny looks when we arrived and parked up, then the guy I was with spotted that we were probably the only one in the car park without snow chains....

 

[PhilJ W]

 I have heard that snow chains are illegal in the UK.

[Happy Hippo]

38 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

(It seemed that every corner had a memorial to Giovanni, who didn't quite make it in his Alfa GTV....). 

 

I have a twisted mind:  I laughed at that!  I had a vision of a pile of Alfas at the bottom of the mountain somewhat akin to a large rockfall.

 

39 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 I have heard that snow chains are illegal in the UK.

They are legal on snow covered roads but must be removed if you are travelling along a road where the chain could damage the tarmac.

 

It's a bit like road legal tracked vehicles having to have rubber pads on the track.

 

I'm surprised that the Highways Agency haven't blamed the irresponsible use of snow chains during the summer months for the potholes and poor road surfaces we always seem to be faced with.

[Dave Hunt]

In 1971 the brake master cylinder on my Cortina split whilst we were descending the Italian side of the Grossglockner pass. After negotiating a couple of hairpin bends at an inexorably increasing speed, during which the vertical descent on the right-hand side became more and more eye watering,  I saw a large pile of grit by the side of the road waiting for winter use (this was in June) and drove into it. After waiting for my heart rate to get below about 200 bpm I got down the rest of the pass in first gear and the handbrake, stopping every few yards, until we came to a little village with a garage consisting of a hand petrol pump and a wooden shack. I indicated the problem to the owner, who nodded knowingly then rummaged around in an old tea chest and to my utter amazement came up with a Ford master cylinder that fitted. Between us we fixed the car and Jill and I continued on our way to the Veneto.

 

Exciting would be one way of putting it.

 

Dave

 

[Happy Hippo]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

In 1971 the brake master cylinder on my Cortina split whilst we were descending the Italian side of the Grossglockner pass. After negotiating a couple of hairpin bends at an inexorably increasing speed, during which the vertical descent on the right-hand side became more and more eye watering,  I saw a large pile of grit by the side of the road waiting for winter use (this was in June) and drove into it. After waiting for my heart rate to get below about 200 bpm I got down the rest of the pass in first gear and the handbrake, stopping every few yards, until we came to a little village with a garage consisting of a hand petrol pump and a wooden shack. I indicated the problem to the owner, who nodded knowingly then rummaged around in an old tea chest and to my utter amazement came up with a Ford master cylinder that fitted. Between us we fixed the car and Jill and I continued on our way to the Veneto.

 

Exciting would be one way of putting it.

 

Dave

 

I believe this incident was the precursor for all the scary rides in theme parks!

[Dave Hunt]

And many references to brown trousers!

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

And here we've been, open mouthed and agog at your exploits as a fast jet jock. We now know where you got your thrill for speed from.

 

Least it would have been different than Giovanni on the sign board - Dave Hunt the speed merchant.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

In 1971 the brake master cylinder on my Cortina split whilst we were descending the Italian side of the Grossglockner pass. After negotiating a couple of hairpin bends at an inexorably increasing speed, during which the vertical descent on the right-hand side became more and more eye watering,  I saw a large pile of grit by the side of the road waiting for winter use (this was in June) and drove into it. After waiting for my heart rate to get below about 200 bpm I got down the rest of the pass in first gear and the handbrake, stopping every few yards, until we came to a little village with a garage consisting of a hand petrol pump and a wooden shack. I indicated the problem to the owner, who nodded knowingly then rummaged around in an old tea chest and to my utter amazement came up with a Ford master cylinder that fitted. Between us we fixed the car and Jill and I continued on our way to the Veneto.

 

Exciting would be one way of putting it.

 

Dave

 

 

Many, many moons ago, in a land far, far away.....

Ok, ten miles.....Bear worked with a guy who was affectionately known as "Est the Test" (he was Welsh, and his first name was iestyn [spelling?] ).  He was pretty high up the pecking order in the quality organisation at work, and as a consequence entitled to a Hire Car upgrade.  In this instance he was given an automatic Rover 800 series (827?) with all the gadgets; whilst en-route to a Trial in west wales and travelling "over the mountains" on a sunday night - in the dark - the oil light came on....

Upping the bonnet revealed a good spread of oil all over the engine bay; now Est was wise enough to realise that engines work best with oil on the inside, so knowing there was a fuel station close he decided to walk to it for help.  The fuel station was basically one pump, an old shack that was also the old boy's home who ran it.....complete with black & white sheep dog....

So into the beat up old landrover they go - Est, the old boy and the dog in the middle, with a load of bottles of oil in the back.

Old boy pulls a miner's lamp over his cloth cap (I kid you not) and takes a look - he pronounces the car's not very well and proceeds to pour lots of oil into the engine & gives the remainder to Est to keep him going.....

Now Est had to stop a couple of times to top the oil up, until finally all the spare oil was gone....

Then the inevitable happened - the oil pressure lamp came on again. Est didn't think Avis would thank him for seizing the motor on a brand new, very expensive car, so turned the ignition off; luckily he was on a downward hill with a village & late-night filling station (a bigger one this time) at the bottom - so he coasted down the hill towards his goal of more oil....

Then....."click".....the f.steering lock went on - he'd turned the key too far.  By this time he's moving a bit, so is also trying to scrub some speed off - only with no engine running the brake vacuum doesn't last forever....

He gets the steering lock off just in time to go bombing onto the garage forecourt at Warp 6, almost wiping out some guy who was filling his car at the time - petrol got sprayed across the forecourt in the process.  There's no gears to help scrub the speed off and the handbrake is struggling a bit - so Est - about to do a head-on into a brick wall - slams the auto transmission into "Park" and stops just in time......

 

Est falls out of the car, somewhat the worse for wear after his experience, to be greeted by the sight of the woman who ran the garage walking across the forecourt, wiping her hands on her pinny.  Her first words were:  "What do you do for your next trick, Boyo?"  

 

Seems Honda supplied the engines to Rover, who then fitted a 10p plastic oil pressure switch to the block - this had failed and was leaking oil big-time.  As a part of the fix the main dealer put it on a Dyno to check the power output - they pronounced it low so it was a new engine job.

[Happy Hippo]

(he was Welsh, and his first name was iestyn [spelling?] ). 

 

Correct spelling PB, just needed a Capital I !

 

Iestyn: He was a Welsh Saint.......  Aren't we all?

 

Look at the list from here:  Bill, Brian R, Danemouth, Stu and myself for starters.

 

Front row forwards who are Welsh gain automatic beatification.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Stubby47]

Not sure I would ever have made it as a front row forward. I left school at 16 only 4'10" tall, then grew to 5'8" and didn't weigh much more than about 8 1/2 stone. (I knew that cos I wanted a Laser dinghy and I was too light to be able to handle one). 

 

Weigh slightly more now...

[Joseph_Pestell]

7 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Not sure I would ever have made it as a front row forward. I left school at 16 only 4'10" tall, then grew to 5'8" and didn't weigh much more than about 8 1/2 stone. (I knew that cos I wanted a Laser dinghy and I was too light to be able to handle one). 

 

Weigh slightly more now...

 

One of Rugby Union's failures. Why has the game never come up with a "lightweight" competition, similar to that for rowing?

[Happy Hippo]

9 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Not sure I would ever have made it as a front row forward. I left school at 16 only 4'10" tall, then grew to 5'8" and didn't weigh much more than about 8 1/2 stone. (I knew that cos I wanted a Laser dinghy and I was too light to be able to handle one). 

 

Weigh slightly more now...

Laser realised this problem and introduced the Laser Radial sailing dingy (sic) with a reduced sail area for the smaller and lighter individual.  I suspect they came along too late for you.

 

I have to admit that I am not a Laser fan. although I have sailed them, for some reason I was never really at home with the boat.  I was much happier sailing a Lightning 368, which although slower than a Laser suited me. I also did a bit of coastal sailing which was great fun (in the right boat) and I realised it was possible to have fun in a boat that you could sit in rather than on.  A friend had a Drascombe Lugger which he kept on a swinging mooring at Deganwy.  

 

Sailing it in the River Conwy when the tide was rising or falling could be entertaining as it was possible for the boat to end up unable to manoeuvre if the boat speed matched the water speed. It was interesting, to say the least, as to how quickly you could be moved up or down stream without any assistance from the wind.  The iron sail was often your best friend!

 

 

[TheQ]

25 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Not sure I would ever have made it as a front row forward. I left school at 16 only 4'10" tall, then grew to 5'8" and didn't weigh much more than about 8 1/2 stone. (I knew that cos I wanted a Laser dinghy and I was too light to be able to handle one). 

 

Weigh slightly more now...

Lucky boy , I had a laser, and was way too heavy for a light wind area (14stone).. The Norwich airport average summer windspeed is about 10mph, down on the river between trees and buildings it's a lot less , You'd have probably done well at Horning SC.

[Stubby47]

I crewed in a couple of Nation 12s for some of the Rhyl YC members  - one had really nice wide deck, the other has very thin gunnels to sit on.

 

Eventually I bought a Topper, and had great fun racing that in the Menai Straights regatta, plus on several lakes in N Wales, Bala being by far the coldest.

[TheQ]

3 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Laser realised this problem and introduced the Laser Radial sailing dingy (sic) with a reduced sail area for the smaller and lighter individual.  I suspect they came along too late for you.

 

I have to admit that I am not a Laser fan. although I have sailed them, for some reason I was never really at home with the boat.  I was much happier sailing a Lightning 368, which although slower than a Laser suited me. I also did a bit of coastal sailing which was great fun (in the right boat) and I realised it was possible to have fun in a boat that you could sit in rather than on.  A friend had a Drascombe Lugger which he kept on a swinging mooring at Deganwy.  

 

Sailing it in the River Conwy when the tide was rising or falling could be entertaining as it was possible for the boat to end up unable to manoeuvre if the boat speed matched the water speed. It was interesting, to say the least, as to how quickly you could be moved up or down stream without any assistance from the wind.  The iron sail was often your best friend!

 

 

Certainly as you get older sitting scrunched up by the mast has less appeal on the knees .. Hence this..

I'll be sat in a chair like the one in the picture (with shortened legs), you can just see 180Kg of keel leaning against the step ladder, to keep me upright..

[TheQ]

A Topper traveller series race at Horning 2015, as you can see even in them all scrunched up by the mast..

[TheQ]

The tide in the river can be a couple of mph in or 3- 4 out. That lot above by the looks of it are going up river with the tide, when they round the buoy they have to fight their way back..

You learn a lot about sailing in the middle with the tide and close to the bank when against. So even in a dinghy its a big curve close to the bank when tacking against the tide, and shortest route across , to the next tack.. iron tops'ls not allowed..

[Happy Hippo]

21 minutes ago, TheQ said:

The tide in the river can be a couple of mph in or 3- 4 out. That lot above by the looks of it are going up river with the tide, when they round the buoy they have to fight their way back..

You learn a lot about sailing in the middle with the tide and close to the bank when against. So even in a dinghy its a big curve close to the bank when tacking against the tide, and shortest route across , to the next tack.. iron tops'ls not allowed..

Putting an outboard on the back of a Topper would be the equivalent of putting a mini engine onto a skateboard

Edited April 27, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Compound2632]

18 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I think I'll stick with clockwork!

 

That's a wind-up.