The Night Mail

[simontaylor484]

Fraser canyon looks an absolutely stunning place. I have seen a model railroader layout and it gives me a lot of indecision of what to model

[Happy Hippo]

36 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear detects the imminent presence of a large unguarded stash of cake in Hipposhire....

Dave said he'd look after it for me,  and my whisky as well.

[jamie92208]

18 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Dave said he'd look after it for me,  and my whisky as well.

He would obviously need to conduct quality control tests at regular intervals. That would of course chec,i g if the liquid at the bottom of the bottle was in as good a state as that at the top.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

's who lives in Headcorn.

For some reason I was convinced Headcorn was in Cheshire. Aditi said I was probably thinking of Runcorn. Ignorance of Headcorn is odd as I lived in Kent for three years in Canterbury and had friends in Maidstone that we visited. Also Aditi and I have been to loads of NT places in Kent. Wherever I did go in Kent my Dad always seemed to know about it. I think he was stationed there at various times in WW2. He did mention once being dumped in Canterbury and having to get back overnight to Lenham before some early hour in the morning. He was also in a big military hospital but I am not sure where that was. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by Tony_S
Too many to

[simontaylor484]

Canterbury now that's a tale

[Happy Hippo]

We always referred to Canterbury as 'Canters', always said with a mockney accent.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Dave said he'd look after it for me,  and my whisky as well.

 

When it comes to looking after cake and whisky stocks my altruism knows no bounds. Mind you, I usually find that the loss of quality due to evaporation and dessication can be quite alarming, the only way of guarding against them being constant testing. 

 

54 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

He would obviously need to conduct quality control tests at regular intervals. That would of course chec,i g if the liquid at the bottom of the bottle was in as good a state as that at the top.

 

And of course, it would be foolish of me to ignore the advice of one so experienced in security matters as our ex-guardian of the law.... 

 

Dave 

[Happy Hippo]

9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

When it comes to looking after cake and whisky stocks my altruism knows no bounds. Mind you, I usually find that the loss of quality due to evaporation and dessication can be quite alarming, the only way of guarding against them being constant testing. 

 

 

And of course, it would be foolish of me to ignore the advice of one so experienced in security matters as our ex-guardian of the law.... 

 

Dave 

You can only check the contents of the bottom of a bottle by using a straw, otherwise you are only ever testing the top.

[jamie92208]

22 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

You can only check the contents of the bottom of a bottle by using a straw, otherwise you are only ever testing the top.

But you do eventually get to the bottom.

 

Jamie

[Stubby47]

3 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

But you do eventually get to the bottom. 

 

Jamie

 

After that, it's the Betty Ford clinic...

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

A busy day today with work both inside and outside the house.

 

I've now rubbed down the radiator in the ex conservatory, and it has had three coats of paint  over the course of the day.

 

Between coats I've been outside and tidied up the hedges around the front of the Hippodrome.  this involved getting well and truly nettled when I picked up a nettle (I hadn't seen) in a bundle of hedge clippings.  The inside of my left arm is still tingling as I write this.

 

 

Over the years I have collected, acquired and gathered in loads of stuff that might one day come in handy.  now I am literally falling over the stuff, so over the past few days I have been sorting out a lot of materiel and evaluating it's potential for future use.  Short lengths of wire, cable and bits of twine and string have all gone into the general rubbish or recycling as appropriate.  The same logic is being applied to timber, and a lot of short off cuts, which in the past I would have cut down for modelling, purposes have either gone to the timber pile at the recycling centre, or have been chopped up for the fire pit and log burner.

 

I'm trying to make a little bit of space so I can erect some new shelving in the garage to improve the storage I have there.  It's always been a bit of a mish mash with a number of school cabinets I rescued, and various elderly pieces of furniture (book cases and the bottom of a dresser).  With any luck, the new shelving units will absorb a lot of the stuff scattered around the garage into a semblance of order as well as creating some much needed floorspace.

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon all,

 

 

Yesterday was most interesting. I arrived on time, and began making myself some tea in the break room, this meant I used one of the electric kettles for the first time. Made a noise like a Vampire taking off.

 

After that I went and sat in my chair next to my bosses desk for a few minutes. After that I accompanied him on his rounds around the shop for the regulation of clocks that are getting sent out soon. All employees working in the repair side of the business have color assigned cards stuck to their repaired clocks with tables on them for the time of winding, how much time has been lost over a week etc etc. My color hasn't been assigned yet. After that we sat back down and he began putting back together the 1921 JUNGHANS clock. This meant adjusting the striking wheel and reinstalling the movement back inside the case. I fixed the badly bent key. After that it was put on the regulating wall for 2-3 weeks of testing. The criteria for be sent back to the customer is it must keep within 2 minutes a week, and chime/strike correctly. That job having been concluded he moved onto a Connecticut made mantle clock from around 1930. This was running 15 minutes fast so the pendulum need some adjustment. That didn't take to long and it went off to be regulated. 

 

After that another one of the apprentices needed help replacing the chime rod in a grandfather clock movement, as she had never done this before. This job consisted of going to the stores and finding a similar chime rod and cutting it down to size, the filing it to the correct note. After that a small break was had. Then my boss moved onto another 1920s german wall clock wth a broken chime rod. This time the task of fixing it was delegated to me. I did most of it and he did the final finishing to get the right note.

 

Today has been spent working on my scratch built engine, for which a front bogie was made for.

 

 

Douglas

[PhilJ W]

[PhilJ W]

Theft from moving train.

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by PhilJ W

[PhilJ W]

[Dave Hunt]

14 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

You can only check the contents of the bottom of a bottle by using a straw, otherwise you are only ever testing the top.

 

Just checked - I've got plenty of straws....

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Just checked - I've got plenty of straws....

 

Dave

I was joking about the straws, just lie on your back and tip the bottle up so the top becomes the bottom and vice versa.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

29 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I was joking about the straws, just lie on your back and tip the bottle up so the top becomes the bottom and vice versa.

That may result in the suffocation of the, err, operative.

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Just checked - I've got plenty of straws....

 

Dave

 

Just make certain that they are the extra long ones as Mr H's bottles are extremely large- so I've been reliably informed as you'll want to make certain you get every last drop.

[Happy Hippo]

8 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

That may result in the suffocation of the, err, operative.

At least he'd die happy, very happy!

[Happy Hippo]

Wine, ham and cheese, home made rolls and Home made lentil soup and accompanied with with some red wine.

 

The end to a productive day.

 

Of course it is never that simple, as more scheming and plotting has taken place over the last 24 hours.

 

As the clear out continued, I noted with some regret that both Splott West Sidings and Pantmawr Sidings have both been languishing in the layout stack since before the first lockdown last year.  All they have done is take up space and gather dust.

 

After serious consideration, the decision has been made to break them both up and create a new layout that draws on the experiences of building them both.

 

I was planning a new railway and would probably have started it before even finishing off the other two, so a bit of common sense has prevailed (I hope).

 

Build parameters are as follows:

 

Lightweight baseboards using foam and ply.

Easily managed by one person

Built in folding legs

Cassette storage for locos and stock

The complete* railway must be capable of being erected in the garage.

Still based on the railways of S Wales

An exchange yard type scenario, similar to both previous railways.

DCC Operation.

Use Dingham couplers but  only in a manual mode.

Capable of single handed operation.

Re use as much track, point work and scenic detailing as possible.

 

Demolition of the two existing line will take place throughout August,  the new  build will start in September. (Garage and workshop improvements permitting.) 

 

* SWS kept getting extended which was a bad idea, although on the new line a specific but optional fiddle board to allow through running, would be considered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

And it will still be set in Aberflyarff, I hope?

[Happy Hippo]

1 minute ago, Northroader said:

And it will still be set in Aberflyarff, I hope?

Aberflyarff is yet to come, and will feature completely hand laid track:  A certain exponent of Midland Railway practice has already sacrificed the hand made crossing noses.  So I intend to make the pointwork off board as a diversion from rtp.

 

This one has to gobble up the Peco track of which I have an abundance.

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

...........

Easily managed by one person

Built in folding legs......

 

 

Are we getting layout building confused with whisky sampling here HH?

 

Dave  

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all, morning for some,

 

After another failed attempt at fixing the mogul (thwarted by steam oil stuck inside the line leaking out with heat from the torch) was had today, however some of the solder stuck and the engine can now make a a lap or two of a shortened circuit at a scale speed, admittedly with no load. A video is below. 
 

 

Douglas