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The Night Mail


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6 hours ago, AndyID said:

I've been cutting a bit of firewood for the shop's woodstove. It looks like a lot but it's surprising how quickly I can get through it in the middle of Winter. There's plenty more wood still to haul and stack and I have to move it soon because we are selling our vacant lot.

 

That's mostly Douglas Fir and Grand Fir.

 

DSCN5110.JPG.c8d42963c2eb12f5bc8bb6d53c04e0a6.JPG

Looks like a good pile.  We trnd to use oak as Fir soots up the chimneys but it does burn quickly.  We did get rid of a couple of fir trees from the garden and when dry they burned well. I've got some sycamore to split.

 

Jamie

 

 

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I have quite a bit of oak to process, although we do not have a wood burner. It will either go to my son's house, as he does have a wood burning stove, or get used in my fire pit.

 

It has rained very heavily overnight, and a look out of the front window reveals people out in coats and wielding umbrellas.

 

I suspect we will stay in today and make preparations for an early start home tomorrow morning.

 

In light of the traffic in both directions on the motorways last Friday, I'm planning on using the old Severn bridge (M48) up the Wye valley to Monmouth, via Tintern station, which is now a picnic area, then Hereford, and up the A49.

 

I much rather perambulate at a reasonable speed than sit in a slow moving traffic jam.

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5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have quite a bit of oak to process, although we do not have a wood burner. It will either go to my son's house, as he does have a wood burning stove, or get used in my fire pit.

 

It has rained very heavily overnight, and a look out of the front window reveals people out in coats and wielding umbrellas.

 

I suspect we will stay in today and make preparations for an early start home tomorrow morning.

 

In light of the traffic in both directions on the motorways last Friday, I'm planning on using the old Severn bridge (M48) up the Wye

valley to Monmouth, via Tintern station, which is now a picnic area, then Hereford, and up the A49.

 

I much rather perambulate at a reasonable speed than sit in a slow moving traffic jam.

 

One assumes HH that the authorities have been advised that slow moving, wide load will be traversing these sections of the Queens highway.

 

. Failure may result in a considerable delay to entry into g the Principality - which might be a good thing , but I possibly couldn't comment.

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9 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Looks like a good pile.  We trnd to use oak as Fir soots up the chimneys but it does burn quickly.  We did get rid of a couple of fir trees from the garden and when dry they burned well. I've got some sycamore to split.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

There is very little hardwood around here. It's mainly fir, larch or Ponderosa Pine. The pine is horrible stuff. It burns fast but it's not easy to split. It tears apart rather than splitting cleanly.

 

The good news is the softwoods don't take long to season. A lot of this stuff came from trees that were already dead when they were felled.

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I finished off a minor modelling task today. I found a tank engine that had a cab access ladder missing. It wasn’t in the packaging it had arrived in and it wasn’t broken, it was missing. The very nice people I had purchased it from no longer trade but even if they were still doing so I wouldn’t have sent it back. I could find etched replacement ladders for 7mm locos but not 4mm scale Ivatt tanks. So I found some bits of Evergreen strip of approximately the right size and made a ladder. Looks ok if you use the view from about three feet away with your eyes shut method. 
 

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1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

There is very little hardwood around here. It's mainly fir, larch or Ponderosa Pine. The pine is horrible stuff. It burns fast but it's not easy to split. It tears apart rather than splitting cleanly.

 

The good news is the softwoods don't take long to season. A lot of this stuff came from trees that were already dead when they were felled.

We are lucky re hardwoods as we are surrounded by forests that grow oak for cognac barrels. The woods use a form of coppicing to allow room for the larger trees they need for the barrel staves. The thinnings are the right size for firewood, either as is or split once lengthways. It's sold in bundles of about a cubic metre of metre lengths. These stears are sold for between €55  and €75 depending  on supplier and whether the lengths are cut once or twice.  Usually it's all been stored in stacks to dry for 3 years before sale. Fortunately  I've a large  open fronted annex to the shed for storage. I now try to keep at least  2 years supply in store.   

 

I never would have thought that I would learn so many new things about firewood 6 years ago when we bought the house.  It keeps the bonce active, or what's left of it at the moment.

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
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Not much done today

Started to attack the garage as the gas man will need access to service the boiler soon.

Today's modeling was to look at a part built Parkside wagon kit and try to work out how it came out with a twisted chassis and what I can do  about it.

 

Current solution is to look at it and ponder the question some other time . 

 

Any suggestions welcome

 

On the bright side, no need to water the garden pots and baskets.

 

Andy

 

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9 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Not much done today

Started to attack the garage as the gas man will need access to service the boiler soon.

Today's modeling was to look at a part built Parkside wagon kit and try to work out how it came out with a twisted chassis and what I can do  about it.

 

Current solution is to look at it and ponder the question some other time . 

 

Any suggestions welcome

 

On the bright side, no need to water the garden pots and baskets.

 

Andy

 

Clamp the offending chassis up to various bits of metal so that it's squared up and drop it into a bowl of boiling  water. 

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9 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Clamp the offending chassis up to various bits of metal so that it's squared up and drop it into a bowl of boiling  water. 

 

Good idea but could be awkward in this case as twist developed after body was added. 

 

I may have to partially deconstruct. 

 

To say it is frustrating is an understatement 

 

Andy

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26 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

Good idea but could be awkward in this case as twist developed after body was added. 

 

I may have to partially deconstruct. 

 

To say it is frustrating is an understatement 

 

Andy

For that to happen I'd suggest that one of the sides or ends is either too short or too long. 

 

Looking on a positive side, at least it's not a 7 mm scale kit which has cost you a months pocket money. 

 

To raise the obligatory laugh, I am reminded  of a manufacturer of resin cast buildings who in the early days was unaware of air bubbles that could form in the resin. 

 

Needless to say, putting a block of resin aero out in the garden and letting the sun warm everything up resulted in some cracking (literally) explosions. 

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1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

For that to happen I'd suggest that one of the sides or ends is either too short or too long. 

 

Looking on a positive side, at least it's not a 7 mm scale kit which has cost you a months pocket money. 

 

 

It is a 7mm wagon kit

 

I suspect I have missed a small bobble of plastic or swarf while cleaning up and the chassis and body have not mated square. 

 

I suppose that as the axleboxes are designed to move in these kits, I could bodge it and glue them up a little off to get all four legs on the floor.

 

It might work

 

Andy

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40 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

It is a 7mm wagon kit

 

I suspect I have missed a small bobble of plastic or swarf while cleaning up and the chassis and body have not mated square. 

 

I suppose that as the axleboxes are designed to move in these kits, I could bodge it and glue them up a little off to get all four legs on the floor.

 

It might work

 

Andy

I would use plenty of MEK to remove the sides. Then straighten the chassis.

 

Jamie

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44 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

It is a 7mm wagon kit

 

I suspect I have missed a small bobble of plastic or swarf while cleaning up and the chassis and body have not mated square. 

 

I suppose that as the axleboxes are designed to move in these kits, I could bodge it and glue them up a little off to get all four legs on the floor.

 

It might work

 

Andy

Woe is you and you is woe.

 

Simond of other parts of RMWeb came up with a nice method of springing the sloppy Park side chassis. 

 

I have a suitable block of brass which I am supposed to be milling into a fixture for make in consistent spring units out of guitar wire.

 

Of course it is not made yet so my wagon manufacturing has found to a halt until its made.

 

At least that's my excuse!

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On 08/09/2021 at 13:15, Happy Hippo said:

Today's outing was to Slime Regis.

 

It was quite hilly, busy and wet once the rain started.

 

Best crazy golf course in Dorset - at least once upon a time. 

 

But in my experience the topography is independent of the precipitation - though it might affect how much of it you could see. It would be a shame to miss the view along the coast to the Golden Cap, in the evening.

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2 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

It is a 7mm wagon kit......

I suppose that as the axleboxes are designed to move in these kits, I could bodge it and glue them up a little off to get all four legs on the floor.

 

If you could spring the axles, that could solve your problem, providing the twist isn't too great.

 

Dave

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I gave myself a brain/concentration/coordination test tonight. I assembled a setbof Slaters screw couplings. This went better than before I tried head butting some rsilings. I fidn't drop a tiny trunnion on the shed floor so didn't have to tear an old XO4 moor apart to get a magnet, which I did have to do last week. I got them done in about 15 minutes.  I reckon I passed the test. The batch of 4 coaches are starting to look OK. Just don't mention the bogies.

 

Jamie

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Unfortunately I found out this morning that when the cancer was removed from my hooter a while back it is probable that not all the cancer cells were expunged so I'll need another procedure to remove even more bits and will then need a skin graft. This will probably happen next month sometime. To say that I'm p!ssed off is putting it mildly.

 

So, to get me in a better mood Jill packed me off to the shed after lunch and told me to do some work on the layout. Being a good husband I did what I was told but all I have to show for my labours is a further eighteen inches of Das clay cobbled roadway. Ah, well, at the current rate of progress all cobbling will be finished with another seven or eight hours' work, then I can get on with something even more exciting - ash ballasting. What fun this hobby of ours is at times eh? I suspect that making something with wheels on it may take centre stage before cobbling and ballasting are finished.

 

TTFN

 

Dave

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9 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I suspect that making something with wheels on it may take centre stage before cobbling and ballasting are finished.

 

Speaking of cobblers there was a shoemaker's shop in Paisley that was in a block of tenements that was about to be demolished. They hung a big sign on the window that said,

 

"WE WILL STICK TO THE LAST"

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