The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Isn't that obligatory in France

It might be but you haven't met the aforesaid Miss Fanstone. I'll stick with my layout.

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Isn't that obligatory in France

If so I haven't filled in the right forms!

 

My back is slowly improving, as it should some 7 weeks after I first strained it. But having already had a CT scan and an MRI scan - results of the latter were unintelligible to this layman - I now have a common x-ray to look forward to Monday and Tuesday this week. Evidently my GP will feel more at home with the data and report from these, and refer me to a rheumatologist to treat the osteoporosis. Eating more cheese seems a good idea! 

 

Sherry has been here for a month, running round her often grumpy husband, but is due to go back to the UK this Thursday. She can only travel then if she has received the negative result of a PCR test taken within 72 hrs of embarkation, so she will take that  (she brought it with her from UK) on Monday evening and hopefully post the result online, to have an authenticated certificate back by return. If that doesn't work she will have to rebook travel for next week - when the PCR test requirement ceases. Cases across France are much, much lower than the UK right now. Sherry's only problem with the deferral of travel is that she is running out of key prescription meds, so is having to skip a day here and there on this or that, which is not ideal. 

[AndyID]

36 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

It might be but you haven't met the aforesaid Miss Fanstone. I'll stick with my layout.

 

 

According to my information Google the aforementioned Ms Fanstone was something of a cracker.

[AndyID]

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

If so I haven't filled in the right forms!

 

My back is slowly improving, as it should some 7 weeks after I first strained it. But having already had a CT scan and an MRI scan - results of the latter were unintelligible to this layman - I now have a common x-ray to look forward to Monday and Tuesday this week.

 

 

Evidently not although I'm sure there are a lot of forms to fill in. I'm afraid I got kicked out of O Level French (that's another story) so it's unlikely I'd be able to help.

 

But on the back thing, at one point some years ago, my back was so bad I had to crawl out of the house on all-fours to get into our van to visit our doc. It did get slightly better after that but the thing that really fixed it was, believe it or not, skiing.

 

Our son got me hooked on that and I've had very few problems with my back ever since. If I'm not mistaken there's a biggish hill a bit to your right. You could always give it a shot. It's never too late to learn.

 

Cheers!

Andy

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

37 minutes ago, AndyID said:

But on the back thing, at one point some years ago, my back was so bad I had to crawl out of the house on all-fours to get into our van to visit our doc. It did get slightly better after that but the thing that really fixed it was, believe it or not, skiing.

 

Our son got me hooked on that and I've had very few problems with my back ever since. If I'm not mistaken there's a biggish hill a bit to your right. You could always give it a shot. It's never too late to learn.

 

 

 

 

Any form of exercise that builds up the core muscular strength is good for your back.

 

In my case it was going to Pilates classes, which was recommended by the doctor.

 

Of course, that took a bit of a tumble over the 18 months, but I've never had the same problems with my spine since taking it up.

 

All the young ladies that frequented the classes encouraged me to keep going. (Although I suspect it was only because I made them look good)

[Dave Hunt]

Just off to our friends' place near Ellesmere for a few more days house and animal sitting. Hence I'll not be doing anything constructive except for feeding the horses until later in the week and will have to content myself with schlepping about, reading, watching films, going for walks and using the indoor, heated swimming pool. Sometimes it's a hard life but you just have to grin and bear it.

 

TTFN

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

21 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

will have to content myself with schlepping about, reading, watching films, going for walks and using the indoor, heated swimming pool.

 

Such suffering. Do you not keep an emergency grab-bag just inside the shed door with a Slaters D299 kit and the necessary tools?

[Happy Hippo]

45 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just off to our friends' place near Ellesmere for a few more days house and animal sitting. Hence I'll not be doing anything constructive except for feeding the horses until later in the week and will have to content myself with schlepping about, reading, watching films, going for walks and using the indoor, heated swimming pool. Sometimes it's a hard life but you just have to grin and bear it.

 

TTFN

 

Dave

You could always try the donkey walloping antics of a trot through the lanes.

 

Mind you, if you're not used to it you'll be walking around bow legged for a week or so.

[Happy Hippo]

Fitting the doorstop to the last section of door frame, I noticed some weeping resin on the surface of the timber strip.

 

Knowing how it will come through paintwork, I decided to remove the offending spot.

 

It turned out to be the very tip of a large reservoir of the stuff.

 

So I've carefully removed it with a chisel and refilled the crater with wood filler.

 

In hindsight, it would probably been easier to chop the section out, (about half the size of my thumb,) and put in a tight fitting plug of scrap timber and sand it down when secure.

 

Now to clean and re sharpen the rather sticky chisel blade.

 

But it's a nice day, and I'm able to potter along with this job outside....

 

Looking busy, and getting all sorts of little railway related jobs out of the way whilst I 'wait' for things to set or dry.

 

 

[bbishop]

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Such suffering. Do you not keep an emergency grab-bag just inside the shed door with a Slaters D299 kit and the necessary tools?

Stephen, you can't do the D299 kit until you've finished the Single Line Group notes.  Bill

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

Managed to sleep in past 9 today, a welcome change from my usual time of 6:00. After the usual replenishing of food I went and soldered on the smokebox door hinges I had made for the engine over the past few days. It went swimmingly. They still need a bit of tweaking to get the alignment right though they do work. Next up is the latch on t’other side.

 

 

 

Douglas

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, bbishop said:

Stephen, you can't do the D299 kit until you've finished the Single Line Group notes.  Bill

 

My, word spreads. Nearly done...

 

I haven't done any proper modelling for a while - partly curious absence of mojo, partly researching and writing wagon articles for the Midland Railway Society Journal, and partly the exigencies of family life - i.e. my role as unpaid long-distance taxi driver.

[Happy Hippo]

I did some modelling once:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was for a Super Hero magazine

[PhilJ W]

20 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I did some modelling once:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was for a Super Hero magazine

[Winslow Boy]

 

 

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I did some modelling once:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was for a Super Hero magazine

 

I thought we'ed managed managed to get all of those recalled. Do you mean we missed one!

 

Don't worry somebody will be calling shortly to collect it.

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I did some modelling once:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was for a Super Hero magazine

I have been Google searching for hippos this evening. I found a toy in the loft.It is a lilac blue hippo push along toy. It makes a noise.  I was sure it had some other function or at least did back in the mid 1990s. It appears (after serious research) to be Bubbles the Hippo as made by Tomy. PolyBear was concerned about what I was planning to do with  the cuddly toys I found in the loft. The hippo is equally safe. 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Tony_S

[SM42]

Due to unseasonably fine weather today we have cycled the High Peak

 

It was a bit rough out of Cromford, ( ran out of gears)  but once at Middleton Top things got a lot easier and the heart rate dropped below 400bpm

The 1 in 14  (Hopton?) Was done in three chips without a dismount

 

Our ride was punctuated by  a ride on the Steeple Grange Light Railway. A fascinating 330 million year history of limestone with a train  ride thrown in. No fares, just donations 

 

We turned round at Parsley Hay after a much deserved coffee

So here I am saddle sore, but pleased with the  49.125km ( c 30 miles I think)  completed and the postponment of the threatened shopping trip to Merry Hill

 

I was a little concerned coming back down the inclines about whether bikes can get brake fade with heating. 

 The back wheel was very warm to the touch and there was a real risk of making an appearance at High Peak Jn like James the red engine

 

Oh, and I found some diesel. Strangely only 50 yds from home

 

Andy

 

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by SM42

[SM42]

Quote of the day from Mrs SM42

 

" It's like the place where they filmed Postman Pat"

 

Andy 

[jamie92208]

24 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

 

 

 

I was a little concerned coming back down the inclines about whether bikes can get brake fade with heating. 

 The back wheel was very warm to the touch and there was a real risk of making an appearance at High Peak Jn like James the red engine

 

Oh, and I found some diesel. Strangely on 50 yds from home

 

Andy

 

 

I had brake fade on my cycli g tour of the rockies. A 2 mile descent at 1 in 15. I could smell the rubber and stopped twice to let thi gs cool dow, including my heart rate. 2000' of descent though.

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I had brake fade on my cycling tour of the Rockies. A 2 mile descent at 1 in 15. I could smell the rubber and stopped twice to let things cool down, including my heart rate. 2000' of descent though.

 

Jamie

50-60 years ago my Dad rode a Lake District circuit including Hard Knott and Rynose passes.  His bike had new brake blocks with a new material at the beginning of the day; by the time he got home there was almost no material left.

[Dave Hunt]

Some years ago we were on holiday in the western isles of Scotland and got the ferry to Colonsay where we hired bikes and cycled round the island. I don't know what sort of rubber the brake blocks on my bike were made of but whatever it was it didn't achieve much in the way of retardation and by the time we got back to the port there wasn't much of it left.  Now, the road leading to the quayside is on a long and fairly steep hill and the sensible option would have been to get off the bike and walk down so I didn't do that and half way down the speed had reached the stage where heavy braking was necessary. Needless to say, what remained of  the sponge rubber blocks made little difference to the rate of descent but luckily I managed to negotiate the bend at the bottom of the hill at some eye watering speed and avoid an early bath without mowing down any of the startled pedestrians. When finally I managed to stop I was somewhat shaken so when we took the bikes back to the hire shop I told the owner what I thought of the brakes on my bike, to which he responded, "Aye, well, if ye will go tearin' around usin' them all the time....." 

 

Dave

[AndyID]

Huh! I've been trying to get my head around the baseplates used on crossings (frogs) built with flat-bottom rail and Pandrol clips. With bullhead rail there are cast-iron chairs for every crossing angle. The chair's jaws are aligned at the required angle (which means there are a heck of a lot of different castings.)

 

Other than the baseplate at the Vee the baseplates for FB crossings are not angled at all. They are simply spacers that maintain the correct distance between the rails. That makes it much simpler to make 3-D prints of the baseplates. Basically it only needs a single model to produce any of them.

 

If you are still reading this drivel kindly move on to the next post

[Happy Hippo]

Can you print some in 7 mm scale quickly and get them here by next Saturday?

[Dave Hunt]

For the pointwork on my S7 layout my great friend Crimson Rambler of RMW made for me all the necessary special chairs in dental resin. He machined the masters on a profile milling machine and produced silicon rubber moulds and as Andy states, there are a heck of a lot of different castings for each crossing as well as a range of slide chairs depending on the switch length. Making the pointwork was, shall we say, an interesting exercise, particularly as the chairs have prototypically separate keys and being a Midland MPD there are some of the dreaded three-throw monsters. While they do save on space, making them is not something I would do again in a hurry. When HH came to see the layout I think his comment was that the pointwork really looked the part but he was glad that he was modelling in 0F and I can see his point (sorry about the pun).

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

For the pointwork on my S7 layout my great friend Crimson Rambler of RMW made for me all the necessary special chairs in dental resin.

 

Sounds like a job for him to get his teeth into.

 

9 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Making the pointwork was, shall we say, an interesting exercise, particularly as the chairs have prototypically separate keys and being a Midland MPD there are some of the dreaded three-throw monsters.

 

Took some chewing over...

 

I'd better go for my appointment at the recycling centre.