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The Night Mail


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7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The O level ( taken in 1969) history I did was British Economic and Social History 1700-1948. 

 

By the mid 70s, it was British Economic and Social history 1789 - 1914.

 

Adrian

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Evening all,

 

A lot of progress was made on “Brunel” over the last week, besides Messrs AndyID & Co’s excellent wheels. Basically I almost completely remade the front bogie, so that it now has suspension. 
 

This is done in the same way as the prototype, using a fixed set of inner frames and an outer pivoting set. The arrangement is the same except mine is lacking of springs. However the bogie is pushed into the track via a spring on the central bogie stud to which it is affixed. 
 

All in this arrangement gives the wheel about 2-3mm of up and down travel over uneven track.

 

5AA77789-A59F-42A5-89FC-5708ACBD51D3.jpeg.0b1c83f602f0e1a0b02920233cbd2074.jpeg
 

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The frames have only been roughly profiled and still need filing to proper shape.

 

 

Douglas

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10 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

By the mid 70s, it was British Economic and Social history 1789 - 1914.

 

Adrian

 

At that rate of shrinkage, by the mid 80s it could have been 1878 - 1880. Plenty of scope for lots of detail though.

 

Dave

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The real reason for my invitation to Reading is now apparent: I am required to carry out aerial acrobatics and put up the outdoor Christmas lights. Fortunately, it is a bright sunny day with nothing much in the way of wind. (Although I can soon change that.)

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1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

put up the outdoor Christmas lights.

We were all very impressed last year when our neighbour used a van mounted cherry picker to put his lights up. He had hired it for a job he was doing and thought it would be handy at home too.

Tony

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4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

There is one chap locally who is offering a service putting decorations up on your house. Prices start at £45 though.

 

Pah!  Money for old rope.  For decorations I use seasonal greetings cards blu-tacked to the wall.

 

Chris

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ÍI have recently been in contact with a guy in Great Houghton (near the centre of the known Universe aka Barnsley) he has a cherry picker van for hire he charges £50 an hour but a minimum of 3 hours I only need a bit of guttering cleaning out though. I could get him to put some xmas lights up enough to compete with Clark Griswold just to get my money's worth.

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Leaves, oh how I hate bl**dy leaves. Following the recent gales the surrounds of Hunt Towers are knee deep in the damn things. The compost bins are full of them, the green wheelie bin is full of them, two builders bags are full of them and still there are heaps (literally) of them still to be dealt with. I've just spent hours raking them up and disposing of them and I'm now fed up. 

 

Ah, the silver lining; in recognition of my leaf clearing efforts I've been awarded modelling time in the shed. Byeeeee......

 

Dave

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Most of my leaves are heading for the Nederlands at the moment... Along with the rain ,. We've got hail instead. There's about an inch lying on the road at the moment, going to be interesting driving in in the morning, a bit slippery I think...

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Leaves were always a pain in the proverbial when I worked for the council. They used to clog the sucion box on the sweeper when they were wet or when they were dry it used to take 3 or 4 passes to get them having to alter the height of the suction box each time. Having the box on the lowest setting to start with would just plough them into a pile. A lot of leaves we used to blow into piles using backpack blowers then shovel up using snow shovels in to the cage vans.

 

I would certainly reccomended a blower to cut the raking out to get them in a pile. I have an electric blower/vac but i have a small garden the bag unzips to empty into the garden bin. Another way of collecting them would be to use a lawn mower with the blade on the highest setting it would shred the leaves into the grass box for easy emptying into black plastic bags pierce some holes into them make sure the leaves are wet tie the bags up and leave out of the Way somewhere and you end up with leaf mould to use as compost next year

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We have a petrol (Stihl) blower/vacuum that is just the job for the task, but have found it quicker to use it to marshal the leaves into manageable piles, and then just bag them.  

 

As for where they come from....whichever way we look - bl**dy sycamores! (And one ash).

 

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7 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

The big sycamore that used to give is a huge carpet of big leaves is now being put to good use keeping us warm.

 

Jamie

 

Oh how I would love to - but they're not ours, they are over the property line to the derelict orchard and farmhouse over the back.

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Morning all,

 

Leaves. Got loads of them here, as I live in a bit of an urban forest surrounded by 90-100 year old trees, most are oaks or sycamores. The largest sycamore is easily 150 foot tall. We oh a yes service to do both cut the grass and and remove the leaves, as it would take dad about 4-5 hours. It’s worth the money though.

 

In other news I, after being much to influenced by reading about proper American 4-4-0s, decided to wood panel the sides of the cab on “Brunel”. Here’s the result, after staining and varnishing but without sanding. 
 

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It awaits a window frame, I’m thinking a brass porthole insert.

 

Douglas

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Most of the leaves in our garden come from a hawthorn tree next door. They seem to collect in a neat pile in between the two smaller sheds. I don’t do it so I don’t know how that happens! We collect the. Leaves from our pear trees with a garden vacuum or rake them. They don’t get put in the compost bin as they have a spotty orange growth (fungus or similar). It doesn’t really affect the tree or the fruit but it is recommended to get rid of the leaves rather than compost them. Any chemical treatments are not the sort of thing we would want to use. Those trees also have a codling moth problem but a pheromone trap has worked well for the last couple of years. 

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4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Leaves, oh how I hate bl**dy leaves. Following the recent gales the surrounds of Hunt Towers are knee deep in the damn things. The compost bins are full of them, the green wheelie bin is full of them, two builders bags are full of them and still there are heaps (literally) of them still to be dealt with. I've just spent hours raking them up and disposing of them and I'm now fed up. 

 

Ah, the silver lining; in recognition of my leaf clearing efforts I've been awarded modelling time in the shed. Byeeeee......

 

Dave

 

The Council-owned bl00dy great London Plane Tree outside Bear Towers dumps gazillions of leaves in the front garden every year :angry: - according to the council that's allowed.  But if Bear gives them their leaves back (i.e. sweep them from the garden out onto the path/verge/road/take your pick) then that's fly-tipping and punishable by a gory death.  I wouldn't want it gone though - they did want to cut it down 20+ years ago, but every time they appeared a certain Bear had parked his car underneath it and wouldn't shift it. :laugh: (the lumberjacks told me quietly that felling it wasn't a good idea either).

The house insurance surveyor didn't think it was a good idea either (it wasn't causing Bear Towers any problems but I alerted them as to goings-on), and eventually I persuaded the Council that their Tree Expert was (a) a Tw@t, and (b) didn't have a clue.  So they reduced it in size quite significantly and keep it maintained that way.  Everyone happy :smile_mini2:

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30 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

You are certainly a lucky bear @polybear one of the problems of London Plane trees are that the roots are tough and aggressive and can lift pavements break sewer pipes and can invade building foundations.

Trees are lovely things and needed but they need to be in the right place

 

Not quite. A lot depends on when the tree was planted, the age of bear towers, soil type, amount of ground disturbance around tree ( this includes the incompetent prats who dig trenches 12" from the trunk cutting through countless roots) plus things like micro climate, disease and previous works.

These all have an impact to some degree.

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