The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I'm not sure that Caley blue was ever quite as vivid as that, which I think is a shade called 'Frightening the Horses' blue. I think that Caley engines were one of two shades; most were a darker colour nearer to Prussian blue whilst some were painted in what I think was known as 'Perth blue' that was a much paler shade and one that I have always found quite attractive when I've seen models painted in it. Mind you, I'm no Caley expert so I stand to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable than me.

 

Dave

Did he perhaps mean Conrail blue?

[Dave Hunt]

Ah, that could explain it - Conrail blue being well outside my sphere of any knowledge. 

 

I'm currently having a quiet few minutes with TNM as a bit of light relief from having spent a good part of my day updating various accounts with details of my new credit card that I had to get to replace the one that some scrote tried to defraud me with the other day. To say that this is far from a user friendly part of the 'customer service' that many organisations offer is a gross understatement and hanging on to my sanity has been touch and go on a few occasions. Thankfully Jill and I will be off to a local hostelry for a well-earned dinner once I've had a shower and donned the glad rags.

 

Have a good evening/afternoon/ morning/night depending on which part of the planet you inhabit.

 

Dave

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Almost as bad as CR blue! The L&C blue is the same:

 

Is nothing sacred!

 

Not even close to Caledonian blue which was entirely different from that 'horrible stuff BR adopted. The best modern representation was the color originally applied to the Glasgow electric "Blue Trains". Unfortunately there are not too many color photographs of them in original condition, complete with those lovely wraparound windows on the ends, and no ugly yellow panels either.

[AndyID]

28 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Did he perhaps mean Conrail blue?

Oops! Maybe he did. Oh well.....

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

Today I finished the engine.

 

At the beginning of this lengthy saga back in may, a certain Wing Commander Hunt said something to the effect of, “welcome to the world scratch building Douglas, I think will find the feeling of constructing your own engine a very satisfying one.”

 

And he was right. Although I’m not sure it was an enjoyable process, but a rewarding one. 
 

So yes the engine is now finished bar a few minor details, and a huge thank you goes to all those involved who provided advice and lathes. 
 

This morning it was run successfully for 15 minutes in the test stand to bed in the bearings, which produced black oil so we are on the right track so to speak. And it is also capable of moving under its own power for a sustained length of time.

 

Here are some ex works photos.

 

 

 

Overall I think it came out pretty nice, although I know the soldering causes some to vomit, including myself. But I have certainly learned a lot that I will never forget and I certainly don’t regret starting the project. It’s come a long way from the G1 Lancashire & Yorkshire 0-8-0 it was going to be!

 

 

I am unsure how to proceed now, with regards as wether to build the tender next or my section of track. I have drawings made for tender, but no materials are in current possession of myself, but funds have been set aside for those. Suggestions wanted.

 

 

*the parent company of the of the Florence Avenue Locomotive Works, Messrs. D.M. Bodger & Co, is greatly indebted to Messrs. Andy ID & Co for their assistance with the driving wheels and acquisition of a lathe. They wish to ask which charity said Co would like the proceeds of the wheels to be donated to. 
 

Douglas

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Just forked out 350 modelling tokens on a red worm. Actually its the Bachmann/EFE 1938 tube train. I purchased it just before one this afternoon and its now sold out. Looking forward to receiving it shortly.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

*the parent company of the of the Florence Avenue Locomotive Works, Messrs. D.M. Bodger & Co, is greatly indebted to Messrs. Andy ID & Co for their assistance with the driving wheels and acquisition of a lathe. They wish to ask which charity said Co would like the proceeds of the wheels to be donated to.

 

How very generous! I propose Direct Relief.

 

https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/951831116

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Just forked out 350 modelling tokens on a red worm. Actually its the Bachmann/EFE 1938 tube train. I purchased it just before one this afternoon and its now sold out. Looking forward to receiving it shortly.

Mine is apparently on its way for a mere 297 tokens.  I received the email confirming payment taken today.  

[jamie92208]

After getting the ironing done this morning to 2 sides of A history of the Byrds and both sides of the Easy Rider soundtrack, I actually  got some shed time.  I'm currently enjoying myself assembling a MERG  DCC command station.  Just one problem as earthing myself before handling the chips may be tricky. No central heating radistor and the water pipe is 20 yards away across the shed.

 

It was quite theraputic doing lots of small joints with a 15w iron.  My finger ends got cold during the evening session by 8.15 so it was time to give up.

 

Jamie

 

 

[SM42]

Beer is open and enjoying the snooker whilst Mrs SM42 enjoys a G&T

 

Had to abandon modelling efforts as going cross eyed. 

 

The final straw was trying to make a small X out of halves of two Ks  

 

 

Ansy

[Winslow Boy]

31 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Beer is open and enjoying the snooker whilst Mrs SM42 enjoys a G&T

 

Had to abandon modelling efforts as going cross eyed. 

 

The final straw was trying to make a small X out of halves of two Ks  

 

 

Ansy

 

My initial take on that was why's he drinking small x that's made out of two k's.

 

I think I've had to much sun. I'd better go to bed.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Messrs D.M. Bodger & Co decided it was a worthy day to take celebratory photos of the engine and the builder, in the snow in 20 degree weather. So the builder was dragged out of his hole and put in period clothing.

 

 

Management said he looks as though he’s just seen a pannier wearing red.

 

Douglas

 

Heres the nice part though.

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[AndyID]

49 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Just one problem as earthing myself before handling the chips may be tricky. No central heating radistor and the water pipe is 20 yards away across the shed.

 

 

Don't worry about it. Unless you were doing a Saturday Night Fervor demo in your John Tarbolton troosers and nylon underwear it's extremely unlikely you'd be able to banjax any semiconductors, particularly if the relative humidity in your shed is on the high side which it most likely is.

[PhilJ W]

21 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Mine is apparently on its way for a mere 297 tokens.  I received the email confirming payment taken today.  

I should have pre-ordered. When I had another look an hour or two after the order had been placed they had sold out.

Edited January 16, 2022 by PhilJ W
fat finger syndrome

[Happy Hippo]

45 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Messrs D.M. Bodger & Co decided it was a worthy day to take celebratory photos of the engine and the builder, in the snow in 20 degree weather. So the builder was dragged out of his hole and put in period clothing.

 

 

Management said he looks as though he’s just seen a pannier wearing red.

 

Douglas

 

Heres the nice part though.

 

You need a pipe!

 

In other news, we went round to a friends house at 1700 for some nibbles.

 

The event was supposed to end at 1900 so we could get home for a late snack before retiring for the evening.

 

We've just got back having had an argument with sparkling wine, beer, a bottle of whisky, gin and Baileys.

 

Needless to say the alcohol lost the fight, and I've just got in and am still able to communicate in a reasonably lucid manner.

 

I had a venrngiuovjlsdfnl l;ji  lkjl ijopij cs, fkln lxknl;jvg nrth. bc;lkp\]ojudf097ur 08su hc;xlnvxlkm

 

Bed I think.....

 

[SM42]

9 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

I had a venrngiuovjlsdfnl l;ji  lkjl ijopij cs, fkln lxknl;jvg nrth. bc;lkp\]ojudf097ur 08su hc;xlnvxlkm

 

 

I know exactly what you mean.

 

I couldn't have put it better myself

 

Andy

[AndyID]

OSOD! Our grandson has started driving. Out for a drive with our son.

 

 

Later

 

 

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

First tender frame cut and spotted.

 

As I would say at school…

 

#thegrindneverstops

 

 

Douglas

[iL Dottore]

21 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

….Quite what that says about the brains of model railway enthusiasts I'll leave you to interprets as you see fit.

Hmmm.

 

Back in pre-PC/Woke days, when language was somewhat more - for want of a better word - “robust”, psychiatrists and psychologists referred to degrees of mental impairment by a variety of terms (now no longer used in the professions but still used by the general public).

 

This, together with Dear Winnie’s observation, got me thinking: what if degrees of MRE were to be described in similar terms…

 

”oh, don’t mind *******, he’s a bit slow - he was born with LMS-philia” 

 

“I’m sorry, Mr and Mrs *******, but young ******* has severe BR-pathy and is would be best cared for in an institution”

 

“I would like to bring M’Lud’s attention to the medical evaluation of Mr *****, which shows that far from being a vandal, Mr ***** is afflicted by GWR-ettes Syndrome which causes him to have outbursts of painting things green…”

 

”….as doctors-in-training you have learnt that an individual with LNER-itis will frequently dress in black with his or her name picked out in gold letters and will express the delusion that they have to get to Scotland as quickly as possible…”

(Dons tin hat and retires behind parapet…)

[AndyID]

I printed all nine turnout bases a couple of days ago and started filing the switch and stock rails (it's flat-bottom rail which tends to complicate things.) Slow going! I decided I better make a filing jig to speed things up and also make the results a bit more consistent.

 

Here I'm planing off the top and bottom edges of the jig's clamping plates in the mill/drill to ensure that they have the same dimensions and the edges are parallel before I mill the recesses to support the rail. There are two 3/8" steel plates held in the milling machine vise that are already aligned by two 1/4" tool steel dowels.

 

Mind you, in the time it takes to make the tool I could probably have filed a lot of the rails but then I wouldn't get to play with the machine-tools so what would be the fun in that?

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Don't worry about it. Unless you were doing a Saturday Night Fervor demo in your John Tarbolton troosers and nylon underwear it's extremely unlikely you'd be able to banjax any semiconductors, particularly if the relative humidity in your shed is on the high side which it most likely is.

 

Having attended numerous (compulsory) ESD courses over the years a certain Bear remains unconvinced; one little nugget that was drummed into us was the fact that it is quite easy to damage (rather than a full blown banjax) a device such that it still works fine - for a time - then dies prematurely.  

From a Bear that has an ESD Lab Coat and pukka ESD wrist strap tucked in the drawer for such occasions, just in case....

 

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I should have pre-ordered. When I had another look an hour or two after the order had been placed they had sold out.

 

Sh1t happens, as they say.  You'll no doubt still be able to flog it on the 'bay for somewhat more than you paid for it, so still a result should you feel the urge.  At least you secured one, unlike many of those who had pre-orders for Hush Hushes (or should that be Hush Hi?) with Hattons, only for that order to get cancelled late in the day cos' Hornby cut their allocation - only for Hornby to go selling them direct at top dollar with no middle-man 

Fortunately Bear wasn't included in that category 

[AndyID]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Having attended numerous (compulsory) ESD courses over the years a certain Bear remains unconvinced; one little nugget that was drummed into us was the fact that it is quite easy to damage (rather than a full blown banjax) a device such that it still works fine - for a time - then dies prematurely.  

From a Bear that has an ESD Lab Coat and pukka ESD wrist strap tucked in the drawer for such occasions, just in case....

 

 

Having been an electronics engineer, manager, technical director, vice president and senior vice president of several serious technology companies both in the the UK and the US I can assure you that it's really very difficult to do any damage to modern semiconductor devices, although I do know how to do it. The conditions have to be "just right" and they are not very easy to achieve. Most (actually all) of the so-called "electrostatic damage" problems I ever had to deal with were really a consequence of lousy system design but because of typical inter-departmental finger-pointing they were either blamed on static problems in manufacturing or in service.

 

That said it is good practice to take precautions and any manufacturing or repair facility should take them and semiconductor foundries need to be particularly cautious, but if you are just assembling a few components and you are nor experiencing electrostatic jolts of any kind I wouldn't worry about it.

[jamie92208]

Thanks for the various bits of advice re ESD.  I'll actually fit the little eejits near the door so that I can touch the water pipe. There is plenty of room to put a card table up with a chair for comfort.  The concrete floor and humidity should make things OK.

 

Jamie

 

[AndyID]

11 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Thanks for the various bits of advice re ESD.  I'll actually fit the little eejits near the door so that I can touch the water pipe. There is plenty of room to put a card table up with a chair for comfort.  The concrete floor and humidity should make things OK.

 

Jamie

 

 

If you are really worried you might use the earth connection from the 230 AC, if you trust it

 

You could also just bash a two meter rod into the ground. I had to do that for my shop. It's copper plated steel and it's also connected to mains ground at the shop, but I don't know if the European standard is the same. But if the humidity is typical and you are not doing anything to charge yourself up (like dragging your feet on a nylon carpet) you are most likely at the same potential as everything in your shed.

Edited January 16, 2022 by AndyID

[SM42]

Severe cases of Pannier Syndrome, need sympathetic handling and it has been found that aversion therapy often yields good results.

 

Andy